This guide will show you how to defeat Iris’ Greatest Fear in The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt: preparation tips, fight mechanics, and rewards for taking down the boss!
This guide is up-to-date for The Witcher 3 Next-Gen version (Update 4.04)
Iris’ Greatest Fear is the final boss from the “Scenes from a marriage” quest. This is part of the Hearts of Stone expansion. The quest and the boss are recommended for level 35 or higher. If you use this guide, you may be able to defeat the boss at a much lower level, it would just be a bit slower.
This boss fight can be extremely frustrating because of how few mistakes you’re allowed to make. Sometimes it only takes one misplay and your health bar will drop to zero before you can spell Gwent. But don’t worry, this guide will cover everything you need to know so that you don’t get stuck even when playing on Death March.
How to prepare for the fight
At this point in the game, boss fights are more serious, and having fancy feet won’t be enough to defeat the more powerful enemies. Bringing a good armor set, a silver sword with proper oil, and combining the right decoctions and potions is key if you want to avoid getting stuck in these fights. Especially if you play on the higher difficulties.
In case you need a hint, here’s what I recommend using to beat this fight in Death March difficulty:
The Mastercrafted Wolven Armor Set and Silver Sword are always a safe bet. It’s up to you to build your Geralt however you wish. The Wolven set is the most versatile of all. It provides balanced bonuses and boosts multiple interchangeable and even mixed playstyles.
The slow that Blizzard provides can be very useful, use the highest tier you have available.
The Olgierds you encounter in this fight are Ethereals that belong to the Specter category. Specter Oil increases Geralt’s damage significantly against them.
The Ekhidna Decoction allows Geralt to recover Vitality when performing actions that consume Stamina.
Having the Archgriffin Decoction will make strong attacks consume all Stamina (if available) and reduce 5% of the target’s Vitality after normal damage is calculated.
The two decoctions combined will make your strong attacks deal an increased amount of damage while also restoring some of your Vitality.
The 
Dancing Star and 
Northern Wind Bombs can be life-saving but there’s a risk involved in using them. I’ll explain in the next section but I don’t consider these to be necessary to complete the fight.
Fight Mechanics and Recommendations
This fight is very straightforward but doesn’t mean it’s easy. Interacting with the note on the table will trigger a cutscene.
Before doing this I recommend that you use Quen so Geralt starts the fight with the shield and full Stamina. Unless you use another perk to give you a Quen shield when the fight starts. Remember to re-cast Quen as soon as possible after getting hit.
Once the fight has begun, you’ll notice that there’s a total of six Olgierds. I prefer to call them by the character name whose form they represent, but as I mentioned earlier, these are Ethereal beings.
One of the creatures is going to attack you while the others remain immobile. If you hit one or more of the non-attacking Olgierds they will join the fight, be very careful when using Bombs or signs like Aard or Igni.
To avoid this go to the other side of the room, this will allow you to fight without having to worry about hitting more than one enemy. Do not let yourself get cornered or you might get stun-locked.
If you end up fighting against multiple enemies the Northern Wind Bomb is useful to slow them down. While they are affected by the slow you can use the Dancing Star Bomb to damage all of them or retreat to recover Stamina and Vitality. If you’re out of Northern Wind Bombs then using Yrden is a less efficient alternative.
Olgierd’s attacks are simple and telegraphed but that doesn’t mean that you can lower your guard. His most common attack is a rapid succession of sword strikes that is followed by a powerful strike.
You can block the first part but be careful if attempting to hit him between each strike. They are very fast and you can lose half your health if he hits you multiple times.
The second part of this attack is very powerful, you can’t parry it, and blocking it will only leave you stunned. Roll out of the way.
After the multiple-strike animation ends, you have a small window of time to hit him and deal as much damage as possible. Do not get greedy, if you stand in front of Olgierd for more than just a few seconds he’ll spew a dark substance that stuns.
Creating space is necessary when you need precious time to recover Vitality or Stamina but even when you’re on the other side of the room Olgierd can reach you in just a few seconds.
He’ll vanish and then appear in front of you, this is one of his most devastating attacks. Do not get hit by it.
The good news is that the first two Olgierds do not perform this attack, if you’re far from them they’ll walk to your position like any regular humanoid enemy.
Powerful attacks can be interrupted by Aard or hitting Olgierd at the right moment. Successfully interrupting him will leave him vulnerable for a few seconds. You’re going to notice red “vapor”, use strong attacks to deal as much damage as possible.
This is a high-risk high-reward tactic, if you can’t play at a high framerate or your reaction time isn’t optimal then the best choice might be to simply roll out of the way.
It might be hard to remember all information so here’s a quick summary:
- Use oils/potions/decoctions wisely.
- Do not hit more than one enemy at once.
- Attack Olgierd only a few times before he can stun you.
- Cast Quen after getting hit and avoid the enemy’s strong attacks. Evading attacks isn’t as flashy as parrying them but it’s easier to defeat Iris’ Greatest Fear if you choose to do it.
There’s an achievement that you can get by fighting (and defeating) all six Olgierds at once. I really do not recommend attempting this on your first try unless you’re extremely over-leveled.
I hope you found this guide to the Iris’ Greatest Fear boss encounter from Hearts of Stone helpful! Good luck on the path, witcher!
