Payback

Payback is a main quest in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and one of four subquests necessary to complete for Final Preparations.

Walkthrough[]

The quest is started by agreeing to help Ciri, either immediately after Through Time and Space, or by meeting her at the Gildorf market during daytime hours. Once you do Ciri she will inform you she wants to repay some debts, starting with revenge on Whoreson Junior. If you chose to kill him you can tell her that, however she will insist Zoltan Chivay told her he is still alive.

Meeting Whoreson[]

If you spared Whoreson, he will be a beggar living on the streets in The Bits and Ciri will decide to leave him in his misery.

If you killed Whoreson, you will be stopped by two guards at the door to his house. You can use Axii (requires Delusion level 3; 40) or fight them. However, if you choose the latter, the fight only continues until Ciri mentions your name, at which point the bandits recognize it and say Whoreson is expecting you. However you got in, follow Ciri to the top floor for a cutscene to trigger, with Whoreson appearing alive and well ... almost. You may recognize him by the scar or not, but he will say that he's Dudu and then prove it with different knowledge depending on your dialogue choice, after which you can talk to him a bit before leaving.

Whichever the case was, you get 200 as you move on to your next location.

Meeting Bea[]

Bea is a waitress at the The Golden Sturgeon. When you reach her she will be in trouble with some thugs. You can subtly threaten them, which would scare them off, or be more direct and start a fight. Regardless, you will now be conversing with Bea, who is clearly smitten by Geralt, but will flirt much more directly if you don't say who you are at first. Ciri then gives her a gift to her and you're moving on towards Farcorners. (200)

The Circus troupe[]

Follow Ciri to the west end of Farcorners where you'll meet Valdo and Aegar. The latter leaves to deal with some issue before Ciri attempts to repay Valdo back coin he'd lended her. The elf refuses though and proposes to make the money a pot for horse race instead. You can agree to join them or not, and this is probably the single race in the game where it makes no difference except some minor dialogue - despite there being a pot, you don't receive anything if you win, while losing or refusing doesn't even fail an objective.

Whether you raced or not, you will be invited to a celebration by a fireplace and have a bit of father-daughter talk. Soon Aegar will return with the bad news that they can't buy the horses he went to get and they will have to steal them. He will ask for help and Ciri immediately agrees, but you'll have the options to outright refuse, agree, offer to buy the horses yourself or ask what the payment issue is. If you inquire or offer to pay, you will learn that the owner is racist so he won't sell them no matter what, so now you can refuse or agree again.

If you refuse, you'll also be stopping Ciri from going and she'll be very upset. Aegar then starts a fistfight with Geralt and regardless of the outcome, you'll be asked to leave and the quest will complete here. (300) If you agree, Ciri will be overjoyed and you will be performing a heist.

Let's steal some Horses[]

If you agreed to steal horses, you'll now be at Silverton and have to find a way into the stables. Climb the western wall (right in front of you) through the crates and scaffolding there. Once inside you're supposed to be stealthy as to not wake up the sleeping guard.

To do this successfully, climb down the ladder and pick up the stable key just left of the door, then unlock it and you're done. It can go wrong if you jump down or otherwise make a lot of noise to spook the horses, in which case you'll have to fistfight the guard and calm 3 horses with Axii. The same thing happens if you for some reason physically touch the guard, although you can also just draw your sword and attack while he's sleeping instead of fistfighting.

No matter what happened though, after stealing the horses, you'll just have another short conversation and the quest completes. (300)

Journal entry[]

Cities like Novigrad have their own, special magic. They attract folk from all corners of the world, becoming delicious stews of diverse flavors, giant circuses filled with colorful characters just waiting to extend a helping hand - or swing a sharp elbow. Ciri had experienced the fullness of this during her stay in Novigrad, so when she found herself back in the city she decided to repay a few debts - and settle a few scores...

If Geralt had killed Whoreson Junior:

First name on her list - Whoreson Junior. Though Geralt swore he had killed Whoreson with his own hands, rumor had it the mafioso was alive and well. Geralt and Ciri thus decided to pay him a surprise visit. They discovered Dudu had turned Whoreson's death into a prime business opportunity. He took on the underworld boss' form, and then took over his criminal organization, transforming it into a legal, and more profitable than ever, enterprise.

If Geralt decided to spare Whoreson Junior:

Geralt decided to accompany Ciri on her sentimental journey. First name on her list - Whoreson Junior. They finally found him wallowing in the gutter in the Bits. One look at his pathetic state and Ciri lost all desire for vengeance. Whoreson was a husk of a man, alone, disgraced and embittered, in no way resembling the old Whoreson Junior, member of the Big Four and terror of Novigrad. Ciri decided she could think of no worse fate for him and left him to it.

The next debt Ciri had to repay was with a young woman named Bea. She took an immediate liking to our friend the witcher, and he in turn was not left indifferent by her considerable charms. Ah, had they but world enough and time... But they hadn't, so Ciri and Geralt moved on to an itinerant circus troupe's camp outside Novigrad.

It was here that Valdo and his comrades had taken Ciri in when she had no place to stay and not a copper to her name. She was welcomed no less warmly upon her return. Valdo proposed she and Geralt stay for some friendly horseracing and a pleasant evening of drink and dance around the fire. Geralt knew they both could use a moment to catch their breath and accepted the invitation.

Our friends were eating, drinking and delighting in the joyful atmosphere of the circus performers' camp when a certain Aegar came to them and asked for help. He needed to steal some horses from a Novigrad merchant.

If Geralt refuses to let Ciri steal the horses with Aegar:

Geralt did not think this was the sort of thing Ciri and he should be getting involved with, but Aegar wouldn't relent. One thing led to another and soon this petty disagreement turned to an all-out brawl. Afterwards no one, Ciri least of all, was in a festive mood. She went for a riverside walk to cool her head, the circus performers returned to their tents and the witcher... well, the witcher took care of some witcher business.

If Geralt agrees to help Ciri and Aegar steal the horses:

Geralt let Ciri convince him to participate in the heist. And he didn't regret it. What a rollicking adventure they had! First the tense thrills of sneaking into the stables, then the mad joy of galloping off, the wind in their hair. A spark of happiness flashed in Ciri's eyes, the first in a long, long while. This was the best reward the witcher had ever received.

Objectives[]

• Wait for daylight.
• Meet Ciri at the Gildorf market square.
• If killed Whoreson Junior:
  • Go with Ciri to see Whoreson Junior.
  • If left Ciri before reaching Whoreson's hideout:
    • Meet Ciri near Whoreson Junior's hideout.
  • Follow Ciri into Whoreson Junior's hideout.
• If spared Whoreson Junior:
  • Follow Ciri to find Whoreson Junior.
• Follow Ciri.
• If left Ciri before reaching the Golden Sturgeon:
  • Meet Ciri at the Golden Sturgeon.
  • Go with Ciri to the Golden Sturgeon.
• If left Ciri before reaching Valdo:
  • Meet Ciri in Farcorners.
• Talk to Valdo.
• If agreed to race:
  • Take part in the race.
• If agreed to steal horses:
  • Meet Ciri and Aegar near the Novigrad stables.
  • Sneak into the stables.
  • Find a way to open the stable doors from the inside using your Witcher Senses.
  • If woke up the guard:
    • Calm the horses with the Axii Sign. 3/3

Bugs[]

• When stealing the horses a bug might occur where the door is already unlocked and you can not progress. This presumably happens if you've been to the stables before and interacted with the quest objects. The following console commands will allow the quest to progress and then the key to be removed: addfact(q310_doors_unlocked) and removeitem(q310_backdoor_key)

Notes[]

• If you go out of your way to leave Ciri while you're supposed to follow her, mission objectives may temporarily fail. However, upon returning and completing the task, they'll be automatically resolved. In fact, this is the only way to have as many mission objectives in the quest log as possible and all of them marked in green. Some extra dialogue poking fun at Geralt's age is also seen this way.