White Orchard is the first open world zone you can explore in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt after finishing Kaer Morhen tutorial. It takes aproximately a few hours to finish all tasks available here.
This well-to-do village is famous for its fruit orchards, whose boughs burst out in white blossoms come spring, but also for the top-quality, furniture-grade lumber harvested from the Vulpine Woods.
The commander of the Nilfgaardian garrison in White Orchard knew where Yennefer had gone. Shrewdly, he was unwilling to share this information for free. A man with substantial experience, he knew full well Geralt would do anything to find the sorceress. As luck would have it, there was a griffin about, a beast the commander's soldiers had been unable to hunt down. The commander could demand but one thing: the monster's head in exchange for his help.
Once discovered, signposts allow you to travel directly from one location to another. Walk up to a signpost and use it to open ingame map.
SignpostAbandoned VillageWhen you draw on a Place of Power for the first time, you receive an additional Ability Point.
Place of powerAard SignOffers of work for witchers are posted here. Return from time to time to notice boards you've already seen - new contracts might have been posted since your last visit.
Notice boardWhite Orchard Notice Board
Quest: Missing in Action (-)
Contract: Devil by the Well (2)
It's always some kind of box, chest or a corpse containing witcher gear diagrams required for scavenger hunt quests.
Scavenger huntViper School Gear
One of the skeletons in the crypt.
Diagram: Serpentine silver sword
Quest item: Letter from witcher Kolgrim of the Viper School
Scavenger huntViper School Gear
Chest in Bandit Camp.
Diagram: Serpentine steel sword
Quest item: Interrogation report
Hidden treasure questDeserter Gold (3)
Loot Spy's notes from the crate.
Hidden treasure questDirty Funds (2)
Loot Scrawled notes from the chest inside tent.
Hidden treasure questTemerian Valuables (4)
Loot Temerian lily key from the body lying on the shore.
Dive and use it to open locked chest on the bottom.
Hidden treasureHidden treasure for Deserter Gold (3) quest
Chest is inside a small cellar, entrance is located in a nearby house.
Hidden treasureHidden treasure for Dirty Funds (2) quest
Chest is in the corner of the biggest tent.
Hidden treasureHidden treasure for Temerian Valuables (4) quest
Chest is inside a small cellar, entrance is located in a nearby house.
It's always some kind of box, chest or a dead body containing some goods and guarded by one or more monsters.
Guarded treasureEvery nest is guarded by monsters of a specific type. Use bombs to destroy it. Do not forget to loot it after its destruction.
Monster nestMonster Nest - GhoulsKill all the opponents in the area. There is always a treasure chest somewhere in the camp.
Bandit campA place abandoned due to monster or bandit attacks. Once the danger is eliminated, it will fill with life once more.
Abandoned siteYou will find more info about quests further below. Warning: Quest descriptions contain a lot of spoilers!
QuestA Frying Pan, Spick and Span (-)Description of the main story quests taking place in the White Orchard is here - Main Story, Prologue.
Secondary questMissing in Action (-) - Posted on White Orchard Notice Board
As it turned out, Geralt was not alone in searching White Orchard for a lost loved one. The witcher also found the notice of a peasant who was seeking his brother. The brother had left home to take up arms against Nilfgaard. The forces of the North and the Black Ones had then clashed in a great battle near the brothers' home village, and the peasant had not heard from his sibling since.
- Find Dune Vildenvert.
- Meet Dune near the battlefield.
- Using your Witcher Senses, search for Temerian shields with small white flowers painted on them.
- Go back and help Dune.
- Follow the dog's trail. - You can help Rhosyn or abandon him.
Quest completed.
Secondary questTwisted Firestarter (-)
There were only a handful of nonhumans in White Orchard. One of them was the dwarf Willis, an excellent blacksmith whose wares attracted peasants from far and wide. Sadly, his forge had burned to the ground shortly before Geralt arrived. Willis suspected the fire had been started deliberately and asked the witcher to investigate this alleged arson.
- Use your Witcher Senses to look behind the forge for clues about the arsonist. - Examine the boot prints behind the hut.
- Follow the trail using your Witcher Senses. - Follow the tracks to the river, under the bridge and back to village to one of the houses.
- Look for someone with wounds dealt by drowners using your Witcher Senses. - Napp is an arsonist.
- Talk to the suspect. - You can agree to Napp's offer and tell blacksmith you couldn't find an arsonist or take him to the blacksmith - you can use Axii sign or beat him down, then...
- Defeat the arsonist in a fistfight.
- Escort the arsonist back to the blacksmith.
Quest completed.
Secondary questA Frying Pan, Spick and Span (-)
Many think that the life of a witcher consists of nothing but adventure after grand adventure, an endless stream of contracts on manticores, bruxae and other exotic beasts. In truth, Geralt would often take on more banal tasks, ones lesser bards fear mentioning, for they lack the skill required to make a masterwork of the mundane. By way of example, once in White Orchard he was hired to retrieve a woman's... frying pan.
- Break into the locked hut. - Use Aard sign.
- Look around inside the hut for a frying pan using your Witcher Senses.
- Search the hut and use your Witcher Senses to determine what happened there.
- Return the frying pan to the old woman.
Quest completed.
Secondary questOn Death's Bed (2)
Once again Geralt had a near impossible choice to make - a choice between a greater and lesser evil. While preparing to hunt the griffin, he had come across one of the beast's victims - a simple peasant woman named Lena. She had been on her way to meet her lover when the griffin attacked. The beast had mortally wounded her. A witcher's potion could save her life... or cause her to perish in agony.
- Brew a dose of the Swallow potion.
- Take the potion to the herbalist.
Quest completed.
Secondary questPrecious Cargo (-)
The merchant Geralt found standing by the side of the road in White Orchard was extremely distraught. He had been hauling some precious goods to the Nilfgaardian camp when his horse spooked and veered off the road, pulling the merchant's cart with it and dumping the whole works in the foggy swamp outside the camp. The poor horse became trapped in the muck and soon was devoured by the monsters who inevitably lurk in such places. The merchant was understandably afraid to go retrieve his goods, and thus asked the witcher to do it for him - in return for a sizable reward.
- Find the little box the merchant mentioned using your Witcher Senses.
- Use your Witcher Senses to find where the cart left the road.
- Find the cart.
- Look around the cart for evidence about the attack using your Witcher Senses.
- Return the box to the merchant. - You can return the box to the merchant and complete the quest or tell him that he is a liar, then...
- Chase down the merchant.
- Knock the merchant off his horse. - You can take merchant to Nilfgaardians or let him go (with or without medicine).
Quest completed.
Witcher contractDevil by the Well (2) - Posted on White Orchard Notice Board
In White Orchard Geralt happened across a notice posted by a certain Odolan residing in the village. The man wanted someone to take out the monster who was haunting the area around an old well - and doing so required a professional. This was as typical of witcher work as they come, so Geralt decided to talk to the man.
- Ask Odolan about the contract.
- Find the spirit that haunts the well.
- Find evidence of the spirit's presence using your Witcher Senses. - Examine burned body and grass around the well.
- Read the entry about noonwraiths in the Bestiary.
- Find out what binds the noonwraith to the ruined village. - Jump into the well, dive and find severed arm with Ornate bracelet then get out of the water.
- Find a way out of the cave.
- Leave the cave. - Go back to the village and find Yellowed diary inside one of the houses.
- Read the diary from the ruined house. - Then examine skeleton on the ground (same building where diary is).
- Follow the drag marks using your Witcher Senses. - Check the marks inside house and marks on the well.
- Use your Witcher Senses to examine the well.
- Light a fire to destroy the noonwraith's bones and bracelet.
- Prepare to fight the noonwraith and light a fire near the well.
- Defeat the noonwraith.
- Take a trophy from the noonwraith.
- Return to Odolan for a reward.
Quest completed. Now, if you want, you can go to Tomira (Herbalist) and speak with her about her old friend.
Treasure huntDirty Funds (2)
During his stay in White Orchard, a certain letter found its way into Geralt's possession. Intrigued by its appearance, he decided to read it first chance he got.
- Read the letter you found.
- Find the bandits' treasure using your Witcher Senses. - Treasure is inside one of the chests at Bandit Camp
Quest completed.
Treasure huntDeserter Gold (3)
Discipline is the backbone of any army. Everything must be written down, every order signed and archived in triplicate. This proved a boon to Geralt on one occasion, when he came across a document written in a soldier's hand. It was sparse and contained few details, but what it did divulge was intriguing, to say the least...
- Read the letter you found.
- Find the deserters' cache using your Witcher Senses. - Chest is inside a small cellar, entrance is located in a nearby house
Quest completed.
Treasure huntTemerian Valuables (4)
Whenever I would ask the witcher for his opinion concerning my latest sonnet, elegy or even couplet, he'd always claim he hadn't the time. Yet time he had aplenty when it came to reading letters found on corpses or lying about monster nests. Perhaps that was because they, unlike my writings, often proved the path to significant riches...
- Read the document you found.
- Find the lost Temerian treasure using your witcher Senses. - Chest is inside a small cellar, entrance is located in a nearby house
Quest completed.
Treasure huntScavenger Hunt: Viper School Gear (6)
While traveling the downtrodden lands of Velen and the former Temerian border regions, Geralt found clues about the location of a set of diagrams for crafting the legendary equipment once worn by the Viper School of witchers. Motivated by curiosity and the prospect of acquiring these priceless objects, he decided to pursue this lead.
- Find diagrams for all the elements of Viper School gear. - You are looking for silver and steel sword diagrams.
Additional objectives:
- Find Kolgrim's remains.
- Read Kolgrim's letter.
- Read the report.