The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
78 Achievements
2,000
157.5-196h
Master Marksman
Kill 50 human and nonhuman opponents by striking them in the head with a crossbow bolt.
15
0.26%
How to unlock the Master Marksman achievement in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Definitive Guide
First off, head to Devil's Pit in Velen. Even though you already cleared the place it still works. All you need to do is fast travel out of Velen; i.e: White orchard, and come back. Why this spot exactly is because you can stuck them by the door and they won't advance towards you which give you all the time in the world to carefuly aim at their head without having to dodge or parry. I used Axii as sign to make sure they wouldn't move also and it made this achievement less painful. Since you're at this spot you might want to clear a few other achievements.
As I mentioned earlier they are stuck by the door so just go and grab all of them come back to the door, use your Fire sign; IGNI once they are on fire throw your Dragon's Dream bomb at them. Rinse and repeat till it's done.
This is the right spot again for this achievement, just go to the right as soon as you get in you'll see a few stairs and use the telekinetic sign; AARD to push them down. Once they're all dead, fast travel to White Orchard and come back.
Same strategy bring them all by the door use mind-control sign; AXII while holding the to control the enemies. You'll need to put a few points in the AXII skill tree if you haven't already.
I hope it helps you guys! Thumbs up or down it's fine as long as you get them!
First thing you want to do is go to The Devils Pit in Velen. This area has about 10-15 Human guards.
When you get to the actual pit, you will see an opened gate. You need to run in and agro as many of the guards as you can then head back just outside the gate and the guards will all pile up at the gate as if they can't get through. This makes it easy to get headshots.
Second thing is that when you are going for the headshots, make sure that the only damage you are doing to them is with the crossbow.(Not 100% confirmed but like I said, I killed hundreds prior to following this technique as before I was damaging them with fire first and got nowhere.)
The last thing which is quite IMPORTANT is to note that when you line all the guards up and you have damaged them enough to go for the headshot kill, make sure you have all the upgrades to slow time and stuff and watch carefully as when you kill them, to clarify whether you get a headshot kill or not depends on whether your screen shakes. If when the target dies, your screen shakes it will mean you have got a headshot. If your screen doesn't shake then it means that no matter how accurate you think you were, the headshot will not count.
(A good way to help this achievement out a bit is that when an enemy is close to death and you are ready to go for the headshot kill, you can use AXII to stun them still as AXII will not cause damage.)
Once you have the rhythm you simply need to kill all the enemies and when they are all dead, you need to fast travel to another city to them come back for them to respawn. (Fast Travel to Vizima and back as Vizima has the fastest loading time.)
I have linked this video below to where I got all this advice from and after following this guide exactly, the achievement popped with no problems.
Please Note - You can also clear up a bunch of other achievements in The Devils Pit as the enemies will continuously respawn after Fast Travelling away and coming back.
See my video below for help with this achievement.
Once they're ready for a headshot: use Axii. Then when you get a chance: AIM AT THE BACK OF THEIR HEADS! Not at their faces. The screen will shake almost 100% of the time.
Also, SHEATH YOUR SWORD before using your crossbow! Your attack power bonus on your crossbow only counts if you put your sword away. Even the infinite bolts can get 200+ attack power that way (depending on level/crossbow/etc). Do not unequip your swords, that doesn't help.
Once you reach the new mutagens in this addon, you'll want to develop Cat Eyes in the top-right. Description to this mutagen is as follows:
Crossbow damage is now increased from 127 to 812 (values depend on crossbow used), and crossbow critical chance is increased by 50%. Crossbow bolts pierce and knock down or stun opponents. Opponents struck when they have full Vitality lose 15% of Vitality.
Using this mutagen, as well as the above recommendations (Lightning Reflexes, Anatomical Knowledge, Steady Shot), I was able to kill level 40 bandits in 2 shots, even with just basic (unlimited) bolts. With this setup, I was able to get the 50 headshots from just clearing the Hanse Bases. If you don't kill the leader, the enemies will respawn, but I didn't need to do that, was plenty of bandits to shoot in the face.
Devil's Pit is probably easier, but this was certainly more fun that watching more loading screens.
Just fast travel to Trottheim, (its on the southeastern part of Skellige), and follow the path to the west of the village that goes straight north following the coast. You should see the pirates on the northernmost part of the isle near a cliff. Kill them, walk away, and they should respawn. Keep at it till it pops.
- HIT THE ENEMIES IN THE FACE! Do not hit them in their helmets or hats, hit them in the middle of their faces.
- DO NOT HIT THE ENEMIES IF THEY ARE NOT FACING YOU! If an enemy is looking to left or right, do not hit them because it decreases the chance you get a headshot. Also if they are looking down and their helmets cover most of their face, wait until you see their face clearly.
There are 9 enemies in Devil's Pit, I was able to get 5-6 kills each time by hitting them in the face which will decrease the number of times you need to quick travel quite a bit.
Also, not sure if it is mentioned, but quick travelling to Vinzema is the quickest fast travel, White Orchard takes way too long in comparison.
Finally, I read this tip somewhere and it seemed to work a treat for me. Always aim for the face, but for some reason (maybe hit box related?) Aiming at the right side of the face seemed to account for more success. Agro the first few chimps from Devils Pit, and then I recommend going in and taking on the last few out one by one, one on one. Get your Axxi topped up, but don't puppet, just stun. Once you stun, you can strafe around to the right side of the head and guarantee a critical shot.
Obviously, as previously mentioned, get your arrow shooting skills up so time slows down, this will help you dramatically.
Pop a film on another screen and have patience. This cheevo is in no way glitched, it just requires a quite boring grind.
The best place to grid this is the Devil's Pit in Velen. There's a fast travel point just outside the pit. When you go in there are a bunch of human mercenaries (10 or so) inside. You can go inside and run around to get the attention of most of them. If you then head out toward the entrance you'll discover that they bunch up at the gate to the main area, but won't follow you further. You can then carefully and slowly try to line up headshots with the crossbow. Depending on how much damage you are doing with the crossbow, the first shot or three can hit the body since only the kill has to be to the head, but you're better off always trying to hit the head for practice and just in case.
Once you've killed them all this way, go into the pit to pick up a few more, then use the fast travel point to go somewhere else, then immediately return to respawn everyone in the pit.
Unfortunately, you'll have to kill substantially more than 50 individuals to get the achievement since it won't count many of them as headshot kills, no matter how careful you are in aiming at their heads. Supposedly, the screen shakes slightly when the game registers a headshot kill, but there are reports that people have gotten the achievement when it doesn't shake or have counted way more than 50 shakes without getting the achievement, so its not guarantee of success.
There are a couple of crossbow related perks that make this a little easier, in particular the one that slows time when you aim. Doing more damage and using a more powerful crossbow speeds things up but doesn't necessarily make it much easier.
There are a few other achievements that you can farm here fairly easily as well, so if you get tired of working on headshots, you can take a break by knocking the bandits off the ledges with Aard to farm the Humpty Dumpty Achievement, for example.
I was adding a comment to the other guide here but it ended up being longer then their guide so thought id add it as its own guide (sorry ):
As the previous guide said a good place to grind this is "Devil Pit" in Velen. Fast travelling to Vezima and back to respawn the bad dudes.
WARNING! This will stop working if you loot the chests in the devil pit as it will no longer be an active bandit camp!
FYI, Non Humans is the collective name used in game for Elves and Dwarfs so this is not referring to Monsters.
Use strong bolt that don't have a side effect
Do it on easy!
Bow crit is King
Devil pit gate is glitched
Not all head shots are head shots
1. Get yourself a bunch of bolts (the higher the damage the better) and a "potion of clearance".
2. Use the potion and max out your crossbow tree under "Combat Skills" (Its the second one from the right). After maxing that one, put a point into your armor school and "Steady Shot" under the "General" tree. Using this will maximize your damage output with your crossbow.
3. Head to "Devils pit" in Velen, head into the camp and hit the bandits until they are low.Now for the tricky part, hit them in the head and kill them with your crossbow. Aim somewhere around their hair line to be sure you get the head shot.
4. When all the bandits are dead (be sure not to loot any chests or such) just head up and fast travel to Vezima and back, the bandits have now respawned. Repeat until you are done.
As mentioned this aint to hard just repetative and rather slow.
A useful tip if you find yourself geting swarmed. Head out the way you came. The bandits can't leave the camp. So you can stand on the other side of the wooden doorway and just take your time aiming and they will never reach you.
You will obtain the crossbow towards the end of the prologue. It is best to do this on the easiest difficulty, so you can save it for after you complete the main quest and obtained the trophy by beating the game on Death March.
You will need to kill 50 opponents with headshots using the crossbow. The best place to grind this out is the Devil's Pit Bandit Camp in Velen. Kill every bandit in the area and fast travel to another region and then return. As long as you have not looted the chests around the area, they will respawn. Keep repeating this until you have killed 50 and unlocked the trophy.
It is best if you obtain and max out the skills: Lightning Reflexes and Anatomical Knowledge in the Combat Tree, and Steady Shot in the General Tree. You should also unequip your swords, as you will do more damage with your crossbow without them. You will also know if you successfully obtained a headshot kill by the vibration of the controller and the shaky screen.
There is a location in which pirates respawn endlessly. Pop off headshots on the pirates, save your game, meditate, and repeat. Very tedious but this seems to be the most reliable method after the update.
The easiest way to locate the pirates is to take the road West, and then North out of Trottheim. Follow the road as far North as you can go; you will find the pirates on the cliff's edge, near the curve in the road.
The crossbow is unlocked in Geralt's arsenal towards the end of the Prologue's main story mission entitled, "Lilacs and Gooseberries." As for killing 50 opponents with headshots, remember you can aim the crossbow manually by holding the right bumper. Also, despite the achievement's description stating nonhumans count towards the total, these foes (Dwarves, Elves, etc.) are not commonly present in the game. Thus, you will have to focus on killing 50 human enemies with crossbow headshots.
An excellent "grinding" method for this achievement takes place at the Devil's Pit Bandit Camp in Velen. So long as you do not loot the valuables in the chests around the camp, you can kill all the humans in the area, leave and fast travel to another region (Vizima or Skellige), and then return to the Bandit Camp. This will make it so that all the bandits have respawned.
Take note that headshot detection can be shoddy at times, but when your controller vibrates aggressively and the screen shakes, you'll know you landed a headshot kill. Additionally, it's worth investing skill points and maxing out the Combat Tree's "Lighting Reflexes" and "Anatomical Knowledge" skills, as well as the General Tree's "Steady Shot" skill when working on this task. Once you've amassed a total of 50 headshot kills on human enemies, this achievement will unlock.
1) Place for boosting Devil's Pit. There are about 7-10 robbers of levels 7-9 there, before the first gate from the quarry they stop and do not run after you. As soon as you kill everyone there, go to Vizima (the fastest loading location) and go back to the quarry, all the robbers will be reborn.
2) Before boosting the trophy, you can save and reset your skills afterwards to improve your Lightning Reflexes (slowing down time when aiming) and Knowledge of Anatomy +25% on the probability of a critical hit from a crossbow.
3) It is also advisable for you to have a decoction of katakana, it increases the likelihood of any critical hit by 10%, the toxicity is 100% for 30 minutes. With it you will end up with a 35% chance of crit on a crossbow hit.
4) If you are level 29+ then take a cat school crossbow for another +2% crit chance.
In about an hour and a half you can get this trophy from scratch using this method.