THE WITCHER 3: WILD HUNT
78 Achievements
Weapon "W"
Develop a mutation.
How to unlock the Weapon "W" achievement in THE WITCHER 3: WILD HUNT - Definitive Guide
To start the quest complete the main quest "The Beast of Toussaint" and you will be in a warehouse next to then river after fighting a vampire. Go up the street to the south and there should be a quest marker (about where my marker is on the map below). You do not have to complete the main quest, but it follows on nicely and smoothly if you do.
Go towards it and a cutscene should start. You will receive a message and start the quest. Follow the quest until the end in the laboratory (for help reaching it see puzzles below) where you will get the ability to press "y" in your character menu to develop mutations. You will need greater mutagens and skill points (2 skill points and 2 greater mutagens of either red, green, or blue), I found these in containers throughout the elven ruins and lab, so loot everything you can.
There are two puzzles in the elven ruins:
Puzzle one:
Open the door in the broken room with the rope. There are four plates on the walls that you can shoot with your crossbow. One to the right and one to the left of the door, one on the broken wall above the rope and chasm, and one opposite the last on the normal wall.
Puzzle two:
Navigate through the portals. The statues in the centre of the rooms face the portals you must go through. From the entrance to the room, go though the left portal. In the next room the portal is straight ahead, drop down towards the statue then climb up to the portal. Finally in the last room stay on the floor you start on and follow it around, jumping over a broken section to reach the portal.
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Note: a potential bug is that the achievement simply doesn't pop even though you have a mutation. Try using a potion of clearance, then doing a different mutation. Thanks to Bastiaen for this bug and fix.
You'll get this quest moderately early in the DLC. After arriving in Touissant, examining the latest murder scene and body, meeting with the Duchess (and the events that precede the meeting), and dealing with the scavenger hunt , you'll end up in a cutscene with a nice chase, followed by a battle, and then a conversation with an old friend of Geralt's from the books who hasn't been in any of the games yet. After the conversation, when you leave the area, you'll follow a short path by some buildings where a boy messenger will be waiting to give you a letter. The quest starts when you get the letter.
In brief (non-spoilery, with just an outline of the steps involved), the quest requires you to
1. Search the local cemetery for some clues.
2. Look at a map which came with the letter.
3. Travel to the location marked and search for an underwater entrance.
4. Work your way through a cave system to a laboratory, including some minor puzzle solving.
5. Fight a battle or two.
6. Perform a simple task in the lab.
After this last part the achievement will unlock and all that remains in the quest is to leave the area.
Development of mutations can only begin once you have completed the side quest entitled "Turn and Face the Strange." This side quest occurs early on in the expansion once the main quest "Blood Run" has been completed. After said quest, on your way through Beauclair, a messenger boy will approach you with a letter. Read the letter to find there was once a scientist in Toussaint researching Witcher Mutations, thus triggering "Turn and Face the Strange."
At the end of this quest, you will receive a short tutorial on how mutations can be developed and used. In short, mutations are researched by using unspent Ability Points and Greater Mutagens. There are 12 in total, the most basic of which require 2 Ability Points and 2 Greater Mutagens (the Mutagen color depends on the Mutations being researched). The more advanced, hybrid mutations will require a greater amount of Ability Points and Mutagens.
Once you have researched at least one mutation, this achievement will unlock.
After your run in with an old friend in the main quest "Blood Run", you will notice a red quest marker right outside where you are leaving. Go talk to the Messenger and he will give you a letter, which will start the quest "Turn and Face The Strange". Complete the quest and it will unlock the mutations system. Once unlocked, press in the character menu to access the mutations system. You will at least 2 ability points and 2 of either a Greater Blue, Red or Green mutagen to unlock one of the abilities. Pick one that you like and research it and the trophy will unlock.
But I found a solution.
We turn off the game, press the off/off button on the console itself and hold it for 5 seconds and accordingly remove the plug from the socket, wait 2 minutes (i.e. do a hard reset), go into the game, click change profile, select yours, load the checkpoint where we killed the scolopendra and stand near the eggs, make a mutation, go into the skills, download any and Voila!
Please note, this was the case for me and I played the additional game not separately, but after New Game +.