The Witcher 3 Master of the Arena quest and how to lift the wraith’s curse
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(Image credit: CD Projekt Red)
You’ll find the Witcher 3 Master of the Arena quest when you journey to the Skellige Isles. The locals want help with curses and ghosts but there’s a twist here that might catch some out.
There are some things to note before you start this The Witcher 3 mission: you should be around level 14 or so and obviously be able to get to Skellige. As long as you can to that then prepare to take on one more unusual jobs with our complete Witcher 3 Master of the Arena guide.
1. Find the town of Hov
(Image credit: CD Projekt Red)
Once you’re in Skellige, head to the village of Svorlag, on the island of Spikeroog on the western side of the world map. Go to the docks and take a boat to the opposite side of the island, where you’ll find the town of Hov. A yellow exclamation point Quest Available icon will appear near Hov, which is where you can start the quest.
As you get closer to it, you’ll overhear a pair of soldiers in a guard tower talking about a wraith that’s haunting the local fighting arena.
2. Talk to the soldiers
(Image credit: CD Projekt Red)
Speak to the two men, Gunnar and Lydrik, to find out more about the situation. They’ll reveal Hov’s arena was once a busy place, with warriors from all over Skellige coming to compete. That all changed years ago however, when a contestant named Ulle the Unlucky backstabbed his opponent, a prominent Jarl, after he kept making fun of Ulle’s losing streak.
With his dying breath, the Jarl cursed Ulle to forever haunt the arena as a ghost who can never win a fight. Gunnar and Lydrik say they’ll pay you twice; once for getting rid of Ulle, and when the arena is back up and running, for completing the mission.
3. Fight the Ghost of the Arena
(Image credit: CD Projekt Red)
The guard tower is right above the arena, so you won’t have to go far to find the wraith.
Hop over the fence to talk to the weary Ulle, who’ll unenthusiastically challenge you to battle. Ulle is incredibly bored of losing fights and always reappearing in the arena just days after being vanquished.
Accept his invitation to commence the fight. It’s an easy one: Ulle is slow and only has a short axe as his weapon. Keep hacking away until you trigger a cutscene of Ulle sarcastically congratulating you before disappearing. This isn’t the end though. Ulle will come back as he always does, and even Geralt will say that fighting him was “useless.”
4. Lose to Ulle
(Image credit: CD Projekt Red)
You can keep fighting Ulle forever but it will never lift the curse. Refusing to fight him doesn’t accomplish anything either. So you have to do something you might not be used to doing on purpose in The Witcher 3 – lose. Yes, to free Ulle from his eternal torture, you must allow him to win.
To make the ghost reappear, meditate for a little over a full day. Talk to Ulle again, and when the fight begins, just stand there and let him hurt you until another cutscene occurs.
Baffled at the outcome, Ulle will graciously thank you and finally pass on to the afterlife.
5. Collect your rewards
(Image credit: CD Projekt Red)
With the spectre gone, Gunnar and Lydrik will give you 15 Crowns for your trouble and ask you to return later to collect your second payment. Come back in a couple of in-game days and when you return to Hov, you’ll find a small crowd watching fights in the newly christened Cursed Arena. The two guards will happily pay you an additional 20 Crowns.
That’s it for the Witcher 3 Master of the Arena quest! Though short, it’s one of the more humorous side quests in the game and a smart subversion of everything you’ve done up until this point.
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Master Of The Arena Side Quest Walkthrough
By
Jesse Lennox
and
Quinton O’Connor
Updated
This Witcher 3 quest is straightforward but can earn you some coin.
Quick Links
- Heading To Hov
- Talk To The Villagers
- Battle The Ghost Of The Arena
- Your Reward From Ulle
Just when you think The Witcher 3 couldn’t get any longer, you reach the Skellige Isles and a whole new world of quests open up, including the ‘Master of the Arena’ side quest. It might seem like a typical, if not boring, quest when you first encounter it, but there’s much more to this side quest than meets the eye.
Related: Witcher 3 Ladies Of The Wood Side Quest WalkthroughIf you need some guidance on how to go about completing this quest and lift the curse for the villagers, we’ll show you the path to besting Ulle for good and all.
Updated on January 13, 2023 by Quinton O’Connor: Some of the pics have been replaced with higher-quality pulls. We’ve also reorganized the guide just a touch, here and there, to enhance its flow.
Heading To Hov
The first step of any quest is actually finding it, which in this case means locating the town of Hov. Obviously, you will need to have progressed in the story to the point where you can travel to Skellige, but should also be at least around level 15 to make this quest manageable. Based on the name, you should expect some challenging combat upcoming.
On Skellige, you need to first sail or fast travel over to the island of Spikeroog and into the town of Svorlag on the far Western side of the map. Here you’ll need to commandeer another boat to carry you across the island to finally reach Hov. Once you get close you should notice the quest indicator pop up. Make port and enter the town to overhear a conversation about a certain wraith haunting the arena and the quest will begin.
Talk To The Villagers
You’re sent to talk to two specific villagers in Hov, Gunnar and Lydrik, to learn more details about this supposed haunted arena. They’ll tell you all about the history of the arena, how it was once a popular spot for warriors to gather and compete until one fighter, Ulle the Unlucky, murdered his opponent in the ring by stabbing him in the back after being humiliated. It turns out that his opponent was not just any normal warrior, but a Jarl named Thormar who used his last breaths to put a curse on Ulle that said, «May ye lose again and again, for centuries on end.» Ulle’s ghost has haunted the arena ever since.
You stand to earn two rewards here: one for getting rid of Ulle’s vengeful spirit, and another once the arena is earning coin again.
Battle The Ghost Of The Arena
You don’t have to go far to find the arena, which is just below the tower where you spoke to Gunnar and Lydrik, so just make your way down and through the gate to find Ulle’s spirit waiting to face off, and lose, to a new challenger.
He’s obviously spent enough time losing to know the drill, and essentially just wants to get the fight over with. Accept the challenge to fight.
There’s no trick to defeating this ghost. Ulle will go down as easy as they say. He’s slow, easy to dodge, and will basically just let you wail on him until his health is drained. However, beating Ulle will only continue the cycle. What you need to do instead is allow Ulle to finally achieve a victory. Let down your guard and let him hack at you until a cutscene triggers.
If you do defeat him, by accident or otherwise, just meditate for a full day, and he will come back, and you can try again.
Your Reward From Ulle
All that’s left now is to collect your reward from Gunnar and Lydrik, 15 Crowns plus an additional 20 if you return a few days later. You can just meditate for a while if you’d rather collect it all right away.
Next: The Witcher 3 Complete Guide And Walkthrough
90,000 how to defeat Ulle’s loser all methods
Content
- Damned Arena
- Exile Ulle
- Camped Coin
- Video Passage
in the process of completing a chain of quests dedicated to fisticuffs.
Must be completed to unlock the final quest: Fists of Fury: Champion of Champions.
One way or another, you end up in the village of Hov, which is famous for its arena, where the best fighters not only in Skellige, but also in the Northern Kingdoms, meet to fight for the title of Champion of Champions.
Cursed Arena
Near the arena, two stewards, the warriors Gunnar and Lidrik, clutch their heads in despair, as the fate of the competition hangs in the balance because of the spirit of the accursed Ulle the Loser, an islander who, according to legend, never won in his lifetime in battles.
In his last fight, which took place by lot with Jarl Tormar, Ulle stabbed his opponent in the back, for mocking himself. The dying jarl cursed the loser for eternal losses even after death. The witcher, accustomed to spirits and curses, takes the order.
Ulle’s exile
At the beginning of the «Master of the Arena» task in The Witcher 3, Ulle, exhausted by eternal defeats, will wearily ask Geralt to «finish» him without too much pathos.
But this will not be so easy to do.
If you just try to kill the Spirit of the Arena, it will not work, because in a day the poor fellow will return to his original place.
How can we defeat someone whose curse is to be an eternal loser? To send Ulle the Loser to the other world in The Witcher 3, let the miserable spirit defeat you. It is not necessary to die and be exposed to blows. You can either:
- Skip a few blows and the gods will forgive Ulla, finally calling him to the feast of heroes.
- Parry his blows. After the eighth block, Geralt will defeat the Spirit of the Arena without taking any damage.
Minted coin
Please note that the quest “Master of the Arena” in The Witcher 3 is completed not after sending the ghost to the next world and reporting to the customer, but after receiving the promised reward. Gunnar and Lidrik promised Geralt not only a fixed reward, but also a percentage from the first battles if he exorcised the spirit.
Additional experience and money rewards can only be obtained by talking to employers again after the first (failed) attempt to defeat Ulle the Loser.
To close the quest, simple meditation on the spot will not help, you must leave not only Spikeroog, but the entire Skellige location. It is enough, for example, to go to Velen, and then back, then a dialogue with the warriors will be activated, who will give the crowns promised to the White Wolf.
Video Passage
Witcher 3: Quest «Master Arena»
03.05.2020
15k
0
Location :
This village is famous all over Skellige for its arena, where the fights of the best warriors on the islands were once held .
In order to clarify the information about the reasons for the closure of the arena, which the bookmaker told Geralt, you will need to meet with two managers, who can be found on the right observation deck.
Manager Gunnar and Lidrik will tell a fairly typical witcher’s story about the curse of a certain Ulle the Unlucky.
It turns out that Ulle could not win a single fight during his lifetime, but he never stopped trying. And then one day, by chance and lot, Jarl Tormar became Ulle’s rival.
Ulle’s opponent did not feel sorry for the poor man and mocked him in every possible way. When Tormar was about to declare himself the winner of the fight, Ulle went on a rather cowardly act — he crept up from the back of the jarl and struck with a dagger. On his deathbed, Jarl Tormar spent the last of his strength to utter the words of a curse against the «Loser», dooming him to an eternal stay in the Arena and eternal defeat in every battle.
The stewards, having finished their story, hire Geralt in their desire to finally get rid of the Spirit of the Arena, promising the witcher a reward and a percentage of the fights.
Geralt agrees and goes to the Arena to personally meet in Ulla the Loser.
Entering the Arena, Geralt is immediately met by a ghost who already knew his fate and was ready to meet it. The witcher should leave his killer instincts behind and talk to Ulle first.
« Such is my fate. I have to hang around here until the end of the world and lose every fight »
As practice shows, the answer on how to remove the curse lies in the text of the curse itself.
What is the main burden of the ghost? That’s right — always lose. What happens if Geralt lets Ulla the Loser win?
This is exactly what the witcher has to check.
Give in to the ghost and it will remove the curse.
