The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings 100% Achievement Guide/Roadmap [EN]

First off: Getting all of the achievements in this game is neither especially hard, nor too time-consuming imho. But there are a few things to be considered:

You need at least two playthroughs; one on Iorveth's side and one on Roche's side. Unlike the first game, where you can just decide who you want to side with on several occasions throughout the game with little difference to the story you are experiencing, in this game you choose only once at the end of Act I and will either focus on the Story of Saskia and the Dragon (Iorveth) or the eponymous Assassins of Kings (Roche) in Act II.

There is only one achievement that is actually hard: "Madman", which requires you to play through the game on "Insane" Mode which translates to Hard Mode with Permadeath.
This Guide will focus on playing the game first on Easy/Normal/Hard on Iorveth's path and then on Insane on Roche's Path.

To get some of the achievements that require the use of gold or character points more easily without permanently stunting your progress, I will suggest to do some save-scumming. This is not exactly an elegant solution, but it gets the job done.

Since this guide is made in the style of a roadmap, miscellaneous achievements that can be achieved anywhere throughout the game will mostly be treated at the point in the game where I think you should get them.

A few Achievements like "Miser" are a tad easier if you import a Witcher 1 save but it's not that much of a difference.

After two playthroughs and about 45-60 hours you should be at 100% achievement completion.
There are 52 Achievements in total. After your first playthrough on Iorveth's side you should sit at 41 achievements (or 42 if you savescum Witch Hunter/Sensitive Guy) following this guide. Should you have any less, check again if you missed something.

This requires you to have 10.000 Orens in your pockets at one point (not across the entire game). You will most likely not get this before Act III so hold on to your dear Orens whenever you can.
Things that can help to get this done:
- Get the Melitele Amulet from the Mercenaries/Crinfried Reavers in the Prologue and sell it to Anezka in Lobinden in Act I (200 Orens)
- Convince the Merchants in Act I to pay double for the Kayran (for a whopping 1000 Orens)
- Sell every weapon/armor as soon as you find better gear
- Go for fist fight/dice poker/arm wrestle quests with maximum stakes whenever possible (quicksave before to reload if you should lose)
- Kill Harpyies during Act II and collect their feathers. They sell for 9 Orens each and you should have no problem getting over 200 of those
- Collect Kaedweni swords at the end of Act II (they sell for 30 Orens each)

Also do this on Iorveth's path, because:
- you can safely take more side missions if you are not playing on Insane mode
- get a "loan" (free money) from Igor Vivaldi outside the mines in Vergen (Act II)
- more Harpy feathers
- Absurd amounts of money can be found during "The secrets of Loc Muinne" sidequest (Act III)

Also do NOT buy the Ban Ard Armor from the Mysterious Merchant in Act II (no matter how tempting it might be), since it can be found anyway after defeating a golem in a cave during "Where is Triss Merigold?" when you cross the fog (Iorveth) or in the same spot underneath the military camp whenever you like (Roche).

Pretty simple achievement. Kill 500 enemies and you are done. You should typically get it somewhere during Act II but depending on your bloodlust you can get it pretty much anywhere throughout the game You get this for reaching Character Level 10, so somewhere during Act I. This is unmissable. You get this for reaching Character Level 35, which can not be achieved before Act III.
I would strongly recommend to do this on Iorveth's path during your first playthrough, since the main missions on this path give you more XP altogether. And since you don't play on Insane, you can do every side quest no matter how hard it is. While killing sentient beings that don't openly attack or harm people may not seem very "Geralt-like", we have to kill three Trolls to get this achievement.
The first one is found in Act I during the "Troll Trouble" sidequest, the other two are a Troll couple in the outskirts of Vergen in Act II.
Although I never had troubles fighting them, I would suggest not doing this on an "Insane" run. The counterpart to "Trollslayer". Don't kill any of the trolls and the achievement is yours. Do this on your "Insane" run.

Note: Resolving the "Troll trouble" quest by helping the troll will actually get you some money, a relatively strong steel sword (found in a hut southeast of the troll) and the schematic for the Hunter Armor which is pretty good for Act I and even better than the Kayran Armor.
To get this, you have to win the Troll's wife's head from Sendler, the craftsman in Lobinden, through dice poker. You will need to do Flotsam's dice poker quest first before you can play against him.
Not having to kill the troll and getting the sword and the armor (which are both very useful against Letho) makes this the ideal choice for an "Insane" run.

This achievement demands every contract to be fulfilled where monster nests have to be destroyed. Do this on Iorveth's path on an Easy/Normal/Hard run since fighting the Endrega Queens in Act I on Insane is straight up suicide.

Act I: Take the Nekker and the Endrega contract and exterminate both species

Act II: Take the Harpy and Harpy Queen contract. The Harpy Queen will be killed during the main questline, the Harpyies can be exterminated by crafting Harpy traps, placing them on the ground and letting the Harpyies take them to their nests. There are four nests in the Old Quarry and three more in the Harpy Lair (accessible through the quest "Hunting magic")

Act III: Take the Gargoyle contract and open the chests in the three rune rooms across the map. The runes in each room have to be activated in the right order for the chests to open. This order is given by a randomized poem in each room. These poems will always reference an animal, something artsy, a notion of time and the sky.
The runes represent: "S"-rune -> animal, "Harp"-Rune -> art, "Hourglass"-Rune -> time, "diamond"-rune -> sky

You need to get a five-of-a-kind in dice poker. Do this on the Prologue with the soldier in the camp, since he will never resign, so you can always re-roll. Either Import a Witcher 1 save or collect some Orens from the Camp to get started.
This is purely luck based and it took me 52 wins against him before I finally got it, so be prepared to start the game with 1-2 hours of dice poker.
If you quicksave after every win and reload after every loss this will also get you some money towards the "Miser" achievement. Once you meet King Foltest he wants you to shoot down Count Etcheverry with a ballista.
Position the spyglass so that Etcheverry's head is on the left side of the crosshairs directly in the middle. If Geralt says "One and a half degrees" after confirming to shoot, the arrow will hit.
Reload in case you miss. This is what your reticle should look like The game is not too specific about this, so to get this achievement it is only necessary for 10 enemies to die without you getting hit. At the beginning of the attack on the castle, just stay where you are and let Foltest's men deal with the La Valette soldiers. Done.

Another (relatively) easy way to do this is in Act II by killing the Nekkers before the entrance to the Vergen catacombs if you have Whirl 2 and a silver sword with decent damage (22+).

Play dice poker against the Soldier in the Camp for the "Poker!" Achievement
Arm wrestle the soldier next to the first one
Provoke the guards in the holding cell for a fist fight

This can be done at any other opportunity for dice poker/arm wrestling/fistfighting throughout the game as well

End the Prologue
Can't be missed

When you enter Flotsam's port, the Kayran will attack and afterwards some peasants will blame Geralt and Sila for not helping them. Use the Intimidation option and get the achievement. (Can be achieved by intimidating anyone else as well) Just drink a potion. This goes hand in hand with the "Great Potion" achievement. When collecting Kayran mucus with Triss, she suggests making an antidote for the Kayran's poison. Get the mongoose from the cave behind the waterfall, make the ostmurk potion and drink it before fighing the Kayran. Done. Get anything crafted. If you didn't import a Witcher 1 save, you will need to craft a silver sword anyway, so this is pretty unmissable.
This achievement also goes hand in hand with "Artful dodger" (craft the Kayran trap before using it) and "Backbone" (crafting the Kayran Armor) Another achievement that isn't as precise as the description suggests.
You do not need to make oils or potions, bombs will do as well. And since you need four Grapeshots for the Nekker contract and the ostmurk for the Kayran fight, that makes 5 alchemy uses.
Keep in mind that you need to craft 5 times, so don't make 4 grapeshots at once but successively instead. You will need to invest 6 points into the base tree anyway before you can build your character, so just go for the ability to reflect arrows. I think I got this after reflecting a Scoia'tael arrow during the "Malena" sidequest but just find yourself any archer/crossbow operator throughout the game and reflect his arrows until he dies. Get the talent from the skill tree that allows you to counter attacks and then go fight the Nekkers in the cave behind the waterfall. Block, wait for them to attack and attack as soon as the icon appears. Do this three times in a row and the achievement pops.
This shouldn't be too much of a hassle. Same idea: Go to the Nekker cave behind the waterfall, damage two Nekkers, throw a Grapeshot at them and if both die, you get the achievement. To get this, you have to do the "In the Claws of Madness" sidequest in the Burned down hospital south of Flotsam. The notes (Hospital Files 1-4) are stored pretty obviously in chests throughout the asylum and the last note (Hospital records) you get for defeating the Nilfgaardian soldier wraith.
Not recommended on Insane difficulty, since the wraiths hit pretty hard and your armor is weak in Act I.
Should you have troubles fighting the wraiths, it can help to pick up the Snare traps throughout the woods and place them in the rooms before the wraiths spawn. In the southeastern part of the map beyond the bridge troll, there is a Hut defended by bandits (the same mentioned earlier in the "Friend of Trolls" Achievement).
If you stand before this hut (facing it) and go right (further southeast) you will eventually find a pond with the Summer solstice menhir. Activate your medallion and the achievement is yours.
During the "Indicent Proposal" Quest, Vernon Roche will distract a guard and you have to sneak through Loredo's garden. Save before doing so, so that you can reload in case you get caught.
Sneak through the garden, knock out some guards, get the iron frame and don't get caught.
Easy Craft the Kayran Trap from the iron frame and Cedric's schematics and use it in the Kayran fight.
I would suggest saving before doing so, then reloading after getting the achievo and doing the fight without crafting the trap, since it is relatively expensive and equally useless. The Yrden sign also gets the job done. Kill the Kayran (mid-boss of Act I)
This is mandatory and unmissable Loot the Kayran and craft the Kayran armor from it's remains.
As with the trap I suggest saving beforehand and reloading afterwards since the armor is not that necessary, but getting the ingredients is quite Oren-consuming.
I bought both the trap and the armor in my first playthrough without reloading afterwards and still managed to get the "Miser" achievement, but imo it is safer not to spend money on these things. End of Act I, unmissable Achievement.

Keep in mind that you have to hand Iorveth his sword during the ambush with Roche and Letho for playing Iorveth's path, otherwise you will automatically be stuck on Roche's path.

These achievements are unlocked through getting the penultimate ability in every branch of the skill tree, meaning Combat Acumen (Swordsmaster), Sense of Magic (Master of Magic) and Mutant (Master Alchemist).
From the base, you need 7 Talents to reach Combat Acumen and Sense of Magic and 8 Talents to reach Mutant. The ending of Act I as well as the beginning of Act II should give you enough XP to have 4 spare talents the first time you can meditate in Act II.
If you are on Iorveth's path and do not play on Insane, DON'T spend your points right away but instead do some quests until you have 8 spare points (or 7, if you already invested in Alchemy).
Now you can save, put all points into one branch, get the achievement, reload and repeat.
After getting all 3 achievements, reload and distribute the points however you like :)

Should you want to invest your points immediately, then there is one other way of getting this in one playthrough without making a completely ♥♥♥♥ character: In Act II you can find "Malget's notes" in the "Hut on the cliff" in the Kaedweni camp. This can be accessed once on Iorveth's path after crossing the fog or anytime throughout Act II on Roche's path.
This item will activate the Quest "From a bygone Era" which lets you respec your stats in the sewers of Loc Muinne in Act III. There you can play the same game: Save, reallocate to whatever Achievement you are still missing, reload.

Get this by unlocking 5 different abilities in the skill tree which let you place mutagens and mutate them. Should be achieved in Act II.
WARNING: Placing mutagens is permanent, so I would recommend to first gather/buy some good mutagens before placing them. You can of course place the first five mutagens you find, get the achievement and reload an earlier save. Once you get the Combat Acumen Perk in the Swordsmanship branch of the skilltree (see respective achievement), you can build up adrenaline and use it for 1 hit kills.
During the Siege of Vergen, once your Adrenaline bar is full, group three enemies around you and press X to kill all three at once.
Note that these finishers can only be used on human type enemies. The only Iorveth-specific achievement in Act II. After crossing the fog during "Where is Triss Merigold?" you will have to sneak through the Kaedweni Camp. Save before in case you ♥♥♥♥ up and then try not to get spotted.
If you get spotted near the end by a cook: Not to worry; Axii him, get to the exit and get the achievement.

This is also the mission where you will be able to start the quest "From a bygone Era" mentioned earlier.

As soon as you can move freely in Act II (after the battlefield), Roche will ask Zyvik to show you around the camp. Don't ask Zyvik to take you to Henselt and instead follow him for a few minutes and the achievement is yours.
Patience pays off. In front of the canteen in the camp you will meet Manfred and Sven triggering the quest "The Butcher of Cidaris". Help Sven to defeat the Butcher in the arena and get the quest "Ave Henselt!".
Now approach Proximo in the afternoon and defeat all four opponents and the achievement should pop. Not to worry doing this on Insane; these fights are merely pushovers. Following the same quest, after having defeated her in the arena, visit Ves in her tent in the Temerian camp. Talk to her and trigger the sex scene for the achievement. Relatively late in Act II, two witchers will attack Henselt. Kill one of them and the other one will flee. Afterwards go to Dethmold, take a Gadwall potion (if you don't have the recipe, just buy it from the merchant in front of the tent) and help Dethmold with the ritual. The flashback consists of six phases:

1. Walk trough the furrow and kill the harpyies until you reach the hideout
2. Avoid the traps in the hideout
3. Kill the guard walking in a straight line away from you
4. Meet the other assassin
5. Kill all Guards
6. Fight Geralt

Do the first five without dying, stepping on a trap or being detected in phase 3 and the achievement is yours (pretty easy altogether).
Save beforehand in case you ♥♥♥♥ up.

At the end of Act II, during the Siege of Vergen, after you strike down Henselt and his men, Roche will want to kill Henselt. Decide to let Henselt go and the achievement is yours.
During this Quest you should also come across the trolls which you need for Trollslayer/Friend of Trolls. Kill the Draugir, the main boss of Act II. You will have to do this on either side, so this is unmissable.
An easy way to do is - if you have 4 points of Vigor and a decent silver sword - is by just stunlocking him with Aard and hacking away while he is defenseless. Achievement for finishing Act II. Can't be missed

At the beggining of Act III, you can either go through the camp of the Order of the Flaming Rose or follow Iorveth through some caves. Even if you imported a savegame from Witcher 1 where you finished on good terms with the Order and they let you pass: follow Iorveth.
At the end of the cave you will face some Harpyies and a breached wall, which you can scale to get into Loc Muinne. Don't scale it immediately but run past the breach instead to the right until your medallion hums. Activate it and the trophy is yours.
If you play Roche's path, just go the same way. even though Roche would make the passage through the Order's camp easier. When you are met with the decision to either get the now blinded Philippa Eilhart out of jail or keep on searching for Triss, chose Philippa. No matter how much you like Triss or how much you hate Philippa: You will only get this achievement by helping Philippa and finishing the quest. At the end of Act III, after fighting the dragon, you can decide to use Philippa's dagger on the dragon or walk away. No matter your decision, the achievement is yours. The Roche-counterpart to "Spellbreaker". You are once again asked to either keep searching for Triss or help Roche free Anais, Foltest's daughter, from the Kaedwenis.
Choose Anais, finish the quest and get the achievement. At the end of Act III, after fighting the dragon, you can either kill it or walk away.
Unlike "Dragonheart" your choice here matters. Kill the dragon for the achievement or walk away with nothing. Directly after the dragon attack during "The Summit of Mages" you must follow Sila into her tower, where she tries to teleport away. One of her crystals is broken and the portal seems to tear her to shreds. Stop the process to save Sila (Sensitive Guy) or watch her get turned to red mush (Witch Hunter).
You can savescum this to get both achievements in one playthrough, but since two playthroughs are required anyway for 100%, there is no real need to. Achievement for finishing Act III.
Can't be missed.

The end of the game faces you with yet another choice: Kill Letho or let him walk away.
Choose to fight and kill him and this will be your achievement.
Contrary to the first encounter in Act I where you have to face him with bad gear, low stats and close to no knowledge of the game's fighting system, he now proves to be much less of a frightening opponent.
If you got a good steel sword like the Forgotten Vran Sword (found in Dethmold's safe on Roche's path or in the tower where "The Secret of Loc Muinne" takes place on Iorveth's path) and the Vran armor (prize for finishing the "Mystic River" questline) this fight isn't too much of a hassle.
Still, you are more likely to die in easy fights than in no fights at all, so choose this option on an Easy/Normal/Hard playthrough. Counterpart to Avenger. Spare Letho and get this achievement.
I would recommend to do this on your Insane playthrough. Finish the epilogue and thus the game on any difficulty.
Can't be missed. Finish the game on "Insane" difficulty.
Do not even attempt to do this on your first playthrough because there is just too much you have no clue about and if you die, all your savefiles of this playthrough get corrupted so you can't reload anything.
As said in the beginning: Play through the game at any given difficulty first (preferrably Iorveth's path), learn the mechanics, get at least decent at the combat and then attempt this.
Don't be afraid about choosing a path that you haven't taken before: the hardest part by far is getting through Act I, which is the same for Iorveth and Roche. This is mainly because of the Letho fight and especially the Kayran which can act highly unpredictable at times and if it hits you twice, you are dead. There is no armor, potion or perk in Act I strong enough to let you survive two hits of the Kayran.
That being said, I failed to do this achievement two times myself. The first time I was a bit too rash and got roasted by the dragon in the prologue. The second time I died indeed against the Kayran which knocked me down and killed me before I could even open the menu and reload.

The rules to do this are pretty simple though:

1. Deactivate QTEs in the menu. They may not be that challenging to begin with, but you really don't want to lose your entire progress by misclicking once. This will not void the achievement.
2. Quicksave after every combat encounter.
3. Don't ever let your health fall below 30% if you can expect to get hit again. Instead reload your last save. Getting cocky WILL get you killed.
4. If you fight hard hitting enemies (Kayran, Golem, Bullvore, ...) reload if you get damaged at all. They have attacks that take >70% of your health, don't risk it.
5. If you get stuck or surrounded during battle, reload immediately. The stunlocking and gank-damage can shred you in seconds.
6. Don't pick fights you can also avoid. Be a Trollfriend, let Letho go and just reallocate your stats instead of fighting the mage if you want to finish "From a Bygone Era".
7. Don't be thrifty: Get the best stuff you can, even if it's expensive.
8. Do not EVER go into or even near the fog in Act II if there is no quest active that requires you to do so: If you enter the cursed battlefield unprotected, the first Ghost to appear will insta-kill you and you can not defend yourself against it.

This is the first time I have written a guide and I hope that I can at least help some of you with any of the achievements. Should you find some mistakes or ways to improve this guide, please feel free to let me know.

Good Luck in 100%-ing the game!