Bearing the Brunt of the Wild Hunt

With a sliver of health left, you plunge your sword into Caranthir, who collapses, grabs your ankle, and teleports beneath the ice. After kicking free, immediately swim upwards. Failure leads to death. As you grab an ice flow, you see Ciri’s stumble into a portal. When you’re able, rush up the ridge to the northeast, then drop down and lead the charge with a group of Skelligers to slay a trio of hounds. More appear, so be ready for them.

Jarl Udalryk is also here, fighting valiantly.

His comments are different depending on whether you helped him during Secondary Quest: Possession.

Rush aboard the flaming Nilfgaardian ship, delivering sharp justice to up to five warriors as you progress to the ship’s wheel. Leap off the vessel heading northeast, onto an ice flow. Kill two more warriors and four more hounds with the help of Skelligers and some Nilfgaardian soldiers. Then head north, boarding the Naglfar and bearing witness to Crach an Craite’s valiant battle at the hands of Eredin. At this point, Hjalmar makes an appearance:

If he is alive (you finished the Clan An Craite Quests), a burning Nilfgaardian soldier breaks down the burning cabin doors, and dies at your feet. A cheerful Hjalmar follows out afterwards.

If Hjalmar is dead, a skellige soldier follows out afterwards.

Begin your battle with the leader of the Wild Hunt, watching for his almost instantaneous teleport. Roll or quickly sidestep as soon as you see this occur, then perfect your parrying and then counter-striking. Patience is key here. Swift retaliation, the odd in-and-out stabs are better than lengthy attempts at combination strikes. Expect heavy loss of health if you’re struck. After whittling his health down a quarter, Eredin opens a portal, and throws you into a plateau on the cliffs atop Undvik!

At this point, he adds a single, a trio, and a set of six fast ground waves—these must be dodged. Then expect him to blink away from you, summon an orb close by that saps your health. Flee from the orb, and close the gap before dealing more quick strikes. Should Eredin be clad in ice, use Igni to melt it so your attacks have more potency. Back up and avoid his series of strong attacks, retaliating with a well-timed strike at the end of Eredin’s last swing.

Killing Eredin: Battle-Tested Tactics

The battle against the Wild Hunt overlord begins with him taunting you. Take that time to duck into your items menu and use potions that will help you stay in the fight. Tawny Oil, Swallow, and Full Moon are all good choices if you’ve made the higher quality brews. Blizzard is also a good potion for the fight. Eredin’s swordplay can be difficult to parry or counter-attack.

The first phase of the fight can be very short, depending on your skill and your gear. Eredin hits quite hard even against a well-armored witcher. Eredin’s defenses are quite stiff. Reckless attacking will only serve to get you killed when he inevitably counterattacks one of your swings. When he has his sword up in a defensive stance, he will block your attacks unless you manage to flank him.

Like Ciri, Eredin can teleport. He appears behind Geralt to try and score a fatal series of sword strikes. Roll away from him in those circumstances, it’s possible a simple dodge will not get you out of range.

Facing Eredin head on is a dangerous proposition. Not only is he a skilled defender with his sword, he is more than a match on the offense. His strikes come fast enough that it is almost completely unsafe to attempt heavy strikes unless it is after a counter-attack and he is temporarily off balance. If you cannot perform counters, parry or roll out of the way.

Watch for him to raise his sword overhead with both hands. This attack cannot be parried or countered, only evaded. The attack comes quickly, and can be done in the middle of his sword combos, after a teleport, or after he counters Geralt.

The key to fighting Eredin, at any point in the fight, is to dodge or parry any melee attacks, while remaining close enough to score a heavy strike when the opening presents itself. This is a fight won by inches, blow by blow. Getting greedy can be extremely painful for you.

Watch out for him to try backhanding or kicking Geralt. These attacks cannot be parried or countered, and if they land will stun the witcher long enough that he may not be able to roll or dodge the follow-up sword slashes.

After losing roughly a quarter of his Vitality, Eredin creates a portal and sends Geralt and himself to a clifftop arena. This marks the beginning of the second, and most difficult phase of the battle.

In addition to his melee prowess, Eredin gains several new attacks in this arena. The first is the ability to fire shockwaves from his sword. This is often telegraphed by him teleporting to a far point in the area, and holding his sword overhead. He fires one shockwave first, then three waves in a fan pattern, followed by five. It’s a simple matter of running around Eredin to evade the attack, but if you are too far away, the last set of shockwaves can be hard to evade. Use the delay between each attack to close in and score a hit.

After a teleport, Eredin can also call down a storm of ice-laden meteors. Stay on the move, and avoid the projected impact zones, appearing as a patch of ground glowing brighter that the rest. If you get hit, you will be partially frozen and move much slower, making it more likely that you suffer multiple hits. You can run up to Eredin while he channels this spell, and get him to hurt himself with the meteors for a good amount of damage. This immediately cancels the spell, and leaves him open for an attack.

His final new attack is the ability to summon magical spheres at Geralt’s feet, which explode after a short delay. As with the meteors, getting harmed by this will partially freeze Geralt and make him much slower on his feet. Keep moving, ideally towards Eredin, and land a heavy strike to cancel the spell.

After Eredin falls below a third of his total Vitality, he taunts Geralt again, and he becomes significantly more aggressive. Remain calm, and continue to concentrate on minimizing how much he hits you, while scoring hits whenever he presents the opportunity.

Just before defeat, Eredin will open a portal back to the ship the fight began on, presumably to try and leave Geralt stranded on the cliff top above the shores of the Marlin Coast. Follow the elf back through the portal, and finish him off!