Bear School Witcher Gear Guide by
Caythwyn -
Read the Reddit thread too!
This started on the Witcher subreddit however due to the image limitations with the forum, I've had to move it here so I could imbed screenshots of the game with the written guide.
The Bear School of Witcher so far as we know has very little written about it. From what we can gleam, they were a sect of Witcher that operated primarily in the Skellige Isles. While they may have called Kaer Morhen home on some occasion, I believe their skills and patterns were suited to the frigid and tumultuous archipelago. As of the Witcher 3, The Bear School is no more, their Witchers long dead, all that's left is their tomes, their patterns, and the story of how they passed.
Geralt is able to make use of their techniques, likely due to his old age he can likely remember the days that the Masters of the Bear Techniques were still plying their trade. In this guide, I'll show you how to get your hands on their equipment.
I'm going to allow comments on this guide, since I'm human and I'm prone to be mistaken. If you see something that doesn't match reality, feel free to highlight and comment the issue. Also, I'm a native American-English Speaker, so if you have difficulty reading this, there's nothing I can do for you that Google's Translator can't.
The Ursine Gear is a set of heavy armor that can be upgraded from a basic set, to a mastercrafted set of armor. The Ursine Gear's stats lend itself to a build that favors building and spending Adrenaline Points, with every piece of its set save the Crossbow increases the amount of Adrenaline you build.
Like other pieces of Heavy Armor, the Ursine gear set comes with a large amount of damage resistances, as well as (slightly) higher armor.
Its inspiration is very much rooted alongside Skellige's in the Norse Vikings traditional styles, mixed with a little of The Continent's visual style. The weapons both have Bear symbols either engraved in the pommel, or as the pommel.
Starting out as a simple padded doublet, the Ursine gear builds into a set of chainmail, with layered plates in vital areas as to allow Geralt a Witcher's Speed and Dexterity.
Like Cat, and Griffin sets, you'll come across the Basic Ursine Treasure Hunt while exploring, or doing other things. In the case of the Bear School's, you'll need to travel to Skellige. You can do this by following the Quest, Destination: Skellige Isles.
Despite what you may think, you can travel to Skellige at any level, if you're following the main quest, you may even arrive here at around level 11-15 to meet with Yennifer.
To start the Bear School Scavenger Hunt, you need only loot one of the chests its found in. If you're here though, you (like me) didn't know where to start -- Skellige is a BIG place. I will warn you ahead of time, that I may mix up some of the Diagram locations because I completed this quest a few days ago, and I'm going off memory alone.
Our Hunt will begin on An Skellig, the smallest of the Clan Isles.
An Skellig is the smallest island inhabited by a Clan in the Skellige Isles, and its where we start our quest. Take the Signpost to Urialla Harbor and take the road leading Northeast out of Town. Travel towards the backside of the island and ignore the broken down road, we can't traverse it safely. Once we reach the Trail to Yngvar's Fang, we'll encounter a hostile Rock Troll who is level 16, dispatch him, as we'll have to start our climb right past him. Span the gaps along the back side of the island, and dispatch the Sirens and Harpy present with your crossbow. These will be very easy as when they fall to the ground, we can use the knocked-down finisher on them (except for the Harpy, but it's easy enough to dispatch).
Continuing on, our path will fall away, and we'll have a large gap in front of us, the other side of which lie a staircase. Our way takes us down into the gap, so skate down the incline to the stone road below. Bridge the gap to the gates of the castle and we're inside.
Here is where we'll find the first cache of Bear School Diagrams, the Armor. Head inside the single wooden door in the mountain face and take a left. Going down we'll enter the dungeon where we'll encounter a lone level 7 Wraith, likely the Bailey. Dispatch him and prepare yourself, you'll have to face down 4 more Wraiths. When you're ready, hit the switch at the back of the chamber, and turn around as the cell doors will open and the Wraiths I warned you of will come from the doors. If you don't feel up to this fight, you can take the first cell on your left, and drop down into the pool below. From this pool we're going to go up into another passageway. Here, we'll encounter 2 level 15 Wraiths. You have to kill these, there is no other way. Once the wraiths are dead, continue up and you'll come into a small throne room.
Next to the throne is a chest with your prize. Grab the stuff, and a level 20 wraith will spawn next to you. It will be neutral for a few seconds, which means it's time to make like a tree. On the opposite wall is a lever, hitting this lever will open the gate back to the door we came in through… and will spawn 4 more level 15 wraiths. This fight was hard, even at level 30, so high-tail it.
Once you're safe, check your quest inventory and you'll find a note and a warrant for the arrest of a Witcher -- presumably the one who last had the very diagrams you now have. This will point to two places. A Siren Cave, and the Ruins of Fort Etnir.
You can get your new armor crafted in Urillia Harbor, and then decide upon the next leg of your Hunt.
I personally chose to go for Fort Etnir. Travel back to Ard Skellig and head for the marker on your map
You'll pass through the town of Rogne, and continue along the pathway Eastbound. Once you pass through the tight mountain, you'll come into a valley with a fork in the road ahead of you. Our path takes to the Left.
As you crest the hill, you'll pass through a gate. Stop here. I'm aware the marker shows the Diagram is further on, and it is, but we can get an enhanced diagram while we're here. I believe it's the Steel Sword.
Continue on once you've gotten your diagram and on to the Fort's Keep. Here we'll encounter 3 Elementa -- 2 Gargoyles and an Ice Elemental. These can all be fought separately, and you can even pull them away to fight them. Once you kill them, enter the only door available to the interior and we'll have a new box to loot. Diagram, another Warrant for that same Witcher's arrest, and a letter. Read the letter and it'll uncover a new location for you to go to.
Instead of going after the Siren Cave, we'll stay on Ard Skellig, and this time we're bound for the South side of the Island. Its a long ride, so be sure to discover as much as Ard Skellig as you can on the way down, the signposts here are plentiful, so be sure to grab them.
We're headed for the Ruined Inn. Once there we'll encounter a Siren nest, 3-4 Sirens, and an Ekkidna once those die. Kill them all, blow up the nest, and some locals will move back in and clean some of the place up. The one place they don't however, is the burned down remains of the Inn we passed on the road to the docks. Head up there and clear the debris with Aard, this will reveal a set of stairs leading down into the basement, there will be two Wraiths inside. Once they're dead, the Diagram is ours. Sadly, the Crossbow is the only one we'll find, though it is quite solid. Just have to wait till 29 to use it.
This one may be difficult for you, as it involves fighting several drowners in confined spaces. Hop into the Signpost and fast travel to Svorlag. Take a boat, or ride by Horse to the South Side of the island. The road leads directly to the cave we're about to go into.
Head inside the cave and fight your way to the chamber at the middle. There's a massive statue here to the Siren whose tracks we passed on the way in. We're going to look to our left, there will be a small chamber, with a series of scaleable walls. Climb up, and make your back towards the mouth of the cave along this level. You'll have to jump, but once you're across, the chest is right in front of you.
And we're done with Basic. You can get these items crafted at any Journeyman Weapon or Armor smith, and the main gear (excluding the Crossbow) falls between level 15 and level 17.
Once we're starting to get tired of our Padded robes, we'll be headed back to Skellige. Sadly, this time around we'll have to do some sailing. But fortunately for you, not nearly as much sailing as I did trying to find all of these pieces for you.
The Enhanced Ursine Gear falls between level 20 and 23, a very short time after we got our Basic Gear. Sadly, the armor doesn't change much with this upgrade, the only thing that changes in appearance is out tunic. (That's the Mastercraft Gloves, so don't get too excited.
Thankfully, the majority of these pieces are on Ard Skellig, though they are scattered pretty liberally around.
If you're interested in the Quest Markers, you can find all of the Treasure Maps (except #1 strangely) in Kaer Trolde, at the Armorsmith in the Castle.
If you've grabbed those maps the Merchants like to sell, you'll already have the signpost for the Grotto, which makes this easy. If you don't, then you have some sailing, or swimming to do.
The near boat to the cave is at the Ruined Inn we liberated earlier. Head along the coast to the East and you'll come to a large opening, and you'll unlock the Grotto Signpost. Head inside and all we have to do is 3 three humans to get our Armor.
The Armor is very nice, giving us a lot of defensive stats, and it looks rather decent, though nothing like the product we'll have at the end of this guide.
In an unmarked cave down the slope from the Place of Power. Inside you'll encounter 3 named Rock Trolls, voice acted by none-other than “Angry” Joe Vargas, Dodger, and Jesse Cox. They'll be neutral until you get in melee range, so you can take the time to soak in the commentary and get ready.
Its a hard fight because of all of the armor the Rock Trolls have, however once you've defeated them, your prize is at the back of the cave opposite the entrance.
Sail towards Undvik (or from it, if you have the Signpost) and head for the island circled in the picture. About where that circle is, is a small cave with large icicles grown from the lip down to the water. Swim inside and claim your codpiece and leggings.
This place is an abandoned Fortress, probably a Kaer like the others we've seen scattered about the Isles. This place is home to Alghouls, so you'll want to have Axii ready and a Necrophage Oil. When they have spikes out, they'll knock you back and damage you when you try to hit them. Axii will make them retract these for a short time, thankfully, they don't dodge as much as Ghouls, so you can wreck them before they're able to puff back up. You'll have to face two packs of 5 in there. In the bottom area you'll find the Silver Sword Diagram alone in a chest.
Here, you'll face a retinue of pirates who have claimed the island as their own, fight them down until you reach the courtyard. Kill anyone left standing and your prize is at the top of the stairs along the North Wall of the Castle.
All of these pieces are in Velen, and they're quite easy to find compared to the Enhanced Gear. In fact, I had all of the Mastercraft, and all of the Superior Upgrade gear before I got the Enhanced Upgrades.
There won't be a contents section here, because it's only 2 entries.
Head to the Hanged Man's Tree in Velen, and hit the nearby question mark just down the hill. At this point, you should have no problem with the occupants, level 6 Nekkars. Just inside the mouth of the cave is all four pieces of the Superior Armor upgrades.
In order to get to either of these you MUST have completed the first quest from Kiera Metz. You will die if you don't have the Eye. When you pull up to shore, set your sights on the nearest one, prepare yourself for a fight with a Foglet and then RUN LIKE HELL to that marker. You'll notice why immediately, your breath bar shows up. If it runs out, you die, simple as that. Its not a bug, Geralt will comment on the air quality.
wd
When you get to the marker, you'll find an Illusionary wall, dispel it, and go inside, you'll catch your breath and you'll have to face a named Foglet. Kill him, you'll get a contract quest, and your sword will be in the back of the cave, near the other exit.
The next one is easy, just find the Witcher's mark in the ruins and it'll be in a chest, in the dirt. Congratulations, you're done with Superior Upgrades.
I highly recommend grabbing the Maps for this Quest, as I'm having a hard time remembering where the Steel Sword was. The Road to Bald Mountain is our Signpost for this set. (Thanks Biovenom Johnny for reminding me with your post)
Again, no Section Contents Table because this is only a few entries.
You can now stand proud, level 31 Geralt, in your sexy Mastercrafted Ursine Armor.
Stand Sexy Proud Grizzly Bear
Table of Contents
Introduction
This started on the Witcher subreddit however due to the image limitations with the forum, I've had to move it here so I could imbed screenshots of the game with the written guide.
The Bear School of Witcher so far as we know has very little written about it. From what we can gleam, they were a sect of Witcher that operated primarily in the Skellige Isles. While they may have called Kaer Morhen home on some occasion, I believe their skills and patterns were suited to the frigid and tumultuous archipelago. As of the Witcher 3, The Bear School is no more, their Witchers long dead, all that's left is their tomes, their patterns, and the story of how they passed.
Geralt is able to make use of their techniques, likely due to his old age he can likely remember the days that the Masters of the Bear Techniques were still plying their trade. In this guide, I'll show you how to get your hands on their equipment.
I'm going to allow comments on this guide, since I'm human and I'm prone to be mistaken. If you see something that doesn't match reality, feel free to highlight and comment the issue. Also, I'm a native American-English Speaker, so if you have difficulty reading this, there's nothing I can do for you that Google's Translator can't.
Ursine Witcher's Gear
The Ursine Gear is a set of heavy armor that can be upgraded from a basic set, to a mastercrafted set of armor. The Ursine Gear's stats lend itself to a build that favors building and spending Adrenaline Points, with every piece of its set save the Crossbow increases the amount of Adrenaline you build.
Like other pieces of Heavy Armor, the Ursine gear set comes with a large amount of damage resistances, as well as (slightly) higher armor.
Its inspiration is very much rooted alongside Skellige's in the Norse Vikings traditional styles, mixed with a little of The Continent's visual style. The weapons both have Bear symbols either engraved in the pommel, or as the pommel.
Starting out as a simple padded doublet, the Ursine gear builds into a set of chainmail, with layered plates in vital areas as to allow Geralt a Witcher's Speed and Dexterity.
The Basic Ursine Gear Set
Like Cat, and Griffin sets, you'll come across the Basic Ursine Treasure Hunt while exploring, or doing other things. In the case of the Bear School's, you'll need to travel to Skellige. You can do this by following the Quest, Destination: Skellige Isles.
Despite what you may think, you can travel to Skellige at any level, if you're following the main quest, you may even arrive here at around level 11-15 to meet with Yennifer.
To start the Bear School Scavenger Hunt, you need only loot one of the chests its found in. If you're here though, you (like me) didn't know where to start -- Skellige is a BIG place. I will warn you ahead of time, that I may mix up some of the Diagram locations because I completed this quest a few days ago, and I'm going off memory alone.
Our Hunt will begin on An Skellig, the smallest of the Clan Isles.
BASIC URSINE WITCHER GEAR SECTION CONTENTS
Basic Ursine Armor
An Skellig is the smallest island inhabited by a Clan in the Skellige Isles, and its where we start our quest. Take the Signpost to Urialla Harbor and take the road leading Northeast out of Town. Travel towards the backside of the island and ignore the broken down road, we can't traverse it safely. Once we reach the Trail to Yngvar's Fang, we'll encounter a hostile Rock Troll who is level 16, dispatch him, as we'll have to start our climb right past him. Span the gaps along the back side of the island, and dispatch the Sirens and Harpy present with your crossbow. These will be very easy as when they fall to the ground, we can use the knocked-down finisher on them (except for the Harpy, but it's easy enough to dispatch).
Continuing on, our path will fall away, and we'll have a large gap in front of us, the other side of which lie a staircase. Our way takes us down into the gap, so skate down the incline to the stone road below. Bridge the gap to the gates of the castle and we're inside.
Here is where we'll find the first cache of Bear School Diagrams, the Armor. Head inside the single wooden door in the mountain face and take a left. Going down we'll enter the dungeon where we'll encounter a lone level 7 Wraith, likely the Bailey. Dispatch him and prepare yourself, you'll have to face down 4 more Wraiths. When you're ready, hit the switch at the back of the chamber, and turn around as the cell doors will open and the Wraiths I warned you of will come from the doors. If you don't feel up to this fight, you can take the first cell on your left, and drop down into the pool below. From this pool we're going to go up into another passageway. Here, we'll encounter 2 level 15 Wraiths. You have to kill these, there is no other way. Once the wraiths are dead, continue up and you'll come into a small throne room.
Next to the throne is a chest with your prize. Grab the stuff, and a level 20 wraith will spawn next to you. It will be neutral for a few seconds, which means it's time to make like a tree. On the opposite wall is a lever, hitting this lever will open the gate back to the door we came in through… and will spawn 4 more level 15 wraiths. This fight was hard, even at level 30, so high-tail it.
Once you're safe, check your quest inventory and you'll find a note and a warrant for the arrest of a Witcher -- presumably the one who last had the very diagrams you now have. This will point to two places. A Siren Cave, and the Ruins of Fort Etnir.
You can get your new armor crafted in Urillia Harbor, and then decide upon the next leg of your Hunt.
Basic Ursine Steel Sword
I personally chose to go for Fort Etnir. Travel back to Ard Skellig and head for the marker on your map
You'll pass through the town of Rogne, and continue along the pathway Eastbound. Once you pass through the tight mountain, you'll come into a valley with a fork in the road ahead of you. Our path takes to the Left.
As you crest the hill, you'll pass through a gate. Stop here. I'm aware the marker shows the Diagram is further on, and it is, but we can get an enhanced diagram while we're here. I believe it's the Steel Sword.
Continue on once you've gotten your diagram and on to the Fort's Keep. Here we'll encounter 3 Elementa -- 2 Gargoyles and an Ice Elemental. These can all be fought separately, and you can even pull them away to fight them. Once you kill them, enter the only door available to the interior and we'll have a new box to loot. Diagram, another Warrant for that same Witcher's arrest, and a letter. Read the letter and it'll uncover a new location for you to go to.
Basic Ursine Steel Sword
Instead of going after the Siren Cave, we'll stay on Ard Skellig, and this time we're bound for the South side of the Island. Its a long ride, so be sure to discover as much as Ard Skellig as you can on the way down, the signposts here are plentiful, so be sure to grab them.
We're headed for the Ruined Inn. Once there we'll encounter a Siren nest, 3-4 Sirens, and an Ekkidna once those die. Kill them all, blow up the nest, and some locals will move back in and clean some of the place up. The one place they don't however, is the burned down remains of the Inn we passed on the road to the docks. Head up there and clear the debris with Aard, this will reveal a set of stairs leading down into the basement, there will be two Wraiths inside. Once they're dead, the Diagram is ours. Sadly, the Crossbow is the only one we'll find, though it is quite solid. Just have to wait till 29 to use it.
Ursine Crossbow
This one may be difficult for you, as it involves fighting several drowners in confined spaces. Hop into the Signpost and fast travel to Svorlag. Take a boat, or ride by Horse to the South Side of the island. The road leads directly to the cave we're about to go into.
Head inside the cave and fight your way to the chamber at the middle. There's a massive statue here to the Siren whose tracks we passed on the way in. We're going to look to our left, there will be a small chamber, with a series of scaleable walls. Climb up, and make your back towards the mouth of the cave along this level. You'll have to jump, but once you're across, the chest is right in front of you.
And we're done with Basic. You can get these items crafted at any Journeyman Weapon or Armor smith, and the main gear (excluding the Crossbow) falls between level 15 and level 17.
The Enhanced Ursine Witcher Gear
Once we're starting to get tired of our Padded robes, we'll be headed back to Skellige. Sadly, this time around we'll have to do some sailing. But fortunately for you, not nearly as much sailing as I did trying to find all of these pieces for you.
The Enhanced Ursine Gear falls between level 20 and 23, a very short time after we got our Basic Gear. Sadly, the armor doesn't change much with this upgrade, the only thing that changes in appearance is out tunic. (That's the Mastercraft Gloves, so don't get too excited.
Thankfully, the majority of these pieces are on Ard Skellig, though they are scattered pretty liberally around.
If you're interested in the Quest Markers, you can find all of the Treasure Maps (except #1 strangely) in Kaer Trolde, at the Armorsmith in the Castle.
ENHANCED URSINE WITCHER GEAR SECTION CONTENTS
Enhanced Ursine Armor (Chest)
If you've grabbed those maps the Merchants like to sell, you'll already have the signpost for the Grotto, which makes this easy. If you don't, then you have some sailing, or swimming to do.
The near boat to the cave is at the Ruined Inn we liberated earlier. Head along the coast to the East and you'll come to a large opening, and you'll unlock the Grotto Signpost. Head inside and all we have to do is 3 three humans to get our Armor.
The Armor is very nice, giving us a lot of defensive stats, and it looks rather decent, though nothing like the product we'll have at the end of this guide.
Enhanced Ursine Boots
Next up are the boots, and probably one of my favorite Easter Eggs so far. Sorry Joe, Dodger, and Coxxmiester; I need my boots. Though, it was by far the most frustrating one to find since the Part 1 Quest eluded me. We're headed for Holmstein Port.In an unmarked cave down the slope from the Place of Power. Inside you'll encounter 3 named Rock Trolls, voice acted by none-other than “Angry” Joe Vargas, Dodger, and Jesse Cox. They'll be neutral until you get in melee range, so you can take the time to soak in the commentary and get ready.
Its a hard fight because of all of the armor the Rock Trolls have, however once you've defeated them, your prize is at the back of the cave opposite the entrance.
Enhanced Ursine Trousers
Trousers were the most annoying piece to get, mainly because it's such a long boat ride to get to them, though there was no fighting needed to grab them.Sail towards Undvik (or from it, if you have the Signpost) and head for the island circled in the picture. About where that circle is, is a small cave with large icicles grown from the lip down to the water. Swim inside and claim your codpiece and leggings.
Enhanced Ursine Gloves
Seriously the easiest thing I've gotten in this guide. I picked them up on my way to get the Basic Diagram for the Silver Sword. Its in the bottom of the tower, clear debris with Aard and loot.Enhanced Ursine Silver Sword
The Ursine Silver Sword is in a bit of a hard place to get to, using the same picture from above, our nearest Signpost is Kaer Gelen on the Eastern side of Ard Skellig -- but as you can see, I didn't have it when I came out this way, so I had to ride from Rogne.This place is an abandoned Fortress, probably a Kaer like the others we've seen scattered about the Isles. This place is home to Alghouls, so you'll want to have Axii ready and a Necrophage Oil. When they have spikes out, they'll knock you back and damage you when you try to hit them. Axii will make them retract these for a short time, thankfully, they don't dodge as much as Ghouls, so you can wreck them before they're able to puff back up. You'll have to face two packs of 5 in there. In the bottom area you'll find the Silver Sword Diagram alone in a chest.
Enhanced Ursine Steel Sword
This one is again, annoying because of the sailing, but its literally half as bad as the pants (because its half the distance). Go to Sloveng and steal a boat and sail south. You'll have to dock on the Eastern half of the island.Here, you'll face a retinue of pirates who have claimed the island as their own, fight them down until you reach the courtyard. Kill anyone left standing and your prize is at the top of the stairs along the North Wall of the Castle.
Superior Ursine Witcher Gear
Honestly if you have trouble finding this, you need some serious help… which I guess is why you're here. Now that we're past the Enhanced Upgrade, this set gets much easier to find. This is also where we get major visual changes in the armor.All of these pieces are in Velen, and they're quite easy to find compared to the Enhanced Gear. In fact, I had all of the Mastercraft, and all of the Superior Upgrade gear before I got the Enhanced Upgrades.
There won't be a contents section here, because it's only 2 entries.
Superior Ursine Armor
You probably already all of these, since it's less than 50 feet from where we landed in Velen starting the game.Head to the Hanged Man's Tree in Velen, and hit the nearby question mark just down the hill. At this point, you should have no problem with the occupants, level 6 Nekkars. Just inside the mouth of the cave is all four pieces of the Superior Armor upgrades.
Superior Steel and Silver Swords
I combined these because they are found only a few hundred paces apart.In order to get to either of these you MUST have completed the first quest from Kiera Metz. You will die if you don't have the Eye. When you pull up to shore, set your sights on the nearest one, prepare yourself for a fight with a Foglet and then RUN LIKE HELL to that marker. You'll notice why immediately, your breath bar shows up. If it runs out, you die, simple as that. Its not a bug, Geralt will comment on the air quality.
wd
When you get to the marker, you'll find an Illusionary wall, dispel it, and go inside, you'll catch your breath and you'll have to face a named Foglet. Kill him, you'll get a contract quest, and your sword will be in the back of the cave, near the other exit.
The next one is easy, just find the Witcher's mark in the ruins and it'll be in a chest, in the dirt. Congratulations, you're done with Superior Upgrades.
Mastercraft Ursine Witcher Gear
This is it, the ultimate upgrade set. You'll need to have completed BOTH of the Master Crafter Quests; Of Swords and Dumplings in the Bits in Novigrad, and Master Armorers for Yaona in Crow's Perch (I love how Yaona says Geralt).I highly recommend grabbing the Maps for this Quest, as I'm having a hard time remembering where the Steel Sword was. The Road to Bald Mountain is our Signpost for this set. (Thanks Biovenom Johnny for reminding me with your post)
Again, no Section Contents Table because this is only a few entries.
Mastercraft Ursine Silver Sword
We'll find our Silver Sword next to the Monster Nest shown here. Kill a few Drowners and a Mucknixxer and we're golden.Mastercraft Ursine Armor
This one is a bit of a treck, but it'll be extremely easy for us at this level. We're headed for the Destroyed Bastion. Skirt Bald Mountain and head into the Hills, you'll face Basilisks, a Forktail, and a Wyvern here before you reach the locale. Outside, fast asleep is a Cyclops, you can sneak past him, or kill his face, either way, your Diagrams are next to the Grindstone.Mastercraft Ursine Steel Sword
I honestly didn't remember where this was until I went and searched for it on the Subreddit. Its extremely easy, don't even have to fight for it. Head to Blackbough, and go into the forest, there will be a cave within, along with your new steel sword.You can now stand proud, level 31 Geralt, in your sexy Mastercrafted Ursine Armor.
Stand Sexy Proud Grizzly Bear