If you’ve read a Reddit thread about Letho in The Witcher 3 and wondered why you’ve never met him, you’re not alone. The Kingslayer from The Witcher 2 has one of the best side stories in Velen, but the game only lets him in if it thinks Geralt spared his life at the end of the previous game. If it doesn’t, he’s simply never there, and nothing in the game tells you what you missed.
The good news: you don’t need to have played The Witcher 2. You just have to give the right answer to one question early on. This guide explains how the Witcher 2 choices carry over, how to make sure Letho is alive, and how to get him all the way to Kaer Morhen without losing him on the way. There are some mild spoilers for both games below.
Quick answer
- When you start a new game, turn on Simulate Witcher 2 Save. (On PC you can import a real Witcher 2 save instead, see below.)
- In Imperial Audience, when Morvran Voorhis asks what happened to Letho, say Geralt spared him.
- In Velen, go to Reardon Manor near Lindenvale and climb the ladder in the barn. That starts Ghosts of the Past.
- Stay with Letho, don’t ruin his plan, and invite him to Kaer Morhen at the end.
- Finish it all before The Isle of Mists, or the quest fails.
How Witcher 2 choices carry over to Witcher 3
There are two ways to bring your old decisions into the game.
Simulating a Witcher 2 save (every platform)
When you start a new game, the setup screen asks whether you want to simulate a Witcher 2 save. Turn it on. Nothing happens straight away. A few hours in, after the White Orchard prologue, Geralt is taken to the imperial palace in Vizima for the main quest Imperial Audience. While he’s getting cleaned up and shaved before meeting Emhyr, Morvran Voorhis chats with him about his recent past. That conversation is the simulation: your answers decide what “really” happened in The Witcher 2.
If you leave the option off, the conversation is much shorter and the game picks a default world for you. In that default world, Letho is dead. That’s the reason so many players never meet him.
Importing a real Witcher 2 save (PC only)
On PC, the game can also read an actual save file from The Witcher 2, so your real choices carry over. Use a save from late in the game, after the ending at Loc Muinne, so Letho’s fate is already settled. The game looks for Witcher 2 saves in your Documents folder (Documents\Witcher 2\gamesaves). If you played on Steam with Steam Cloud turned on, your saves may be in Steam’s own folder instead, and then Witcher 3 only offers the simulation. Copying the save files into the Documents folder fixes that. Consoles can’t import saves at all, so there the simulation is the only way.
Honestly, the simulation is the easier route even on PC. You pick exactly the world you want, and you don’t have to dig through old folders.
The five questions and what they change
Voorhis asks about five events from The Witcher 2. Only the last one really matters, but here’s what each one does.
| Question | What it changes in Witcher 3 |
|---|---|
| Aryan La Valette: killed or spared? | How his mother Maria Louisa La Valette greets Geralt in Broken Flowers. |
| Flotsam: did Geralt leave with Vernon Roche or Iorveth? | Small changes in how Roche’s men greet Geralt at their hideout. You get Roche’s quests either way. |
| Loc Muinne: who did Geralt save, Triss or the other woman? | Background details about the mages. No big quests change. |
| Síle de Tansarville: did she escape? | If she lived, she turns up as a prisoner during The Great Escape. |
| Letho: killed or spared? | The big one. Spare him and you get Ghosts of the Past and a new ally at Kaer Morhen. Kill him and he’s not in the game. |
When Voorhis brings up the alliance and asks what happened to Letho, choose the answer where Geralt let him go. Your other answers can be whatever fits the Geralt you have in mind.
How to find Letho in Velen
Letho is hiding at Reardon Manor, an abandoned farmstead near Lindenvale in Velen. You can find it on our Velen & Novigrad interactive map. The usual way there is the side quest The Fall of the House of Reardon. Talk to Dolores Reardon in Lindenvale, or take the “Monster in my Manor!” notice from the board there. You can also just ride to the manor yourself.
With Letho alive, the manor is also rigged with booby traps. Use your Witcher Senses to spot the tripwires and disarm them. When you climb the ladder into the barn loft, you find Letho, and Ghosts of the Past begins. The recommended level is low, so you can do it as soon as you reach Velen.
One tip from our quest page: start Hazardous Goods before you go to the barn, or it stays locked until Letho’s quest is over.
Ghosts of the Past: how not to lose Letho
Letho isn’t exactly on holiday. Since Loc Muinne, the Empire has wanted him gone, and bounty hunters are closing in. The quest is short, but there are a few moments where one wrong move ends it for good.
- Talk to Letho in the barn. Bounty hunters show up almost at once, and you fight them together.
- Stay with him. Only one man, Louis, knew where Letho was hiding. Letho goes after him, and you can follow or let him go. If you wander off here, the quest ends and you’ll never see Letho again.
- Find out who paid Louis. Before he dies, Louis gives up the name of the man behind the bounty, Arnout Vester.
- Don’t ruin the plan in Lindenvale. Letho draws Vester’s men out and appears to go down under their fire. He has a plan, so don’t be too quick to step in. The best outcome is to stay out of the fight and let the hunters take his medallion as proof of the kill. If you start a fight, Letho survives, but he isn’t pleased with you.
- Invite him to Kaer Morhen. When it’s over, Letho talks about where to go next. Choose the line that suggests Kaer Morhen. If you just say goodbye, he leaves for good.
Letho at the Battle of Kaer Morhen
If you invited him, Letho is waiting at the fortress when the time comes, and he fights alongside Geralt, the other witchers and your friends in The Battle of Kaer Morhen. He’s one of several optional allies you can bring. You don’t need him for any achievement or ending, but it’s hard not to enjoy two old enemies holding the walls together.
Remember the deadline: if Ghosts of the Past isn’t finished by the time you start The Isle of Mists, it fails, and Letho won’t come.
Already started without the simulation?
Unfortunately, there’s no way to change your answer later. The Witcher 2 world state is locked in at the start of a new game and in that one conversation in Vizima. If you’ve only just left White Orchard, it might be worth starting over. If you’re further in, keep Letho in mind for your next playthrough. With all the ways the story can go, there’s a good chance you’ll want one anyway. Our Witcher 3 endings guide covers the choices that matter later on.
More about Letho
Want to know who Letho is and why he and Geralt have so much history? Read our page on Letho, or go through the full walkthroughs for Ghosts of the Past and The Fall of the House of Reardon. Collecting cards? He also has a Gwent card: Letho of Gulet.
