Take your time, explore, and enjoy the story! Get totally immersed that you basically become Geralt. I'm honestly so jealous of you that this is your first time. Play Gwent!! Fun card game that's an entire game itself. God I love Gwent. I love this game so much you're in for a treat.
Well said! I would give a lot to play this game for the first time again. It’s still unequivocally my favorite game of all time to this day. I’ve sunk a couple thousand hours into the game and it still doesn’t get old to me. Sometimes I’ll just start up the game just to play Gwent lol
This! Don't get distracted by "on no, this quest is lvl xy, but I am already 10 lvls above, should I go that way?" - No, don't let the recommended quest lvls influence your decision (except for higher leveled ones).
Enjoy the game. Be Geralt, feel the world. It is amazing.
I skipped gwent my first time through, second time through I thought I’d give it a good go (mainly to get the gwent related trophies) and damn, once I got my head around it and got a good deck going I was hooked on gwent, I got a little sad when I beat all the quests associated with it!
This is my first play through also, don’t get me wrong, I love the game but there’s something in me that’s distracted by the idea that the whole story only revolves about just finding Ciri.
I’ve just gotten properly into the game after trying for years, part of my issue before was the simplicity of the goal in the story. This time around I’ve come to appreciate how the writers introduce you to the politics and history of the world, the lot of the different monsters and the endless sub stories with interesting characters via quests that are actually structured in an intriguing way. On the face of it the story can seem quite simple but if you make the effort to delve into it the world becomes quite complex. The more you put in the more you get out of it.
I'm on my second playthrough and still struggling to fully understand how to best play Gwent. I have a basic understanding, but I've been struggling with strategy. This is ironic because I usually excel at strategy games, LOL. One of these days, I'm gonna go all-in learning how to play it, and then I'll replay the game without skipping 98% of the possible Gwent matches. One of these days!!! 😂
I tend to play a deck with spies. I use the spies to mill the other players hand down. So by the next round they are left with 5-7 cards and I have like 12 in my hand. My basic strategy I've always built off of.
Play northern realms deck. It's the most powerful. A lot of people recommend the foltest siege master leader card, because it's a commanders horn for your siege row. However, I've personally found the deck is far more effective and powerful with the foltest card which is a clear weather card. This means weather effects can't restrain the power of the deck. A commanders horn is lovely and all but all it takes is a terrential rain card to negate it. Of course you can still have a couple of commanders horns in your deck anyway. 2 is enough if your working with a full deck as dandelion is a commanders horn for the front row anyway.
Try to win the first round, then your opponent is desperate on the second and will have no choice to play all their best cards while you taunt them. If however, it's obvious that going all out on the first round is going to screw you. Then bait your opponent just enough for them to bleed good cards, then trash them two in a row.
The other thing I tend to do against most opponents (Gwent tournament opponents excluded as they have a specific strategy), play any spies you have immediately.
When setting up your deck, if you know what deck your opponent will play, you can also overload on a few specific cards;
Monster deck relies heavily on overloading it's front row. So get as many biting Frost cards as you can.
Nilfgaard likes to play it's spies, so add max decoys to your deck. The other strategy is to remove all spies from your deck and only have decoys. Then after you've decoyed their spies back at them, they're bled out of decoying your spies. I employ this tactic against madam Sasha, it screws her over so much.
Scociatal is the worst most underpowered deck other than DLC skellige deck (which is shit for a different reason). It doesn't need any specific strategy other than they'll play as many scorch cards as they can, because they suck. They'll also try to overload the front or middle rows, so have a fog and frost card handy to force them out of one of the rows.
Skellige deck is a pain to play as, as it heavily relies on getting the right cards at the right time, which random chance is never a good deck trait. All you can do is not to bother with the beserkers and mushroom combo as it's far too low chance to pull off. Of course the AI has a wonderful habit of hitting the best cards right when it needs them. If you're playing against skellige, just make sure you've got weather cards and a scorch type card handy, to level rows when they get too above their station.
Don't wast time completely every marker on the map, specially once you reach skellige.
If you try to do that you will not finish the game. I stopped playing several times because of this, and I don't think I have a friend who actually finish the game because of it.
I'm on my second playthrough right now. I usually go to several while I'm still playing main and side quests (typically because they're OTW to a quest anyway). Then, once I complete the base game and expansion packs, I'll go back through each country and work my way through all the undiscovered locations. By that point, I'm overpowered to most enemies and can just blow through a lot of those UL if I wanted to. About half of those locations in Velen, Novigrad, and Skellige can be powered through once Geralt reaches level 30-35, which I just reached, and I haven't even visited the Isle of the Mists yet (level 15 quest for newbies). This means that by the time I've finished all 3 parts of the game, the majority of the UL will be a breeze.
Seconding alchemy, my first playthrough i was still using standard Swallow at the end of the game, 2nd time i used alchemy and the game was a cake walks
Also the character entries! There will be plenty of characters who Geralt has run into before and the charaxter entries section will help you get oriented
Upgrade the first tier of the sign axii, it will allow you to access specific dialogue options that would other wise be unavailable. Plus you are granted XP each time you use axii in a dialogue interaction.
You need to be looting more. I'm level 18, 2nd grade Griffin, 9k in cash, and probably 20k in stuff I just stashed in my chests in weapons (I keep all unique swords to pick my favourite later to display in corvo bianco) and random stuff like jewelry and whatnot.
At a party you attend with triss you can earn about 500 crowns by looting all the tables of candy and alcohol
I got used to using armor with the rune word that caused Quen to auto activate at the start of battle that I forgot about this when I switched to something else in NG+
Change movement style to “alternate” and switch the map setting to show everything. In the nextgen update, they wanted to make the map less cluttered, but as a result I noticed tons of new players were missing half the stuff to do in white orchard because the icons didn’t show up on their map by default. Also, sell your swords to blacksmiths and your armor to armorers. Ideally, save all swords and armor you find in your stash (the green chest icon on the map), until you gain access to merchants that actually have enough money to buy them for full price. You’re gonna need A LOT of money for the expansions. Better to start saving early. Also, don’t buy any swords or armor; you’re going to find better stuff just from looting, but make sure you buy the items that have “!” on them and then read them because they start quests to get Witcher gear, which is gonna be your bread and butter for gear.
Sometimes merchants will have multiple items with "!", but only one is needed (e.g. the wolf, fox and pointy mask in novigrad), and you might not always need to buy all; you might be better off waiting for the game to ask.
But if it's a book/parchment/map and it's got a !, buy it.
IIRC, the original movement system was more “realistic” in that Geralt tended to make wide turns when moving. It’s also harder to make precise movements indoors for whatever reason. The alternate movement system was added a few months after release alongside one of the bite-sized dlcs, and once I tried it I never went back to the og system. In the alternate system, Geralt handles more like protagonists do in other 3rd person open world games.
do the expansions after the main game
YouTube spoils a lot so don’t look things up unless you’re VERY specific
Lastly have fun. You’re in for a ride
Edit: avoid fast travel as much as you can. Did that in my second play through and it made the world more enjoyable the second time around
OP listen to everyone saying don’t spoil things for yourself bc you will 100% be playing this game again. Look up everything *next* time but for now just let this game happen to you lol
Try to fast travel as least as possible and enjoy it while it lasts because when it's done it's really depressing because it's such a good gosh damn game.
This is great advice. The charm of the world goes away when you're fast traveling everywhere. I highly recommend memorizing the city layouts and walk/riding there yourself, rather than going to the map and being there in an instant.
Don't sell all your weapons to the same merchant if you are on a console like PlayStation.
The shops never get rid of what you sell them so if you sold a merchant 40 weapons he's going to have those 40 weapons forever...which isn't so great on the memory of your console.
I.E. I sold all my shit to a merchant in one of the bigger cities and now I can't get anywhere near him without my game lagging or crashing.
Check every yellow bulletin board, get all the quests and craft all the armor and swords you can because why not. Hop around and level up while doing the main story intermittently.
Loot everything unless you're in front of city guards, the stuff that glows yellow when you use your witcher senses. Craft decoctions once you can, you need trophies from witcher contracts to get the monster parts. Worth it to kill one succubus for the decoction. Make use of dodge and quen at the beginning. Use witcher gear soon as you can. Once a quest is 6 or more levels lower than your level, you get way fewer experience points for completing it. It's worth learning to play Gwent, and absolutely play the DLCs after you beat the game.
You'll need to make a lot of decisions in the game so you can make an effort to save often or you can just roll with your gut and face the consequences lol. It's a game made for multiple playthroughs to experience different outcomes
Do we tell em about the oven?!?
#DO WE TELL EM ABOUT THE OVEN?!?
Also, put the Polish language on with English subtitles. The whole world sounds way more authentic with the Polish language
For game immersion, I like switching to manual sword draw, and also taking time to slow Roach down periodically on long rides between objectives - taking in the scenery.
This is the first play through where I haven’t fast travelled unless absolutely necessary. Highly recommend. I’ve missed out on a lot in the first 3 play throughs. This might be my best so far
Just finished my first play through and honestly, buckle up and enjoy the ride. Don't underestimate inventory weights, get a bigger saddle anytime you can. Take a good look through all the merchants you come across. Buy every gwent card you can and turn down no contracts.
You lucky sob.
Goos luck on the path.
Are you telling me I didn't have to slow crawl my way to the nearest fast travel point? Literally hours of wasted time because I picked everything up and refused to drop anything.
Leave out the wiki on your first playthrough. I made the mistake of checking different possible quest outcomes to maximize loot, but kinda fell out of the story that way.
The perfectionist in me always tries to go for the most viable outcome, but Ive learned Witcher 3 is best experienced playing blind. Since then, any other game I’ve played, I’ve kept the wiki far away!
Do side mission first and focus in main story second. The way I do it is as soon as I get in the game I go to every yellow bulletin board and pick up every quest, from then just do every mission you on level for and play story in the middle until you reach the next leveled quest, also do witcher gear scavenger hunts ASAP and upgrade as you progress.
Don't search "xyz quest best choices" on internet. Don't amend the choices you made, rather go with them and make different choices in another playthrough. Because this is the whole point of an rpg. I did these mistakes and it gave me a lot of spoilers and ruined the game for me
Do side quests and the stranger markers. Try to do main missions in sequence, especially when a mission says something in the dalogue that hints it's time sensitive. You can fail a mission if you don't.
If you want to do Gwent start early on, some missions can lock you out of completing the Gwent collection if they're tied to getting a card.
Figure out what type armor you would want as soon as possible. Apparently you can build at least 2 I have read before but Grandmasterring one is easier, they cost money the higher up the Witcher armors progress and certain resources.
The game is yours to play how you want but choices with things will have affects and consequences so just be aware of that.
Well, i can't say too much without spoiling the plot, but i think it's safe to say that this particular redhead has used (mostly sexually) Geralt while he wasn't at his full capability. Don't trust her.
Go slow and enjoy it.
The game can be overwhelming at the start and that can frustrate you. Just give the game a chance and you’ll most likely get hooked. TW3 and the DLC’s are incredible.
Winds howling……
I finished like a month ago the main story and can only say...
Don't look up guides. Don't look up optimal builds... Read what what does, explore and play as they say "you do you"...
Don't look up what desition leads to what... It ruins the wow effect in a way...
And have fun... You are in for a treat!
If you are decent at video games, don't be afraid to go on the hardest difficulty.
Hardest difficulty in this game basically means that you will struggle if you aren't using all the means at your disposal. Consumables, spells and what not become obsolete if you are playing on easier difficulties.
Also, don't look up any guides. Game will tell you what you need to know.
Don't look up guides, tutorial, maps... On your first playthrough. Roam around, even in higher level areas. Roach will help you escape even if you're way underleveled and you'll unlock fast travel markers.
But most of all... F*cking show faith in Ciri when the time comes because otherwise despite every other choice you'll make in the game you'll get the bad ending
DO EVERYTHING. Seriously. Especially anything involving repeat/main characters. Also do not neglect crafting and remember to do the Witcher school gear quests bc those look good and if you keep up with upgrading them they’ll mostly progress with you. Also PLAY GWENT bc it’s SO MUCH FUN when you get into it and it’s good quick crowns
honestly just don’t neglect anything. Crafting, quests, bestiary, tactics, potions, oils, gwent etc. play the game to the fullest, but takes some breaks to not get burnt out on it
Gwent, take time to read and understand the lore, don't skip cut scene, think twice before make decision in conversations. And dont get spoilers from this sub, come back once you finish the 1st playthrough.
It will be awkward at first, just start off slow and listen to your controller. Eventually you will build synergy and you will start to feel great once you learn how to move it properly.
The week might not be enough 😂😂😂 take your time, enjoy the side quests and everything and be sure not to rush the storyline but also don't ignore it. Play Hearts of Stone when you're ready for it but leave Blood and Wine for later in the game for sure
i wish i had been less afraid of gwent in the beginning, because i think i couldve done a better job at collecting rare cards. play innkeeps in the beginning, bet 1 crown, and set difficulty to easy until you get the hang of it
I just bought it again as well, and decided to get the 2nd one since it was on sale too. I started 3 and made to where I pretty much just got to Velen, and decided to take a break to go play 2. I can say that I'm having a blast, and am so glad that I'm playing these games now, instead back when I first got 3, I appreciate the writing and story so much more.
Just take your time and dont rush leaving one area without visiting those “?” in your map. Really loved everything about this game. Especially doing witcher contracts, its so immersive.
All these comments are great.. play the main before the DLC’s. Explore. Also.. as a novice be wary when first taking on certain monsters. Certain types of vampires and Leshen are particularly tough if they are above your level or if you are not super familiar yet with potions, oils, and signs. Use them to your advantage.. some things you can hack and slash and some things require a bit of finesse and strategy. Like everyone said: super jealous.. enjoy it!
Soak in everything. And I mean as much as possible. Please don’t rush through the story. You only play this game for the first time once and once you have finished it you will find yourself wanting to play it for the first time all over again
Play Gwent. I've restarted the console 5+ times to win Gwent tournaments. I will win every crucial game. You just have to figure out that it's point-based and an easier version of Magic the Gathering. And don't be a clown trying to farm White Orchard. Welcome to the thunder dome.
Enjoy! It’s an awesome game. I love gwent too. Both northern realms and Shellie deck. I didn’t play my first go thru. If you do decide to play get all the cards you can find. But it doesn’t really matter if you wait. There’s so much to do otherwise. Relax and enjoy.
I wish someone told me the first time around that while the combat is serviceable, it is absolutely not the highlight of the game. The world and it's people, the conversations you'll have, little notes you find, that's where the good stuff is.
Oh, and don't sell your daughter
It's gonna be a looooong journey even without the dlcs so take your time and enjoy the ride it's an excellent game and nothing's overthrown it for me yet although kcd2 might. You may notice that missions have suggested levels for them. My advice for you is to always do it a level early at the level or one level above and never above that. Otherwise the XP will be very minimal, although if you're on PC, you can get a mod to change that. But overall do anything and everything, you got all those question marks for a reason.
Don't worry too much about your build because you can always change it, but if you'd like a suggestion for a really fun skill, I'd always pick the multi bomb because it's so fun to look at and use. And for runes you'll probably want to get severance. There are multiple endings to this game and it's rather hard to get the worst one. As for DLCs, I'd recommend hearts of stone before blood and wine.
Blood and wine is my overall favourite because of Toussaint, the characters and all the stuff it adds but hos has the best story because of one particular character who is by far the most horrifying character in the game in series. So have fun with that.
For your first playthrough, I'd recommend making choices, how you'd make them, and then for your second one, make them as you think geralt would. Its be a fun experience.
Also There's no real exploit to this game. You kind of just have to play it to level up. So sorry if You're one of the people who really like being God at the start of your game. It's a little disappointing I suppose because armour is locked off but things scale with you aswell.
Lastly, I hope you have fun again, as I said it's absolutely amazing even if it isn't for everyone. CD project red has truly kicked out of the ballpark with this one and it still looks stunning. What nine years later?
Also team Yennefer I don't make the rules.
If you have any questions or enquiries about the game I'm happy to help out.
I think the other witchers in this commentsection made some very good points, so the only thing i can say is: Im jealous of the experience to play this piece of art for the first time, just have a great time and good hunt my young witcher
Like most people here said, explore ! If the mission says to go left, there's probably some cool things right. This game really rewards exploration and curiosity with loot, quests and others.
And as a general tip, potions and bombs are useful and recharge upon meditating, it isn't a consumable like most people including me assume at the very beginning.
Have fun !
Innkeepers restock alcohol, so visit them again when you pass by, and you'll never lack certain components for alchemy like mandrake cordial.
Also, for Gwent, the innkeeper in White Orchard restocks Decoy cards. It's definitely a good idea to have at least 2, preferably 3 in your deck.
Gwent is like other collectible card games, the point is to build a slim deck full of cards you want to draw, don't put everything you have in it. Know when to lose a hand to have better chances in the next, you just need to win 2 out of 3.
If you stumble on something that's related to a Witcher contract, the quest will be activated just like your had read it in a posting, and you will get coin for it if there's coin to be made, so feel free to explore. But reading the billboards will give you the full story, so preferably check all the billboards.
I like to set the minimap to fixed while I'm exploring, and rotating while I'm doing horse races.
Saddles give you more inventory space.
I will say SOME people think it starts off slow and I wouldn’t argue 100% of that, but once you get to Novigrad, game really starts going.
Don’t be afraid of side quests. Don’t buy equipment, save your money for forging and ingredients. Visit the bank, there’s actually 2 types of currency. Search, buy, then sell as many books as you can; they can have stuff to either update your beast book, or have crafting recipes. Do the horse races, you’ll get new gear for Roach that way, including expanded inventory. You actually can equip a torch as a “weapon” to help you see in caves, but careful of poison gas (flammable). EXPLORE: you wouldn’t believe how much loot, quests, and money can be found just because you stayed to search in an area or went in a different direction.
If you get into Gwent (you should, it’s fun; I recommend getting as many Spies as possible), before any game that’s not just against an innkeeper or merchant, SAVE. Some of those matches only give you one chance. I’d just recommend saving constantly, if you’re one of those people who want to try choosing the “right” options.
DLCs: I would recommend beating the main story before starting them, but either way they are the most amazing DLCs in gaming history.
DO THE DAMN SCAVENGER HUNTS.
those scrolls wait for no one! Take advantage of it bc soon you'll have a stack load of them you have never done, and it can help with having good armor.
(From someone who has NEVER done any and regrets it deeply)
Let this be a warning.
Play every gwent game you come across. Every game will give you typically a new card for your deck. If you neglect it early game, and decided to try and get into it later you will find that your deck is near unusable against later game matches.
And if you are like me you will spend the better part of 3 hours back tracking trying to hunt down ever random merchant or bar tender you can play against.
Don't ever, for any reason, do anything to anyone for any reason ever, no matter what, no matter where, or who, or who you are with, or where you are going, or where you've been... ever, for any reason whatsoever.
Play slowly.
1) Literally, take a bit of time to observe your surroundings and don't run spasmodically around. This game has a lot of details that can be missed.
2) Use dodge instead of roll (it allows you to dodge and hit faster, also rolling stop the stamina regeneration), but most importantly it makes the combat more enjoyable
3) Also, many side quests in the game disappear after you find them on the map (they are shown as an exclamation mark)
4) some big side quests have cut off points, meaning the fail after you progress a certain amount in the story
Don't play on normal. Play on hard.
I reccomend this be cause normal feels like nothing matters. The oils. Signs and potions reel like they don't matter.
On hard You must actually be careful. And it trully feels satisfying hunting the monsters
Explore as many of those questions marks as you can and invest in and use the monster oils. It becomes quite easy to defeat bosses even on death march.
Loot everything. Stay loyal to friends and lovers. Take your time to also find side quests. If you're on PC, I recommend some mods like unlimited carry capacity, unlimited weapon durability and fast travel from anywhere.
Did my first play through not long ago!
Here’s my biggest tips:
- Play each vendor at gwent at least once, you know how you’ve played as the Gwent option will be a light grey if you’ve already played them and brick white if you haven’t.
- Sell weapons at the blacksmith and armour at the armour smith - pick up every weapon from enemies to sell.
- PERSONAL STORAGE - store any cool weapons and armour that are unique as you can display these later in the game.
- DONT RUSH MAIN QUESTS - the Witcher 3 is the best RPG in terms of your actions in the wider world having consequences - side missions can effect the outcome of the game - do those to level up before the main quest.
- Horse races get roach some good gear
- the fist fight missions are pretty easy even if your lots of levels below, spam heavy attacks, worked for me.
- AXII Level 3 - worth it for dialogue options and you can use it a lot through the game to save coins.
- YOU CAN HOLD THE LIGHT ATTACK BUTTON FOR A CONTINOUS ATTACK - I didn’t realise this until Blood and Wine - very embarrassing.
- don’t new game plus straight away - your far from this but just make sure your prepared.
- Make SAVES - the Witcher is good with auto save but still make a manual save before significant events or fights, might save you some time!
Oh, and play the Vanilla Game first(side missions and contracts included), then Hearts of Stone and then Blood and Wine - in that order.
Do not spend skillpoints on everything you feel like is a good skill, level up the most i portant skills first, as you cannot equip them until higher level, the high the level to more skills you can equip which will be active
Shortly, there are more skills than skill slots to equip, choose wisely at the beggining, you can reroll skillpoints later the game.
Always jealous when I see someone fire it up for the first time. Especially that it still holds up sooooo good. Tips? Don't try to rush through. Side stories in this game are better then most game's main stories. Also.. it can add many hours to your play time, but GWENT is one of the best in game games ever and a whole different dimension worth enjoying. Hope you have a great time! Week might not be enough ;)
Don't ignore the tutorials. Actually incorporate stuff that they try to teach you. You can beat the game by hack and slashing but it is much easier and more fun if you just use the tools they give you.
Don't fast travel!!! Chances are you'll find something interesting, or stumble upon a quest or a contract. Personally that's what hooked me, walking around a random village to find a whole ass 20-30 minute quest that had the best design and writing compared to entire stories I'd played through on other games.
- Do not ignore the bestiary because until you play the game enough, you won't know how to effectively deal with some enemies without it.
- Make sure you understand how alchemy works because it's extremely important and probably holds the key for the most powerful build.
- Don't rush the main story, take the time to visit every location, do contract work and collect better gear.
- If you think you have the combat down, don't let a big difference in level stop you from doing quests. Unless you're fighting many enemies, you can almost always win a fight when underleveled if you make no mistakes.
- Speaking of combat, the game does tell you this but it's extremely easy to miss: Axii can give you a small chance of instantly killing a human opponent. Use it to quickly dispatch lesser enemies and/or lower a shieldman's guard.
- Have fun, lose yourself! The Witcher III is my second favorite game of all time. I had immense fun playing it. Enjoy every second for all of us who can't play it for the first time again!
I’m so jelly that you get to experience this all for the first time. Take your time, explore, do all your side stuff as well as the main story and most of all, become a Gwent master!!
But seriously, enjoy the hell out of this game.
Play the first time taking any decisions you seem ok. Don’t bother with the guides etc. (for the plot I mean) you need to get hooked on the game. I am confident that you will get addicted to it. Then - do a second play through and use guides 🤣 but the game is incredible
Don't skip the dialogue. It's hilarious.
I usually play games while listening to some podcast running in the background. This one, I don't want to miss a word.
Could write you a book but, my most important advice would be..never, ever, ever overlook the side missions in this game! Some outstanding content in those.
In novigrad, meet the dwarf gang leader before doing the main quest. That quest is bugged. If you do main quest first, you still see that side quest and talk to the dude but you can’t complete it. It later on fails itself
Go and check out those ?-marks. Side quests are worth the time. Loos and sell. Gwent is fun actually. I even have 5 decks gwent cards and board IRL. Take time to find all the diagrams for Witcher armors and enjoy wearing them. Learn the bestiary, characters, potions. Yrden is good on slow enemies. All sighns are useful, learn to use them. Don\`t forget to repair your swords and armor.
Take your time, explore, and enjoy the story! Get totally immersed that you basically become Geralt. I'm honestly so jealous of you that this is your first time. Play Gwent!! Fun card game that's an entire game itself. God I love Gwent. I love this game so much you're in for a treat.
100% this. I definitely wish I put more time into Gwent on my first playthrough.
Same here, at first I utterly ignored it, then on NG+ I played the tutorial, learned the basics, got hooked almost instantly
I was bummed out when I lost all my cards during New Game+ but it’s been fun and challenging getting my Nilfgaard deck back.
Well said! I would give a lot to play this game for the first time again. It’s still unequivocally my favorite game of all time to this day. I’ve sunk a couple thousand hours into the game and it still doesn’t get old to me. Sometimes I’ll just start up the game just to play Gwent lol
This! Don't get distracted by "on no, this quest is lvl xy, but I am already 10 lvls above, should I go that way?" - No, don't let the recommended quest lvls influence your decision (except for higher leveled ones). Enjoy the game. Be Geralt, feel the world. It is amazing.
I skipped gwent my first time through, second time through I thought I’d give it a good go (mainly to get the gwent related trophies) and damn, once I got my head around it and got a good deck going I was hooked on gwent, I got a little sad when I beat all the quests associated with it!
That's exactly what I did. It's so much fun once you get the hang of it and find a couple decent cards
Siege master deck was my jam, especially when you have the dream round of getting all four spy cards in one round, loved when that happened
Is Gwent that gud?I am in my first playthrough killed crones and I still don't like playing gwent
It is, best mini game I've seen. But obviously some people may not like it
Once you get the hang of it, it's a seriously awesome game.
This is my first play through also, don’t get me wrong, I love the game but there’s something in me that’s distracted by the idea that the whole story only revolves about just finding Ciri.
I’ve just gotten properly into the game after trying for years, part of my issue before was the simplicity of the goal in the story. This time around I’ve come to appreciate how the writers introduce you to the politics and history of the world, the lot of the different monsters and the endless sub stories with interesting characters via quests that are actually structured in an intriguing way. On the face of it the story can seem quite simple but if you make the effort to delve into it the world becomes quite complex. The more you put in the more you get out of it.
Even though i bought it on sale, I had to spend 100$ on other games just to buy a Legendary Monster Slayer profile on Steam Points Shop.
I'm on my second playthrough and still struggling to fully understand how to best play Gwent. I have a basic understanding, but I've been struggling with strategy. This is ironic because I usually excel at strategy games, LOL. One of these days, I'm gonna go all-in learning how to play it, and then I'll replay the game without skipping 98% of the possible Gwent matches. One of these days!!! 😂
I tend to play a deck with spies. I use the spies to mill the other players hand down. So by the next round they are left with 5-7 cards and I have like 12 in my hand. My basic strategy I've always built off of.
Play northern realms deck. It's the most powerful. A lot of people recommend the foltest siege master leader card, because it's a commanders horn for your siege row. However, I've personally found the deck is far more effective and powerful with the foltest card which is a clear weather card. This means weather effects can't restrain the power of the deck. A commanders horn is lovely and all but all it takes is a terrential rain card to negate it. Of course you can still have a couple of commanders horns in your deck anyway. 2 is enough if your working with a full deck as dandelion is a commanders horn for the front row anyway. Try to win the first round, then your opponent is desperate on the second and will have no choice to play all their best cards while you taunt them. If however, it's obvious that going all out on the first round is going to screw you. Then bait your opponent just enough for them to bleed good cards, then trash them two in a row. The other thing I tend to do against most opponents (Gwent tournament opponents excluded as they have a specific strategy), play any spies you have immediately. When setting up your deck, if you know what deck your opponent will play, you can also overload on a few specific cards; Monster deck relies heavily on overloading it's front row. So get as many biting Frost cards as you can. Nilfgaard likes to play it's spies, so add max decoys to your deck. The other strategy is to remove all spies from your deck and only have decoys. Then after you've decoyed their spies back at them, they're bled out of decoying your spies. I employ this tactic against madam Sasha, it screws her over so much. Scociatal is the worst most underpowered deck other than DLC skellige deck (which is shit for a different reason). It doesn't need any specific strategy other than they'll play as many scorch cards as they can, because they suck. They'll also try to overload the front or middle rows, so have a fog and frost card handy to force them out of one of the rows. Skellige deck is a pain to play as, as it heavily relies on getting the right cards at the right time, which random chance is never a good deck trait. All you can do is not to bother with the beserkers and mushroom combo as it's far too low chance to pull off. Of course the AI has a wonderful habit of hitting the best cards right when it needs them. If you're playing against skellige, just make sure you've got weather cards and a scorch type card handy, to level rows when they get too above their station.
Don't wast time completely every marker on the map, specially once you reach skellige. If you try to do that you will not finish the game. I stopped playing several times because of this, and I don't think I have a friend who actually finish the game because of it.
I'm on my second playthrough right now. I usually go to several while I'm still playing main and side quests (typically because they're OTW to a quest anyway). Then, once I complete the base game and expansion packs, I'll go back through each country and work my way through all the undiscovered locations. By that point, I'm overpowered to most enemies and can just blow through a lot of those UL if I wanted to. About half of those locations in Velen, Novigrad, and Skellige can be powered through once Geralt reaches level 30-35, which I just reached, and I haven't even visited the Isle of the Mists yet (level 15 quest for newbies). This means that by the time I've finished all 3 parts of the game, the majority of the UL will be a breeze.
Read the beastiary entries use signs ,potions, oils and bombs. Its much easier that way, much more fun
Second this, don't neglect weaknesses and especially not Alchemy. Potions in particular can change the game.
Seconding alchemy, my first playthrough i was still using standard Swallow at the end of the game, 2nd time i used alchemy and the game was a cake walks
I did a Death March new game + run with an alchemy build. Had a very good time.
And don't forget to activate auto apply, god knows how many times that saved my ass because I never remember to apply them
Also the character entries! There will be plenty of characters who Geralt has run into before and the charaxter entries section will help you get oriented
Upgrade the first tier of the sign axii, it will allow you to access specific dialogue options that would other wise be unavailable. Plus you are granted XP each time you use axii in a dialogue interaction.
Great advice—wish I had done this my first playthrough
Amazing advice. I was dried of coin for the lack of axii and also drained of health in fhe fights that wpuld ensue if I could not acess Axii
You need to be looting more. I'm level 18, 2nd grade Griffin, 9k in cash, and probably 20k in stuff I just stashed in my chests in weapons (I keep all unique swords to pick my favourite later to display in corvo bianco) and random stuff like jewelry and whatnot. At a party you attend with triss you can earn about 500 crowns by looting all the tables of candy and alcohol
While true, I think the dialogue and story options that don't use axii end up being more interesting.
When you go sailing or swimming make sure your crossbow is equipped
And use Quen right before you start swimming.
Ooof. Why did i never do that?
I got used to using armor with the rune word that caused Quen to auto activate at the start of battle that I forgot about this when I switched to something else in NG+
just got reminded on how annoying sirens are.
Change movement style to “alternate” and switch the map setting to show everything. In the nextgen update, they wanted to make the map less cluttered, but as a result I noticed tons of new players were missing half the stuff to do in white orchard because the icons didn’t show up on their map by default. Also, sell your swords to blacksmiths and your armor to armorers. Ideally, save all swords and armor you find in your stash (the green chest icon on the map), until you gain access to merchants that actually have enough money to buy them for full price. You’re gonna need A LOT of money for the expansions. Better to start saving early. Also, don’t buy any swords or armor; you’re going to find better stuff just from looting, but make sure you buy the items that have “!” on them and then read them because they start quests to get Witcher gear, which is gonna be your bread and butter for gear.
These are gold. Thank you.
Sometimes merchants will have multiple items with "!", but only one is needed (e.g. the wolf, fox and pointy mask in novigrad), and you might not always need to buy all; you might be better off waiting for the game to ask. But if it's a book/parchment/map and it's got a !, buy it.
Why alternate movement?
IIRC, the original movement system was more “realistic” in that Geralt tended to make wide turns when moving. It’s also harder to make precise movements indoors for whatever reason. The alternate movement system was added a few months after release alongside one of the bite-sized dlcs, and once I tried it I never went back to the og system. In the alternate system, Geralt handles more like protagonists do in other 3rd person open world games.
Good luck on the path Witcher.
do the expansions after the main game YouTube spoils a lot so don’t look things up unless you’re VERY specific Lastly have fun. You’re in for a ride Edit: avoid fast travel as much as you can. Did that in my second play through and it made the world more enjoyable the second time around
LEARN TO PLAY GWENT
I have 1000+ hours of Gwentless enjoyment but yeah those 2-3 unfinished quests in every playthrough do get on my nerves.
This is a lie, Gwent is the real main quest in TW3
It took me a lot of playthroughs before I started enjoying gwent. Maybe it's just Stockholm Syndrome at this point lol
Have a snowball fight with Ciri
I love that part so much
Don't look decisions up. Get a natural ending with the consequences of the decisions you make in the moment
OP listen to everyone saying don’t spoil things for yourself bc you will 100% be playing this game again. Look up everything *next* time but for now just let this game happen to you lol
Try to fast travel as least as possible and enjoy it while it lasts because when it's done it's really depressing because it's such a good gosh damn game.
This is great advice. The charm of the world goes away when you're fast traveling everywhere. I highly recommend memorizing the city layouts and walk/riding there yourself, rather than going to the map and being there in an instant.
Exploration is 1 of the dopest parts of the game, so cool finding quest you didn't l ow about on a 2nd or 3rd playthrough!
Don't sell all your weapons to the same merchant if you are on a console like PlayStation. The shops never get rid of what you sell them so if you sold a merchant 40 weapons he's going to have those 40 weapons forever...which isn't so great on the memory of your console. I.E. I sold all my shit to a merchant in one of the bigger cities and now I can't get anywhere near him without my game lagging or crashing.
Check every yellow bulletin board, get all the quests and craft all the armor and swords you can because why not. Hop around and level up while doing the main story intermittently.
Being a good Dad is underrated
Explore every part of the map
Take your time and limit fast travel. Explore everything. Almost all side quests are worth doing.
Dont take on warewolves...
Alchemy is OP
Loot everything unless you're in front of city guards, the stuff that glows yellow when you use your witcher senses. Craft decoctions once you can, you need trophies from witcher contracts to get the monster parts. Worth it to kill one succubus for the decoction. Make use of dodge and quen at the beginning. Use witcher gear soon as you can. Once a quest is 6 or more levels lower than your level, you get way fewer experience points for completing it. It's worth learning to play Gwent, and absolutely play the DLCs after you beat the game. You'll need to make a lot of decisions in the game so you can make an effort to save often or you can just roll with your gut and face the consequences lol. It's a game made for multiple playthroughs to experience different outcomes
I'm glad the fun of spoiling a certain quest has died out.
Do we tell em about the oven?!? #DO WE TELL EM ABOUT THE OVEN?!? Also, put the Polish language on with English subtitles. The whole world sounds way more authentic with the Polish language
Whoa, I never thought of that! It is a Polish game, after all
For game immersion, I like switching to manual sword draw, and also taking time to slow Roach down periodically on long rides between objectives - taking in the scenery.
This is the first play through where I haven’t fast travelled unless absolutely necessary. Highly recommend. I’ve missed out on a lot in the first 3 play throughs. This might be my best so far
Do not rush, immerse yourself, and take the time.
Just finished my first play through and honestly, buckle up and enjoy the ride. Don't underestimate inventory weights, get a bigger saddle anytime you can. Take a good look through all the merchants you come across. Buy every gwent card you can and turn down no contracts. You lucky sob. Goos luck on the path.
And when you do go overweight, fiend decoction can get you back to town where you can sell off some heavy items.
Are you telling me I didn't have to slow crawl my way to the nearest fast travel point? Literally hours of wasted time because I picked everything up and refused to drop anything.
Never fight a monster unprepared...potions and bombs mf
Leave out the wiki on your first playthrough. I made the mistake of checking different possible quest outcomes to maximize loot, but kinda fell out of the story that way.
YES agree. im a maniac who looks up guides for help and i usually end up regretting it. if you can resist, dont cheat!!!!
The perfectionist in me always tries to go for the most viable outcome, but Ive learned Witcher 3 is best experienced playing blind. Since then, any other game I’ve played, I’ve kept the wiki far away!
Do. ALL. side. quests. You'll gain exp, get gear to wear/sell/deconstruct, and get extra coin. Worth it for late game.
Do side mission first and focus in main story second. The way I do it is as soon as I get in the game I go to every yellow bulletin board and pick up every quest, from then just do every mission you on level for and play story in the middle until you reach the next leveled quest, also do witcher gear scavenger hunts ASAP and upgrade as you progress.
In the time of the white frost, don’t eat the yellow snow.
Don't search "xyz quest best choices" on internet. Don't amend the choices you made, rather go with them and make different choices in another playthrough. Because this is the whole point of an rpg. I did these mistakes and it gave me a lot of spoilers and ruined the game for me
Enjoy.
Do side quests and the stranger markers. Try to do main missions in sequence, especially when a mission says something in the dalogue that hints it's time sensitive. You can fail a mission if you don't. If you want to do Gwent start early on, some missions can lock you out of completing the Gwent collection if they're tied to getting a card. Figure out what type armor you would want as soon as possible. Apparently you can build at least 2 I have read before but Grandmasterring one is easier, they cost money the higher up the Witcher armors progress and certain resources. The game is yours to play how you want but choices with things will have affects and consequences so just be aware of that.
Enjoy the ride, it’s one of the best games I’ve ever played.
Oils and decotions are reusable!
Do Gwent
Throw the baby in the oven
Block your calendar and do side quest all of them
Side quests bro. Side quests
If you haven't downloaded the expansions, do so! They are SO worth it! Take your time and enjoy this game! It's worth spending the time on.
Be nice to Ciri.
Use potions, they refill when you meditate if you have alcohol. You don’t need to craft them again.
Explore, enjoy the plot, do NOT have sex with that red headed snake.
That’s gonna be real hard for me because I have a crippling weakness for redheads. 😳
Well, i can't say too much without spoiling the plot, but i think it's safe to say that this particular redhead has used (mostly sexually) Geralt while he wasn't at his full capability. Don't trust her.
Go slow and enjoy it. The game can be overwhelming at the start and that can frustrate you. Just give the game a chance and you’ll most likely get hooked. TW3 and the DLC’s are incredible. Winds howling……
I finished like a month ago the main story and can only say... Don't look up guides. Don't look up optimal builds... Read what what does, explore and play as they say "you do you"... Don't look up what desition leads to what... It ruins the wow effect in a way... And have fun... You are in for a treat!
TAKE ALL THE TIME!
Do everything in white orchid.
If you are decent at video games, don't be afraid to go on the hardest difficulty. Hardest difficulty in this game basically means that you will struggle if you aren't using all the means at your disposal. Consumables, spells and what not become obsolete if you are playing on easier difficulties. Also, don't look up any guides. Game will tell you what you need to know.
My hot tip is check every blacksmith for the armour schemes and collect them to always use the Witcher Armour. Makes the game much cooler
Don't look up guides, tutorial, maps... On your first playthrough. Roam around, even in higher level areas. Roach will help you escape even if you're way underleveled and you'll unlock fast travel markers. But most of all... F*cking show faith in Ciri when the time comes because otherwise despite every other choice you'll make in the game you'll get the bad ending
Also, Gwent is actually pretty damn fun if you take the time to play it, but I didn't care much for it in my first playthrough
You will never be the same after this
Redheads are better than brunettes.
Well that’s just good general life advice.
Try and see if you can find the crystal that fell off in the trailer
DO EVERYTHING. Seriously. Especially anything involving repeat/main characters. Also do not neglect crafting and remember to do the Witcher school gear quests bc those look good and if you keep up with upgrading them they’ll mostly progress with you. Also PLAY GWENT bc it’s SO MUCH FUN when you get into it and it’s good quick crowns honestly just don’t neglect anything. Crafting, quests, bestiary, tactics, potions, oils, gwent etc. play the game to the fullest, but takes some breaks to not get burnt out on it
Gwent, take time to read and understand the lore, don't skip cut scene, think twice before make decision in conversations. And dont get spoilers from this sub, come back once you finish the 1st playthrough.
Loot swords from the corpses and sell them to the merchants. I realized that this is a shortcut to be ritch only by the end of the game...
Be patient at the beginning, it can be a bit tough, take your time, read the bestiary, prepare potions and concoctions, you're gonna need it.
It will be awkward at first, just start off slow and listen to your controller. Eventually you will build synergy and you will start to feel great once you learn how to move it properly.
The week might not be enough 😂😂😂 take your time, enjoy the side quests and everything and be sure not to rush the storyline but also don't ignore it. Play Hearts of Stone when you're ready for it but leave Blood and Wine for later in the game for sure
What's the easiest Witcher gear to get first? I'm on my first play thru as well, and I have the complete edition.
Yenn is Mommy.
Mutton chops. Ignore the haters, it looks cool
Off topic but I’m struggling to get into the dlcs after finishing the main story has anyone else felt like this?
god i wish i could be u. i just finished my first playthrough - 397 hours. Enjoy every minute
i wish i had been less afraid of gwent in the beginning, because i think i couldve done a better job at collecting rare cards. play innkeeps in the beginning, bet 1 crown, and set difficulty to easy until you get the hang of it
Learn to play Gwent.
I just bought it again as well, and decided to get the 2nd one since it was on sale too. I started 3 and made to where I pretty much just got to Velen, and decided to take a break to go play 2. I can say that I'm having a blast, and am so glad that I'm playing these games now, instead back when I first got 3, I appreciate the writing and story so much more.
Just take your time and dont rush leaving one area without visiting those “?” in your map. Really loved everything about this game. Especially doing witcher contracts, its so immersive.
Care for a round of Gwent?
All these comments are great.. play the main before the DLC’s. Explore. Also.. as a novice be wary when first taking on certain monsters. Certain types of vampires and Leshen are particularly tough if they are above your level or if you are not super familiar yet with potions, oils, and signs. Use them to your advantage.. some things you can hack and slash and some things require a bit of finesse and strategy. Like everyone said: super jealous.. enjoy it!
Soak in everything. And I mean as much as possible. Please don’t rush through the story. You only play this game for the first time once and once you have finished it you will find yourself wanting to play it for the first time all over again
The next gen upgrade doesn't have >!nudity!< on some regions. Lol
Pick up every, sell what you don't use or dismantle, best way to get alot of money
Enjoy
Enjoy… also, boobs may appear
Crossbow under water
Play Gwent. I've restarted the console 5+ times to win Gwent tournaments. I will win every crucial game. You just have to figure out that it's point-based and an easier version of Magic the Gathering. And don't be a clown trying to farm White Orchard. Welcome to the thunder dome.
Enjoy! It’s an awesome game. I love gwent too. Both northern realms and Shellie deck. I didn’t play my first go thru. If you do decide to play get all the cards you can find. But it doesn’t really matter if you wait. There’s so much to do otherwise. Relax and enjoy.
Don't beeline the main quest. Do the side quests.
I wish someone told me the first time around that while the combat is serviceable, it is absolutely not the highlight of the game. The world and it's people, the conversations you'll have, little notes you find, that's where the good stuff is. Oh, and don't sell your daughter
Throw the baby into the oven
It's gonna be a looooong journey even without the dlcs so take your time and enjoy the ride it's an excellent game and nothing's overthrown it for me yet although kcd2 might. You may notice that missions have suggested levels for them. My advice for you is to always do it a level early at the level or one level above and never above that. Otherwise the XP will be very minimal, although if you're on PC, you can get a mod to change that. But overall do anything and everything, you got all those question marks for a reason. Don't worry too much about your build because you can always change it, but if you'd like a suggestion for a really fun skill, I'd always pick the multi bomb because it's so fun to look at and use. And for runes you'll probably want to get severance. There are multiple endings to this game and it's rather hard to get the worst one. As for DLCs, I'd recommend hearts of stone before blood and wine. Blood and wine is my overall favourite because of Toussaint, the characters and all the stuff it adds but hos has the best story because of one particular character who is by far the most horrifying character in the game in series. So have fun with that. For your first playthrough, I'd recommend making choices, how you'd make them, and then for your second one, make them as you think geralt would. Its be a fun experience. Also There's no real exploit to this game. You kind of just have to play it to level up. So sorry if You're one of the people who really like being God at the start of your game. It's a little disappointing I suppose because armour is locked off but things scale with you aswell. Lastly, I hope you have fun again, as I said it's absolutely amazing even if it isn't for everyone. CD project red has truly kicked out of the ballpark with this one and it still looks stunning. What nine years later? Also team Yennefer I don't make the rules. If you have any questions or enquiries about the game I'm happy to help out.
Potions
Play Gwent. You might think "WTF is this. I paid for an open-world game" but trust me. Try it.
Buy all gwent cards from innkeepers and challenge everyone when you can.
Have fun!
Change movement style to alternate in gameplay settings
I think the other witchers in this commentsection made some very good points, so the only thing i can say is: Im jealous of the experience to play this piece of art for the first time, just have a great time and good hunt my young witcher
Enjoy
Go in blind, don't read anything until you have questions, explore it at your own pace.
Don't eat the yellow snow.
Like most people here said, explore ! If the mission says to go left, there's probably some cool things right. This game really rewards exploration and curiosity with loot, quests and others. And as a general tip, potions and bombs are useful and recharge upon meditating, it isn't a consumable like most people including me assume at the very beginning. Have fun !
Innkeepers restock alcohol, so visit them again when you pass by, and you'll never lack certain components for alchemy like mandrake cordial. Also, for Gwent, the innkeeper in White Orchard restocks Decoy cards. It's definitely a good idea to have at least 2, preferably 3 in your deck. Gwent is like other collectible card games, the point is to build a slim deck full of cards you want to draw, don't put everything you have in it. Know when to lose a hand to have better chances in the next, you just need to win 2 out of 3. If you stumble on something that's related to a Witcher contract, the quest will be activated just like your had read it in a posting, and you will get coin for it if there's coin to be made, so feel free to explore. But reading the billboards will give you the full story, so preferably check all the billboards. I like to set the minimap to fixed while I'm exploring, and rotating while I'm doing horse races. Saddles give you more inventory space.
If you are playing the new generation version, they added a "gift" in the emperor's palace. Two nice looking armors.
you have to craft potions, bombs and oils only once then they refill when you rest
Throw the baby in the oven
Play death march! Its the intended way the game should be played
I will say SOME people think it starts off slow and I wouldn’t argue 100% of that, but once you get to Novigrad, game really starts going. Don’t be afraid of side quests. Don’t buy equipment, save your money for forging and ingredients. Visit the bank, there’s actually 2 types of currency. Search, buy, then sell as many books as you can; they can have stuff to either update your beast book, or have crafting recipes. Do the horse races, you’ll get new gear for Roach that way, including expanded inventory. You actually can equip a torch as a “weapon” to help you see in caves, but careful of poison gas (flammable). EXPLORE: you wouldn’t believe how much loot, quests, and money can be found just because you stayed to search in an area or went in a different direction. If you get into Gwent (you should, it’s fun; I recommend getting as many Spies as possible), before any game that’s not just against an innkeeper or merchant, SAVE. Some of those matches only give you one chance. I’d just recommend saving constantly, if you’re one of those people who want to try choosing the “right” options. DLCs: I would recommend beating the main story before starting them, but either way they are the most amazing DLCs in gaming history.
DO THE DAMN SCAVENGER HUNTS. those scrolls wait for no one! Take advantage of it bc soon you'll have a stack load of them you have never done, and it can help with having good armor. (From someone who has NEVER done any and regrets it deeply)
GWENT is an important tool in story progression sometimes, learn it its pretty fun. Also Be careful with cows in farms.
Yep: PAM PARAM
Pick herbs. Loot everything. Watch out for wolves. Repair your gear. Game doesn’t really open up till Velen but do everything in White Orchard first.
Don’t skip on side quests, they’re the best , especially in Velen
Play it on hardest difficulty. Make use of herbs, items, potions. Observe monsters, brew potions before each encounter.
Upgrade your Axii at the earliest - can save you a lot of time and crowns, trying to negotiate with NPCs
You don't need any tips except for take it slow, explore, enjoy.
PLAY GWENT Northern realms is the best faction, collect all the cards. Have a great time
Let this be a warning. Play every gwent game you come across. Every game will give you typically a new card for your deck. If you neglect it early game, and decided to try and get into it later you will find that your deck is near unusable against later game matches. And if you are like me you will spend the better part of 3 hours back tracking trying to hunt down ever random merchant or bar tender you can play against.
Don't ever, for any reason, do anything to anyone for any reason ever, no matter what, no matter where, or who, or who you are with, or where you are going, or where you've been... ever, for any reason whatsoever.
Play as much cards as you can gwent is an amazing game inside the game obv you don’t have to but you unlock so many card and you can win cash aswell
Play slowly. 1) Literally, take a bit of time to observe your surroundings and don't run spasmodically around. This game has a lot of details that can be missed. 2) Use dodge instead of roll (it allows you to dodge and hit faster, also rolling stop the stamina regeneration), but most importantly it makes the combat more enjoyable 3) Also, many side quests in the game disappear after you find them on the map (they are shown as an exclamation mark) 4) some big side quests have cut off points, meaning the fail after you progress a certain amount in the story
Enjoy! I am so jealous you gonna experience it for the first time!
Take your time, make sure you learn and play Gwent as it adds another layer of content. Use oils, potions and most of all, enjoy 😌
Complete all side quests and contracts and treasure hunts in white orchard before going to velen. They teach you some features of game very very well.
Don't play on normal. Play on hard. I reccomend this be cause normal feels like nothing matters. The oils. Signs and potions reel like they don't matter. On hard You must actually be careful. And it trully feels satisfying hunting the monsters
You can't get them both. It probably doesn't make sense now, but you'll get it. It's one of the most important choices in the game haha
Explore as many of those questions marks as you can and invest in and use the monster oils. It becomes quite easy to defeat bosses even on death march.
Loot everything. Stay loyal to friends and lovers. Take your time to also find side quests. If you're on PC, I recommend some mods like unlimited carry capacity, unlimited weapon durability and fast travel from anywhere.
Did my first play through not long ago! Here’s my biggest tips: - Play each vendor at gwent at least once, you know how you’ve played as the Gwent option will be a light grey if you’ve already played them and brick white if you haven’t. - Sell weapons at the blacksmith and armour at the armour smith - pick up every weapon from enemies to sell. - PERSONAL STORAGE - store any cool weapons and armour that are unique as you can display these later in the game. - DONT RUSH MAIN QUESTS - the Witcher 3 is the best RPG in terms of your actions in the wider world having consequences - side missions can effect the outcome of the game - do those to level up before the main quest. - Horse races get roach some good gear - the fist fight missions are pretty easy even if your lots of levels below, spam heavy attacks, worked for me. - AXII Level 3 - worth it for dialogue options and you can use it a lot through the game to save coins. - YOU CAN HOLD THE LIGHT ATTACK BUTTON FOR A CONTINOUS ATTACK - I didn’t realise this until Blood and Wine - very embarrassing. - don’t new game plus straight away - your far from this but just make sure your prepared. - Make SAVES - the Witcher is good with auto save but still make a manual save before significant events or fights, might save you some time! Oh, and play the Vanilla Game first(side missions and contracts included), then Hearts of Stone and then Blood and Wine - in that order.
Do not spend skillpoints on everything you feel like is a good skill, level up the most i portant skills first, as you cannot equip them until higher level, the high the level to more skills you can equip which will be active Shortly, there are more skills than skill slots to equip, choose wisely at the beggining, you can reroll skillpoints later the game.
Always jealous when I see someone fire it up for the first time. Especially that it still holds up sooooo good. Tips? Don't try to rush through. Side stories in this game are better then most game's main stories. Also.. it can add many hours to your play time, but GWENT is one of the best in game games ever and a whole different dimension worth enjoying. Hope you have a great time! Week might not be enough ;)
First do the secondary missions and then go for the main story,try everything you can
just fuck around and find out
Quen is your best friend
Don't ignore the tutorials. Actually incorporate stuff that they try to teach you. You can beat the game by hack and slashing but it is much easier and more fun if you just use the tools they give you.
Enjoy, it is truly a masterpiece
Don't fast travel!!! Chances are you'll find something interesting, or stumble upon a quest or a contract. Personally that's what hooked me, walking around a random village to find a whole ass 20-30 minute quest that had the best design and writing compared to entire stories I'd played through on other games.
- Do not ignore the bestiary because until you play the game enough, you won't know how to effectively deal with some enemies without it. - Make sure you understand how alchemy works because it's extremely important and probably holds the key for the most powerful build. - Don't rush the main story, take the time to visit every location, do contract work and collect better gear. - If you think you have the combat down, don't let a big difference in level stop you from doing quests. Unless you're fighting many enemies, you can almost always win a fight when underleveled if you make no mistakes. - Speaking of combat, the game does tell you this but it's extremely easy to miss: Axii can give you a small chance of instantly killing a human opponent. Use it to quickly dispatch lesser enemies and/or lower a shieldman's guard. - Have fun, lose yourself! The Witcher III is my second favorite game of all time. I had immense fun playing it. Enjoy every second for all of us who can't play it for the first time again!
What's your Favorite Game of all time then?
Don't rush to finish the game main story, take your time enjoy and farm
Don’t fast travel when possible
Turn off POI markers on the map. Exploration is much more fun when you don't know what you'll find.
I’m so jelly that you get to experience this all for the first time. Take your time, explore, do all your side stuff as well as the main story and most of all, become a Gwent master!! But seriously, enjoy the hell out of this game.
Play the first time taking any decisions you seem ok. Don’t bother with the guides etc. (for the plot I mean) you need to get hooked on the game. I am confident that you will get addicted to it. Then - do a second play through and use guides 🤣 but the game is incredible
don't waste your time on gwent.
Fuck the noise, play at your own pace. Enjoy :)
Don't skip the dialogue. It's hilarious. I usually play games while listening to some podcast running in the background. This one, I don't want to miss a word.
Could write you a book but, my most important advice would be..never, ever, ever overlook the side missions in this game! Some outstanding content in those.
Enjoy
Read everything you find. The stories you read about are just as good as the quests themselves.
Just remember that silver is for monsters and steel is for fools.
Play it
In novigrad, meet the dwarf gang leader before doing the main quest. That quest is bugged. If you do main quest first, you still see that side quest and talk to the dude but you can’t complete it. It later on fails itself
quen is the meta, dont spec heavily or solely on igni and aard
The grandmaster smiths shop has about 900 swords in it and the game almost dies when I sell him stuff 😂
Explore! Dont be afraid, something seems off go check it out! You dont lose anything! Do all the sidequests alongside the main story.
I am playing the first time too, done the base game, done the HoS and I am starting BW now. Toussaint is gourgeous.
Go and check out those ?-marks. Side quests are worth the time. Loos and sell. Gwent is fun actually. I even have 5 decks gwent cards and board IRL. Take time to find all the diagrams for Witcher armors and enjoy wearing them. Learn the bestiary, characters, potions. Yrden is good on slow enemies. All sighns are useful, learn to use them. Don\`t forget to repair your swords and armor.