OK. A lot of people on various forums are complaining about a certain fight that is supposed to happen near the end of CH1. or beginning of Ch2. They say it catches them off guard and usually results in having to reload and repeat a long dialogue sequence and cut-scene.
So can the unfortunate fellows who have already gone through this give me just a hint -- without revealing any deep spoilers -- about when this big event is approaching so I'll know to prepare and save my game?
I am currently in Chapter I and ..
Trying to get the hideout location of the Salmandra.
I have gained the trust of the villagers, and done the reverend's quests. However, have not defeated the beast yet.
Well, i can say this i reloaded before the big fight, rested and prepared some potions, expended som experience points where i saw fit and i am ready to drop the game altogether right now.
I have been trying the fight since yesterday and really i don't see the point. (Talk about being frustrated... )
The cool dialouge sequence and cool cut scene, where i am a cool witcher have become hatred to the develeoper letting me only take a narrow path, almost knowni what i suppose to get before i know i am suppose to have a fight. And that fight really comes out of the blue.
As it stand now, my weekend of playing witcher has become the weekend where i never wanted to finsih the damn thing.
(Yes i know, its probably me that sucks and i have done some poor choice before hand, but i have been relativly thurough in my playing so far. Not to rush tru anything.
Well well... I guess the solution is simple so i wait for some of you as well to fill in the blanks and point at me and laugh and say i suck! ;-)
One funny thing, i tried the Blizzard, to give me some agility. Never tried the potion before and ... hm, everything gets blurry, and everyting is in slomo, including me. It would have been fun if this Blizzard indeed increess agility, and slowed everything around you down with this cool effect, but made you agile. Now its confusing and its not any help at all.. It just slows down everything, and you aren't anymore agile before or after... (Doesn't have anythgin to do with this fight, but i tried that potion IN that fight just to see if it gave me the upperhand... I will never dring Blizzard or waste ingredients on this usesless drug again...).
Hint: The big fight comes after you talk to the witch inside a cave. Between talking to her, and actually starting the big fight, there is a long cutscene.
Oh, i can really see how my posts is percieved. Bitter man in sweden, frutstrated and full of remorse and anger. Hits his monitor, wall and keyboard. Damn you witcher, damn you. And yet, still - time after time - he tries to do the same thing again and again, for no apparent reason at all. Flood the forums about his frustration - venting. But never stops. Why? The game doesn't suck. And he knows it. Somewhere in his gray alchohol infested soft matter called his brain, the knowledge exist. This is just a game, but its a great game - and that he perhaps - just sucks.
well, for me i will stop playing the game until a patch enter that lowers the difficulties with this fight. I can't beat him and i give up with this game - for the time being. Hopefully i will replay it in a few month with the latest patches fixes other things like loading times.
If it is possible with some god mode or anything i would appreciate it. I will not be able to win this fight and i have no save before the cave i can use (deleted saves yesterday *DONT DO THAT!*). I think i should have specialized my experience point in areas.
a little dissapointed in this badly experience i had, because of choices i made before - and as someone pointed out in the forum thread above. Its frustrating when you conquer every fight before this and suddenly it feels like the difficult lever is upped by 500%.
Strange thing. I used the knockdown and suddenly the beast was dead. I think i hit him one time.
I was happy.
Then the game crashed.
Now i can't do it again. Wonder if there is a bug involved somewhere. Alot of people don't have any problem, and by judging by my strike, before the crash where the beast was killed. It was a walk in the park.
I probably have retried this fight 20 times now. And only one time it was "easy".
I've defeated the dog on medium dificulty. I used swallow potion to regenerate my health, another one to regenerate my energy and of course isometric view for better tactics. I killed green dogs with grop style dodging attacks of the beast by double cliking on the free field and sometime using the aard sign to put him away . After beating green ones I was reapiting combination of the quick style and aard sign. When beast's health reached about 20%, I could easily stun him with aard and then finish him off.
Whenever there is a tough fight, I just use the increase-regeneration-potion. With it, The Witcher often regenerates so much that he barely loses health. In The Beast fight, I recommend using group style to defeat all the "lesser beasts", and then strong style to defeat the Beast. Try with the regeneration potion active, it makes a bigger difference than any other potion I've encountered. If you lose too much health, simply run around a bit and let it regenerate.
Ï too was stuck at this point in the game. I tried that fight around 15-20 times with the only result of my Witcher getting his ass kicked from left to right up and down the block.
However, with the proper preparation this fight goes from being next to impossible to a walk in the park. I kid you not.
First of all, the point of no return is:
when you tell the Reverend: "I know what the beast is"
Once that point is reached you no longer have access to your stash at the inn and you can no longer buy anything from Abigail the Witch, nor will you be able to complete unfinished sidequests. Before you reach this point be SURE to have
purchased a Spectral Oil potion from Abigail or make one yourself (you need the Oil making skill to be able to make it for yourself) AND be sure to have that potion in your inventory.
Now, I must admit that I'm confused about mute's experience with the Blizzard potion. I find it VERY effective, especially against multiple opponents. Yes it does slow things down a bit for the Witcher, but I assure you that he is still MUCH faster than the enemies and you're very seldom interrupted, causing your chain to break, when the Blizzard potion is in effect. However, in this particular encounter, a Blizzard potion is not enough by itself.
Once you reach the aforementioned rendezvous with Abigail in the cave, you should prepare:
Apply the Spectral Oil to your blade and make sure you have a couple of the potions your chosen technique requires (I'll get back to those in a minute)
Once the fight begins you'll have several ways to deal with the enemy:
The approach I myself used was to drink a Blizzard potion as soon as the encounter started. With the combined effects of the Spectral Oil and the Blizzard potion, I not only slew the Beast in no time, I was hardly hit at all either (making the Swallow potion I also drank pointless) AND Abigail didn't even get knocked down (something that happened within the first 10-15 seconds on all my other attempts)
I must admit that I hadn't really used my signs much up until this point, so I didn't see those as a solution to this hard fight. However, when I was forced to go back before the point of no return due to the fact that MY bottle of the Spectral Oil was stashed away at the inn where I couldn't get to it, I started playing around with the Aard sign in particular. If you manage to knock down an enemy with the Aard sign (or by other kinds of knowdown or stun effects), you get a chance to perform a "coup de grace" instant kill attack. This is also true for larger opponents but you have to weaken them first. One strategy I was going to attempt was to use the Aard sign on the Beast once I had it down to about half health. That should, according to other forums, be enough to enable you to perform a coup de grace on it, thus ending the fight. If you choose to try this approach you might want to drink a stamina boosting potion when the fight begins to ensure that you don't have to wait too long between knockdown attempts. Supposedly, it should also be possible to eliminate the Barghast spawning points with the Aard sign and though the Beast is obviously not affected by the Igni sign, the lesser Barghasts should be susceptible to fire.
I can't emphasize strongly enough how effective potions are in this game. 2 potions made this utterly frustrating and impossible encounter turn into a breeze. And even though I've not gotten further than chapter 2 at this point, they have saved my bacon several times over since then. Ingredients are plenty and all it takes is the recipe and a camp fire, so don't forget to use them.
Oh, and do keep trying because the game is DEFINITELY worth it
Thanks for your tips fatBastard. (This is not a sentence i would use in my normal pub! )
I managed to Succed now. The Blizzard potion is better then i gave credit for, but the effect isn't as usable in OTS view as in tactical view - My misstake.
I also approach the doggie with my back toward the fence and engaged them groupstyle.
I then used my aard, stun level, on the beast as much as i could. And then just ran around in the circle. Easier in the Strategic views then in the Ots view.
I also used up a big amount of luck. I also realized during this fight that potion is very useful, and i will never neglect that fact anymore. It would have helped. Next time thru i think this fight will be looked upon as easy. But when you don't know what to suspect, then its fearsome and frustrating...
Ah... i am pass it now. Now i will make sure i NEVER overlook a potion or aard use ever again...
(i am a little more happy now! Me like the game again... I had a lovers quarrel, but i choose to forgive and move on...)
Well thanks guys. I just finished the fight (on Normal) and I really didn't have a problem since I used a swallow potion and had the spectre oil.
One thing though is that I decided to side with the Reverend, so I didn't have to defend Abigail. I might go back again and see what its like if I take her side ...
I succeeded on my third attempt (medium difficulty). I just applied a whetstone or grindstone before the cutscene and drank a Swallow potion and a Blizzard potion before just hacking away mostly with fast style, on the Beast, IIRC. I don't think I used any signs.
The Blizzard potion is better then i gave credit for, but the effect isn't as usable in OTS view as in tactical view - My misstake.
The useful effect of the Blizzard potion isn't so much that it slows down time but the huge increase in your defensive skills (+50% to dodge and parry, IIRC). I used OTS mode and hardly took any damage except when disabled.
One thing though is that I decided to side with the Reverend, so I didn't have to defend Abigail. I might go back again and see what its like if I take her side ...
OK, I went back and took the *other* choice this time, and the battle was much more challenging -- but I still pulled through.
If you don't side with Abigail, which is what I did the first time, then about 4-5 villagers will be with you to help fight the beast. What happens then is that the lesser dogs that get summoned will go after the villagers freeing you up to concentrate on the big guy.
When you help Abigail, then only she is there to draw fire away from you ..and she doesn't last long (she get knocked unconcious, but doens't die). So with only Abigail around you have to contend with the green dogs taking bites at you while you try to attack to the boss.
I think most people choose to save Abigail, which is why everyone sees this as a very hard fight.
Anyway, it was still tough even with the swallow potion. But what I did was just dodge and run around when my health started to get low and waited for the swallow to bring it back up. Also, Abigail regains consciousness periodically and she can heal you up quickly.
So again, to reiterate what others have said:
-Use Spectre Oil blade coating -- apply it while you are in the cavbe
-Drink Swallow potion
-Drink Tawny oil (maybe)
-Concentrate on the boss and when health gets low...step away and circle around until it fills back up.
NOTE: I used fast style on the boss and used group to clear things out when the green dogs were surrounding me.
Remember to use a whetstone on your sword before the fight. (extra 20% makes a difference). If you can, apply the spectral oil too, but I decided not to waste skillpoints on oil making thus I fought without it which worked just fine. spectre oil will make things a lot easier, but its not vital. Potions however are vital so don't forget drinking them! witcher without potions is like a santaclaus without beard,
When the fight begings.
1. Drink swallow
2. Drink tawny oil (very usefull because the push spell is the key to victory)
3. Drink blizzard
After the cutscene switch to group style and kill the little doggies first. You may want to get some distance so that you can drink a potion or two. Don't be afraid to use Aard sign to clear some room fast. when the little buggers are down use fast style against the beast,and keep using Aard sign every now and then. If it's health gets low enough the beast gets stunned and you can do the one hit killing move. Every once and a while it spawns more green dogs, but then you can just use group style like before.
Crucial thing is not to get cornered in flames. Double tapping the movements keys does the quick evade move
If you can, apply the spectral oil too, but I decided not to waste skillpoints on oil making thus I fought without it which worked just fine. spectre oil will make things a lot easier, but its not vital. Potions however are vital so don't forget to drinking them! witcher without potions is like a santaclaus without beard,
I found having Abigail with you quite a boon. If you use Group Style to keep the Burghests off her, she tends to heal you quite a bit during the fight.
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