Chen Xu

Biodata

Power Progression

Recorded Attributes

Background / History

Life on Blue Star

Chen Xu worked as a private investigator in Central, Hong Kong. His experience included following targets and analyzing more than a hundred combinations of human microexpressions. After finishing a client’s evidence submission one night, he broke the speedrunning world record for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt in two hours. Shortly afterward, a spatial tear swallowed him and transported him into the God-Chosen Battlefield 1.

As a child, he was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome after his teacher urged his mother to seek an examination. His thinking is described as mathematical rather than conventionally logical, accompanied by difficulty fitting in, irritability, and a tendency to panic 5.

White Orchard

Assigned a civilian identity in White Orchard, Chen Xu initially had to harvest wheat under Nilfgaardian supervision. Rather than join Sethis and Penny’s plans, he used his knowledge of the game to seek an apprenticeship with Willis. After rescuing the dwarf from his burning cottage, he identified Napp as the arsonist and secured formal recognition as Willis’s apprentice 1 2 3.

Geralt and Vesemir saved him from drowners during the investigation. His subsequent encounter with Gaunter O’Dimm left him cursed with zero fortune and corrupted creature favorability. Vesemir used Axii to calm the resulting panic attack 3 5.

Chen Xu recovered Moonblade from a riverbed chest and killed six drowners, but their wounds became infected. While recovering under Tomira’s care, he learned alchemy and began seeking witcher swordsmanship instruction. He also forged Gram, a fine-quality steel sword substantially better than Willis’s standard military work 7 8 9 10 11.

Retaliation and Departure

Chen Xu later drugged and killed a camp of Temerian deserters who had robbed Tomira, taking their equipment and the horse he named Lizi. Selling the captured supplies brought him into another confrontation with Sethis and Penny, who had escaped imprisonment 11 12 13 14.

Unable to resist Penny’s Charm, he exploited the game’s cow-killing Easter egg to summon a Chort. The monster scattered his attackers; Sethis stabbed Penny to escape, and she returned early from the battlefield. Chen Xu survived through Stealth Technique, although the Chort broke his right arm. He recovered Penny’s abandoned pistol afterward 15.

Discovering that the pair had murdered Willis and others who opposed them, Chen Xu pursued Sethis. Their fight ended in a stalemate and Sethis’s retreat. Chen Xu buried Willis, completed the Harvest task with a perfect rating, and left White Orchard for Velen 16 17 18.

Crow’s Perch and Anna’s Rescue

On the journey, villagers attempted to drug and capture Chen Xu for a reward. He killed several attackers, reclaimed his stolen armor, and continued toward Velen. After confirming Anna’s location in the Crones’ village, he sought an audience with the Bloody Baron 19 20 21.

At Crow’s Perch, Zhaotian Zhi accused him of being a spy, and a Nilfgaardian officer attempted to arrest him despite Fergus supporting his identity. Chen Xu survived the confrontation, killed Zhaotian Zhi, and reunited with Geralt. He then negotiated a future favor from the Baron in exchange for helping rescue Anna 23 25 27 28.

Working with Geralt and Fringilla, Chen Xu used Tree Heart’s survival as leverage to have Anna’s curse lifted. He then killed Tree Heart and obtained the Heart of Nature. During the ensuing confrontation, he killed Weavess and fought the Crones’ monster horde until human reinforcements arrived 41 42 43.

After the battle involving the Wild Hunt, the mission to save Anna awarded him 1,500 EXP, 300 points, and two Advancement Cards. The orphans also survived; Chen Xu supplied an antidote for the poison he had used to make them temporarily undesirable to the Crones 40 45.

Preparing to Become a Witcher

At Mortal Tier Peak, Chen Xu examined several advancement paths, including Druid and Constable, before preparing to pursue Witcher. He purified Tree Heart’s Soul Juice into Spiritwood Essence and sold nineteen attribute potions for 2,850 points 46 47 50.

He subsequently helped Guan Chuan and Annisha drive off Bong, a member of the Chigurh Legion. Back at Crow’s Perch, he won the Velen championship challenge and identified Gretka’s missing emerald necklace on an old maid. By Chapter 50, he had strengthened himself with attribute potions and crafted rare-quality Wyvern armor, but had not yet completed the Witcher advancement requirements 49 50.

Appearance

• Build: Initially slight and physically weak; Willis doubts that he can manage prolonged hammer work 1 5.
• Attractiveness: Penny finds him attractive, while Yoana describes him favorably as a handsome young man skilled in fighting and forging 2 37.
• Traveling equipment: Carries both a steel sword and a silver sword, causing villagers to mistake him for a witcher 18 19.
• Notable injury: His right arm is broken beneath the Chort’s hoof and remains a limitation throughout much of the Velen fighting 15 26 43.

Personality

Chen Xu is calculating, observant, and reluctant to expose an advantage unnecessarily. He conceals his familiarity with the Witcher world from the other Chosen, deliberately avoids standing out during forced labor, and turns remembered quests into opportunities for training, equipment, and influence 1 2 3.

His helpfulness coexists with a strong concern for his own interests. He warns Sethis and Penny against hunting the griffin despite their hostility, helps Tomira, and thanks Fergus for attempting to defend him. At the same time, he manipulates Geralt’s Gwent deck, negotiates rewards before rescuing Anna, and tries to send competing Chosen away from Crow’s Perch 2 12 27 28 30.

Repeated attacks make him less willing to leave enemies alive. During Penny and Sethis’s ambush, he concludes that his approach to ordinary people on Blue Star does not suit battlefield desperadoes. Later, he refuses to accept the attacking villagers’ assumption that they can simply end the fight once they lose their nerve 14 19.

He is competitive and irreverent, enjoying broken records, verbal provocation, and unconventional victories. Nevertheless, he recognizes limits: after his failed Assassination comprehension, he refuses to force the process without knowing its cost, and he weighs the long-term risks of advancement paths rather than choosing solely for immediate strength 1 18 35 46.

Abilities & Skills

Flesh Difference Engine

His talent provides mathematical thinking, enhanced spatial perception, and mechanical memory, but imposes a severe Will penalty 1.

• Initial modifiers: Reaction +50%; Will −80% 1.
• Precision: Allows him to reproduce Willis’s hammering technique with tightly calculated force 5.
• Combat calculation: Helps coordinate an airborne counterattack that combines rotation, gravity, weapon technique, and a perfectly timed response 33.
• Limitation: Zero Will initially leaves him extremely vulnerable to Charm and prevents higher skill comprehension. Raising Will to 1 unseals the talent, but does not remove the underlying penalty 15 18 25.

Specialty and Skill Comprehension

Using tools and performing unfamiliar actions can trigger the panel to impart practical knowledge and accumulated experience 1 5.

• Learns Saber Technique from harvesting, Forging from smithing, and Underwater Swimming while retrieving Moonblade 1 5 7.
• Uses Advancement Cards to raise specialties and skill points to improve skills 6 14 17.
• Develops an unnamed airborne defensive-counterattack skill by combining Unarmed Combat and Saber Technique; it grants counterattack efficiency +25% while airborne 33.
• Large knowledge infusions cause heat, swelling pain, and mental overload; insufficient Will can stop comprehension entirely 5 6 18.

Detection and Investigation

Chen Xu combines supernatural inspection with his experience as a private investigator.

• Detection: Reads item properties and creature attributes, although protected Chosen may yield incomplete information 2 5 7.
• Tracking Technique: Reconstructs trails and locates threats from physical traces. An inconsistent footprint pattern alerts him to Sethis’s clone ambush 16 17.
• Delusion Breaking: Acquired at Mortal Tier Peak during the confrontation with the Crones 42.
• Limit: Before obtaining a usable energy supply, forcing Tracking Technique drains his physical reserves 17.

Stealth and Assassination

His Master Detective class supplies advanced concealment and tracking techniques 13.

• Stealth Technique: Visually blends him into his surroundings for an initial cost of 10 Dark Energy; environmental changes require further expenditure. Its listed cooldown is 30 seconds 15.
• Emergency use: Can fuel concealment with flesh, blood, and stamina when Dark Energy is unavailable, at a potentially crippling cost 15.
• Assassination: Weakness Insight: Guarantees critical hits for attacks from stealth and backstabs, with critical damage +50% 25.
• Faint Sound: An additional Stealth Technique application acquired at Mortal Tier Peak 42.

Weapon Combat and Evasion

Chen Xu initially relies on Saber Technique and Armed Combat before receiving more specialized instruction 7 37.

• Dodge: Advances from beginner to mastery; enables precise evasions against Sethis’s twin daggers 3 14.
• Ballistic Analysis: Represents Penny’s line of fire as a threatening red line, helping him evade subsequent shots 14.
• Dual Wielding: Doubles attack frequency and improves guard counters, briefly allowing his low-tier monster-killing efficiency to exceed Geralt’s 43.
• Other proficiencies: Hammer Technique, Poleaxe, and Unarmed Combat 5 25 26.
• Limits: Bullet evasion exhausts him, and his injured arm cannot sustain prolonged dual-sword combat 14 43.

Forging and Runecraft

His smithing develops beyond ordinary local craftsmanship into the construction of complete energy circuits 6 8.

• Forges Gram with three rune slots and a hollow hilt for spiritual materials 8.
• Modifies a Greater Chernobog Rune into a Greater Power Rune, improving its attack bonus from 10% to 12% 29.
• Raises Gram’s attack from 27 to 33 by socketing two greater runestones 29.
• Crafts rare-quality Wyvern armor from lesser dragon hide, insectoid chitin, and element-disrupting metal 50.

Alchemy and First Aid

Chen Xu learns First Aid while treating his infected wounds and studies alchemy under Tomira 10 11.

• Uses boiled water, wound cleaning, ointment, and steam-sterilized cloth to control infection 10.
• Employs drugs and poisons to overcome stronger enemies or alter dangerous situations 12 13 40.
• Purifies 487 liters of Soul Juice into Spiritwood Essence and uses it to improve potion preparations 47.
• Treats poisoned soldiers after the battle and provides antidotes for the orphans 45.

Source Power and Nature Affinity

Geralt introduces him to Source Power, while the Heart of Nature supplies a separate route to perception and elemental influence 37 42.

• Whirl and Burst: Learns the techniques from Geralt, but initially cannot perceive the Source Power needed to use them directly 37.
• Basic Source Power Refining Method: Allows him to begin refining energy and recover from frostbite 45 46.
• Heart of Nature: Grants Spirit +2, intermediate natural element affinity, and ancient druidic wisdom 41.
• Limited plant control: Uses a prepared vine to hook Bong’s ankle; Bong breaks it immediately, but the brief interruption forces him to receive Chen Xu’s attack 49.
• Witcher limitation: He has not undergone the Trial of the Grasses and is not shown casting Signs 5 50.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Gram — Self-forged fine-quality hand-and-a-half steel sword. Initially has 27 attack, 22 durability, a complete energy circuit, and three rune slots. Its hollow hilt accepts spiritual materials, giving it the potential to reach rare quality 8.
• Moonblade — Fine-quality one-handed silver sword recovered from a riverbed chest. Has 16 attack, 28 durability, and three rune slots; ignores 10 Constitution against silver-vulnerable targets 7.
• Beretta 8045F — Penny’s abandoned pistol, recovered after her early return. Chen Xu uses it to make Sethis wary during their rematch 15 16.
• Heart of Nature — Rare equipment and potion ingredient obtained by killing Tree Heart. Becomes equippable at Mortal Tier Peak and provides both attribute benefits and extensive druidic knowledge 41 42.
• Wyvern armor — Rare-quality armor with 29–32 defense, 42 durability, intermediate elemental resistance, a 36% Aard Sign bonus, and low-tier impact resistance. Its three-layer design includes a complete energy circuit and three rune slots 50.
• Temerian guard armor — Looted from the deserters; its cast-iron arm guards protect him against Sethis’s daggers. Later melted down and reforged into knee guards and leg armor 14 16 50.
• Panel storage space — Purchased for 200 points, with its entrance positioned in his palm for convenient retrieval 25 35.
• Lizi — Chestnut stallion taken from the deserters’ camp and used for the journey to Velen 13 17 18.

Relationships

• Willis — Blacksmith master and early protector. Recognizes Chen Xu as his apprentice, freeing him from field labor; his murder prompts Chen Xu to pursue Sethis 3 16.
• Geralt — Rescuer, traveling ally, and swordsmanship teacher. Their partnership includes battlefield protection, Gwent cheating, and a disputed sparring victory decided by Gram breaking Geralt’s blade 3 30 32 37.
• Vesemir — Early mentor figure who calms his panic with Axii and explains the requirements for Signs. Considers taking him to Kaer Morhen for training, but respects his decision to travel elsewhere 5 9 11.
• Tomira — Healer and alchemy teacher. Repeatedly treats his injuries, while he retaliates against the deserters who robbed her 10 11 12 17.
• Penny Burns — Hostile Chosen whose Charm exploits his weak Will. Her ambush ultimately costs her an early return and leaves her pistol in his possession 2 14 15.
• Sethis Lodakhar — Rival and would-be killer. Murders Willis with Penny, fights Chen Xu using a combat-capable clone, and threatens to pursue him beyond the battlefield 16.
• Gaunter O’Dimm — Curses him with misfortune; Chen Xu privately records the grievance and later suffers a nightmare featuring him 5 9.
• Philip, the Bloody Baron — Patron and debtor after Anna’s rescue. Owes Chen Xu a promised favor beyond the mission’s payment 27 45.
• Fringilla — Ally during Anna’s rescue and the battles against the Crones. Her teasing of Geralt helps prompt Chen Xu’s swordsmanship demonstration 32 35 43.
• Fergus and Yoana — Fellow smiths at Crow’s Perch. Fergus attempts to support his identity during the spy accusation, while Yoana shows interest in his combination of combat and forging skill 23 28 37.
• Guan Chuan and Annisha Nomankov — Initially opposing Chosen who later fight alongside him against Bong 33 35 48 49.
• Gretka — Enthusiastic supporter during his duel with Geralt; Chen Xu later recognizes her missing emerald necklace on an old maid 37 49.