Overview
High Stakes is a secondary quest in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, set at the Passiflora in Novigrad. It is a gwent tournament with a 1,000-crown entry fee and a strong deck required. It will not appear before the opening scene of Pyres of Novigrad in Hierarch Square.
Build your deck first, for example through Gwent: Old Pals and Gwent: Big City Players. Once you sign up, you cannot leave to improve it, and wandering away fails the quest. Losing a match also fails Collect ‘Em All. Do not start it while Blindingly Obvious is active.
The tournament
Read the notice near St. Gregory’s Bridge and sign up with the scribe. A card player named Sasha introduces Geralt to the other entrants. You may switch decks between rounds.
- Bernard Tulle, Northern Realms deck, Foltest: The Steel-Forged.
- Sasha, Nilfgaardian deck, Emhyr var Emreis: The Relentless.
- Finneas, Scoia’tael deck, Francesca Findabair: Queen of Dol Blathanna. He takes defeat badly and starts a fistfight.
- Count Tybalt, Monsters deck, Eredin: Bringer of Death.
After the first match, Sasha proposes teaming up to get the prize money. Hear her out: it is needed for the best ending.
To catch a thief
After the final, the scribe announces that the prize money has been stolen. Sasha swears it was not her. Upstairs, Witcher Senses find a body, a trail and a crossbow bolt on the terrace. A scent leads to a crate with a guild seal that Sasha recognizes, pointing to a warehouse on the docks. Climb the scaffolding at the back and go in through the window. The thief is Bernard Tulle, and he and his men have to be fought.
Sasha then invites Geralt to dinner at The Kingfisher. If he accepts and spends the night, she slips away before he wakes, leaving a letter on the pillow signed Cantarella. It has no effect on Triss or Yennefer. Either way, Geralt collects his share of the prize.