Insane difficulty tips

[Lorska]

I'm currently on insane and tried multiple builds and paths before, so I guess I could share some tips if you want to get the madman without cheating. This is form my experience of insane so far and some dark playthroughs.

-- basics --
disable qte's in options
you should have completed dark difficulty on any path (preferably both)
you should know about the respective side-quests and consequences
this difficulty can be compared to dark without the dark sets, you should be as careful as when playing dark
the major difference would be the reduced damage (things you survived in dark are now reasonable, don't expect to survive things that did more than 500+ damage though), thus having the right armor and/or damage reduction perks now makes sense
get mutagen slots from training path and lvl 2 parry, you can hold down parry button, assess the situation and reload your last save if things look bad, that's why you should save before every fight
don't get greedy in a fight
do the mystic river quest

-- moves --
you can force the most powerful gap-closer by strafing left, then attacking, this executes the 360° spin attack that can hit multiple units and can do even more damage than a heavy hit, but be aware of enemies that can parry, or take hits without staggering (like dragon), it is often safer to use the other moves for less damage but safer
try not to roll when enemies are attacking to avoid critical backstab damage, parry->roll is safer (or keep quen for such situations)

-- monsters --
harpies and nekkers are nice, one grapeshot kills lesser nekkers, harpies are slow and do low damage while having large hitboxes
kill rotfiends as fast as possible before they start their combos
try to avoid drowners, they are fast, have decent health and can combo attacks
humanoids should be easy to deal with, use aard moderately and keep quen up, later you do enough dmg to kill them through parries/blocks
regular endregas should be killed quickly with heavy blows before they gang up on you
endregna queens and arachas should be killed via circling or aard-2xhit-repeat combos, they sometimes get stuck when you hit-lock them
gargoyles can be quickly disposed of once you reach them, just keep quen up and keep your distance from their combos, a light-heavy combo should suffice to kill them
ghosts should be killed with traps, bombs or with gap-closer attacks (dodge roll away after them)
golems, bullvores, etc.: dispose of them via backstabs after a charge, or a hit combo, again circle around them, even a medium dodge suffices
do NOT try to kill the operator
dragon: gap-closer, backwards roll, repeat, it took me 4 light hits on the roof to initiate the ending sequence on dark, the lunge can and will kill you, all other attacks only hit once and are therefore irrelevant
SPECTRAL BATTLE:
(1st stage) if you don't kill the majority of the wraiths with your first charge, either reload or make use of the safe spot directly left of the tree behind the group
(2nd stage) easy, just timed
(3rd stage) your dmg should suffice even without riposte, just pull the second group 1 by 1 and reload if your health gets low.

-- materials --
use your runes and enhancements, you won't need most of them later on
you will need the following materials to craft all weapons/armor you need in the game:
(robust cutlass, jagged blade, superb silver sword, robust yellow meteorite sword, hunter's armor, vran armor)
iron: 44
cloth: 20
leather: 16
endrega teeth: 15
twine: 13
silver: 12
timber: 6
studded leather: 4
yellow meteorite: 2
diamond dust: 2
amethyst dust: 1
you will also need diamond dust, twine, oil, nekker hearts, essences of water, elemental stones for the enhancements, so sell the rest unless you need alchemical ingredients
most of these can even be skipped by just buying instead of crafting (I did this but after crafting vran armor I had 69 orens left... could have sold more stuff but be aware that buying dragon armor and everything else even with haggling will be costly)

-- oils, potions, bombs, traps --
from my experience, traps are a waste of money, do take those free snares though
bombs are essential, stack on grapeshot, zerrikanian sun, and some more damage bombs if you like, the first two are the most import ones
rook (dmg, 25 tox) - permanently active if possible
white raffards (vit, 50 tox) - after you get the -30% dmg down to 0% with alchemy perks, permanently active after that
thunderbolt (dmg, 50 tox) - only if things kill you anyway (dragon) or you are sure to not be hit
I suggest rook+raffards, add something else if you like but most options are kind of useless at that point, thunderbolt+raffards works, but I'd keep as much additional vit as possible

-- build --
your choice but I strictly advise you to NOT take a mage build, you are highly susceptible to dmg, and can't regenerate vigor while quen is active, and that should be the case at all times to spam your signs. In addition the spectre war will be a huge pain and you will probably die there.
I suggest a sword/alchemy build:
get 100% dodge (200% if you like but you only need this for the very last fight)
take any path to reach all mutagen slots in sword path, then add an additional point to combat acumen
after that make your way to the alchemy mutagens, taking side effect and impregnation (both lvl 2) on the way. add catalysis at any time or when you think you need that additional life
the rest of the points should go into 2nd levels of skills that maximize your dmg
take power mutagens only to kill things before they can do anything.
the most important thing is that you reach impregnation 2 before the spectral battle, because you keep all passive stats, i.e. mutagens, life, damage perks, thus you can kill anything with very few heavy hits (even on dark)
quen lvl 0 is enough to mitigate one hit (dodge roll) and aard 2 may be nice against humanoids but it is not needed, you can invest these points better to put down enemies quicker, thus you don't need to put any points into the mage tree.
*you can use the operator to put a point into dodge and/or get rid of impregnation and side effect 2, for 3 additional points while keeping all mutagens*




-- prologue --
just roll through it, get all abilities possible, save aryan from the dungeon for more capacity, loot everything

-- chapter I --
always keep you herbalist's gloves (EE), you need a lot of substances
solve all quest WITHIN lobinden and flotsam, basically anything where you don't need to fight outside
buy all formulas needed, all books on creatures, craft robust cutlass and diamond armor enhancements
buy the silver sword from the mysterious merchant and go to the troll (easy fight)
spare him, get the troll head and get hunter's armor for best protection in chapter I (16 armor)
then kill him, get his trophy and keep it through the game, unless you have enough mutagens and can switch for armor+vit increasing ones (bullvore/golem trophies are useful)
solve the other quests, but don't take unnecessary risks (e.g. fighting the squirrels alone in 'malena' or fighting the nilfgardian ghost)
unless you are proficient in dealing with wraiths, complete the contracts to craft the best silver sword in chapter I, and craft a jagged blade from the materials you looted from endregas
kayran is an event boss, you should have no trouble with him, use the trap and try to get hit after placing yrden to cancel quen safely and regenerate your vigor during the cutscene
letho is simple, just keep quen, use aard to stagger & hit him and regenerate vigor when he throws his stuff at you, dodge around, reload at low health alternatively when you fall into the pool with triss use aard on the wall and place all your snare traps in the fighting area, he'll die without you hitting him if done right

-- choose your path ---
Roche
pros:
easy end of chapter (c1)
good armor from deathmold when you reach the camp (c2)
good access to items and monsters in general (c2)
useful abilities
easy access in loc muinne and better mobility (c3)
exp farming oppurtunity in c3 (the camp right in front of loc muinne)

cons:
more close quarter fights with more/stronger enemies
early gargoyles and golem
longer third chapter
less and less easy exp in c2


Iorveth
pros:
reaching level cap early
massive amount of exp in c2
easy creatures (harpies, mass nekkers) in c2
only a few hard fights, possibility of skipping them
spectral battle way easier because of high level (c2)
magic to navigate through the mist (c2)
very short c3
many already strong weapons can be bought/crafted/etc. right from the start of c2

cons:
number of available good weapons slightly decreased
c1 is a bit harder
dialogue options that can kill you
sneaking through a camp that can result in death when caught (other option exists) (c2)
useless abilities


In general I would go for Iorveth for insane, just because the spectral battle is way easier and you can get through the game faster as with Roche. I also thought the battles were much easier on that path. But the choice is yours. I only comment on Iorveth though.





The other chapters are pretty self-explanatory, just do all side quests, by keeping the risk low for the reward you get, maximize exp from 'baltimore's nightmare', 'suspect:thorak', 'the walls have ears'. Use your gold to buy ingredients if necessary, you have enough and can always get more by selling crafting materials. Just a few hints here:

-- chapter II --
craft silver sword immediatly (I'd recommend the robust yellow one), it's the best you get in the chapter and available as soon as you enter vergen
during baltimore's nightmare you get the best steel sword upon killing thorak (you need to do this to maximize exp anyway)
the Poisoned Zerrikanian saberra is your sword of choice before that (also available from the start) or (if you don't want to use runes) gamble to get one with slightly better stats but less rune slots
you get a bunch of armor, the one from the succubus is nice and easy to obtain, but you will soon find better ones (in quick succession when infiltrating the camp) use whatever you like
If you stacked on money, you should buy the dragon scale armor from just outside the inner gate (this takes a lot of money, you may need to grind a bit, but it's the best armor around)
complete all quests within vergen (including clearing the mines)
go south and kill harpies until you completed the feather quest, this nets you a good amount of exp
visit the trolls to get triss's bandana and complete the next step of mystic river and update with flickering heart
now go back to vergen, buy surgical tools from the female merchant, clear the north (getting dun banner, the magical crystal) and complete with flickering heart
return to vergen, give triss' bandana to philippa, speak with the dwarves and peasants in royal blood, follow them until you wait for events to unfold for suspect:thorak and the walls have ears and instead of finishing royal blood, buy 7 harpy traps and go for the source of power and baltimores nightmare quest, completing harpy queen and harpy contracts on the way
after opening thorak's chest go lynch stennis (to avoid sneaking later)
You should now have impregnation 2, side effect 2 and multiple mutagen slots, you should be able to kill anything with two heavy hits now
proceed through the mist, go to the hut in the south-west (operator quest)
and bribe madame carole (500 orens) to infiltrate the camp
the rest of the chapter is linear, and should be easy with your gear


-- chapter III --
kill the two arachas in the beginnig to cut through all gargoyles with the sword you find there, then loot the best silver sword from the north-west rune-room
craft the vran armor as soon as you can (after entering loc muinne and a short trip to the sewers) to get the best armor
take either caerme (easy to obtain during gargoyle quest) or forgotten vran sword (during secrets of loc muinne, but hard to obtain because of many ghosts, the guardian himself is weak though, don't forget to switch back to steel sword to kill him *cough*), as you cannot access dancer, the forgotten vran sword is the best weapon on that path
with the best equipment you should be able to handly anything, just keep in mind how to deal with the dragon
make use of the respec if you need/want


If there are any questions or problems, feel free to leave a comment.

[Asterio]

Just a correction, Iorveth's path has much better and easier options for equipments than Roche's path on chapter 2.

On Iorveth's side you can purchase the best armor from a vendor, craft the best Silver Sword and get the second best Iron Sword from a dice game. All that right on the start of chapter 2, without the need of doing a single fight or even leaving the town.
Oh, and that armor that can be purchased right at the start of chapter 2 on Iorveth's side isn't even available on the Roche's side.

[Lorska]

ah thanks, edited