The Witcher 3's 'Final' Secret Uncovered Almost Seven Years Later

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will be seven years old this May, but would you believe that its "final" secret has only just been discovered? The open world RPG is stuffed with all kinds of Easter eggs — but this particular oddity has taken players close to an entire console generation to track down.

It all starts in the Blood and Wine expansion, which released in 2016. This huge DLC features a side quest that revolves around a young woman named Vivienne, who suffers from a worsening curse that makes her take the form of a bird-like creature against her will.

Naturally, Geralt can help Vivienne deal with the curse — but as the player, you have a choice in how to approach the matter. You can either transfer the curse to another person — something that Vivienne staunchly disagrees with — or you can perform a ritual that removes the curse from Vivienne at the cost of shortening her life. The latter option leaves Vivienne with seven years to live "at most", according to Geralt.

After performing the ritual, Vivienne tells Geralt that she wishes to travel the world, and eventually visit the islands of Skellige. And just like that, some players have always wondered whether there's more to Vivienne's story. Can she be found in Skellige? Can you bump into her elsewhere during Geralt's adventures? Until now, there's been no definitive proof of Vivienne's escapades.

This is where the newly discovered secret enters the equation. As found and documented by YouTuber xLetalis, Vivienne really does end up in Skelliege — but only after seven in-game years have passed. Madness!

Actually waiting seven whole years in The Witcher 3 would take hours and hours and hours — and you'd have to keep track of the entire process. Fortunately, xLetalis was able to use console commands on PC to fast-forward the passage of time, only to find Vivienne 'dead' on the floor of Yennefer's room in Skellige.

But as noted in the video, it's all a bit buggy. Vivienne's body clips rather awkwardly through the ground, and, weirdly, you can still interact with her, prompting a generic voice line or two. It's not quite the grand discovery that players had been hoping for, but at least we know that it exists.

This particular secret has been teased by developers for a while now — and following xLetalis' work, those same devs have confirmed that this is indeed the Easter egg that they were referring to.

So yeah, that's The Witcher 3 wrapped up just in time for the game's PlayStation 5 re-release, which is supposed to be happening in the summer. Here's hoping that Vivienne enjoyed her seven years!