So I just read this book on history of games called “Blood, Sweat and Pixels” and was fascinated by the chapter on The Witcher 3 and mostly how the team put in so much thought and care in every single side quest. And seems that there are a lot of moral decision to be made on each adventure. So I finally decided to give it a try. Got any advice for me?
Okay as little Gwent as possible. Otherwise you will get hooked on it until you burn out and stop playing the game entirely because you’ve forgotten all the storyline and mechanics.
Ignore the advice you saw in this thread, except for the one about trying the DLCs, and enjoy the game however you wanna play it. Romance both options if you want, be a terrible dad if you’re so inclined, etc. Have fun, it’s your first playthrough so enjoy it unspoiled ane cherish it, you will love it and go for a 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and maybe even more runs and you can minmax things later on in these runs.
The only thing I’d say you shouldn’t do is skip the dialogue and cutscenes, and sidequests. This game has a very well-crafted story (which is the main attraction) and that goes also for the sidequests so enjoy them fully.
Don’t repeatedly kill the cows in the first village so that you can sell their drops for coins. You can do it once… maybe twice…
Quen and side step a lot during combat. Focus on getting sets of armor and weapons because they are better than whatever weird ass stuff you throw together from loot. So that means you’ll have to visit armorers a lot. Do not ignore Gwent. It can be fun. Pick one girl and do not romance them both. Make sure you make Ciri as happy as possible. A lot of quests are about choosing the lesser evil. So basically you’re setup to make a bad choice no matter what. Which makes it interesting honestly. This game is really interesting and rich in story. Explore everything. Have fun.
Good thing to remember about builds. Geralt is a sword fighter first and a magic user 18th. Be good at slicey.
Don’t romance them both.
Keep Quen up, roll about, hit stuff.
There’s a couple of enemies where this doesn’t work, but it should get you through the trickier combat sections.
Don’t forget the DLC, and for all the praise Blood and Wine got because of it’s size, don’t sleep on Hearts of Stone - it’s the most memorable part of the game for me.
In the first region in the midst of the first small village two neighbors are arguing. They are not giving a quest, they just talk to each other and listening gives such an insight in how war can turn people against each other that have been living peacfully and been friends for years.
Do the side quests and take your time with the dialogue. Some of these stories are impactful, mostly sad and worth your time. If you are told that you should talk to people to find out more about your contract, do it. Some of these quests can be done with only talking to one person but you want to get the information from everyone and especially their side of the story.
Do not look up the outcome of decisions. Make your decisions and live with them at least at your first playthrough. Most decisions have impact and seeing the outcome unfold makes this game special and yes often there is no “good choice” - that’s war for you.
Last: Buy every Gwent card you can get your hands on and play with everyone you can. If you can’t win just come back later with better cards and obliterate them - it will feel goooood!
The DLC’s are a must.
Try out difficulty settings - there is a sweet spot for most people somewhere but what it will be for you no one can know, but it would be a shame if you play through the game not having found the difficulty that fits you best because you “always play on <insert difficulty>”.
Have fun, I wish I could play this game for the first time again.
As for mods:
The Witcher 3 HD Reworked Project Arguably one of the best reworks ever.
They just drive home the “cold wilderness” vibe.
Then Better Combat Enhanced Because that’s one of the main critque points of this game.
And some more
And for DLC, i was especially impressed with “Blood and Wine” sidequests.
About helping sane monsters
There will be a point where your actions will be judged.
Would you recommend playing without mods first?
I would say it’s entirely up to you. Though, experience with games like Gothic 3 (don’t even start without the Community Patch and a visual glitch fix dor trees and the sea) led me to mod first, personally. If you dig a bit deeper, there are LOD fixes (buildings from distance) for Whiterun, for example. Btw, the bumpmapping shader of reshade works especially nice for Witcher 3’ roads.
ABC:
Always
Be
Cfancying a round of Gwent
Take your time with the combat tutorial - Understand the difference between a dodge roll, a sidestep, a parry and blocking.
Other than that, have fun!
And in general: Dodge monsters, parry humanoids. Many of the monsters have attacks that are too large or erratic to reliably parry, but you can abuse the hell out of the I-frames from dodging. But soldiers go down much faster when you parry them.
Put the baby in the oven
Just trust me on this bro
You’ll know when the time is right
I don’t trust you…
That’s a thing everyone needs to find out for themselves.
Play with a controller. Makes the slippery-ass controls feel way more natural.
If you do every sidequest you will be massively overleveled.
If you go to an area where “you are not supposed to go yet” you’ll be massively under leveled.
I’ve heard there are mods that just even everything out so you can play the game at your own pace.
they actually sorted that out pretty nicely with updates. the pace is quite even since they published the next-Gen rework. the problem with being under-leveled still persists though.
PLAY GWENT. The minigame became somewhat notorious because it’s really good - you can spend dozens of hours travelling the world and just playing cards.
I have done literally zero Gwent quests after the first match and even googled one time how to remove quests because they were annoying in the journal (you can’t)
I mean do you really have to suggest him that? He’s gonna get hooked like we all did
In any case W3 gwent is actually kinda crap in terms of balance but that just means you can own them super hard at some point
Yooo, Triple Triad anyone?
I didn’t finish the game because I am still playing gwent haha it’s that good. I would look up which cards you can only get from quests because you can’t get them afterwards. Just look up a mapping for quests to cards (no spoilers of course). I am on mobile and can’t find one currently
I’ve literally got a save file prepped where I rushed getting to B&W before doing literally anything else so I can play the whole games’s Gwent with the Skellige deck when I decide to play it again. You don’t get enough time with it and it’s such a fun deck!
Is it common for people to save scum or is that blasphemy?
I only save scummed the Gwent tournament as it’s a one-shot type deal. The rest of the game there was no need as it autosaves frequently and there is basically no consequences to losing a game of Gwent to a rando
It’s your game you do as you please. I would definitely save scum
If I have played someone a bunch or am on a quest then definitely. Otherwise I try to keep it like live cards. Remember you can always cheat IRL too! It’s up to you if/when/where
