The Witcher 3 is a great game that offers a great variety of enemies that you can slay, including some very exciting bosses. The most frightening of which are the ones from the Wild Hunt like Nithral, Imlerith, and the king of the Wild Hunt himself Eredin. You will face these foes during the course of the game and will have to defeat them.
One of the members of the Wild Hunt is Caranthir Ar-Feiniel, the navigator for the Wild Hunt who teleports them from place to place. Caranthir meets his demises during the “On Thin Ice” main quest. If you’re having trouble fighting with Caranthir Ar-Feiniel in Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, then this guide should help you out.
Where to find Caranthir
You fight Caranthir during the “On Thin Ice” main quest which takes place in the Nilfgaardian Camp on the Merlin Coast.
Here, all you have to do is start the battle after talking to Avallac’h. You won’t have to go looking for Caranthir as he will come to you on his own.
When he does, Caranthir will freeze everyone in place except Ciri, and she will step onto the battlefield to fight Caranthir after taking care of other minor enemies.
How to defeat Caranthir
The fight against Caranthir is split between two phases. You will fight him as Ciri in the first phase, and as Geralt in the second phase. Take note that Caranthir will change his attack patterns a bit in the second phase, so both encounters will not be the same.
Caranthir is generally weak against silver. Hence, when playing as Geralt, make sure to use your silver sword and throw Dimeritium Bombs to block his magic. That will give you a window of opportunity to either relocate or rush in to land some attacks.
Caranthir is also susceptible to fire, so cast your Igni sign to remove his frost armor.
Something else of importance is that Caranthir is not weak to any oil. However, the Ice Elementals that he summons do not have the same immunity. Hence, apply some Elementa Oil on your silver sword to make short work of his Ice Elementals.
| Oil | Effect | Ingredients |
|---|---|---|
| Elementa oil | +10% attack power against Elementa | 1x Dog Tallow, 4x Puffball |
| Enhanced Elementa oil | +25% attack power against Elementa | 1x Elementa Oil, 1x Bear Fat, 1x Moleyarrow, 1x Puffball, 1x Allspice, 1x Honeysuckle, 1x Buckthorn |
| Suprerior Elementa oil | +50% attack power against Elementa | 1x Enhanced Elementa Oil, 1x Alchemy Paste, 1x Nostrix, 1x Essence of Wraith, 1x Allspice, 1x Honeysuckle, 1x Albedo |
In the fight against him, we will mostly be focusing on dodging his attacks and countering, mainly with melee attacks. Caranthir has the ability to teleport and is an excellent magic user, so it will take patience to land your strikes in.
Always try to dodge his attacks by rolling and closing in the distance, then move in for a few quick hits immediately after. Caranthir teleports away after a couple of hits – mostly behind you, hence you always need to be cautious.
Just repeating these few steps effectively will lead you to victory.
Phase 1
In phase 1 of the fight against Caranthir, you will be playing as Ciri since Geralt is frozen. Although Ciri cannot use signs, potions, and oils, she does have one ability Geralt does not – teleportation. This will be a huge help against Caranthir as in this phase he fights pretty much in the same way as Ciri.
He does not use any magic in this phase and only uses his staff for melee attacks and teleports for defense.
Ciri’s attacks with a sword are fast and deadly – and will pretty much suffice in this phase of the fight. Do not use the Blink and fight normally, because Caranthir can hit Ciri while she is Blinking.
Melee attacks alone will damage Caranthir a lot, but if you manage to get hit, teleport away and wait for Ciri’s HP to pump back up – she has remarkable HP regeneration.
Once about one-third of Caranthir’s health is depleted, a cutscene will play out and Ciri will destroy the magic orb on Caranthir’s sword. This takes a heavy toll on her and she has to teleport away after that.
However, now that the orb is broken, Geralt is free from the spell and jumps into the fight, beginning phase 2 of the battle.
Phase 2
In phase 2, you will play as Geralt. Caranthir will change his attack strategies, but ours will pretty much remain the same – evade, close in, attack, and reposition.
Now, Caranthir will shift to ranged magic attacks. He will have two distinct attacks. In the first attack, there will be five orbs/lances stacked in a row that he will shoot at Geralt. They travel pretty fast, so make sure you time your roll right, to effectively dodge them. You can roll under them in any direction but preferably roll forward so you can get close to him.
The second attack that follows is a set of three lances that Caranthir fires one after the other – all three of them can be dodged in the same way.
When you find an opening, strike him with your sword a few times. He will teleport soon after that to another location, and the same sequence will repeat.
Once about half of Caranthir’s health is remaining, he will start summoning Ice Elementals and protecting himself with ice armor. You can destroy Caranthir’s armor with the Igni Sign or the Dancing Star Bomb.
The Ice Elementals don’t pack that much of a punch, but they can be annoying if you’ve got two of them at the same time. Caranthir isn’t weak to any oil, but to deal with ice elementals swiftly, you can coat your blade with Elementia Oil.
They can be ignored for the most part, but if you want to get rid of them easily, then just keep the elemental between yourself and Caranthir. This will keep it in line with Caranthir’s ice lances and when they come at you, they will hit the elementals as well.
Moving on to the main fight, a few strong attacks can quickly drain Caranthir’s HP since he teleports a lot less now. Once a bit of his HP is left, a cutscene will appear in which Geralt stabs Caranthir through the heart. Caranthir then grabs Geralt by his leg and teleports underwater.
Here, Caranthir will be officially defeated and sinks to the bottom. However, Geralt survives by swiftly swimming to the top. Shortly after that, a fight with Eredin, the King of the Wild Hunt, begins.
