Best side quests

0:16 The best side quests in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt are the Bloody Baron's story in Velen and its sequel "Return to Crookback Bog", Keira Metz's haunted "A Towerful of Mice", the Novigrad vampire hunt "Carnal Sins", Yennefer's "The Last Wish", Triss's "A Matter of Life and Death" and "Now or Never", and the fight for the Skellige crown in "Possession", "The Lord of Undvik" and "King's Gambit". The Baron leads every list: IGN's "Art of the Level" of Sep 29, 2026 calls his story not just one of The Witcher 3's best but "one of the best RPG quests of all time", and says its choices "will drive a man to hang himself in despair, or find hope in the darkness". This guide says where each quest starts, its level, why it is worth playing and what can make it fail. One rule covers almost all of them: they must be finished before Geralt continues "The Isle of Mists" in Act II, which fails most open side quests (see Main quests). Witcher contracts, the monster hunts posted on notice boards, have a page of their own: Witcher contracts.

Quick facts

Spoilers follow, including how each quest ends.

The Bloody Baron and Return to Crookback Bog

Where: Crow's Perch, Velen. Level: "Family Matters" is suggested at 6. Type: the first part is main quest ("Family Matters", "Ladies of the Wood", "The Whispering Hillock"); the ending is the optional side quest "Return to Crookback Bog".

Phillip Strenger, the warlord the locals call the Bloody Baron, will tell Geralt what he knows of Ciri if Geralt finds his missing wife Anna and daughter Tamara. The clues point to a drunken fight, a miscarriage and a man who beat his wife, and then, as IGN puts it, to a broken veteran "just as broken as the family he destroyed".

10:00 The first choice comes at the grave of the Baron's stillborn child, which has risen as a botchling. Geralt can kill it and use its blood in a ritual, a boss fight, or lift the curse: carry it back to Crow's Perch with the Baron while wraiths attack, calming it with the Axii Sign, and give it a name and a burial. The Baron names the child Dea, and it becomes a lubberkin that leads Geralt to Anna. IGN notes that both paths reach the same place; what changes is whether Geralt treats the Baron with empathy or as "emotionless witcher work".

18:34 The second choice is easy to miss. At Crookback Bog the three Crones send Geralt to "The Whispering Hillock", a tree holding a spirit that terrorizes a village; he can kill the spirit or free it. Only in "Return to Crookback Bog", the optional quest that starts if Geralt agrees to help the Baron rescue Anna, does the choice pay off, and IGN calls the delay a deliberate "rug pull" by CD Projekt Red. Per GameBanshee:

• Spirit freed: it saves the orphans of Crookback Bog, but the Crones turn Anna into a water hag; even after the right ritual she dies, and the Baron hangs himself at Crow's Perch.
• Spirit killed: the orphans disappear, Anna survives but insane, and the Baron vows to take her to a healer in the Blue Mountains.

23:40 Neither is the right answer. Paweł Sasko tells IGN that being a nice person "doesn't always lead to nice outcome", and that the hopeful ending is "a very tiny glimpse of hope" in a dark world. Deadline: do "Return to Crookback Bog" before "The Isle of Mists", or it fails.

A Towerful of Mice

Where: Fyke Isle, Velen, through Keira Metz. Level: 6.

13:49 Keira asks Geralt to lift a curse on an island tower, and he uncovers a ghost story: Annabelle was paralyzed by a mage's potion and eaten by rats, after her lover Graham let the peasants onto the isle. Geralt can bring her bones to Graham, and she becomes a plague maiden who kills him, or bring Graham to the tower, where he kisses her and both die as the curse lifts (Fextralife's community wiki). In /noclip's "Designing the Quests of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt" (Oct 9, 2017), a CD Projekt Red designer says Joanna Radomska's first draft "hasn't changed a bit" in the final game, and that it feels like an Andrzej Sapkowski short story, with "no happy ending". It is part of Keira's quest line, which ends in "A Favor for a Friend" and "For the Advancement of Learning".

Carnal Sins

Where: Novigrad. Starts: after the quest "Cabaret", when Priscilla is attacked.

5:08 A serial killer is murdering people in Novigrad, and Geralt hunts him through crime scenes, questioning and chases. GamingBolt's "15 Greatest Quests" (May 5, 2017) calls it "an absolute roller coaster" in which "it's always very easy for players to make a mistake which might lead to another victim getting murdered". The killer is the coroner Hubert Rejk, a centuries-old vampire. The trap, per GameBanshee: attacking Reverend Nathaniel at once gets an innocent, framed man killed. PC Gamer calls it a throwback to the murder mystery of the first Witcher game.

The Last Wish and Triss's Novigrad quests

2:57 "The Last Wish" starts at the end of "The Calm Before the Storm" at the inn in Larvik, Skellige. Geralt and Yennefer sail the coast after a djinn to undo the wish that bound them; GamingBolt calls it a tribute to their relationship. "A Matter of Life and Death" (a masquerade at Lady Vegelbud's, triggered by "Count Reuven's Treasure") and "Now or Never" (smuggling Novigrad's mages out through the sewers) are Triss's. These quests decide the romance and, through "Now or Never", whether "Reason of State" is open later; the details are on Romance: Yennefer or Triss. Win the three Gwent matches at the Vegelbud party before following Triss into the maze, and play Olivier at the Kingfisher before "Now or Never", which can kill him.

The Skellige succession

2:00 Skellige has a crown to settle. In "The Lord of Undvik", Crach an Craite's son Hjalmar goes to an island to kill an ice giant that has terrorized it for a year; GamingBolt calls it the most thrilling of the isles' power struggles, and /noclip says it was the first quest CD Projekt Red ever built for the game. In "Possession", Geralt helps Cerys an Craite, a quest GamingBolt praises for "chilling" scenes and a tense ending. Both lead to "King's Gambit": siding with Cerys's investigation exposes Birna Bran, who poisoned the feast's mead through the steward Arnvald, while Hjalmar's raid on Fornhala lets her escape. The chosen sibling is crowned at Gedyneith; help neither and Svanrige takes the throne. Who rules is shown in Endings.

Wild at Heart and other Velen stories

0:41 "Wild at Heart" is an early Velen side quest: a hunter returns home to find his wife gone, and her sister urges Geralt to stop looking. In Flapping Kiwi's walkthrough of Oct 26, 2015, the trail leads to a werewolf, and the hunter turns out to be the beast himself, while the sister lured his wife into the woods to her death; Geralt can stop his revenge or let it happen. GamingBolt says it can be easily missed but leaves a mark if played early, ending in "a particularly weighty choice".

14:31 Small quests are worth it too. In White Orchard, "The Frying Pan" has Geralt find an old woman's pan; /noclip's designers say their project lead doubted it, but they kept it as an unexpected little quest that quietly foreshadows a character met later, Thaler. The goat-hunting "A Princess in Distress", written by the same designer as the Baron, is a main quest in Velen.

The expansions' best

Both expansions are free for every owner of the base game since Aug 25, 2026. GamingBolt's picks:

• "The Secret Life of Count Romilly" (Hearts of Stone): a haunted castle in the middle of a forest, the expansion's most atmospheric quest.
• "Turn and Face the Strange" (Blood and Wine): the quest that introduces mutations, which GamingBolt calls something of a game changer.
• "A Portrait of the Witcher as an Old Man" (Blood and Wine): low on combat, high on humor, with a painter doing Geralt's portrait.

GamingBolt also lists Novigrad's "Of Swords and Dumplings" (a long chain of errands, brawls and negotiations that ends with a good weapon) and the main quest "The Play's the Thing", in which Geralt acts in a play.

Missable side quests and deadlines

Sources: GameBanshee, Gamer Guides, Gameluster, Guides4Gamers and Console Pulse's missables guide of Sep 26, 2026.

Remastered

The Witcher 3 Remastered, released Sep 29, 2026, keeps every side quest. Its changes touch what surrounds them: reworked combat and non-boss monster behavior, new finishers, quest updates merged into one notification and a distinct map marker for untracked quests (CD Projekt Red's patch notes). Saves carry over, so choices already made stand.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best side quest in The Witcher 3? The Witcher 3's most praised side story is the Bloody Baron's in Velen, which ends in the side quest "Return to Crookback Bog"; IGN calls it one of the best RPG quests of all time. A Towerful of Mice, Carnal Sins and The Last Wish are close behind on most lists.

Where does the Bloody Baron quest start? The Witcher 3's Bloody Baron story starts at Crow's Perch in Velen, in the main quest "Family Matters" (suggested level 6); its ending is the optional "Return to Crookback Bog".

What happens if you free the spirit in the Whispering Hillock? In The Witcher 3, freeing the spirit saves the Crookback Bog orphans, but Anna dies after being turned into a water hag and the Baron hangs himself; killing the spirit lets Anna live, insane, and the Baron takes her to a healer.

When do side quests fail in The Witcher 3? Most of The Witcher 3's open side quests fail once Geralt continues "The Isle of Mists" in Act II; White Orchard's can fail when Geralt leaves White Orchard.

How do you start Carnal Sins in The Witcher 3? The Witcher 3's "Carnal Sins" starts in Novigrad after the quest "Cabaret", when Priscilla is attacked; do not attack Reverend Nathaniel right away, or an innocent man dies.

Where is A Towerful of Mice in The Witcher 3? The Witcher 3's "A Towerful of Mice" takes place on Fyke Isle in Velen, suggested level 6, and starts when Keira Metz asks Geralt to lift the island's curse.

Does Remastered add new side quests to The Witcher 3? No new side quests are listed in CD Projekt Red's patch notes for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered (Sep 28, 2026); the new story content is the paid expansion Songs of the Past, coming in 2027.

Sources

• Family Matters walkthrough, GameBanshee, read Oct 14, 2026
• The Whispering Hillock walkthrough, GameBanshee, read Oct 14, 2026
• Return to Crookback Bog walkthrough, GameBanshee, read Oct 14, 2026
• Carnal Sins walkthrough, GameBanshee, read Oct 14, 2026
• King's Gambit walkthrough, GameBanshee, read Oct 14, 2026
• The Last Wish walkthrough, GameBanshee, read Oct 14, 2026
• Now or Never walkthrough, GameBanshee, read Oct 14, 2026
• Lilac and Gooseberries walkthrough, GameBanshee, read Oct 14, 2026
• A Towerful of Mice, Fextralife (community wiki), read Oct 14, 2026
• The Witcher 3's best quests, PC Gamer, read Oct 14, 2026
• The 10 best side quests in The Witcher 3, Gameluster, read Oct 14, 2026
• Gwent quests, Gamer Guides, read Oct 14, 2026
• The Witcher 3 optimal quest order and missables guide, Console Pulse, updated Sep 26, 2026
• Guides4Gamers: Reason of State, Guides4Gamers, read Oct 14, 2026
• See what's new in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered, CD Projekt Red, Sep 28, 2026
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, CD Projekt Red, read Oct 14, 2026
• The Witcher 3 Quest That Nobody Forgets: The Bloody Baron | Art of the Level, IGN, Sep 29, 2026 (video)
• Designing the Quests of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, /noclip, Oct 9, 2017 (video)
• THE WITCHER 3 - 15 Greatest Quests You NEED To Play, GamingBolt, May 5, 2017 (video)
• Top 6 Best Side Quests & Contracts In The Witcher 3, Flapping Kiwi, Oct 26, 2015 (video)