Blood and Wine / The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt

This page covers tropes found in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

Absurdly High Level Cap: The DLC raises the level cap to 100.
Abusive Parents: Sylvia Anna's and Anna Henrietta's parents toward Sylvia Anna.
Anachronism Stew: In a sidequest where Geralt eating a mushroom causes Roach to be Suddenly Voiced, one of her "stop working me to the bone during the chase" dialogues has her mention twerking. Another one of said dialogues has her ask Geralt to "do her a solid."
Angrish: One of the random utterances by peasants as you pass by is this.
All-Powerful Bystander: The unseen Elder, like Gaunter O'Dimm, is easily one of the most powerful characters in the setting, and one of the only characters Geralt cannot fight under any circumstance, and whenever Geralt pisses him off he gets killed in a cutscene. He mainly resides by the gate of the vampires' original homeworld, isolated from society, and all the other vampires are smart enough not to disturb him.
Ape Shall Never Kill Ape: Higher vampires can kill humans and other monsters without a problem, but killing others of their own kind is a huge taboo — mostly because doing so renders them Deader than Dead, beyond the reach of their Resurrective Immortality. After Regis breaks the rule to bring an end to the chaos, other vampires start going after him.
Aside Glance: What the expansion's main story, and likely by extension the whole series, ends with. As Regis tells Geralt how he believes they both deserve some rest after everything they've gone through, Geralt nods in agreement. Then he turns to the camera with a subtle smile on his face, silently thanking the player for coming this far and telling them it's time for them to rest too.
Awful Wedded Life: And afterlife, for a couple that was interred together - their arguments are so loud that someone hired Geralt to investigate the source of the ruckus. They do have an Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other moment at the conclusion. Neither wanted to be together in death, but they also didn't want their former spouse to suffer in the process.
Back for the Finale:
- Regis, who was killed by the Big Bad in the final book of the saga, returns for the final DLC of the final game in the series.
Back from the Dead: Geralt's old vampire friend Regis shows up alive and well, thanks to another vampire who resurrected him.
Bag of Spilling: Lampshaded at the end of There Can Only Be One, when the Lady of the Lake, upon granting Geralt Aerondight, requests that he doesn't lose it this time.
Beauty to Beast:
- Lady Vivienne has been cursed for most of her life to turn into a bird-like creature every full moon night. The curse only got worse over the years, so that she needs to use magical ornaments so she looks like a normal human during daytime.
- Even more horribly, the spoon-collecting wight, who turns out to have been a beautiful but haughty noblewoman who was cursed to become a monster after refusing to give food to a beggar. If Geralt breaks her curse, she becomes a wizened old woman, since her transformation happened over a century ago, and the curse had been keeping her alive, but not young.
Belated Happy Ending: If Geralt romanced Yennefer or Triss, they will come to Corvo Bianco during the post-game quest "Be It Ever So Humble..." In Yen's case, she's there to stay for good.
The Big Bad Wolf: Fittingly appears in the Land of a Thousand Fables, dressed not-so-convincingly as Little Red Riding Hood's grandmother. Due to magical entropy destabilizing the illusory world, he's grown tired of constantly re-enacting the story, getting cut open, stuffed with rocks, and thrown down a well, so he's killed the girl and taken to drinking instead. Also, in the Three Little Pigs' neighborhood, the White Wolf fittingly takes on the role when he uses the Aard sign to blow down the house of bricks.
Big Damn Heroes: Regis's first appearance, appearing literally out of thin air to stop Dettlaff from impaling Geralt.
Bilingual Bonus: Some of the documents and books found in Toussaint include funny little bits written in French.
Bling of War: Toussaint's knights are coated head to toe in opulent blue and gold armour. In Velen, they stick out especially.
Bloody Bowels of Hell: The final fight against Dettlaff is fought in an organic realm filled with gigantic beating hearts.
Bragging Rights Reward: Near the end of the DLC, choosing to confront the Unseen Elder allows you to collect the Hen Gaidth armor set & steel sword. The armor provides substantial protection against every threat in the game except wraiths while the sword has excellent stats & is scaled to your level. Too bad there’s nothing left to use them on. Turns into Infinity -1 Sword when used in NG+.
Breather Episode: The entire DLC feels like this. After the oppressively bleak Velen and the harsh and violent Skellige, the burning dead bodies on pyres littering Novigrad and the high stakes missions of Hearts of Stone against an Eldritch Abomination, playing knight on a tourney, renovating and decorating your new home, helping people with The Power of Love, and running through beautiful green fields with water so blue it has a mirror sheen to it feels like an actual holiday for the old Witcher.
Brick Joke: The armor that Fergus crafted, with the crudely-painted sun on the breastplate, makes an appearance as a Funny Background Event during the tournament.
The Bus Came Back:
- The expansion brings Regis, Duchess Anna Henrietta, Sir Palmerin de Launfal, and Sir Milton de Peyrac-Peyran to the game world.
- In the quest, "There Can Be Only One," the Lady in the Lake from the first game makes an appearance to once again give Geralt the silver sword Aerondight.
Call-Back: Not in the expansion itself, but the digital comic released alongside it. The Killing Monsters comic takes place before the events of the trailer of the same name, going so far as to end right as the trailer begins. Similarly, the final quest of the expansion, "Be It Ever So Humble", is filled with these. If Triss is the one to visit, Geralt playfully teases her about the possibility of installing a hedge-maze and nude statue in commemoration of the ball they attended together. If it's Yennefer, she installs the unicorn.
Chastity Dagger: Anna Henrietta's "undercover" outfit comes with one should she need to defend herself.
Code of Honour: The knights of Toussaint have one: The Five Chivalric Virtues. If Geralt exhibits all five and finds a certain location, he can gain Aerondight. It also factors into the motives of the killer in the main plot.
Conservation of Ninjutsu: The Adrenaline Rush mutation makes this a power. The more enemies Geralt encounters in a fight, the greater his attack damage and sign intensity becomes, meaning he could cleave through a dozen foes faster than if he was just facing one.
Continuity Cavalcade: One could simply call this expansion one lengthy nostalgia trip, given how many characters (Regis, Anna Henrietta, Sir Palmerin, Sir Milton) and monsters (archespores, barghests, kikimores, giant centipedes, alps, garkains, fleders) from both the books and the preceding games return for Geralt's final outing after a lengthy absence. The Land of the Thousand Fables also adds to the cavalcade, since it contains several nods to Andrzej Sapkowski's early short stories, which were often deconstructions of various classic fairy tales.
Continuity Nod: When asking for the specifics about the Manticore Witcher set diagrams, Geralt mentions having worn the set some years ago. Said set was the Excellent Leather Jacket armor from all the way back in the first game (The armor he's depicted using in that game's intro and outro). The New Game Plus version, however, actually has a different look and appears to be a combination of the jacket and the various versions of the Raven's Armor.
Couldn't Find a Pen: You can come across a troll preparing a stew and a dead man inside a cage hanging from a tree. If you kill the troll and loot the man's corpse you'll find a letter he wrote on a piece of cloth he tore from his clothes, with a random piece of bone and his blood detailing how he was captured by the female troll who upon seeing him declared him to be her one true mate and captured him. Rather than give into her advances he starved himself to death.
Country Matters: In the governess's diary in the playroom, it details how young Anarietta learned some... colorful Nilfgaardian words; Regis translates it in a fancy way to say that Anarietta called the governess this in Nilfgaardian tongue.
Curse: True to fairy tale form, the expansion has a few.
- Vivienne was cursed before she was born by a creature who heard her mother wishing her child would be as beautiful as the birds in the wood the creature "owned". For delighting in something that wasn't hers, the creature cursed Vivienne to become more like a bird as she grew. Geralt knows of two ways to break the curse: either by transferring it over to a bird egg, which shortens her un-cursed lifespan to that of the bird (seven years), or a ritual which will transfer the curse to another person.
- A spotted wight named Marlene was once a beautiful and proud heiress to an estate, but refused (vehemently at that) to give a beggar that came to her gate food and drink, despite it being an ancient right of hospitality. So the beggar broke his spoon and cast a curse upon her. To break it, Geralt had to share a meal with her of his own free will, eat without spoons, and make her look at her own reflection. The beggar in question may have been (from his treatment of spoons, the wording of his curse, that he was apparently a seller of mirrors, and the leitmotif that plays as Geralt describes what he did) Gaunter O'Dimm.
- Girls born during the time of the Black Sun, such as Syanna, are believed to be cursed with horrible dreams that drive them insane. It's never confirmed if the behaviour of these girls is due to the innate evil brought by the curse, or if it's just a natural reaction to being treated like monsters since childhood.
Cute Little Fangs: The teeth that Regis sports are noticeably sharp, but his otherwise gentle and civil disposition makes them weirdly endearing. They become Scary Teeth when he gets his Game Face on, though.
Cute Monster Girl: At least Guillaume seems to think this is the case with Vivienne's oriole-like form - she playfully chides him for the obvious flattery.
Cutscene Incompetence: There are days-long timeskips in this DLC where we're told Geralt's trails have gone cold, or he does very little to further the plot. For instance, after Dettlaff declares war on Beauclair, Geralt and Regis do nothing to find him or bring Syanna to him until the vampire attacks actually start. Thus, the player gets yelled at by Anna Henrietta for failing to produce results and then, once gameplay resumes, Geralt and Regis find Syanna and/or Dettlaff via means they could have used before.
Cutscene Power to the Max: During his first chase of the Beast, Geralt is able to perform leaps that would be lethal in the gameplay, not to mention parkour more fitting for the Assassin's Creed series.
- During the fight with Dettlaff using Aard Sign you throw him around ten feet into the sky, when usually it will make people stumble back a few feet at most.
Cycle of Hurting: Should you ever go against more than one bruxa or alp at the same time, expect to be Blown Across the Room repeatedly in rapid tandem by their shriek attacks.
Death of a Child: During Dettlaff's rampage in "The Night of Long Fangs," nearly every child in the orphanage is violently killed by an Alpha Garkain.
Decon-Recon Switch: Guillaume's story starts out as a Deconstruction of the Knight in Shining Armor and Knight Errant archetypes. In order to woo the lady of his dreams (whom he hardly knows, and who in turn doesn't know him), he repeatedly throws himself into dangerous situations pointlessly, gets in over his head, and is saved only by the timely interventions of Geralt and more experienced knights. However, he's shown to have a noble goal when he suspects that Vivienne is under a curse, and by selflessly taking her curse unto himself, he reconstructs the archetypes by proving it takes more than battle prowess to truly be a knight.
Degraded Boss: The first Bruxa you fight is a pretty tough boss fight. After that, they start to suffer more and more from Can't Catch Up and serve as an uncommon Elite Mook.
- The same applies to the Noonwraiths/Nightwraiths. In White Orchard, the former is used as a boss for the only contract there. However, one or the other could be found serving as a rare Elite Mook guarding a chest on their own in Velen depending on the time of day.
Did Not Get the Girl: Should Geralt keep Vivienne's condition secret from Guillaume, he will not only end up alone, but also disillusioned and bitter over the whole chivalry thing.
Difficult, but Awesome: Completing one of the sidequests gets you this game's version of Aerondight. When wielding it, when you land a hit, it gains charges that buffs it's damage by 10% per charge. The catch is that it loses charges when you get damaged. Skillful use of dodging, and the Quen sign, will allow you to keep the buff, and gain it's benefits (namely, 100% crit chance while it lasts, and, if you kill something with a full charge, a permanent damage boost).
Disproportionate Retribution: A woman expresses admiration for the birds in a forest owned by a magical creature and for this presumption the creature curses the woman's child.
Dogged Nice Guy: Guillaume is smitten with the lady Vivienne, and refuses to take no for an answer. Vivienne's rejections and resistance are, essentially, obstacles to overcome during the quest. Abiding by her wishes leads to a Not Quite the Right Thing result where she only has seven years to live and Guillaume is a bitter drunk, but ignoring her wishes leads to an ending where the two of them share true love and a much more ambiguous future.
Dude, Where's My Respect?: In a subversion, while on the main game people will throw slurs and make all sorts of Fantastic Racism comments at Geralt just for being there, the people of Toussaint seem almost always happy to greet the Witcher (that is unless you royally screw things up during the main story quests).
Easter Egg: In the Land of Thousand Fables, if one goes off the map into the mountains by exploiting a glitch, they can find a picture of the dev team sitting in a clearing.
Earn Your Happy Ending: After many adventures and trials before and during the game, even dying at one point, Geralt finally earns his happy ending. Geralt gains a home, is able to retire in comfort as the wealthy owner of a vineyard, and, depending on the events of the main game, has one of his loved ones visit (with Yen moving in, if she's romanced).
Eldritch Location: The Unseen Elder's hidden lair pays lip service at best to the laws of physics and is crawling with an absurdly powerful vampire strain that can't be found anywhere else in the world, not to mention one of the most lethal beings in the whole Witcherverse. It's dark, oppressive and intensely creepy to traverse. Being the only mostly sealed gateway to another dimension that is still seeping through the rift in reality might've something to do with it. It's a real shame that it and the Golden Ending are mutually exclusive.
Evil Is Petty: YMMV on how evil you consider Sylvia Anna to be. But she will even admit that buying and smuggling Sangreal and trying to steal the Heart of Toussaint was stupid and had it not been for those two things they may have never found out who was the Mastermind behind it all, but her pettiness got the best of her. Even worse she flat out admits that even though it was quite stupid, she would do it all again because those things were her birthright.
Evolving Weapon: Aerondight, the Cool Sword you get from the Lady in the Lake, becomes stronger as you kill more enemies with it when it's fully charged.
Familiar: Witch living atop the Lynx Crag has a panther as one. First thing indicating something is off with the animal is how it doesn't try to attack Geralt when he's busy scaling the mountain.
Fantasy Counterpart Culture: The sunnier Mediterranean culture of Toussaint, with its vineyards and brightly coloured architecture, is seemingly based on Southern France. The capital city of Beauclair, with its ruling Duchess and wealthy inhabitants, is suggestive of the principality of Monaco.
Fate Worse than Death: Discussed briefly in "The Warble of a Smitten Knight", as part of the general deconstruction of chivalric romance cliches. It's easy for Guillaume to make bombastic declarations of all the ways he would be willing to die for Vivienne... But as Geralt muses, death is cheap to a knight whose bread and butter is drama. Whatever happens, he gets to bask in people's love and adoration, if only for his noble sacrifice. It's much harder to commit that way to what might be a life that's unpleasant and humiliating - say, being forced to eat bugs and look monstrous due to a curse. It's only by showing a willingness to accept even such a fate that Guillaume truly shows himself worthy of Vivienne's love.
Final Boss Preview: The Beast of Beauclair is encountered early on as the fourth boss you face in the expansion.
First-Episode Twist: The revelation that Regis was brought Back from the Dead happens near the beginning of the story.
Five Stages of Grief: In the Bittersweet Ending, Anna Henrietta is in deep denial her own sister could really consider her heartless, not to mention ordering a series of ironic murders. She goes as far as demanding all evidence of her plot be destroyed.
Foreshadowing:
- While wandering around the wilds of Toussaint, Geralt can run into several Alps and Bruxae disguised as cloaked women (appropriately named "Hooded Woman"). While walking around Beauclair, you can encounter many of the exact same Hooded Women. Sure enough, it turns out Beauclair is the Vampire capital of the world, and at one point during the main quest it is attacked by a horde of Vampires, and several of the aforementioned women transform before your very eyes.
- During the quest The Man from Cintra, Orianna remarks "A hairpin may look like a mere ornament... but plunged into an eye, it can be as effective as a blade." This becomes far more relevant if Geralt fails to convince Syanna of Duchess Anna Henrietta's innocence, in which case Syanna will murder Anna with her own hairpin.
Fractured Fairy Tale: What happened to the Land of a Thousand Fables once the illusion that maintained it began to decay. Now the Little Match Girl sells drugs; Thumbellina manages to out-drink the Big Bad Wolf, who murdered the Hunter and Little Red Riding Hood because he got tired of being thrown into the river; Goldilocks got eaten and mauled by the three bears; Prince Charming broke his neck in an accident; and Rapunzel hanged herself with her hair and became a wraith.
Full-Frontal Assault: Bruxae and alps cast off whatever clothes they might wear in their human disguise when they go on the offensive.
Game-Breaking Bug:
- The Xbox One version suffered from a couple of these with the inability to save your game occurring after too long spent idle plus infinite loading screens. The latter could only be solved by not only restarting your Xbox but physically unplugging it and putting it back in. Other bugs included corrupted saves which could not be loaded without crashing your game. Made much worse by limited save slots (10 on consoles, i.e. not much for a game of this size), which make you juggle your saves like crazy in the fear of them ending up corrupted.
- During a horse race, you could easily end up spawning in a wall. Or facing the other way. Or in the middle of the racetrack, forcing you to track back to the very first checkpoint. Either way, it's up for a reload, as it means an almost certain loss either way. Fixed in the 1.0.5 patch.
- Finding your way to a plot-important area by complete accident can completely break the main quest.
- There are a few bugs that make several quests in the DLC impossible to finish:
  - The Warble of a Smitten Knight: Several users report Geralt no longer responding to input during the start of the practice race, making it impossible to proceed.
  - If a player leaves Toussaint while an upgrade to Corvo Bianco is in-progress, the upgrade will never finish, preventing the completion of the house.
Game Face:
- When the Higher Vampires are overcome by rage or bloodlust, their faces warp into an animalistic shape. It's not really a "true form" because their real bodies are incorporeal, but it makes it clear when they've lost their faculties.
- Bruxae and alps also have distinct, if less impressively monstrous forms under their beautiful disguises.
Gameplay and Story Segregation: If you get the good ending, Anna Henrietta rewards you with, among other things, several casks of Sangreal (the special wine normally only the ruling family is permitted to drink). However, the player will never see it because the vintage doesn't actually exist in gameplay, despite a ton of other wines being available. Including one named for Geralt which is delivered to his cellar on a regular basis.
The Ghost: A criminal who's only ever called "the Cintrian" is hyped up as a major badass who you have spent two quests trying to track down. He's dead by the time you catch up to him, having been defenestrated by Orianna, meaning you don't even get to see him unless you go out of your way to find his body in the cliffs beneath the window.
The Good Kingdom: Toussaint, all over. Lampshaded by Geralt when he first arrives.
Good Pays Better: Pretty much all situations can be resolved by following the five chivalric virtues. Most of the quests not only have a Golden Ending, but said ending can be achieved by simply being nice and reasonable, in stark contrast to the vanilla game. There are no hidden catches, no sudden twists or later reveals after doing something genuinely good. There are hidden checks on these actions as well; perform all five of the Virtues and you can acquire the highest-damage silver blade in the game: Aerondight.
Goshdang It To Heck: Toussaintois don't cuss like Northerners do, instead using goofy euphemisms like "bum-diddler".^note
Gratuitous French: French is present through the DLC and peppers the speech of most of Toussaint's inhabitants.
Gravity Screw: Traversing the Unseen Elder's lair involves walking up walls and along the ceiling, which forms such a unique contrast to the rest of the game that more than a few players ended up utterly confused on how to proceed through the cave at various points.
Hellhole Prison: Subverted with Bastoy Prison, which was abandoned after a failed experiment so terrible that the Duchy had to erase all records of its occurrence to avoid a scandal. What terrible horrors were inflicted on the Bastoy inmates? Treating the prisoners humanely, a radical idea in the Witcher-verse.
A Homeowner Is You: Corvo Bianco, the vineyard that Geralt receives, serves as a new home that players can pay to upgrade with various furnishings, including weapon and armor racks and other items that can grant you temporary buffs.
Horrible Judge of Character: Regis. Due to feeling that he owes Dettlaff his life, he repeatedly insists that Dettlaff is not a monster and beseeches Geralt to spare him, even while people die on the streets of Beauclair when Syanna is not brought before Dettlaff after her fake kidnapping is exposed. Even before that, Dettlaff has obviously failed to truly adapt to walking among humans. It's implied that Regis is aware of this on some level, but too emotionally invested to admit it until he's forced to kill Dettlaff personally.
Hot Witch: The one from A Knight's Tale sidequest surely counts. And it's apparently her normal look, not just glamour spell or illusion. In fact, it's revealed that the reason Daphne's love never returned to her is because he spent a hot and sweaty weekend with the witch, who then indirectly killed him when he said he wanted to go back to Daphne.
Humanoid Abomination: This is what the Higher Vampires essentially boil down to: all-but-immortal creatures from another dimension whose true bodies are completely immaterial, and whose physical forms can warp into horrible abominations when their emotions get the better of them. In ages past they considered humans essentially livestock and cultivated them with such finesse that people never even realised that their lives were manipulated by supernatural apex predators from birth to death.
Improbable Aiming Skills: Damien is an excellent crossbowmen, all right. But this trope is fully in place in the Downer Ending, where he quickly grabs his crossbow and shoots while the weapon is still in swing motion. He still hits Syanna directly in the neck, the only body part not obscured by Anna Henrietta.
Infinity +1 Sword: Aerondight makes final appearance in the trilogy. It's the most powerful weapon in the game, easily outclassing any other sword, including other Infinity +1 Swords. Not only does it come with absurdly high raw damage and an even more powerful bonus, increased with each hit, but it can also level up, meaning it will never be overshadowed by any other weapon. It works just as well against monsters and humanoids. But to get it, Geralt needs to first prove he is worthy by a complex Secret Test of Character while doing different quests and errands.
Lady of the Lake: And I trust this time you shall not lose it...
- On the armor side we have the Grandmaster Ursine Armor, regarded by many as the best armor in the game with the only drawback being its abysmal stamina recovery, and that can be nullified by having it enchanted with Levity which treats any equipped armor as Light Armor.
In the Hood:
- The Grandmaster Feline Armor gives Geralt a hood unique to this set.
- Female NPCs can be seen walking around Beauclair wearing head to toe hoods and named "Hooded Woman", they're all vampires.
Karma Houdini: The Witch of Lynx Crag in "A Knight's Tale". Speaking with her reveals that when a knight came to convince her to lift a drought and win the love of Daphne in the process, he instead wound up in bed with her for several nights. After the knight began to feel guilty about his infidelity, he tried to return to Daphne. The witch, being a Woman Scorned, indirectly caused him to die soon afterwards, which led to a heartbroken Daphne turning into a tree where she remained trapped for eons. All this time the Witch has known exactly how to free Daphne, but never divulged the information out of spite. If Geralt tries to find a cure for Daphne by any means other than groveling and begging, the Witch dooms Daphne to become a wrathful spirit that kills the very man who hired Geralt to save her. Even if he does so, the Witch is so annoyed that she casts a spell on Geralt that makes the Witch an Un-person to him.
King Incognito: Or Duchess Incognito. Her Grace joins you on a journey under hood to Casta Ravello winery, where someone's been stealing from a wine reserve meant only for the ducal family to serve at their table, as part of the mystery behind the Beast of Beauclair's motives. Her incognito outfit still screams "high-born" from the quality leather and cloth and precious metal fastenings. In the next quest, she blends in a bit better as just another noblewoman behind a fancy mask at Orianna's artiste soiree (though her voice is unmistakable to one of Orianna's bouncers who was a former palace guard).
Knight Errant: They pretty much serve as Toussaint's primary police force, patrolling the lands to right wrongs and defend the people while abiding by a strict code of chivalry. Notably though, there's an office in Beauclair dedicated to paying them for their services. So unlike witchers, being a knight errant is actually a viable (if somewhat dangerous) profession.
Knight in Shining Armor: The Duchy's collective hat, as chivalry is very Serious Business there.
- Geralt can get in on the act several times, such as embodying the Five Chivalric Virtues or competing in a tourney with a heraldic set of armor. The relic-level armor found in The Land of a Thousand Fables is so shiney is borders on Bling of War levels.
Lampshade Hanging: Twice in a row, once by Geralt and then by Roach.
Geralt: "Your voice, it's, uh, very interesting. Gotta say I expected a young mare to sound, uh, girlish."
Roach: "Based on what? Your vast experience with talking animals? Far as I know, I'm your first."
Geralt: beat "Good point."
Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
- One of the earliest clues you can find is a handkerchief embroidered with the initials "d.l.C". See Take That! below for more details.
- Right at the end of the DLC, Geralt is told that he deserves a little rest. Geralt agrees, and then turns, smirking straight at the "camera", before the scene fades to black.
- Contract: Equine Phantom is basically all about this. Geralt and Roach's dialogue are all jokes at the expanse of the horse mechanics in the game.
Lesbian Vampire: One of the Guarded Treasures features a woman in a hooded cloak standing in front of a dead man. Looting the body will reveal the man went there to confront his wife's lover, and will cause the woman to turn into a bruxa. Looting the bruxa provides a letter from the wife talking about how she never could have imagined she would fall in love with a woman. Though it's unclear if the affair was of a sexual nature or merely about the blood.
Lethal Chef:
- The spoon wight's brew is so hideous that it jacks Geralt's toxicity level up on the spot; possibly to very dangerous levels if certain Alchemy stats weren't buffed beforehand. Bring the White Honey.
- One bandit camp has a lootable letter in which the hanse leader complains that the kitchen crew cooked a meal so bad, it had everyone in the fortress spewing from both ends. As punishment, the kitchen crew is made to wash all of the fortress's diarrhea-soaked undergarments.
Lighter and Softer: Toussaint is a much more pleasant place than the regions visited in the base game. The majority of the sidequests are lighthearted and many of them involve Leaning on the Fourth Wall. While the DLC's main quest has plenty of dark moments, it never reaches the feel of hopelessness that pervades Velen and Novigrad.
- The Big Game Hunter sidequest borders on Out-of-Genre Experience. It reduces combat to a minimum (not harming any animals is a big aspect of it), has a clear and unambiguous happy ending and is heavily into its story, making it longer than an average sidequest.
- It extends to the world. Toussaint is far more bright and colorful than anywhere in the main game. Its residents tend to be far friendlier, as opposed to those in Velen, who will throw racial slurs at Geralt, talk about how they hit their wives (the Toussaintois do this too, but not as much), or gleefully brag about burning mages and nonhumans. Even its poor and peasants lead seemingly richer lives; slums in Novigrad often leave the poor starving and hungry in the streets while vineyards have peasants singing merrily and there's at least one soup kitchen in Beauclaire. The contrast is perhaps best seen at the start of the DLC, when two knights of Toussaint protect a town in Velen from Bandits, insisting to give the bandits a chance to abandon their criminal ways, knowing the bandits will refuse, but doing this, the Knights know they did everything to avoid violence. When the bandits are defeated, Geralt notes the Velen citizens are now afraid of the knights who saved them, and will not thank them.
Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: The ducal sisters; Anna Henrietta is the light, and Sylvia Anna is the dark. The contrast is reflected in their attire as well as their demeanors.
Looks Like Orlok: The Higher Vampires bear varying degrees of resemblance to this trope when they get their Game Face on. Probably the one closest is The Unseen Elder, due to his baldness, pale skin, slender figure, and extremely long and sharp incisors.
Love Redeems: For one of the sidequests, this is a key ingredient into how a curse is lifted. Geralt himself is surprised the method used worked, as true love between the one cursed and the person it's being transferred to is mentioned as being essential.
Love Ruins the Realm: The murders that the main story centers around happen because Dettlaff falsely believes he's keeping his lover safe.
Ludicrous Gibs: The "Bloodbath" mutation in the new Mutation level-up tree lives up to its name. If selected, drawing steel against human foes will inevitably end up with severed body parts everywhere from dynamic finishers pretty much for every felling.
Mad Scientist: Professor Moreau, like his namesake, performed numerous cruel experiments in order to control artificial mutations in people. Ironically, his goal was to "cure" witcher mutations, but he only learned how to make them stronger.
The Magic Goes Away: In the fairy tale book, the spell that brings the various fairy tales and its characters to life has begun to fade, leading to disastrous results. For example, the three bears got tired of Goldilocks' shenanigans and killed her, the Big Bad Wolf killed Red Riding Hood and the Huntsman as payback and spends most of his time getting drunk with Redbeard, and Rapunzel hanged herself with her own hair after getting tired of being locked up in her tower.
Mama Bear: Say what you want about Anna Henrietta, but she loves and protects her subjects like no other royal in the Witcher saga. And there's no faster way to spark her wrath than hurting them.
Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Did Geralt really drink a potion that let him understand Roach, or was he hallucinating?
Militaries Are Useless: The Knights and Ducal Guards can't/don't do anything against the hanse bases, and only after Geralt cleaned them out of the bandits they start occupying them.
Moe Greene Special: The giant cyclops Golyat, the first boss enemy encountered in the DLC, can be killed instantly with a well-placed crossbow bolt to the eye.
Monster and the Maiden: The witcher Geralt works with the duchess Anna Henrietta and later on with her sister, Sylvia Anna.
Mood Whiplash: The "Equine Phantoms" contract starts out as the usual slightly creepy monster-hunting sidequest. About halfway through, it slides deeply into Leaning on the Fourth Wall silliness and Snark-to-Snark Combat once Roach starts talking.
Mook Horror Show: When Detlaff and Regis show up during the siege of Dun Tynne, their onslaught is this to the defenders.
Moral Myopia: In the sidequest Extreme Cosplay the man helping Geralt uncover what happened to a group of reinactors only scoffs at the "treachery" of Elves when he hears of the unused trap they had devised to assassinate the human King who had subjugated them—which the reinactors had accidentally triggered—despite the fact the only reason it failed was humans enacted a pogrom upon them before they could give it to the King as part what was supposed to be their first annual tribute. What makes this callousness so striking is, up until this point, he had otherwise been a kind Good Samaritan, showing that even in Toussaint, some people's kindness is only reserved for their own kind.
Mr. Vice Guy: Even though De la Croix is described as being very greedy, to the point of being the subject of a very unsubtle jab at paid-for Downloadable Content, flashbacks show he was also capable of kindness and generosity, going so far as to befriend Dettlaff.
Multiple Endings: Three endings for the main questline, four variants for the epilogue quest, and two dealing with Regis.
- Main questline:
  - Both Anna Henrietta and Sylvia Anna die. Either get Orianna to help you find the Unseen Elder, or track down Syanna, get her ribbon from the Little Match Girl, and don't perform the investigation before the trial. Syanna kills Anna Henrietta with a hairpin during the trial, then Damien puts a crossbow bolt through Syanna in retaliation. Damien is crushed and the future of Touissant is left uncertain, but Geralt is regarded as a hero for ending Dettlaff's threat.
  - Anna Henrietta lives, but Sylvia Anna dies. Track down Syanna, but don't get her ribbon back. Dettlaff kills her, after which Geralt can either let him leave peacefully or still kill him. Either way, Anna Henrietta has Geralt put in prison for Syanna's death, where he resides for nearly a month until Dandelion is able to talk the court into freeing him based on the Witcher contract. Even then, Geralt is forever marked as the man who allowed the Duchess' beloved sister to die a horrific death, which makes his postgame interactions with the people of Touissant pretty tense, to say the very least.
  - Both Anna Henrietta and Sylvia Anna live. Track down Syanna, listen to all of her stories while wandering the Fablesphere, get her ribbon back, then go through with the investigation before her trial. Talk Syanna into forgiving her sister and argue for mercy during the trial. The sisters begin to reconcile, although Syanna is still sentenced to imprisonment.
- Vampiric aftermath: Should you either have the Unseen Elder summon Dettlaff or you let Dettlaff go after he kills Syanna, then Regis will stay in Toussaint. If Syanna lives and Regis has to deal the killing blow to Dettlaff, then Regis has to leave Toussaint due to becoming persona non grata among the vampires of the region.
- Be It Ever So Humble guest: Changes based on when the DLC is completed compared to the main game, Geralt's relationship with Yennefer or Triss, and whether Ciri is either the Empress of Nilfgaard or a witcher. Dandelion appears by default: either if you complete the DLC before the main game, or if Geralt has no romance and Ciri is dead. If Geralt romances either Yennefer or Triss they will show up; Yennefer permanently moves in, while Triss wants to use the vineyard as a vacation home. If Geralt has no romance and Ciri is alive, she appears either as a Witcheress visiting after a contract (and can then move in), or as the (future) Empress on a tour of the provinces.
National Stereotypes: The people of Toussaint share many of the traits often associated with the French: an obsession with wine and cooking, an emphasis on romance and romantic ideals, and intense (one might even say boastful) interest in art and culture.
Nice Guy: The Knights of Toussaint are refreshingly chivalrous, honorable errant knights, willing to do good for the sake of it. Special mention goes to Guillaume, likely the purest Knight in Shining Armor seen in the whole setting.
Not Quite the Right Thing: "The Warble of the Smitten Knight:" Choosing to keep Vivienne's curse a secret from Guillaume (as per her wishes) results in the curse getting broken but she now has only seven years left to live and Guillaume doesn't get the girl. Choosing to let Guillaume in on the secret results in a comparatively happier ending where the curse is transferred to Guillaume with only minor side-effects and she and Guillaume are deeply in love. The former is more of a Bittersweet Ending (as Vivienne is very happy but doomed, and Guillaume is depressed but otherwise fine), while the latter is much closer to Happily Ever After.
Not What It Looks Like:
- Big Game Hunter has Count Beledal, who apparently wants to organise a safari. He wants specifically Geralt as his guide, appears to be careless, has shades of Mad Artist and openly invokes that maybe he's just a rich guy looking for new ways to spend his fortune. Turns out he's a loving father, trying to get pictures of wildlife for his crippled daughter while being on an official tour in Toussaint. And the story makes it clear he saves no expenses for her to at least have a semblance of a normal life.
- The conclusion of Father Knows Worst sidequest. When Geralt finds the missing Hugo and they head back to the surface, the remaining brothers are apparently waiting with a band of thugs. Hugo is obviously scared they are just waiting to finish him off. If Geralt decides to talk first, fight maybe, it turns out the thugs are in fact local hunters, called to help cleaning the cave from monsters. The brothers decide to bury the hatchet after realising they've almost killed Hugo over money.
Offhand Backhand: After thrashing the three goons harassing the bootblack kid, Geralt casually swats one aside when explaining the situation to the responding guardsmen.
Obstructive Bureaucrat: "Paperchase" has Geralt face the most fearsome enemy of his life: finding the paperwork to prove to the bank that he is not dead so he can withdraw money from a bank account a client set up for him years ago as payment for a job. While the bank is trying to cover up that it spent Geralt's money after he was reported dead, another customer indicates that this kind of obstruction is commonplace at the bank.
- And the grand solution to the titular paperchase? Being Nice to the Waiter. As the other bank patron notes, those people sit in their offices for 12 hours a day and never even hear so much as a "have a nice day" or just "good morning". Giving flowers or perfume to the clerk will be enough to bring the head of the bank to speak directly with Geralt. Talk about Cutting the Knot!
One-Man Army: Clearing out the bandit hanses sees Geralt ripping apart groups of enemies in their dozens without much effort.
Our Vampires Are Different: While vampires are around in the base game, Blood and Wine features them as a major presence in the plot. The mysterious and powerful Higher Vampires especially show a whole culture of their own, and the expansion goes to some lengths to establish the differences between them and their lesser brethren. Regis is, as usual, a font of knowledge on the subject. They're unharmed by any of the traditional weaknesses; they're more closely affiliated with birds than with bats, despite the resemblance some lesser vampire species have for the latter; they don't spread their nature to humans (being a separate shape-shifting species that arrived during the Conjunction); they live even longer than elves, which means they're often highly learned and skilled in whatever they pursue; they're extremely strong, fast and magically powerful; they can give up drinking blood, but it's extremely difficult; they have their own fairly rigid rules and traditions; and each region of their territory is ruled by an Unseen Elder.
O.O.C. Is Serious Business: An arguing ghostly couple exasperates Geralt so much that he breaks his normally muted expressiveness and low-key speech habits to yell at perhaps his loudest and highest pitch ever heard.
Out with a Bang: A sidequest has Geralt try to recover part of a statue (guess which part) rumored to increase the sexual prowess of any man who touches it. Geralt learns that the thief is an old man who is using the... piece to treat his erectile dysfunction. If Geralt lets the old man keep it, the old man pays Geralt and promises more coin if Geralt returns in a week. If Geralt returns after a week passes in-game, he finds that the old man died of sexual exhaustion. You get a hint of this fate that could have happened if you let him keep it a day longer; his next partner has such an insatiable lust that he nearly felt a heart attack come on while in the act and eagerly surrenders the bits to Geralt.
- The most bizarre part of the quest is that the magic properties of the statue's manhood actually work. If you rub the... "orbs" of the restored statue you'll get a stamina bonus that'll let you run nonstop for 60 minutes.
Paper-Thin Disguise: Unimaginative rather than inherently poor, it very quickly becomes clear that whenever you run into a lone woman wearing a cloak far in wilderness, she's going to be a hostile vampire in disguise. Unfortunately you can't attack her until she turns hostile on her own.
People Farms: Raising humans for their blood was common among higher vampires back in the day, and Geralt gets to visit some of the old "farms" and read the instruction manuals on the practice (which, just to hammer home the point, discuss Free-Range versus Battery, two categorizations usually applied to raising chickens for their eggs). Orianna turned an orphanage into one, though she claims she never drank them to death and has taken them off the streets and let them live happily. Geralt makes it clear that he's going to come for her later on, but he has more pressing matters at the moment.
Platonic Prostitution: Though Geralt can engage with prostitutes in Toussaint the normal way, he also has the opportunity to proposition one to play Gwent with him. He asks her very bashfully as well, as if he's embarrassed by what he's doing.
Playable Epilogue: Upon completing "Blood and Wine.", Geralt gets one final "mission": Go home to Corvo Bianco, his vineyard estate in Toussaint. Upon arriving, his Majordomo informs him that "someone" has barged into the house unannounced. Depending on the player's relationship choices during the main game, Geralt finds a visitor / new resident in the form of either Triss, Yennefer, Ciri, or Dandelion (complete with context-specific dialogue options for each).
Post-Final Boss: Even after slaying Dettlaff in the final battle, the game makes you battle against a few more street thugs and bruxae during the denouement of the story.
The Power of Hate: One of the treasure hunt sidequests, But Other Than That, How Did You Enjoy the Play, involves a beann'shie. A century ago, she was an obnoxious actress with serious and mutual beef against her rival. Last entry in her journal has her promise to turn the theatre into "an earthly hellspace" if anything happens to her. Her hate was strong enough to not only bring her back as a wraith, but make good on her threat.
The Power of Love: What breaks the curse on Vivienne should Guillaume choose to shoulder it in her stead. Geralt lampshades it by saying how he didn't think it would work.
Power Up Letdown: The armor & swords you can find when you choose to look for Syanna count as this if you’re planning to play on NG+. The armor set has only marginally better stats than the set you can pay an armorer to craft, in addition to having 0 resistance against monsters. The swords only have stats that are useful for mage builds, which are still worse than the swords the Griffin set (which is specialized for mage builds) offers. At least the armor set (which borders on Bling of War) looks cool when displayed in your house.
Precision F-Strike: From Roach of all, um... people.
Geralt: Run, Roach!
Roach: (panting) WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK I'M DOING?!
Purple Prose: Goes hand-in-hand with the Tournament Herald's Rhymes on a Dime.
Rags to Riches: Geralt goes from a wandering bounty hunter constantly cheated out of fair pay, before the DLC, to owning a thriving vinyard and villa where he can comfortably hang his swords and retire, by the end.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: Regis and Dettlaff are color-coded blue and red respectively, especially in their mist forms. Their personalities reflect this as well, with Dettlaff being hot-headed and quick to anger, while Regis is calm and always looks for a diplomatic solution.
Red Right Hand: The Higher Vampires have longer, sharper teeth than normal people in their human form (not just their canines, as is typical for pop-culture vampires; all their teeth). It's not to the point where they look monstrous, but it's a clear sign for those who know to look.
Rhymes on a Dime: The herald for the tournament engages in this when issuing proclamations, including a bit of Lampshade Hanging when Geralt asks if he can explain something normally and receives a blunt "No" in response.
Right for the Wrong Reasons: Sangreal is made only for the ducal family of Toussaint and only they are allowed to drink it. As part of the investigation into the murders Geralt and Anna Henrietta discover Fabricio has been selling it to an unknown individual, this gets him sent to prison for high treason. As it turns out the person buying and drinking the wine was Sylvia Anna, who is part of the Ducal family.
Royals Who Actually Do Something: When the safety of her subjects is at risk Anna Henrietta wastes no time to jump straight into the fray, manners or customs be damned. In her Establishing Character Moment, once she and Geralt realize who the next target is, she wastes no time tearing off the skirt of her dress so she can run faster and lead Geralt to her gardens to try and save the next victim, much to the shock of her ladies and courtiers. After this, she never hesitates to put herself at risk to help with the investigation. A notable difference with her cousin Emhyr who never leaves his palace throughout the game, and also a stark contrast with both Emhyr and Radovid who see their subjects and soldiers as disposable.
Sacred Hospitality: Breaking this was the source of the spotted wight's curse.
Scavenger Hunt: The DLC includes new Grandmaster tier Witcher equipment sets for the Wolf, Cat, Griffin, and Bear Schools, while adding armor and weapons for the new Manticore School. Although it should be said that the Cat, Griffin, and Bear School gear requires the Mastercrafted tier equivalent in order to upgrade them. The Manticore set is Grandmaster tier already, while the Wolf set doesn't require the Mastercrafted gear to be made.^note
Serial Killings, Specific Target: The story starts with a string of murders of prominent knights of the Duchy of Toussaint, with the murderer's motive seemingly to punish these knights for failing to live up to one of the five Knightly Virtues of Honor, Valor, Generosity, Wisdom and Compassion. If you decide to investigate further, you'll discover that the final target was Duchess Anna Henrietta. It turns out that her sister Sylvia Anna was planning to kill Anna Henrietta to take vengeance for a tragic event during her childhood, which led to Sylvia's banishment. The murders of the previous victims were purposefully connected to the Five Knightly Virtues so people would assume these to be divine punishments and also assume the death of Anna Henrietta to be one, allowing Sylvia Anna to be free of suspicion.
Serious Business:
- In an Establishing Character Moment, Geralt can try to dissuade the bandits at the start of the DLC by pointing out that the knights he's with are from Toussaint and in service to Duchess Anna, who the bandits proceed to insult. The knights do not take this well.
- Wine is sacred in Toussaint, and their obsession with it actually provides a vital clue towards the main villain's identity. Most notably, the Sangreal vintage is intended to only to be drunk by members of the Ducal family, and selling it to anyone else is considered high treason.
- The locals have a saying: "Tradition is sacred in Toussaint." The participants of the scavenger hunt react with shock and horror when Geralt cheats. A woman refuses to relinquish the "Phoenix Egg" even when being ordered to do so point blank by the Duchess.
- Gwent, as usual. A significant number of people in Toussaint hate the new Skellige faction and feel it ruins the game entirely, to the point of gate-crashing a tournament held by its creator.
Shown Their Work: In-universe, the presence of the false heraldic crest Geralt was using while visiting Cintrian court for the first time. Geralt is impressed someone was able to dig it out.
Silk Hiding Steel: Anna Henrietta may be a proper lady, but she's still the ruler of her land and can be ruthless when necessary, and is no stranger to ordering executions or spear-hunting foxes.
Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: This expansion leans more toward Idealism compared to the main game. Many sidequests have a genuinely happy ending one can reach by going for the obvious nice choices.
Speaks Fluent Animal: Vampires (especially Bruxae) can speak to birds and use them to gather information. Regis favors ravens.
Spoiler Cover: The cover image of the DLC spoils the true appearance of Dettlaff.
The Stinger: The true final quest, "Be It Ever So Humble...," is effectively one if you beat this after the main game. The credits roll, Geralt retires to his home after many adventures, and, depending on what's done in the game proper, he chats with either Dandelion, Yennefer, Triss, or Ciri (whether it be as a Witcheress or as an Empress).
Symmetric Effect: The in-game card game gwent has cards that trigger weather effects, which affect all soldiers of the same type regardless of which army they're in - frost affects both players' melee soldiers, fog affects archers and rain affects siege engines.
Take That!:
- One of the first murder victims you find is an old knight named De la Croix, identified by a handkerchief signed as DlC, and you find out that he was a pretty greedy fellow. Subtlety, thy name is not CD Projekt Red.
- The angry mob rallying to oppose the new Skellige Gwent faction is a jab at the kind of people who complain any change whatsoever to an established game has ruined it forever.
Take That Us:
- One of the prostitutes in Beauclair mentions a new trend - men wear leather jackets and two swords, come to brothels and ask the prostitutes to roleplay succubi or sirens. After sex, they ask for a card of some sort. Geralt remarks that he might know who came up with the idea. This references how the player receives a collectible card after every sexual encounter in the very first game.
- Again, the DLC bit in the early quests. If you have not noticed the format yet, this quest takes place in a DLC.
- Combined with Leaning on the Fourth Wall, after imbibing a "potion" that lets him talk to Roach, Geralt can finally ask her why she's always there when he whistles and how she can cross oceans, yet get stuck on the tiniest fences — referencing some of the most often commented gameplay quirks by the fandom of game (leading Honest Trailers to call Roach a "teleporting demon horse"). In particular, the segment in the game when Geralt first sails to Skellige, gets shipwrecked, and finds Roach inexplicably waiting nearby when he wakes up. (Naturally, Roach offers no concrete explanation.)
Taking the Bullet: Done nonfatally by Regis in Geralt's first fight with the Beast, appearing out of thin air to block an attack that would have otherwise killed Geralt. The Beast's claws literally tear a giant hole in his torso, but thanks to his Healing Factor, Regis is completely fine.
The Tourney: Geralt can take part in one during The Warble of a Smitten Knight.
Tragedy: The main quest line has the makings of a classic tragedy, with the quest's Point of No Return doubling as the "peripeteia" (reversal of fortune). The fake Damsel in Distress becomes a real one, and Dettlaff likewise becomes a true main antagonist. The Dénouement tugs at the player's feelings of both pity and fear, with several sympathetic characters robbed of a happy ending.
Trailers Always Spoil: The "A Night to Remember" trailer for Blood and Wine spoils that Orianna is a Bruxa and will survive the ''Night of Long Fangs''.
Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: In the Land of a Thousand Fables, you'll encounter the Little Flint Girl. Since no one ever bought her flint, she's taken to selling drugs instead.
Uncanny Valley:
- The halflings in the game are oddly creepy-looking due to their oversized heads, facial features that seem oddly stretched and with some rodent-like qualities to them, and their oversized hands and feet.
- The Aen Elle elves tend to be skeletally gaunt with pale eyes and some of them are enormously tall, rising head and shoulders above normal humanoids while retaining otherwise normal proportions, lending them a decidedly otherworldly look.
Ultimate Blacksmith: Lazare Lafargue, the only Grandmaster blacksmith in the game and the only one capable of making Grandmaster-tier Witcher gears.
Underground Monkey: Spriggan (a race of monsters exclusive to Toussaint) is basically a Palette Swap of the regular Leshen from the main game with a humanoid face instead of a stag skull. It does change things up a bit by being faster than regular Leshen and seems to favor living in caves instead of forests.
Vampire Monarch: The higher vampires answer to the Unseen Elder, who guards the gate to the vampires' old world.
Walk on Water: Geralt can encounter a small pool with such properties, with a lone hermit sitting in the middle of it. The dialogue between them is one big Leaning on the Fourth Wall of how Geralt can't make a comparison to Christ, since it's Witcherverse.
Who Wants to Live Forever?: Due to her curse, Marlene spent well over a century as a wight; immortal but not ageless. Not only did she endure all that time as a hideous, semi-sentient monster, but the curse made sure she could watch as her family and loved ones died, leaving her hopelessly alone.
Wide-Open Sandbox: While Hearts of Stone added on to the Velen/Novigrad land area, Blood and Wine adds a whole new sandbox.
When All You Have Is a Hammer…: Damien's strategies to defeat the beast basically boil down to this. When Geralt explains the Beast is actually an intelligent, immortal, high vampire, his strategy changes to hitting it extra hard.
Wolverine Claws: Enraged higher vampires gain them, and they can use them to dismember even people in full plate armor.
Woman Scorned: Gareth the knight learned the hard way how things end if you first fall for a witch you were supposed to slay, but then have second thoughts about your One True Love.
Would Hurt a Child: Orianna, who runs an orphanage that to her is more of a wine cellar. Whenever she wants to feed on blood, she goes to bite the children who are ostensibly under her care. She tries to justify it to Geralt by saying that she never drinks so much as to kill the children, just enough to slake her thirst.
A World Half Full: This expansion has a much more optimistic tone than the main game, right down to there being a Golden Ending for certain sidequests.
You Fight Like a Cow: In the 'Fists of Fury' quest for Toussaint, you encounter an opponent (name of Mancomb) who starts to insult you in this manner. Geralt can respond in kind. Do so properly, and you can skip the actual fight.

The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt / Blood and Wine

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