Hard Times – Witcher 3 Quest

This guide is a walkthrough of a side quest in the Witcher 3 on the Skellige Isles. The guide is composed of a map, map legend, and walkthrough to show readers exactly where to go and what to do to complete the quest.

Map Legend

1 – Cyclops / Cart
2 – Body / Letter
3 – Blacksmith

Background

You’ll trigger this quest when you kill a level 21 cyclops on the road between the Miner’s Camp and Blandare in Ard Skellig (#1).

Walkthrough

After killing the cyclops, you’ll notice that it was right next to a damaged cart. When you examine the cart, you’ll discover a corpse and fresh blood next to it, and you’ll also spot some bloody tracks on the eastern side of the road. If you use your witcher senses to follow the tracks, then you’ll eventually come to a corpse carrying a Letter to Yanne (#2).

When you read the letter, you’ll see that it was meant for the blacksmith at Kaer Trolde (#3). When you meet with him there, he’ll ask you how you came to have the letter. If you say “you’d rather not know,” then he’ll assume the worst, and he’ll never deal with you again. If you tell him the truth, then he’ll pay you 20 crowns as a reward, and he’ll continue dealing with you — provided you leave the area and come back later. Either way, you’ll also earn 25 xp.

Note: If the interface doesn’t allow you to talk to the blacksmith, then you should just save and reload your game. That will usually fix the problem. If you don’t even see the blacksmith at his forge, then you’ll need to meditate until it’s daytime.