Witcher 3 Novigrad: Every Quest and Secret You Missed

Novigrad is the crown jewel of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — a sprawling, morally complex city teeming with merchants, criminals, mages in hiding, and more side content than most entire RPGs. First-time players routinely miss dozens of quests, hidden treasures, and story-altering choices buried beneath its cobblestone streets. This guide cuts through the noise and tells you exactly what to do, where to go, and what decisions actually matter.

Understanding Novigrad's Structure Before You Dive In

Witcher 3 Novigrad is divided into several distinct districts — the Bits, Silverton, Gildorf, and the Harbour — each with its own atmosphere and quest density. The city is controlled by four criminal kingpins known as the Big Four: Whoreson Junior, Cleaver, Sigi Reuven (the former Redanian spymaster Dijkstra), and the Eternal Fire's Witch Hunters. Understanding who controls what territory shapes how NPCs react to Geralt and which quests open up. Before tackling any major quest chain, explore each district on foot. You'll pick up notice board contracts, eavesdrop on conversations that trigger hidden quests, and locate fast-travel signposts that save enormous time later.

The Main Quest Chain: Following Ciri's Trail

The primary reason Geralt arrives in Novigrad is to track Ciri, and this chain involves some of the witcher game's most memorable moments. The quest Pyres of Novigrad opens the city storyline, reuniting Geralt with Triss Merigold and exposing the brutal persecution of mages. Pay close attention to your choices here — whether you help Triss organize the mage evacuation during A Poet Under Pressure and Now or Never has lasting consequences, including a potential romance that locks out another later in the game. Don't rush these quests. The dialogue reveals enormous amounts of lore about the witcher series' political landscape and Ciri's time in the city.

Dangerous Game and the Whoreson Junior Questline

One of Novigrad's most satisfying quest chains involves dismantling Whoreson Junior's criminal empire. The quest Gangs of Novigrad and Dangerous Game intertwine here, and the latter — triggered by speaking to Caesar Bilzen near the Hierarch Square — rewards you with Gwent cards and significant coin. The key decision point comes when you confront Whoreson Junior himself. Killing him satisfies the revenge angle but can complicate Dijkstra's questline. Letting him live and humiliating him instead keeps more political options open. Neither outcome is obviously correct, which is exactly what makes CD Projekt Red's writing so compelling in this section.

Gwent: Playing Innkeeps and Merchants Dry

Novigrad is the single best location in Witcher 3 Novigrad for building a competitive Gwent deck. The Passiflora, the Kingfisher Inn, and the Golden Sturgeon all host players with unique rare cards. The merchant near the southern gate sells the Vivaldi card, and the Quartermaster at the Tretogor Gate stocks the Dol Blathanna Archer. Completing the Collect 'Em All quest requires winning from nearly every named player in the city, so challenge them early — some become unavailable after certain main quests trigger. Prioritize the Scoia'tael and Northern Realms decks if you want the most versatile competitive builds.

Hidden Quests Most Players Never Find

Several quests in Witcher 3 Novigrad are so well-hidden that even veteran players miss them on repeat playthroughs. Here are the most significant:

• Carnal Sins — Triggered by reading a specific notice board posting, this quest involves a serial killer mimicking religious murders. It's one of the darkest and most atmospheric quests in the witcher game and rewards a unique diagram.
• The Dwarven Document Dilemma — Found by speaking to a dwarf near Vivaldi Bank. Short but rewards good coin and Gwent cards.
• A Deadly Plot — Begins after completing Redania's Most Wanted. It feeds directly into the Reason of State quest, which has enormous consequences for the entire war storyline.
• Novigrad Dreaming — Located in Gildorf, this quest involves an unusual haunting and a moral choice about a child's fate that many players handle incorrectly, locking out the best outcome.
• The Soldier Statuette / The Nobleman Statuette — A pair of short fetch quests that together yield a substantial coin reward and are trivially easy to miss without reading every notice board.

Secret Locations and Loot Worth Finding

Beyond quests, Novigrad hides several locations that reward thorough exploration. The abandoned house near the Putrid Grove contains a hidden cellar with a craftsman-level diagram behind a false wall — use your Witcher Senses to detect the hollow sound. The harbour warehouses after dark become accessible without triggering guards if you approach by water, and several contain locked chests with superior crafting components. The Temple of the Eternal Fire's upper balcony, reachable via a climbable drainpipe on the eastern wall, overlooks a hidden cache that most players never reach. For RPG gaming completionists, the Novigrad sewer system also connects to several locations marked as inaccessible on the surface map.

Maximizing Rewards Before Leaving Novigrad

Before progressing the main story past the point of no return, complete every notice board contract, finish the Triss romance questline if that's your intention, and buy out Bram the merchant's entire stock of alchemy ingredients — his inventory resets but he stocks rare dwarven spirit and berbercane fruit that are scarce elsewhere. Sell excess gear to the Vivaldi Bank fence rather than standard merchants for better rates. Most importantly, complete Count Reuven's Treasure before triggering the endgame sequence — it's the gateway to Dijkstra's entire questline, which shapes the political ending of the witcher series' main narrative in ways that ripple into the final hours of the game.