The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt: Side quests, Crow's Perch - list, walkthrough The Witcher 3 Guide
Last update: 27 September 2021
This page of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt guide contains a walkthrough of all side quests related to the Crow's Perch location. In the walkthrough, we suggest where to find Hanna in the village of Blackbough, how to properly explore Ciri's room in the castle, how to get blacksmith tools for Fergus, and how to win horse races and fist fights in Velen.
Wild at Heart
You will learn about this quest by reading a note after interacting with a notice board in Velen. Go to the Blackbough village west from Crow's Perch (M3,) and meet with the hunter Niellen. The man will tell you that his wife gone missing. Remain in the village and talk to two peasants - butcher's wife Glenna and the local blacksmith. Both these meetings are very linear.
Now you can go to the marked territory in the forest. After entering it, find a group of wolves near one of trees. Kill them all. A cutscene will start in which you meet Margrit, sister of the lost Hanna. She will try to convince Geralt to stop the search. If you accept her proposition (72 experience points and 55 crowns), then you must return to Niellen and tell him that you couldn't find his wife. You can take 10 crowns from him or refuse to take the payment. You will receive 45 experience points.
If you refuse Margrit, then you must continue the search for Hanna in the forest. Help yourself with the witcher senses. Investigate the dead animal at the tree. Slightly further you will find a mutilated body of Hanna. Geralt will deduce that a werewolf have murdered her. Remain in the forest and look for werewolf's tracks leading to the rocks and a tree inaccessible for Geralt. Next, you must find a fur fragment and start following the red tracks in the air that symbolizes blood smell. Investigate a clothing fragment on the way. The trail will lead Geralt to the Isolated Shack. Enter inside and look around for Mysterious Notes. Read them in the inventory.
Go to the back of the cabin and find a blocked cave entrance. Destroy the obstacle with the sword or Aard sign. Before you enter the werewolf's nest, you should prepare yourself. Moon Dust and cursed oil will be very helpful. Additionally, wait till the night (meditation can speed it up) - during the day, the cave will be empty. After entering the cave, the werewolf will attack you. During the battle, use dodges, Moon Dust bombs and Igni sign. Soon after the battle starts, wolves will come to the cave. You should kill them quickly so that they won't interfere with the battle. Try to reduce the time of duel with werewolf to minimum, if you give him some free time he will regenerate.
After you take away almost all of the monster's health bar, a cutscene will start from which you will learn that Niellen was the werewolf. At the end of the cutscene you must make a decision under a time limit. You can save Margrit from death. In this case, the duel will continue and you will have kill the werewolf. Second option is allowing Niellen to kill Margritt (then the beast will ask Geralt to finish him up). No matter how you acted, you will receive 45 experience points. Investigate the werewolf corpse and take Niellen's Key. You can use it to open a chest in the cabin (diagram, iron ore and high quality trousers). In the cabin and in the werewolf's cave, you will find some other treasure chests as well (you can collect a crossbow and rare boots among other things).
Ciri's Room
You will receive this task automatically after meeting with baron Philip Strenger in Crow's Perch (M3,3). It happens during the main quest Bloody Baron. Ciri's room can be found on the ground floor of main castle building, near the place where Geralt walked with baron in Family Matters quest. After entering the bedroom activate witcher senses. Take the spinning top lying on the ground and examine other clothes. Finally, check the desk and take The Natural Obscurity of Curses book. Open the inventory and read it.
Now you must find Gretka. She hides in kitchen on the lower building level. Initiate a conversation with the girl. Use all dialogue options. For returning the spinning top to Gretka, you will receive 100 experience points.
Master Armorers
You can start this quest in few ways. The most obvious one is meeting with blacksmith Fergus Graem that can be found in Crow's Perch (M3,5). Talk about creating a high quality armor for Geralt during the conversation. You will be sent to Undvik in order to search for the blacksmithing tools. Since it's one of the islands that are part of Skellige islands archipelago, you will be able to continue this quest after unlocking the access to this part of the game world (it will happen as you progress in the main storyline).
{ramkiembieska} Even though you reach the Skellige islands, we do not advise you to rush through this quest. It can be very demanding for a low-level Geralt, because you will encounter many strong monsters on your way to the place where you find the tools. {/ramkaniebieska}
After reaching the Undvik island, you must go to clan Tordarroh forge which can be found high in the mountains in the southern part of the island (M21,3). Sadly, it's not an easy task, as the main western path to the forge ends at some point and Geralt can't advance any further. This problem can be solved in two ways.
First is deciding to walk through a very large cave complex, you can do that by entering one of many available entrances (M21,1). During the cave exploration it is easy to get lost. Additionally, it is very dark there, so you should check your mini-map frequently and use Cat potion.
Start by setting yourself at the edge of the rock ledge and performing a long jump to the water (don't be afraid - Geralt won't die nor receive any damage). After walking out of the water, you will have a long climbing ahead of you combined with the necessity of fighting various monsters (including erynies, devourers and harpies). During the journey through the caves, focus on finding places where you can climb to the higher ledges. Check the main world map frequently so that you don't get too far from your target destination (the cave has few other exits as well). After a long walk, you should reach the exit that is very close to the forge.
Second option is reaching the forge from the north-eastern side. In this case, the journey starts someplace near the Dorve ruins. Similarly as in the previous case, a rather narrow mountain path leads to the target; however, this one doesn't end with any obstacle that cannot be bypassed.
The path will lead you to a destroyed clan Tordarrog forge building (M21,2). A small group of devourers are there that you must eliminate. After that, you can open from the inside one of the few available doors.
No matter which path you choose, you will reach a small cave where the forge is located (M21,3). A rock troll on the 26th experience level can be found there, so you must be prepared for a pretty hard battle. After killing the troll examine the forge thoroughly. You must find a large chest in which the high-quality smithing tools are stocked.
Now you can leave Undvik and go back to the Crow's Perch in Velen. Meet again with Fergus. The conversation will be interrupted by general Groenekan.
After the general leaves the place, listen to the conversation with Yoana. You will learn that she is responsible for the production of high quality armors. The women will ask Geralt to deliver her a unique alchemy ingredient - archgriffin acid gland. Agree to help her and examine the notice board in the castle. A new witcher contract will be added to the journal - Contract: The Griffin from the Highlands (walkthrough to that contract can be found on a different page on witcher contracts from the area of Crow's Perch).
Important - If you have killed any arch griffin earlier and already have its gland, then you can immediately attend the final part of this quest.
After killing the archgriffin you must search its corpse and take Archgriffin Acid Gland. Go back with it to the Crow's Perch and meet again with Yoana. During the conversation agree to participate in a test of the armors' durability during which armors created by Fergus and Yoana will be tested (you must simply stand in one place and wait for general to use his crossbow. Yoana's armor will prove to be much better.
Once the test ends, Yoana will promise to make a unique armor for Geralt. The woman will need around one day to create it, so it is best to use meditation. Go back to Yoana and take the Witch Hunter's Armor from her.
Important - From now on you can order best armors from Yoana (of course, you must have diagrams for them).
Races: Crow's Perch
You will learn about this quest by reading a note after interacting with the notice board in Crow's Perch (M3,9). Go West from the castle and meet Radko who organizes races.
There are three races to complete, each of them has the same track running near Blackbough village. Start the race with gallop and go into full gallop as quickly as possible. As full gallop reduces horse's durability bar, you must use it wisely. You can, for example, reduce speed while going through the village and getting through a turn. At the same time, you can try to block your current opponent.
Here's a list of people with whom you can race:
- Matko - you can receive 100 crowns for the bet. Additionally, you will receive 25 experience points, 20 crowns and a racing saddle that increase horse's durability by 40 points.
- Hans - you can receive 100 crowns for the bet. Additionally, you will receive 25 experience points, 30 crowns and saddlebags that increase inventory size.
- Bogdan - you can receive 100 crowns for the bet. Additionally, you will receive 25 experience points, 40 crowns and horse blinders that reduce the chance of falling off the horse (increase horse's panic limit)
Fists of Fury: Velen
You will learn about this quest by reading the note after interacting with notice board in Crow's Perch (M3,9). In this quest you participate in fist fights. You shouldn't start it before you reach 8-10 experience level. During each duel you can use counterattacks and perform jumps towards enemy, few quick hits and jump away before he regains balance.
At first, there are three charactrs to beat:
- Jonah (level 6) - You will receive up to 100 crowns for the bet. Additionally, you will receive 25 experience points.
- Smithy (level 9) - You will receive up to 140 crowns for the bet. Additionally, you will receive 25 experience points.
- Fishgulper (level 4) - You will receive up to 140 crowns for the bet. Additionally, you will receive 25 experience points. Important: enemy will ask Geralt to take a dive and lose on purpose but you won't gain anything in doing so.
After beating all three brawlers, go back to Crow's Perch. There you will face last, fourth person - the Sergeant. For winning this duel you can obtain up to 160 crowns and 75 experience points.
Defender of the Faith
Check the crossroads West from Crow's Perch and you will find a woman standing on the road (M3,6). Talk to her and offer help in repairing the devastated shrine (10 experience points).
Woman will ask Geralt to repair two more shrines. They can be found in other parts of Velen and you can reach them in any order you want. After getting close to the last shrine, Geralt will meet a group of vandals responsible for destroying it. You can act in two ways during the conversation - walk away without interfering (you will fail the quest) or defeat them in battle (you should loot their bodies after the combat).