Walkthrough

Bitter Harvest is a Side Quest on the border between Velen and Novigrad. This quest is located on the south side of the large river that separates the two lands, and can be found on the remains of a large battlefield just to South of a refugee crossing.

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This quest is also closely intertwined with the Thou Shalt Not Pass and Faked Papers side quests, as helping this man can get you a discount on getting a pass to enter Novigrad.

When you first approach the man named Albin Hart, he'll be trying to fight off several Ghouls. As it happens, he and his men are trying to clean up the battlefield, but the corpse-eaters are making things hard. Your job - should you accept it, will be to guard him and his men while they work from several waves of necrophages. This can be pretty tough, since there will be multiple waves of level 7 Ghouls, a level 8 Rotfiend, and a level 9 Alghoul. You'll need to both eliminate them quickly, and keep them from attacking the workers. If they all die, the quest is lost.

If you have any Necrophage Oil, now would be a good time to use it. The first wave will consist of 3 Ghouls. Try to herd them away from the workers, and use crowd control or area of effect blasts to keep them busy. Make sure to always keep on eye on where all the creatures are, in case you need to break off and run to help.

The next wave consists of three more Ghouls, so repeat the process of herding them. Tough Albin can help you out, don't rely on him to take too much damage himself - he can be killed.

In the next wave, a Rotfield will appear with two Ghouls. Make sure to take out the Rotfiend quickly and away from the workers. Once it's health is low enough, it will start hemorrhaging the rest of its health and explode, dealing damage all around it.

The last wave consists of three more Ghouls, although one is actually a level 9 Alghoul. He may not look different, but once they begin using a self-heal mode, it can quickly out-heal the damage you do if you aren't high enough level - or don't have items like Necrophage Oil or bombs. Attack fast and hard to kill it before it can start killing others, and mop up the last few Ghouls.

If enough workers survived, the quest will be complete. If for some reason Albin Hart died, another worker will give you the reward - but the Shady Dealer selling the passes for Fake Papers will be extremely upset you let his brother die.

If all went well, you'll have gotten lots of XP, at least 70 crowns, and a great discount for passes to novigrad when you talk to the Shady Dealer.