Elementa

Elementa can be described as representations of the raw, mystical power of the elements, given purpose or sentience. Some of these beings may be better described as the mistakes of prideful men, with more power and knowledge than sense. Elementa are some of the rarest monsters a witcher can be expected to face, and among the most deadly.

Djinns

“The pitcher emitted a puff of glowing red smoke. The smoke pulsated, then gathered up into an irregular sphere floating in front of the poet’s head...”—The First Longing, a Tale Fantastic in All Ways.

A djinn is a powerful air spirit, a condensation of the power of that element endowed with consciousness and character—the latter usually nasty. According to legend, djinns can grant even the most far-fetched wishes, though they do so very begrudgingly.

Unusually powerful mages can capture and tame these beings. The mage can then draw on its energy, using it to cast spells without having to call on Power from traditional sources. Only a sparse handful have managed this feat, however, for djinns fight to avoid such a fate with stubborn determination. To imprison a djinn and bend it to one’s will, one must first weaken it—and that is no easy feat.

Fighting a djinn is extraordinarily difficult. They can fling off spells in an instant that the most accomplished human mages could never cast with years of preparation. What’s more, by manipulating the element of air they can summon powerful storms, hurricanes and gales. Luckily, as magic beings they are vulnerable to silver—yet steel will do them no harm.

Combat Tactics

Fighting a djinn is about working quickly, and not something a witcher should attempt without good cause, or good pay. If you must face a djinn, Dimeritium Bombs are too useful to go without, giving a witcher the chance to close the distance without being frozen, burned, or electrocuted before they can get close.

Djinn can teleport short distances to escape harm, even after being affected by Dimeritium Bombs. A witcher must be able to quickly react to this and continue to pressure the djinn, using additional Dimeritium Bombs as necessary to continue suppressing spells.

The closer a djinn is to death or capture, the more dangerous it becomes. The massive area of effect spells it can cast come faster, and it may teleport more often the more desperate it becomes.

Aard and Igni signs empower a djinn greatly, while Axii and Yrden calm it down and make it easier to combat.

Earth Elementals

”How to survive an encounter with an earth elemental? Simple. Run. Fast as you can.”—Nino Murk, bounty hunter

Earth elementals are made of mud, clay, sand and rock dust clumped together with water and brought alive with magic. While seemingly slow and ponderous, these creatures are nevertheless dangerous and should be avoided at all costs.

Earth elementals can withstand a tremendous amount of punishment. Due to their enormous mass they are virtually impossible to knock off balance. They do not bleed nor feel any pain from poison or even fire.

They kill men with astonishing ease—whether by smashing them with their fists or hurling enormous stones at them. Their only weakness is their vulnerability to dimeritium dust—thus before combat one should prepare a full arsenal of bombs containing this ingredient.

Combat Tactics

Earth elementals are a test of strength and endurance. Even with a silver sword coated in elementa oil, earth elementals can resist impressive amounts of punishment before crumbling, while being able to dish out frighteningly powerful blows with their fists.

Dimeritium Bombs make these elementals more susceptible to harm. They do not make them less dangerous. Strike once, twice if you judge it safe, then roll out of the way of an inevitable counterattack. Use heavy attacks for better damage output.

You should be alert for elementals to raise a foot high off the ground. What follows is a powerful ground stomp that sends a wave of rock piercing through the earth in a line before the elemental.

If an earth elemental jumps off the ground, move away as quickly as possible. The resulting shockwave knocks down any nearby victims.

The hammerblows delivered by an earth elemental’s fist can be made easier to avoid by using Yrden.

It is also possible to actually stagger an earth elemental with Aard.

Fire Elementals

”The first fire elemental was created by Ransant Alvaro. Sadly, flames engulfed his entire laboratory, burning it—along with every other building on his block—to ash.”—Tarvix Sandoval, “Origins of Magic Arcana”

Fire is the most destructive of the elements, thus the aggressive lethality of the creature that embodies its essence should come as no surprise. Fire elementals are forged in complicated magic rituals for one purpose: destruction. And they pursue this with murderous determination.

This elemental attacks using fireballs and streams of flame which reduce anything in their path to ashes in the blink of an eye. Like golems and other elementals, poison does not touch it nor does it bleed. Fire-based spells not only do no harm but in fact strengthen it—thus one should by no means think of striking it with Igni. Though vulnerable to silver blades, getting within sword’s reach of one is dangerous due to the furnace-like heat they emanate. When fighting a fire elemental one should thus strike from a distance, using frost-spewing and Dimeritium Bombs, for they will do it the most damage.

Combat Tactics

Fire elementals can use similar abilities to an earth elemental, with the key difference that fire enhances and empowers them. Being harmed by a fire elemental has effects beyond the immediate harm sustained, since they can light clothes and armor on fire.

Simply drawing close to a fire elemental is dangerous, due to the intense heat they constantly generate.

The flames can be temporarily extinguished by Aard. Avoid Igni at all costs, this only empowers a fire elemental and re-ignites its flames.

Northern Wind bombs are highly effective, freezing the elemental in place. Dimeritium Bombs can prevent it from using certain attacks.

Use heavy attacks to speed along the destruction of the elemental.

Gargoyles

“It just me, or is that gargoyle ogling us?”—Lara Estevann, burglar from Loc Muinne

Gargoyles are stone statues brought to life by magic in order to guard mages’ laboratories and lairs from intruders. Their appearance alone has scared off more than one prospective burglar. Those who do not take fright at the sight of these horned and winged monstrosities usually die shortly thereafter, torn to shreds by stony claws.

Gargoyles are extremely dangerous opponents. Etched out of granite or marble, they are able to withstand tremendous amounts of damage and exhibit superhuman strength. One blow dealt from their boulder-like fists will crush even a man clad in heavy armor. Not even those out of reach of a gargoyle’s arms can feel safe, for they are able to through hunks of stone with deadly precision.

Due to gargoyles’ considerable size and weight, the Aard Sign does nothing against them. As beings made of stone, they feel no pain from fire, meaning the Igni Sign is worthless against them, as are weapons meant to cause bleeding or poisoning. It is a witcher’s good fortune that they also have a few weaknesses: they feel the sting of a silver blade and are hurt by Dimeritium Bombs, which disrupt the workings of the magic spell which gives them life.

Combat Tactics

A gargoyle is nearly as sturdy as any earth elemental, but significantly faster, more versatile, and seemingly more intelligent. Aard and Igni are almost entirely useless.

Gargoyle melee attacks may not have the same reach, but they cannot be parried. Evade them.

Yrden can slow a gargoyle down, making it easy to evade their melee attacks, and allow a witcher to strike back.

Do not linger in front of the gargoyle for long. They can counter overly aggressive witchers by using their poisonous breath.

The safety of range is fleeting versus a gargoyle. They can not only throw rocks with a great degree of accuracy and power, but they can leap into the air and crash down atop or next to a witcher with terrifying speed. Both attacks serve to harm and stun victims.

A gargoyle can also stomp the ground with such force that they can stun and partially blind nearby threats.

Dimeritium Bombs can weaken the defenses of a gargoyle, but they do little to blunt their offense. Stay focused on limiting the damage

Golems

“If want us to break through this wall, we’re gonna need twenty sappers, seven mules and a hundredweight of saltpeter. Or one golem.”—Vilmir Brass, foreman at Mount Carbon

Golems are mindless matter brought to life by a spell. They obey their creator’s orders without question. Their boundless strength, ability to withstand pain, endless patience and the fact that they need not one jot of food or drink makes them the best servants or guards anyone could ask for. Once provoked, they will not tire of battle until they have either crushed their opponent or themselves crumbled into dust.

Defeating a golem is extraordinarily difficult: for obvious reasons—it does not bleed, if feels no fear or mercy and it is invulnerable to fire and poison. What’s more, a golem’s body is as hard as the rock it is sometimes heft out of, so even a silver blade will barely wound it. The monster’s only weakness is acid—a blade covered in acrid oil can thus increase one’s chances for victory.

Golems use no weapons, for they have no need—their fists, weighing over a hundred pounds each, can crush solid granite with one hit. A blow from a golem should thus be avoided at all costs—there is no shield that can stop it, nor sword that can parry it. That is no easy task, for these creatures are able to move with surprising speed. Luckily, their enormous mass means they are not very agile—once a golem begins a charge, it cannot stop quickly, a fact experienced witchers use to their advantage.

Combat Tactics

Do not attempt to parry the punches delivered by a golem. The sheer weight and power behind them renders such thinking suicidal at best.

A charging golem cannot be easily stopped, but a clever witcher can use this to their advantage. Roll out of the golem’s path, then strike.

Yrden is useful when going toe-to-toe with a golem, but remember that the golem is merely slowed, not helpless. They can still fight despite Yrden’s effects, and can still interrupt a witcher’s swordplay with a single crushing blow.

As with the elementals, a golem can pound the ground with such ferocity, anyone standing near it is knocked prone.

Hounds of the Wild Hunt

“Baying at the heels of the Wild Hunt are its hounds, fierce beasts which follow it like dust clouds trailing after a comet. Hushed legends speak of them losing their way at times and descending from the night sky to earth, cold and death following in their wake.”—Essi “Blackjack” Daven, trobairitz

Born, or so some experts believe, of magic ice crystal, the hounds of the Wild Hunt race alongside their spectral masters. Like ravenous, feral dogs they are capable only of mindlessly attacking whatever crosses their path.

The hounds’ chief weapons are their claws and teeth. Their battle tactics rely on knocking their opponents to the ground before tearing them to shreds. Badly wounded hounds fall into a kind of frenzy that adds to their deadly might. These beasts also use their powers over the cold to freeze the ground around them and create sharp spikes of ice. Creatures born of frost, they feel pain from the Igni Sign, and there is also reason to believe Axii can momentarily weaken their drive to kill and somewhat weaken these fierce foes.

The hounds’ icy nature also means they can draw strength from extreme cold. Thus one should be particularly on guard when fighting them during blizzards or in glacial regions. Elven legends likewise claim they gain strength when a red moon—a known herald of the Hunt’s arrival—hangs in the sky.

Combat Tactics

The hounds of the Wild Hunt fight as viciously as wolves or wild dogs. They can be momentarily weakened by Axii, but only momentarily.

These hounds hunt in packs, and can quickly overwhelm the unprepared. Do not let them surround you if at all possible, use Yrden to slow any hounds too close for comfort, and break away if needed.

The icy nature of the hounds makes them perfect targets for Igni. It also makes it so that any cold environment empowers them.

Back off from the hounds if they start forming the ice spikes. These barriers will pierce through you if you attempt to strike.

If Yrden can catch multiple hounds in one circle. Throwing in a Dragon’s Dream bomb and igniting the gas cloud with Igni can seriously wound a large group of hounds.

Ice Elementals

“I thought to myself—what’s a hunk of ice doing in the middle of some lab? And then that hunk of ice got up and broke my legs.”—Yannick Lovt, burglar

An ice elemental is a mass of frozen water animated by magic. Deprived of consciousness or independent will, this elemental is boundlessly obedient to the orders of the mage who created it. Those orders usually contain but one syllable—kill.

Ice elementals have no qualms about carrying out this order nor any particular difficulty in doing so. Gifted with incredible strength, they are completely invulnerable to poison and fire, deprived of sensitive organs, hard as permafrost and all in all incredibly difficult opponents. A witcher’s only chance at tipping the scales towards victory is to toss a Dimeritium Bomb—shrapnel made of this metal interferes with the workings of the spell that gives this creature life. Beyond that remains only prayer.

Combat Tactics

Ice elementals fight similarly to earth elementals. They can strike with their massive fists, stomp on the ground to knock over their targets, or send a ripple of ice carving through the terrain at their foes. As with other elementals, avoid attacking the elemental from the front if you can, dodge its attacks as they cannot be parried, and make extensive use of Yrden to slow it down.