As the self-assigned resident Witcher 3 Ultimate Fanboy and Expert, I would like to share my tips and suggestions for anyone who will be replaying the game now that the next gen update is here.
The update is graphical stuff, a couple of QoL things, and a new little quest and gear.
I will not be replaying again for a while though- and that's just because I want to wait for a block of calendar time when I'm not traveling, busy with family stuff or whatever. Yes I already played this game 10x, I don't care, it's still the best. I have a PS5 which uniquely offers haptic feedback with the upgrade. PC has a bunch of extra graphical settings and of course lets you play with more mods (which I can also recommend).
This is for those who have already played the game and want to get remaining achievements, find some cool moments they may have missed, or have an easier time tacking the highest difficulty.
Cave of Dreams
My favorite missable quest is in Skellige. After you complete the first two main missions with the funeral, Crach an Crate tells you about the lighthouse contract, and that should be the first thing you do because if you complete it BEFORE either resolving the line of succession quest thread or coming back from finding Ciri, you get involved in a whole other subquest line that has you tripping out in a cave with ghost fish and whatnot and it's hella fun. As the new upgrade is primarily visual, you won't want to miss this especially if you got one of them fancy machines and/or screens.
Last Rites
My second favorite easily missed quest can/should be done only in the following conditions:
- Complete the side quest Defender of the Faith, where an old lady in Velen tasks you with fixing road-side statues
- Posess Keira's magic lamp
- At night
Go to the bridge north of Blackbough, another old lady will ask you for help. It's a very quick little thing but real neat.
There are tons of other missable side quests and interactions but these two are by far the most memorable to me and I don't want anyone to have multiple play-throughs and not experience these.
Side quest alternatives
Definitely try different outcomes to quests. My favorite side quest in the early game is the Fyke Isle stuff, and you have two ways to lift that curse. The "better" way has the single most striking visual in the whole game and you don't want to miss it. The other has its own cool visual references you can see if you pay attention to detail.
My favorite Skellige part on Undvyk offers multiple paths to find Hjalmar- definitely find his archer friend if you haven't.
Note that for Skellige's succession there are actually three possible outcomes, each of which are rewarding to see.
And when it comes to Triss/Yen "romance," if you haven't tried to two-time them yet, it's a laugh to do so.
Of course the main quest with Ciri has 3 outcomes and you should experience all three if you are doing a THIRD playthrough, yes even the "bad" one.
Novigrad
This is both the best and worst place part of replays. Worst because the main quest is just going around talking so you can just skip all the dialogue if you know it by heart like me. But it's such a dense area that you should really walk around on your own and listen carefully and explore.
If it's your 2nd play-through, pay close attention to the dialogue during Broken Flowers, as there are a large number of foreshadowing references to Dandelion's and Ciri's plots. So I stronly recommend on first playthrough just doing what you naturally do and enjoying the mystery; on 2nd play-through exhaust every dialogue to see how everything pieces together; then on repeated play-through just speed running those early Novigrad main quests.
There is the famous "fuck off" vampire quest if you're never done that. Then there is the drug dealer on the wharf area that is missable if you wait until after the main quest sections with Triss.
More interesting is how many references you can find to Carnal Sins, such as the pervert dwarf beling alive and random NPC's talking about bodies they find with missing hearts.
Death March
So if you want to survive the game's highest difficulty and are, like me, not the greatest at game combat, all you really gotta know is that the first few hours of the game is the hard part. The game's leveling system rewards story progress primarily not combat victories so mostly just focus on completing the Velen main quests before venturing off into exploration.
To survive early encounters, focus on not being surrounded. Dodging not rolling lets you conserve stamina and you can basically spam it. Start every match casting Quen and if you get hit, spam dodge around until stamina recovers and cast Quen again. Just use light attack when fighting crowds. When fighting humans, first take out archers, and save shield guys for last. Then you can use riposte/counter or Axii to take him out.
Once you get to level 12 or so and you're in Novigrad, you level up mostly through dialogue and the difficulty drops offs significantly- it's really no different than playing on one of the easier difficulties. So if you're looking to get platinum or that last achievement for Death March, it's not that hard, take it from a guy who plays every other game in easy mode. See next part for how to prep for Velen well.
Early game progress
Leveling is confusing for new players and those who come back after long absences, but just stick with the quests and don't think about it too much. The best way to start the game is:
White Orchard: do everything before leaving. There is no reason to come back to this area as it's a glorified tutorial. I would argue it's also just a lovely, fascinating experience on its own. Pay attention to the dialogue, in-game books and descriptions and you get a whole bunch of cool lore. There are three "event quests" (yellow ! on the map). I like clearing almost all of the ?'s before tackling major quests except for the two southern most ?'s, as those are near a main quest goal. You want to avoid triggering those early or you'll miss some XP and lore.
Clear the ?'s and !'s, the missing brother quest (an excellent first side quest as it has no recommended level requirement), do the witcher contract with the well. Make sure to find the diagrams for your first two witcher swords. You can craft the silver one- you can find one silver ingot near the contract well and dismantle your starting silver sword for another. You can also upgrade your starting chest armor. Also make sure to buy materials for and craft Cat potion from Temera (you can sell her honeycombs you burn and loot from trees). Very useful for Wandering in the Dark quest.
Skills, character build, equipment
There is no best build or best skills, and you can re-spec so I'm just gonna point out a couple things:
a- Yellow skills like Gourmet can't be upgraded or matched with mutagens for extra bonuses.
This is why I disagree that Gourmet is so great. There is plenty of food in the game, and skill slots are valuable. IMO the only worthwhile yellow skills are for specialized builds, and anyone doing those certainly doesn't need advice from me.
b- Careful with Alchemy
Some of the green skills effectively cancel each other out, so just read the descriptions carefully. In mid/late game, alchemy can be the most powerful and, IMO, fun. It just requires a tiny bit more thinking than combat and/or sign heavy builds.
c- Shiadhal Armor and Thyssen Armor
Level 22 and 30 chest armors you can find diagrams for and craft, respectively. The first makes you immune to fire, the second to poison. So much fun to throw the matching bomb into groups of enemies and god-mode your way to slaughter.
d- Recommended builds: Angry Drunk and Bombardier
If you're looking for a new fun wacky build for NG+ or late game, my favorite is to just maximize adrenaline (Bear stuff). Grow your beard out and drink all the beer you loot and murder everything in a drunken stupor. My second favorite is alchemy with emphasis on bombs. Combined with critical boosts (Cat stuff), it's very chaotic and wild.
For NG+ and DLC stuff, the runewright's upgrades are lame for the most part while the mutations on B&W vary wildly in effectiveness.
Economy
Sell weapons to blacksmiths, armor/clothes to armorers, extra alchemy items to herbalists. Unless they change something drastic with the new upgrade, this is how you make all the money you need for upgrades, crafting, repairs, clearance potions to respec, and even pay the runewright his extortionist fees if you so desire (though IMO, only his first upgrade is worth it).
Card Collecting
Gwent is its own whole... thing, so I just want to advise anyone interested in getting ALL the gwent cards for that last achievement. Go old school here and get a notebook and pen (or Notepad file or whatever) and keep track of everyone you play. Most people who try to do this and fail end up with like 1 or 2 missing cards and they don't know which of the ~150 gwent players to challenge. You get cards from beating a "random" player once and only once. Random players means innkeepers, blacksmiths, etc- unnamed NPCs. So as you go around playing the game and challenging everybody at gwent, keep a list of everyone you beat so you know you never have to play them again. If you lose, you can always come back.
There are missable gwent card and players and you can find guides for that, it's a whole thing.
I also want to highly recommend the mod Gwent Plus Plus for seasoned Gwent aficionados on PC.
Platinum trophy in one play-through
If you want to get all the trophies/achievements in your next playthrough:
- Follow the advice above for Death March and Card Collecting as these are the hardest parts
- Make sure you help all your allies, i.e., the Brothers in Arms quest lines. Keira's is the trickiest as you need to pick the correct dialogue options. Another tricky one is Roche and Vess because during their Eye For an Eye quest, you have to keep Vess alive, which is near impossible on Death March. The trick here is to just wait until you're over-leveled, then you can kill all the enemies in time. Skellige folks' quests and Zoltan are pretty straightforward.
- In the Heart of the Woods is a contract in Skellige where you have to decide whether or not to kill a leshen. There is a trophy awarded only for choosing to kill it, making it missable.
- There is a trophy for performing a counter, normal strike, sign, bomb in very quick succession. Do this to Vessemir in the tutorial because you're both immortal so you can just keep trying until you get it right. Do it in the order I list.
- There is a trophy for defeating two contract monsters with out any magic boosts. Save these for after the main quest so that you can lower the difficulty. Use the two high level main game contracts on the cave insect and griffin. Remember to unequip mutagens. Since both beasts use poison, you can use the Thyssen armor for immunity and since that is just armor, you can still earn the trophy.
- Save the grinding for after main game. Drop the difficulty to easiest and do the ones with the crossbow and all those B.S. ones. Devil's Pit was the place to grind before the new upgrade, not sure if that will change since that's also now where they're putting the new Netflix gear related quests.
Any questions about any of these I'd be happy to dig into more, like about Gwent or specific quests or gear. If someone is just doing a first-time play-through, forget all this and just play the game, you only get a first time once.
The update is graphical stuff, a couple of QoL things, and a new little quest and gear.
I will not be replaying again for a while though- and that's just because I want to wait for a block of calendar time when I'm not traveling, busy with family stuff or whatever. Yes I already played this game 10x, I don't care, it's still the best. I have a PS5 which uniquely offers haptic feedback with the upgrade. PC has a bunch of extra graphical settings and of course lets you play with more mods (which I can also recommend).
This is for those who have already played the game and want to get remaining achievements, find some cool moments they may have missed, or have an easier time tacking the highest difficulty.
Cave of Dreams
My favorite missable quest is in Skellige. After you complete the first two main missions with the funeral, Crach an Crate tells you about the lighthouse contract, and that should be the first thing you do because if you complete it BEFORE either resolving the line of succession quest thread or coming back from finding Ciri, you get involved in a whole other subquest line that has you tripping out in a cave with ghost fish and whatnot and it's hella fun. As the new upgrade is primarily visual, you won't want to miss this especially if you got one of them fancy machines and/or screens.
Last Rites
My second favorite easily missed quest can/should be done only in the following conditions:
- Complete the side quest Defender of the Faith, where an old lady in Velen tasks you with fixing road-side statues
- Posess Keira's magic lamp
- At night
Go to the bridge north of Blackbough, another old lady will ask you for help. It's a very quick little thing but real neat.
There are tons of other missable side quests and interactions but these two are by far the most memorable to me and I don't want anyone to have multiple play-throughs and not experience these.
Side quest alternatives
Definitely try different outcomes to quests. My favorite side quest in the early game is the Fyke Isle stuff, and you have two ways to lift that curse. The "better" way has the single most striking visual in the whole game and you don't want to miss it. The other has its own cool visual references you can see if you pay attention to detail.
My favorite Skellige part on Undvyk offers multiple paths to find Hjalmar- definitely find his archer friend if you haven't.
Note that for Skellige's succession there are actually three possible outcomes, each of which are rewarding to see.
And when it comes to Triss/Yen "romance," if you haven't tried to two-time them yet, it's a laugh to do so.
Of course the main quest with Ciri has 3 outcomes and you should experience all three if you are doing a THIRD playthrough, yes even the "bad" one.
Novigrad
This is both the best and worst place part of replays. Worst because the main quest is just going around talking so you can just skip all the dialogue if you know it by heart like me. But it's such a dense area that you should really walk around on your own and listen carefully and explore.
If it's your 2nd play-through, pay close attention to the dialogue during Broken Flowers, as there are a large number of foreshadowing references to Dandelion's and Ciri's plots. So I stronly recommend on first playthrough just doing what you naturally do and enjoying the mystery; on 2nd play-through exhaust every dialogue to see how everything pieces together; then on repeated play-through just speed running those early Novigrad main quests.
There is the famous "fuck off" vampire quest if you're never done that. Then there is the drug dealer on the wharf area that is missable if you wait until after the main quest sections with Triss.
More interesting is how many references you can find to Carnal Sins, such as the pervert dwarf beling alive and random NPC's talking about bodies they find with missing hearts.
Death March
So if you want to survive the game's highest difficulty and are, like me, not the greatest at game combat, all you really gotta know is that the first few hours of the game is the hard part. The game's leveling system rewards story progress primarily not combat victories so mostly just focus on completing the Velen main quests before venturing off into exploration.
To survive early encounters, focus on not being surrounded. Dodging not rolling lets you conserve stamina and you can basically spam it. Start every match casting Quen and if you get hit, spam dodge around until stamina recovers and cast Quen again. Just use light attack when fighting crowds. When fighting humans, first take out archers, and save shield guys for last. Then you can use riposte/counter or Axii to take him out.
Once you get to level 12 or so and you're in Novigrad, you level up mostly through dialogue and the difficulty drops offs significantly- it's really no different than playing on one of the easier difficulties. So if you're looking to get platinum or that last achievement for Death March, it's not that hard, take it from a guy who plays every other game in easy mode. See next part for how to prep for Velen well.
Early game progress
Leveling is confusing for new players and those who come back after long absences, but just stick with the quests and don't think about it too much. The best way to start the game is:
White Orchard: do everything before leaving. There is no reason to come back to this area as it's a glorified tutorial. I would argue it's also just a lovely, fascinating experience on its own. Pay attention to the dialogue, in-game books and descriptions and you get a whole bunch of cool lore. There are three "event quests" (yellow ! on the map). I like clearing almost all of the ?'s before tackling major quests except for the two southern most ?'s, as those are near a main quest goal. You want to avoid triggering those early or you'll miss some XP and lore.
Clear the ?'s and !'s, the missing brother quest (an excellent first side quest as it has no recommended level requirement), do the witcher contract with the well. Make sure to find the diagrams for your first two witcher swords. You can craft the silver one- you can find one silver ingot near the contract well and dismantle your starting silver sword for another. You can also upgrade your starting chest armor. Also make sure to buy materials for and craft Cat potion from Temera (you can sell her honeycombs you burn and loot from trees). Very useful for Wandering in the Dark quest.
Skills, character build, equipment
There is no best build or best skills, and you can re-spec so I'm just gonna point out a couple things:
a- Yellow skills like Gourmet can't be upgraded or matched with mutagens for extra bonuses.
This is why I disagree that Gourmet is so great. There is plenty of food in the game, and skill slots are valuable. IMO the only worthwhile yellow skills are for specialized builds, and anyone doing those certainly doesn't need advice from me.
b- Careful with Alchemy
Some of the green skills effectively cancel each other out, so just read the descriptions carefully. In mid/late game, alchemy can be the most powerful and, IMO, fun. It just requires a tiny bit more thinking than combat and/or sign heavy builds.
c- Shiadhal Armor and Thyssen Armor
Level 22 and 30 chest armors you can find diagrams for and craft, respectively. The first makes you immune to fire, the second to poison. So much fun to throw the matching bomb into groups of enemies and god-mode your way to slaughter.
d- Recommended builds: Angry Drunk and Bombardier
If you're looking for a new fun wacky build for NG+ or late game, my favorite is to just maximize adrenaline (Bear stuff). Grow your beard out and drink all the beer you loot and murder everything in a drunken stupor. My second favorite is alchemy with emphasis on bombs. Combined with critical boosts (Cat stuff), it's very chaotic and wild.
For NG+ and DLC stuff, the runewright's upgrades are lame for the most part while the mutations on B&W vary wildly in effectiveness.
Economy
Sell weapons to blacksmiths, armor/clothes to armorers, extra alchemy items to herbalists. Unless they change something drastic with the new upgrade, this is how you make all the money you need for upgrades, crafting, repairs, clearance potions to respec, and even pay the runewright his extortionist fees if you so desire (though IMO, only his first upgrade is worth it).
Card Collecting
Gwent is its own whole... thing, so I just want to advise anyone interested in getting ALL the gwent cards for that last achievement. Go old school here and get a notebook and pen (or Notepad file or whatever) and keep track of everyone you play. Most people who try to do this and fail end up with like 1 or 2 missing cards and they don't know which of the ~150 gwent players to challenge. You get cards from beating a "random" player once and only once. Random players means innkeepers, blacksmiths, etc- unnamed NPCs. So as you go around playing the game and challenging everybody at gwent, keep a list of everyone you beat so you know you never have to play them again. If you lose, you can always come back.
There are missable gwent card and players and you can find guides for that, it's a whole thing.
I also want to highly recommend the mod Gwent Plus Plus for seasoned Gwent aficionados on PC.
Platinum trophy in one play-through
If you want to get all the trophies/achievements in your next playthrough:
- Follow the advice above for Death March and Card Collecting as these are the hardest parts
- Make sure you help all your allies, i.e., the Brothers in Arms quest lines. Keira's is the trickiest as you need to pick the correct dialogue options. Another tricky one is Roche and Vess because during their Eye For an Eye quest, you have to keep Vess alive, which is near impossible on Death March. The trick here is to just wait until you're over-leveled, then you can kill all the enemies in time. Skellige folks' quests and Zoltan are pretty straightforward.
- In the Heart of the Woods is a contract in Skellige where you have to decide whether or not to kill a leshen. There is a trophy awarded only for choosing to kill it, making it missable.
- There is a trophy for performing a counter, normal strike, sign, bomb in very quick succession. Do this to Vessemir in the tutorial because you're both immortal so you can just keep trying until you get it right. Do it in the order I list.
- There is a trophy for defeating two contract monsters with out any magic boosts. Save these for after the main quest so that you can lower the difficulty. Use the two high level main game contracts on the cave insect and griffin. Remember to unequip mutagens. Since both beasts use poison, you can use the Thyssen armor for immunity and since that is just armor, you can still earn the trophy.
- Save the grinding for after main game. Drop the difficulty to easiest and do the ones with the crossbow and all those B.S. ones. Devil's Pit was the place to grind before the new upgrade, not sure if that will change since that's also now where they're putting the new Netflix gear related quests.
Any questions about any of these I'd be happy to dig into more, like about Gwent or specific quests or gear. If someone is just doing a first-time play-through, forget all this and just play the game, you only get a first time once.
