Tips On Killing The Botchling (SPOILERS!)

[NeverSleeper]

In the main quest when you come to the mission "family matters" after finding out the truth about the Bloody Baron's missing wife and daughter, you will be given a choice. His unborn child has risen as a being called a "Botchling" which spawn from the corpses of disgarded or miscarried fetus'. They grow in strength, killing pregnant women and feasting on their unborn chidren and then seek out the one who wronged them (in this case the baron). You can either try to change the Botchling into a Lubberkin, a being that will protect the family it comes from, or kill it and use it's blood to track down the Baron's family.

If you choose to transform it, the game will not reward you for your mercy. On the way back to the Baron's manor you will be greeted with a relentless hoard of wraiths that have a powerful, unblockable attack and you will be treated to a meager reward. If you do choose this route, your best bet is to use the "roll" whenever they appear behind you to strike and while fighting one, keep the others at bay with your telekenetic blast.

If you choose to kill the Botchling, Geralt will miss his initial blow prompting it to mutate into a much larger and much more powerful Botchling. If this happens, you must continuously use your heavy attack on it and dodge all of it's strikes. If it gets more than two hits on you, what comes next will be impossible unless you've seriously stocked up on food. Once you have the Botchling down to half health, a group of wraiths will appear. At this point, do not focus your attacks on the Botchling or you will be overwhelmed by the wraiths. Keep using Axii to keep the Botchling out of the way while you focus heavy attacks on the wraiths, using your roll should they appear behind you for their heavy strike.

This part gave me A LOT of grief so I hope these tips will be useful to at least a few people!

[Zentz]

it's impossible

[CheechWizard]

Or you could spam Yrden. Seriously read the bestiary entries to find out an enemies weaknesses. Specters are vulnerable to Yrden, so pop a Twany Owl potion, and alternate between Quen and Yrden.

[Herb & Bea Ehltée]

I reloaded my save and chose the Lubberkin option after killing it, because I didn't like how much it upset the baron. My method was exactly the same as CheechWizard's, except I used Axii on the Botchling a lot.

[Casey]

The problem is you can't damned save the game, so if you fail you have to repeat the ENTIRE sequence over again. This part has stonewalled me and having to roll through cutscenes repeatedly has killed just about any desire I have to keep playing.

[DiscoMoose]

I had to redo it twice but it's easy to kill the wraiths with Yrden and if you play safe.

[Casey]

Yeah I managed to it! The problem was always the second fight because I'd keep getting caught up in the fencelines. A big part of it, though, was that I managed to keep them somewhat separated by running around the fences myself they wouldn't gang up on me like crazy.

[Her0]

This is just getting stupid now. Its my 15th try and I'm starting to lose interest in playing.

[Golgotha]

Did you change difficulty to easy or "just the story" whatever its called?
If not, that may help, if yes then..I got nothing.

The Wraith multi-hit-attack after teleport cant be blocked and hasa large hitbox..you kinda have to "roll" away in the right time or youll get hit, stunlocked and hit again.

[Dead2Rights]

Originally posted by Di:

This is just getting stupid now. Its my 15th try and I'm starting to lose interest in playing.

15 tries on this fight? I hope to god you are exagerating. Not to be rude, but you're pretty bad at this. You might want to turn the difficulty down until you get more combat practice in.

[Bushee]

Originally posted by Dead2Rights:

Originally posted by Di:

This is just getting stupid now. Its my 15th try and I'm starting to lose interest in playing.

15 tries on this fight? I hope to god you are exagerating. Not to be rude, but you're pretty bad at this. You might want to turn the difficulty down until you get more combat practice in.

I've been going through this fight over and over again for 2 or 3 hours. However, I was a level or two below the quest's suggestion. So I reloaded some previous save, finished few secondary quests, levelled up and came back to complete this one with no problem.

[PPW68]

In some quests, being lower level seems to really affect the things in a bad way. The "protect looters from ghouls in the battlefield" is one such - the important guy dies very easily if you are not at the recommended level, as if his hitpoints reflected your level..

[boeriemore]

I have tried and died numerous times using cursed oil on my blade and axii and even set the level to easy. This must be meant for a quick thinking young mind as my old mind is unable
to select the right keys quick enough and at the right times.

[PPW68]

derbyshire, if you mean the "lubberkin option", the way to do it is (I am near 50, old enough?):

- use specter oil on your blade
- have a key bind on "select Quen" (I think it is by default 6)
- have a key bind on "select Yrden" (I think it is by default 4)
- have a key bind on "select Axii" (I think it is by default 7)
- have a key bind on "cast sign" (I use ctrl, can't remember the default)
- equip, as potions, Swallow and Thunderbolt

Cast Quen.
Cast Yrden. Select Quen (do not cast yet)
Drink Thunderbolt.
Hit wraiths with your silver sword. Roll around if you seem to be surrounded.

If your Quen breaks, roll around, and immediately cast the Quen.

If you had to roll around, and you are not inside Yrden: Cast Yrden ASAP. Quen has priority, first Quen if it is broken, then Yrden. Roll to escape if needed before casting those if your Stamina does not allow the casting yet. (Rolling uses Stamina, but gives enough distance to the wraiths that you can regenerate more than you lost).

If you take damage, quaff Swallow.

Override: When the Baron talks / you hear evil noises from his direction / you see the botchling glowing / thrashing -> abandon all other rules. Roll towards baron, select Axii, cast it, roll away.

I.e. top priority is to prevent botchling from waking up. Second priority is to keep Quen up. Third priority is Yrden, never fight wraiths if they are not inside Yrden.

If you take damage, quaffing Swallow helps. If, somehow, you have time to notice that the Thunderbolt has ended, quaff Thunderbolt.

You are likely not going to have time to notice your Specter oil has been used, but if you have the presence of mind to press inventory key (it pauses) you can notice it and reapply it.

[NINJA Y2K]

fighting the botchling on deathmarch was by far the hardest part of this game for me, it was a nightmare.

^^ the guy above knows what he's talking about follow his advice and it should be a bit easier.

[boeriemore]

Originally posted by PPW68:

derbyshire, if you mean the "lubberkin option", the way to do it is (I am near 50, old enough?):

- use specter oil on your blade
- have a key bind on "select Quen" (I think it is by default 6)
- have a key bind on "select Yrden" (I think it is by default 4)
- have a key bind on "select Axii" (I think it is by default 7)
- have a key bind on "cast sign" (I use ctrl, can't remember the default)
- equip, as potions, Swallow and Thunderbolt

Cast Quen.
Cast Yrden. Select Quen (do not cast yet)
Drink Thunderbolt.
Hit wraiths with your silver sword. Roll around if you seem to be surrounded.

If your Quen breaks, roll around, and immediately cast the Quen.

If you had to roll around, and you are not inside Yrden: Cast Yrden ASAP. Quen has priority, first Quen if it is broken, then Yrden. Roll to escape if needed before casting those if your Stamina does not allow the casting yet. (Rolling uses Stamina, but gives enough distance to the wraiths that you can regenerate more than you lost).

If you take damage, quaff Swallow.

Override: When the Baron talks / you hear evil noises from his direction / you see the botchling glowing / thrashing -> abandon all other rules. Roll towards baron, select Axii, cast it, roll away.

I.e. top priority is to prevent botchling from waking up. Second priority is to keep Quen up. Third priority is Yrden, never fight wraiths if they are not inside Yrden.

If you take damage, quaffing Swallow helps. If, somehow, you have time to notice that the Thunderbolt has ended, quaff Thunderbolt.

You are likely not going to have time to notice your Specter oil has been used, but if you have the presence of mind to press inventory key (it pauses) you can notice it and reapply it.

Than you for your in depth instructions. (you are still young, by the way) I do not have
specter oil, only cursed oil. I tried to give up the quest by turning around at that gate
and departing the scene but the game simply crashed to the desktop.
Three seems to be the limit to the number of a single potion one can have. My three
are used up quickly - three equates to 60 seconds effect duration. (thunderbolt)
If I had three hands it would help a lot, one for the mouse, one for the arrow keys and
one to hold down left shift etc.
I will try and become familiar with the sign keys and try again but what a pain having to sit through that cut scene every time.