Bring it on: Flotsam is a secondary and optional arm wrestling quest in Chapter I of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings.
Walkthrough[]
An optional first step to start this quest is to defeat Zoltan Chivay in arm wrestling. Geralt must challenge and beat three arm wrestlers in the upper level (the table beside the door to the docks) of Flotsam inn: Skinny Sten, Wiry Wilks, and Big Max. Big Max will then mention Bartholomew Bargee in Lobinden. Bargee is usually by the water working on the boats. Bartholomew is the strongest arm wrestler of this Chapter, significantly harder to beat than the three men at the inn.
After Bartholomew Bargee has been defeated, he mentions the next wrestler to Geralt: Adam Pangratt, in the Kaedweni camp. Then Zoltan also tells Geralt about his friends, Yarpen Zigrin and Sheldon Skaggs, in Vergen. Depending on his alliance, the witcher will meet some or all these characters in Chapter II.
Completing the quest Geralt receives 50 XP and 340 
(10 XP for each man at the inn and 20 XP for Bargee)
Notes[]
It is obviously prudent to save before wrestling, and bet the maximum. Every time you win a match against Bargee, you will receive twice the original bid. So if you bet 10 , you will have 20 if you win. All you have to do is keep the round cursor inside the orange bar, moving the mouse left and right. As the time passes, the bar will be reduce in size, making it more difficult to keep the cursor inside the target area. When the orange bar reaches the right side of the screen, Geralt wins. Similarly, if it reaches the left, he loses.
Players with high-resolution displays will often need to reduce their mouse sensitivity during the contests.
It is also helpful to be aware that the game adds jitter to the cursor motion. The movement from jitter is about as large as the target towards the end of a contest. In the contest with Bargee, the target shrinks earlier so the jitter makes it very easy to lose control. During this phase, not moving the mouse at all will sometimes apply the right correction to stay on target, while any correction by the player will overshoot.
Journal entry[]
- Arm wrestling was a highly popular pastime in Flotsam, as it was elsewhere. Zoltan immediately took to the sport and dragged the witcher into it. The dwarf was curious to see if he could best the witcher and they agreed to test each other's strength.
- The witcher defeated his dwarf friend - no small feat in and of itself - but there were many worthy opponents remaining in Flotsam. Our hero found them at the inn.
- Though it was perhaps one of the less celebrated episodes in the witcher's career, know that while in Flotsam, Geralt manage to best Skinny Sten. With that modest achievement under his belt, he could face Wiry Wilks.
- It did not take long for Wiry Wilks - a man of seemingly woven sinews alone - to bow to the strength of the witcher's arm. Now it was Big Max's turn.
- Big Max strained and wheezed, but the witcher proved the stronger arm wrestler. One more opponent, the strongest of them all, remained. This was Bartholomew Bargee in the village of Lobinden.
- Geralt arranged to meet Bart Bargee for the final contest near his workshop by the river. The young boat builder had little time, but he agreed to wait there for the witcher to warm up.
- I bet a tidy sum on Bargee and lost it all. The witcher smashed the boat builder's hand down onto the table with a loud thud. Then they had a quick chat, and the witcher learned that Bart had once been bested by Adam Pangratt himself. Our hero left the table as the champion of Flotsam, the glow of victory surrounding him.