Talk:Bitter Harvest/@comment-36158275-20180718102645

Solution to pass this quest 100% successfully (All 4 NPCs survived, soldier with both dogs are alive).

I am at Level 3 at the time of this quest, by the way. It's VERY challenging to complete this Level 9 quest but so it is more interesting. I have only Grapeshot and Samum bombs, Necrophage oil, Thunderbolt/Tawny Owl/Swallow potions and a basic Witcher Sword and Armor.

- There is a spot to spawn bandits on horses to the south of the battlefield. Go there, kill bandits one by one, get their horses, bring them to the spot between where the ghouls appear and where NPCs are. You will have 4 horses. Arrange these horses in a line as if they are your first line of defence against ghouls. Ghouls will be distracted and attack the horses which will give you a few seconds in the fights.

- Call Roach, put him in the center of this line. Other horses will get scared by ghouls and scatter but Roach will stay more or less where you left him.

- (optional, since I managed to succeed without this) There is a guard with two dogs on patrol. If he sees ghouls he will join the fight. You can time the initiation of this quest and align it with the time when the guard passes nearby. However, his dogs are quite vulnerable and will only survive a few hits, so I actually timed the quest when the guards are not near.

- Get all your potions conveniently arranged to hotkeys. Apply Necrophage oil. Memorize where NPCs are. They are the most vulnerable and Albin Hart will even attempt to fight the ghouls, so you need to get rid of the ghouls before they come close to him, or if you could not, stay close to Albin as he's the one who will die most likely of all NPCs.

- Manual save. Initiate the quest, run towards the spot where ghouls spawn (you should be in front of the horses now). There are 3 ghouls in the first wave. They might attack some of the horses. Use Thunderbolt and Z to lock the targets and try to kill these ghouls as soon as you can. Use Grapeshot if they group close enough. Monitor the oil level and reapply often. Use Food slot to regenerate and Swallow in an emergency. You should manage to kill all three ghouls before the next wave spawns. Quicksave here. Look around to make sure all 4 NPCs are still alive.

- 3 ghouls will appear in the second wave. Same strategy. I managed to kill all three before the next wave. Quicksave here. Look around to make sure all 4 NPCs are still alive.

- Rotfiend and 2 ghouls will spawn. Now, here I suggest you attack the rotfiend first as there is a good chance he'll damage the ghouls when exploding. Of course, you should lure the rotfiend to the spot without NPCs. In this wave I spent my last Thunderbolt potion and Grapeshot bombs but managed to finish off this wave before the last appears. Quicksave here. Look around to make sure all 4 NPCs are still alive.

- Now you have 2 Level 7 ghouls and 1 Level 9 Ghoul that will start regenerate at once. Switch to Axii (Axii stops their regeneration), get rid of two Level 7 ghouls first. The last ghoul will take a long time to kill. Lure him away from NPCs, use Quen to add to your defence and switch to Axii as soon as you see this Level 9 ghoul regenerating. Here I used all my Tawny Owl potions to speed it up a little bit.

I hope this will help you to succeed too :-)