The Witcher 3 Tips & Tricks

This is a list of "Tips and Tricks" for TW3 I collected over the years, because the ones I found online were generally unhelpful. And also there's so much to this game they just don't do it justice.

I originally posted it on the witcher reddit. Reposting this here now with updates and corrections from the community. Check it out, I'm sure there'll be at least one you don't know.

Disclaimer: I am not claiming I came up with these myself, most of them come from YT videos, guides, forums comments, and even in-game loading screen tips. Wish I could credit my sources but this was put together over a long period of time so I lost most of them.

This is my very first guide on Steam so I would be grateful for any feedback. Feel free to add your own tips & tricks in the comments and correct my English and entries. I will try to keep this updated and add anything new I find.

I tried to use tips that are genuinely helpful, but you will also find some that might be a bit obvious/dumb since the audience for this game is so vast and there are constantly new players picking it up. For some this might even be the very-first-ever game they played, so it might help them figure out mechanics and have a good time.

I hope you will find this useful. First tip, of course, is to explore the game...

The wind's howling; you might wanna look around some...

Starting in White Orchard - Basic Tips & Tricks

When the time of the White Frost comes, do not eat the yellow snow


1. Even if you did not play the previous Witcher games do the “import save” option when starting a new adventure and choose well during the ensuing dialogue. It will reward you with extra quests/characters.

2. The first two skills to upgrade should be Axii and Quen. Axii can avoid you getting into difficult fights, but will yeald less experience than picking other dialogue options. Axii should be levelled up straight away if you plan to use it in dialogues, then just swap the skill for something more useful in later game. Quen is just OP, you take no damage at all even from really high level foes (at least for one hit), and eventually you can upgrade it to deal the damage back to the attacker. It is basically compulsory for playing at the higher difficulties.

Note: by using Axii in dialogues you will gain less XP than you would by fighting it out.

3. The first bits of equipment you should be looking for are: the Temerian, and the Nilfgaardian armor (and horse gear too) and the Viper school swords. You can buy the armors from merchant in White Orchard and quartermaster at the Nilfgaardian Garrison. The swords are also found in White Orchard region.

4. Come back to places you have already visited after completing quests/random encounters in the area. You will find new vendors, curiosities and, sometimes, closure.

5. Merchant prices depend on the gear you are selling and the type of merchant you are selling it to. Blacksmiths pay more for swords, Armorers for armor, Innkeeps for food, general Merchants for junk…

6. If your inventory is full you can break down all your junk into components for crafting. Also you can sell all gear that is not unique as you will be able to loot plenty of the same ones.

7. You don’t need to pay craftsmen to repair your equipment. You should always have more than enough portable repair kits to do it yourself. There's no reason to save them up since they take up inventory weight and are generally a common item to find.

8. You can sell honeycombs from beehives to Tomira, the herbalist in White Orchard, for a lot of early game cash. She pays 50 crowns for each one! Use Igni on beehives to loot them. Also, other Herbalists will pay well for honeycombs.

9. Come back to places you have already visited after completing quests/random encounters in the area. You will find new vendors, curiosities and, sometimes, closure.

10. Explore as much as you can to try and get all alchemy formulaes. It is really frustrating when you have all formulaes for high tier potions, but cannot brew it because you missed the basic one at some point. You should be able to find them all around the world instead of buying them from merchants. Also, always check which formulaes/diagrams vendors have to sell, might find some interesting stuff.

11. Always do secondary quests before the main ones. Some will fail if you rush with the main story.

12. Always eavesdrop on NPCs conversations. You will uncover extra details that might help in your mission (especially useful in Witcher's contracts), or simply learn some lore.

13. You can find small mutagens (even red ones) already in White Orchard, dropped by nekkers.

14. Gwent: keep your deck small, around the size of 22. Also try not to use low value cards and as many special cards as you can (but not too many hero cards). Also weather cards are pretty useless later on, except maybe for the clear sky one. I usually only keep that one in my decks or use a leader card with that power.

15. Try to play and win Gwent games every time you meet a new merchant/character that lets you challenge him. If it’s too hard for your current deck, mark it on the map for later. (It becomes extremely difficult to find which vendors you still haven’t beaten by the end and it requires a lot of backtracking). This helps with the “Collect 'em all” mission and achievement. Also, always buy any Gwent cards they have for sale.

Gameplay - Advanced Tips & Tricks

Uma Uma Uma

1. Never, ever, get surrounded; be it by humans, wolves, nekkers, underwater drowners … bad idea! Try to roll out of the way, and keep the whole group of enemies in front of you. That way you can hit more of them at the same time with a sign or a swing of your sword.

2. Basically the only monster you can "reposte" is the Grave Hag. You can cut off her tongue by parrying at the right time. That way she can’t poison you anymore. But it’s harder than reposting against humans. You can also reposte on small flying enemies about to dive on you: use their sound cue (a high-pitched scream) to time the parry right.

3. Using the Aard sign on burning opponents makes the fire go out. This is useful when fighting enemies such as fire elementals, otherwise let 'em burn.

4. Using any sign whilst riding Roach will automatically activate Axii in order to calm down the horse if he gets scared.

5. Striking opponents affected by the Axii sign makes them come back to the fight. Use it to momentarily stun enemies so you can focus on killing their buddies first. However there is a small chance that hitting an enemy affected by Axii will result in an insta kill. The same applies to enemies burning with Igni, if you hit them the fire will go out. If you have a magic build it will deal a lot more damage to just let them burn.

6. Use dodge more than roll. Rolling is good when fighting monsters or to get away if you are surrounded, but you also end up far away from the action and you are gonna have to run back into melee distance and probably miss a few swings and get hit a few times before you are back in range. Geralt is somewhat akward to manouver when you are trying to change direction in a fight.

7. Use strong attacks against armored enemies, and light attack against swift ones.

8. Attacking from behind and getting hit from behind deals more damage.

9. On controller change equipped sign by using the arrows (the buttons for sheating your swords) whilst parrying. That way you wont have to bring up the option wheel. On M&K it's the mouse wheel.

10. You can make human opponents drop their shield if you hit them repeatedly and lower their stamina.

11. Use Aard to disperse toxic gas clouds. Igni will make them explode, dealing damage and dispersing them for longer.

12. Use Axii on enemy horses to make them throw off their rider. Also it calms down kicking horses.

13. You CAN fast travel to ports directly from sitting in a boat, just open the map and select the destination port. You can also fast travel if you reach the end of the world.

14. Legendary gear is randomized and you often get doubles. Sell the early ones you find. Also, sell your useless stuff anytime you see a merchant. Geralt cannot carry much weight, especially early on, and stuff like junk and runestones end up taking a lot of space. Otherwise, dismantle useless legendary gear for rare components.

15. You can dodge underneath big monsters.

16. You can pause cutscenes if you minimize the screen with Alt+TAB. The cutscene won’t progress till you get back.

17. You can eat food and drink something at the same time to double the healing effect. It doesn’t work if you eat two of the same thing, has to be a food and a drink.

18. Meditate after every fight to replenish potions and oils. I always forget.

Other random Tips & Tricks

1. You CAN steal stuff in front of the guards: just quickly run/roll away after the crime to get some distance in between. Only guards close-by will get triggered, but they will forget about it and stop chasing you once you manage to get their red dot out of view on the minimap.

2. Don’t get beat up by guards, they won’t kill you but will steal most of your money.

3. If you use Axii on animals (cats, deers...) they will start following Geralt around. I don’t know what the practical use of this can be. Maybe if you are hunting game to grind meat and pelts it makes it easier to get close.

Death March Tips & Tricks

Lambert, Lambert, what a prick

1. On Broken Bones/Death March difficulty: Explore ALL of White Orchard before going on to Velen. Also, there are 5 places of power set in a circle around the map. If you ride with your horse from one to the next one in a circle you can unlock the achievement that requires to have all different sign bonuses active at the same time. Plus, you get 5 extra ability points early on.

2. If you are loosing health from negative effects (bleeding, poison, burning…) use the Quen sign to immediately remove the effect.

3. Most useful tip: if you are running and your stamina is about to be depleted, you can jump and roll (by pressing the jump button again just before you hit the floor – gotta time it right) and your stamina will replenish before Geralt is done rolling so you can basically carry on running without ever having to stop for breath.

4. You deal more damage if you hit enemies in the head with the crossbow, instead of using auto-aim.

5. Don’t underestimate the Yrden sign. Besides being practically compulsory when fighting Wraiths, you can use it with any other opponent and you can unlock some pretty sweet skills with it later on.

6. Use the Aard sign, or the crossbow auto aim, to bring down flying enemies. Then try to lure them near an Yrden trap to get them repeatedly stunned and unable to fly away.

7. Get the witcher gear as soon as you gain an acceptable level for tackling those treasure hunt quests. Even if you are a few levels under the required one, it pays off to have witcher gear early on. Especially on Broken Bones/Death March difficulty. Use Cat gear and sign-alchemy build for basically never have to wait to recharge stamina for a sign since early-mid game.

8. There IS a shortcut if you are in a hurry to get from the top of Crow’s Perch to the signpost at the end of the bridge: With the manor behind you, cross the courtyard and run to the right of the gate, up the stairs, jump over some crates, jump down some rooftops and you’ll be right at the bridge. (This has since been patched by the Next-Gen update. We finally have a fast travel point atop Crow's Perch.)

9. Try to not let your level get too high for a quest. You will loose a lot of XP for taking on quests when your level has got too high. Always try to do quests in order of the level they require. I usually do all treasure hunts first, then secondary and contracts, then main quests because the main ones still give you more XP even if your level is too high. Secondary ones will give you like 1xp which is literally a no-reward. The only exception I make is for witcher gear quests which I try and do as soon as possible.

10. Also remember that enemies don’t scale with your level, but loot does. So you don’t get better equipment for completing a high level quest at a low level. If anything you miss the chance of getting better gear in the future.

11. Drowners are more powerful at night and if it’s raining. Werewolves are more powerful at night and are extremely powerful on a full moon. Noon-wraiths during the day, Night-wraiths at night…. So on…

12. It is often cheaper to craft crafting components than to buy them from merchants. For example when you are missing something whilst building a new armor, instead of buying the material directly from the crafting menu (often you have that option), check if you have all the necessary to craft it first.

13. The Killer Whale potion makes you hold your breath underwater for longer, but you have to drink it beforehand. Doesn't work if you drink it when already underwater.

14. The White Raffard decoction is better than Swallow, but has less uses.

15. You can add the clues found with your witcher senses to the minimap from the option menu. This will easily let you find and examine a lot of extra clues you might have missed.

16. You don’t need to dive underwater to collect smuggler’s chests. Just swim near the barrels on the surface and the “loot” prompt will appear.

17. [Courtesy of u/Tankninja1 from reddit] If you attack the inside "armpit" region of large winged creatures, such as Griffins, Cockatrices, or Basilisks, all they can do is push you back without dealing damage. You just have to get behind the wing and attack the side of the body.

18. The Yrden sign in alternative mode, besides stun-locking slow moving enemies, can intercept projectiles such as arrows, knock flyers down, interrupt enemy actions and still do damage.

SPOILER Tips & Tricks

You can’t save the world silly, after all you are but a witcher.

1. [Minor Spoiler] Complete the Keira Metz quest line as soon as you can. She will give you two items necessary to uncover secret quests and get access to secret places.

2. [Minor Spoiler] Peasants hide their cash in trees. Tree trunks and tree stumps around the woods and fields often can be looted for a few crowns, orens or florens, but they don’t get highlighted if you use your witcher senses so you have to get close until the “loot” prompt appears.

3. [Minor Spoiler] It’s important to examine all clues when tracking monsters on a contract or investigating. Otherwise Geralt might come to the wrong conclusion and prepare inapropriately for the fight, by crafting the wrong oil for example.

4. [Minor Spoiler] You can save Triss’s friend Moritz if you happen to bump into him being burned at the stake outside one of Novigrad’s gates. You have to blow out the flames with Aard and then fight the guards. This doesn’t come up on the minimap as a random encounter marked with (!), so it’s easily missable.

5. [Minor Spoiler] If you don’t do the job you don’t get paid. So sometimes it’s worth lying to people and say you did the job.

6. [Minor Spoiler] You can find a Cyclop before Skellige, in Velen, in case you need his loot/ingredients, he’s guarding a marked treasure (?) bottom right of the map.

7. [Minor Spoiler] Beware of cheating. Sometimes you’ll find yourself challenged to duels or having to do something by the book like a commoner (like chasing some pigs). Using witcher magic in these situations is often considered cheating and you will miss on good rewards or fail the quest altogether.

8. [Minor Spoiler] People lie to you a lot in the harsh world of the Witcher. Don’t trust anyone and, especially, don’t trust the dialogue option that seems the most reasonable. Morality plays a big part in the game and, either way, you won’t be able to satisfy all sides. Pick one. Someone usually dies. You can also lie to people yourself, but do it carefully and always with some sort of “proof” to back up your claim, or they will call your bluff.

9. You can skip the Gwent tutorial with the academian man at the inn. You will be able to collect his card by looting his dead body under the hanged man tree in Velen.

10. You can recover the 2000 crowns you spend for the crossing to Skellige by looting the Captain’s corpse behind the shipwreck after the storm.

11. The only item in the game you could miss forever (that is worth something) and you can never backtrack to to reacquire is the Silver Vyper Sword.

The Venomous Silver Sword can only be found during the final main quest of the expansion, "Whatsoever a Man Soweth'' - to find it, the player must choose to help Olgierd von Everec. Then once inside the riddle, follow the central path under the archway then head to the left at the fork. Move up the path towards the red glow and defeat the Spectre who appears, then climb onto the ruined stairs to collect the sword from the stone. The other items from this witcher set can be acquired in previous quests of the expansion, but this is the only one that is easily missable, forever.

12. Another unique, forever missable item is the ''Wanna be as fast as the wind'' saddle reward from Gunther O'Dimm, if you side with him at the end of Heart of Stone dlc. This is by far the best reward out of the four: 100 stamina saddle and unique dark spectral look for Roach.


Place of power, gotta be...

[WiseMonster]

Yeah true @Kiper I got it in my 3rd tip with the first bits of gear you should be looking for in White Orchard!

[Kiper]

1st tip, find snake's blade in the start location