Witcher 3 Wild Hunt: Open Sesame! Quest Walkthrough (Best Choices)

TL;DR

• Open Sesame! is a main quest in the Hearts of Stone DLC. Suggested level is 34.
• You plan and execute a heist on the Borsodi Brothers’ Auction House in Oxenfurt.
• Talk to all three of Vivaldi’s contacts at the auction — they give XP, Gwent cards, gear diagrams, and a money-making tip.
• Do not tell Vivaldi about Yaromir’s painting tip — if you do, you will have to bid against him and pay far more.
• The quest has three sub-quests: The Safecracker, Breaking and Entering, and Witcher Seasonings.
• Best safecracker: Quinto. He opens the vault quietly, giving you a chance to avoid fighting the outer guards.
• Hugo Hoff is dead — Eveline Gallo is your only option for the break-in role.
• Best ending: Side with Ewald. You get Maximilian Borsodi’s House and earn 1,150 XP total across the full quest.

Open Sesame! – Quest Overview

Open Sesame! is one of the most creative and entertaining quests in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. It is a main quest from the Hearts of Stone expansion, set in and around Oxenfurt. The suggested level is 34.

In this quest, Geralt is tasked by Olgierd von Everec — as one of three impossible wishes — to retrieve Maximilian Borsodi’s House, a mysterious object locked inside the vault of the Borsodi Brothers’ Auction House. To get it, Geralt has to plan and execute a full heist: building a crew, spiking the guards’ food, and breaking into one of the most secure buildings in Oxenfurt.

Previous quest: Evil’s Soft First Touches / Dead Man’s Party
Next quest: Open Sesame: Witcher Seasonings (sub-quest), then back to the main heist

Step 1 – Go to the Borsodi Brothers’ Auction House in Oxenfurt

Head to Oxenfurt and find the Borsodi Brothers’ Auction House. You will be stopped at the door by guards — you do not have an invitation. Before anything gets heated, Vimme Vivaldi arrives and vouches for you. Follow him inside.

Once inside, Vivaldi brings you upstairs to the main auction floor. He introduces you to a few guests and tells you he will try to arrange a meeting with Horst Borsodi, the auction house owner. Before the auction begins, you have the chance to speak with three people. This is optional, but highly recommended.

Step 2 – Meet Vivaldi’s Three Contacts (Optional but Important)

Speaking with all three contacts earns you XP, useful items, and a money-making trick. Do not skip this section.

Witcher 3 Wild Hunt Open Sesame Quest Walkthrough Countess Mignole

Contact 1: Countess Mignole

Countess Mignole is a collector of Witcher gear. During your conversation with her, you can purchase diagrams for the Viper School gear set — Viper Armor, Viper Boots, Viper Gauntlets, and Viper Trousers. This is a Hearts of Stone exclusive set and she is the only place to get these diagrams, so do not skip her.

At the end of the conversation, she will ask you to help find her earring on the balcony. Agree and follow her out. You will examine a wine stain on the balcony and find no earring. The earring was never lost — she just wanted to speak privately. She shares a touching story about a past romance with Vesemir. This earns you 100 XP.

Contact 2: Yaromir (the Art Dealer)

Yaromir will challenge you to identify a painting. Tell him you know a little about art, then choose the Portrait of the Merchant as your answer. This is the correct answer and earns his respect.

As a reward, he gives you a tip: a painting by an up-and-coming artist named van Rogh will go on the auction block. Buy it cheaply and sell it to Marcus TK Hodgson in Novigrad for a significant profit, starting the secondary quest Avid Collector.

Critical tip: After speaking to Yaromir, Vivaldi will ask if you learned anything interesting. Do not share the tip with Vivaldi. If you do, he will bid against you during the auction and drive the price up significantly. Keep the information to yourself and you can buy the van Rogh painting at its starting price of just 20 Crowns.

This earns you 100 XP.

Contact 3: Hilbert (the Gwent Player)

Hilbert made his fortune playing Gwent and will challenge you to a game. The bet can be set anywhere from 1 to 250 Crowns. If you beat him, you win the Gaunter O’Dimm Gwent card — a useful Hearts of Stone exclusive card. Vivaldi will ask for a 10% finder’s fee if you win. It makes no meaningful difference whether you agree or refuse.

This earns you 100 XP.

Step 3 – The Auction

When you have spoken to all three contacts, or whenever you are ready, sit on the marked bench to start the auction. Three items go on the block.

Auction Item 1: Count Romilly’s Figurine

A brass figurine from the collection of Count Romilly. Bidding starts at around 200 Crowns and you will likely need to bid at least 300 Crowns to win it. The figurine appears to be worth less than that at face value, but if you dismantle it at a blacksmith or armorer it breaks into two pieces: Count Romilly’s Will and an Ornate Key, which start the secondary quest A Dark Legacy. Worth buying if you want to explore all Hearts of Stone side content.

Auction Item 2: Starry Night Over the Pontar (van Rogh Painting)

This is the painting Yaromir told you about. If you kept the tip to yourself, bidding starts at just 20 Crowns and no one will outbid you. Buy it. You can sell it to Marcus TK Hodgson in Novigrad for a significant profit as part of the Avid Collector quest. This is one of the easiest money-making opportunities in Hearts of Stone.

Auction Item 3: Pair of Spectacles

These are a cosmetic vanity item. Geralt can wear them using the accessories slot. No gameplay benefit, but a fun novelty if you have Crowns to spare.

After the auction, the main event of the quest kicks off. During the intermission you speak to Horst Borsodi. It does not go well. A fight breaks out outside the auction house.

Step 4 – Defeat the Guards and Meet the Stranger

Once outside, defeat the guards who attack. After the fight, a mysterious man — referred to only as the Stranger — approaches Geralt with a proposition. He reveals a plan to break into the Borsodi vault, which contains the item Olgierd wants. Geralt agrees to join.

The Stranger tells you to visit the Herbalist’s Hut east of Oxenfurt and ask for yarrow extract as a password. This earns you 200 XP from the conversation and 100 XP when you agree to join.

Step 5 – Visit the Herbalist’s Hut and Meet the Stranger

Head to the Herbalist’s Hut northeast of Oxenfurt. As you approach, a cutscene may trigger showing three Fallen Knights pounding on the door. They will turn on you — kill them all. A wild boar may also charge you on the road approaching the hut. Defeat it and follow the tracks nearby to find a hunter’s letter if you want additional context.

After clearing the Fallen Knights, the herbalist lets you in. Give the password — the game adds it automatically to your dialogue options. A trap door opens, leading to a basement where the Stranger is waiting.

He reveals the full heist plan: a burglar will get the team inside from above, a safecracker will open the vault, and you will escape through a secret passage. He gives you three sub-quests to complete before the heist night:

• Open Sesame: The Safecracker
• Open Sesame: Breaking and Entering
• Open Sesame: Witcher Seasonings

All three must be completed before the heist begins. You can do them in any order.

Sub-Quest: Open Sesame – The Safecracker

You need someone who can get the vault open. There are two candidates: Quinto and Casimir Bassi.

Option A: Recruit Quinto (Recommended)

Quinto is the best lockpick north of the Yaruga. He is being held captive by Hans of Cidaris, not far from the Herbalist’s Hut. Speak to Hans. You can win Quinto’s freedom through a fistfight or a game of Gwent. If you lose, you pay double. Win and Quinto walks free — though it quickly becomes obvious he could have escaped at any time on his own.

Why Quinto is better: He opens the vault quietly with lockpicks. This means no explosion, which gives you the chance to negotiate with the outer guards and potentially avoid fighting them entirely. The downside: entering the vault triggers a trapdoor that drops you into a pit with four Arachnomorphs (level 32). You will need to kill them and climb back up before looting the vault.

Option B: Recruit Casimir Bassi

Casimir is a dwarf demolitions expert found on the roof of his own house, surrounded by powder kegs — threatening to blow himself up after his wife cheated on him. Talk him down using the available dialogue options. As long as he survives the conversation, he agrees to join.

Casimir’s approach: He blows up the vault door with an explosion. This disables the trapdoor trigger, meaning you skip the Arachnomorph fight. However, the explosion alerts the guards outside, who storm in and you will have to fight them regardless of how well you negotiated. The fight is also more chaotic.

Note: If you fail to talk Casimir down and he blows himself up, he cannot be recruited. You will be forced to go with Quinto.

Sub-Quest: Open Sesame – Breaking and Entering

You need someone who can scale the auction house and get the team in from above. Two names are given: Hugo Hoff and Eveline Gallo.

Hugo Hoff

Go to Hugo’s house in Oxenfurt. He is not there. Follow the trail of footprints leading down toward the river. You will be attacked by three thugs. Defeat them and read the letter found near one of them. It confirms Hugo is dead — at the bottom of the river. There is no way to save him.

This path gives you some XP for investigation but leaves you with only one option.

Eveline Gallo (Your Only Real Choice)

Eveline is a circus performer found near the Vegelbud Residence. Before she agrees to help, she wants something in return. You have two options:

• Pay her 600 Crowns (or 400 if you approach her first before checking on Hugo) for a ticket refund. She agrees immediately.
• Participate in her performance — shoot fruits off a man using your crossbow. This is simple and earns her trust without spending Crowns.

Either way, she joins the crew and is the only break-in specialist available. The choice between these two approaches is yours — both lead to the same outcome.

Sub-Quest: Open Sesame – Witcher Seasonings

Oxenfurt is crawling with Redanian soldiers. To reduce the number of guards on heist night, Geralt needs to spike the garrison’s food supply with a concoction that will put half of them on sick leave.

Step 1: Craft the Cleansing Mixture

The Alchemy recipe is automatically added to your journal after speaking with the Stranger. Open the Alchemy menu and scroll to the Quests section to find it. You need:

• 1x Dwarven Spirit
• 2x Rotfiend Blood
• 2x Wolfsbane

If you do not have these, the Herbalist near the hut sells them. Craft the mixture before continuing.

Step 2: Eavesdrop on the Guards

Head to the Borsodi Brothers’ Auction House and use your Witcher Senses to eavesdrop on the guards. You need to listen to three separate guard conversations to track down the garrison cook:

• Guard pair 1 – In front of the building at the northern end of the market area. Stay at a safe distance and keep your Witcher Senses active for the full conversation.
• Guard pair 2 – At the rear (north side) of the building. Listen through an open window.
• Guard pair 3 – Along the riverfront path to the east. These guards are walking, so follow them at a distance without being detected. This is the key conversation that reveals where the cook is.

Step 3: Find and Convince the Cook

The cook is fishing at the pier near the western gate. Visit during the day — he will not be there at night. Convince him to add the mixture to the guards’ soup. You have two options:

• Pay him 500 Crowns – Earns 50 XP.
• Use Axii (Delusion level 2 required) – Earns 40 XP and saves you the Crowns.

Completing Witcher Seasonings earns 150 XP.

Step 6 – The Heist Night

Once all three sub-quests are done, return to the Herbalist’s Hut to finalize the plan. Then head to the Borsodi Brothers’ Auction House at midnight. Your full crew is assembled: Eveline on the outside to get the team in, your safecracker ready to open the vault, and Geralt leading the way.

Entering the Auction House

Eveline climbs the tower and opens the way in. Inside the auction house, you need to fight through guards. You will encounter five guards on the ground floor. Once three of them are down, a cutscene triggers — Horst Borsodi arrives, sounds the alarm, and locks himself inside the vault. The city watch mobilizes outside.

The Stranger negotiates with the remaining two guards using them as leverage. This is where your choice of safecracker matters:

• With Quinto: He picks the lock quietly while Geralt negotiates and buys time with the guards. Choose the timed dialogue options carefully during negotiation. If you pick the right responses, the guards outside agree to fetch a cart and leave temporarily. The vault opens without a fight. However, as you enter the vault a trapdoor drops you into a pit with four Arachnomorphs. Kill them all with your Silver Sword and climb back up.
• With Casimir: Regardless of how well you negotiate, an explosion goes off and blows out the vault door. The guards storm the building and you will have to fight them. The trapdoor is destroyed by the blast, so you drop safely into the vault without the spider fight.

Looting the Vault

Once inside the vault, take time to loot everything. The vault contains gems, jewelry, and valuable items. There is also a legendary Viper venomous silver sword diagram available here — do not miss it. Search thoroughly before moving on.

Find and pick up Maximilian Borsodi’s House — the small ornate box that Olgierd wants.

Step 7 – The Borsodi Brothers: Choose a Side

When you attempt to leave the vault, the Stranger finally reveals his true identity: he is Ewald Borsodi, Horst’s estranged brother. Horst arrives with guards. The two brothers confront each other and Geralt is caught in the middle. You must choose.

Option A: Side with Ewald

You fight alongside Ewald against Horst and his guards. If Quinto was your safecracker, he switches sides and fights for Horst — you will need to defeat Quinto as well. Focus on Horst first. Once his health drops to around 5-10%, a cutscene triggers. Horst is killed.

Afterwards, speak with Ewald. You can take Maximilian Borsodi’s House as agreed. You can also push for additional compensation and receive the deed to the house on the Oxenfurt docks as a bonus.

Option B: Side with Horst

You fight Ewald and his supporters. If Casimir was your safecracker, he sides with Ewald and you will need to fight him. Siding with Horst is the morally grayer path — you are helping the brother who actually runs a legitimate (if shady) business, against the one who manipulated Geralt into a heist. After the fight, Horst offers you a deal: the house in exchange for your loyalty.

Option C: Fight Both Brothers

If you want no deals, you can fight both. It is easiest to fight Horst first and then Ewald. You still get Maximilian Borsodi’s House either way.

Best Choice

Side with Ewald. He kept his word throughout the heist and the deal is cleaner. You get the house plus the potential bonus of the docks property. Horst was warned by a seer that Geralt was coming and still chose confrontation — he brought this on himself.

Step 8 – Escape and Deliver the House

After the confrontation, use your Witcher Senses to find the secret escape route. Look for a square pressure plate on the floor — activating it opens a hidden wall passage. Go through the tunnel. It leads to a house on the Oxenfurt docks.

Exiting through the tunnel earns 150 XP. There may be an additional cutscene with Ewald if he is still with you.

Now take Maximilian Borsodi’s House to Olgierd von Everec to complete the quest and one of his three wishes. This earns 250 XP.

Full XP Breakdown for Open Sesame!

• 100 XP – Entering and speaking to Horst at the auction house
• 200 XP – Meeting the Stranger and hearing the heist plan
• 100 XP – Agreeing to join the heist
• 100 XP – Each optional contact at the auction (Mignole, Yaromir, Hilbert) — up to 300 XP total
• 150 XP – Completing Witcher Seasonings
• 78–118 XP – Completing The Safecracker
• 150 XP – Defeating the guards during the heist
• 100 XP – Defeating Horst or Ewald in the vault
• 150 XP – Exiting through the secret tunnel
• 250 XP – Delivering the house to Olgierd
• Total: approximately 1,150 XP across the full quest

Tips and Things Not to Miss

• Buy the van Rogh painting during the auction for 20 Crowns and sell it to Marcus TK Hodgson in Novigrad for a big profit. Do not tell Vivaldi about the tip or the price will be higher.
• Buy Count Romilly’s Figurine if you want to start the A Dark Legacy treasure hunt side quest. Dismantle it at a blacksmith to get the key and will inside.
• Viper gear diagrams from Countess Mignole are exclusive to this quest and this conversation. If you skip her, you lose access to the Viper School gear set permanently in this playthrough.
• If you check on Hugo Hoff first before going to Eveline, she charges 400 Crowns instead of 600 for the ticket refund. Go to Hugo first if you plan to pay.
• Going to Quinto first before approaching Hans of Cidaris may give slightly different dialogue. Start with Quinto if you want the smoothest recruit flow.
• There is a legendary Viper venomous silver sword diagram inside the vault. Loot everything before you trigger the exit or face the brothers.
• The Witcher Seasonings sub-quest ingredients can all be bought from the Herbalist if you do not have them. Keep 500-600 Crowns on hand for the cook if you do not have Axii level 2.
• Before heading into the auction house, make sure your gear is in good shape. See our weapon and armor repair guide for a quick refresh.

Related Witcher 3 Wild Hunt Guides

• All Quests in Order – Complete Main Quest List
• Enchanting Guide – All Runewords and Glyphwords – The Runewright is also in Hearts of Stone.
• A Towerful of Mice Walkthrough – Another quest with major story choices.
• How to Get All DLC Gwent Cards – Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine – The Gaunter O’Dimm card from Hilbert counts.
• How to Get Every Gwent Card
• Best Builds for All Playstyles – Being well-built matters for the level 32 Arachnomorphs in the vault.
• Skill Tree Guide – Axii Delusion level 2 saves you Crowns on the cook in Witcher Seasonings.
• Crown Farming Guide – You need a decent amount of Crowns to bid at the auction and pay crew members.
• Bank and Currency Guide
• Ultimate Achievement Guide
• All Endings Guide
• Wine is Sacred Quest Guide

Frequently Asked Questions