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[BigWeather]

Best Buy had the complete edition for $25 ($20 with GCU) so I cancelled my long delayed Amazon order (was $30 at the time) and went and picked it up. Can't wait to dig in!

 

[Experimenter]

It is a mistake not to play Gwent. Gwent is amazing.

I would avoid dismantling until you need to dismantle for some of the Witcher sets.

Gwent is pretty fun at the beginning but if you do all of the quests it's awful. I just wanted every game to end already, especially when I tried to collect all cards and there weren't any quests so I had to search for every merchant who sells some cards.

 

[Wolf Akela]

I didn't care about Gwent, but I hated it ever since it gave me my first permanent failed quest.

 

[Screaming Meat]

I need Gwent tips. I always lose!

 

[PanicFreak]

Hey guys, I'm pretty close to the end of the main game and I'm wondering if I should complete the DLC first. Is there an end game?

 

[Lender]

Just finish the main game. Then start the dlc. Thats how I've done it.

 

[JustinBB7]

I need Gwent tips. I always lose!

Buy all cards you don't have from shopkeeps, and play every shopkeep you can. See if you can find decoy and scorch. Then keep decoying every spy. Card advantage = win.

Hey guys, I'm pretty close to the end of the main game and I'm wondering if I should complete the DLC first. Is there an end game?

Main game first, then Heart Of Stone, then finish every contract/side quest/treasure hunt you still have left at that point, then Blood & Wine. Blood & Wine is the perfect end to the whole trilogy so it's best to have it all wrapped up before you start it.

 

[PanicFreak]

Buy all cards you don't have from shopkeeps, and play every shopkeep you can. See if you can find decoy and scorch. Then keep decoying every spy. Card advantage = win.



Main game first, then Heart Of Stone, then finish every contract/side quest/treasure hunt you still have left at that point, then Blood & Wine. Blood & Wine is the perfect end to the whole trilogy so it's best to have it all wrapped up before you start it.

Thanks!

 

[Alpende]

I need Gwent tips. I always lose!

Northern Realms is the answer, it's probably still the strongest deck in the game. It's also useful to have 3 or so decoys in your deck and a lot of spies. Weather cards are pretty much useless so don't have them in your deck. I only used the Winter card when I'm going up against a guy with a Monster deck.

 

[Screaming Meat]

Northern Realms is the answer, it's probably still the strongest deck in the game. It's also useful to have 3 or so decoys in your deck and a lot of spies. Weather cards are pretty much useless so don't have them in your deck. I only used the Winter card when I'm going up against a guy with a Monster deck.

What do decoys and spies do exactly? Seems like I'm helping the enemy rather than overpowering them.

 

[Ruthless_Barbarian]

I need Gwent tips. I always lose!

What do decoys and spies do exactly? Seems like I'm helping the enemy rather than overpowering them.

Go with northern realms, it's the strongest deck in the game.

Ditch weather cards, they are mostly useless.

Limit your deck to 22 normal and 6-8 special cards so your RNG on drawing the best cards is higher. More cards in the playing deck = less chances of drawing stronger cards.

Decoys, spies and healers can change a loss to a win.

Play your spies in the first round and get as many extra cards as you can. If the AI plays their spies, use decoys to take them and play them as your own.

The best way (imo) is to let the AI use more cards than you in the first round and let the AI win the first round. Then you can proceed to win the second round, and by the final round, the AI will barely have any cards left and you'll score and easy win.

Healers are great for second and third rounds as they let you revive discarded or scorched cards.

Gwent is not hard at all. Players struggle initially because they don't have good cards. Keep on playing the vendors and buying/wining cards to make your deck stronger.

 

[Kwansu Dudes]

I need Gwent tips. I always lose!

Buy cards from every merchant/innkeep you can as it'll significantly boost your deck and make matches more fair.

I've just started Hearts of Stone and where is the best merchant to sell your stuff at now? Most of the threads I've come across are old/before Blood and Wine so I'm sure all of the good exploits have been patched already.

Equipment degradation seems to have also doubled now which I find incredibly annoying.

 

[WeTeHa]

...

Pretty much this. Villentretenmerth, scorch cards, spies, commanders horn, decoys, and healers...

the best unit cards are imo catapult x2, blue stripes commando x3 and the dragon hunter x3. They are ridiculously strong in combination with each other. Additionally I use a lot of siege units and foltest the siegemaster as my leader for a guaranteed commanders horn.

However, I would add that the frost weather card to weaken close combat units are very useful when fighting monster decks, especially when you don't have the best deck. Enemy plays all his close combat cards + doubles their strength? Frost card + villentretenmerth or scorch = instant win.

I beat every enemy quite easily with this deck, even in the beginning when I had no idea how to play gwent.

 

[eEK!]

Ditch weather cards, they are mostly useless

Weather is very useful against monsters, as it can weaken otherwise unbeatably large front rows or even protect your own cards against scorch (i.e. ice, then three special forces is below the scorch threshold, so you can play them let the computer pass, then use clear weather Foltest to increase back to 24 points).

 

[Ruthless_Barbarian]

Weather is very useful against monsters, as it can weaken otherwise unbeatably large front rows or even protect your own cards against scorch (i.e. ice, then three special forces is below the scorch threshold, so you can play them let the computer pass, then use clear weather Foltest to increase back to 24 points).

Frost is useful for starting decks but in my experience monster decks are the easiest to beat. I keep 3 scorch and 3 decoys in my NR deck and monster decks never stand a chance.

 

[Screaming Meat]

Go with northern realms, it's the strongest deck in the game.

Ditch weather cards, they are mostly useless.

Limit your deck to 22 normal and 6-8 special cards so your RNG on drawing the best cards is higher. More cards in the playing deck = less chances of drawing stronger cards.

Decoys, spies and healers can change a loss to a win.

Play your spies in the first round and get as many extra cards as you can. If the AI plays their spies, use decoys to take them and play them as your own.

The best way (imo) is to let the AI use more cards than you in the first round and let the AI win the first round. Then you can proceed to win the second round, and by the final round, the AI will barely have any cards left and you'll score and easy win.

Healers are great for second and third rounds as they let you revive discarded or scorched cards.

Gwent is not hard at all. Players struggle initially because they don't have good cards. Keep on playing the vendors and buying/wining cards to make your deck stronger.

Brilliant. Thank you (everyone else in this fine thread) for the tips.

 

[demosthenes]

1) Only sell items that have weight. Mainly enemy weapons, armor, and stuff like pelts, plates and things in the misc category. The rest (alchemy items, jewels, etc) is weightless and potentially useful later for crafting, so try to keep it. If you're in a bind you can sell an emerald, or a ruby or something or something for some spare gold, but try to keep all the crafting supplies at least until you know what you need. Also don't forget to visit the bank to convert your foreign coins - can really add up.

2) Dismantling is only useful if you have runestones equipped in a sword (destroys the sword but keeps the stones), or if you need a certain material and you can get it by dismantling. Dismantling can also make monster guts "generic" - i.e; dismantle a "drowner brain" into "monster brain" if you need one for a recipe. Can come in handy but no need to dismantle everything at all.

3) No, not really. You should be able to get decent items from quest and looting, until you find plans to craft the various Witcher armors and swords - those are generally the way to go. Plus the quests to find the plans are surprisingly cool and interesting.

4) The mind trick is a good one, yes. Sword builds are solid and fun - try to get whirl. It allows you to simply hold down the light attack button to do a nearly endless whirling onslaught. Also the skill that reduces damage from dodged attack by 100% is very good too.

5) Gwent is fun but 100% optional. Try it a couple times but it basically never comes into play in the main game. The tournament quests are cool though, but its mostly a self contained thing. You don't really miss much by not playing.

Thanks a bunch for these answers!

 

[Psychoward]

just finished hearts of stone

the fact that you can't

Spoiler

let olgierd die and then outsmart dimm afterwards

really grinds my gears

almost annoys me as much as (end game spoiler for the main story)

Spoiler

ciri ending up as a witcher and not the empress solely because I figured I could take her to see emhyr after defeating that wild one hunt boss yet the option never came

the game's major choices suffer from game logic/lack of realistic input

 

[Psychoward]

Damn why do trophies auto-equip, accidentally sold my best one.

 

[stn]

Blood & Wine crafting question...

Spoiler

Is there a point to getting the diagram for the grandmaster feline armor if I haven't gotten the base version already?

 

[endlessflood]

Brilliant. Thank you (everyone else in this fine thread) for the tips.

There's actually an OT for Gwent specifically in the Witcher 3:

http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=1049532

It hasn't been bumped in a while, but the OT covers the game beautifully, and there's lots of good in-depth strategy discussion in the thread itself.

For someone starting out, my personal advice is to stick with the Northern Realms deck (it's the one you develop first but it's also the strongest in the game IMHO), and once you get access to the leader card which allows you to cancel weather effects, take that and ditch all of your weather cards.

 

[TheSadRanger]

The emyr leader card that lets you draw a card from your enemies discard pile is OP af tho.

Use a spy, then next round use the leader power to get him back.

 

[Tenacious-D]

CDPR actually explained the significance of Yennifer through flashbacks in Witcher 2 and while you only saw her through memories they did lay the ground work. It makes me think you didn't play the previous Witcher games.

Ciri is even referenced in Witcher 1, and her abilities are very reminiscent of Alvin/Jaques De Aldersberg. I wouldn't blame you on missing out on the Ciri reference though because it was really more of a nod to book readers.

Ciri was very well portrayed, well acted and well written. I didn't care too much for the main story because I thought the Wild Hunt was underdeveloped but Ciri was a character that most people emphasized with, IMO.

The Bloody Baron is part of the main game. There are some offshooting side quests that fully explain his story but really I feel like you're missing the point of the game when you segment out side quests and main quests so rigidly because the game is designed in such a way that the side quests flow out of the main quests very organically. It is what makes the writing, acting, dialogue, everything is very consistently done at a very high level which you almost never see, particularly in games with the scope of Witcher 3.

I have to say, I agree with Psychoward's sentiment. I've played all the games from the beginning, and bought the English translations of the books as they were released as well.

CDPR's portrayal of a lot of the book characters in TW3 is underwhelming. Actually, the handling of the book subplots in general that are continued in TW3, are also some of the worst parts of the game. Mainly because they don't have a lot of screen-time, and the majority of the game is spent doing side quests for random NPC's. Just like with TW2, TW3's best moments are with new characters that CDPR has written themselves, like Bloody Baron, Olgierd or Gaunter O'Dimm. The relationship dynamic between Geralt, Yen and Ciri might as well be poor fan fiction. Yen is the constant third wheel, when in the books, she's arguably a better parent to Ciri than Geralt was. Ciri takes her surname in The Lady of the Lake, a fact which the game doesn't even mention. The only two scenes in the game where you see glimpses of what their relationship should be like, is during the

Spoiler

end of the game in Avallac'h's lab, and during the bit when Ciri returns to Kaer Morhen

.

Speaking of Avallac'h, the guy is a disgusting person in the books, but in the game he's a good guy and Ciri's best friend. What?

I really don't get why people like Ciri. CDPR can present great female characters when they want to, like Shani, who is one of the best written characters that I've even seen, in some of the best quests that I've played, but they came short with Ciri, Yen and Triss in TW3 IMO. Hell, Triss in TW2 is better written that her TW3 re-incarnation.

 

[TheSadRanger]

One thing I always wonder about in the main game after the skellige quests is....

endgame spoilers...

Spoiler

so after Ciri lands in Skellige she runs from the wild hunt, Avallach takes her away on a boat through a portal then reappears as Uma on the shore shortly later during the Skjalde flashback.... WTH happened in between, did I miss something?

 

[His Majesty]

just finished hearts of stone

the fact that you can't

Spoiler

let olgierd die and then outsmart dimm afterwards

really grinds my gears

almost annoys me as much as (end game spoiler for the main story)

Spoiler

ciri ending up as a witcher and not the empress solely because I figured I could take her to see emhyr after defeating that wild one hunt boss yet the option never came

the game's major choices suffer from game logic/lack of realistic input

Spoiler

The only reason why Geralt tries to outsmart O'Dimm is to save Olgierd. Letting Olgierd die and then challenging O'Dimm would make no sense imo.

 

[Psychoward]

Spoiler

The only reason why Geralt tries to outsmart O'Dimm is to save Olgierd. Letting Olgierd die and then challenging O'Dimm would make no sense imo.

Well the professor made it seem like

Spoiler

Geralt would only be able to remove his own brand by out smarting Dimm. I wasn't expecting him to just lift it and then be like "alright, nice working with ya, peace!"

Anyway started blood and wine, enjoying it but I'm completely stumped on Geralt's hairstyle. Ran the cover art style + beard for most of the main game but I kinda feel like switching it up.

I'd do elven rebel maybe but it clips through my Mastercrafted Feline armor.

 

[Twilight Princess]

I got the ps4 version at launch but didn't even get past the first area. Now I'm playing the goty version on PC. And OMG this is so much better than I remembered, it's either I had different expectations back then or 1080p+ultra+60fps are just far more enjoyable.
Just finished the bloody baron quest, onto the next and hopefully I will be able to see the lovely Yen soon.

 

[nightmare-slain]

I got the ps4 version at launch but didn't even get past the first area. Now I'm playing the goty version on PC. And OMG this is so much better than I remembered, it's either I had different expectations back then or 1080p+ultra+60fps are just far more enjoyable.
Just finished the bloody baron quest, onto the next and hopefully I will be able to see the lovely Yen soon.

It'll be a while before you see Yennefer again. I saw her about 10 hours in (before you get to Velen) and didn't see her again until about 70 hours in when you go to the area after Velen. Of course it depends how you play. You can go to Skellige much earlier.

She appears a few times at the beginning of the game and doesn't return until about the second half.

 

[Twilight Princess]

It'll be a while before you see Yennefer again. I saw her about 10 hours in (before you get to Velen) and didn't see her again until about 70 hours in when you go to the area after Velen. Of course it depends how you play. You can go to Skellige much earlier.

She appears a few times at the beginning of the game and doesn't return until about the second half.

Can I romance both Triss and Yen? Or only one of them?

 

[sackboy2197]

Can I romance both Triss and Yen? Or only one of them?

You can romance both, but you could regret it.

Spoiler

You will regret it.

 

[Twilight Princess]

You can romance both, but you could regret it.

Spoiler

You will regret it.

Jerry and I will pick Yen then.

 

[sackboy2197]

Jerry and I will pick Yen then.

You chose wisely.

 

[Kwansu Dudes]

I really hope they implement significantly better options for inventory management in Cyberpunk 2077 or get rid of 90% of the junk. Managing all this stuff is a pain especially with the sloooooooooooow stash and doing everything one-by-one. I don't think I've played a RPG that handles this well and it's one of my biggest pet peeves in modern RPGs.

I will also say Blood and Wine had a better opening/hook than Hearts of Stone.

 

[Psychoward]

I really hope they implement significantly better options for inventory management in Cyberpunk 2077 or get rid of 90% of the junk. Managing all this stuff is a pain especially with the sloooooooooooow stash and doing everything one-by-one. I don't think I've played a RPG that handles this well and it's one of my biggest pet peeves in modern RPGs.

I will also say Blood and Wine had a better opening/hook than Hearts of Stone.

Yeah, I'm eternally grateful that crafting materials have 0 weight though. I managed to get 130 inventory space so managing my inventory isn't really crucial, I just sell weapons, armor and "other" I'm not gonna use every time I'm in town. It's more annoying how slow and laggy the menus are.

 

[RyanardoDaVinci]

Can you not start NG+ from a NG+ save?

I've completed everything in the main game + both DLCs on NG+ and when I try to start another NG+ from that save it gives me the "finish the story" or whatever message.

I read around and saw that you have to start from a fresh save file instead of an overwritten one, but I did that as well and I still get the message.

???

Anyone?

 

[endlessflood]

Anyone?

I'm pretty sure there's only NG and NG+. This ain't a From game

 

[king picollo]

Blood and wine spoiler

Spoiler

Did the Duchess die for anyone else? Not complaining it was an interesting ending but wonder if there is a way of saving her or is it predetermined?

Thanks.

 

[sackboy2197]

Blood and wine spoiler

Spoiler

Did the Duchess die for anyone else? Not complaining it was an interesting ending but wonder if there is a way of saving her or is it predetermined?

Thanks.

Spoiler

Yes, you can save her. Iirc it depends mostly on your choices when talking to Syanna right before the end.

 

[king picollo]

Spoiler

Yes, you can save her. Iirc it depends mostly on your choices when talking to Syanna right before the end.

Thanks.

 

[Kaffeemann]

So I started a new game with Ghost Mode.

Honestly, at this point I consider it an essential mod, so no PC gamer should play without it. It just fixes so much broken, underpowered and overpowered stuff, it's not even funny.
It balances all skills and descriptions, weapons, armors, enemy stats, economy, experience etc. etc.

Seriously, check it out, you will not regret it. Given it's quality it should have 100 times the downloads.

 

[Twilight Princess]

Tbh the main quests not involving yen seem like filler to me (except for bloody baron), especially the novigrad ones.

 

[Artdayne]

So I started a new game with Ghost Mode.

Honestly, at this point I consider it an essential mod, so no PC gamer should play without it. It just fixes so much broken, underpowered and overpowered stuff, it's not even funny.
It balances all skills and descriptions, weapons, armors, enemy stats, economy, experience etc. etc.

Seriously, check it out, you will not regret it. Given it's quality it should have 100 times the downloads.

I just looked over the description and that mod sounds quite good. Thanks for bringing this up, I'll have to try it out sometime soon.

 

[Tenacious-D]

Tbh the main quests not involving yen seem like filler to me (except for bloody baron), especially the novigrad ones.

I think the Novigrad areas suffer the most from all the cuts that they made to that section. It really does feel like filler, you're running around in circles for so much of it. Most of the important NPC's get very little screen time, and what screen time they do have isn't that great. The area is amazingly detailed, but the content is lacking.

IMO, they should have delayed the game instead of cutting out the Scoia'tael chunk of the plot, which took a bunch of stuff away from Novigrad. I haven't seen much other mention of this, but it would have also been interesting to see how they handled the quest that would have involved Geralt infiltrating a paedophile ring. Guess it cut a bit too close to the bone.

IMO, the ranking of the areas in TW3:
Redania - Hearts of Stone
Toussaint - Blood & Wine
Velen
Skellige
Kaer Morhen
------------

Spoiler

Gaunter O'Dimm's version of Hell

Novigrad

So I started a new game with Ghost Mode.

Honestly, at this point I consider it an essential mod, so no PC gamer should play without it. It just fixes so much broken, underpowered and overpowered stuff, it's not even funny.
It balances all skills and descriptions, weapons, armors, enemy stats, economy, experience etc. etc.

Seriously, check it out, you will not regret it. Given it's quality it should have 100 times the downloads.

Looks interesting. I'll give it try if I upgrade when Zen and Vega is out.

 

[Kwansu Dudes]

So, I have 6 "players of no reknown" Skillege cards left; is going through every city and beating people I haven't played the only way to get these random cards?

 

[Rex_DX]

Yes

 

[moniker]

I recently started playing this and man, the crones were something else. The Ladies of the Woods music is so damn good.

 

[Rex_DX]

On a new playthrough myself after about a year away from the game. Just beat that part last night and you're right - the music really sells it. Character models are amazing too. Such a creepy and well done bit - even taken as a standalone vignette.

 

[demosthenes]

GAF, I'm so sorry I slept on this series. Playing Witcher 3 now as my first Witcher game and god damn does this game CLICK on everything.

I still haven't touched the card game but I just loooooooove this game.

 

[nightmare-slain]

GAF, I'm so sorry I slept on this series. Playing Witcher 3 now as my first Witcher game and god damn does this game CLICK on everything.

I still haven't touched the card game but I just loooooooove this game.

it took me a while to get into gwent. i was near the end of the game before i started playing it. my next playthrough i won every single game + got every card. it's so fun. unfortunately i don't feel the same way about the standalone version.

 

[Rex_DX]

To anyone playing this for the first time: please, play Gwent! It's so good.

Gwent is love. Gwent is life.