With that done, it’s time to return to continent. There are a number of quests that went unresolved and map markers that went unexplored, mostly because you were too low of a level at the time. It’s now time to resolve some of those, and since you’ve done most of the questing and exploration in Velen, Novigrad and Skellige already, subsequent exploration and questing will be lumped together broadly geographically. The next section, then, will cover all the quests and map markers that anybody who has been following this guide should be able to reasonably complete (anything level thirty and below), starting with Velen.

Using the “Trottheim” signpost is just as good as any other, so reach it and fast-travel to the “Crow’s Perch” signpost. You’ve got the tools Fergus wants and you’ll have need of a Master Armorer sooner rather than later, so let’s pay the good dwarf a visit. This could very well be the first time you’ve been back since completing the quest “Return to Crookback Bog”. If so, once you cross the bridge to town head west to find some of the Baron’s thugs - or rather, the Baron’s Sergeant’s thugs - picking on some villagers. Stand up for them and kill the two (level eight) to earn a bit of gratitude.

Master Armorer (level 24)¶

Make your way up to Fergus, presenting to him the “High-Quality Smithing Tools” you found back on Undvik. Before you can get down to business, however, a Nilfgaardian general will show up and complicate things. After Fergus leaves to fawn over his more prominent customer his assistant will tell you how things really stand and ask you to get her some acid. Agree to get the acid, then head over to the nearby Notice Board and grab the Notice “Griffin in the Highlands” to start a quest of the same name. What luck! One of the beasts Geralt listed as possessing the acid required just so happens to be lurking nearby. Even more fortunate is you can get the acid you need while fulfilling a contract. Two birds and all that.

Contract - Griffin From the Highlands (Level 24)¶

Return to the “Crow’s Perch” signpost and fast-travel to Heatherton, from which you should head east along the road. When you find a search area, activate your Witcher Senses, then follow a blood trail uphill to the north before searching a large feather on the ground to make another search area appear. Apply some Hybrid Oil to your Silver Sword, then continue north to provoke the Archgriffin (level twenty-six), which fights like a typical Griffin… save it can spit acid. It does quite a bit of damage, but you should do plenty in return. Use Quen for protection, and consider a Thunderbolt Potion to boost your damage output and you should win a slug-fest. As usual, any damage-over-time effects will do massive damage, so use Igni if your sign intensity is up to the task or oils boosted by the “Poisoned Blades” ability. When it dies, loot it for an “Archgriffin Mutagen” , an “Archgriffin Trophy” and an “Archgriffin Acid Gland” .

Make your way back to Crow’s Perch and present the Archgriffin Acid Gland to Yoana so she can win her little pissing contest with Fergus and gain the recognition she deserves. Give her the acid and… well, her earlier appraisal of Fergus’ skills weren’t too far off. The Nilfgaardian officer pragmatically (and cruelly) decides to put this armor to the test before wearing it into combat, and naturally this test requires volunteers. Why couldn’t they just put the armor on some training dummy? Because Nilfgaard, that’s why. Agree to help Yoana in this dangerous, live-fire ballistics test, which plays out in a predictable fashion. Afterwards, the Nilfgaardian will give Yoana and Fergus both what they deserve, and the two patch things up.

Take the Archgriffin Trophy to the Quartermaster to complete “Contract: Griffin From the Highlands” . Once done, rest for one day, then talk to Yoana again to get the armor you were promised, which happens to be a decent suit of medium armor. Not the best armor in the game, but most importantly, Yoana can now serve as a master-quality craftswoman to make all that delicious armor. She’ll also play Gwent with you now, for what that’s worth.

You’ve got yourself the services of a master armorer, capable of forging any armors you’re going to want to upgrade to for the rest of the game. Time to explore the rest of Velen, which consists of a few map marker events, two Witcher contracts ( “Contract: Mysterious Tracks” and “Contract: The Mystery of the Byway Murders” , the quest “Contract: Missing Brother” is still too high of a level), the massive military camp in the south-eastern corner of the map and possibly the DLC quest “Where the Cat and Wolf Play…” , if you’ve bothered to download it.