Witcher Training with Guide Author David Hodgson

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, with its large world map and complex storyline, is the kind of game that you can replay many times for a totally new experience. Guide author David Hodgson has explored it all in order to help you get started, allocate your resources, and find the quests you’re looking for. Whether you are brand new to The Witcher 3 or returning for a new adventure, these author tips will help you get the most out of your game!

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A THOROUGH INSPECTION

Starting the adventure for the first time? Then explore all of White Orchard before moving on to Velen and Novigrad, and complete all the associated quests there; learning how to craft, upgrade your gear, slay Contract monsters, and find Places of Power.

MEET YOUR MERCHANTS

Know which merchants are going to buy items at better prices depending on your location. Learn which items fetch better prices in different areas; and finish quests to acquire merchant bonuses; that way your money goes a lot further.

PLACES OF POWER

Places of Power grant you an ability point, which are otherwise only acquired when you level up. Remember a few Places of Power only appear during quests and can’t be revisited, and there are two items (an acorn and a golden goose egg) that also grant you an ability point. The guide shows you which quests to undertake to ensure you gather every single point you need. Don’t forget you can drink a Potion of Clearance if your Abilities aren’t to your liking, and start over again.

SKILLS BEFORE KILLS

Know your Abilities: The Character section of your menu allows you to improve a multitude of skills, from the three main ability branches – Combat, Signs, and Alchemy – along with General skills as well. Add Mutagens to stack more bonuses, and know which abilities work well with others. The Training section of this guide has a host of tactics and recommended abilities you must try out!

STATISTICAL PROWESS

Need to kill foes with swords? Or signs? Or bombs that set your targets ablaze? Want to collect all the best equipment, partnering it with the best abilities, so you can wade into combat confident that every battle won’t be your last? Then learn how to group statistical data (such as your DPS, defenses, and magic potency) so it stacks. The guide has Character Archetypes with DPS ratings of almost 3000, Vitality of over 10,000, and Sign Intensity of over 260%!

A GREAT GWENT DECK

Gwent is a great way to make money over and over again. The Gwent chapter not only reveals how to pair card types with others to ensure victory every time, but details the exact location of every single Gwent card from all five decks! Don’t have time to collect all the cards? Then get a good start by visiting all the Innkeeps throughout Toussaint; they have a good selection of random cards from the first four decks to buy, quickly bolstering your Gwent decks.

GEARING UP

The Witcher gear is the best armor you can find and have crafted. Naturally, the guide shows you where every diagram is, including the Grand Master gear only available in Toussaint! Make sure you pair an outfit with appropriate abilities to further augment your defenses, and swordplay when you find diagrams for your witcher swords.

ROOM TO RELAX

Need to decorate your Toussaint winery with a variety of paintings and shields? The guide lists all the best accoutrements, along with where to find them. Let’s just say a merchant emporium in Toussaint has the best art for your walls. Then make sure you cultivate your gardens to grow plants you can turn into paint for your armor, as well as ingredients for making mutagens; all needed when you unlock the fabled Mutations menu tree!

BLADE METAL AND METTLE

Need help fighting anything from a simple Drowner to a lumbering giant, to a higher vampire named Dettlaff? Then the completely revamped guide Bestiary is your answer; it provides some battle-tested tactics (Quen, Black Blood, and fast dodging helps during the initial stages of combat with Dettlaff), as well as vulnerabilities for every entity you encounter.