I have a few regrets after finishingThe Witcher 3.
I failed to save Syanna Anna because I didnt buy some overpriced ribbon from a drug-dealing child.
I didnt play enough Gwent, so my card collection is a little lacking.
I was more than happy with my ending, but Idlike to see the others.
This is a big game, and Im sure Ive forgotten more regrettable decisions than most people have made.
But one stands out more than any other.
I killed 1,000 cows.
Now I didnt kill 1,000 cows for no reason.
Im thinking its an amalgamation ofPapers PleaseandCooking Mama?
I specificallywasntopening a butchers shop, although I may as well have.
Related:The Witcher 3 Makes Even The Most Boring Tasks Exciting
I was skint.
Or, more accurately, Geralt was.
What was the best get-rich-quick scheme in The Witcher 3, I wondered?
Suddenly, 10,000 Crowns wasnt enough.
I crafted what materials I could, bought a few more, and still came up short.
I could afford boots and gloves, but what about the rest?
I made a beeline for the bovine, and set about Igni-ing left, right, and cenny.
Ten or 20 cattle evaporated.
An hour-long meditation reset Geralts mental state and replenished the flock of cattle.
This farmer was sitting on a gold mine!
So I just started blasting.
I dutifully collected their hides and milk, and sold the lot.
It took a few trips to different merchants, some carry-weight-supplementing decoctions, but I did it.
And I wasnt even rich, I still couldnt afford all the sword and armour upgrades I needed.
Thats when the regret set in.
All those poor cows lying dead in a field, and for what?
I felt worse for the cows who respawned into a field piled high with the carcasses of their predecessors.
It was pointless, needless, cruel.
I should point out that Im a vegetarian in real life.
However, I had one saving grace.
One thing stuck in my mind that could excuse my actions.
What if I was doing these cows a favour?
What if I was doing the same for these cows?
Was I, in my murderous rampage, saving generations of cattle from a horrible fate?
I wasnt, and I was foolish to think otherwise.
I was slaughtering entire dynasties of cattle to plunder their hidesandtheir milk.
If it had paid for my new armour, I could have justified it to myself.
But it didnt, and I feel awful.
I soon learned another way to make money: clearing out the bandit camps in Toussaint.
This is not only more fun, but more humane.
Slaughtering bad people who attack me with axes and crossbows is fine theyre asking for it.
Its not my fault that theyre worse fighters than me.
I have no regrets about letting these violent criminals taste my mastercrafted steel sword.
Maybe its odd that I care less about killing people than cows, but the people could defend themselves.
They were actively harming others, too.
The only thing the cows were harming was grass, and I dont care about grass.
The people were more profitable, too.
They will haunt me.
I deserve nothing less.
