I've been trying this fight for literally hours and simply cannot beat it. I get as far as chopping off four tentacles, but at this point, there's no prompt as to what to do as the remaining tentacles simply sweep the ground, killing me. It's really annoying and I've stopped enjoying the game and simply want to get past this point; does anyone know how?

P.

Nope, gotta kill it.

If it's un-fun at this stage, I'd look at a Youtube vid or - there's numerous posts here about the tactics and sequence required to kill the beast.

No. And you've probably run into a bug as you only need to chop 3 tentacles, ride atop another, then climb up the collapsed bridge.

Don't bother with the middle tentacles, do the sides.

cannot figure out how someone can fail at this.

did you try to trap the middle tentacles? fail.

once you get 3 tentacles, you can get ready to hit LMB or SPACE.

then once the tentacle nearly carries you to hit the bridge, hit LMB or SPACE.

then run up the bridge rite away, once you get on top of that, you are done.

did you see the youtube?

otherwise, you can gift your games to a smarter friends of yours so he or she can enjoy the game. There will be plenty choices, if you do have friends.

If you posted this a week ago, I would elaborate, but many, many, people had a tough time with Kayran the fist time.

Search this forum or google.

I think they need to sticky a post, "SPOILER - HOW TO DEFEAT THE KAYRAN" up there, heh. There's so many threads concerning it.

Somebody should write a guide for boss and other tougher fights in the game or just abstract the best strats that other people posted in numerous "I can't beat [Insert name],screw you CDPR" topics.Now,who might that be?

If you want to get past it quickly I'd do the following:

-Go down to easy, you can turn it back up when you beat it.
-Turn off hard QTEs.
-Make sure you spam Quen whenever possible.
-Run to the right most tentacle, place a trap, dodge if possible otherwise Quen will protect you. Chop it off.
-Do the same for the left most.
-Pick either left middle or right middle and do the same.
-Do the relatively simple QTE.
-Make sure you have Quen on, run to the left most corner and run up the broken bridge rolling up to the top.

That should be enough to kill it with relative ease, good luck!

Nice summary!

...Hope it is enough for somebody who hasn't figure it out yet...

Another possible solution, if truly desperate:
http://www.witchernexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=40

Alrighty, I try to put down everything you need to know about this fight and how to kill it.

This tactic involves heavy cheesing and does require a very minimum of skill to execute properly.

First of all when you meet Síle, drink the Mongoose-potion you made earlier. It isn't needed for this tactic at all, but if you get poisoned it may save your life. You do not need any other potions, unless you want to boost your vitality. This fight is not about making damage, it's all about dodging and executing the quicktime event right. NOTE: Do not bother crafting that Kayran-trap, it costs you money and doesn't help you. Using Yrden gets you the same results. If you have a potion that increases your maximum vitality you could drink that one aswell.

Now as you descend down to the Kayran lair just before the cutscene observe your surroundings. There is a safespot in that fight where you can't get hit by ANYTHING. The safe spot is next to the wall where the collapsed bridge starts, behind the feet of a statue. Don't go infront of the bridge or towards the water. I'll try to illustrate this with some crappy ASCII:

Phase one

________( KAYRAN )____SHIP
| ooooooo 1 2 3 4 5 6 ooooooo |
| ooooo..........................oooooo|
|.................................................|
|............. Y.............. Y............... |
B................. Y...........................|
|X.....................Q..................... |
|............................................... |
|_LEDGE_________________|

The parts marked with o are places where you should never, ever go in this phase. Those places trigger the Kayran to do a sidesweep with the outmost tentacles that you can't really dodge and you will take damage. Y's mean the places you should place your Yrdens, but bear in mind that you don't need to be near Kayran to place them. All you need to do is to get that tentacle slamming event to trigger.

Now, X is the spot where you are safe. Go ahead and try it, you can stand there to the end of the world and get a cup of coffee or something. Kayran is stupid that way and it ignores you completely. Now observe the tentacles in your safespot. Tentacles 1, 2, 5 and 6 have a glowing orange blob on them (mutation or some sort). Those are the creatures weakspots. While you observe Síle should yell at you constantly something like 'Yrden! Use the Yrden!'
Choose Quen from your quickmenu, and cast it. Make sure you have one Vigor point unspent, unseathe your SILVER SWORD and move a bit towards tentacle number 2. Soon the Kayran will lift that tentacle up a bit. Now you need to be ready to dodge to either left or right and fast. Watch as Kayran slams the tentacle down to the ground. The trick is to put down a Yrden-trap, stand on it and wait for the monster to slam the tentacle again. Dodge the blow. Take your time on this, if you are unsure you can get the trap down and dodge before it gets to slam its tentacles down, don't risk it. Even on easy the slamming tentacles hurt alot.

If all went well the tentacle number 2 should be grounded, and some orange lightning effects should sparke from it. Move towards the orange blob, smash it a couple of times with the STRONG ATTACK (normally right mouse button). After a couple of swings there should be a little cinematic showing Geralt chopping off the helpless tentacle. Now retreat fast to your safe spot. Watch as the Kayran furiously pounds the field helplessly. Don't worry, in the safe spot you are completely invinsible.

After the first tentacle is down, rince and repeat the actions down above with tentacle number 1. Be careful not to go too near to the left side of the area, or too close to Kayran itself. Place Yrden, dodge tentacle, chop it off, retreat to safe spot.

Now all there is left to finish the first phase of this fight is to get out either tentacle number 5 or 6. Tentacles 3 and 4 don't have that strange growth to them which means you can't trap those at all. What you need to do now is quickly run from left to right without stopping until you are facing the fifth tentacle. You don't need to dodge tentacles 3 and 4 if you do not stop running, but using the dodge is always good practice nevertheless. Now place the Yrden, dodge the tentacle, chop it off. (NOTE: The run from safespot to the third tentacle is the only spot in this fight where you can get hit by the poison spray, which the mongoose negates.)

STAY AT THE SAME SPOT AS YOU WERE WHERE YOU CHOPPED DOWN THAT LAST TENTACLE UNTI KAYRAN FINISHES ITS ANIMATIONS, THEN MOVE TO THE CENTER OF THE BATTLEFIELD FAST. THE QUICKTIME EVENT SHOULD TRIGGER THEN. (Q in the picture)


Phase 2:

The correct buttons you need to press in this QTE are: Right mouse button once (strong attack), Clicking left mouse button (Swift attack) like a maniac until the meter is full and in the end SPACE (dodge).

After chopping the third tentacle and letting the Kayran do its manic pounding thing, the Kayran will swoop the battlefield with one of its tentacles. Time should slow down now, and press the RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON (Strong attack) when the indication mark appears. This will be followed by Geralt jumping on that tentacle. Now while riding the tentacle click your LEFT MOUSE BUTTON (fast attack) until the meter is full. After a bit of cinematic the time should slow down again and press space to jump from the tentacle. Important thing is to push the buttons only once (excluding the clicking second part) or the game might not register it correctly.

Phase 3:

The Bridge came crumbling down on the Kayran, but the fight is not finished. There is a big piece of stone in the middle of the battlefield all alone that acts as a safespot for phase 3:

________( KAYRAN )____SHIP
|oooo /.... /( ..............) ooooooooI
|....... /.... /. (.............. )............... I
| ....SLOPE ............................... |
| ................................................ |
| ....../\....... SAFEROCK............ |
| .......|................ X.................... |
| .......|..... <----........................... |
|..................................................|
|_LEDGE__________________|

Move behind it, and observe the battlefield with panning your camera around. Now the important thing is that DON'T APPROACH THE KAYRAN. It is electrified by Síles spell, and you will die instantly if you go near the beasts dying body. What you need to do is wait until Kayran flings a rock to your safespot (it hits the rock you are hiding behind), then quickly exit from your hiding place TO THE LEFT, move to the stone slope and go to it's end. DO NOT STOP OR TRY TO DODGE THE TENTACLES, JUST KEEP GOING STRAIGHT.

That should be it, one Kayran less in Flotsam. I hope this guide helped you and I do apologize for any typos, I'll try to fix them later.

EDIT: The ASCII didn't work so had to do that again, and also it seems they fixed the safespot in 1.1 so had to adjust it a little.

Here is my problem, which doesn't involve the fight at all. It's about the QTE:
To start with, there is no option of pressing RMB before climbing to the sweeping tentacle. Then, I try to fill in the meter by clicking LMB but I never get to complete this: the meter never fills in time. I have tried to complete the QTE in Easy difficulty and with the Hard QTEs disabled, but still I cannot complete this QTE in time.

Can you help me? I am really enjoying this game (this is the best RPG I have played since the first The Witcher), but this QTE is really getting on my nerves.

Thanks for your help

As often as you may read people say, "oh, I eventually got. It's not that bad," there really are some for whom QTEs just do not work. I really hope a patch makes them skippable at some point. (Trolls, shut up, in advance. There is a small group of people who will never get to enjoy this great game if they can't skip the QTEs.)

Pegapuros, if you think you are licked, upload a save. Maybe somebody will have mercy and beat the Kayran for you.