Witcher 2 Walkthrough - Fighting Letho in Chapter 1
A Simple Start
You’ll work on this automatically at first. It’s the main quest that will actually run through the whole game, as you chase down the kingslayers and try to clear Geralt’s name.
After killing the Kayran and talking to Loredo in “An Indecent Proposal,” Triss should walk up and ask you a few questions. When you mention Loredo’s concerns over the prison barge in the harbor, Triss will point out that a high level Scoia’tel, Ciaran, is aboard.
You’ll walk down and investigate. You should be able to talk your way past the guards (especially if you made a deal with Loredo) and enter the prison ship. Walk down a level and find the wounded man on the deck. You’ll need to pass a QTE, by repeatedly left-clicking, to keep him calm while Triss mends him up a bit.
After that, it’s just a matter of talking to him, and using the signs or persuasion (potentially risky) to convince him to explain what happened with the assassin. At the end of it, he should mention his view of heaven, which will trigger a long flashback from Geralt. Once it’s done, you’ll be able to do the “The Rose of Remembrance” quest.
The Rose of Remembrance
You’ll definitely want Triss to lead the way for this one. Just follow her out through the city and into the forest. Keep an eye out for any monsters, although they should be easily dispatched by the two of you.
The end goal is the waterfall above the cave that had Ostmurk in the Kayran quest. Just follow her up and listen to the conversation, then move into the hidden garden. You can then pick the Rose of Remembrance from the bed of flowers in front of the statue.
Once the next conversation ends though, you’ll see the group of bandits that were apparently sent to steal the statute. This doesn’t sit well with Triss, so get ready for a fight.
The hardest part is the fact that the three bandits will start out right next to you. On the bright side, Triss is here to help with a few fire spells and her dagger. Start by dodging away from them. If you can get a little distance between you, you should be able to hold the Axii spell long enough to actually convert one of the bandits to your side. This makes the whole fight much easier.
While the converted one fights, you can just parry the blows of the odd man out, and take him out with a simple riposte or counterattacks. Aard is also good for opening them up for big hits. Once the Axii wears off, take out the weakest bandit first, then pair up with the last one. Triss will try to help with some spells, so keep a little distance between you and the remaining fighter. This will prevent friendly fire. After that, just parry and then counterattack, and you’ll be fine.
After the cutscene you end up in the ruins of the underground bathhouse. I suggest that you look in the chest in the corner. You can get some red meteorite ore and a quest item, a book about The Wild Hunt. If you wish, you can trigger a sex scene with Triss by suggesting to her that you use the bath in here. It’s up to you. If you don’t want to do it, you can use the Aard sign to blow open the wall by the exit.
If you choose to have a bit of fun, another cutscene will play. After a conversation with Triss, where you’ll make some big story choices, Roche will knock open the wall for you. You can talk to him too, if you want to update him on what’s happened.
That’s it for now though. Make your exit and continue with the quest.
Note that you can talk to Dandelion about the manuscript on the Wild Hunt that you found, if you wish.
The Arachas
If you want to make contact with Iorveth to find the kingslayer, you’ll need to talk to Zoltan. When you’re ready, talk to him and head out to the meeting spot in the forest. Be ready to face a few endrega, if you haven’t cleaned out the forest already. Once you make it there, you’ll be sent onwards to the other meeting place. As Zoltan warns, they’re trying to kill you. There’s an Arachas waiting there.
Before you go into the arena, you’ll want to mediate and at least take a swallow potion. Quen’s a good idea too. Note that this fight isn’t actually as hard as it might seem, if you’re fast and can keep Quen up. I actually did this with just a little harassment and no tricks. It was long and annoying, but not terrible. If you really want, it’s probably also possible to just hide somewhere and let Zoltan chip away at it for awhile.
If you want to do this right, you should start with some insectoid oil on your blade. You should have some from the start, and there’s not much of a use for it besides this. Other than that, just avoid the mouth and try to keep to the sides. Dodge away from it while it charges and attacks, then use strong attacks on its back and sides.
It’s big and slow, so if you can keep your wits about you, you can probably just chip away at it with a thousand cuts and bring it down.
When it’s over, Iorveth will step in and talk to you. If you tell him what Ciaran told you, he’ll offer to take you to Letho and test him. I strongly suggest that you offer to just meet him at the ruins. Letho is an incredibly tough opponent, and you’ll want to prepare for the fight.
Fighting Letho - Preparation
I strongly suggest that you give a little thought to the battle with Letho. It’s actually the hardest fight in the chapter (and one of the hardest in the game). After that, it’s all downhill. I suggest that you mix up some bombs beforehand. If you want to beat Letho very quickly and easily, I suggest making about 25 grapeshot bombs (you should have plenty of nekker hearts and flowers to make them). It’s a cheesy way to do it, but it may save you a lot of frustration. If you don’t want to cheese the fight, then you will at least want some bombs with status effects. Anything that stuns, slows, blinds or freezes will be nice.
Meditate outside of the ruins (it’s the garden from Rose of Remembrance) and take a Swallow potion, then go up and meet with Iorveth. He’ll have you tie him up and lead him into the ruins. After your conversation with Letho ends, you’ll end up in the middle of a fight between the Scoia’tael and Roche’s Blue Stripes.
At this point, you’ll have to make a 5-second decision to either help Iorveth fight, or punch him in the throat and help Roche. After the cutscene ends, you’ll end up in a fight with Letho in the underground baths.
The Letho Fight - Chapter 1
If you want to do this the easy way, roll away from Letho and wait for his Quen to drop. As soon as he’s exposed, start throwing grapeshot bombs at him. If you can keep throwing them quickly, he should just be stun locked. After around 20 bombs, the fight will end.
If you want to do this the honest way, you’ll find that the tactics are simple. Letho is a tough opponent. You just can’t touch him while his Quen is up. You’ll need to move around the room and dodge away from him. There’s plenty of room, since Letho is fairly slow. If you let him get close, you’ll probably be in a world of hurt though. Quen doesn’t seem to be able to hold up that well against him, so it’s probably not worth it.
Letho can also toss bombs at long range, although if you’re on your feet you should be able to move to the side. At medium range he can use Aard and Igni, so don’t hang around for long at this range, unless you’re ready to roll away when he drops into the sign.
His sword attacks are slow, but they hit hard and break Quen’s quite easily.
There are a few other options. Some people have had luck with traps. Snare traps can damage through a Quen, so it’s possible to cast Quen on yourself, place a snare trap and then roll away. If you get hit, you should be okay, but it is risky. Then you just have to lead him through the traps and rearm them.
If you want to fight, you just need to stay mobile and dodge a lot. Wait for his Quen to fall, then move in and use Aard to stun him. You should be able to get three strong attacks in for free. Roll away, and then quickly try and chuck a bomb at him to stun him again and get a little free damage. You can then use Aard and move back in for another exchange.
Regardless of your choice, you just need to get him down by about half or so to end the fight. Then just watch the scene and let the rest play out.
References
All screenshots and information from a “normal” difficulty playthrough of Witcher 2.
If you noted any differences in the game, or have alternative strategies, please feel free to post them in the comments below.
This post is part of the series: The Witcher 2 Walkthrough - Chapter 1 - Flotsam
We’re starting off in Flotsam, and there’s a lot of things to do. I’ll cover how to survive the first ambush, sneak around Loredo’s house, kill the Kayran for fun and profit, track down the assassin and track down a rose of remembrance.
