Phantom of the Trade Route
The Phantom of the Trade Route is a royal wyvern that hunted along the roads north of Benek. Rather than exposing itself to archers, it went after transports and caravans, and feeding on their cargo seems to have made it bigger and tougher than a normal wyvern. Merchants made matters worse by hiring refugees to walk ahead of their goods as bait.
Royal wyverns are larger than their common cousins, and one blow from this one can be enough to kill. Its charge is the attack to fear.
You hunt it in The Witcher 3 in Contract: Phantom of the Trade Route, a level 23 contract in Velen. Unusually, it never appears on a notice board. Start by talking to a refugee in Benek, finding the ransacked caravan north along the road, or finding the cave where survivors are hiding. The wine scent from the caravan leads northeast to the cave. Climb to the top, kill two wyverns, destroy two nests, and the royal wyvern arrives. It drops a wyvern trophy and the silver sword Anathema.
Combat strategy
The fight takes place on an open clifftop with a drop on one side, so pay attention to where you roll. The royal wyvern has three main moves: a spit (it rears back and stretches its neck first), a jump attack after flapping its wings, and a charge where it circles before ramming you. The charge can be interrupted.
When it goes airborne, use your crossbow or a bomb to bring it down, then punish it on the ground.
- Apply draconid oil to your silver sword.
- Use Aard to interrupt its charge.
- Grapeshot bombs and crossbow bolts help ground it.
- Drink Golden Oriole to deal with its poison.
- Stay away from the ledge; a fall is fatal.
- Clear the two smaller wyverns and nests first so the boss fight is one-on-one.
- Signs Weakness: aard
- Oil Weakness: draconid oil
- Bomb Weakness: grapeshot
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