Objective: Find Dandelion, who last saw Ciri.
Optional romance: Triss Merigold (during "Now or Never").
Watch out: The Church of the Eternal Fire is burning mages and non-humans.
1. Finding Triss
Follow the lead to Triss Merigold, hiding in Novigrad as the witch hunts rage. She's smuggling mages out of the city. Helping her through "A Matter of Life and Death" (the masquerade) and "Now or Never" opens the door to a romance — and to information on Dandelion.
2. Finding Dandelion
Dandelion has vanished, tangled up with the city's crime bosses over a woman named Ciri… actually over a heist and a girl named Ciri who passed through. Track his associates — Zoltan, Priscilla the bard, and the Rosemary & Thyme brothel he's trying to buy.
Along the way, play plenty of Gwent — Novigrad has the best card players on the Continent.
3. The Big Players
- 1
Dijkstra
The former Redanian spymaster runs Novigrad from the shadows. His quest "Count Reuven's Treasure" recovers his stolen fortune — and reveals what happened to Dandelion. How much you learn about his treasure decides how much he's willing to help later: infiltrate Menge's stronghold stealthily and ask Menge about the treasure, and Dijkstra provides monetary and material aid (1,000 crowns, a diagram and runestones) for the Battle of Kaer Morhen.
- 2
Whoreson Junior
A sadistic crime boss who hurt Ciri. In "Get Junior" you hunt him down — you can spare or kill him. Either way he vanishes from the story until "Payback," deep in the endgame: kill him now and you'll find him alive again anyway, since the doppelganger Dudu has taken his face and turned the crime empire legitimate; spare him and he's a beggar on Novigrad's streets, abused by the same urchins he once terrorized. The choice barely changes rewards, just which version of him the game shows you months later.
- 3
The heist & Dandelion
"The Play's the Thing" draws out the doppler Dudu, and you rescue Dandelion from his witch-hunter captor in "A Poet Under Pressure". He finally tells you Ciri fled to Skellige.
4. Chapter Complete
With Dandelion safe and the mage crisis addressed, Ciri's trail points across the sea. If Yennefer has summoned you, sail for the isles of Skellige.
Novigrad and Velen stay open after this chapter — the game's real cutoff is much later, sailing for the Isle of Mists, which auto-fails far more quests than anything here. Still, don't leave Get Junior and Count Reuven's Treasure unfinished if you want Dijkstra's aid for Kaer Morhen, and keep playing Gwent here specifically — Novigrad's card players are the best concentration on the Continent, and several don't appear again once you sail.