If you picked up a Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 Steam Key from LootBar for the Gold Edition or bought the Expansion Pass, one of the first things waiting for you after the prologue is The Lion's Crest, a DLC side quest that sends you across the entire Trosky region chasing the legendary armor of Prince Brunswick.
It is one of the best early game rewards in KCD2, a full plate armor set with charisma bonuses, a horse caparison, a dagger, and the option to craft a poleaxe, all hidden behind a riddle and four treasure maps.
If you are not able to find how to start the lion quest in the game, then you should go through this article, which has all the important information about the quest with a step-by-step guide.
What Is The Lion's Crest Quest, and What Do You Get from It
The Lion's Crest is an exclusive DLC questline that rewards you with the legendary armor and weapon set of the famous Knight Brunswick, complete with a polearm for long-distance combat, a dagger for close quarters, a full set of plate armor for Henry, and a full caparison for your horse. The set comes with a Bohemian coat of arms in burgundy and gold trim.
Beyond looking excellent, the armor is genuinely useful. Brunswick is excellent early game plate armor with a good charisma bonus, which is useful in combat and dialogue situations early in the game when Henry has very little to his name, so getting this sorted early on in the first few hours of gameplay is a good idea.
How to Start and What You Need Before You Go
The Lion's Crest can be started as soon as Sir Hans Capon leaves Henry in Troskowitz, following the prologue. The purple quest marker on the map that is placed next to the scribe will appear to those who have purchased the Gold Edition or Expansion Pass.
First, you need to talk to the scribe who will be around the other guys when you enter the area, and then choose the dialogue option “Do you know where to get armor?” After that, you can begin the quest, but do remember he will give you a riddle and a sketch of Brunswick's Poleaxe, which you can craft at the anvil.
You need two things that are surely going to help you out before going on a quest:
- A Spade: You do need a shovel, which you can buy from a Troskowitz trader, or you can find one from the cemetery to the east of the town. The game never reminds you to take one, and you can not excavate the first treasure without it.
- Pass the skill check: You will have a short skill check that will ask you about the armor of the mysterious Brunswick, which can be easily passed at this stage of the game. Works All Charisma, Thievery, or Blacksmithing. Take the one Henry is best at. With the spade and the riddle, you are all set.
How to Complete The Lion's Crest: All Brunswick Armor Locations
Step 1: Solve the Riddle and Find the First Burial
The riddle the scribe gives you reads: “Take your leave of crone and maiden, standing tall behind the gates, boldly go towards true midnight, in caverns cold your prize awaits. Pass through the hall of forest kings, hidden deep from hunter's gaze, standing tall two guards of stone, behind whom yearned for treasure lies. Between them stands a mighty rock, a subtle niche yet deeper still, a place to give one's heart to God, behold my armor gleaming still”.
The solution to the riddle is the Chapel in the Rocks, which is in the forest north of Trosky Castle. “Crone and Maiden" refers to the two main towers of Trosky Castle, so you start there and head north.
From Troskowitz, head north past Trosky Castle and follow the trail until it forks at a shrine in the woods. Keep going north into the forest until you find the rocky gap with a cross placed on a rock between two stone formations. Use your spade to dig and you will uncover:
- Brunswick's Dagger
- Brunswick's Gauntlets
- Fragments from the Bible
- Brunswick's Map I and Map II
Step 2: Brunswick's Map I, North of Tachov
Head north of Tachov to the location marked on Map I. Open the sack between the two trees to find the following items. Watch out for wolves in the area before you go rummaging through bags. Inside you will find:
- Brunswick's Chainmail Coif
- Brunswick's Plate Leg Armor
- Brunswick's Caparison
- Brunswick's Map III
Step 3: Brunswick's Map II, Near Vidlak Pond
Travel to Vidlak Pond and go behind the fisherman's house beside a shrine. You will find a cross atop a rock. Reach the cross by walking on the branch leading to it. Inside the chest, you will find:
- Brunswick's Plate Sleeves
- Brunswick's Map IV
This location is easy to miss because the approach is not obvious. Look carefully for the fallen tree branch that acts as a bridge up to the cross. If you have already activated your LootBar game key for the Gold Edition, this chest should contain the Plate Sleeves and Map IV, which leads you toward the final pieces of the set.
Step 4: Brunswick's Map III, Forest North of Zhelejov
Head to the forest north of the Zhelejov Wagoners' Inn. You will find a skeleton lying beneath a tree, along with a sack beside it. Interact with the sack to get all the rewards.
- Brunswick's Brigandine
This is one of the better-looking chest pieces in the early game, and the skeleton nearby makes it clear that not everyone who came looking for Brunswick's armor made it out of the forest intact.
Step 5: Brunswick's Map IV, Treasure Hunters' Camp
The final map shows a treasure marked near three crosses between Bozhena's meadow and a nomad's camp east of it. Travel up the hill to uncover a Treasure Hunters' Camp, where you will encounter a few enemies. You can take them out or wait until nighttime to sneak over to the cross.
Look for a cross sitting atop a pile of rocks. Interacting with this gives you the final rewards for The Lion's Crest and completes the quest. The final piece is:
- Brunswick's Bascinet
With the helmet in hand, the full armor set is complete.
Optional: Crafting Brunswick's Poleaxe
The Brunswick's Poleaxe sketch is given to you by Scribe Gaibl when you start the quest. To craft it, you need:
- 3x Iron
- 1x Frankfurt Steel
- 1x Fastening Material
- All of these materials are sold by the blacksmith at Trosky Castle. If you help blacksmith Radovan in the Wedding Crashers quest, you will get a chance to forge it there. The poleaxe is not required to complete the quest, but it rounds out the full Brunswick set and is a solid weapon for the early to mid-game.
Conclusion
The Lion's Crest is one of the most rewarding early quests in Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 and one of the better reasons to invest in the Gold Edition or Expansion Pass. You get a full plate armor set, a horse caparison, two weapons, and a genuinely enjoyable treasure hunt across the Trosky region that teaches you a lot about the map in the process.
Get the spade before you leave Troskowitz, solve the riddle pointing you north of Trosky Castle, follow all four maps in order, deal with the bandits at the final camp, and the full Brunswick set is yours well before the main story demands you are properly equipped.
For a game that starts Henry with almost nothing, getting this done early makes everything that follows significantly less painful.
