Flags and outcomes
Witcher 3 endings
Witcher 3 endings split into Ciri’s three personal epilogues and a separate Northern war board. Ciri becomes a witcher, sits the Nilfgaardian throne, or does not return. The North ends with Radovid, Roche’s Temeria, or Dijkstra. Flags count from Kaer Morhen through Final Preparations; the war flag is Reason of State plus whether Radovid still lives. Use the scene boards below for outcomes and visible flag lists, then read Witcher 3 main quest order if you still need the beat that contains a trigger.
Ciri and Northern outcomes
Ciri becomes a witcher
Trigger
Ciri survives the White Frost. Keep her off the Nilfgaardian throne. Something Ends, Something Begins is the White Orchard sword gift.
Start the snowball fight after Kaer Morhen
Blood on the Battlefield: take the timed snowball beat. Positive Ciri flag.
Visit Skjall’s grave with her
Child of the Elder Blood on Hindarsfjall. Positive Ciri flag.
Tell her to smash Avallac’h’s lab
Choose Go for it, not Calm down. Positive Ciri flag.
Let her meet the Lodge alone
Final Preparations: You’ll do fine on your own. Positive Ciri flag.
Do not seat her on Emhyr’s throne
If she visited Vizima, Nilfgaard must not win or the witcher gift is replaced by the imperial farewell.
Witcher
Ciri becomes Empress of Nilfgaard
Trigger
Ciri survives the White Frost. Take her to Emhyr, kill Radovid, and finish Reason of State on Roche’s side so Nilfgaard wins.
Take Ciri to Emhyr in Vizima
Blood on the Battlefield: the Vizima stop is required for empress and easy to skip.
Refuse Emhyr’s coin if that visit happens
Positive Ciri flag on the visit; the visit itself is the imperial lock.
Radovid must die
Finish the assassination chain before Reason of State.
Reason of State with Vernon Roche
Nilfgaard wins and Temeria survives as a vassal. Dijkstra’s North blocks this throne.
Empress
Ciri does not return
Trigger
More negative than positive Ciri flags. The Northern war cannot rescue a failed tally. Something Ends, Something Begins sends Geralt to Crookback Bog.
Too many negative Ciri beats
Skip the snowball, the grave, the lab, or the Lodge-alone talk and the tally flips.
Take every major talk for her
Going with her to the Lodge and calming the lab both count against the witcher/empress live paths.
The bog medallion is the lost epilogue
Geralt recovers her medallion in Crookback Bog. No war flag rewrites that scene.
Risk
Radovid rules a victorious Redania
Trigger
Leave Radovid alive. Skip or fail the assassination chain. Witch hunters stay in power.
Do not finish the assassination chain
A save that never kills Radovid locks Redania. You cannot vote him out in the epilogue.
Witch hunters remain empowered
This is the Northern default if Reason of State never fires.
Redania
Temeria survives as a Nilfgaardian vassal with Roche
Trigger
Assassinate Radovid, then Reason of State: side with Vernon Roche. Dijkstra dies. Nilfgaard wins.
Kill Radovid first
Reason of State sits in Final Preparations after the assassination chain, not in White Orchard.
Stand with Roche when Dijkstra moves
Temeria survives as a Nilfgaardian vassal. This is the war flag empress Ciri needs.
Temeria
Dijkstra unites the North
Trigger
Assassinate Radovid, then let Dijkstra kill Roche’s conspirators. The North unites without Nilfgaard.
Allow Dijkstra to kill Roche’s conspirators
Save before that talk if you still want Roche on another file. The conversation does not offer a later vote.
This blocks empress Ciri
Even if she visited Emhyr, Dijkstra’s North denies the imperial ending.
North
How Ciri’s three endings count
Ciri’s personal ending is a tally, not a hidden meter in the pause menu. Community guides agree on five positive beats: snowball, Skjall’s grave, smashing the lab, Lodge alone, and refusing Emhyr’s pay if that visit happens. Enough positives and she lives. Put her on the Nilfgaardian throne on top of that and you get empress instead of witcher. Fail the tally and Something Ends, Something Begins sends Geralt to Crookback Bog for a medallion. The war flag cannot rescue a failed Ciri tally.
Empress needs extra political work. Take Ciri to Emhyr, keep her alive on flags, kill Radovid, and finish Reason of State on Roche’s side so Nilfgaard wins. Dijkstra’s North blocks the throne even if she visited Vizima. Witcher Ciri needs her to live and not sit that throne; if she visited Emhyr, Nilfgaard must not win. Read the table cells before you replay Blood on the Battlefield — the Vizima stop is easy to skip and expensive to reverse.
Radovid, Roche, and Dijkstra
The Northern board is independent until it touches empress Ciri. Leave Radovid alive and Redania wins with witch hunters still in power. Assassinate him, then Reason of State chooses between Roche and Dijkstra. Roche’s Temeria survives as a Nilfgaardian vassal and is the war flag empress Ciri needs. Dijkstra kills Roche’s conspirators, unites the North, and blocks the imperial ending.
Reason of State is easy to miss if you never follow Dijkstra and Roche after the Radovid plot. It sits in the Final Preparations window, not in White Orchard. If your save already skipped the assassination chain, Radovid’s Redania is locked; you cannot vote him out in the epilogue. Pair this board with Witcher 3 Ciri only for who stands in the White Orchard farewell — the flags themselves stay here. Save before Reason of State if you still want both Roche and Dijkstra on disk; the conversation does not offer a later vote.
When to branch a save
The cheapest branch is before Blood on the Battlefield. Snowball, Emhyr’s visit, and the first post-Kaer talks all sit there. Child of the Elder Blood holds the grave and the lab. Final Preparations holds the Lodge and Reason of State. If you only need a Northern swap, a save in Novigrad before Reason of State is enough; you do not need to replay White Orchard.
Do not farm damage numbers or drop rates to change an ending. Nothing in the official store copy or the Steam Remastered notes ties Ciri’s epilogue to gear score. School sets and mutagen colours belong on Witcher 3 witcher gear and Witcher 3 skill tree. Keep the flag table plus the Northern three; gear and mutagen colours live on their own boards. Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine have their own finales on the expansion boards. A White Orchard restart is the expensive way to fix a Lodge flag; a Novigrad save in Final Preparations is the cheap one.
Frequently asked questions
How many positive Ciri flags do I need?
Community tables treat the five listed beats as the positive set. Enough positives and she lives; more negatives than positives and she does not return. Empress still requires the Emhyr visit plus a Nilfgaardian war win. Community tables treat the five listed beats as the positive set, without a hidden sixth flag or a numeric threshold CDPR never published. If a video quotes a sixth flag, ignore it unless you can point to one of the five listed beats. Replay from Blood on the Battlefield when the tally looks wrong, not from the prologue.
Can Dijkstra’s North still give empress Ciri?
No. Dijkstra uniting the North blocks the imperial ending even if Ciri visited Emhyr. Empress needs Roche’s Reason of State path, Radovid dead, Ciri alive on flags, and the Vizima visit. If Dijkstra already won, reload a save from before that conversation. A save that already let Dijkstra speak cannot vote Roche back in. Keep a copy before that talk if you still want empress Ciri on another file.
Sources
Steam store : The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt