Cockatrice

Cockatrices are draconids. The Witcher 3 journal describes one as something like a rooster crossed with a basilisk, and Geralt claims it tastes a bit like chicken. Superstition says its gaze can kill, but the bestiary sets the record straight: a cockatrice’s stare is about as dangerous as an angry goose’s. They prefer dark caves, abandoned ruins, cobwebbed dungeons and old basements.

They’re smaller than griffins or manticores, but in a cramped space a cockatrice is still deadly. It strikes furiously with its wings and tail to wear its opponent down, then goes for exposed flesh and vital organs with its beak, leaving wounds that bleed badly. Its wings are delicate, though, which is why shrapnel works so well against it.

The main cockatrice fight in The Witcher 3 is Contract: Shrieker in Velen, which takes you to the Burned Ruins after a mysterious beast. The tracks turn out to belong to a cockatrice, the Shrieker, and killing it earns a cockatrice trophy, a cockatrice stomach and a dwarven axe.

Across the games

In The Witcher, a cockatrice is at the heart of Act II in Vizima‘s Temple Quarter. In the main quest Prison Break, the jailed Geralt has to beat a thug for the chance to win his freedom by killing the cockatrice that lives in the sewers. Afterwards, the jailer Jethro suggests he take the beast’s head to Vincent, which leads into The Beast of the Sewers, where Vincent pays 400 orens and 3,000 XP for the head.

In Act III, a town hall scribe in the Trade Quarter wants five cockatrice feathers, which last much longer than goose quills. The contract needs a Bestiary entry on cockatrices before it can be handed in, and it pays 200 orens and 5,000 XP.

Prison Break (Act II, main quest)
The Beast of the Sewers (Act II, secondary quest)
The Cockatrice Contract (Act III, monster contract)

Combat strategy

A cockatrice fights much like a griffin, so the same approach works. Roll to dodge its attacks rather than blocking, and pay special attention to the beak strikes, since those cause the bleeding that makes the fight drag on. Use draconid oil liberally on your silver sword, and save your Grapeshot for when it’s in the air or close by, because the shrapnel tears through its wings. Aard knocks it off balance and Igni adds damage. In tight ruins and cellars, back toward open space so you have room to roll.

Coat your silver sword with draconid oil and reapply it during long fights.
Throw Grapeshot; its shrapnel pierces the cockatrice’s fragile wings.
Cast Aard to knock it down or out of the air.
Use Igni for extra damage between Aard casts.
Roll away from its wing and tail flurries instead of trying to parry them.
Keep Quen up to blunt the bleeding from beak strikes, and carry healing potions.