High Stakes

High Stakes is a secondary quest in Novigrad. It requires entering a Gwent tournament in Passiflora. A strong deck is needed, as well as an entry fee of 1000.

Summary

 * Consider finishing the Old Pals and Big City Players quests to build a stronger deck before doing this quest.
 * Save between wins. This quest is the only way to obtain all leader cards.
 * Sasha is the toughest opponent with her Nilfgaardian deck. She plays a very strong spy-themed deck which is also filled with high-strength unit cards and an entire roster of Nilfgaard and neutral heroes. Counter her with a lot of decoys and spy cards; keep the unit cards in the deck as close to 22 as possible and with the highest possible unit strength. The White Flame leader card is useful for countering her unique leader card which draws a unit card from the player's discard pile for her own use. It is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED players make a save if they wish to win the tournament outright, otherwise Sasha beats Tybalt in the final round. She can be romanced if Geralt agrees to her proposition.
 * Finneas will start a fist fight after he loses. He’s not only a tough Gwent player, but also a tough fighter.

Journal entry

 * Geralt is hardly an ace gambler. He has had a few good runs in dice poker tournaments, true, but these were 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 it 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.


 * Geralt loses to an opponent:


 * Yet Geralt did not manage to the 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.

Walkthrough

 * 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
 * Meet Sasha on the balcony
 * Win against Sasha
 * Return to the common room
 * Win against Count Tybalt
 * Check for clues behind the brothel using your Witcher Senses
 * Use your Witcher Senses to see where the scent leads to
 * Follow the guard to the crime scene
 * Investigate the crime scene using your Witcher Senses
 * Meet Sasha at the warehouse
 * Find a way to get into the warehouse
 * Defeat Bernard and his goons
 * Climb up into the warehouse
 * Check what's going on

Trivia

 * The quest follows a somewhat different course if you refuse Sasha's scheme or lose a round at Gwent, but since those both lead to sub-par rewards, they should be discounted as less than ideal ways to complete this quest, and are not worthy of mention
 * The quest Geralt is telling Sasha about during their dinner date is the quest "Blue Eyes" from the first Witcher game. A member of the Order of the Flaming Rose (a militant branch of the cult of the Eternal Fire) asked you to look for his sister, who had taken up working at a brothel run by Vampires.
 * Once done, you will also receive achievement Gwent Master.
 * If you complete this quest after finishing A Matter of Life and Death but before Now or Never, dining with Sasha will cause you to be stuck inside the Kingfisher Inn and the only way to get out is by jumping from a balcony.