I just started The Witcher 3

General tips welcome. No promises that this will be a consistently updated runthrough topic.

My first Witcher game. Heard nothing but great things about it. Also I'm liking it a lot better than RDR2 so far (the stamina and horse management in that game is intense ).

I'm looking for leads on Ciri right now. I've got to either deliver the victims of an abusive lush back to him (found the daughter joining some kinda fire cult, but the mom is still missing), or I've gotta kill some helpless animal for shady boggy witches that might or might not just be some lady's imaginary friends.

Got an early fast attack + signs build so far.

Good luck and have fun. I think on normal difficulty you can do just about anything and it works fine.

I played it on easy. Don't feel bad about turning down the difficulty. Preparation is the most important thing to do when tackling hunts. Always make sure to read the lore on the monster and prepare the appropriate potions.

Is it worth it to play the other two Witcher games first? I have all 3

GranzonEx posted...

I played it on easy. Don't feel bad about turning down the difficulty. Preparation is the most important thing to do when tackling hunts. Always make sure to read the lore on the monster and prepare the appropriate potions.

This. Play on easy since the gameplay is so vanilla.

Quen is OP and kinda trivializes most of the game. I don't remember the specifics of my build but I had 100% uptime on Quen. If I ever got hit then I would just put on a new Quen and I never took any damage.

gonna have to go against the grain here

The gameplay is only vanilla if you play on easy. The higher difficulties actually require strategy and make the combat worthwhile. It's maybe the quintessential example of a game that makes so many more of its systems matter on higher difficulties: learning the bestiary, preparing oils, making a synergetic build, using signs more strategically. A lot of that stuff can be outright ignored on lower difficulties, and I actually really liked the combat system in this game when I bumped it up.

That said, Quen is OP on any difficulty and the game is great for a lot of other reasons. So just do what you want.

I think I started on the second hardest, got wrecked, bumped it down to normal, cruised there for a while before it got a bit too, well, vanilla, and bumped it up later on.

Play a bunch of Gwent.

mnk posted...

Play a bunch of Gwent.

It took too many posts to mention the best part of the game

Yeah I heavily agree that the combat exponentially gets better on higher difficulties.

Even though you can dont loot everything you see/is dropped/etc or youll constantly be over your carry weight and move slowly

Oh right, I'm playing on Normal/Default difficulty or whatever it's called. I think it's just right for me since I have to pay attention to the battles or sometimes even mooks can overtake me. I had to restart the fight against Jennyanydots o' the Woods a few times but once I can cheese her lifesucking wraiths and time my rolls/attacks correctly, I can take her down and it was pretty satisfying!

I'm not really a big action gamer (heavily disliked my time with Monster Hunter) so I think I'll stick with this difficulty for now.

Also as for Gwent, I really got wrecked playing against some guy on Emhyr's courtyard so I'm stil kinda traumatized. How do we even draw more cards on second and third turns?

Some trees claim that it's a good spirit being bound by the Ladies of the Woods and that's why it's been killing women and children. And it wishes to be released. Yeah, not buying it. Die, evil tree.

OH GEEZ
Gran is Anna actually, so the two branches of finding the Baron's family lead to the same woman. Didn't expect that.