The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt released for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S this week, with the upgrade bringing with it enhanced visuals, performance, and balance tweaks. More importantly is that all platforms gain a new quest that is inspired by Netflix’s The Witcher series – currently still starring Henry Cavill. The quest even awards you with some new armour and weapon plans inspired by the series.
The quest, ‘In the Eternal Fire’s Shadow’, is a little tricky, so we’re here to help you find it and survive it.
Where can I find the new Witcher 3 quest?
You can access the new quest in Devil’s Pit as soon as you enter Velen, having completed the game’s opening in White Orchard, but a word of warning: it has recommended level of 15, and for good reason!
Yes, you can reach the final boss quite easily, but I struggled to beat it until I’d hit level 10. If you are doing the quest specifically to wear the armour, this requires you to be level 20 before you can use it.
While you’ll want to level up, you can find the quest very, very easily. The In the Eternal Fire’s Shadow quest is located just East of where you arrive in Velen at the accurately named Hang Man’s Tree. You might even remember the quest’s setting, as the Devil’s Pit had previously been full of bandits, but no side quests. In case you don’t however, here it is on the map.
How to complete ‘In the Eternal Fire’s Shadow’ quest
If you make your way to the south side of this large circular area (watching out for nekkers and wild dogs), you’ll bump into an Eternal Fire priest who naturally has a quest for you. He wants to find the source of the mysterious plague in the mines below the pit and he’s willing to pay you to do it for him. After you haggle as you see fit and accept, he’ll give you a key to the mines.
Head into the pit and prepare for a pretty easy fight as you face level 9 deserters, but only need to fight them one or two at a time. Once you’ve dealt with them, you’ll find a corpse to examine on the ground at the bottom of the pit in front of the below door, except your door will be closed. Use your key to change that. Remember to keep your finger on the Witcher Senses button so you can take all the loot as you continue through the quest – there’s plenty around Devil’s Pit.
Continue into the mine until you find some stairs on the right. Head up these stairs to find Reinald’s note which contains important quest-related information and story. Continue further into the cave and you’ll find a door and another note from Reinald. Turns out Reinald is a Witcher, so should keep an eye out for the Witcher insignia for where to go. You’ll also start to hear a spooky ghost voice, but I wouldn’t trust it if I was you! Continue until you come to the area below and note the Witcher insignia.
Search the nearby room (on the left) whilst ignoring the spooky voice’s protests to find some misc loot and bodies to examine. If you have the lantern from Keira Metz already, there’s some ghosts to look at as well.
Now head down the stairs – careful of the barrels the voice is talking around – until the cave splits in two. Again, ignore the voice which is telling you to go right, and instead follow the Witcher signs that lead left.
You’ll find yourself facing a bridge (below). Head across it, but note there’s also ledge you can jump to on the left with some loot. On the other side of the bridge you’ll find the third Reinald letter and some broken bricks that you can use Aard to break and uncover some corpses. Delightful!
Examine the corpses and break the other wall that there doesn’t seem to be anything behind, then you’ll see an insignia by a door. Go through to find a plagued figure that you can interact with for a mildly unsettling cutscene. Go further down the passage you’ll find some blood and a few rooms to loot (pictured below), a door you can Aard open also for loot, and a wall you can climb for a note from a priest.
Follow the path and jump over the broken bridge to find that the cave splits. Head left for Reinald’s fourth letter and a runestone, then go back to take the remaining path on the right for a warning from the spooky voice. You’ll then come to an obvious combat area (below) that triggers a cutscene when you drop down into it. These enemies are level fourteen plague victims. This can be tough if you’re below level 10.
Once you’ve defeated the plague victims, search the rooms on the right to find a torture chamber and another letter from the priest. Then jump into the room on the left, Aard a door and find a name for the monster – a red miasmal – and a recipe for Reinald’s Philtre.
Craft the Philtre (go and buy the ingredients from a herbalist if you need to as this is essential), and now you can read about the red miasmal in the bestiary. Turns out its only weakness is – you guessed it – Reinald’s Philtre!
From outside this room you can drop down to fight a plague victim, after a while you’ll come to a split in the cave. Turning left leads back outside (Geralt will mention it’s the way out if you try to go that way), so continue right to fight three more plague victims then jump up to the ledge from the platform shown in the image below.
Here you’ll find a large door with Reinald’s last note on it. Read the note, then open the door to finally find Reinald, held in place by salty stalagmites.
Prepare for a boss fight
At this point you’re going to want to meditate to refill your health and potions, ensure your silver sword doesn’t need repairing, and save the game – it’s time for a final boss battle. You will have also been given multiple Greater Yyrden Runestones that you can slot into your armour that might help, especially with the alternate use of the sign.
Reinald can be freed using Aard to break his salty prison, triggering a cutscene. You have the opportunity to test Reinald to see if he is actually Reinald by asking him about his friend “Lambert.” This is actually one of Geralt’s friends (another Witcher), and Reinald doesn’t notice he shouldn’t know the name.
It’s pretty clear that Reinald is dead and you’re speaking to the red miasmal, which is trying to trick you into giving it the potion you’ve just made. take the potion yourself (in the cutscene) and get ready to fight Reinald!
How to defeat Reinald & the Red Miasmal
Reinald is quite easy to defeat if you’ve been paying attention – one of Reinald letters says that the way to get the spectre out of its host is first using Yyrden to trap it, then using Aard to push it from the body. After you’ve used Aard on it a few times, you’ll have to fight the red miasmal itself.
This is a challenging fight, as it can take quite a bit of damage and summons three plague victims on two separate occasions in the fight – once about a third of the way through its health bar and again at two thirds.
To beat the red miasmal, I recommend heavy use of Quen and Yyrden, especially if you’ve taken advantage of the many runestones found in the cave. The alternate Yyrden can be invaluable here as it’ll just keep damaging nearby enemies, which is useful to chip away at the red miasmal and the help take care of its helpers.
Once the miasmal is down, you’ll get a surprisingly lengthy cutscene that’s very well delivered and written. You have the option of going to retrieve the priest for Reinald’s ghost to speak to (which thankfully happens in the cutscene so you don’t have to traipse outside), then if you choose the dialogues “not all priests are wicked” and “don’t need a church to do good, priest” Reinald will forgive the priest and the priest will stick around to turn the pit into a place of healing. Which is nice.
You’ll also get the plans for the Forgotten Wolf School Gear, based on the armour from the Netflix series. You cannot use it until you’re level 20, though, and you’ll also get a scavenger hunt to complete when you get to Kaer Morhen.
And that’s pretty much that! This ‘In the Eternal Fire’s Shadow’ quest is pretty short and sweet, but a nice addition to The Witcher 3 as a kind of thank you to the millions of fans of the game and to its legacy.