Character Development

A Witcher possesses a wide variety of skills needed to survive the tasks their profession demands of them. In Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, you have the chance to customize Geralt the way you want, and maximize his effectiveness based around how you want to tackle the challenges you face.

Properly managing and accessing every aspect of the knowledge Geralt gains as he progresses through the adventure is the key to unlocking the very best from him.

Experience And Leveling

Geralt earns experience by slaying foes, completing quests, accomplishing special tasks, or by making certain conversational choices. Additionally, visiting Points of Interest on your map and resolving the tasks that await you there, can earn you additional experience. If you want to level up quickly, jump at the chance to take on any tasks presented to Geralt, regardless of their level of importance. Quests with a suggested level that is five or more levels lower than Geralt’s level receive an experience reward penalty, so if you want to maximize the awards you earn from a quest, make sure you attempt it when you are close to its recommended level.

After earning enough experience, Geralt gains a level, which gives him stat increases, and one ability point (also known sometimes as a skill point) that he can spend in one of the Ability Branches. The obvious benefit to gaining levels is the boost in strength and survivability, allowing Geralt to take on increasingly tougher opponents and quests. The other major benefit is that many pieces of equipment require you to be a certain level before you can use them.

Experience gained from fighting changes depending on the level of the foe relative to Geralt’s. If the foe’s level is white, you gain reduced experience, as they are significantly weaker than Geralt. Green level indicators mean the enemy is close to Geralt’s level, and you gain the standard amount of experience. A red level foe is much tougher than Geralt, but defeating them provides increased experience. If their level is indicated by a skull rather than a number, you gain much more experience if you can win. However, you are more likely to earn a swift death should you try.

Levels And Experience Chart

The following chart shows you the experience requirements from level 1 to level 100.

Ability Points And Trees: Maximizing The Mutant

For every level Geralt earns, one ability point is awarded, which can be invested in any Ability Branch you please. Initially only the first tier of any given Ability Branch is available, but as you invest more into each Ability Branch, you can unlock tiers of abilities deeper within each branch. You can earn 99 total ability points just by leveling.

You can earn extra skill points by drawing them from Places of Power hidden throughout the world. However, even if you find every Place of Power, and achieve maximum level, you cannot max every skill in the game. Because of the limited total number of ability points, it helps to consider in advance the sort of Witcher you want to play. There are a total of 30 Places of Power in the world (and therefore additional Ability points to gain by visiting all of them). Their locations are described in our Atlas.

The Character Menu: Ability Trees And Ability Grouping

This shows the Character Menu Panel, where all allotted abilities are both purchased and slotted into play. Note that when you begin your adventure, you have access to all the “base” levels in all the Ability Groups, but no ability that costs points yet. Note that this picture shows a Character Menu Panel with Abilities mainly from the Combat Branch already purchased, and 12 Abilities with Mutagens already chosen. The Menu is divided as follows:

Ability Tree: Five Branches are available (and the Combat Branch is currently shown):

Combat Branch (20 Abilities, 91 Points in Branch): Five Ability Groups are available:

Fast Attack (4 Abilities, 20 Points): Perform fast melee attacks with either sword: Abilities related to your Fast Attacks (with swords and fists).

Strong Attack (4 Abilities, 20 Points): Allows you to perform strong melee attacks which ignore enemy armor: Abilities related to your Strong Attack (with swords and fists).

Defense (4 Abilities, 13 Points): Wolf School defensive techniques: Allows you to bolster your defensive combat capabilities.

Marksmanship (4 Abilities, 18 Points): Allows you to wield a light hand-held crossbow: Enables you to add more potent methods of using this weapon.

Battle Trance (4 Abilities, 20 Points): Blows landed during combat generate Adrenaline Points. Each Adrenaline Point increases weapon damage by 10%: This allows more numerous and hard-hitting weapon combat.

Signs Branch (20 Abilities, 79 Points in Branch): Five Ability Groups are available:

Aard Sign (4 Abilities, 16 Points): A directed blast of telekinetic energy that staggers opponents, leaving them open for a subsequent attack.

Igni Sign (4 Abilities, 18 Points): A directed fiery blast that damages enemies. Damage scales with Sign intensity.

Yrden Sign (4 Abilities, 15 Points): Magic trap that slows enemies who enter its area of effect.

Quen Sign (4 Abilities, 16 Points): Protective shield that lasts until it has absorbed damage totaling 4% of maximum Vitality.

Axii Sign (4 Abilities, 14 Points): Charms an opponent’s mind, temporarily eliminating him from combat.

Alchemy Branch (20 Abilities, 90 Points in Branch): Five Ability Groups are available:

Brewing (4 Abilities, 18 Points): Enables the brewing and drinking of Witcher potions.

Oil Preparation (4 Abilities, 18 Points): Enables the creation of oils that can be applied to swords.

Bomb Creation (4 Abilities, 18 Points): Enables the creation of handheld bombs that can be thrown at enemies.

Mutation (4 Abilities, 18 Points): Enables the extraction of mutagens from the corpses of powerful monsters. Witchers use these to grant their bodies new abilities.

Trial of the Grasses (4 Abilities, 18 Points): Mutation that lets Witchers withstand the toxicity of potions that would kill normal people.

General Branch (20 Abilities, 20 Points in Branch): This is a series of 20 one-point Abilities that aren’t related to one another, except that they are all contained here. These run the gamut from Vitality and Stamina regeneration to increasing your carry weight.

Mutagens: These are all the Mutagens (Lesser, Regular, and Greater) that you have collected, of all three colors (Red for Combat, Blue for Signs, and Green for Alchemy); up to

four are inserted into the Mutagen Slots.

Ability Branch (Combat Branch Shown): This is where each individual Ability from a particular branch is unlocked, and placed in an Ability Slot.

Ability Slots: This is where an Ability you wish to use is placed. There are 12 available slots initially, arranged into groups of three. You are encouraged to place abilities of the same type (and color) together. When you unlock the full power of your Mutation Menu, you can unlock a further four Ability Slots for a total of 16 Abilities you can use simultaneously. This example is from a Combat-heavy archetype.

Mutagen Slots: This is where a Mutagen you wish to link to a Ability Slot is placed. There are four available slots, each related to a group of three Abilities. Linking these allows for additional bonuses for each linked ability, so you are encouraged to link groups as soon as you can. Mutagen Slots are eventually replaced by a brand new Ability Slot (an additional one for each of the four groups).

Mutation Menu (shown in the “off” setting):By research that involves using up “Points” usually spent on Abilities, and a number of Greater Mutagens, you can mutate Geralt until he is able to add an additional four Ability Slots. These are shown locked.

Abilities, Ability Slots, And Ability Groups

Abilities can be learned by investing ability points into them, but this is not enough. You must activate the ability by placing it in an Ability Slot on the character screen for it to have any effect. Ability Slots unlock as you level, and by Level 30 Geralt can have up to 12 abilities active. At the start of the game, there is one slot unlocked. Reaching level 2 unlocks the second slot.

Abilities are organized into four branches: Combat, Signs, Alchemy, and General. These Ability Groups are color coded red, blue, green, and yellow respectively. The color coding of the first three groups becomes more important over the course of the adventure (as placing these groups together grants you additional bonuses).

Mutagens And Mutagen Slots

On the Character Menu, Ability Slots are organized in groups of three, and they are grouped with a Mutagen Slot. Mutagen Slots are where you can place mutagens dropped by slain monsters. There are generic, lesser mutagens, and then there are those won through defeating particularly vicious monsters that have been assigned Witcher contracts. They can also be crafted. Mutagens have special properties that, when placed into Mutagen Slots, grant bonuses to Geralt.

You begin the game with no Mutagen Slots unlocked. However, by level 28, you unlock the fourth and final slot. There are three colors of mutagen: red, blue, or green, coinciding with the Combat, Signs, and Alchemy ability groups.

If you have activated abilities that match the color of the mutagen in-slot, the bonus of that mutagen is increased. You can use this in many ways depending on how you’ve built Geralt. For example, if you have focused on his Combat abilities, activating 12 combat abilities with four red mutagens makes his sword strikes utterly devastating. The ultimate Witcher warrior is one that has researched all Mutations, and increased the combat abilities total from 12 to 16!