Did you think you were playing a heroic Witcher? Think again. 💀💥
A massive wave of controversy is currently tearing through The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt community after players re-examined the 10 absolute most cursed, morally bankrupt choices CD Projekt RED hid deep within the Next-Gen Remastered update… and the consequences are far worse than anyone remembered.
From cold-blooded betrayal that leaves fan-favorite sorceresses impaled in Novigrad squares, to selling out Ciri for a handful of Nilfgaardian crowns, players are realizing their “accidental” choices led to total narrative bloodshed. One missed dialogue option with Lambert at Kaer Morhen or turning your back during Reason of State doesn’t just alter the ending—it permanently erases entire lifelines and characters from the Continent.
And the worst part? Millions of players triggered the absolute darkest ending without even realizing which single conversation ruined everything…
Are you secretly guilty of these game-ruining mistakes? Read the full breakdown before your next playthrough 👇🔥
Even nearly a decade after its initial release and following the widespread adoption of its Next-Gen Remastered edition, CD Projekt RED’s flagship action RPG The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt continues to spark fierce debate across gaming forums. Known for its morally ambiguous questlines, the game forces players into murky ethical dilemmas where good intentions frequently lead to catastrophic outcomes.
However, a viral analysis originally popularized by gaming commentator Big Dan Gaming and recently resurfaced across Reddit’s r/witcher and Discord communities has highlighted a distinct category of choices: decisions so monstrous, tragic, or neglectful that players refer to them simply as “cursed.”
From selling out family members for coin to inadvertently sending beloved allies to horrific deaths, here is a detailed forensic breakdown of the ten most cursed decisions a player can make in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Next-Gen Edition, and how the gaming community is reacting to them today.
1. Selling Ciri to Emperor Emhyr var Emreis
During the main questline in Velen and Novigrad, Geralt’s primary objective is locating his adopted daughter, Ciri. After rescuing her from the Isle of Mists, players have the option to take her to Vizima to meet her biological father, Emperor Emhyr var Emreis, before heading to Kaer Morhen.
If Geralt accepts Emhyr’s monetary bounty—a pouch containing 2,000 Nilfgaardian Crowns—he effectively commodifies his relationship with Ciri. Ciri expresses visible heartbreak and disgust at watching her father figure pocket money for her return. Beyond the emotional damage, accepting the coin locks out key positive parenting moments required to secure Ciri’s survival in the game’s climax, pushing her toward the tragic “Something Ends, Something Begins” bad ending.
2. Slaughtering the Botchling
In the critically acclaimed Family Matters questline in Velen, Geralt discovers that the Bloody Baron’s unborn child died due to domestic abuse and was buried without proper rites, turning into a horrific undead creature known as a Botchling.
Geralt is presented with two pathways: lift the curse by turning the creature into a protective household spirit called a Lubberkin, or draw his silver sword and butcher it. Choosing combat forces Geralt to hack apart an infant beast while fighting waves of hostile Barghests. While it resolves the immediate threat, killing the Botchling deprives the Baron of any spiritual redemption and complicates the search for his missing wife, Anna, down the line.
3. Sending Keira Metz to Radovid V
After resolving the magic lamp questline in Velen, Geralt can romance or ally with the sorceress Keira Metz. Upon discovering that Keira intends to take Alexander’s dangerous notes on the Catriona plague to King Radovid V of Redania to secure a pardon, players must choose how to respond.
If Geralt permits her to leave for Oxenfurt without intervention or fails to convince her otherwise, her fate is sealed in the most gruesome manner possible. Later in Act II, players discover that Radovid had Keira publicly tortured and impaled on a wooden stake in Hierarch Square, Novigrad. Furthermore, her absence at the Battle of Kaer Morhen carries fatal side effects for other main characters.
4. Letting Lambert Die at Kaer Morhen
During the intense siege of Kaer Morhen (The Battle of Kaer Morhen), Geralt’s fellow Witcher brother, Lambert, comes under heavy assault from Wild Hunt warriors.
If Geralt fails to reach Lambert in time, or if Keira Metz was previously killed (as she automatically saves Lambert if present), Lambert is overwhelmed and slain on the battlefield. Players are then forced to witness his funeral pyre alongside Vesemir’s, drastically altering the remaining atmosphere of the Witcher stronghold and stripping Geralt of his last surviving peer from the School of the Wolf besides Eskel.
5. Attempting to Romance Both Triss Merigold and Yennefer of Vengerberg
The classic “love triangle” trap has caught hundreds of thousands of unsuspecting players since 2015. In an attempt to secure both romantic partners, players often express love to Triss Merigold during A Matter of Life and Death / Now or Never in Novigrad, and subsequently confess love to Yennefer of Vengerberg during Last Wish in Skellige.
This greed culminates in the quest It Takes Three to Tango. Triss and Yennefer trick Geralt into a hotel room under the guise of an intimate evening, only to chain him to a bedpost with drowner pheromones and abandon him for the rest of the game. Geralt ends the main story alone, deprived of both major romance options in the endgame epilogue and the Blood and Wine expansion.
6. Abandoning Olgierd von Everec to Gaunter O’Dimm
At the climax of the Hearts of Stone expansion, the mysterious entity Gaunter O’Dimm (Master Mirror) arrives to claim the soul of the cursed nobleman Olgierd von Everec. Geralt is given a strict time-sensitive choice: intervene by solving O’Dimm’s riddle, or step aside and let the pact fulfill itself.
Allowing O’Dimm to extract Olgierd’s soul results in a terrifying cinematic where Olgierd’s skull is desiccated into dust while he screams in agony. Though O’Dimm rewards Geralt with powerful relics (such as the Caparison of Lament or an bottomless Carafe), leaving a tortured man to eternal damnation for material gain remains one of the darkest narrative beats in the game.
7. Ignoring the An Craite Succession (King’s Gambit)
In Skellige, the death of King Bran triggers a bloody succession crisis between Hjalmar and Cerys an Craite. During the quest King’s Gambit, a brutal massacre by berserkers disrupts a royal feast at Kaer Trolde.
If Geralt chooses not to help either Cerys or Hjalmar investigate the attack, or walks away from the quest chain entirely, neither sibling ascends the throne. Instead, Svanrige Tuirseach becomes King of Skellige, establishing an autocratic monarchy that ends Skellige’s traditional clan autonomy and leads to severe civil bloodshed across the islands.
8. Abandoning Vernon Roche and Ves in Reason of State
One of the most politically impactful quests in The Witcher 3 is Reason of State, where Geralt conspires with Dijkstra, Vernon Roche, and Thaler to assassinate King Radovid V.
Following Radovid’s death, Sigismund Dijkstra betrays Roche, Ves, and Thaler, planning to execute them on the spot to consolidate control over Redania. If Geralt chooses neutrality—stating that political assassination was not part of his contract—he walks away as Dijkstra’s guards butcher Roche and Ves. This path results in Redania conquering the North under Dijkstra’s rule, while Temeria’s dream of restoration is permanently crushed.
9. Failing to Save Casimir Bassi
In the Hearts of Stone heist preparation quest (Open Sesame!), Geralt must recruit a demolitions expert. One candidate is Casimir Bassi, a dwarf explosive artisan who has fallen into severe depression due to marital problems.
When Geralt arrives at Casimir’s house, he finds the dwarf standing on a pile of gunpowder barrels holding a lit torch, threatening suicide. If Geralt picks incorrect dialogue options or fails to use Axii Sign persuasion, Casimir ignites the explosives, instantly blowing himself and his home to pieces right in front of Geralt.
10. Triggering the Tragic “Bad Ending” (Something Ends, Something Begins III)
The ultimate cursed decision in The Witcher 3 is not a single button press, but the cumulative effect of negative parenting choices made toward Ciri. These include drinking with her instead of having a snowball fight, accompanying her to the Lodge of Sorceresses instead of letting her speak alone, and giving her father’s coin.
If the player fails at least three of these crucial emotional checks, Ciri fails to survive her confrontation with the White Frost at the end of the game. Devastated by grief, Geralt travels back to the Velen bogs to hunt down the last remaining Crone, Weavess, to retrieve Ciri’s stolen medallion. The game ends ominously with Geralt sitting alone in a hut surrounded by hundreds of monsters, heavily implying his death by grief or overwhelming forces.
Community Reaction and Legacy
On forums such as Reddit and X, players continue to share their firsthand horror stories regarding these specific choices, particularly following visual and performance overhauls introduced in the Next-Gen update.
“The Keira Metz mistake is the one that ruins most blind playthroughs,” noted one top commentator on Reddit’s r/witcher board. “You think you’re just arguing ideology with her, and two acts later you walk into Novigrad and see her corpse on a spike. It hits like a freight train.”
Others point out how the game deliberately subverts typical RPG tropes. In many games, remaining neutral or collecting cash rewards is encouraged; in The Witcher 3, strict neutrality in quests like Reason of State or mercenary greed with Ciri results in the absolute worst humanitarian outcomes on the Continent.
Whether players are attempting a “pure evil” roleplay run or simply dealing with the unintended consequences of blind choices, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt remains a masterclass in consequence-driven narrative design—where every cursed decision leaves a lasting scar on Geralt’s world.
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