The “Wild at Heart” secondary quest in CD Projekt Red’s The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt delivers one of the game’s most morally tangled encounters, forcing players to weigh mercy against justice as they uncover a grisly murder in the war-torn Velen region. Introduced shortly after the prologue and recommended for characters around level 7, the mission challenges Geralt of Rivia to decide whether to protect a killer, expose the truth, or walk away from a tragedy that blurs the line between human cruelty and monstrous transformation.
What begins as an ordinary contract quickly unravels into something far more disturbing. While searching for the missing wife of a Blackbough hunter named Niellen, Geralt discovers that wolves were not responsible for her disappearance at all. Instead, players are drawn deeper into a family secret involving betrayal and murder, ultimately forcing them to choose between two monsters and decide whether a comforting lie or an uncomfortable truth serves the greater good.
How to Begin the Hunt
The quest becomes available as soon as players complete the game’s prologue and set foot in Velen for the first time. To trigger it, Geralt must locate and read the “Missing Wife” notice pinned to a notice board before tracking down Niellen, the hunter who posted the contract. He can be found standing in front of his hut in Blackbough, where he pleads for help recovering his wife, Hanna.
Players may optionally speak with the local butcher and his wife before venturing into the surrounding forest to search for Hanna. There, a pack of wolves ambushes Geralt, but defeating them only marks the beginning of the encounter. Once the beasts are slain, Margrit, Hanna’s sister, intercepts him and urgently demands that he lie to Niellen about what truly happened to her sister.
The Choices That Shape the Story
The first pivotal decision arrives immediately after the wolf fight: players may accept Margrit’s bribe or refuse it. Agreeing rewards Geralt with 55 crowns and replaces his objective with instructions to tell Niellen that Hanna is dead, though he can still investigate independently. Refusing sends Margrit off in anger while preserving the original mission to search for signs of Hanna.
Lying to Niellen remains possible only by accepting Margrit’s proposal, but this path carries a critical point of no return. Once players witness the werewolf firsthand, they can no longer spare Niellen if they took the money. Those who declined the bribe remain locked into quest endings where Niellen meets his demise regardless of their later decisions.
“It’s never that simple, is it? Now you have to decide whether to tell a lie, investigate further, and perhaps even choose between two monsters.”
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt guide
To uncover the truth, Geralt must activate his Witcher senses in the same glade where he battled the wolves. On the southwest edge lies Hanna’s corpse, and following a trail of claw marks, torn clothing, and werewolf scent leads northwest to the Isolated Shack. Behind this structure, players discover a hidden cellar accessed down a slope, revealing the werewolf’s lair.
All Possible Outcomes
Blasting the cellar door with the Aard sign unleashes the werewolf, whom Geralt eventually confronts near death. At that moment, Margrit intervenes and begs him to spare the creature, who is revealed to be Niellen himself. Players then face a final choice: refuse Margrit’s plea and kill Niellen, or allow the hunter to slaughter his own sister before turning on Geralt with no option for refusal.
Weighing both decisions yields three distinct outcomes across The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. In one scenario, agreeing with Margrit while avoiding sight of the werewolf lets her survive briefly before being killed by the creature herself, leaving Niellen as the sole survivor to wander beyond the village. Alternatively, defeating the werewolf and stopping Niellen from killing Margrit results in his death while she escapes the village still weeping.
The most grim outcome occurs when players permit Niellen to kill Margrit before dispatching him himself, ensuring both the murderer and the werewolf perish while villagers wrongly assume wolves were responsible. Though debate continues over which path is morally superior, sparing Niellen offers the kindest resolution for those willing to tolerate a werewolf roaming the countryside.
Looking Ahead
To determine what became of each survivor, players should return to Blackbough after completing the quest, where a peasant seated behind the northeast house eagerly shares gossip about the aftermath. This path rewards Geralt with the greatest financial gain, granting 55 crowns from Margrit and an additional 10 crowns from Niellen when he chooses mercy over retribution.
The “Wild at Heart” quest remains a standout example of The Witcher 3’s narrative depth, demonstrating how a seemingly simple missing-persons case can spiral into profound ethical questions. With multiple endings shaped entirely by player agency, the mission continues to challenge veterans and newcomers alike as they weigh the cost of truth against the comfort of lies.
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