Orv May 4, 2011









Fuzz posted: My Mod List:



Auto Apply Oils (Mandatory)



Better Trophies (QoL because default ones are boring as poo poo)



Cheaper Respec Potions (just because... allows me to tool around and change things up pretty easily to keep things fresh on my now 120+ hour first playthrough)



Colored Map Markers (compatibility version)



Dyes Everywhere and Dyeable Starting Armor (because gently caress waiting for endgame DLC for that poo poo)



Friendly UI (because I like seeing the HUD I need when I need it, not all the time. More immersive)



HD Reworked Project (improved textures are mainly noticeable in Novigrad and Skellige)



Improved Sign Effects (because having a huge shockwave Aard that flattens dudes is )



) Jump in Shallow Water (Mandatory)



Map Quest Objectives (Full version, works great with Colored markers to make the map less poo poo)



New Griffin Armor (Because I'm a fat shamer and don't like Geralt)



Geralt) No Dirty Lens Effect (purely a cosmetic choice)



No Fall Damage (Mandatory... pretend mutagens make them fall like cats along with the eyes)



Perks Always Active (Gameplay choice because Passives are totally a losing proposition otherwise, plus at a certain point you have too many skillpoints)



Refill Alcohol (because I actually ran out of Alcohest from resting when I had 300+ Dwarven Spirits, and then I needed to make White Gull )



) Scabbards on NPCs (Because it makes NPCs look loving AWESOME and maintains my immersion)



Turbo Lighting Mod (Because I like flashy lighting)



Weathers Enhanced (Because holy poo poo looking out over Velen when it's foggy is BEAUTIFUL)



More Accurate Witcher Faces (Only used the eyes, because I like the specular shiny thing and in a lot of cutscenes it makes Geralt look even more badass)



So yeah, there's a handful of Gameplay tweaks but it's 90% QoL and cosmetic stuff. poo poo still breaks and I still have encumbrance, I don't mind those things because they're barely an annoyance. Abilities all work as normal, there's just a point to leveling over 35 since I literally maxed out all the main skills I use for all 12 slots and then some, so further skills were literally pointless... now I actually use the crossbow and bombs here and there even when I'm not running an Alchemy spec.



I'd include links, but looking back it's a ton of mods. You can use Script Merger to get all of these to play nicely, the only errors it will show are just some text type ones that don't actually cause issues ingame at all and the game still compiles just fine... they're all background errors from Enhanced Weather and Turbo Lighting, but they still play nice together and work just fine.





Pellisworth posted: This is a spoiler-free newbie guide. The thread is generally good about spoilering major plot points and wed appreciate if you did too. Even though its been out two years it really can ruin the experience for new players since the game is heavily character and story-driven. Feel free to ask questions though!



Game setup  importing saves, difficulty, mods, DLCs



There is very little carryover from the previous games, you can get the Blue Stripes tattoo from Witcher 2 and a few conversation references but nothing significant. If you dont have a W2 save you want to import, its recommended that you choose to simulate a save. After you finish the tutorial zone youll have dialogue where you can dictate what happened at the end of W2. Letho has a cool side quest and the others make small cameos, so just tell Voorhees they all lived.



The early game can be a bit difficult until you get a feel for the combat and level up some. For veterans of action RPGs like the Souls franchise you might want to start on the second-highest difficulty and bump it up if its too easy. Dont feel afraid to bump the difficulty down if youre just not feeling the combat or whatever, its not the strongest part or focus of the game. Be aware that on the two highest difficulties you wont heal by meditating, so healing options are a lot more important.



You dont need any mods, the game is fine without and there arent any broken things needing fixed. Play through the tutorial zone and decide if you want to add some quality of life mods. Auto-apply oils is one of the most commonly recommended.



The DLCs are basically just additional chapters in Geralts saga and are end/postgame. Dont worry about them until you get most of the way through the base game. The base game is about 100 hours of solid non-grindy content, the DLCS together are about another 50 hours.



Combat, alchemy, crafting, gear, and character builds



The key to combat is to use the right tactics and stay mobile. Consult your bestiary for how to deal with monsters. In fights, get in a couple attacks then roll/dodge away, cast a Sign or throw a bomb for CC. Rinse repeat. You cant take more than a few hits so never getting hit is the best option.



Be very liberal with alchemy use. Alchemy items only need to be crafted once, theyre containers that are refilled when you meditate, one unit of alcohol for all your alchemy items. Alchemy is really cheap and refills infinitely, craft the basic healing potions and bombs as soon as they become available and go nuts. Dont be stingy.



Crafting is kind of a mess and one of the few weaknesses of the game. Feel free to horde materials since they dont weigh anything. Its mostly the Witcher gear sets that are worth crafting.



Gear doesnt really matter that much. Dont bother trying to max/min your gear and ability spec. Wear what you have available and whatever looks cool, craft Witcher sets.



Ability spec also doesnt matter too much, dont bother trying to min/max it even on the highest difficulties. Pick what seems fun to you and feel free to mix it up, respec potions are infinite and pretty cheap. Only abilities that are equipped in open slots will be active.



Dialogue, questing, map points of interest, Gwent, missable quests



The dialogue system is one of the best parts of the game. Animations, voice acting, writing, and cinematography are all fantastic. Dont skip dialogue, explore all the white fluff options before progressing with a yellow option.



There are a broad range of quest levels starting in Velen and youll probably have to come back later to finish the higher-level ones. Rewards from quests are usually underwhelming, the best gear is mostly Witcher crafted sets (until the expansions) and you dont often get much money. There is way more XP available in the game than you need to hit max level. You absolutely will out-level quests and theyll go gray and will only reward token XP. Do not let that discourage you from doing a quest, do it because it seems interesting and not for any XP / money / loot reward.



When you get to a notice board, read all the postings. Theyre often funny or sad and many of them add map locations even if they dont give a quest.



Explore all the ? points of interest in the tutorial zone (White Orchard), there are a lot of places of power to get additional ability points and it will teach you all the aspects of the game. After that, points of interest in the water are mostly smugglers caches or hidden treasure which can get tedious and grindy. Definitely dont try and collect all the question marks in the Skellige waters, thats about the most miserable thing you can do in W3.



Gwent is a pretty good minigame but its entirely skippable, you wont miss much other than tournaments. If you do want to Gwent, start early and keep playing every random merchant you come across. Its a grind if you decide to pick up Gwent midway through the game.



There are zero timed quests and few missable quests. There is a big point of no return in the base game which will lock out quests relating to many main characters, the game explicitly sends you to wrap things up with each character and warns you to finish things before you proceed. You can still do most quests after you beat the game, it spits you back out into the game world. That said, here are some of the major things you can miss:



Novigrad  you can fail Gangs of Novigrad but thats more choosing between two options to advance the quest, dont sweat it.

Novigrad  late in the main quest you will have an option to forcefully shove Dijkstra. It abruptly ends a major quest chain so probably dont do that.

Skellige  If you advance the main Skellige quest too far you will fail Cave of Dreams. You can start it by going to the southwest tip of Ard Skellig.

Skellige  You can fail Yens romance if you dont do it immediately, she tells you to come right away and you should.

HoS  These are mostly for fun, but when you play Gwent with Halflings at the wedding, LOSE. And then bring Shani booze.

B&W  Extreme Cosplay will fail if you leave before completing it, so finish it right away. Orv fucked around with this message at 12:35 on Jun 10, 2017