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Many people have been troubled and puzzled by this new feature of the Witcher 2. And it, itself, is plagued by speculation, false info sometimes, and/or wrong timing (some of them can be taken earlier than some people say). Tested, confirmed, here they are, all witcher 2 character attributes that can be acquired, with brief analysis on HOW, WHEN, and why NOT up until now...

PROLOGUE/CHAPTER 1:

Pyromaniac: Step on a fire burning on the ground, trying to not be killed (have quen at the ready). You can get it as early as the tutorial itself, in the arena, when the enemy mage incinerates you. Or, in the prologue, near Newboy of the Crinfrid Reavers, where there is a fireplace with a place of power and a herb.

Sapper: Lay down a trap, click to disarm it, and while Geralt is midway into kneeling down, use your medallion. In other words, interrupt the disarming before it completes. Can be done in the tutorial, or in the prologue. If you have the DLCs enabled, you mush have some traps on you already, even just after leaving Triss' bed.

Assassin: In the prologue, where you calibrate the ballista (not the one with Foltest), go to the back alley and find a white robed dead fool.

Axii Sign Hex, coupled with Conjuror: You can get both at prologue, just by using Axii in conversation as a choice. And in chapter 1, you can use it enough times to max. So, don't bother hexing the robbing soldiers, keep it for the archpriest to get Conjuror, instead.

Intimidation: You can get it in the prologue, but don't bother intimidating the robbing soldiers. In chapter 1, you can use it abundantly, so there is no real point to get it early, this one.

Persuasion: In the prologue. Best to use it on the robbing soldiers. Persuasion is a rare choice to resolve problems anyway. And in chapter 1, it is difficult to max. Unless you try to convince Sille to get hot with you, asking her about hunting monsters and traveling alone (even if persuasion succeeds, nothing hot happens though).

Strong Back: Spare Aryan, save him from the torture chamber and carry him on your back.

Executioner: Butcher down Aryan, Adam Pangratt, and allow Roche to kill Henselt.

Experienced: Destroy 10 training dummies. 5 in prologue, in Foltest's camp, right before you meet Foltest in game for the first time, in the area you have your first arm wrestling and poker dice minigame. 2 in Flotsam exit to Lobinden, from the marketplace, next to the House of Louis Merce. 2 in Flotsam, in the non human exit to the forest, near the ghetto. 1 in Roche's quarters, or the Flotsam garrison building.

CHAPTER 1:

Cover: Stay in the radius of Triss' spell, while Roche carries her.

Parry: Learn the riposte skill, use it many times on enemies. This is tricky, because it requires good timing, and despite blocking, you suffer some damage, too. Best is to use on the many human thugs who guard the faraway cabin, the looted key from Dmitri unlocks. Near the shrine that needs the rites of Midaete book. And lure them in one at a time. Use silver sword to not kill them quickly. But if you later rearrange your talents (operator artifact), you can use this without repicking riposte skill. You need only to block, and you have a good chance of an automatic riposte to happen.

Batter: Learn the training skill which sends arrows back to the shooter (2/2). Go fight Dmitri, trap his gang on the narrow passage, and keep block on. He starts throwing knives, which interestingly enough, count as arrows. You butcher up his entire team just by blocking his thrown knives. Now, him being on higher ground, most probably means that the deflected projectiles cannot hit him, or if you play on higher difficulty, they do not do spectacular damage. Keep sending his knives back at him until you unlock it. If he dies before you get it, there are Squirrel archers in the waterfall with the 4 drowners, where the path to the elven baths begins. Destroy the Nekker nest there so they are not claimed by them (for the kill). This one, unlike parry, does not work, if you do not have 2/2 to the training skill of redirecting arrows. But an invaluable perk until you rearrange your talents at the operator, nonetheless. Especially on higher difficulties.

Haggling: Hex with Axii the merchant in Flotsam, who offers the reward for slaying the Kayran (and the diagram for its armor). He should SUCCESSFULLY agree to pay DOUBLE for the Kayran. You get it as soon as you get the reward from him.

Magic Resistance: A very useful and overlooked attribute. Take Triss with you (you must) while on the quest for the rose of remembrance, but just DON'T tell her "she needs a bath". In the previous game you banged her twice anyway, and in this one in the beginning, once. Not only you do not spoil her taking you for granted, but you get one of the most useful and satisfying character attributes of the whole game, that is!

Toxic Blood: This was rumored to be unobtainable in the Enhanced Edition. And its description was WRONG (people said you must be poisoned 30 times). You can only get it one way. As early in Flotsam as you can afford. Before raising too many levels. Craft 20 Devil's Puffball bombs and equip them. Unequip EVERYTHING you wear, especially armor pieces. Drink the potion the side effect of which makes you easier to catch a critical condition (fire poison etc, sorry, cannot remember its name). Save game. And start throwing these bombs right next to your feet, having quen at the ready. I got it in 12 or 13. This one is broken and overpowered. 30% chance is pretty high, and it works incorrectly; enemies can be poisoned sometimes, even if you have NO potion(s) drunk at all!

Thrower: Defeat Ves in the throwing knife contest. Pretty easy, and you cannot miss it (the event).

Summer's Crown: Read the rites of Midaete book. And click the hidden shrine. That shrine can be found with relative difficulty. Go to the troll's area. There, find the ruins, which lead you upwards, and right into a marsh with something like small islands. at the end of the route, is a big house guarded with thugs, and its door is unlocked with Dmitri's key. Go to the back and right of it. Shrine is there. Makes your quen deal fire damage whenever you are hit (?). Probably makes a killing with getting the magic skills that upgrade quen.

Strong Stomach: Find Ostmurk, craft the Mongoose potion, drink it shortly before the Kayran fight, win fight, enjoy.

CHAPTER 2:

IORVETH PATH:

Anatomy Lesson: Get the surgical tools from vergen merchant, and during the quest you visit a catacomb, examine the corpse carefully.

Birdman: You get this for completing the harpy contract.

Child of the Night: Sneak through Henselt's camp UNDETECTED.

ROCHE PATH:

David: Kill 2 golems in chapter 2. One is hidden and always found in an underground cave.

Exorcist: Remove the curse from Henselt.

Swordsman: Defend Henselt from the ninjas... eh, assassins of kings.

(Executioner: Despite what people say, you can finish and get this only in Roche's path. You cannot kill Pangratt in Iorveth's. There you can kill only Aryan and Stennis. Also, old info had been incorrect. You do not need to kill all killable npcs (asylum doctors, malena, etc), but only ARYAN, PANGRATT, and HENSELT! People bashing this one have no clue; despite the satisfaction of revenge, you get a bonus, which you can combine with the swordsman path skill +5% chance of instant kill, and this coupled with the endgame swords' innate chance of instant kill, is simply something else. Yes, even 1% sometimes make a difference.)

CHAPTER 3:

Arcane Knowledge: Complete the Gargoyle contract.

Winter's Shrowd: Just interract with the hidden shrine. Don't go through the Order's camp. Go to where Deithwen is (invaluable sword, +25% damage to large opponents), take a turn inside the caves, and follow them to the end. To the back of the walls of Loc Muinne, all the way.

And that's all. The rest of the perks are said to not be implemented into the game, as is. Only ONE matter remains unresolved. That of HALF-PIROUETTE. Says you need to deplete all of Letho's life bar before the cutscene happens, but this is impossible. His life becomes unable to be lowered below a certain point. Plus, if you get his life over to half, and take your time, cutscene happens, anyway. Anyone knows if and how you can get this one? In previous version of the witcher wiki, it was listed as unobtainable. If it is unobtainable indeed, then 23 are ALL the perks you can get; otherwise, 24.

Also, if is a good idea to save Aryan to get Strong Back if you play Iorveth's, because you cannot get executioner during it anyway.
Post edited September 16, 2014 by KiNgBrAdLeY7
Very handy indeed for a full playthrough.

Thanks, sir!
avatar
SilensPoetae: Very handy indeed for a full playthrough.

Thanks, sir!
Enjoy! And remember, do what you really like, don't hear whiners like those against the execution one!
Thanks for the complete listing.
I prefer to discover things myself in games, but seeing as how there are a lot of these and the game itself doesn't give you clues as to how to get them or tells you why you got them when you do get them, it's useful to have a complete listing like this .. so thanks again.

Still not sure if I want to read though .. I prefer to let the game surprise me:)
Toxic Blood *confirmed* (Enhanced Edition, Xbox360, latest patch)

This is working as described by KiNgBrAdleY7 (thanks a lot for this one):

- get poisend 15 times by devil's puffball bombs (skull sign appears) and not by any monsters
- unequip armor pieces
- save before throwing bombs, after every successful attempt save, if you fail load last save
- to raise chances use this potion to catch critical condition
- and learn by my mistake: get it before attribute 'sapper' which lowers the chance to get hurt by bombs to 50%
Post edited January 30, 2016 by halopriest
Toxic Blood -- Geralt only has to be poisoned ONCE, but it MUST be by Devil's Puffball. That may take many tries, especially if your level is high. I took me about 20 tries. If your armor has any poison resistance, strip it off. As soon as you get the poisoned symbol, you are done, Check character attributes to confirm. Don't forget to get dressed/armed again.

Half-Pirouette -- The way to "defeat" Letho is to specialize and be as overpowered as you can when you go into that fight. I got my vigor and vigor regen up as high as I could and maxed the Igni and Quen signs. Those are the only two I used in the fight. I already had most of the attributes available up to this point. The ones that may have helped in the fight include Pyromaniac, Sapper, Assassin, Parry, Conjurer, Cover, Summer's Crown, and Toxic Blood. For my sword I used Devil, diagram found in chest in the Rose of Remembrance quest. Expensive to have crafted but very powerful. Protect Geralt with Quen, blast with Igni. Roll away from powerful attacks, roll back to close the distance and then pound Letho with Devil using fast attacks. His health bar will drop very quickly and he won't get much of a response between blows. If he does get off a blow, block, use a counter if possible, but don't hesitate to go back to pounding him with Devil. The goal is DPS, so don't waste time. In the end a cutscene will play where Letho zaps you with Aard and wins anyway, but you still get credit for defeating him.

I nailed him first time through with plenty of health left and I'm just a casual gamer so with the right equipment, perks and approach it's not that hard. But with an under-powered character who rushed through the story to get to this point, I doubt it's possible. Take your time getting here, do ALL the things, explore all the places, kill all the creatures, multiple times. FInd the best armor diagram, grind for money to have it made. Grind for attributes like batter and parry.