Witcher 3 Remastered Best Ending: Ciri Choices & All Endings

Quick Answer

If you want Ciri to survive and become a witcher, take the supportive option when she is struggling, go directly to Velen instead of taking her to Emperor Emhyr, let her handle the Lodge herself, let her vent in Avallac’h’s laboratory, and go with her to Skjall’s grave.

Make a manual save before Blood on the Battlefield if you want control over the full ending route. Several decisions happen long before the final battle.

If by “best ending” you mean the result where Ciri survives the White Frost and chooses the witcher’s path, the important part is not Eredin’s final fight. The ending is already being shaped by a series of conversations and small decisions that begin after the Battle of Kaer Morhen.

That is what makes this ending easy to lose accidentally. Several of the “safe” or protective answers sound reasonable in the moment, but Ciri responds better when Geralt trusts her to make decisions for herself.

The Remastered version still reaches the same three Ciri outcomes: she can become a witcher, become Empress of Nilfgaard, or fail to return from the White Frost.

The Safest Route to the Ciri Witcher Ending

For the cleanest route, use this sequence:

1. After Kaer Morhen, cheer Ciri up with the snowball fight.
2. When the journey branches, go directly to Velen instead of taking Ciri to Emperor Emhyr.
3. During Final Preparations, let Ciri meet the Lodge without Geralt accompanying her.
4. In Avallac’h’s laboratory, let Ciri release her anger instead of trying to calm her down.
5. When she asks to visit Skjall’s grave, go with her.

You do not have to reach the final battle before these choices matter. By the time Geralt is preparing to sail for the confrontation with the Wild Hunt, most of the decisions that determine Ciri’s fate have already happened.

First Choice: Start the Snowball Fight After Kaer Morhen

After Vesemir’s death, Ciri is frustrated with herself and with Avallac’h’s training.

The choice that looks more serious is not the route I would use for the Witcher ending. Let Geralt break the tension and start the snowball fight instead.

This moment is easy to underestimate because it does not look like an ending decision. There is no warning, no visible score and no immediate reward. The result only becomes important much later when Ciri faces the White Frost.

If you already chose the more dismissive response here, the playthrough is not automatically ruined. The outcome is built from several decisions, so continue making supportive choices rather than restarting dozens of hours immediately.

Go to Velen Instead of Taking Ciri to Emhyr

After the Kaer Morhen sequence, the route can branch before Bald Mountain.

If your target is specifically the Ciri Witcher ending, the simplest choice is to continue toward Velen and skip the visit to Emperor Emhyr.

That avoids opening the imperial branch entirely.

This distinction matters because taking Ciri to Emhyr does not automatically cause the dark ending. It changes which future ending is available. If Ciri meets her father, survives the White Frost and Nilfgaard wins the war, the playthrough can move toward the Empress ending instead.

If You Do Visit Emhyr, Refuse the Payment

You can still keep Ciri’s survival route healthy after visiting the Emperor, but do not treat bringing her back like a paid contract.

When Emhyr offers Geralt payment, refuse it.

Accepting the money is one of the decisions that works against Ciri’s confidence. Refusing it keeps this meeting from becoming a negative moment between Geralt and Ciri.

If your only goal is the Witcher ending, however, skipping the Emperor is the cleaner route because it also prevents the imperial ending from replacing it.

Let Ciri Face the Lodge Without Geralt

During Final Preparations, Ciri has to deal with the Lodge of Sorceresses.

This is one of the easiest choices to misread. Going inside with her feels protective, especially after everything that has happened, but that protection is exactly what works against the result you are trying to build.

Let her enter the meeting herself.

The scene is about whether Geralt trusts Ciri to handle powerful people who have their own plans for her. She does not need him standing beside her to negotiate.

If you accompany her, you lose one of the supportive decisions. If you let her go alone, she handles the conversation herself and comes out having acted on her own terms.

One imperfect decision is recoverable, so do not reload an old save purely because you accompanied her unless you already know several earlier decisions also went the wrong way.

Let Ciri Wreck Avallac’h’s Laboratory

Later, in The Child of the Elder Blood, Ciri discovers how Avallac’h has been studying her lineage and hears what the elf in his laboratory thinks of her.

She becomes furious.

The safe-looking response is to tell her to calm down. For the ending route, that is the wrong instinct.

Let her release the anger.

The sequence ends with Ciri feeling better after destroying part of the room. Nothing needs to be purchased, crafted or collected here. The only thing that matters is the response you choose during the conversation.

Do not leave this choice for later. Once the scene has played and you continue toward the next objective, there is no menu where you can reverse it.

Go With Ciri to Skjall’s Grave

Immediately after the laboratory sequence, Ciri can ask for one more stop before returning to the main plan.

She wants to visit Skjall’s grave on Hindarsfjall.

Go with her.

There is no expensive detour to prepare for. You do not need a special item, crafting material or combat build to make this decision work.

The time pressure is narrative, not mechanical.

Choosing to hurry on because the Wild Hunt is still the larger threat saves a few minutes but gives up one of the most important late-game Ciri moments. Going to the grave continues the sequence, lets her bury Skjall properly and then returns you to the larger preparation for the final battle.

The Final Battle Does Not Contain a Secret Last-Minute Fix

When the preparations are complete and the group is ready to use the Sunstone, the game warns you before the final commitment.

That is the time to repair gear, refill supplies and finish anything you still intend to do before the battle.

It is not the time to repair Ciri’s ending route.

The snowball decision, Emperor branch, Lodge meeting, laboratory scene and Skjall’s grave have already happened. Choosing a brave-sounding dialogue line beside the boats cannot replace those earlier decisions.

This is why I keep the ending save farther back than the combat save. One save before the final sequence protects the boss attempt; an earlier save protects the story outcome.

How the Empress Ending Branches Off

The Empress ending starts from many of the same good decisions.

Ciri still needs to come through the White Frost successfully. The major difference is that she must have met Emperor Emhyr, and the political result of the war must leave Nilfgaard in a position to put her on the throne.

So the route is:

support Ciri → visit Emhyr → refuse his payment → reach a Nilfgaard victory → Ciri becomes Empress

Simply visiting Emhyr is not enough by itself. If the war does not end in Nilfgaard’s favor, the imperial outcome cannot replace the Witcher ending.

Likewise, refusing Emhyr’s money helps the Ciri relationship, but it does not force her to become Empress. The political conditions still have to line up.

If you want the Witcher result without worrying about those political branches, take Ciri directly to Velen earlier and leave the Emperor out of the route.

What Leads to the Dark Ciri Ending

The darker ending is not caused by losing a boss fight or missing a piece of gear. It comes from stacking too many decisions where Geralt controls, dismisses or undercuts Ciri during the final part of the story.

The dangerous pattern is:

• dismiss her after Kaer Morhen instead of helping her break the tension;
• accept Emhyr’s payment if you visit him;
• accompany her into the Lodge meeting;
• stop her from venting in Avallac’h’s laboratory;
• refuse the trip to Skjall’s grave.

You do not need to make every one of those mistakes.

The important part is that the game remembers the pattern across several quests. A player who reaches the end expecting one final “save Ciri” dialogue choice can discover that the outcome was decided much earlier.

In the dark epilogue, Ciri does not return from confronting the White Frost. Geralt later goes after the remaining Crone and recovers Vesemir’s medallion, leading into the bleakest version of the ending.

One Bad Choice Does Not Mean You Need to Restart

The late-game decisions work together rather than as five separate instant failures.

That gives you room to make a mistake.

If you accompanied Ciri into the Lodge meeting but already chose the snowball fight, supported her in the laboratory and visited Skjall’s grave, keep going. There is no reason to throw away hours of progress just because one decision was not ideal.

The point where I would seriously consider reloading is when several of those moments have already gone against Ciri and you still have an earlier save available.

Otherwise, finish the remaining decisions correctly and see where the route lands.

How You Know You Got the Witcher Ending

The epilogue initially makes the situation look worse than it is.

Geralt reports that Ciri did not return, then travels through White Orchard and collects a specially made silver sword.

The reveal comes afterward: Ciri is alive.

The ending narration confirms the result: Ciri chooses the life of a witcher on the Path, with Geralt teaching her what he knows before the two eventually continue their journeys.

If that is the ending you were aiming for, the important work was done before Eredin ever fell: trust Ciri, give her room to act for herself, and do not turn her return into a transaction or a political handoff.