Awesome / The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Promotional Materials

• The first cinematic trailer, in which Geralt dispatches three Nilfgaardian soldiers who have paid him the bounty for a young Fiend and are about to lynch a woman for simply trying to stay alive in No Man's Land. With just a stolen knife, an Aard, and his two hands, the White Wolf makes mince-meat of them, leaving the leader teetering on a barrel with a noose around his neck.
  Vesemir: Don't meddle. Take the reward and let's go...
  Woman: Help me!
  Black One: Knew you Witchers wouldn't scorn Imperial gold. Tough hunt?
  Geralt: Tougher than yours, that's certain. (interior monologue as they ride away at a trot) Evil is evil. Lesser, greater, middling — makes no difference. The degree is arbitrary. The definition's blurred. If I'm to choose between one evil and another... I'd rather not choose at all. (dismounts and begins to draw his steel sword from his saddle's scabbard)
  Vesemir: Just make it quick, Geralt.
  Geralt: (sheathes sword and marches back on foot, throwing off his cloak)
  Black One: What the — ?
  Geralt: (knocks two men aside and blasts the other back with the Sign of the Winter Storm) Close your eyes.
  Black One: Hit him!
  Geralt: (butchers them in a flash as they try to fight back. Throws the knife into the ground and strides forth to grab the main war-criminal)
  Black One: Wha — wha — what are you doing?!
  Geralt: Killing monsters.
  • Even better, this trailer serves as a Call-Back to "The Lesser Evil" short story in the very first Witcher book. In that story, Geralt had to make an ugly choice between helping one of two ambiguously evil sides in a conflict: a wizard who was part of a cabal who killed and imprisoned many young girls born after an eclipse that they believed mutated them into monsters, and a gang of bandits led by one of said girls who wanted to kill the wizard. Initially, Geralt planned to ignore both and walk away, saying the above line about not choosing between different evils... until the bandits threatened to start killing innocents to force the wizard out of hiding. Geralt decided he could be Neutral No Longer, and in the subsequent battle, he earned the title "Butcher of Blaviken."
• One for book readers, as a certain Princess of Cintra makes her debut! Presenting: Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon!◊
• The Sword of Destiny Trailer. Charles Dance as Emperor Emhyr Var Emreis, Yennefer, Ciri, Vesamir, Eskel and Lambert, maybe even Letho; finally return or make their appearance for the first time in the video game's canon.
• The Trail Cinematic Trailer, in all its pre-rendered glory.
  • Geralt's tracking abilities get to show their true worth as he recreates what happened on a battlefield between Temeria and Nilfgaard.
  • The Black One who takes off a sprinting horse's head with a single swipe.
  • All of Yennefer's displays of magic, including the combination of ice, lightning and earth Circles of the Elements to divert an entire Nilfgaardian heavy cavalry line around her and bury them alive, plus the metaphor of leaving behind her frozen heart in the form of the crow's skull.
• Overall presentation wise, this game is set to be one of the most visually sumptuous open-world games ever made. Not only does blood spatter realistically into the water from your sword blows, it reacts to the movement of the player character and the force of Signs and bombs, sending ripples throughout the marsh. And then there are the new dismemberment physics...
• The Rage & Steel trailer, especially when it showcases at the end that playing as Ciri will not be a simple Palette Swap of Geralt's style.
• Four words. "A Night to Remember". Who does every monster, from the lowest Garkain to the highest Bruxa, check under their bed for, each and every night? Geralt.
  ♪"Wolves asleep amidst the trees
  Bats all a' swaying in the breeze
  But one soul lies anxious, wide awake
  Fearing all manner of ghouls, hags and wraiths
  Birds are silent for the night
  Cows turned in as daylight dies
  But one soul lies anxious, wide awake
  For the witcher, brave and bold
  Paid in coin of gold
  He’ll chop and slice you
  Gut and dice you
  Eat, you, up whole
  Eat. You. Whole..."♫
  • The cinematic also draws some lovely parallels to the first game's intro, from having to fight a red-headed Nosferat in place of a fire-maned Striga, to using a Witcher One specific elixir, and the fact that Geralt just survives the moonlit battle against one of the sphere's most powerful Vampires. For reference: the Black Blood potion that turns Geralt's blood into a corrosive poison that is instantly lethal to powerful beasts like Cemetaurs and Alps in the first game only weakens her and renders her vulnerable to silver.
    Higher Vampire: In times past. No amount of coin would convince a witcher to take this contract...
    Geralt: Times have changed.
  • Additionally, the shifts in music reflect the circumstances — foreboding as Geralt confronts her, action-packed as they fight, then shifting to a a more somber tone as Geralt puts her down. The entire cinematic is a master-class of Show, Don't Tell for everything from Geralt's fighting style and cleverness to how a number of monsters are Necessarily Evil, rather than doing it For the Evulz.
  • Best of all, the entire trailer is actually the epilogue to the entire game. The Higher Vampiress that Geralt fights is Orianna, the vampire who ran the orphanage in Blood and Wine. When Geralt promised he'd come back to deal with her, he backed it up.

Base Game

• The fight against the Griffin of White Orchard is a really good one from multiple perspectives. Geralt tracks down the creature's lair, discovers the Nilfgaardians killed its mate along with smashing their eggs and have driven the male berserk with grief. He and Vesimir then lay a trap for the creature using a reeking herb called buckthorn plucked from the river-bed as bait by stuffing it inside a sheep carcass and waiting in a fallow field, then plug a tracking bolt into its haunches from a Gabrielle cross-bow when it arrives and follow its blood-trail to the major wind-mill. All of his preparations, though, don't keep Geralt from having a knock-down, drag-out fight with the beast. A monster which had devastated the countryside for quite some time. Geralt's opinion on the subject? "It's not the first time I've killed a griffin, nor is it likely to be the last."
  Vesemir: Not bad, not bad. Though you could stand to improve some things.
  Geralt: A man spends his whole life learning.
• Though it doesn't pan out very well for Geralt and Vesemir, the fight in the bar at the end of the White Orchard arc can be quite awesome. With the right moves, you can finish the fight in literally seconds.
• Meeting the Emperor of Nilfgaard. Geralt can choose to forgo bowing, thus insulting the most powerful man in the world, or he can bow — then say it's just because he likes the man's chamberlain. Geralt knows the Emperor could have him killed at any time but he is not afraid of him.
  • Technically, Emhyr did grant him the privilege of not following etiquette in his presence back in the books, for reasons obvious at that point.
• Geralt's first fight with a member of the Wild Hunt occurs in an underground laboratory with Keira Metz accompanying him. After watching these guys chase your surrogate daughter across the Multiverse, tormenting you for years across two games, it is delightful to send one to wherever elves go when they die.
• One possible encounter in Novigrad has Geralt confronting a priest who is giving an anti-witcher speech to an assembled crowd. One option is to simply ask the priest how many lives he has saved from monsters. This is enough reduce the priest to a stammering mess and convince the crowd to disperse.
• Some of the Witcher Contract quests count as this, but one of the most epic is the one done in Lindenvale around level 20 - Geralt is tasked with seeing what's stalking the woods, and eventually finds a Fiend... which has been killed by a Chort. The ensuing fight can last up to 15 minutes of gameplay, the equivalent of 2-3 hours in-game.
• When tracking down Dandelion, one of the women Geralt needs to talk to, Vespula, is being hit up for protection money.
  Thug: You pay on time, you get protection. If you don't... (backhands Vespula) Or are you expecting a Knight in Shining Armor?
  Geralt: Close enough.
• The doppler Geralt faces in "An Elusive Thief Contract" gets one.
  Geralt: Really wanna see an angry witcher?
  The doppler: Do you? (Morphs into Geralt)
• Geralt's interrogation of Whoreson Junior yields a major Badass Boast.
  Geralt: Pay attention now. You'll tell the truth — wanna know why?
  Whoreson: I won't lie, honest!
  Geralt: Took me a long time to find you. Wasn't an easy road to travel. I'm angry and tired. Had to talk to people I didn't want to talk to, wouldn't normally talk to. Some of them tried to cheat me, some tried to lie. I didn't like it one bit. I feel like one more lie'd be the last bitter drop in a chalice full of sorrow. And then... then I'd do something I would later regret. Now you know why you can't lie to me?
• If Geralt plays his cards right during the confrontation with Menge, Triss gets one when she paralyzes The Witch Hunter commander and puts a dagger through his chin and into his skull. Triss wants to burn the entire place to the ground — partially to cover up their trail, but mostly to blow off steam. As for the approach, Menge himself classifies as a normal mook. Anti-Climax Boss aside, you have the options of dismemberment, fire, or a Grapeshot. Sure his body will come intact in a cutscene, but it's the Catharsis Factor that counts. As this happens, not a single civilian lifts a finger to help the witch-hunters, and a number of the onlookers consider it Laser-Guided Karma.
• Geralt coldcocking Eunice the grave robber, for as Vincent Vega would put it, general principles.
• During the last phase of Triss' story-line in Novigrad, she gives a Rousing Speech to the mages she's assembled to flee the city, and even Sigi Reuven is there to help with the effort. And then there's the exchange right as Geralt's about to drop into the sewers.
  Geralt: Triss, are you sure you wanna go with me? No offense, but—
  Triss: Offense taken. Just lead the way.
• Sigi Reuven, AKA: Sigismund Dijkstra wants to assassinate Radovid - his Motive Rant counts as this.
  Sigi: Mass mobilization, inciting peasants to take up their scythes, straighten them — where's the art in that? Much harder to build a strong state with healthy commerce, manufacturing, solid alliances, progressive science, and fair, independent courts that hand down just judgments. Vizimir and I managed to do just that — through years of fucking hard work. I will not sit on my hands as that little shit squanders that. "Radovid the Stern" my arse. Radovid the Witless, I'd say. Will you help me, Geralt?
• Cerys gets one with her way of exorcising the monster driving a nearby Jarl mad. She kidnaps his baby and orders Geralt to toss it in an oven. Which sounds like it shouldn't be a CMOA but it is because it's all a trick and saves the man's soul when the monster thinks Geralt is a better target to torture — only to find out the baby is alive and well because there was a back hatch to the oven out of sight for the baby's quick removal, leaving the monster no choice but to depart.
  • This can lead to her being crowned ruler of Skellige.
  • Earlier in the quest, Geralt explained that the Hym will only move on to a target that truly feels guilty. This means Cerys actually got Geralt to believe that he burned the jarl's baby to death.
• Geralt teaming up with Hjalmar to defeat, quite-possibly, the last giant on the Continent after said being had already eaten all of Hjalmar's crew. The two have survived an immense amount of trouble finding one another but, together, they can take down the immense brute.
  • This can also lead to Hjalmar being crowned ruler of Skellige.
• An unexpected one can be found in Skellige if you don't help Hjalmar or Cerys take the throne. Birna Bran has managed to put her son Svanrige on the throne and thus far he appears to be a Momma's Boy turned Puppet King. She's about to have him sign a peace treaty with Nilfgaard, which each of the Jarls is disgusted with. The diplomat then demands to hear the agreement from the King's own mouth... only for Svanrige to completely wreck his mother's plans and prove he won't be her spineless puppet by hitting the ambassador full in the face with his axe, attack the rest of the soldiers then lead the Jarls to attack the Nilfgaard fleet. The epilogue then states he ruled with an iron hand, but he united the clans for good and centralized the kingdom for the better.
• Geralt defeating Morkvarg the Werewolf. While optional, he's a monster who has been menacing the Skellige region for a decade and is literally immortal. The fact Geralt can defeat him several times before finally putting him down after breaking his curse makes it all the sweeter. And it gets even better if Geralt convinces a freed Morkvarg to give up the location of his treasure before killing him.
• Kaer Morhen itself. Walk around in the beginning of the first game. Now walk around it in Wild Hunt. The layout is exactly the same. Hell, even the frescoes in the main hall are the same. That's dedication to accurately reproduce a location that most players spent less than an hour in.
  • Similarly, Vizima Palace. Everything you could access in the first game is almost exactly the same in 3, accounting for graphical advancements. The only additions are areas that were originally blocked off in the first place.
• In a DLC mission you investigate the massacre of a village, and discover that it was done by a witcher from the Cat School. You hunt the perpetrator down, and you have the option of talking to him and learning his side of the story. After that, if you decide that he needs to die, you get this gem.
  Geralt: Stand and fight.
  Gaetan: Ah, wow... So that chat — what the hell was the point?
  Geralt: I give folk a chance to defend themselves. Unlike you.
• Dandelion, of all people, receives a minor one during one of the game's Ciri segments. While escaping from Whoreson Junior's house, where Ciri rescued Dudu, she is injured by their pursuers, falling to her knees after a particularly painful blow. Looking back, Dandelion sees a guard with a crossbow leveled at Ciri's head. Without a moment's hesitation, the completely human bard — who is, if anything, less tough than the average person — runs straight for her and attempts to leap in front of the potentially fatal bolt. The moment is somewhat subverted when he falls a bit short. Fortunately — although this further lessens the Awesome — Ciri teleported away at the last second, unintentionally leaving Dandelion to be captured by the Temple Guard. Doubles as a Heartwarming Moment, knowing the bard was willing to lay down his life so willingly for his adoptive niece.
• Joachim von Gratz is a walking example of this, in a subdued manner. He's a soft-spoken, unassuming professional surgeon and lecturer at Oxenfurt... who also happens to practice "preventative medicine." His idea of prevention? Going into Novigrad's sewers and killing drowners so they don't hurt people. He's not a witcher or even a soldier (although he implies he's had experience in battle, showing a scar from a flail or morningstar on his neck) but he's still willing to slay dangerous monsters and face vile serial killers without any of a witcher's weapons or armor, simply because it's the right thing to do.
• Hendrik, an agent of the Empire looking out for Ciri, has an Offscreen Moment of Awesome. Over the course of several hours he gets tortured to death by the Wild Hunt for information on Ciri. Do they get a damn word of intel out of him? Nope! And let it not be forgotten that he had three key pieces of intel on Ciri, not to mention a key in his boot the entire time and a secret passage containing all his intel only a few feet away. All he'd have had to do was mention the key, or the passage, and he most likely would've been granted an end to his agony through a quick death, if nothing else, but he gave away nothing.
• The Bloody Baron is not a good person, but cowardice is not on his list of faults. When a basilisk grabs him and dumps him in his nest, fully intending to rip him to shreds, he pulls out his dagger and dares the beast to bring it. The man must have balls forged in Mahakam.
• Though only mentioned in a single conversation, Kalkstein, the alchemist from the first game, gets an offscreen Dying Moment of Awesome. While he got caught during the witch hunts in Novigrad, he still got the last laugh: before being burned at the stake, he managed to hide magical flares in his clothes. As he burned, the flares turned into fiery beasts, which then flew into the sky to spell, in giant flaming letters, "Radovid sucks flaccid cock".

Ending Related

• The entire Battle of Kaer Morhen. Geralt has summoned all his friends and allies to defend the fortress against the Wild Hunt after Ciri has been found, and the witchers, sorceresses and warriors make one great stand against the Red Riders. The whole thing is pure epic from beginning to the end, and most shockingly of all, it isn't even the conclusion of the game it built itself up to be!
  • Yennefer striding out onto the roof of Kaer Morhen's keep and throwing up a magical shield that covers the entire castle and stops the Hunt from simply teleporting inside its defences for most of the battle and holding off The White Frost that the Hunt brings with them, only letting it drop when the effort of keeping it raised utterly drains her, causing her to collapse.
  • Triss, as the offensively specialized sorceress, takes on the role of artillery to support you on the battlefield. The display of power leaves even Lambert astounded.
    Lambert: Next time you get the feeling I'm about to piss off Merigold... make sure to knock me upside the head.
  • Zoltan leaping onto one of the Wild Hunt's soldiers, shanking him in the clavicle, then riding the expiring bastard's body off the inner walls to act as a cushion for his landing.
    Zoltan Chivay: (kicking his opponent's dead body) DUVELSHEISSS!!!
  • Ermion using the natural gas pockets below Kaer Morhen to delay the Hunt explosively.
  • Roche and Ves using their commando training to trap the Hunt with brutal but effective spike traps. When Geralt and his fellow witchers go hunting, there's more than a dozen of the Red Riders and their hounds spitted on them.
  • Triss protecting Ciri by catching Swallow in mid-flight with telekinesis when the latter's disarmed, turning the blade magically red-hot and sending the gnomish gwyhyr straight through the offending rider like butter. Ciri then repays his slap by grabbing her sword while body-checking the imbalanced Red Rider, sending him plummeting off the ledge.
  • The astounding witcher variant of Back-to-Back Badasses when Lambert, Geralt and Letho (If Geralt recruited him) are butchering over a dozen Red Riders while dancing the Viroledo group style back in full fore is endlessly glorious.
    • Then Triss strikes their position with her own more controlled variant of Melgor's Fire and Lambert covers his brother wolf with an enhanced Quen Sign as the Wild Hunt's soldiers are sent flying in slooow moootion...
    • Letho isn't in the Quen shield. How does he survive? He uses one of the bodies of the Riders he slew as cover. Almost making Letho's act of taking human or elven shields when confronted with destructive magic racing towards him his signature move.
  • Keira Metz, if invited to the showdown, will telekinetically pick up five of the Hunt's foot soldiers and send them blasting into the ruined crenelations all at once to protect Lambert.
  • One of the parts of said set-piece with the highest "Holy Shit!" Quotient is with the duel between Eskel and Caranthir. Not only did it establish the former as a bad-ass swordsman, but it also helps to set up the latter as a formidable threat — a fact you find out to be very accurate when you fight him yourself later. And the mocap choreography and camera work is absolutely perfect in this scene too.
  • Once Ciri comes to Eskel's rescue, she gets one against Caranthir. Caranthir has Eskel on the ropes through use of Teleport Spam. Cue Ciri coming in, confronting Caranthir, and using his own strategy against him.
    Ciri: See? I can do it too.
  • Blink and you'll miss it but Hjalmar an Craite, during the final battle in the inner courtyard, tackles a rider of the Hunt right back into one of the navigator portals with him along for the ride. It disappears and seconds later he'll jump straight back out of the next one to spawn covered in frost — but unharmed!
    Hjalmar: Argh. Skellige gets colder'n that.
  • Vesemir flooring Imlerith and humiliating Eredin while trying to protect Ciri. The only reason he's incapacitated is because he knocks his ward away from the battle with an Aard, leaving himself open. And then, making damn sure he won't be used as collateral is nothing short of awe-inspiring — he shanks Imlerith with a hidden dagger, knowing it will goad the Wild Hunt's general into killing him and ensuring Ciri won't surrender herself for his sake.
  • Imlerith's fight against Vesemir proves definitively why he's the General of the Wild Hunt. Throughout the whole fight, he's basically The Juggernaut. Aside from totally overpowering the Witcher (who already has superhuman strength), he shrugs off every hit Vesemir gets in -– including being stabbed in the lungs and impaled through the leg.
  • Ciri letting loose with the full power of the Elder Blood, annihilating the Dearg Ruadhri en masse through a psychic maelstrom that manifests from the turmoil of watching her surrogate grandfather being murdered in front of her.
    • Imlerith against Geralt? Challenging boss battle. Imlerith against an angry Ciri? He's the first one to flee through the navigator portal Caranthir opens.
    • Eredin even gets his only small but noticeable one when he's able to muscle his way through the hurricane of untamed magic while his men die around him to nearly seize Zireael before Caranthir saves him from a fatal aneurysm.
• The whole father/daughter team-up that follows. Ciri and Geralt go to Bald Mountain for some much-deserved revenge on Imlerith for killing Vesemir. Geralt takes on the General of the Wild Hunt and Ciri goes to take out the Three Crones. Geralt manages to kill the Darth Vader-esque lieutenant by searing away his face with a fire-stream Igni Sign, heating the genocidal lunatic's helmet up so much that his pointy ears melt, then smashing his exposed crispy head to a bloody pulp with his own mace. Ciri takes on Whispess, Brewess and Weavess all at once and manages to kill two of them and sent the last one fleeing... albeit after stealing Vesemir's wolf medallion.
  • Particularly sweet is the exchange that comes at the end of the fight.
  Imlerith: Who -- taught -- you to fight like this?!
  Geralt: The witcher you slew.
  • Imlerith in general for his status as the Implacable Man. Vesemir stabbing him in a major artery under his left armpit and Geralt sliding his silver sword through his spine does exactly nothing to the hulking elf. And after everything Geralt does to him during their final confrontation, he still manages to die smiling.
• Roche, Geralt, and Phillipa Eilhart manage to corner King Radovid in "Reasons of State" if Geralt agrees to help them with their plan. Doubly rewarding for this as it follows up Radovid ordering Geralt executed for the pettiest of reasons, not to mention all the time you've spent in Novigrad tormented by his witch-hunting craze and his stake-burning of three old friends. Radovid ends up blinded by Phillipa^note As payback for him taking her eyes in the previous game. then stabbed to death while Geralt and Roche watch with mixed amusement and horror.
  • It's even sweeter to see "the midget-king" get his comeuppance, as if you read 'The Flower and the Flame' in the first game, you discover that the Eternal Fire and the Order of the Flaming Rose were re-founded not in Temeria, but Redania. That's right, it's heavily implied, especially with Salamandra contacting Radovid in the magic mirror, that he was the Man Behind the Man for Jacques, or as the fans know him... 'A', in order to take his first slice of the North for himself. Of course, his plan failed because of a certain white-haired witcher, and Radovid's secret loathing grew even more... The Lodge also had their own plans for divvying up the North and that was why they had to go. It's pretty much a toss up between who the human Big Bad of the series is, as Emhyr mellows considerably at several key moments despite him being the root of many of the atrocities heaped on the Northern Kingdoms and (unintentionally) his own daughter in the books due to the moral bankruptcy of the men sent to retrieve her. Radovid, it seems, is the greater of two evils due to his Freudian Excuse leading to the pogroms in Novigrad, and the little matter of him being an undeniably insane chess-master.
    King Radovid V: You know too much. You impede me too often. And I find your arrogance an annoyance.
• Ciri gaining mastery over her powers when Geralt is caught in the ice storm summoned by Caranthir. She gains an epic Battle Aura and can one-hit kill anything that gets in her path, culminating in throwing the chief sorcerer of the Hunt around like a child after beating him at a Teleport Spam match and capping it all off with a great Unstoppable Force Meets Immovable Object moment that is only slightly lessened by Caranthir averting Squishy Wizard and Ciri being a Glass Cannon like her foster father.
  • She softens up Caranthir so much that Geralt can then rip him apart with the right decoctions and sword-geared skill set, annihilating every Ice Elemental he throws at you almost instantaneously.
  • It helps that we get the most badass heavy metal riff of The Witcher Main Theme as accompaniment while Geralt busts free from stasis to face who is effectively a far more awesome Expy of Vilgefortz.
    Caranthir: Witcher...? So be it. Let us end this.
  • A villainous example at the battle's end: despite being mortally wounded by Geralt, Caranthir uses his last strength to teleport them underwater in the hopes of drowning Geralt. It doesn't work, but the Aen Elle sorcerer deserves credit for not letting even his own impending death stop him from trying to defeat the Witcher.
• Crach an Craite going out in style against Eredin; despite being mortally wounded and barely able to stand, Crach struggles back to his feet with an axe in hand, shuts up Eredin mocking him and charges forward. He's cut down in an instant, but he goes out like a warrior of Skellige should.
  Eredin: Any last words?
  Crach an Craite: Shut your trap and fight!
• Geralt's duel with King Eredin in the game's climax. Needless to say, it's not only very satisfying to finally cleave the elf a new set of lungs for all he's done, but it's one of the rare cases of Anti-Climax Boss being somewhat of a good thing — it makes one feel the fight is not a titanic struggle against a martial equal, but an effortless display of power on your behalf, against a leader who is more Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy than a true badass, only kept alive in the interim against the beast that is Geralt due to Aen Elle armour superiority and his cheap navigator magic. Parlour tricks to the White Wolf.
• Ciri defeats the White Frost, which, in-universe, is a curse that has moved from one plane of existence to another, destroying entire worlds and consuming all life. Note, this is a definite Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu? moment since the White Frost is the biggest evil in the MULTIVERSE, so she saves not just her world but all worlds.
• In some possible endings, if Hjalmar becomes the King of Skellige, he unites the isles and leads the clans into war against Nilfgaard... and against all the odds, crush the black-armoured bastards and drive them back south.

Hearts of Stone

• From a visual perspective, the Cursed Toad Prince is this. A disgustingly imaginative monster that really puts Geralt through his paces and is a good sign to come of the upped difficulty of Hearts of Stone, with its whip-lash meteor hammer of a prehensile tongue, ejecting big splodges of toxin through the bulbous warts on its body like cannon balls all the while hopping around five tonnes of its slimy blubbery bulk with ridiculous speed.
• The escape sequence from the Ofieri Knights. Geralt is bound and being dragged along the beach behind one of the Easterners, so he grabs the first disc-shaped piece of stone worn flat by the sea and chucks that baby at the sweet spot, the back of his captor's head. One crushed skull later and Geralt launches up from his back with his hands still tied, shoulder checks the next Knight, strips his scimitar off him and sends it flying to nail their Nordling guide straight through the spine. A spear-man and a shield-bearer then try the White Wolf on for size but the first gets flipped over Geralt's shoulder and the latter hammer-fisted across the mug. The CMOA of the sequence is when Geralt turns to face his fourth opponent, dodges two of his sword strikes and allows the third downwards chop to perfectly cut his rope-cuffs like an absolute boss.
• In return, the Ofier's Wind Mage steps up to deal with the unruly escapee and he is a force to be reckoned with. He can summon air-pocket explosions, deflect bolts and bombs with his staff, teleport out of your reach, blast vortex waves of sand and grit at you to blind and disorient and even summon a twister that will rip you to shreds.
• The entirely-optional but unavoidably nail-biting duel between Geralt and Olgierd von Everec. What makes this sequence so great? Is it the fact that the fight occurs often at the dead of night, in a bucketing thunder storm? The accompanying One-Woman Wail motif? The circle of onlookers combined with a Ring of Fire in the burning Garin mansion? Of course it's all of the above, the build-up is masterful and the pay-off fantastic.
  • "Would you wait, sir, for the dribble to subside?" Which, by the way, is a Shout-Out to one of the greatest swordfights ever put to film in the history of Polish cinema.
  • Olgierd's astonishingly epic saber slashing from the wrist. Real Polish fencing at its finest against Poland's finest make-believe witcher martial arts.
  • The nonchalant way Olgierd applauds Geralt's fatal blow, before putting his head back on and spitting out some blood as he heals seamlessly.
• Open Sesame: the Ocean's 11 recruitment of possible gymnasts, safe-crackers, demolitions experts and break-in specialists is a joy to behold as the Stranger lays out his plan for robbing the Borsodi Auction House's vault. And while all of the potential partners are varying shades of awesome, the one who stands out in particular is the playful Elven trapeze artist, Eveline Gallo; she's able to perform Offscreen Teleportation ala Catwoman by diving backwards off of Oxenfurt's western moat bridge spire to escape some of Radovid's Redanian pukes. If you hire her to take part in the heist the Stranger asks if she can scale the tower that is their point of entry in less than five minutes. She does it in less than one. Then proves her Le Parkour and Combat Parkour is almost unmatched by tricking the tower's guard into thinking she's a pigeon by cooing from under the beam she's clinging to; the yutz looks out and she clobbers him with a flying monkey-spin kick that lands her on the platform in one go!
• Upon entering the not-so-dilapidated von Everec mansion, Geralt must contend with one of the nastiest pieces of work he'll ever encounter, something beyond ancient and unbelievably powerful... The Caretaker. An embodied demon in thrall to Olgierd. This is then followed by Iris von Everec's Wraith of Portraits and then a manifestation of her worst fear. All three are fantastic puzzle bosses rife with atmosphere and pathos.
• Geralt (if the player chooses) managing to save Olgierd's soul from Gaunter O'Dimm, risking his own soul in the process. You beat the closest thing to the Devil the Witcherverse has at his own game of wits. Gaunter even applauds grudgingly as he's dragged back off to his home dimension.

Blood & Wine

• On the first day of Geralt's arrival in the Duchy of Toussaint, you can put down not only a Hill Giant wielding a mill-stone and crank as a club, but also a Bruxa and a Shaelmaar!
• During the aforementioned fight with the giant, it's possible to take it down with a single shot with the oft mocked crossbow by shooting it in the eye. Doing so nets the player an achievement.
• Geralt's first encounter with the Beast of Beauclair, where the White Wolf shows off his parkour chops, at one time leaping off a cliff onto a ship's mast during the foot chase!
• Upon first facing his quarry in combat, a long-thought-to-be-dead-friend turns up and takes an attack meant for Geralt right through his chest cavity and refuses to budge until his fellow Higher Vampire gives up and leaves. And who is that vampire, you might ask? Regis. Who regenerates three pounds of flesh, his left lung and two ribs within seconds.
• An option when dealing with the Unseen Elder has Geralt look the impossibly ancient, impossibly powerful Vampire Monarch dead in the eye and tell him he has no choice but to help them: if Dettlaff gets his way, humans will inevitably strike back in numbers far too great for even a Higher Vampire to withstand, and then they'll come for the Elder himself. Even if the Elder could kill any knight or mage that messes with him, it would still be a steady parade of unwanted 'visitors', the likes of which the Elder can't stand. And for the cherry on top, Geralt points out there's nothing stopping the humans from simply flooding the caves or collapsing them with explosives. The horrified Elder realizes Geralt is right and acquiesces.
• Dettlaff getting his comeuppance when Geralt and Regis tag-team. The two vampires going at it with claws and acrobatics and mist-shifting is really a sight to behold, and when Geralt covers his friend by parrying van der Eretein's three-foot talons away and slicing the bastard's belly open, along with the accompanying choral note — you just know this monster doesn't stand a chance and shivers will go down your spine.
  • Geralt's fight with Dettlaff cannot be understated. Blood and Wine establishes just how immeasurably powerful Higher Vampires are, makes it abundantly clear that they are far more dangerous than the Wild Hunt, and shows how each one is a verified One-Man Army. Not only is Geralt able to go toe-to-toe with one, but he is able to drive Dettlaff into resorting to increasingly more desperate measures, first forcing the vampire to adopt a more monstrous form, and when that isn't enough, take on a second transformation that is so eldritch, it seems more like Geralt was transported to the Bloody Bowels of Hell than anything. And the witcher still prevails! Had Geralt not gone to help Regis after incapacitating his foe, it's very likely he could have done to Dettlaff what Vilgefortz did to Regis in the saga. The White Wolf has truly become a force of reckoning.
• While small, during the main questline of the DLC Anarietta criticizes Geralt on not being able to find Dettlaff. She begins to equate hunting for him to hunting foxes and sarcastically suggests that the hunting dogs might be a better choice. You can either roll along with the insult, offer a minor quip, or, and here's the awesome part, call her out:
  Geralt: Allow me to point out certain essential differences between foxes and higher vampires.
  • Equally impressive is that the Duchess doesn't wilt from the jibe and threatens Geralt with treason. Not smart if anyone knows Geralt's history, but impressive.
• If you've already played Hearts of Stone and chose to save Olgierd, lifting a spotted wight's curse becomes this. Not many people can boast about outsmarting Gaunter O'Dimm; Geralt manages to do it twice.