Npcs

Two characters in The Witcher 2 have enough going on with Geralt to need a walkthrough of their own, and they could hardly be less alike. One is a sorceress he already loves when the game begins, whose thread runs through all three chapters and eventually costs a kingdom. The other is a Nilfgaardian double agent he meets late, on one path only, and whose entire romance turns on not drawing a sword in a crypt.

Triss: three chapters and a final bill

The game opens with Geralt waking beside her, so Triss is less a romance you begin than one you decide whether to keep. Our guide breaks it into two stages, and both are easy to walk past without noticing.

The first is in Chapter 1, during Rose of Remembrance. Triss offers to help Geralt recover his memories, the flowers are in a hidden elven garden in the woods, and the quest offers you the option of going with her or setting off alone. Going with her ends with the ground giving way beneath the pair of you and a scene in an ancient bathhouse.

The second is a pair of secondary quests. Kiss her during A Matter of Life and Death and Now or Never opens the door properly, at which point two dialogue options close it: Stay with me, then I love you. That makes her Geralt's partner, subject to your not spending the rest of the game pursuing one of the game's other romance options.

The real cost arrives in Chapter 3, and it is not romantic at all. On Roche's path the game asks you to choose between going after Princess Anais and going after Triss, and our endings guide is blunt about the trade: rescuing Triss means she reaches the summit and testifies against Sile de Tansarville, and it also means Anais loses her claim and Temeria is torn apart by its neighbours. Saving Triss is one of the five decisions our choices guide flags as carrying forward into The Witcher 3.

You can also simply let her go. Geralt says goodbye in the third chapter, she survives, and the two of you meet again as friends with nothing further on offer.

Cynthia: one path, one crypt, one conversation

Cynthia is only reachable if you handed Iorveth his sword at the end of Chapter 1. You first meet her at Philippa Eilhart's house in Vergen, but nothing happens there. Her story runs through The Secrets of Loc Muinne in the third chapter, where she turns out to be working for Nilfgaard.

The prerequisite is negative rather than positive: do not attack her. Refusing the deal she offers in the Crypt of Mages turns the whole quest into a failed one, and refusing to work for Nilfgaard mid-conversation has Adalbert start the fight instead. Help her through the riddles and the laboratory and she becomes an ally, which is also the outcome our quest guide recommends on its own merits.

Afterwards she is at the Inn, and the conversation is short. Talk about the expedition and tell her she gave quite a performance in Vergen. Geralt needles her for her northern patriotism, she counters that she will stand with Nilfgaard, and two dialogue options do the rest: That was an interesting adventure, Cynthia, and then I'm curious to know the real Cynthia.

Everyone else

The rest of the cast is covered elsewhere on the wiki rather than here. Our characters overview introduces Geralt, Zoltan, Dandelion, Iorveth, Vernon Roche, Dethmold, Letho, Foltest and Sile de Tansarville, which between them account for most of the story.

For the four romance opportunities that are not Triss or Cynthia, our romance guide covers Ves, who is available only if you sided with Roche and beat her in the ring; the succubus, whose scene closes out With Flickering Heart; Mottle, if the Flotsam elves survived; and the courtesans in the two brothels.