Now or Never Walkthrough
From Triss in The Bits in Novigrad after completing ‘A Matter of Life and Death’.
To initiate this side-quest, you’ll once again need to make your way to Triss’s hiding place in Novigrad. Inside, you’ll need to approach her to commence.
She’s in the midst of a heated argument during which you’ll have an opportunity for another timed decision. You can either:
- “Leave it alone”
- Don’t react
The former action will upset the couple, but outside of them being a bit crankier, as far as I can tell there was no other major consequences.
Continue the conversation and be sure to hear her out until the end. DO NOT choose any conversation options that indicate you might not help or this will end the conversation. Instead tell her you’ll help out. At the back end of the conversation you’ll have two choices:
- Part 1 – Help Anisse and Berthold (Optional).
- Part 2 – Help the other mages.
The first option leads to an optional objective that we’ll undertake right away, whilst the second will take you straight to the main part of the quest. If you choose the first option, you’ll have to do the second option afterwards, so it’s worth checking out for the story and XP!
Note: If you want to romance Triss, you must help the Annise and Berthold!
Note: If you want Triss to appear at Kaer Morhen as part of the ‘Brothers in Arms: Novigrad’ quest, you must help the Annise and Berthold.
If you choose to go ahead with the second option, you can jump down to the walkthrough using this link: Part 2 – Help the other mages.
Part 1 – Help Anisse and Berthold (Optional)
Once you have made the decision, the conversation will end and Triss will lead you outside where you will be immediately ambushed by a group of three Witch Hunters. Make sure you take out the ranged attacker first and help Triss finish them off.
Continue after Triss and she’ll head down another set of stairs. At the bottom she’ll hide behind the corner for a few moments. Wait for the patrol in the distance to wander off (note that if you get spotted you will need to take them out).
Once it is safe to continue, Triss will lead you a short distance to a house that she will enter. Climb to the top floor.
When you arrive up top, you’ll see a pair of Witch Hunters and a pair of mages. As you enter the room, the Witch Hunters become hostile. Ensure that you kill both of them before they can kill the mages. After they are dead a conversation will break out.
Note: If both mages survive, you’ll need to use AXII (you’ll get 40XP for it as well) to force them to leave, if one of them dies, the survivor will be upset but will come with you regardless.
Now we can follow Triss all the way to the Kingfisher Inn.
Part 2 – Help the other mages
Follow Triss all the way to the Kingfisher Inn. When you arrive, one of two things can happen, which will be determined by whether or not you helped the two other mages or not:
If you chose to help the pair of mages before coming, then as you enter, you will see a group of three Witch Hunters inside. We’ll need to kill them all and afterwards a scene will play.
If you come straight to the Kingfisher Inn, a mage will greet you and you’ll not have to fight any Witch Hunters.
No matter what happens, once you are in the Inn a conversation will take place. Afterwards, follow Triss until you reach the cellar and another scene plays out.
Now that the speeches are over with, make your way into the sewers via the entrance on the north side of the room.
Move through the linear path and kill the first group of Drowners that appear. At the base of the next set of stairs, another pair of Drowners will enter from the open grate to the left, dispatch them as well. If you check out the right hand wall opposite the open grate with Witcher Sense you’ll notice that it is a weak one, use your AARD to knock it down, you’ll find a chest inside.
Return through the hole in the wall and enter the open grating. Head through the right hand door and again use Witcher Sense to locate the weak wall. Use your AARD to open it up. You’ll find a library inside and in the far left corner from the entrance you’ll find another weak wall we can use AARD to remove from our path.
As soon as you move through this exit, turn left to find a chest (it contained some sexy new gloves and Manuscript Page: Superior Insectoid Oil for me). Follow the hallway to find some more Drowners at the end.
Continue through the door here and keep moving until you reach a raised walkway around a large room.
Triss will take the lead from here on in, so follow her down the stairs and fight off the swarm of rats that attack when you reach the floor. Triss will lead you down a tunnel and through another door after which she’ll follow you again.
Up the stairs ahead is a group of three Drowners and a room with a few lootables, but nothing of any real interest. Where we really want to be going is down the stairs nearby.
At the bottom of the stairs, loot the crates immediately to your left for some goodies (Manuscript Page: Superior Swallow and Torn-out Page: Doppler Decoction). Head down the next set of stairs and follow the fairly linear hallway, through a pair of gates.
Eventually you’ll bump into a Katakans. This is a type of vampire that can phase out into an invisible state and have attacks that are quite similar to what you will have seen from Werewoves previously. They are susceptible to IGNI and can also be drawn out of their invisibility by planting YRDEN traps. Their attacks are extremely fast, so keep your dodge/roll at the ready!
Once the Katakans has been defeated, exit via a second gate. Follow the objective markers that appear on your mini-map all the way until you reach the docks.
As you arrive a scene will play after which you’ll need to undertake one last fight against some Witch Hunters. There are three initially but another three will join the fray soon after. Fortunately with Dijkstra and Triss at your side, they should not pose too much of a challenge.
This fight makes way for one last scene in which you have a timed decision to make, you can say one of the following:
- “I love you” – She’ll leave, but come back.
- “Let’s try again” – She’ll leave.
- “Go, I’ll miss you” – She’ll leave.
If Triss returns you’ll get a bonus sexy time scene. However, no matter how the ending of the quest unfolds, Dijkstra will approach you with a new quest ‘A Deadly Plot’.
Note: The ‘A Deadly Plot’ side-mission is now available.