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The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt > Guides > Takashi's Guides
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Things I Wish I Knew Earlier In The Witcher 3 (Tips & Tricks)
By Takashi
In this list you'll find tips on combat, crafting, alchemy, character development and more. If you have any additional tip please leave the comment below.
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Created by
Takashi
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Category: Achievements, Characters, Classes, Co-op, Crafting, Game Modes, Gameplay Basics, Loot, Maps or Levels, Modding or Configuration, Multiplayer, Secrets, Story or Lore, Trading, Walkthroughs, Weapons, Workshop
Languages: English
Posted
Updated
5 Jan, 2022 @ 10:10pm
11 Jan, 2022 @ 8:37pm
11,529 Unique Visitors
331 Current Favorites
Guide Index
Overview
General Tips 
Story Tips 
Healing Tips 
Combat Tips 
How To Make Money 
Character Development Tips 
Travel Advice 
My Other Witcher 3 Guides 
Comments
General Tips
  • You can change the difficulty settings anytime – even during combat.
  • Loot everything. You’ll need even the most useless-seeming stuff for alchemy and crafting.
  • Don’t sell your starting armor. There is a way to turn them into better versions via crafting system.
  • Using the witcher senses will show you everything you can pick up in the vicinity.
  • You can craft armor at the blacksmith/armorer. The level of mastery he possesses will define which armors he can craft.
  • Weapons can be upgraded with runes, while armor is improved with glyphs. If you choose to dismantle item you will get some materials and rune / glyph out of your gear, and if you choose “remove upgrade” option you will destroy rune / glyph and keep the item.
  • Alcohol is important – you can use it to recharge potions after you’ve used them.
  • When you drink a lot of potions, keep an eye of your Toxicity. If the bar is full, you’ll start losing health.
  • Make sure you always have a monster trophy equipped. They provide valuable bonuses at no cost.
  • You can eat food to heal yourself. It's not as powerful as the potions, but it’s free and there’s lots of it.
  • Some monsters only come out during the day, some during night time.
  • When you pass near a point of interest, it will be marked on your map.
  • Don't ignore quests or leave them for later – tackling the main story might trigger their disappearance.
  • Visiting notice boards in towns will reveal nearby points of interest.
  • Some objects can be destroyed with the Aard sign.
  • Memorize the controls. The game will constantly remind you of them, but that won't do you any good in a tight spot.
  • If you get caught while breaking the law, the guards will attack you, and they’re not ones to mess with. They’ll beat you up and take half of your money.
  • Meditating will heal your wounds and replenish your potions, but it can’t be done in a bind. Meditating on the highest difficulty won't fill up your health bar though only foods and potions
  • You can repair your items by visiting a blacksmith, or if you have repair tools, which you can purchase form some merchants.
  • Nekkers drops mutagens in white orchard. Its the only mob that I have encountered that drops it so early on before velen.
  • Right before looting chests that reward you with relic weapon, save the game. The relic weapon item level will be different, you can load up several times to get highest item level.
  • To mitigate a large chunk of your fall damage spam jump as you're about to hit the ground - you'll forward roll and take very little damage
  • If you are sprinting on foot; jump as your stamina nears zero. You will recharge stamina in mid air. Efficient running.
Story Tips
  • Listen to the dialogue carefully.
  • Be mindful that your choices will often have consequences beyond the quest you're doing.
  • Using the Axii sign on people will yield results, but it won’t make you any friends.
  • Yellow dialogue options are the one that will advance the conversation – they can be mutually exclusive. Gray ones are just there for gathering information. Those colored in dark gray are the ones you’ve already chosen.
  • There is sometimes a timer ticking down, rushing you to make a choice. Try to keep calm during these moments.
  • Not everything is what it seems. Get used to the idea that people will lie to you.
  • Romance is a big part of the game. Having sex with one character may change the way another treats you.
Healing Tips
  • Best healing method: Drink a swallow and immediately eat some food. The potion speeds up the healing process of food which adds vitality. You can eat 3 quick food items (5 sec) throughout swallows burn Time.
  • While meditating, your potions will fill up if you have alcohol in the inventory.
Combat Tips
  • Even if you don’t want to invest skill points into signs, use them whenever you can. A little fire damage is better than no fire damage.
  • You'll do more damage while on a horse, but you need to keep an eye on its fear level.
  • Oils and bombs are great, even if you aren’t upgrading your alchemy skills.
  • Check opponents’ weaknesses in the bestiary. No matter what approach you choose, there will be at least one you can use.
  • Try not to get surrounded or flanked.
  • Keep moving all the time.
  • Remember to dodge, but don’t be timid – the game rewards aggressive play with adrenaline, which increases damage.
  • Watch the durability of your gear. Worn down armor provides little protection, and dull blades don’t cut very well.
  • The crossbow can be used to ground flying enemies, but also to pick ground enemies from a distance. It has a much lower damage output than the swords, but it’s safer. You can also craft a variety of bolts for it – exploding, bleeding, tracking, knock-down.
  • Use the environment whenever possible – the gasses in the swamp are highly flammable, for instance.
  • Holding down attack on horseback while looking at an enemy you're attacking will make the camera in slow motion, allowing you to hit your target easier.
  • You can Axii your horse to reduce its fear level.
  • The crossbow one shot kills under water, but it doesn't kill all creatures.
  • When fighting enemies on horseback, use Axii on the horse and it'll throw the rider off. When he's on the ground, you can instantly kill him with one attack.
  • How to Use Ciri's Blink Skill: hold the "Cast Sign" button (Default is Q Key on PC) to launch a surprise attack on up to five enemies. (Thanks aCidVicious)
How To Make Money
  • Doing secondary quests is a good way to get cash.
  • Witcher contracts usually have a reward tied to them.
  • Selling items you don’t use won’t make you a millionaire, but it adds up over time.
  • Diving and sailing is a great way to discover Smuggler’s Caches, which contain treasures that can be sold, or money.
  • Guarded treasures come with monsters attached. They’re worth the effort, though. The special items found inside can be sold for decent amounts of money.
  • There are multiple currencies in The Witcher 3, but merchants only accept Crowns. You’ll have to trade the Orens and Florins you collect at Vivaldi’s Bank in Novigrad – it’s the building with the coin hanging above the door.
  • Sell weapons and armour to weaponsmiths / armoursmiths, and the rest to merchants (they buy items at different rates).
Character Development Tips
  • Visit as many places of power as you can – each of them will give you one ability point.
  • Try not to invest only in one skill group – diversity is good, more abilities means more tools at your disposal.
  • One the other hand, one group will have to be your main group – there are only so many skill points to invest.
  • Always try to pair mutagens with active skills, grouping them by color.
  • Switch mutagens and active skills depending on the situation.
  • General skills have greater benefits, but do not scale with mutagens.
  • If you have a small number of active slots, it’s better to upgrade a skill you’re already using than to unlock a new one.
  • If you see a merchant selling a Potion of Clearance, buy it. It’s uses to reallocate misspent skill points
.
Travel Advice
  • You can fast-travel to any signpost you’ve already visited, but the scenic route holds surprises and treasures.
  • Do not pinch pennies on horse equipment – you need a fast and reliable mount.
  • Sirens and other sea creatures can damage and sink your boat.
  • If you make the horse gallop, it will follow the road automatically.
  • You can mark quests in your journal, and the game will show you a quest marker and the quickest way to get there.
  • If your not near a sign post to fast travel but near the edge of the map, keeping walking in the direction when Geralt says the map is ending and it will bring the map up and let you fast travel without needing a signpost.
  • To avoid randomly falling off ledges and taking the massive fall damage this game hands out, travel by horseback while exploring, it will stop at ledges, but still allows you to choose to jump, you will also take less fall damage from certain jumps
  • When you are riding Roach, your horse, on a road, it will not deplete stamina, even if you are galloping.
  • You know how you can hold down the sprint button while on horseback to make it follow a path automatically? Well, it will also make it replenish its stamina. Inmensely useful in horse races as you will be able to sprint full speed while gaining stamina back.
  • While auto-galloping along a road, if you come to a fork, you can use your mouse to choose which fork to take by shifting the mouse left/right.
  • You can fast travel from any boat just sit in the boat like you're going to sail it. Open your world map, click one of the anchor icons that indicate a harbor. (thanks aCidVicious)

16 Comments
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monster slaying 30 Mar, 2022 @ 5:03pm 
@Takashi, A bit off topic but do you recommend using mods for the game or should I play it first with no mods? I saw some mods that make characters similar to the Netflix series.
Takashi  [author] 28 Mar, 2022 @ 9:26pm 
@vargofcreyden, The plot of the first two games is only marginally relevant. The plot of the books is very relevant if you care about having an in-depth understanding of every single thing; if you don't care, then you're good to go because the game itself will give you enough info to have a general grasp of things.
monster slaying 28 Mar, 2022 @ 2:02pm 
Thank you so much for the helpful tips, just downloaded the game the other day and I am about to play it for the first time.

I was wondering if you recommend playing the other Witcher games first?

I beat the first one, second one I am stuck on with the stupid Kayran.
d3d4ss 16 Feb, 2022 @ 1:11pm 
romance sucks dick
Supremacy 9 Jan, 2022 @ 4:43pm 
Only until like 20 hours in did I realized potions were unlimited if you just meditate. The early game was harder for me.
Victor Hendricks 8 Jan, 2022 @ 1:29pm 
Early game, if you manage to find a place of power, use the skill point it gives you and invest in the food perk in the general tab
Gives the usual 5 second burst of food a buff into TWENTY MINUTES
At such early levels it basically makes swallow useless until you finish the bloody baron's quest line
Takashi  [author] 8 Jan, 2022 @ 2:18am 
@War Crimes, that would have been very interesting.
Swaghetti&Memeballs 8 Jan, 2022 @ 12:59am 
@Takashi I actually consider it a missed opportunity that gourmet (Which is a blood and wine skill)
doesn't get any particular buff from any of the MULTITUDES of wine and drinkable alcohols.
It woulda been amazingly beneficial for immersion if you could stack a food item with one certain type of wine to get different very minimal buffs, like say vitality, sign power, attack power, or adrenaline etc etc.
Woulda been awesome if the wine that Geralt gets named after him gives you different buffs based on what you name it.
White Wolf for +5% Stamina regen, Butcher of Blaviken for +5% Adrenaline gain, and Geralt of Rivia for +5% damage resistance.
aCidVicious 8 Jan, 2022 @ 12:27am 
Things I wish I had known before playing 50+ hours, because the game never really mentioned them...

You can fast travel from any boat.
Ciri actually has a badass special attack if you hold the button to trigger signs.
The rules to gwent (still no clue)
Takashi  [author] 7 Jan, 2022 @ 10:43pm 
@War Crimes, Yeah you're right, back in days you can actually stack them together but now they no longer stack, you can now only eat/drink one food/beverage at a time. Thanks for pointing out this. I'll emend it, anymore suggestions/corrections are much appreciated.