Best difficulty for first playthrough?

[Zaga]

I was thinking about going for the second hardest, will I have a good time? I have beatean all from software's games for what is worth so im used to having a hard time, I dont want the same level of challenge since I understand this is a more narative oriented game but I would like someone with more experience to give me his or her opinion
Thank you

[GordoBoy]

I went Death March out of the blue, but it became boring after a while, they did difficulty wrong almost doubling enemies HP wich means that even if you are an untouchable god you will still need to dance with them for years waiting for them to die, if you are not after the achievement dont bother and go normal, you lose nothing.

[Bandy]

I am also DS vet (coop with my son, so am mature player, don't judge me... LOL), but this is of course a different game. I'm on first play and decided to go with swords and story and am enjoying it and the challenge is OK, mini bosses and bosses are still tough, die once and a while, but a lot of fun.

Many layers to the RPG and game mechanics and it can be frustrating without looking it all up, and I prefer not to do that.

Also, take a moment and look up/read the entire descriptions here: https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/992
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/3163

...and then decide whether you want to continue without them. I didn't want to play with all the inherent bugs and inactive buffs that look like they are active, since optimizing the player buffs is so important to combat, but that's just my choice.

Vanilla game has lots and lots of gameplay issues: skills not working as intended or not working at all, descriptions being wrong, decoctions not doing what they're supposed to do, quest levels and experience being weirdly distributed, etc. Large portion of the mod is dedicated to resolving these issues: fixing bugged skills and items, providing better descriptions, tweaking useless and overpowered skills and items to be more balanced, changing loot so dimeritium plate can no longer be found inside poor peasant's shack, etc.

[Dusty Leon]

I would recommend Blood and Broken Bones for your first time. It's by no means difficult, especially once you get a few upgrades, but enemies pose enough challenge to keep you from falling asleep. As GordoBoy said, Death March turns everything you fight into a sword sponge and it gets tedious quickly.

[Yumeko]

even deathmarch is too easy in vanilla

[jolobolo1230]

deathmarch is the way to go, if it's too hard for you, you can try blood and broken bones first until you get better. the game is pretty easy even on the hardest difficulties

[Bandy]

Many/most games permit a player to shift difficulty mid game, sometimes not allowing you to return to harder settings. What is the situation with W3?

[jolobolo1230]

you can change difficulty anytime in w3

[lamacra]

Well deathmarch is definitely the way you should play witcher. There is only one problem you will get frustrated in the beginning until you master the combat system and learn what skills and potions are a must have. For a veteran even death march is (in my oppinion a little to easy) But for a beginner the first 2 hours will be a night mare.
For example i guess i died 10 times in the first battle in this game...
Now i maybe die 2-3 times in the whole main game (luckily blood and wine and hearts of stone are more difficult on death march)

[Zaga]

Thank you everyone, I decided to go for death march in the end, if I find it too hard i can always turn it down a notch, so far so good though

[Yumeko]

> For example i guess i died 10 times in the first battle in this game...
sounds like you should just have uninstalled the game.

[Dusty Leon]

Originally posted by Hi im Royeen:

sounds like you should just have uninstalled the game.

Wow, that's some next-level toxicity, even for you Royeen.

[Void]

Originally posted by Dusty Leon:

Originally posted by Hi im Royeen:

sounds like you should just have uninstalled the game.

Wow, that's some next-level toxicity, even for you Royeen.

Was funny to read though.

[Chillin]

death march.. and on game + it gets better.

[Bandy]

Originally posted by FunkBaconDeluxe:

Originally posted by Dusty Leon:

Originally posted by Hi im Royeen:

> For example i guess i died 10 times in the first battle in this game...
sounds like you should just have uninstalled the game.

Wow, that's some next-level toxicity, even for you Royeen.

Was funny to read though.

Can't respect someone who can't figure out, or too lazy to figure out, the post [tags]

[meep_meep]

Death March is difficult through White Orchard and even a ways through Velen but once you get used to the combat and upgrade to some of the decent abilities (like Gourmet, which is the actual game-breaking ability) it actually gets quite easy. You can easily beat monsters that are well above your level just with dodging and patience.