Witcher 3 main quest order

White Orchard and Vizima

Kaer Morhen is a short keep prologue. Lilac and Gooseberries puts Geralt and Vesemir on the White Orchard road looking for Yennefer, which is how the hunt actually starts for a new save. The Beast of White Orchard is the Griffin contract that teaches scent, nest, and bait before any royal audience. Finish the village loop you care about before Imperial Audience; once Emhyr hires Geralt in Vizima, the map opens to Velen and the three Ciri trails.

Imperial Audience is also where a Witcher 2 simulation can set a few political leftovers. Those leftovers matter later for Roche and the North, not for Ciri’s personal flags. If you are chasing a specific Northern epilogue, read Witcher 3 endings before you skip every Temerian contact in Velen. The Path itself does not require you to finish every White Orchard notice, but the Griffin hunt is the tutorial the rest of the contracts assume you already understand.

Velen, Novigrad, and Skellige

Act I is three Ciri trails you can rotate. Velen is the Bloody Baron and Family Matters chain through Crow’s Perch: the Baron’s family, the Crones’ interest in Ciri, and several irreversible peasant fates. Novigrad is Dandelion, Triss, Dijkstra, and the Lodge’s first long shadow. Skellige is Crach an Craite, Uma, and the masked-ball aftermath that later feeds Child of the Elder Blood. None of the three trails is a side quest, even when the map paints them in different colours.

Romance locks live on these trails. The Last Wish is Yennefer’s lasting lock; Now or Never is Triss’s Novigrad lock. If you intend to keep one of them, finish Witcher 3 Yennefer or Triss before the Lodge meeting in Final Preparations. Companions attach here too: Triss holds Novigrad, Yennefer keeps pulling the hunt, Vesemir waits at Kaer Morhen. The companion page names the jobs; the quest board names the order you ride them.

Isle of Mists and Kaer Morhen

The Isle of Mists is the point of no return the quest log warns about. Many secondary quests, including some romance and Gwent vendors, freeze or fail once you sail. If Collect ’Em All or a school scavenger hunt is still open, finish it before you book the boat. Uma’s curse, the mask, and the fog island are the last Act I tools; after that the story forces Kaer Morhen.

The Battle of Kaer Morhen is Act II. Vesemir dies in that battle no matter how you stack the defenders. Blood on the Battlefield, the snowball, and the optional Vizima stop with Emhyr sit immediately after. Those are Ciri flags, not main-quest optional flavour. If you want the witcher epilogue, start counting here and keep the list on the endings board. Bald Mountain follows: Ciri and Geralt hunt the Crones, then the Path turns back toward Novigrad for Final Preparations.

Final Preparations and Tedd Deireadh

Final Preparations is the Lodge meeting and Ciri’s last personal flags. Letting her go in alone is the positive Lodge flag. Reason of State, if you still need a Northern outcome, belongs in this window as well. Tedd Deireadh is the White Frost assault on Undvik. After the frost, Something Ends, Something Begins is the epilogue that the endings page decodes: White Orchard sword gift, Nilfgaardian escort, or Crookback Bog medallion.

Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine are not on this spine. You can start Hearts of Stone from Velen once the map allows it, and Blood and Wine from a Toussaint invitation after the main Path is far enough along. Missable Viper armor lives in Hearts of Stone’s heist, not on this table. Keep the expansions on their own boards so this order stays a single road from White Orchard to the White Frost. If a flag still looks wrong after Tedd Deireadh, the endings table is the decoder, not a second copy of this spine.

Frequently asked questions