Help! Wandering in the Dark on Level 5 [Spoilers]

[pringlescan]

Help! Wandering in the Dark on Level 5 [Spoilers]

I'm a bit over my head, I've been struggling with being 2-3 levels lower than the required for the main quests. I didn't realize if I didn't do any side quests that I'd be boned later on. I'm right before the boss fight "Chase the Wild Hunt's warriors" and my silver sword is at 20% repair, I have no potions or useful items and am just having an awful time trying to default this boss.

I'm not allowed to upload images or links, but I have screenshots of my inventory, stats and relevant screens in an Imgur album, you can access by going to imgur.com and appending /a/nUbJM to the end of the domain.

Does anyone have any suggestions with what to do?

Thanks!
Noob

---------- Updated at 07:41 PM ----------

I finally gave in and checked the Prima guide...

If anyone else is having trouble with this fight, meditate before you approach and during the battle:

1. Only approach the boss when your Quen shield is up
2. Land (1-2 max) strong attacks with your sword and immediately retreat (it's critical not to take damage)
3. Repeat until boss dies (he will recharge his health under a shield and a few ild dogs for you to attack)

I was one hit away from killing him before he was able to retreat and recharge his health once using this technique. I hope this helps anyone else having trouble.

 

[Lytha]

That is correct. Mindless spamming of an attack button does not work in this game.

If you're still stuck there:

- Use food and swallow potion to heal up when he hits you.
- You must have found the schematic for Elemental Oil just before the room of this boss. It's in a crate nearby. Weird as it may sound, use that elemental oil on your blade, and refresh it when it's depleted. The hounds do count as elemental monsters, and while the riders of the wild hunt do not appear in the bestiary, I assume that they also count as such.
- You can use Keira as your off-tank while you keep some distance, waiting that the food or swallow regenerates your health.
- Thunderbolt and Tawny Owl are obvious good choices for potions here. Whatever other potions you have, can also probably help. Mid-fight, just enter the inventory, select a potion you want to drink, and press "e". Have the food on the quick item slots, because you can't use that with "e" during a fight.
- "Quen, stab stab, dodge" sounds like a valid plan. You can try and get behind him to stab him in the back for more damage.
- He summons dogs at 2 points in this fight. That just happens. Kill the dogs then. Or use a dimeritium bomb on the portals quickly.
- Don't get too confident and fall back to mindless spamming of the attack button. Stick to the Quen, stab stab, dodge routine.

If nothing else works, Options -> Gameplay -> lower the difficulty until it's easy enough.

 

[jj284b]

most important thing when facing him is to learn how to dodge... you can easily avoid his swings with precisely timed dodges and get behind him for few fast attacks with critical hit bonus for hitting him in the back (plus, it looks really cool dancing around him like that.. )... plus, Keira is also peppering him with spells so there is always a chance he gets staggered.. overall, that fight is not that hard (Death March), i feel the fight before it (portals opened with Wild Hunt minions getting out while you protect Keira) was much harder,because you had to protect Keira from being hit (one hit and she is dead, and then you are dead...)

 

[Jehane]

I found that Igni is quite helpful, especially when skilled - I think I had it to 3/5 when I encountered the guy so when the fight started, I darted away, hit him with Igni and a strong blow (skilled to 4/5), let him retreat to his stupid bubble, healed myself, killed the dogs quickly so his health was still a bit down when he came out of the bubble. I hit him with Igni again, followed by another strong blow, then retreated, killed the dogs and after that it was just one more round - Igni, two or three strong blows and he was done. Geralt was almost dead himself because by the end of the fight I just hammered away with the sword - it was a very close call but it worked. During the fight, I used Swallow and I think Thunder.

Also, I found that a higher level is helpful. When I first tried this quest, Geralt was only lvl. 5. I failed and failed and failed so I gave up for the time being, loaded an earlier savegame and started the quest "Bloody Baron"; when that would go no further because I couldn't find Anna (as it turned out, I got the hint regarding the bog from Keira AFTER the quest "Wandering in the Dark"), I decided to give the quest with Keira another go. By then, Geralt was lvl. 7 and had much better armour (enhanced with a Quen glyph). Also, I brought repairsets for both armour and swords - turned out I needed both - and, before I went in to meet the guy, I let Geralt meditate so that he was at full health and had both Swallow and Thunder fully replenished.

 

[jj284b]

Wandering the Dark is actually easier quest than Bloody Baron/Botchling quest... surviving all those ghosts is much harder on low level than handling that single Wild Hunt Warrior... I usually go to Keira first every time, clear the entire dungeon (kill both Golems, all Foglets,ghosts and Gargoyle in the process searching for all hidden treasures) and only then either go to Crockback Bog or to Crow's Perch.. (im talking about Death March Difficulty)

 

[Jehane]

I found the Bloody Baron easier but I'm playing on the easiest level of difficulty there is so maybe that's why - also, I didn't have to fight many ghosts during the botchling quest and managed pretty good on lvl 5. The main objective for me was to get some additional levels for Geralt and also better weapons/armoury before sending him to that dungeon. Worked for me but I think everybody has their own strategy - I know of players who've brought Geralt up to lvl 10 or 11 before entering that dungeon with Keira.

 

[jj284b]

only hard part of that dungeon is when white frost opens, and you need to protect Keira.. on DM, she can be killed by just single hit... so its usually quite a challenge to survive that battle... Yet, if she is dead, its not all over - you can still close those cracks by casting Yrden.. so you have to run and close them fast... (but of course, with Keira dead, you lose a lot of unique quests, so its better to keep her alive...)

 

[Jehane]

That part was really challenging when I first tried, even on the easiest level of difficulty. My main problem wasn't that Keira was dying but Geralt kept leaping out of the protecting bubble during the fights and froze to death. So what I did was stay close to Keira while walking to a crack; then I positioned Geralt behind her and just waited for the dogs to attack. Since Geralt was lvl 7 by then, they didn't last long and it was actually quite easy to close those cracks - but that was only after I had figured out how NOT to do it and what to look out for On the easiest lvl of difficulty, Keira can btw take a blow or two; she won't die at once but will cry out for Geralt to protect her.
With Keira dead, how is Geralt protected from the frost? Does her protective bubble stay with him? Otherwise I think it'd be very difficult for him to move around and close those cracks - when I first tried, I had him out of that bubble for I think five seconds and he was dead.

 

[Luis99]

That was the first roadblock I encountered in the game. Being new to the series and 3D RPGs in general I was overwhelmed by the game. At the end I restarted the game and leveled up to lvl 7 before going there. It still was challenging but I managed to finish it. Now, I'm doing another playthrough with my other profile and avoided this quest for a while. Did a lot of side stuff and even went to Novigrad first. The other day I entered the ruins at lvl 12 and beat it like in 30 mins .

 

[Jehane]

Same here - only that I loaded up an earlier save and did other quests first, then entered the dungeon with Geralt being on lvl. 7. I think for some quests it's better to have a higher level than suggested by the game. The XP you receive may not be as many as when finishing a quest on the suggested lvl but you get out in one piece and are done with it

 

[andy3273]

he is the pretty easy to beat..the first time i did beat him was with igni only no sword involved..it takes a lot of time but it was my first time and i had no idea ho to dodge him..but dodging him is pretty easy..

 

[Jehane]

Yeah, he's not that mobile because of that heavy armour - there are opponents in the game that are a lot more mobile and agile than he is. If dodging doesn't work, running away does because he's not that fast

 

[Jehane]

Ok, I'm on my second playthrough and finally did this quest again - started NG+ with Geralt on level 53. Before doing Wandering in the Dark, I made sure that Geralt would gain at least six or seven additional levels which I managed. So he was lvl 60 when I started the quest. I had Aerondight, superior potions, superior oils, Grandmaster Manticore gear... I thought this would be a walk in the park since I knew what awaited me and how to fight it. I was so wrong. The second time around, Nithral was even worse (playing on Sword and Story). It took me I think 10 attempts until I managed to beat him. Ok, that was also due to some impatience on my side because I just wanted to get it over with but even the patient approach didn't work immediately. Especially frustrating: I came very close to beating him at least twice, got overconfident - and Geralt was dead yet again. I even lowered the difficulty to "Just the story" in order to make it a little easier but that didn't work. The fight was just as demanding, challenging and annoying as ever.

What worked in the end was this:

- on quick slots: Superior White Raffard's, Superior Swallow, Enhanced Swallow, raw meat - when Geralt was hit, I immediately made him eat some meat so I could save the healing potions for when really needed (= health bar is down to a third) and at the same time keep the toxicity level low
- Samum and Northern Wind Bombs activated so I could hit him with those from a distance. They didn't seem to do much damage but stalled him for a while.
- superior construct oil on Aerondight
- Quen up for most of the time, switching to Igni when Nithral gets to close and blasting a stream of fire against him. He doesn't like that
- run away/get out of his way/dodge. A LOT. Meanwhile, let Keira hammer him with lightning.
- move in for two, maybe three quick strikes after hitting him with Igni, jump away immediately
- corner him for one or two quick strikes or for hitting him with Igni - jump away quickly afterwards
- kill the hounds as quickly as possible. I managed that during the first part of the fight; during the second part, Nithral was able to regain all his health because I was too slow. Didn't save him, though *hehe*

What worked really nicely was leaving a lot of the work to Keira because he doesn't attack her - he only goes after Geralt. So Keira can hit him with lightning over and over again, doing a lot of damage while not getting hit herself. The fight took quite a while because I forced myself to remain patient - not an easy task because I wanted to get it over with. Also, this is one of the most annoying fights throughout the game. And the cutscene shortly before is the one I've seen the most often. I still think that the quest level is way too low for what awaits you. If you go in with the recommended level, it's way too hard; being two levels above the recommended level still doesn't make it easier.
I think the key to this fight is patience. That and dodging resp. keep moving instead of attacking him over and over again. I mean - I knew that when I entered that dungeon. Still, I was surprised at how great a challenge this was and how long resp. how many attempts it took me to beat Nithral.

 

[dragonbird]

What worked really nicely was leaving a lot of the work to Keira because he doesn't attack her - he only goes after Geralt.

I think that this is a key tactic in all fights where there's a sorceress helping. Geralt should definitely NOT be chivalrous towards his female companions
Keira's pretty good at staggering Nithral. And in fights where the bad guy targets the sorceress, it leaves Geralt free to deal damage without having to worry about the sorceress being killed.

I think the only exception is the fight just before the Nithral, where the hounds are attacking and Keira is vulnerable.

 

[Jehane]

Yeah, I think that's probably the best way to deal with fights such as these - it took me a while to figure that out and I can't remember if I applied that strategy during my first playthrough. I know it didn't take as long to defeat Nithral; I certainly didn't need ten attempts back then. Oh well. He's dead now, and if I should ever start a third playthrough, I'll probably just level up beyond the recommended level and hope that this will make the fight a bit easier.

 

[Lytha]

- on quick slots: Superior White Raffard's, Superior Swallow, Enhanced Swallow, raw meat - when Geralt was hit, I immediately made him eat some meat so I could save the healing potions for when really needed (= health bar is down to a third) and at the same time keep the toxicity level low
- Samum and Northern Wind Bombs activated so I could hit him with those from a distance. They didn't seem to do much damage but stalled him for a while.
- superior construct oil on Aerondight
- Quen up for most of the time, switching to Igni when Nithral gets to close and blasting a stream of fire against him. He doesn't like that
- run away/get out of his way/dodge. A LOT. Meanwhile, let Keira hammer him with lightning.
- move in for two, maybe three quick strikes after hitting him with Igni, jump away immediately
- corner him for one or two quick strikes or for hitting him with Igni - jump away quickly afterwards
- kill the hounds as quickly as possible. I managed that during the first part of the fight; during the second part, Nithral was able to regain all his health because I was too slow. Didn't save him, though *hehe*

This is in general all good tactic.

But:
- Elemental Oil! Wild hunt dogs and warriors count as elementals.
- Strong hits supposedly ignore armor. It might be better to "Quen, 1x Strong Attack, Dodge" rather than to "Quen, 2-3x Fast Attack, Dodge". I'd need to check the numbers, because I do not know much about non-light gear/cat school technique fights with Nithral.
- I tend to rely on the cheesing... that is Inebriation ("Geralt heals 25% of his health whenever he drinks a potion"). This makes almost all situations a cakewalk.
- And because of this cheesing, I just drink from my inventory. In the fight, you can just open the inventory and search for a likely potion you would like to drink now. Then press a button to drink it (not a mousebutton). I think in my case it's the "E" button. But I might have rebound the default keybindings a lot so that it's different than the normal key.
- Did you look at your decoctions? Ekimmara and Ekidhna decoctions are awesome. One heals you for hitting stuff with your sword. The other heals you for casting some signs or otherwise using your stamina.


And indeed, Keira is an awesome tank for this fight.

 

[Jehane]

I think it's the same oil - just goes by a different name in German For reasons unknown, all elementals are referred to as "constructs" in German

I also tried using Ekhidna because that is awesome but toxicity was too high and Geralt wasn't able to take more healing potions so in the end, I went in without Ekhidna or any other decoction. Inexplicably, Geralt kept dying when I used Ekhidna even though I had used that one on both Caranthir and Eredin and lots of other opponents without needing too many healing potions. I have no idea why it didn't work properly this time; maybe I was just too hectic again, too nervous, too quick to down another healing potion...

I think I used strong attacks; I always get mixed up and can't remember which button corresponds to which attack (PS4 here). Also, I used manticore gear because it's light enough to just dart away when necessary but also provides good protection as long as you don't hit that stupid bubble. That is really the most annoying part of the fight - Nithral using this bubble AND teleporting at the same time so that you have to cross almost the entire cave to reach those hounds. By the time you take them down, Nithral has fully regenerated, at least when he summoned them the second time I wasn't able to kill them quickly.

Inebriation? Is that one of the new mutations? Can't remember seeing that one around *hm* But it sounds useful

 

[Lytha]

IInebriation? Is that one of the new mutations? Can't remember seeing that one around *hm* But it sounds useful

No, it's just a regular alchemy skill.
(2nd row of Alchemy).

I probably got the name wrong, I am horrible with those fancy names.

 

[Jehane]

I'll check it out, I should be able to remember 2nd row of Alchemy and what it does - since I have some skillpoints, I might invest them

 

[musicandy]

I'll check it out, I should be able to remember 2nd row of Alchemy and what it does - since I have some skillpoints, I might invest them

You might wanna get the alchemy skill Acquired Tolerance, so you can have at least 2 decoctions and some other normal potions at the same time.

I beat Nithral on NG+ with Death March difficulty very quickly, wasn't that difficult.
I used:
- Aerondight and Grandmaster Wolven gear (I was waaay overleveled for that armour by the way)
- elementa oil
- Ekidhna decoction; i don't remember if I had another decoction going, but I don't think so
- strong attacks to break his blocks, otherwise pretty always fast attacks
- Magic Sensibilities mutation
- Igni and Axii
- Tawny Owl and some Swallow when I was low on health

In any case, try to dodge into his back and hit him there! When you are in front of him, try to keep out of his axe-range.
You might want to use a lot of signs if you have the Ekidhna decoction. You can combine the Ekidhna decoction also with the Archgriffin decoction, so every strong attack will use all of your stamina healing you contemporarily.
And whatever you do DON'T HIT THAT BLOODY BUBBLE OF HIS! :youdontsay:

Edit: Oh, and about the hounds, you use elementa oil as well, do 2 fast attacks and dodge back, then go again for 2 strikes and dodge back, and so on. Otherwise they will stun you on the 3rd fast attack and hit you.