So you finally picked up The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, or the free Remastered update dragged you back in. Either way, welcome to the Continent. It is a big, muddy, beautiful place, and it does not hold your hand for long. This guide covers what we wish someone had told us before our first playthrough, plus the things that work differently in the Remastered edition.
No major story spoilers below. We will name a few early quests and places, but nothing you won’t run into in the first hours anyway.
Before you start: pick a difficulty you’ll enjoy
The game has four difficulty levels: Just the Story, Story and Sword, Blood and Broken Bones! and Death March! If you have never played an action RPG before, Story and Sword is a comfortable start. If you want the fights to matter, and to actually use potions and oils, go for Blood and Broken Bones!
Don’t stress over it. You can change the difficulty at any time from the options menu, so if a boss keeps flattening you, nobody will know.
Remastered also adds Bard’s Ballad, an accessibility preset designed to reduce how much you have to keep track of at once. It boosts Vitality regeneration, gives you unlimited breath underwater and unbreakable gear, speeds up boats, ignores item weight and lets you toggle Witcher Senses instead of holding a button. It is there for players who need it, and there is no shame in using it.
What’s different in Remastered
If you played the original, a few things will feel new right away:
- A rebuilt skill tree. Skills now sit in a real tree with three ranks each. Instead of pouring a set number of points into a branch to unlock the next tier, you unlock new skills by owning the skills that lead to them. Many bonuses and synergies were rebalanced and some skills were renamed.
- Old saves get a skill reset. Load an old save and your skill points are handed back to you, so you can rebuild Geralt for the new tree.
- Reforging (transmog). Master craftsmen Éibhear Hattori in Novigrad and Yoana in Toussaint can change how a weapon or armor piece looks without touching its stats. Keep the stats of your best gear and the looks of the Griffin set, if that is your thing.
- Easier riding. Galloping is now a simple button press instead of a held one, there is a sensitivity slider for Roach, and you can loot without climbing out of the saddle.
- A cleaner map and HUD. Switching the tracked quest is easier, untracked quests get their own marker, and the minimap can hide herbs, boats and corpses. Loot windows group items, and tooltips show you what an item is before you pick it up.
- Meditation as a timelapse. Instead of a menu screen, time now visibly passes around Geralt while he meditates.
- Smarter enemies. Common enemies have better attack patterns, counterattacks and movement, so fights can play out differently from what you remember.
The rest of this guide applies to both versions unless we say otherwise.
1. Steel for humans, silver for monsters
Geralt carries two swords, and it matters which one you draw. The steel sword is for people and ordinary animals. The silver sword is for monsters: drowners, ghouls, noonwraiths and everything else that goes bump in the night. The game will usually draw the right one for you, but it helps to check before a big fight.
2. Learn Quen before anything else
There are five witcher Signs, and every one has its uses, but Quen is the one that keeps new players alive. It wraps Geralt in a shield that soaks up a hit. Cast it before a fight, cast it again when it breaks, and you’ll survive far more mistakes. Igni sets things on fire, Aard knocks enemies down, Yrden traps and slows (and is brutal against wraiths), and Axii confuses enemies and opens a few extra dialogue options.
3. Dodge more, swing less
The Witcher 3 is not a button masher. Enemies punish you for greedy combos, especially on the harder settings. Hit two or three times, then dodge or roll away. Use the short dodge for most attacks and save the roll for big sweeping ones. Against groups, keep moving so you don’t get surrounded, and don’t be ashamed to back off and cast Quen again.
4. Read the bestiary and use oils
Every monster has a weakness: a Sign, a bomb, a potion or a specific blade oil. Open the bestiary from the menu before a contract and check what works. Apply the matching oil to your silver sword and the fight gets a lot shorter. Reading books you find or buy can also unlock bestiary entries, so they’re worth picking up.
5. Potions refill when you meditate
Here’s the trick that confuses almost every new player: you only need to craft a potion or bomb once. After that, meditating refills it for free, as long as you carry a strong alcohol such as White Gull or dwarven spirit. Buy a few bottles whenever you see them. It’s the cheapest upgrade in the game.
Watch your toxicity bar, though. Every potion adds toxicity, and if you go over the limit you start losing Vitality. Decoctions are the strongest and the most toxic. Want to see what you can brew with what you have? Try our Alchemy Workshop: toss ingredients into the cauldron and it shows every recipe you can make.
6. Use your Witcher Senses constantly
Witcher Senses highlight footprints, blood, scents and loot in red and yellow. Many quests are built around following clues with them. If you’re stuck on a quest, the answer is almost always “use your Witcher Senses and look around.” In Remastered you can set them to toggle instead of hold, which saves your thumb a lot of work.
7. The crossbow is for flying things
It feels weak at first, but the crossbow has one great job: knocking flying monsters out of the air. A single bolt can bring a harpy or a griffin down to your level, where your sword can reach it. You’ll want to remember this during The Beast of White Orchard. It also works underwater, where your swords are useless against drowners.
8. Check the quest level before you commit
Every quest has a suggested level. If the enemies are much stronger than you, they get a red skull, and they’ll hit very hard. If a quest is far below your level, it gives very little XP. The sweet spot is doing quests close to your level, so it pays to do side quests and contracts as you go instead of saving them all for later.
9. Witcher contracts pay the bills
Check notice boards in every village. They list witcher contracts, which are monster hunts with good rewards and some of the best side stories in the game. The first one you’re likely to find is Contract: Devil by the Well in White Orchard, which introduces you to noonwraiths and how to fight them.
When you agree the fee, you can haggle. Push the price up a little, but watch the patience bar. Push too far and the client walks away from the negotiation.
10. Don’t rush out of White Orchard
White Orchard is the tutorial area, but it’s a proper region with its own quests, contracts and treasure. Once you leave, you won’t be back for a long time. Take your time there, pick up the side quests and get used to the combat before you ride out.
11. The main story branches early
After White Orchard you go to Vizima for Imperial Audience, and then the world opens up. You can chase leads in Velen, Novigrad and the Skellige Isles in any order you like. Many players start with Velen and the Family Matters questline, which is one of the best stretches in the whole game.
Just be aware that some side quests close for good once the main story moves past a certain point. The build-up to The Battle of Kaer Morhen is a common cut-off. If a side quest involves a character you care about, do it before you push the main story forward.
12. Weight, loot and money
Geralt can only carry so much. Better saddlebags for Roach raise the limit. Different merchants pay different prices for different items, so don’t dump everything on the first one you meet. Keep an eye out for repair kits, or visit a blacksmith or armorer, because broken gear loses a lot of its power.
13. Play Gwent, even if you don’t care about cards
Gwent is the card game everyone in the Continent seems to play. Innkeepers and merchants sell cards, and beating certain characters wins you unique cards. It’s optional, but it’s also a lot of fun, and some players end up enjoying it more than the monster hunting. You have been warned.
14. Places of Power are worth a detour
Glowing stone circles called Places of Power are scattered around the map. Using one for the first time gives you a boost to a Sign and, in the original game, a free ability point. The skill tree was rebuilt for Remastered, so we’ll confirm how these fit the new system. They’re still worth the detour.
15. Save often and manually
The game autosaves, but not always at the moment you’d like. Make a manual save before big decisions and before tough fights. Some choices have consequences that only show up many hours later, and you may want to go back.
When should you play the expansions?
Both expansions are now included for every owner. Hearts of Stone is designed for level 30 and up, and Blood and Wine for level 34 and up. The usual order is the main story, then Hearts of Stone, then Blood and Wine, which works as Geralt’s farewell tour. If you just want to see Toussaint now, Blood and Wine can also start a new game with a ready-made high-level Geralt.
A third paid expansion, Songs of the Past, is due in 2027.
Do I need to play the first two games or read the books?
No. The Witcher 3 explains what you need to know, and plenty of players start here. You’ll get more out of the story if you know the characters, though. Our pages on Geralt, Ciri, Yennefer, Triss and Vesemir are a good crash course. If you want the full story, our Witcher books reading guide shows you where to start.
Where to go next
Once you’re on the road, our databases have you covered: the quest database for walkthrough info, the bestiary for monster weaknesses, and the locations section for every village, cave and castle worth knowing. Once you’ve seen the credits roll, our Witcher 3 endings guide (spoilers, obviously) explains how every choice played out. Good hunting.
