Hellhound

Hellhound
Information
Class	Specter occurrence = Might appear wherever dishonorable people live
Immunity	Immune to most effects; it is a corporeal creature, so knockdown or stun attempts are possible, yet rarely successful
Susceptibility	Sensitive to steel; the Fast Style is most effective against hellhounds
Tactics	Able to summon barghests; a hellhound traps its victims in a circle of fire and proceeds to tear them to pieces
Alchemy	Trace of the Beyond, an iridescent mark

The list of misfortunes that can befall the inhabitants of a village includes plague, war, and taxes. The worst misfortune, however, entails the appearance of a ghostly hellhound known simply as The Beast. Many bad things can be said about this creature, but they all come down to two things: blood and pain.

Template:Bestiary

Received by reading Berengar's notes on the Beast.

"The hellhound, referred to also as the Beast, is a creature of the underworld, a specter that assumes the form of a terrifying hound and tirelessly stalks its victims once it finds their trail. Peasants believe that the hellhound embodies the vengeance of the gods, who send the Beast to punish humans for their wickedness."

Location

• Outskirts

Sightings

• Beginning of Chapter I, during the cutscene.
• Leaving the crypt after discovering the poisoned girl inside.
• Leaving Odo's house after completing The Secret Garden.
• West of Haren Brogg's house, as you go up the hill with the bridge on the right.
• Odo also claims to have seen it staring in the windows of Abigail's house.
• On the road from the crossroads near the crypt going towards Abigail's house.
• Sometimes appears at night when going to the cave south of the abandoned houses.

Source

• Berengar's notes on the Beast

Notes

When fighting the Hellhound:

Killing the Hellhound with one easy blow (Aard skill does -not- have to have been upgraded to include Stun):

The game jumps to midnight so you need to get into the cutscene past the cave at 22:00-23:00 so that your magic is still working at that point. To do so take following steps:

• Enter abandoned house and clear all the bandits, take what you want but do NOT go into the floor.
• Go outside again, head south from there, where you will find a place of power (ignore for now) and then the cave with Abigail (who is not talking much at this point).
• Enter and meditate there until 21:00.
• Head back out of the cave, Pass the ritual stones (pickup the sign) and then do magic ritual at the place of power so your Aard is doubled.
• THEN go into the house once more, enter the cave through the floor, kill the enemies, there is some loot in the boxes (both!).
• Pass Abigail, save the game just before going outside the cave.
• Exit the cave, click through cutscene, then encounter the Hellhound.
• Draw weapon first (important!) and THEN use Aard sign, knocking down (not necessarily stunning) the beast, allowing you to kill him.

Alternative preparation without having maximised Aard sign:

• Use the quiet time with Abigail in the cave to brew the potions you think you might need.
• Note that the battle with the Hellhound takes place at midnight, so if you want to prepare in the cave you should meditate until an hour before 12 before taking any potions.
• You can run to the spot between the house and that little building beside it. That area is small enough to rest in without being attacked while your Vitality is restored.
• If you take the "Stun" hero ability on your Aard there is a chance to stun the beast and kill him in one blow. Make sure that you have your weapon drawn before you use the Aard sign.
• You can quicksave within the first few seconds of the fight, using this with Aard's stun ability you can easily quicksave and load until the Beast is stunned to perform a Coups de grâce.
• Specter Oil works very well to defeat the Beast and the Barghests. Abigail sells it.
• If you kill the Barghests, the Beast simply summons more of them, so that is a fight you can not win. But when you kill the Beast, the Barghests extinguish like blown-out candles. So concentrate all your attention on the Beast.
• The Beast has the innate ability to cause pain to Geralt, even if Geralt is attacking it and the Beast does not have time to attack. Unless you are immune to pain status effects, you will be hit with this effect during the fight.
• If you have already finished with all of the Outskirts quests including the two Trophy bosses and used all your Bronze Talents, then the Beast is pretty much a joke to deal with.The only hard part in that fight is to keep Abigail alive, and hope you don't get stun by the Beast too early in the fight. If you have done all the quests and have applied the "Specter Oil", then you don't even need potions for the most part (plus Abigail will heal you). DO NOT use potions at the start of the fight, as the Beast and the Barghests will swarm in on Abigail and kill her rather quickly. Immediately run to Abigail side and start using Group Style to clear the Barghests off of her (Aard work too).
• Focus on the Beast, but keep an eye on Abigail and kill anything that going for her. Don't let her lose too much health, as the villagers will come and attack Abigail when the fight with the Beast ended. Use Group Style and Aard to keep enemies off of her, just like the Beast fight.

Video

Silent Guide - The Beast (Hellhound) Boss Fight Strategy (The Witcher)-1

Gallery

Journal image

Concept art

the Beast, dead