The Witcher 2: All Major Choices - A Definitive Guide (+ the "Best" Ending & Geralt Archetypes)

[wzzzzzz]

Nice chart.
One addition:
On Roche's path, if Henselt is alive, he annexes not just the Upper Aedirn, but the entire Aedirn. We learn this on our way to the Summit from a very pissed off Aedernian knight. So if Henselt is dead - chaos in both Kaedwen and Aedirn, if he is alive - both states are stabilized and united into one.

Hey, thanks, good insight. And also choosing Triss if Henselt is dead, make Temeria goes into district division (not divided between Redania and Temeria)
By doing only main quest the Act III is like one hour

And you underestimate Aedirn.
With weak king the central government is weak - making Stennis dependant from Saskia.
But given strong leadership (and Stennis can regain power after being in victorious site in Vergen) Aederin can prove to be strong country which can be very legitimate.

If you have divided groups, don't trusting and fighting each other they summary value is close to zero.
But united,with leader, against common enemy then they value can become quite big.

 

[tikyo]

"Help ROCHE so Flotsam stays a stable, functioning town.
Side with IORVETH (Dethmold inevitably perishes, eliminating a rogue necromancer a danger to all around him.)
SAVE Mottle so Kaedwen's dominion increases to include Flotsam."

i'm a bit confuse with this ones, isn't help roche the mission where you infiltrate loredo's home?
and save mottle can be done after helping iorveth with attacking the prison boat?

so how could i help roach if i also went to help iorveth? or am i mistaken? cause i know about siding with iorveth its the one where you give him a sword... then before the end of chapter 1 you get two choices either help roche or help iorveth so how do i help roche and also save mottle when it happens on 2 different quests?

 

[Lieste]

"Help ROCHE so Flotsam stays a stable, functioning town.
Side with IORVETH (Dethmold inevitably perishes, eliminating a rogue necromancer a danger to all around him.)
SAVE Mottle so Kaedwen's dominion increases to include Flotsam."

i'm a bit confuse with this ones, isn't help roche the mission where you infiltrate loredo's home?
and save mottle can be done after helping iorveth with attacking the prison boat?

so how could i help roach if i also went to help iorveth? or am i mistaken? cause i know about siding with iorveth its the one where you give him a sword... then before the end of chapter 1 you get two choices either help roche or help iorveth so how do i help roche and also save mottle when it happens on 2 different quests?

"Helping" refers to the scene at the Elven ruins where you can give Iorveth his sword or not... Later you independently have the option of following either Roche or Iorveth to seek Triss. - If you choose Roche at the ruins and Iorveth at the "crossroads" mission, you get the described option set.

Personally I felt that helping the three Elves wasn't as good an outcome as preventing Loredo repeating this outrage again on a vulnerable population left in his control. I might aid them on a future playthrough for variation though.

 

[tikyo]

"Helping" refers to the scene at the Elven ruins where you can give Iorveth his sword or not... Later you independently have the option of following either Roche or Iorveth to seek Triss. - If you choose Roche at the ruins and Iorveth at the "crossroads" mission, you get the described option set.

Personally I felt that helping the three Elves wasn't as good an outcome as preventing Loredo repeating this outrage again on a vulnerable population left in his control. I might aid them on a future playthrough for variation though.

ah so basically i got it all wrong, i thought helping roche was the last quest for the chap 1 and siding with iorveth was giving his sword,

so basically:
don't give iorveth a sword
help iorveth to attack the prison barge
then save mottle during the chase scene

i get it now thanks!

 

[BroccoliSouP]

I don´t want to crush your hopes guys but CDPR said that main story won´t be affected much by the saves. So no matter what you choose it will most likely end up in minor changes of war or probably just death/life of certain characters.

Biggest thing might be some "news" from the war affected by choices of player. They will not affect story but will make you feel that you acomplished something. Something like two peasants talking that Vizima has fallen but Vergen is holding or vice versa based on your choice.

 

[Kinley]

I don´t want to crush your hopes guys but CDPR said that main story won´t be affected much by the saves. So no matter what you choose it will most likely end up in minor changes of war or probably just death/life of certain characters.

Biggest thing might be some "news" from the war affected by choices of player. They will not affect story but will make you feel that you acomplished something. Something like two peasants talking that Vizima has fallen but Vergen is holding or vice versa based on your choice.

I think most people are aware that the saves will be for flavor more than anything. Nothing major to shape the plot of the game, but more of a nod in the direction of veteran players. Minor as they might be, they bring a smile to my face every time I come across something like that. Plus, the devs said that they have some nice secondary quests, that would make the veterans of the series happy.

 

[BroccoliSouP]

I think most people are aware that the saves will be for flavor more than anything. Nothing major to shape the plot of the game, but more of a nod in the direction of veteran players. Minor as they might be, they bring a smile to my face every time I come across something like that. Plus, the devs said that they have some nice secondary quests, that would make the veterans of the series happy.

Oh man. Secondary quests just for save users. That would awesome!

 

[vivaxardas2015]

Well, it is not that hard. All they need to do is to track who survived in our TW2 game, and either make them quest characters instead of some new ones (similar to Aryan/Louse La Valette, where Louse appears only if Aryan is dead), make new quests and may be even minimal arcs with surviving characters, or add another alternative way of resolution to already existing quests. Yes, it requires some work, but it is not terribly difficult, and won't damage or make inconsistent a main story in any way.

 

[contanacro]

I was just wondering, if you play a neutral witcher, like the creator of the thread names Wayward witcher, shouldn't the choices be completely different ?

ORIGINAL:

KILL ARYAN: He challenges you and you show him his foolishness.
Chapter 1
HELP ROCHE: Iorveth has given you little reason to trust him.
CHOOSE IORVETH: Seems like the fastest way to save Triss and find the Kingslayer.
PURSUE LOREDO: Can't leave any loose ends.
Chapter 2
SPARE STENNIS: A Witcher has no place inciting riots.
Chapter 3
SAVE TRISS (Iorveth): Triss is your goal, your rock, and your steadfast ally. She cannot be abandoned.
SAVE SILE: You need to resolve your quest for Yennefer. Sile's tidbit of info is worth letting her live.
KILL SASKIA (Iorveth-Save Triss): Witchers do not kill dragons, but she left you little choice.
KILL LETHO: Witchers shouldn't play politics, and if anyone's going to do it, it's going to be Geralt alone.

Instead for playing neutral it should be 2 ways of doing it, because you can make neutral choices siding with either of them ( ironically )
NOTE: On the choice of choosing Roche or Iorveth, i tried to not include the fact that siding with either of them would make you support one of the sides: humans fighting for their king or nonhumans who are trying to get equality. This is the only choice where you must completely interfere, but the game doesn't let you do otherwise, does it

1ST WAY- IORVETH

KILL ARYAN: Because he'd die anyways, plus he challenged Geralt, doing the other way ( sparing him obv. ) is interfering with politics, sparing would mean that La Valletes would stay a respected house, so opposite of as it would be if Geralt wasn't there.
Chapter 1

HELP ROCHE: Logically as said already, Iorveth did not give Geralt any reason to trust him and at this point of the game you don't know what will happen next you can only use your brain and help Roche as he helped Geralt escape the castle, although for his own goal, Geralt can trust him because if Roche wanted him dead, he'd try to kill him already, and at this point of the game, he cannot trust Iorveth, he's too unreliable.
CHOOSE IORVETH: Seems like the fastest way to save Triss and find the Kingslayer and Geralt does not care about keeping friends with Roche even if he helped him escape, he isn't here trying to keep friendships and he is willing to take the risk helping Iorveth for his own goal
SAVE MOTTLE: Doing otherwise, pursuing Loredo makes Geralt, again, interfere with the politics, it doesn't matter what will happen, will Loredo sell Flotsam or will it still be Temerian ground, Geralt just DOESN'T care about such, to him, irrelevant outcomes and chooses to help Mottle as it doesn't interfere in politics. This does sound a bit stupid though, but those are the 2 choices.

Chapter 2

SPARE STENNIS: A Witcher has no place inciting riots. This i agree on.

Chapter 3

SAVE TRISS (Iorveth): Save Triss because she's a friend, always helping Geralt. Saving Anais is obviously again interference.
SAVE SILE: Geralt has no reason to kill Sile, she tried to kill Henselt and Geralt doesn't care about that, he only cares that she can give him information about Yen. Nor Letho nor her tried to harm Geralt in any way or anyone close to him, even though they kidnapped Triss.
SAVE SASKIA (Iorveth-Save Triss): Witchers do not kill dragons AND it would make Geralt, yet again, interfere with her rebellion and so on. Just doesn't add up for neutral...fairly obvious really.
SPARE LETHO: Witchers shouldn't play politics, Geralt doesn't care about him killing kings. Although he did put Geralt in a lot of trouble, made him look guilty, the speed of the words spreading around the world is too fast and everybody knows Geralt is not the kingslayer, and Geralt is only focusing on his past, knowing that he saved Letho's life and that Letho spared his in Chapter 1 at the pools, he thinks it can't hurt to have another witcher as a friend especially when there's not much of them and Letho had a good goal, restoring the Vipers, no matter what's the cost it favors witchers. Killing Letho would make, yet again, Geralt interfere with the politics, it would satisfy Roche's need for revenge and furthermore make Geralt look like a servant of Temeria of some kind or something similar.

2ND ROCHE

KILL ARYAN: Because he'd die anyways, plus he challenged Geralt, doing the other way ( sparing him obv. ) is interfering with politics, sparing would mean that La Valletes would stay a respected house, so opposite of as it would be if Geralt wasn't there.

Chapter 1

HELP ROCHE: Iorveth gives you no good reason to trust him. Roche already seems like an useful ally, no matter what he seeks, revenge, justice or something else, he helped Geralt already and would have already tried to kill him if he had wanted to.
CHOOSE ROCHE: Iorveth is too unreliable and the other reasons are already stated above. Although you are forced to kill Loredo, which is unfortunate.

Chapter 2

SPARE HENSELT: Obviously, sparing him lets the things flow the way they should be as if the Witcher wasn't a part of the war and politics, which is what he is trying to accomplish . Killing him would interfere, a lot, yet again.

Chapter 3

SAVE TRISS: Save Triss because she's a friend, always helping Geralt. Saving Anais is obviously, again, interference.
SAVE SILE: Geralt has no reason to kill Sile, she tried to kill Henselt and Geralt doesn't care about that, he only cares that she can give him information about Yen.
SAVE SASKIA (Iorveth-Save Triss): Witchers do not kill dragons AND it would make Geralt, yet again, interfere with her rebellion and so on. Just doesn't add up for neutral...fairly obvious really.
SPARE LETHO: Witchers shouldn't play politics, Geralt doesn't care about him killing kings. Although he did put Geralt in a lot of trouble, made him look guilty, the speed of the words spreading around the world is too fast and everybody knows Geralt is not the kingslayer, and Geralt is only focusing on his past, knowing that he saved Letho's life and that Letho spared his in Chapter 1 at the pools, he thinks it can't hurt to have another witcher as a friend especially when there's not much of them and Letho had a good goal, restoring the Vipers, no matter what's the cost it favors witchers. Killing Letho would make, yet again, geralt interfere with the politics, it would satisfy Roches need for revenge and furthermore make Geralt look like a servant of Temeria of some kind or something similar.


Note this is just my opinion which i actually hold to very firmly, because thinking it through like i did, make this what i've just wrote pretty logical ( to me ). I really hope for anybodies opinion on this and feel free to criticize as much as you want as long you have some logical arguments. I just hope you catched my drift on this, if you read that you could realise that those kind of choices make Geralt look like he doesn't care is he sided with Iorveth or Roche, which i tried to accomplish, make it look like Geralt is just doing this for his own gain trying not to make enemies nor friends but only to keep the current friends he has.

 

[Ringlin]

Oh man. Secondary quests just for save users. That would awesome!

That's a clever approach to a game series.

Players say they love plot choices, but too many of them typically reduce their value. Major characters in Mass Effect 2 appear in minor cameos for Mass Effect 3, if they survived - because in other save game options, they didn't. Why spend a movie budget on sixteen (or 256) substantially different versions of a film? It's easier to paste in a bit of dialog reflecting the save game choir than it is to make it really shape the plot.

Side quests offer a fun alternative - more than a brief cameo, yet not so overwhelming as to require the entire plot to be written dozens of times over.

 

[jurchenking]

I'm three years late to the party, as I only bought the Witcher games couple of months ago. Anyway, I would like to test the logic of my choices below:

1) Spare Aryan - absolute no-brainer. He was just defending his estate against King Foltest who started the war. Also, my Geralt character was still too weak at the beginning, so I tried to avoid fighting wherever possible. I chose to talk my way out of a confrontation and luckily it worked :lol:

2) Give Sword to Iorveth - whether a character is good or evil, I believed he/she has the right to defend himself/herself even in a duel. It would unlike Geralt's character to take a cheap shot at him when he's being ambushed by Roche.

3) Roche / Iorveth Path - I've played through both paths. On my first playthrough, I chose Roche because I felt it was more logical. Geralt began the story with Roche and travelled with him to Flotsam. Even without concrete proof of Geralt's innocence, Roche chose to trust Geralt and released him. Even gave him a ride to Flotsam. In contrast, Iorveth attempted to kill Geralt the first time they met. Up until Letho's betrayal was exposed, Iorveth was still hostile towards Geralt. Somehow, I felt counter-intuitive for Geralt to choose Iorveth's path and abandon Roche given the experiences of earlier interactions. Hence, I believe Roche's path should be the canon path. However, I must concede Iorveth's path tells a fuller story, fleshing out additional background details and characters. It also has more side quests (allowing me level Geralt to max level) and sex opportunities. We'll know which is the canon path when Witcher 3 is released.

Roche's Path
4) Kill Henselt - I felt this is the true neutral Witcher choice. The only reason to spare Henselt is to take into account the wider political ramifications, which honestly I don't think Geralt would give a damn (Witcher's neutrality). Geralt is immune to politics. The vendetta between Roche and Henselt is a private matter best left to them alone to settle. Also, I think Henselt deserves to die because he's such an ingrate. Geralt had just went through a lot of trouble to lift him from Sabrina's curse, lifted the battlefield curse and saved him from the Witcher assassins. And the man ruthlessly ordered Geralt to be killed at the Battle of Vergen. Talk about utter ingratitude > Henselt believes he can get away with anything because he's a king and the North needs him as bulwark against Nilfgaard. So I decided to call his bluff Know the saying, "Live by the Sword, Die by the Sword". Henselt's greed to take advantage of his neighbour's misfortune will cost him his life in this instance. Even if Kaedwen falls into chaos, it's not serious because Kaedwen is far from Nifgaard. There's no collapse from Nifgaardian invasion compared to Temeria or Aedirn, geographically speaking. But seriously, I believe killing Henselt is the canon choice on Roche's path (see point 5 explanation).

5) Save Anais and give her to Natalis - I felt Temeria did not deserve to be divided through no fault of its own. It's the best I could do for the deceased King Foltest. However, I concede that this is not the canon choice. The canon choice would be save Triss, since apolitical Geralt doesn't give a damn about politics. This is also why I believe killing Henselt earlier is the canon choice. Because if Henselt dies and Geralt saves Triss, then Redania absorbs Temeria. Remember that Anais is a bastard child. In the minds of many Temerians, the rightful heir is Princess Adda. In my playthrough, she's married to Radovid so naturally Radovid obtains Temeria whether King Foltest likes it or not after his death.

6) Save Sile - Firstly, Sile is not responsible for King Foltest's assassination. Geralt is only concerned about catching King Foltest's assassin to clear his name. Demavend's death doesn't concern him. Secondly, up to the point of confrontation, Sile never tried to kill Geralt. She even warned him against pursuing her. She helped him with killing the Kayran. Personally, I also have a soft spot for Sile :ice:, hoping for a chance to have sex with her.

7) Spare Dragon - ok I cheated, making this choice after reading that Saskia is the dragon. Many people chose to kill dragon, assuming it's a mercy killing. But they're wrong. If Geralt walked away, the cutscene showed the dragon freeing itself from the branch and collapsing exhausted. But not dead. I admit if I hadn't cheated, I would've fallen into the mercy killing mistake myself like many others. But the canon choice is sparing the dragon because Geralt doesn't kill dragons (those who read the books).

8) Kill Letho - no brainer. A man must answer for his crimes. Besides, Letho's death doesn't mean the extinction of Viper school. There're two more Viper witchers around. Moreover, both Letho's cohorts - Auckes and Serrit - have already died. Letho's death is a natural climax to make the assassins pay for their crimes. From all the revelations in the story, including Letho's admission to explode Sile, shifting all the blame to sorcesses, he is not a good guy. And forget the fellow Witcher sentimentality. Letho himself admitted during the first confrontation with Geralt that he no longer considered himself a witcher. He's nothing but a hitman for hire. He has strayed from the witcher path. If Letho is left alive, he will continue to be used by the Nifgaardian Empire. So for me, Letho must die.

Iorveth's Path
9. Save Mottle - ok I chose this option to have the sex reward in Act 2 But honestly, it would be Geralt's nature to save the elven women. Those who watched the Witcher 3 trailer will know what I mean.

10. Spare Prince Stennis - Geralt is not a royal slayer himself. Regardless of the popular appeal of Saskia's peasant revolution, I believe Geralt will uphold royal protocol. Allow Demavend's line to succeed him as king as a natural course. So however unappealing Prince Stennis is, he will be King Stennis I.

11. Save Philippa - I did this to save Saskia because she's the most beautiful girl in the story, dragon identity notwithstanding :thumbsup:. But I concede that's not Geralt's natural choice. He'll choose to save Triss. That's his first priority.

12. Save Sile - see point 6.

13. Disenchant Dragon - that's the whole purpose of reluctantly saving Philippa in the first place. But if Geralt saves Triss (as I expect him to), I'd bet he'll spare the Dragon because he doesn't kill dragons (read the books).

14. Kill Letho - see point 8.

So are my choices logical?

 

[edcrash.483]

Hi.
I read all this pages, is really motivating, and, my ultimate question is: what is the best road for Gerald himself...not for the entirely world...for the personal character.... A simple player (like me) wants more quest or more history, information, background....even this quest or history still open until the arrive of the new game....will see if the witcher 3 continued all the opens and not closed quest.....A example "speculating": 1) A herbalits in flotsam?...pherhaps you see again?....2) if you dont drop the letter on the royal post or viceversa?,3) the prestamist how works for Vivaldi, 4) the dagger from phillipa to break the curse...if you sparred the life of all characters when you can.....
Well, for my experience, CDRED dont dissapoint us, i have to play the witcher 1 again and again to get the save game ideal for me.....NOTE: IF THE WORDS Barrienmurg AND Roggeven is not familiar...you have to play again the witcher 1 and 2....my recomendation...take your time and play in every way....DISFRUTALO....and save your games in order.....because soon ...in time and space....we are talking other stuffs......

Saludos desde Venezuela.........PD Sorry for my english.......

 

[TheDespondentMind2]

Is there a guide to give the Nilfgaard Invasion the easiest job in W3?

 

[HellKnightX88]

Hmm. That's a difficult one.

On one side you can go on Roche's path, destroy the free upper Aedirn, Stennis dies anyway, then kill Henselt and give Annaïs to Natalis. That way all but one of the 4 monarchs (Foltest and Demavend are dead no matter what) is alive and he doesn't have control over Temeria but instead someone who isn't a great politician (Natalis) meaning he'll have a harder time keeping the situation in Temeria under control in the long run (we've already seen how traitorous nobles can be; bonus points if you don't reveal their plans with Foltest's kids). Aedirn is screwed with no heir and the same goes for Kaedwen. Mages are hunted down and killed meaning the north looses an important force multiplier. And Philippa looses her pet dragon if you kill it, thus weakening the Lodge even more. Don't forget to off Sheala. as well. Basically try to cause as much death and instability as possible, weakening everyone.

If you go with Iorveth on the other hand you can help Cynthia get the biological weapon that wiped out the vrans. In Niflgaardian hands that could prove to be quite a terrible weapon. Not to mention that you can still cause the mage persecution and cure Saskia which weakens the Lodge's position even more. And I suspect there will always be bad blood between Henselt and Saskia so a conflict might start again. But you'll have a strong upper Aedirn that will probably not welcome Nilfgaard with open hands. Henselt would still be Alive and both him and Radovid will strengthen their position by splitting up Temeria between them. But you can never be sure with Henselt, he might just shake hands with Niflgaard again if they give him Lormark. If that would happen it would be doubly beneficial to Nilfgaard: non-agression pact allows Emhyr to focus on Redania and Henselt being a prick again causes him to lose the respect of his subjects again.

 

[datirishguy]

I just realised, that as someone who will be getting this on the PS4. I'll be missing out the import feature that the PC crowd will get. Consider me a sad panda.

 

[Kappazord]

Wait, doesn't "sparing" the dragon means that Saskia dies horribly impaled in the tree?

 

[GuyNwah]

Wait, doesn't "sparing" the dragon means that Saskia dies horribly impaled in the tree?

"Mountain air is good for a dragon's hide." In short, no; play it to see.

 

[servetheunicorn]

This is what I believe would be the best outcome for the dwarves.

-Spare Aryan
-Help Roche
-Choose Iorveth
-Pursue Loredo
-Spare Stennis
-Kill Cynthia and Adalbert
-Save Triss
-Let Sile die
-Kill Saskia
-Leave Iorveth to the Kaedwenis
-Spare Letho

This way, Henselt no longer threatens the dwarves and Saskia and Iorveth can no longer push them into war.

 

[SpoCk0nd0pe]

I just finished the game and have some questions regarding upper Aedirn:
Is lynching Stannis really helping upper Aedirn? The way I understood it, upper Aedirn is kind of dependent on him as "rightful heir". I didn't really understand if that has fundamentally changed with the proclamation of Saskia as queen.
Is setting Saskia free really that important for the well being of the free conclave? What does it change regarding the outro (I tried to find a youtube video but couldn't)? Because the price is very high...

 

[GuyNwah]

I just finished the game and have some questions regarding upper Aedirn:
Is lynching Stannis really helping upper Aedirn? The way I understood it, upper Aedirn is kind of dependent on him as "rightful heir". I didn't really understand if that has fundamentally changed with the proclamation of Saskia as queen.
Is setting Saskia free really that important for the well being of the free conclave? What does it change regarding the outro (I tried to find a youtube video but couldn't)? Because the price is very high...

This is a thoroughly Hobbesian world. The alternative to a king is anarchy. Stennis will have to respect Upper Aedirn, until he can raise an army to take it back. Anarchy will spill over the Dyphne and burden Upper Aedirn with refugees and reprobates. You don't want anarchy for a neighbor. I could think of contemporary examples, but we're not going there.

The situation with Saskia seems to me to be just this: Would you want to be in charge of the institution that ousted two power-hungry sorceresses and their pet dragon? The fewer fangs they have on their side, the safer you are.