Witcher I - Comprehensive Alchemy Guide

This guide is for the alchemy system (potion and oil making) in Witcher I. It has a very little bit of side information regarding how vendors interact with alchemy supplies, a bit about books, and some NPCs you can interact with to obtain/unlock things so you don't have to buy them.

Tl;dnr - Your handy quick reference

One game mechanic you should definitely know is that ingredients do not appear on killed monsters until you have a journal entry for them. READ the books in the game and TALK to all the NPCs more than once. This is how you get journal entries for some of the more rare ingredients, especially.

If you don't care about gaming details or anything that would make your alchemy easier, but you just want a nice simple list of all the alchemy bits and their properties so you can mix stuff already, here ya go:

You can mix *anything* you buy or find without knowing a recipe, and thus unlock recipes at any stage in the game, but you gotta risk drinking the potion or using the oil/bomb to find out what it does. Happy Experimenting! (Yes, this can kill you!)

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Vitriol: Beast Fangs, Shimmering Dust, White Vinegar (sell)

Vitriol/Albedo: White Myrtle (best trash vitriol), Echinops Roots

Vitriol/Rubedo: Archspore Juice, Sewant Mushroom (probably easiest source, esp chapter 2/3), Bruxa Blood, Calcium Equum (sell)

Vitriol/Nigredo: Ghoul Blood, Ginatz's Acid (sell), *Hop Umbrels (not implemented in vanilla game, can be added by mods)

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Rebis: Death Dust, Caverdine, Wine Stone (sell)

Rebis/Albedo: Wing Membrane

Rebis/Rubedo: Beast Liver, Green Mold, Lunar Shards (sell)

Rebis/Nigredo: Celandine, Han, Stones of Ys (sell?)

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Aether: Cockatrice Feathers, Spores, Nazean Salts (sell)

Aether/Albedo: BRAINS (sooooo many brains), Berbercane

Aether/Rubedo: Hellbore, Alp Fangs, Pearl (sell)

Aether: Nigredo: Allspice (vendor bought only), Drowner Tongues, Gin Petals, Quicksilver (sell)

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At this point the stuff is rare enough you may or may not need to be cautious about selling at all, depending on where you are in the game and what potion combos you prefer. Remember you never *need* to worry about secondary attributes unless you're aiming for a dominance. So you never *need* "pure" hydragenum, for example.

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Quebrith: Shadow Dust, Abomination Lymph, Sulfur (sell)

Quebrith/Albedo: Verbena, Honeysuckle, Vodyenoi Bladder (I'd keep it all if you need this)

Quebrith/Rubedo: Balisse, Fool's Parsley, Gravier Bones, Kickimore Claw, Optima Matter (sell)

Quebrith/Nigredo: Alghoul Marrow, Garkain Saliva, Mandrake Root, Ducal Water (sell)

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Hydragenum: Alber's Crystals (sell unless you're just out), 5th Mutagen (sell), Tendons

Hydragenum/Albedo: Ectoplasm, Wolf's Aloe

Hydragenum/Rubedo: Beggartick, Pit Glands

Hydragenum/Nigredo: Cockatrice Eye, Mistletoe (only obtained from vendors or the goddess idol)

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Vermillion: Toxin, Trachae

Vermillion/Albedo: Bloedquizer Blood, Wolvesbane (vendor bought)

Vermillion/Rubedo: Feinweed, Devourer Teeth, Ergot Seeds, Pyrite (sell if you can).

Vermillion/Nigredo: Venom Glands, Bryonia


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If I missed any ingredients, lemme know and I'll edit it.

Potion Prep

You don't *have* to know a formula to make it so long as you have the talent to allow production. You can experiment. The potion/oil/bomb will show up as "unknown" but have the correct graphic for that creation, unless you botched the recipe. Drinking an unknown potion will unlock what it is (if anything)...but it's best to start at zero toxicity if you aren't sure what you made....

You never need to worry about secondary traits unless you're going for a dominance. So, you never *need* "pure" hydragenum, for example. If you're not aiming for a secondary attribute, any old ingredient with the right primary trait is fine.

If you make Wives Tears (or Cat) with all Albedo ingredients, you now have a *zero* toxicity potion which will pop the Albedo buff upon you for the drinking of all your subsequent potions without worrying about which ones are what level of toxicity. This also lets you get un-intoxicated with zero added toxicity, which is nice if you're in a hurry and don't want to meditate.

Prepping with a wives tears (or cat) albedo dominant potion lets you make other higher toxicity potions out of more commonly available ingredients, especially when it's hard to find Albedo dominant ingredients (like how it's a pain in the butt to find hydrangenum+albedo in CH II/III (unless you count Wolf's Aloe, which is very limited in supply and frequently missed as an ingredient option because folks don't get the Journal entry).

If you make Wives Tears (or Cat) with Rubedo or Nigredo dominance, you at least have a *low* toxicity way to refresh these buffs (which wear off a lot faster than the higher toxicity potions they are usually attached to) without having to pop a higher toxicity potion. If you have the Stamina(?) talent that cuts toxicity by 25%, these are almost free to drink.

It does not matter what ingredients you use to make oils or bombs as far as secondary attributes go. Oils and bombs are the place to burn down whatever ingredients you have in abundance, paying attention only to the proper primary ingredients.

If you are lacking in the elusive rebis/albedo combination (which exists solely in wing membranes) for making Wives Tears or Cat with albedo dominance, the single easiest potion to make with albedo dominance for the prep of drinking other potions is Tawny Owl.

Albedo dominance doesn't appear to stack. If you drink any potion with albedo dominance, then drink another albedo dominant potion, you get the same resulting toxicity as if you had ingested only one potion with albedo dominance at the outset.

If you have the Buzzed talent, drinking a single white gull will instantly guarantee that you are intoxicated enough for it to kick into effect. You can make White Gull with a dominant secondary effect too. If you want a *zero* toxicity option for getting intoxicated though, you need the 25% off to toxicity + albedo dominant white gull, or else to drink an hallucinogenic booze like wormwood (which usually does it in a single pop).

If you have the Altered Metabolism talent and *desire* to bump up your toxicity (despite how it reads, the ability is triggered off toxicity), drinking a few Wives Tears with no secondary attribute will get you there carefully, without affecting your existing buffs in anyway. ... Drinking Petri's Philter will get you "there" in a dangerous hurry, but you *need* to be at just about zero toxicity to start, even if it's albedo dominant. Botching this toxicity count = dirtnap.

You can safely drink several potions in a row while under the light source/protection of your probably only rarely used Quen sign. (Did I mention this is a light source when Cat drops and you have no torch?)

Merchants

Don't underestimate the value of ingredients (and other junk). It takes but a second to grab stuff as you run around (if you use left ctrl + click, you don't even have to open the loot window) and 50 of anything is at least 50 orens. I'm sitting on over 15,000 orens AFTER buying everything including the 5000 oren bit of armor. No idea what to do with all that money but hey, I like picking flowers....

Sell Abigail a barghest skull -- every ingredient you sell to her that you see appear in her inventory to the left of that skull may be bought back at cost. This makes her a great *temporary* bank for many ingredients (since the storage at the inn is such a mess for how it sorts stuff). She maintains everything in the relative order in which you sell to her, so you can buy/sell in steps to "sort" a good number of ingredient piles by attribute, including even the expensive stuff, if you have the orens to accomplish it.

HOWEVER, Everything to the right of those barghest skulls will cost you a LOT more (easily double to 4x the price you got for selling them) to buy back, so don't store those on her unless you're just rolling in orens.

The same thing is true for Kalkestein/alchemists and whatever the item is that he contracts for you to sell to him. Everything to the left, buy back at cost. Everything to the right, expensive to repurchase.

To my knowledge, neither one maintains their inventory from chapter to chapter, so buy them out of whatever you want before you progress, and of course dead merchants do not sell....

Kalkestein will always give you WAY more money for stuff like white vinegar than any other alchemist/merchant, often including Abigail. Buying it back from him, however, is still way more expensive.

The Order Armorer will buy almost every ingredient from you but at crappy prices compared to the other vendors. He gives his inventory at the end of chapter 3 to the blacksmith in chapter 4. This means you can "preload" the blacksmith to have whatever you put on the Order Armorer (NOT the Order Merchant).

Of course, you need to do all this loading before you bork your faction with the Order, so some quest manipulation may be required depending on your choices, and the Gold Rush quest will lock you out of doing business with him (may be fixable?) if you side with the filthy terrorists who left children to die in a crypt full of demonic monsters *cough* I mean elves . Whatever side you pick in that faction dispute, he still gives his inventory to the blacksmith in chapter 4.

**It *appears* that the chapter 4 blacksmith then restarts his day each morning with a *fresh* stock of whatever he inherited from the Order Armorer, but of course I cannot (well...will not) test this for all possible items. Game exploit: I can confirm this works with just about *anything* sold to the Order Armorer that is then transferred to him....

Ingredient Bits and Info

*Everything* that is an "expensive" alchemy ingredient has a cognate in the cheap stuff. It's not always accessible at all points in the game though. There is *zero* benefit to using more expensive ingredients, so if you have the cheap stuff with the desired primary/secondary attributes, use them and sell the more valuable stuff.

Nobody will ever buy any ingredient with the word "dust" in its name, nor cockatrice feathers. Other than keeping the requisite amounts for Witcher Contracts, these are your best 'trash' ingredients when making potions. If you have all you want, the rest is a waste of storage space. I can't remember if there are any other ingredients that don't sell. If you put it in storage then put in something you know doesn't sell like a cockatrice feather, and the first item stays to the left of the second, then it's a no-sale item.

***REMEMBER to save at least one barghest skull for the dentist in chapter 2, because they don't drop anywhere in the whole game after chapter 1 (which is rubbish for those who didn't know in advance, but whatever). Technically that's not an ingredient, but doing business with Abigail made me think of it.***

SAVE a few of the the *bazillion* stacks of ectoplasm you potentially obtain in Ch 1. You will never again have such a lovely drop rate on hydragenum, let alone hydragenum/albedo, ingredients at any other point in the entire game.

Try to make sure you pester enough old women in Ch 1 to get the Wolf's Aloe reference in your journal. If you *didn't* save any ectoplasm, it's the *only* access you'll have to Hydragenum/albedo in all of chapters 2 and 3 and the drop of this combo in chapter 4 isn't great either. Same deal for Verbena...this is your *only* source of Quebrith/Albedo for all of chapter 2 and possibly chapter 3 (unless you buy the book for the honeysuckle reference but there's like 3 plants in the whole game at this point).

Why is hydragenum/albedo so important?

Because Fisstech made *with* albedo dominance sells to the Order Armorer for 40 orens a pop.....if you use "found" booze (turned into White Gull) and harvested ingredients to make it, you can make Fisstech for free. The recipe is quebrith, hydragenum, hydragenum, hydragenum, vermillion...and if you just *make* it, you get the journal reference. Of course, if your faction with the Order is horked, this is not a good source of income for you, as the Dwarf vendors have better sense than to mess with the White Death. ;)

Nobody in Ch 1 wants to buy your White Myrtle or Hellbore. That's OK - keep. picking. it.

Toss the excess into storage and sell them to the Herbalist/Gardener/Elder Druid in Ch 2/3. Giving 50 flowers for 50 orens isn't a bad deal, and if you pick it whenever you see it (especially in Ch 1), you'll be *swimming* in orens soon enough. The Order Armorer will buy these as well, but I didn't want to clutter him up so I just used the gardener. The blacksmith will buy them in chapter 4.

You can give found/purchased food items to the goddess altar in the hospital (or the swamp) and get Mistletoe back. This is the *only* source for hydragenum/nigredo in the game for chapters 2-3, and the only relatively inexpensive source period. In chapter 4, you can buy mistletoe, but it will cost you 15 oren or so a pop and there's only one per day on the hermit....

In chapter 2-3 Wolfsbane (one each day on the herbalist, gardener, elder druid) is the only source of Vermillion/Albedo other than Bloedgeizer blood, which can be difficult to obtain or easy...depending on your combat ability). When you're just learning the Swamp, it might be best to hit the vendors....

Early in the game, the vendor purchased Allspice is the only source of Aether/Nigredo in the game, but it's almost immediately (ch II) replaced by drowned dead tongues. I do not recall if Abigail sold it in chapter 1.

It's a lot easier to store a couple of stacks of each possible combo than to fill your inventory or storage or whatever with umpteen bits that have the same attributes. If you're swimming in beast liver, you don't need to waste game time forcing a repop of the sewers to try to score more green mold, and using lunar shards is just a waste of orens.

Very often, each chapter has a thing that will be bountiful in that chapter, and sparse in subsequent chapters. If you find yourself with umpteen stacks of something, make sure you keep a stack for the change to the next chapter, just in case. An exception to this rule are the drowner brains. You'll just about never run out of these, or something with the same attributes.

Talents?

In general, how you spend your talents depends entirely on how you play the game. It's *possible* to play the game without being able to make oils or bombs at all. I don't think the main game would be enjoyable without *some* potion making. I *suppose* you could do it without the ability to gather herbs or animal components at all...but it would be costly, you'd spend a lot of time waiting for vendor inventory to reset, and it would be *very* difficult. There's one talent you simply *don't* need though:

Save a Silver Talent for any other spot....

There is *no* need to purchase the ingredient extraction talent. You'll get more than enough by just picking crap whenever you see it. Further, I have tested on saves before and after purchasing the talent, and it really does seem that the drop rate for the relatively precious Wing Membranes in Ch II and III actually goes *down* slightly after taking this talent. This isn't a problem in chapter 4 where it seems every kill of a thing with wings leaves you a wing membrane drop.

[Vashra]

changelog: tossed some things behind spoiler tags on request, added Vitrio/Nigredo combos to the quick list (thanks to gralumpagus for the catch)

[gralumpagus]

This is such a great post. I did notice you left out the Vitriol/Nigredo combination. I think that you want to keep Ghoul's Blood and sell Ginatz's Acid.

[holger]

If I had only read this earlier... had been opening the loot window ever b***** time I wanted to grab something, before finally learning about the CTRL+Click possibility.

[mrs.sgt.o]

Thank you