Bald Mountain is one of the main locations you must visit in The Witcher 3 to progress in the main story and one of the crucial missions. After Blood on the Battlefield, the Bald Mountain quest has you out to seek revenge from Imlerith and Crones for killing Vesemir during the Battle of Kaer Morhen.
Unfortunately, the path to Bald Mountain is locked, and you have no other way of getting into the Mountain other than the locked path. To open the path, you need the key to Bald Mountain before you can proceed with the rest of the Bald Mountain quest in TW3. The key itself is also found within the same quest.
Make your way to the mountain’s summit
The initial objective of the Bald Mountain quest will involve you finding a way to reach the mountain’s summit. You will need to follow the Road to the Bald Mountain. Along the way, you will find a guard with a crossbow pointed towards you who will label you as an outsider.
The old guy next to the guard will calm the situation, tell the guard to cool off, and state that Geralt and Ciri have come for the feast. This old man, Stegomir, will invite you to sit by the fire.
Geralt will accept his invitation and follow him to the bench. There you can start a conversation with Stegomir and learn about the feast, handing children as sacrifices to the Crones, and the magic acorns. He will then guide you towards a tent to meet with another NPC, Thecla as she will decide who meets the ladies.
Speak with Johnny
Johnny, the godling you met earlier will also be present in this area. He will be pleased to see you and will also remark that you found Ciri. Like the rest of the people at the feast, Johnny will inform you that the only way leading to the summit is past the gate.
Speak with Thecla
According to Johnny, old Thecla has the key, and you will need to convince her if you wish to go up to Bald Mountain. Follow the marker to get to Thecla’s tent. Once you get there, you will realize that Thecla is blind as she asks her servants to describe Ciri’s appearance.
Ciri is immediately selected as a good-looking sacrifice for Thecla to present to the Ladies in The Witcher 3. However, for Geralt, the maid describes you as an old and infertile man. This now means that you have to complete Thecla’s tests to secure passage to the Bald Mountain.
Complete Thecla’s test to enter Bald Mountain
Thecla will take Geralt to a lake and take out a coin called Defier’s Oren. After giving a brief history of the coin, she will drop it into the lake. Your task is simple. All you need to do is take a big dive into the lake and use your witcher senses to navigate the bottom portion of the lake in search of the Defier’s Oren in The Witcher 3.
While searching for the coin in the lake, you will be attacked by a pair of drowners. The easiest way to deal with such enemies is by using your crossbow to kill one-shot them.
Once you have cleared the drowners, you can resume your search for the coin at the bottom of the underwater cave. Keep your witcher senses active at all times, and after a thorough search, you will be able to spot the coin.
Meet with Thecla again
Now that you have the coin in your possession, you can then simply swim back up and exit the underwater cave beneath Bald Mountain. Climb the ledge, and you will hear a fiend gnarling at you on your left side. You can simply ignore it at this point and continue straight and climb the large rocks to reach Thecla’s tent.
Go inside and meet up with Thecla and her assistant and show her the coin. Upon the completion of Thecla’s challenge in The Witcher 3, you will also receive 300 Experience points.
Thecla will accept that you are worthy, and her assistant, Marica, will lead you to the entrance of the Bald Mountain. As you follow the assistant, make sure you grab all supplies that you might find. This is important as you are heading to the Fugas boss fight.
Once you have gathered the essential supplies for the challenges ahead, you can make your way to the gate in The Witcher 3. Marica will unlock it, and you can enter it with Ciri. After a short walk, you will hear someone ahead, and it will turn out to be an ugly Sylvan called Fugas.
Defeat Fugas for Key to Bald Mountain
Fugas will let Ciri pass after a short exchange but stops Geralt, even after you tell him that you passed Thecla’s challenge and show him the Defier’s Oren. This only angers Fugas, and he attacks you and Ciri.
Fugas is a slow boss. You can dodge most of the Fugas’s attacks easily, and the only thing you have to look out for is Fugas’s stomp, which can stun Geralt and leave him open for a spell.
Fugas can use a powerful flaming breath attack at close range. You need to dodge it immediately and make sure to use Quen to avoid taking any damage.
Keep in mind that this specific attack is also capable of inflicting the burning status on you, which can stack up pretty easily and kill you. Avoid getting hit by it at all costs while facing Fugas in the Bald Mountain quest.
After Fugas falls, Ciri and Geralt decide over a game of rock paper scissors on who deals with the Crones and Imlerith. Since Geralt wins the game, it is decided that Ciri will go after the Crones while Geralt will deal with Imlerith in The Witcher 3.
After the cutscene, Geralt scales the Bald Mountain without bothering with the actual passage and climbs the Mountain to get to Imlerith. This now splits the rest of the Bald Mountain quest in TW3 into two parts: one where you play as Ciri and the other as Geralt.
Defeat the Crones as Ciri
Initially, you gain control of Ciri and go after the Ladies of the Woods, a.k.a. the Crones in TW3.
Ciri has some serious beef with the Crones, who have been tormenting her for a long time. As you progress, Ciri will catch up to the Crones. This begins a 3v1 fight between Crones and Ciri.
One of Crone’s called Weaves abilities is to turn into a flock of birds in order to evade your strike and she can use this ability to teleport around the arena. Similarly, the other Crone Whispess can phase through the ground and appear next to you to attack you, so make sure to look out for her slash attacks.
Apart from these two crones, the main crone that you need to watch out for is Brewess. She will be the biggest of the bunch and will attack you relentlessly during this boss fight in Bald Mountain. Keep in mind that Brewess can hit you with powerful melee attacks, and taking multiple strikes from her can deplete your health a lot faster than you can react.
In terms of the attacking strategy, make sure to use your Blink ability to get behind her and strike her backside. You should use Ciri’s charge ability throughout the entirety of this crone boss fight as you will be attacked by all three crones. It will be better to deal with Brewess first, so make sure to hit her with your strong attacks and then focus on finishing off Whispess and Weaves in The Witcher 3.
Tip: The best choice during this boss fight will be to use the divide and conquer strategy as you target each of these crones individually and don’t give them any opening to attack you back in TW3.
At the end of the crone fight, Weavess survives and steals Vesemir’s medallion from you and runs away, leaving Ciri frustrated.
Looting Fugas for the key to Bald Mountain
This is a crucial item that will unlock the gate ahead, and without it, you will not be able to get to the top of the Bald Mountain. Usually, Geralt automatically picks up the key after defeating Fugas. However, sometimes, this part of the Bald Mountain quest can bug out, and the key doesn’t appear in your inventory. Once you gain control of Geralt, go back to where you fought Fugas and loot his body for the key.
Defeat Imlerith in The Witcher 3
With the Key to Bald Mountain you took from Fugas, open the gate and start making your way through the rocky path to reach the top of the Bald Mountain and face off against the second main boss of the quest.
While going up the Bald Mountain, you will also discover a Place of Power so you can meditate there to increase your Quen (sign intensity) and then move onwards to fight and defeat Imlerith, the Wild Hunt general who killed Vesemir.
During most of the fight, you will find Imlerith constantly teleporting around the arena and flanking you, so make sure you are always ready to dodge an attack.
Every time Imlerith teleports, a barrier of ice surrounds him. You need to use fire attacks to melt it off before you can do any damage. Due to this, you need to switch between Quen and Igni for this fight constantly.
Don’t get greedy in the Imlerith boss fight in TW3. Once he attacks you with his mace, you should dodge and then get in a few hits of your own from behind him. After that, back away and get ready for him to teleport again and repeat.
After you have depleted almost all of Imlerith’s health, you see him die in one of the most satisfying cutscenes in the game. You can also loot Imlerith’s body to pick up a Magic Acorn. Consume it to earn two skill points.
From here, Geralt will head off the Mountain and meet up with Yennefer and Triss. You will earn 1000 Experience points for defeating Imlerith, and this will conclude the Bald Mountain quest for you and unlock the next main quest called Final Preparations in The Witcher 3.
