Part of the Witcher 3’s charm is its many sidequests. They can range from the ones that give you the strongest swords in the game to the ones that tell an amazing story. Players generally enjoy getting to meet and bond with new characters. In fact, some say it’s even recommended to do so before continuing with the main quest. This is because some characters from the side quests may appear later in the main quest, as well. The Reason of State Witcher 3 secondary quest is one such quest.
The Reason of State side quest deals with a plan to murder Radovid and the various outcomes, which we’ll talk about later.
If you’re stuck on this quest and don’t know which steps to take to get the outcome you want, this guide is for you. We’ll cover everything from start to finish, including how to trigger the quest, all the choices and outcomes, and how it affects the game later on.
Keep reading for all the information on the Reason of State Witcher 3 secondary quest!
How to trigger The Reason of State Witcher 3 Quest
There are a few prerequisites for the Reason of State secondary quest to trigger. You must first complete A Deadly Plot. Then, make sure you’ve obtained and completed (or failed) An Eye for an Eye and Redania’s Most Wanted. Finally, make sure you’ve bribed Dijkstra with information about Emhyr, the Nilfgaardian Emperor, during the Blindingly Obvious main quest.
Once you’ve completed these prerequisites, Dijkstra will tell you to meet him near a warehouse near Novigrad Docks at the end of Blindingly Obvious. This will trigger the Reason of State secondary quest.
It’s important to note that coming to this location triggers another side quest, Warehouse of Woe, which fails if you leave the area. If you haven’t already, you can take your time completing this quest, as Reason of State does not fail if you leave the area.
Enter the warehouse to start the quest by hearing Dijkstra, Roche, and Thaler having a conversation on the upper floor.
Can you Fail The Reason of State?
It’s possible to fail Reason of State if you start On Thin Ice before completing this quest. As a precaution, once you’ve reached the Battle Preparations main quest, you should stop advancing the quests until you can finish up Reason of State.
It’s also possible to fail the quest by picking the wrong dialogue options. As a general idea, the wrong dialogue options are the ones that may result in Geralt backing out of the plan.
Other than these two options, there are no other ways to fail Reason of State. It’s simple yet still requires a bit of attention. If you aren’t tracking where you are in the main quest, it’s easy to fail it.
Is the Reason of State Missable?
This quest is also missable if you haven’t completed one (or multiple) of the prerequisites.
Not bribing Dijkstra, in particular, makes this quest missable. If you choose to fight him instead of bribing him during Blindingly Obvious, the quest will not trigger at all. This counts as missing the quest.
6-step guide to the Reason of State
The Reason of State Witcher 3 secondary quest is possible to complete through 6 simple steps. We’ve listed all the steps below which should make completing this quest smooth and easy.
STEP 1: Follow the marker on your map to the warehouse in Novigrad. Enter the warehouse after knocking on the door to find Dijkstra, Roche, and Thaler on the upper floor. Climb up the stairs to find them.
STEP 2: Choose the correct dialogue options so as not to fail the quest. You can consider all dialogue options that result in Geralt agreeing with the proposed plan to be safe options during this step. If you disagree with being part of the plan, the quest fails.
STEP 3: Find Radovid’s ship at the Novigrad docks. There’ll be a Redanian soldier you can talk to. Tell him you want to speak with Radovid and he should let you in.
STEP 4: Kill the 5 Redanian soldiers around you.
STEP 5: Follow Roche and dispose of any enemies you run into along the way. You’ll receive some XP for this step of the quest.
STEP 6: This is where you can decide whether to help Roche or leave him. Keep in mind that choosing to help him leads to more combat whereas not helping him ends the quest there. If you choose to help Roche, you’ll have to fight 7 of Dijkstra’s men. Once you’ve killed them all, you’ll have to fight Dijkstra himself. This completes the quest with the choice of helping Roche.
All choices and outcomes in the Reason of State Witcher 3 Quest
At the end of Reason of State, there are two possible choices to make. You can either help the Temerians fight Dijkstra or you can leave them to die.
As we said, helping the Temerians means you’ll have to kill Dijsktra and his men. This choice also helps Nilfgaard win the war against Redania. It also helps the Temerians restore Temeria to its former glory thanks to an agreement with Emhyr, the Nilfgaardian Emperor.
However, leaving the Temerians sacrifices Roche, Ves, and Thaler. Dijkstra also becomes chancellor of Redania. Redania wins the war against Nilfgaard. Dijkstra continues to invade as he decides becoming chancellor of Redania was not enough. Unless you really hate Nilfgaard, this is generally regarded as the bad ending.
What is the best choice in The Reason of State
The overall best choice in the Reason of State Witcher 3 quest is helping the Temerians.
Killing Dijkstra and his men restores Temeria to its former glory and helps Nilfgaard win the war against Redania. Roche, Ves, and Thaler also survive in this outcome.
If Roche survives, the Witcher can recruit him to aid in the battle of Kaer Morhen against the Wild Hunt. It’s important for the player to have as many allies and helpers as possible considering this battle is one of the biggest and most important ones in the game.
Finally, making this choice is important and a requirement for Ciri’s Empress Ending. This ending is the best outcome for Ciri at the end of the game.
What happens if you don’t do the Reason of State Quest at all!?
The most obvious outcome of not doing the Reason of State quest is the Empress Ending for Ciri becoming unavailable. This makes the next most likely ending for Ciri the Witcher Ending.
However, the quest automatically fails once you start On Thin Ice. Nothing else in the game changes as you are in the end game anyway and have only a few quests to go before you finish The Witcher 3.
Still, this is not the recommended route if you want to get the best ending for Ciri.
How does the Reason of State affect Ciri?
As we previously mentioned, Reason of State is a mandatory quest for Ciri’s Empress Ending.
Not doing the quest or choosing to leave the Temerians locks you out of this ending. This leaves two endings for her once you complete the game.
The question of which ending is actually the best one for Ciri has been a topic of debate for many years now. There are good and bad aspects of each ending and it all comes down to personal preference and choosing the lesser of two evils. The Witcher ending may be simpler and make her happier, but the Empress ending is safer for her.
