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One of The Witcher 3's best moments occurs when Geralt and his allies stand their ground against The Wild Hunt to protect Ciri. This conflict is known as the Battle of Kaer Morhen. And exactly who fights alongside Geralt is up to you.
Before doing the Isle of the Mists quest, you get the chance to assemble your squad. By gathering them all, you can earn the Full Crew achievement or trophy. While it's not among the game's hardest ones to achieve, it's not simple either. This is because you can't convince everyone to join through polite conversation as some require things in return. Everything you need to do to put together a full team is included in this guide.
Updated June 14, 2023, By Ben Jessey: The Witcher 3 is a game where your actions matter. This is proven several times during the game. Yet, the best example comes in the Battle Of Kaer Morhen.
The choices you make and the things you do throughout the game impact who you have in the crew in this difficult battle. We created this guide to show you how to get every ally possible. Now, we've returned to the guide to clean it up and make it as easy to understand as possible.
People Who You Can't Recruit
Not every character you try to recruit for the giant battle will agree to help. And because The Witcher 3 is all about choices and consequences, you may assume these people refuse due to the decisions you've made.
However, that's not the case. Some characters are impossible to recruit, no matter what you do. These people are as follows:
- Cerys An Craite: If she's Queen, she recommends her brother instead.
- Crach An Craite: Helps by giving you a sword.
- Sigismund Dijkstra: Will give you money if you've helped him locate his treasure.
- Emhyr var Emreis: Won't help in any way.
People Who Join No Matter What
Some of the series' best supporting characters don't require entire questlines to be completed for them to lend a hand.
These friends are ready to put themselves at risk to help Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri regardless of what you do and say. These saints include:
- Vesemir, Eskel, and Lambert: The Witchers are already at the keep.
- Zoltan: Just ask for his aid during "Brothers In Arms: Novigrad."
- Ermion: Simply request his help in "Brothers In Arms: Skellige."
Recruiting Keira
To enlist the help of Keira Metz, you have to complete her entire questline. It starts with "An Invitation From Keira Metz" and ends with "For The Advancement Of Learning."
Yet, simply beating all of the quests will not be enough to acquire Keira's help.
You also need to pick the right dialog options in her final mission, or she'll suffer one of the game's most tragic fates.
After she leaves the tower in "For The Advancement Of Learning," say these things:
- "What's with the notes?"
- "Radovid never forgets."
- "It's suicide."
- "Go to Kaer Morhen."
That's how to recruit Keira Metz and bring her to Kaer Morhen. She'll remain there when The Wild Hunt attack.
Recruiting Letho
There are various reasons why The Witcher 2 rivals the quality of the third game. Letho's significant presence in the game is one of them.
The muscular Witcher is a very entertaining character, and if he survives the events of the second game, he appears in The Witcher 3.
Not only that, but you can recruit him for the Battle of Kaer Morhen.
To do so, you first need to complete "Ghosts In The Past." Regardless of the outcome of the quest, Letho questions where he can go next. It is then that you can invite him to Kaer Morhen.
He'll accept and later fight The Wild Hunt when they arrive.
Letho is not needed to earn the 'Full Crew' achievement or trophy.
Recruiting Vernon Roche And Ves
Despite being one of Geralt's loyal friends, Vernon Roche's help doesn't come free. Before he comes to Kaer Morhen, he needs your help with a quest of his own.
Thankfully, it's pretty easy as all you have to do is help defend Ves from some Nilfgaardian soldiers.
If you do, they'll both be eligible for recruitment during "Brothers In Arms: Novigrad."
Yet, if Ves gets killed by the Nilgaardians, neither will join you at Kaer Morhen.
Recruiting Triss
Triss might not always be the perfect person, but she's willing to help out Geralt and Ciri. However, she first needs her own serious problems are sorted out.
You need to complete her entire questline to be able to have her join the crew.
The final mission of hers is titled "Now or Never," and it sees Geralt help Triss lead the mages out of Novigrad.
At the end of it, you don't need to ask her to stay as she'll always return for the battle.
Recruiting Hjalmar, Folan, And Vigi The Loon
The one member of the An Craite clan that you can convince to assist in taking on the Hunt is Hjalmar.
Before you can invite him, you have to help either him or Cerys become the ruler of Skellige.
This means completing the "Possession," "The Lord of Undvik," and "King's Gambit" quests.
In that last one, you need to agree to help one of the An Craite siblings, or neither will become ruler. Then later, you can recruit Hjalmar as part of "Brothers In Arms: Skellige."
What's more, if you rescue and protect Folan and Vigi during "The Lord of Undvik," they'll join too.
For Vigi, that means releasing him from the cage before battling the giant.
Once you've recruited everyone, you're ready to complete the Battle of Kaer Morhen.
Advantages To Having A Full Crew
Surprisingly, having a full crew to battle The Wild Hunt doesn't change things too much.
You'd expect that having everyone there would lead to a better outcome for the protagonist team, but instead, the main scenes stay the same.
That being said, there are still a few benefits to putting the team together:
- You earn the 'Full Crew' achievement or trophy (Letho, Folan, and Vigi don't count towards it)
- Some scenes and sequences are slightly different. For instance, Letho helps you and Lambert fight outside of the barrier.
- Lambert is guaranteed to survive with Kiera around as she saves him from danger. The pair then become romantically involved and end up together. Without her, you need to save Lambert partway through the quest.