High Stakes

High Stakes is a secondary quest in .
It requires entering a gwent tournament at the Passiflora in Novigrad. A strong deck is needed, as well as an entry fee of 1000 .
 this quest will not trigger before the initial Pyres of Novigrad cutscene at Hierarch Square.
Consider finishing the Old Pals and Big City Players quests to build a stronger deck before doing this quest. You will not have an opportunity to leave the area and strengthen your deck once you sign up for the tournament.
 If you stray too far from the Passiflora, the quest will fail. Also, winning these matches is not required to complete this quest, but it is the only way to obtain certain leader cards and complete Collect 'Em All, which will automatically fail if you lose any of the matches. Winning the tournament also unlocks the Gwent Master achievement.
 Don't start this quest if Blindingly Obvious is active, as it may fail when the meeting with Triss outside the Passiflora triggers.
== Players ==
== Walkthrough ==
Read the notice on the notice board near St. Gregory's Bridge in Novigrad to begin the quest, then head to the Passiflora and speak to the scribe to enter the tournament. You will not be allowed to continue if you don't have enough cards in your deck and pay a 1,000 entry fee (earning 100). Once you do, the Passiflora is cleared of its regular guests and Geralt has an opportunity to speak with some of the other tournament participants. Notably, Sasha will approach and tell you who else to chat up before the tournament begins.
=== Tournament Tips ===
First thing you should know is that there are no rules against changing your deck during the tournament, so you are free to play a different deck each round, including the Skellige Gwent deck if you have it. As a result, you are free to use any and all strategies against every opponent.
==== Bernard Tulle ====
He uses the Northern Realms Gwent deck and ironically uses Foltest: The Steel-Forged as the leader card, it's ironic because the card is most effective against the Northern Realms deck, as it relies the most on siege cards and this card causes the scorch effect on the opponents siege units when activated. So if you favor the Northern Realms deck yourself this may turn out to be a tough game for you, especially if you rely on Foltest: The Siegemaster.
If you have the , then you can play Foltest: Son of Medell to make the game more even. A good idea is to play a dupe strategy by using your Catapult as a shield instead of primary source of strength points, then if it is destroyed with a scorch effect play the other one in order to protect your remaining siege units. Another strategy is to rely on all your rows rather than just siege.
Alternatively you can play the Nilfgaardian Empire Gwent deck. In most cases it will work better as, while Northern Realms is strong, it is very susceptible to scorch effects and can only have up to 2 medic cards, while Nilfgaardian Empire can have up to 5. Thus you can easily overwhelm him by being able to draw more cards by reusing his and your own spy cards.
==== Sasha ====
Sasha is easily the toughest opponent in the tournament, if not the entire game. She plays the Nilfgaardian Empire deck and she relies heavily on spy cards, using her decoys and medics to use them as much as possible, though she has no weather cards. Her leader card is Emhyr var Emreis: The Relentless which she will use to draw a spy card from your discard pile as well. Thus, if you have a medic and have the first move in a next round, it's best to use it immediately and beat her to that.
The best idea is to beat her at her own game and play Nilfgaardian Empire deck as well. Select Emhyr var Emreis: The White Flame as your leader card, as that will disable her own leader card thus evening the playing field. Your deck should also contain exactly 34 cards, as if you maxed out your own decoys and medics to reuse spy cards you will be able to draw up to 24 more cards during the match - 8 for the 4 spies you can play, 6 for the 3 decoys and 10 more for 5 medics.
 strategy:
For this strategy you will be playing the Monsters Gwent deck and you must have the Eredin Bréacc Glas: The Treacherous as your leader card. This card doubles the strength of all spy cards, however, this effect can be doubled further using a Commander's Horn. This uses her spy strategy against her, as when she plays all 3 of her spies with a Commander's Horn on your close combat row it will give you 80 strength points, while also protecting your muster cards against her scorch effects.
Pack your deck with all your Muster cards, all 3 Commander's Horns, Dandelion (if you draw him, play him in the first round as he may get carried over to the next round), all 3 scorch cards (if you have the too you can instead use Skellige Storm if you already have them). Then remove your decoys as you will not be using them to reuse her spies. Other cards you should be using are the Kayran, the Olgierd von Everec card, and the Mysterious Elf card. However, be sure to use it after you have played all the muster cards you managed to draw, so you don't draw duplicates.
As soon as the round starts play a Commander's Horn in the close combat row, then play your Vampire muster cards, unless Sasha already played a spy, then you can choose another set as the spy will protect it from scorch effects. Beware as Sasha may attempt to scorch the Dandelion card, so make sure there's a higher value on the board before you play him.
==== Finneas and Count Tybalt ====
Neither requires any refined strategy to beat. Finneas plays the Scoia'tael Gwent deck, while Count Tybalt plays the Monsters Gwent deck but is rather inept.
=== The tournament ===
Geralt's first opponent is Bernard Tulle, who uses a Northern Realms deck. Defeating him yields 25 and his Foltest: The Steel-Forged (gwent card).
Regardless of whether Geralt wins or loses his match with Tulle, Sasha will approach Geralt after the match with a proposal. If you agree to hear her out, she will suggest that you work together to get the prize money. She does not provide any details regarding her plan, and instead only tells him that he should stay until the end of the tournament. Geralt should agree for the best results, and the tournament will resume.
 You have to at least hear Sasha's proposal for the best outcome of the quest. If you don't, the last portion of the quest won't be available and it will also fail if you lose any of the matches (or have already lost to Tulle).
If you defeated Tulle, your next opponent will be Sasha, but if you declined her offer and you lose, the quest will fail. If you defeat her, you'll get 50, her Emhyr var Emreis: The Relentless (gwent card) and you will move immediately to the next round, where you will face ​​​​​​Finneas, who uses a Scoia'tael deck.
If you beat him, you get another 50 and his Francesca Findabair: Queen of Dol Blathanna (gwent card). However, he will be enraged and start a fistfight. Knock him out before you can move on to the final round of the tournament.
 There is no opportunity to manually save your game in between these two opponents, however, the game does generate an autosave. The most recent one will be immediately before the fist fight, so be prepared when it loads.
Your final opponent will be Count Tybalt, who uses a strong Monster deck, as well as Torrential Rain (siege row). Defeating him awards 80 and his Eredin: Bringer of Death (gwent card).
=== To Catch a Thief ===
When the final match ends, regardless of who wins, the scribe will announce that the prize money has been stolen. Sasha assures Geralt that she was not the thief, and that they should work together to reclaim the prize money. At this stage, if Geralt does not accept the proposal, the quest will end. However, it only successfully completes if you won all matches.
If Geralt accepts, she talks their way past the guard and up to the second floor where you have to investigate. Use your witcher senses to inspect the crime scene—a body, a trail leading outside, and then a crossbow bolt on the right-hand side of the terrace (this can be hard to spot). Head outside to look for more clues and follow the strange scent to a crate on the road. Sasha recognizes the guild seal on the on the crate and tells Geralt to meet her at a warehouse on the docks. (50)
Once at the warehouse, Sasha tells Geralt that the door is locked. Go to the back of the warehouse to find another way in. Along the way, Geralt will spot the wagon used by the thieves and note that it has the same scent. Climb up the wooden scaffolding at the rear of the building, and enter the warehouse through the window. Approach the group of men to find the thief, Bernard Tulle. After a short conversation, you will have to fight Tulle and his henchmen.
After defeating Tulle, Sasha invites Geralt to dinner at the Kingfisher. You can either decline, which completes the quest, or accept the invitation, which provides you the opportunity to romance Sasha.
Romancing her has no effect on your relationship(s) with Triss or Yennefer. If you choose to do so, she will leave Geralt while he is asleep, and leave him a ​​letter on the pillow.
Regardless of your choices at the end, you'll receive 50 and 4,500 as the quest completes.
== Journal entry ==
: Geralt is hardly an ace gambler. He has had a few good runs in dice poker tournaments, true, but these were always local affairs against opponents whose skill level left much to be desired. A tournament in the world's greatest metropolis - now that was a horse of an entirely different color. The high entry fee and stringent deck requirements scared off amateurs, so only wealthy professionals had signed up. Everything was in place for play at a high level in exciting company - in other words, my friends, for pure pleasure.
: It started with an indecent proposal. Sasha, one of the participants in the tournament, made Geralt a proposition so brazen even his jaded jaw dropped: together they were to steal the coin set aside as the tournament's prize.
: Perhaps Geralt would even have been tempted by Sasha's proposition. Before he could accept or reject it, however, another double dealer made his presence known. While they were talking one of the participants stole the coin set aside for the reward, beating Sasha to the punch.
: A halfling by the name of Bernard turned out to be the thief. This supposed farmer took the coin and hid with it in one of the city's warehouses. The witcher raced after him and defeated him in a final showdown.
: As for Sasha, she turned out to be a Nilfgaardian agent known as Cantarella. Her cover blown, she had needed the coin so that she could skip town. As part of my duties as a chronicler I must note that before she left, she spent a night with the witcher, conducting various covert operations until the break of dawn.
:If Geralt loses (or draws) to an opponent:
:: Yet Geralt did not manage to garner the tournament's grand prize. Such is life - you can't win them all, sadly. Geralt could only hope luck's cruelty at cards meant she would shower him with good fortune when it came to love.
== Objectives ==
* Find the scribe in the Passiflora and sign up for the high-stakes tournament.
* Talk to the scribe.
* Mingle with the other contestants.
* Win your match against Bernard Tulle. (25)
* Agreed to listen to Sasha:
** Meet Sasha on the balcony.
** Return to the common room.
* Won against Bernard Tulle:
** Win against Sasha. (50)
* Won against Sasha:
** Win against Finneas. (50)
* Won against Finneas:
** Defeat Finneas.
** Win against Count Tybalt. (80)
* Accepted Sasha's offer:
** Follow the guard to the crime scene.
** Investigate the crime scene using your Witcher Senses.
** Check for clues behind the brothel using your Witcher Senses.
** Use your Witcher Senses to see where the scent leads to. (50)
** Meet Sasha at the warehouse.
** Find a way to get into the warehouse.
** Climb up into the warehouse.
** Check what's going on.
** Defeat Bernard and his goons. (50)
== Bugs ==
* If you complete this quest after finishing A Matter of Life and Death but before Now or Never, dining with Sasha may cause you to be stuck inside the Kingfisher Inn with the only way to leave being by jumping from a balcony.
* Completing this quest while having at least heard Sasha's proposal is supposed to unlock an additional conversation with Fringilla Vigo if you talk to her after Veni Vidi Vigo. However, an internal event doesn't register and prevents that from happening. With console commands enabled, you can do this manually with the following: 
** This also unlocks an additional comment by Robert Hilbert during the quest Open Sesame!. He will have heard of Geralt even if you lost all matches.
== Notes ==
* Some of the participants of the Gwent tournament are in debt to Whoreson Junior, according to Income and Outlays.
* If you play against Sasha with your own Nilfgaardian Empire Gwent deck and go blow for blow using Spies and then, Decoys and Medics to reuse and/or revive the Spies you may reach a point where you, she or both of you run out of cards from your respective decks.
* The quest Geralt is telling Sasha about, during their dinner date, is the quest "Blue Eyes" from . Geralt will still mention this even if one has an imported save where this quest wasn't done.
* It appears that the only way to unlock the warehouse doors is to refuse Sasha's dinner invitation, in which case she says she found the key on Bernard Tulle. Though otherwise you can still go back inside and then out through the same window.
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Category:The Witcher 3 secondary quests