Unlocking Mutations For Velen/Skellige

[Shizofrend]

I've already played (100%ed) game once at launch for 500 hours.
Now I want to do it again, for a second time, but with Ghost Mode mod, triss romance and without a bad ending.

Since I want to do a fresh save I can't have mutations via ng+ method.
So...I was wondering if maybe I should maybe go to toussaint once I'm at a certain high eniugh level, do all the stuff I have to do to unlock mutations and then immidietly go back to vanilla velen/skellige.

I want to spend more time using mutations and having those 4 extra slots and more skills sooner.
I already played intended vanillla way for more than 50 levels over almost 500 hours.
So I wouldn't mind being a bit more powerful and having big diverse builds sooner since I can make game harder any time via ghost mode settings.

Anyhow, if I remember correctly I can do just that. But I don't remember how far in B&W I'd have to play to unlock mutations. Minimum level I'd have to be to be able to deal with enemies there.
How much story I'd have to remember from B&W for when I get back to it after spending hundreds of hours in base game.
If there is any stuff I could permanetly miss if I speedrun to mutations quest.
And so on...

Has anyone ever done this? Is it worth it? Is it going to kinda suck coming back to B&W having maybe forgotten some stuff that happened during mutations speedrun? By the time player level is good enough to not spend 5 hours killing one b&w enemy base game already be near the end if I 100% all side stuff first and main stuff following recommended quest levels as guide?

tl,dr: is it kinda dumb to go to b&w to get mutations and then continue with main story?

[Malthar]

if its what you want to do, go for it. just finished B&W myself without finishing the main game. I gained access to the dlc after finishing novigrad so it might be locked behind that.

[worm_master]

well I was tackling Toussant, at level 20. I've played the game on max diff, from the start, I still take 10 or more levels then me... How good are you? do you think u could do a lvl 18+ quest on hardest at lvl 11?.. If not I suggest you stick to enemy's close to your level, which rules out Toussant till.. level 35?

[tigerpoetry]

I think there's nothing wrong with going to Toussaint earlier, if you can manage it. You could tailor Ghost mode to be easier for that period.

Where your plan seems to fall down is that even if you complete 'Turn And Face The Strange' at level 15, you won't have all the XP points needed to develop all mutations and open up all 16 slots until you are around level 70.

Another problem you'll have is getting enough greater mutagens, especially red ones. Red mutagens are as rare as rocking horse dung.

I think that the mutations system was done largely with NG+ in mind.

[Shizofrend]

Originally posted by worm_master:

well I was tackling Toussant, at level 20. I've played the game on max diff, from the start, I still take 10 or more levels then me... How good are you? do you think u could do a lvl 18+ quest on hardest at lvl 11?.. If not I suggest you stick to enemy's close to your level, which rules out Toussant till.. level 35?

i can do death march on vanilla easy peasy as long as I don't deal 1 dmg per swing to enemies but ghost mode is kind of harder so I guess as long as enemies die within 50 swings i'd be alright. gotta see how I handle ghost modes higher level enemies I guess

[Shizofrend]

Originally posted by tigerpoetry:

I think there's nothing wrong with going to Toussaint earlier, if you can manage it. You could tailor Ghost mode to be easier for that period.

Where your plan seems to fall down is that even if you complete 'Turn And Face The Strange' at level 15, you won't have all the XP points needed to develop all mutations and open up all 16 slots until you are around level 70.

Another problem you'll have is getting enough greater mutagens, especially red ones. Red mutagens are as rare as rocking horse dung.

I think that the mutations system was done largely with NG+ in mind.

ahh yes, I forgot about that. well, I always race off to majority of places of power so I might have enough for a beginning of a build. and I would probably use deadly counters mutation which can be unlocked as the first one if I recall correctly.
I remember farming red mutagens on drowned dead near dead whales spot in skellige but since I won't be that far in at that point maybe I'll have enough red mutagens to unlock it if I don't sell any and maybe spare some cocktail coccasion potions ones cuz it seems you can convert those to regular ones without need for that b&w table (have that option in alchemy tab right at white orchard)

[tigerpoetry]

I've just checked.

Requirements for the four additional slots and all Mutagen options:

49 skill points.
18 greater red mutagens (or 54 red mutagens or 162 lesser red mutagens)
16 greater green mutagens (or 48 green mutagens or 144 lesser green mutagens)
15 greater blue mutagens (or 45 blue mutagens or 135 lesser blue mutagens)

Red mutagens crop up at roughly 1/3 the rate of the other two. That's a lot of farming. Higher level drowners and alghouls can cough them up. Neckers only ever seem to give green or blue. If you progress Blood and Wine far enough with the renovations, you'll get that alchemy device to convert specific monster mutagens to green, blue or red lesser mutagens, but that won't help much at level 15.

Is the reason you don't want to start NG+ from your old save that the Ghost Mod may not play nicely?

If so, why not give NG+ a go and enjoy your mutations in the normal way?

Just a thought.

It kind of makes sense to do this before playing with Ghost Mod on anyway, because you'll have a better comparison.

I don't use Ghost Mod. I do use the 'Enemy Upscaling Overhaul And Level Cap Increase' mod. Coupled with 'The Witcher 3 HD Reworked Project' mod (and a few others) I have never seen the need for Ghost Mod.

[Shizofrend]

Originally posted by tigerpoetry:

I've just checked.

Requirements for the four additional slots and all Mutagen options:

49 skill points.
18 greater red mutagens (or 54 red mutagens or 162 lesser red mutagens)
16 greater green mutagens (or 48 green mutagens or 144 lesser green mutagens)
15 greater blue mutagens (or 45 blue mutagens or 135 lesser blue mutagens)

Red mutagens crop up at roughly 1/3 the rate of the other two. That's a lot of farming. Higher level drowners and alghouls can cough them up. Neckers only ever seem to give green or blue. If you progress Blood and Wine far enough with the renovations, you'll get that alchemy device to convert specific monster mutagens to green, blue or red lesser mutagens, but that won't help much at level 15.

Is the reason you don't want to start NG+ from your old save that the Ghost Mod may not play nicely?

If so, why not give NG+ a go and enjoy your mutations in the normal way?

Just a thought.

It kind of makes sense to do this before playing with Ghost Mod on anyway, because you'll have a better comparison.

I don't use Ghost Mod. I do use the 'Enemy Upscaling Overhaul And Level Cap Increase' mod. Coupled with 'The Witcher 3 HD Reworked Project' mod (and a few others) I have never seen the need for Ghost Mod.

I like the more progression flow of fresh save even though I'd love to play with more powerful build sooner and use mutations but yeah ghost mode gets buggy if it's not fresh save and vanilla is just too easy plus I like the difficulty and changes ghost mode brings alongside bug fixes and balancing.

I guess I'll just rush to mutations when I am high enough level to kill enemies without fighting them for 2 hours cuz I deal 1 dmg per hit. unlock deadly counters and proceedenormally in base game and then go back to b&w when I finish base game and possibly HoS too.

I was thinking of doing witcher 3 enhanced edition instead of ghost mode but I'll leave that for third playthrough since it seems I'd like playing shot mode right now more than w3 EE.

I'm willing to sacrifice some skill points and mutagens to unlock deadly counters. Should be too much of a hassle I guess? I think deadly counters is one of first one that you can get.

Plus, without going for mutagen table in b&w, I can transmute enemy specific red mutagens in normal ones in the alchemy tab anyway so maybe I'll have enough by time I unlock deadly counter. Can farm some somewhere too probably.

I'd look up a mod that could maybe have mutations avaible from the fresh start level 1 but I am only using ghost mode and it's two community patch requierments (alongside mod manager, script merger and mod limit fix ofc) cuz I suck at modding and my english isn't too great. I tried to learn how to mod witcher 3 but get confused all the time and fail to udnerstand some important tid bits in between so I won't risk in case after like 50 to 150 hours I notice ghost mode has bugs that appear after you don't mod it properly.

[Shizofrend]

Anyhow, thanks for all the help guys. I guess I'll speedrun to mutations quest when I am close to level 30ish and go straight back to base game and continue playing with deadly counter.

p.s. does anyone else's game atl+tab to desktop by itself when left AFK for a while?? didn't notice this before but today I was playing and left to times for bathroom and to grab a drink and feed the cats and both time when I came back the game was alt-tabbed and I was seeing my desktop instead.
didn't happen during gameplay so i guess it's no biggy

[Shizofrend]

p.s oh ♥♥♥♥, I completely forgot there is Bloodbath mutation that always triggers finishers or dismemberment. I'm definetly taking that. I love those kill animations.