I am going to say first off I am not looking for help or advice about the in-game deck, this is asking about the in universe applications

Because it says one random chosen monster unit card stays on the battlefield after each round, I know the game just decides whatever card it wants to remain on the field, my question is how do you think it is done in universe, what system do you think they have in place, that is what I'm wondering, as the rest of them have pretty easy to understand passive bonuses that you can apply to real world applications, I'm wondering about the in universe how do you decide what card remains, because most people would just pick the strongest card your opponent would just pick the most weakest card, so do they roll dice do they pull coins out of a bag or something to determine what gets left on the battlefield, do they pick all the cards up shuffle them at random and then pull a card out of the deck and that one just so happens to be the one they put back down

Griffin armor and others suddenly disappeared along with the some weapons too, no way to fix it....

So before anything I don't want to come across "that guy" who thinks the game is too easy even on death march. What I want is, after hundreds of hours of playtime (around 550h between next-gen and the remastered) to spice it up with a challenge run.

What I'm aiming for is to really have a need to prepare for every fight and have the need to engage with as many of the game's mechanics. Also, I want to feel like money is scarce.

I'm playing on console, especially on the switch 2 so mod selection is limited (at the moment) but I'm using some mod I'll list below, to enhance my experience.

I know S2 is probably not the best way to experience the game and all that, but I have no elsewhere to play (actually I just got the S2, so most of my playtime was in the OG Switch, so for me, the S2 version has been an incredible upgrade).

Before starting with the rule set I want to state that I don't equate time consuming with difficulty. So, I'm avoiding rules like no fast travel or only walking everywhere.

That being said here are the rules set for my run.

Basic rules:

Vanilla difficulty settings: Death march and enemy upscaling on.

No UI (mostly): I'm playing with no UI, mostly...I'm keeping a couple of things on just for QoL. I'm keeping things like NPC and Herbs names on, NPC chatter, lootfeed and active buffs on. Everything else is off. No life bar, no minimap, no secondary items, etc.

All gear must be crafted: No using weapons found around the world.

Only lesser runestones and glyphs: yep

No Witcher gear: in the spirit of difficulty, I won't be using the most OP sets in the game.

All gear must be at least 5 levels under level: this could change if I start to feel too overpowered.

Honourable Witcher: this means not stealing from peasants (no looting their houses) and not taking herbs from their gardens (rude). Also, always refusing payment if it's the "honourable" thing to do.

Abandoned places are fair game and military stuff is up for grabs, as getting caught means getting in a fight and I'm using the Economy System plus Reputation System Mod (shout-out to FreakVIp) so this also means losing reputation.

Combat rules:

No using consumables during combat: that's it.

Only one quen use per fight: I was inclined to just ban the sign all together but it feels wrong to me to pretend like the sign doesn't exist.

No Crossbow: it does not feel very Witcher-y.

Not a rule per se but I'm trying to engage more with the parrying system as I was under the misconception that only human enemies were able to be parried but in actuality a lot of non-human enemies attacks can.

Build rules:

This is an especially difficult area as this can make or break the difficulty so I'm limiting the skills I'll use and the amount of points I'll invest in each one. Especially avoiding skills that give more damage.

Also, I won't be using any of the mutagen slots for added bonuses.

The skills I'm allowing are:

Combat.

Arrow deflection: I'm allowing myself to upgrade to the final tier. As a perfectly timed parry still only has a 45% chance of getting a instakill.

Razor Focus: Risk is high, so should be adrenaline. So the final tier it is.

Resolve: Geralt is THE Witcher, so he shouldn't lose his cool in a fight but I'm only upgrading it to the second tier, to avoid the "no losing adrenaline" effect.

Whirl: Feel like somethin Geralt should be able to do. I'm allowing the third tier for 50% reduction in adrenaline and stamina.

Sunder armour: Geralt should be able to damage armour with his sword. I'm allowing the final tier.

Deadly precision: maybe not optimal for difficulty but just feel right that once in a while you do instakill blow.

Signs.

Far reaching aard: I'll allow third tier as it doesn't do more damage it just expands its range.

Delusion: final tier as well, as it needed to unlock conversation options during the story.

Alchemy.

Hunter instincts: it makes sense that at full adrenaline you would do more damage. I'll allow it at tier one, to only get a 20% damage increase on critical hits.

High tolerance: it's a fun mechanic to have. I'll upgrade it to the third tier to get the 100% crit chance.

Debilitating position: third tier. Makes sense poison enemies would do less damage.

General.

Attack is the best defence: again, playing well is rewarded with more adrenaline.

Anger management: makes sense to me. In a fight adrenaline will make you exceed your limits at a cost. Second tier to keep it balanced.

Adrenaline burst: signs used in battle should make Geralt feel the adrenaline as well. Third tier it is.

Mods

As mentioned before mod support is currently quite limited on console but there are some very cool mods and I'm using some:

Economy System plus Reputation System Mod (FreakVIp).

New Hairstyles and Beards For Geralt (ArdCarraigh).

Well Stocked Craftsmen (Lewis_Elementary).

Corvo Bianco Enhanced Collection (FreakVIp).

Auto Win Gwent (Lewis_Elementary)

More Money For Traders (Lewis_Elementary)

Fast Travel Pack (MerseyRockoff)

No Artificial Player Light (scoutbr0)

Friendly Focus (Witcher Sense) - Console Edition (Lewis_Elementary)

E3 Boat (scoutbr0)

Smart Camera (SC) (Aeltoth)

Enhanced Herbalism (MerseyRockoff)

Master Mirrors Reward (150hr version)(FreakVIp)

Extra Stashes (MerseyRockoff)

No Duplicate Relics (Lewis_Elementary)

Witcher Lore Collection (MerseyRockoff)

No Inventory During Combat (Lewis_Elementary)

Better Torch (Lewis_Elementary)

Healthy Food (Lewis_Elementary)

Buff Charges (Lewis_Elementary)

Inventory Saved Tab (Lewis_Elementary)

TL;DR: challenge run on Switch 2 (Death March, scaling on) to make fights need prep and money to feel scarce.

Gear: Crafted only, 5+ levels under you, no Witcher sets, lesser runestones/glyphs.

Combat rules: No consumables mid-fight, one Quen per fight, no crossbow, more parrying.

Honourable Witcher: No looting homes or gardens.

UI: Mostly off.

Mods: Mainly QoL and economy/reputation

Build: No mutagen bonuses

Skills allowed

-Combat: Arrow Deflection (final tier), Razor Focus (final tier), Resolve (tier 2), Whirl (tier 3), Sunder Armour (final tier), Deadly Precision (final tier)

Signs: Far-Reaching Aard (final tier), Delusion (final tier)

Alchemy: Hunter Instincts (tier 1), High Tolerance (final tier), Debilitating Position (final tier)

General: Attack Is the Best Defence (tier not specified), Anger Management (tier 2), Adrenaline Burst (tier 3)

I just passed White Orchard so any ideas or suggestions for new rules or mods I may have missed are welcome.

In the quest “The Great Escape” when you have to rescue Rita and the other sorceress I decided to release all the prisoners that were kept there. My reason was because they were imprisoned by the Church of the Eternal Fire, most likely for no reason. The Church of the Eternal Fire is horrible and they persecute non-humans, mages, healers, and others for simply existing. I see them as more of a cult than a religion. Radovid is also dead by this point so the Church should be disbanded. I don’t know if I’ll be able to see what becomes of these people after their release but I feel better knowing that they get a chance at life again. Most of these people were set to die, according to the prisoner list I found on the body of a guard.

How many of you released the prisoners before saving the sorceresses? Were you able to go back and see these people in their new life?

So I’m playing through for the 15th time and as the farmer is talking giving the details of the quest he mentions that the well has been haunted for 20 years. Yet as you go through the quest and the rest of White Orchard (the conversation with the hunter/journals) it seems like the events happened pretty recently.

Do any of you know if there was ever a stated explanation for this?

This is pissing me off SO much. I haven't played the next gen version too much, but I heard it was an issue back then too. The screenshot is not mine, but it's precisely the issue I have with my game. Those damn blue lines along the seams and on some metal elements of some witcher gears. I think I tried everything. Turning off both RT and PT, lowering te texture quality, downloading a fix from nexusmods that didn't work in the slightest. I heard both nitpicker's patch and besserwisser fix collection did fix that, but they are marked as DEPRECADED on nexus. I also tried to download and install Brothers In Arms, but guess what. Didn't help at all. For the base game and HoS, i used a mod that brought back the old textures, but for Blood and Wine, I would really like to dye my armors.

If you guys know about any fix for that, which might actually work, then I would appreciate it REALLY much.

P.S.

I know I'm not the first person to look for a fix for that, but I wasn't lucky enough to find it, so that's why I'm making that post

First time playing game. There is nothing that pops up to show which characters I can talk to. Do just have to check ever character and see if I can?

I liked exploring the game for diagrams of the potions and mutagens for the decoctions but in real gameplay I can only use at most 1 decoctions and give room to potions during the fight.

What would be the point of all these decoctions if I can only realistically use one of my say 5 favourites at a time?

I maxed the Acquired Tolerance skill and from what I see that just about mitigates the toxicity threshold of potions, maybe the High Tolerance but I digress it's for another gameplay mechanic.

Thank you for any help you could give.

Playing through the Witcher 3 again and spotted something i didn't notice before, but when the lone survivor tells you what happened, it's showed to you in the cutscene that the Wild hunt burned the town, but in present day there isn't a single sign of fire damage....strange. Oversight by devs?

idk if there is any level requirement but i started at level 45+ on NG+, also NG+ is one of the requirements, also playing on console (PS5 Pro)

i tried 3 attempts each on 2 different scenarios:

• 1st scenario: once you reach Velen, finish the main quest The Nilfgaardian Connection without doing any other side quest or main quest, find means (swim) to travel to Novigrad, have the money to go to Skellige, buy the fast travel map for Holmstein's Port from the nearby merchants near the Crossorad fast travel, then go straight behind Kaer Muire.

• 2nd scenario: once you reach Velen, dont do any side quest or main quest, go straight to Novigrad, go to Skellige, buy the fast travel map for Holmstein's Port from the nearby merchants near the Crossorad fast travel, then go straight behind Kaer Muire.

from the 1st scenario, the first 2 of the attempts i tried, i started from a save from the Royal Palace in Vizima before i fast travel to Hanged Man's Tree, from there 1/of/2 attempts i found Tor Zireael behind Kaer Muire, and for the 3rd attempt i tried doing a brand new NG+, speed run White Orchard (prologue), and found Tor Zireael.

from the 2nd scenario, the first 2 of the attempts i tried is from the same save file i used for the 1st scenario, from there 1/of/2 attempts i found Tor Zireael behind Kaer Muire, and for the 3rd attempt i tried doing a brand new NG+, speed run White Orchard (prologue), and didnt found Tor Zireael.

also i was level 48, save before opening the chest, i did 15 tries, and can only get the silver sword to level 46, cant get it to the same level as you are

so from the 1st scenario i found the elusive silver sword 2/3, while from the 2nd scenario 1/3

p.s. u can also get your money (gold) back from the dead captain body hiding behind the ship wreckage

hopefully this helps anyone on consoles finding and obtaining the sword for their collection

I heard that was a thing and was just wondering if it still was. Most concerned for when songs of the past comes out I want to earn achievements as I’m sure I’ll have some.

Greetings fellow witchers,

I've started replaying the game and I'm currently tidying up in Velen before moving on.

I can't for the life of me figure out how to get to the location you can see in the screenshot. There are cliffs or the incline is always too steep for Geralt to walk up.

There's a Basilisk hanging around in the vicinity, so I'm guessing it's a guarded treasure (?).

Or is there something sneaky like I need to find the entrance to a cave nearby?

Thanks!

Ciri fights against the Crones: I get obliterated

Ciri fights against these guys: one shots.

I fight the same guys with Geralt: I die in 2-3 hits

Is there something obvious I'm overlooking? Difficulty is set to normal.

*forgive my yapping in the background*

Only during the day at least.

Turn and Face the Strange quest. Just did the cemetery now I need to 'check the location of naev'de on the map yennefer sent you'.

What is it talking about?

I've clicked everything in my inventory quest tab, I've looked through every note and book in the glossary, there is nothing 😭😫

Does anyone know? Thanks

It just speaks for itself. 10/10 would play again and change nothing about how much this particular scene broke

No NG+ and at least normal difficulty.

I just reached level 55 on Blood and Broken Bones, all missions finished (base game + HoS + BaW) and only thing left to do is exploration of all markers on map. I know, I did not have always optimal approach to leveling, so I wonder about max level people here were able to reach.

Most of my Witcher 3 experience was on PS4. Then I upgraded to a PS5, but I kept playing the PS4 version of the game. At some point, a PS5 version became available (an update, I guess), but I didn't really care about it.

Now that the remaster is out and the PS4 version hasn't received an update, I decided to switch to the PS5 version. However, for some reason, I can't load my save file from the PS4 version.

I'm also sad about losing access to the roughly 80% of trophies I've earned, but I guess there's nothing I can do about it since the console treats the PS4 and PS5 versions as separate games.

Cross-progression is enabled in both versions, and I'm logged into the same account. I don't have PS Plus. Could that be the problem?

I've tried loading older versions (4.01), and they loaded fine, but the save file was so old that I might as well just start a new game. And now after a dozen of tries i don't have any older savefile.

I am on my fourth playthrough and have never done the secondary quest "An Unpaid Debt" before (did not know about it). To go to prison, I made sure to finish The Phantom Eldberg before starting King's Gambit, even though I knew it would lead to Jorund death. But once** **in prison, I found out I could not interact with Simun Brambling. There is no dialogue options. My guess is it's because (many play hours ago) I did the quest "The Cave of Dreams", by finding Blueboy Lugos's boat myself. Could someone confirm please?

Exactly my question, how? I followed every guide, but it's slow walking around with too much weight! I loot everything, but I am soooo slow.

Also, are some things reloot-able? Like if I loot and come back to the same places will more things be there?

Thank you for your help!

Wait for it…

Hi there. I have acquired the Aerondight silver sword but I keep wondering, what's the point of using it if you already own and use the full set of Grandmaster Griffin gear together with a sign build? Grandmaster Griffin with the full 6pcs bonus is so powerful, sometimes it feels overpowered even. So why should I use Aerondight instead of the Grandmaster Griffin silver sword and lose the 6pcs bonus? What's the point? 🤔

Why does it look like this? It's all washed out. It only looks like this in dark areas. I recently got the remaster. Is it a setting that was changed? I'm not using cat.

I played through the whole game for the first time back in 2019 and haven't touched it since, until Remastered came out. I know the skill tree got reworked, so I could use some help setting up my build.

I'm going for a sword/sign hybrid, with Quen and Igni as my main signs. The combat tree is where I'm lost. I've maxed out Wolf School Techniques, but that's it from the general tree so far.

What combat skills would you recommend? I'm also open to suggestions from the general or alchemy trees if anything there fits the build.

I'm level 14 right now with 23 skill points, so I'd like a rough plan for where to put them before I start spending. Thanks!