Following the Nilfgaardian invasion bandits and looters have infested Velen. While they’re a scourge to villagers and travelers alike - even having the gall to attack armed Witchers - their depredations are also of professional concern due to the likelihood that monsters will appear in their wake. This page will provide a walkthrough for one of the Looters quests that can pop up in Velen near the village of Toderas in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
Quest Objectives¶
Starting Looters at Toderas¶
All you have to do to start this quest is reach the village of Toderas, which is along the southeastern edge of Veen, just northwest of the village of Benek. It should be noted that despite the yellow exclamation mark that appears when you get close, this quest is not actually listed in your journal
Defeat the Looters at Toderas¶
When you find Toderas, enter the village proper to find a group of peasants, now split into two arguing factions. The corpses lying about are damning, and as you approach the looters will warn you not to interfere. If you pick the dialog option “No monsters. So long.” Geralt will agree that as monstrous as the massacre undoubtedly was, it’s not the kind of monstrous that calls for a Witcher. Geralt’s parting words are poison, however, as he’ll suggest the two sides split the loot, which naturally devolves into a fight. Invariably one group will trounce the other, but the survivors will not be able to be interacted with, either by talking or attacking. You can loot the slain, but all in all it’s a pretty anticlimactic way to resolve things.
Alternatively you can pick the option “Actually see several monsters…” which will offend the butchers and set the now unified group against you. There are seven enemies, variously armed with two-handed weapons, single-handed weapons and shields. It’s a bit busy for the standard parry-and-counter routine, but you can dodge around them and try to land strong attacks on the two-handers when the opportunity presents itself, using Igni when they bunch up. Once their numbers thin a bit, employ the standard tactics to finish them off. You’ll gain a pittance of EXP for vanquishing the looters.
While the EXP reward might not be great for this quest, you can now freely loot Toderas. View it as thanks from the slain villagers of Toderas for avenging them. There are numerous containers and parcels lurking about which collectively contain a treasure trove of crafting materials and alchemical ingredients. It would cost you many hundreds of crowns to purchase all these goods from merchants, and this haul makes it well worth the bother of intervening in Toderas.
Necrophages at Toderas¶
You know the saying, where corpses lay, necrophages play. Actually that’s not a saying, we just made it up, but there’s truth in it. Toderas won’t remain vacant for long - come back at a later date after dealing with the looters (whether you killed them, tricked them into killing each other, or simply left them alone) and the town will be overrun by a new menace - necrophages. These come in the form of Devourers (Lv13) and Alghouls (Lv14), a rather nasty collection of necrophages for this point in the game.
Devourers are an upgraded form of Rotfiends, which fight a lot like Drowners, differentiated mostly by their explosive death. Get them to below 25% or so of their health and when they start convulsing, get away, as their death throes are devastating, both to Witcher and, with a bit of lucky, nearby monsters. Alghouls are, as their name implies, upgraded Ghouls. They deal massive damage (on Death March! two hits will probably be fatal) and they can extend spines along their back to deflect and punish melee attacks. Use Axii to trick them into lowering their spines and open them up for attack. They’ll also regenerate health at a prodigious rate when their spines are out, and Axii will put a temporary end to that, as well. Alghouls can also shriek, which will stagger Geralt and dispel Quen - if you’re using Active Shield, it won’t drain your Stamina, however. It’s a tricky combination of foes, but try to pick off stragglers, don’t run into the middle of Toderas and fight them all at once, and focus on the Devourers, first, as Alghouls need sustained attention to bring down reliably.
There’s no reward for killing the monsters at Toderas, but their monster bits and the EXP you’ll gain from the kills may be enticing enough.
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