After choosing which game mode you wish to start, you’ll get to choose your starting difficulty, among other options, and if you chose to start a “Fresh Save” or “New Game+” you’ll be presented with a curious choice: to “Simulate a Witcher 2 Save” or not. This page will explain the pros and cons of simulating a Witcher 2 save, including what quests and encounters are affected by doing so, and what choices you’ll get if you choose to not simulate a Witcher 2 save.

• Should you simulate a Witcher 2 Save?: If you choose “No” you will miss out on the secondary quest Ghosts of the Past with no upside whatsoever. Choosing “Yes” will let you choose your Witcher 2 decisions during the quest Imperial Audience, where you can respond with “That alliance still alive? What happened to Letho?” to gain access to Ghosts of the Past.

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You can simulate a Witcher 2 save to set some of the choices made in the last game, or decline and you’ll get to pick these outcomes later in the game.

Simulating a Witcher 2 Save Outcomes¶

You’ll get to make plenty of meaningful choices as you play through The Witcher 3, and that’s not new to the franchise - some of the choices you could have made in the previous game carry over to this one, and this option simulates some of those choices for you. If you choose “No” these choices will be made for you, and if you don’t know any story beats from The Witcher 2, this might seem like the safe option. Presumably you don’t know who most of the characters are or the context behind the choices being made, and with one exception there’s not a whole lot that changes.

If you choose “Yes” you’ll be questioned about these events later in the game and your dialogue choices will set what happened, allowing you to manually choose which outcomes you prefer. This is arguably the better choice, as you’ll gain access to a new quest and character who will play a role in some mid-game events. You won’t get a chance to determine these until the main quest Imperial Audience, which occurs immediately after the prologue events in White Orchard:

Witcher 2 Choices and Consequences¶

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(1 of 5) If you choose to simulate a Witcher 2 save, you’ll be able to pick various world states for The Witcher 3 during the quest “Imperial Audience”, including whether Aryan is alive,

Simulate Witcher 2 Save Default Settings¶

The Letho choice is by far the most significant carry-over from The Witcher 2, and if you do not “Simulate a Witcher 2 Save” the default condition is that Letho is dead. Most other choices only affect the attitudes and dialogue of the odd non-essential NPC - at worst you’ll get a snippy response during a quest. The following world states are in effect if you choose the “No” option when asked if you want to “Simulate a Witcher 2 Save”:

• Aryan La Valette was spared.
• Geralt escaped Flotsam with Roche.
• Geralt saved Triss at Loc Muinne.
• Sile de Tansarville is dead.
• Letho is dead.

For this guide we chose the “Yes” option and will instead choose our own answers during Imperial Audience, during which we will pick the options “She escaped.” when asked about Sile de Tansarville and “That alliance still alive? What happened to Letho?” when “alliances with Witchers” is brought up. This will keep both of them alive and allow Sile de Tansarville to make an admittedly inconsequential appearance during [The Great Escape] and since Letho will be alive we’ll gain access to the quest Ghosts of the Past. Aside from the aforementioned missable quest, however, your choices don’t matter too much, and you’ll be able to get all the achievements and follow 99% of this guide without any issue whatsoever even if you don’t “Simulate a Witcher 2 Save”.

Once you’ve made this choice you’ll have finally survive the onslaught of choices leveled at players seeking to start a new Witcher 3 playthrough and can confidently continue on to the tutorial quest, Kaer Morhen.