The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt: Get Feline Armor and Grandmaster Gear

The Eye of Nehaleni is the critical requirement for opening the base Feline armor route. Obtain it during Keira Metz’s main quest, Wandering in the Dark, before travelling to Temple Isle in Novigrad; the cave entrance is concealed by an illusory rock that cannot be cleared through ordinary exploration.

Feline, also called Cat School, gear is light Witcher equipment with a level 17 requirement at its base tier. Its lower protection is the trade for attack-focused bonuses: the set supports fast attacks, strong attacks, and harder rear hits. It suits an aggressive build that avoids extended trades rather than a defensive approach built around absorbing damage.

Table of Contents (10)

Requirements Before Starting the Feline Route

• Access to Novigrad and Velen.
• The Eye of Nehaleni from Keira Metz’s Wandering in the Dark.
• Food, healing potions, bombs, weapon repair kits, and armor repair kits.
• A prepared response for golems, wraiths, drowners, bandits, and archespores.
• The Blood and Wine expansion for Grandmaster Feline gear in Toussaint.

Keep every crafted Feline item. The set follows a fixed material chain: Basic becomes Enhanced, Enhanced becomes Superior, Superior becomes Mastercrafted, and Mastercrafted becomes Grandmaster. Selling or dismantling a previous-tier sword or armor piece creates an unnecessary recrafting step later.

Base Feline Armor: Temple Isle Laboratory Route

Travel to Temple Isle, the northernmost island in Novigrad. From the large tower, follow the road downhill around the western side of the island. A path descends toward a cave entrance in the cliff. Use the Eye of Nehaleni to remove the illusion covering the entrance.

The cave contains the full sequence needed for the basic Feline armor diagrams: a golem, a statue mechanism, an underwater key, a locked laboratory, and Mad Kiyan. The order matters because the Laboratory Key is behind the puzzle chamber and is required to reach the final room.

Temple Isle Cave Walkthrough

1. Enter the newly revealed cave and defeat the golem.
2. Take the left-hand route upward to the chamber containing statues and levers.
3. Rotate every statue so that it faces inward toward the central area.
4. When the floor opens, descend into the pool beneath the mechanism.
5. Kill the drowners in the water, then search the skeleton at the bottom for the Laboratory Key.
6. Return to the locked laboratory door and use the key.
7. Defeat Mad Kiyan inside the laboratory and loot his body for the base Feline armor diagrams.

Mad Kiyan carries the diagrams for the basic Feline armor, gauntlets, trousers, and boots. The Feline steel sword and silver sword diagrams are separate scavenger-hunt objectives, so do not assume the Temple Isle laboratory completes every weapon diagram in the school set. The full Feline collection also includes a crossbow.

How to Handle the Temple Isle Enemies

The golem is the first significant check in the route. Keep Quen active and avoid exchanging heavy hits directly. Its resistance and high-damage swings make repeated attack chains inefficient; wait for a completed animation, strike during the recovery, then reset your position before its next swing.

Wraiths can appear around the statue chamber. Cast Yrden before committing to attacks so they remain vulnerable instead of repeatedly fading out of reach. This also makes the confined room easier to manage, since Geralt has less space to disengage from a wraith’s lunge.

Clear the drowners before searching the underwater skeleton. The pool’s limited visibility makes the key easy to overlook when combat is still active. Search the body after the area is quiet, then return to the laboratory door rather than continuing farther through the water.

Against Mad Kiyan, retain Quen, heal before opening the laboratory if necessary, and punish the end of his attack animations instead of trying to overpower him. The diagram reward is on his corpse, not hidden elsewhere in the room.

Feline Upgrade Order and Diagram Regions

The base set starts in Novigrad, while its upgrade route spreads across Velen before moving to Toussaint. Track the Cat School scavenger hunts in the quest journal while collecting diagrams. The route order can vary by travel preference, but the crafting order cannot vary.

Tier	Main area	Important location detail	Crafting dependency
Basic	Novigrad	Temple Isle laboratory; armor diagrams come from Mad Kiyan.	Starting item for every later armor upgrade.
Enhanced	Velen and nearby regions	The Enhanced Feline Boots diagram is in a cave east of Toderas.	Requires the corresponding Basic item.
Superior	Central Velen	The complete Superior armor diagram set is at an ancient site.	Requires the corresponding Enhanced item.
Mastercrafted	Velen and nearby areas	Diagrams are spread through caves and abandoned locations.	Requires the corresponding Superior item.
Grandmaster	Toussaint	Diagrams are concentrated around Arthach Palace Ruins and the Pits of Brume.	Requires the corresponding Mastercrafted item.

Est Tayiar provides another useful early diagram stop during the wider hunt. The ruin lies northeast of Oxenfurt and east of the Vegelbud Residence. On entering, destroy the wall to the right with Aard to access the relevant hidden area. This is a common miss because the destructible wall is close to the entrance rather than deep within the ruin.

Craft a piece as soon as its prerequisites and materials are ready if it is part of your active loadout, but do not dismantle the outgoing tier afterward. For the full line, retain leather, cloth, string, ingots, monster components, and crowns for each armorer or blacksmith fee. Sword upgrades can also require rarer materials, so check the crafting screen before making a long return trip.

Why Feline Gear Fits an Aggressive Combat Build

Feline gear is designed for an offense-first approach. Its light armor classification favors stamina-oriented combat and repeated attack pressure, but its lower damage resistance leaves less room for missed dodges and greedy follow-up strikes. Its bonuses reinforce strong and fast attacks, along with higher damage from rear hits.

Witcher school set	Armor type	Primary role
Feline	Light	Fast, aggressive weapon damage with a glass-cannon profile.
Griffin	Medium	Sign-focused combat.
Ursine	Heavy	High defense and a more durable fighting style.
Wolven	Medium	General-purpose, balanced play.

The practical consequence is simple: Feline gear rewards attacking during safe windows, positioning behind targets where possible, and avoiding long exchanges with high-damage enemies. Quen remains particularly useful because the set does not provide the safety margin of Ursine armor.

Start the Grandmaster Feline Hunt in Toussaint

Grandmaster Feline gear requires the Blood and Wine expansion and a visit to Lazare Lafargue in Beauclair. His workshop is in southern Beauclair, northwest of the Mettina Gate signpost. Speak with him to begin Master Master Master Master!, the quest that introduces the Grandmaster Witcher gear hunts.

Lazare serves two functions: he supplies the quest framework for locating Grandmaster diagrams, and he is the specialist who crafts the finished equipment. Standard armorers and blacksmiths cannot make Grandmaster Witcher gear.

Grandmaster Feline Diagram Locations

The six Grandmaster Feline diagrams are concentrated in northern Toussaint around Arthach Palace Ruins. Complete them in one northbound circuit to avoid repeated travel between Beauclair and the ruins.

1. Speak with Lazare Lafargue in Beauclair and start Master Master Master Master!.
2. Travel north to the estate or fort east of Arthach Palace Ruins.
3. Circle the exterior rather than forcing the main entrance, then climb the broken scaffolding to get inside.
4. Defeat the bandits and enter the red house with the white door. Inspect the painting to find the Grandmaster Feline armor diagram concealed behind it.
5. Follow the route toward the broken bridge by the elven ruins and loot the chest there for the Grandmaster Feline trousers diagram.
6. Search the Arthach Palace Ruins hanse base near the signal fire for the Grandmaster Feline boots diagram.
7. Enter the Pits of Brume, clear the archespores, and loot the container at the end for the Grandmaster Feline gauntlets, steel sword, and silver sword diagrams.
8. Return to Lazare with every diagram, all required materials, and the corresponding Mastercrafted Feline items.

Pits of Brume: Archespore Preparation

The Pits of Brume contains the last three diagrams, making it the most efficient final stop in the Grandmaster route. Its archespores are more dangerous than ordinary stationary plant enemies because they apply poison, attack at range, and reposition through their planted growths.

• Use Igni to pressure archespores and deal with their growths where appropriate.
• Do not remain in poison pools while trying to finish an attack chain.
• Bring poison protection such as Golden Oriole if it is available in the inventory.
• Clear the cave before searching for the diagram container at the end.

Grandmaster Crafting Checks

Before returning to Lazare, confirm that each Mastercrafted component is still in the inventory. Having a Grandmaster diagram is insufficient by itself: the matching Mastercrafted armor piece, steel sword, or silver sword is part of the final recipe.

• Basic Feline armor, gauntlets, trousers, and boots crafted.
• Enhanced, Superior, and Mastercrafted versions crafted for every intended final piece.
• Mastercrafted Feline steel sword and silver sword retained for their Grandmaster upgrades.
• Leather, cloth, string, ingots, monster components, and crowns available.
• All six Grandmaster Feline diagrams collected from the Arthach Palace area and Pits of Brume.

The final set is completed at Lazare Lafargue’s workshop only after the Mastercrafted chain, diagrams, materials, and crafting fees are all in place. The Grandmaster tier extends the Feline line; it does not replace its earlier crafting requirements.