Currently downloading The Witcher 3 for the first time. Got any advice for me?

Submitted ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨Road_Warrior_10@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨games@lemmy.world⁩

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/a19d8e34-6acc-45f3-b2a2-4a1d5131174b.png

So I just read this book on history of games called “Blood, Sweat and Pixels” and was fascinated by the chapter on The Witcher 3 and mostly how the team put in so much thought and care in every single side quest. And seems that there are a lot of moral decision to be made on each adventure. So I finally decided to give it a try. Got any advice for me?

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eezeebee@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
PLAY GWENT. The minigame became somewhat notorious because it’s really good - you can spend dozens of hours travelling the world and just playing cards.

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- tfw_no_toiletpaper@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I have done literally zero Gwent quests after the first match and even googled one time how to remove quests because they were annoying in the journal (you can’t)
  
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- JimmyMcGill@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I mean do you really have to suggest him that? He’s gonna get hooked like we all did
  
  In any case W3 gwent is actually kinda crap in terms of balance but that just means you can own them super hard at some point
  
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- Mango@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Yooo, Triple Triad anyone?
  
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- kyle@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Is it common for people to save scum or is that blasphemy?
  
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  - NotSteve_@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    It’s your game you do as you please. I would definitely save scum
    
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  - MY_ANUS_IS_BLEEDING@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I only save scummed the Gwent tournament as it’s a one-shot type deal. The rest of the game there was no need as it autosaves frequently
    
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  - billbasher@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    If I have played someone a bunch or am on a quest then definitely. Otherwise I try to keep it like live cards. Remember you can always cheat IRL too! It’s up to you if/when/where
    
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- billbasher@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I didn’t finish the game because I am still playing gwent haha it’s that good. I would look up which cards you can only get from quests because you can’t get them afterwards. Just look up a mapping for quests to cards (no spoilers of course). I am on mobile and can’t find one currently
  
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- Coelacanth@feddit.nu ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I’ve literally got a save file prepped where I rushed getting to B&W before doing literally anything else so I can play the whole games’s Gwent with the Skellige deck when I decide to play it again. You don’t get enough time with it and it’s such a fun deck!
  
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AlexWIWA@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Oils are reusable so don’t try to ration them. I didn’t use them for the first quarter of the game because I didn’t know that. There are a lot of fights that would have been much easier.

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- Knitwear@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  You’re kidding me‽
  
  Aaaaaaaaaa
  
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- Donjuanme@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  With the real good tips here!
  
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  - AlexWIWA@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I felt so dumb when I realized
    
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skulblaka@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Put the baby in the oven

Just trust me on this bro

You’ll know when the time is right

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- Maggoty@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  That’s a thing everyone needs to find out for themselves.
  
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- burgersc12@mander.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I don’t trust you…
  
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Contentedness@lemmy.nz ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
A note on brewing potions: You only need the herbs the first time you brew any particular potion, after you’ve brewed it once it will get restocked automatically when you meditate.

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- Knitwear@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  How did I not know this
  
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  - bravesirrbn@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I spent so much time not using the healing potion because I thought it’s so super rare when do I finally get a second one??? lol
    
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Kolanaki@yiffit.net ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
If you wish to keep your sanity through the entire game, I suggest only doing the really big side quests and ignoring the majority of the others. The game is fucking huge, but it can easily become repetitive doing everything.

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- illi@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  The sidequests are fucking great though. Didn’t play all, but those I did could be main quests in a different game. I had to skip some because there is just stupid amount of them and I was overleveling fast.
  
  Don’t do map completition though - trying to do all is truly insanity
  
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  - Ashtear@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    As a general rule of thumb, if it has dialogue, it’s going to be pretty good, and surprisingly so a lot of the time. The Witcher 3 is still unmatched for quality and quantity of side quests.
    
    This wasn’t a particularly good open world game even for its time, so I’d say ignoring the map markers completely is often smart.
    
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- ChocoboRocket@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  This is very true, especially around mid game.
  
  There are significantly more quests than you need to advance levels and eventually you get level 30+ having done all the side quests and there will be several unfinished missions for recommend level 7-20 that become worthless unless the story/character behind it interests you.
  
  Definitely grind early missions as they are basically tutorials and also give you lore on all the factions, don’t worry too much about gold as you will rarely be able to buy weapons better than what you find.
  
  Bymid game you’ll have tons of access to loot for selling and will probably be more interested in spending money on refining/upgrading items than buying mediocre armor and weapons.
  
  The bombs and oils are great if you keep them upgraded
  
  Never sell ingredients you don’t have a billion of, you can buy a potion to redistribute your levels and switching from magic/physical build to late game Alchemist is really strong and fun and changes up play style.
  
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- CitizenKong@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I would say do every actual sidequest but don’t bother clearing the map of all question marks. Hunting for Witcher school gear is also just mostly cosmeticand optional, but they’re the coolest armors and swords.
  
  Also, if you’re not playing on the lowest difficulty, read the infos in your journal regarding the creatures and prepare accordingly.
  
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  - NJSpradlin@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
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- TPTheWiper@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I spent like 4 years playing with my best friend. We were having a beer in the evening he watched me play Witcher on death March, i tried to do everything. It was the best way to play the game i think. Took us 4 years though.
  
  Red Baron is the best questline imo
  
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sparky1337@ttrpg.network ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
If the combat is frustrating, turn the difficulty down. There will still be a learning curve, but it’ll be the difference between surviving and having to do an hour of work again because you forgot to quick save and get slapped by a foglet.

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- TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Interesting. I found the game to be basically boring without the extended difficulties.
  
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  - sparky1337@ttrpg.network ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    The combat is just generally unintuitive. Which early in the game is frustrating. And if you’re like me and spend weeks between sessions you can forget all the timing and buttons you need to press.
    
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bravesirrbn@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
ABC:

Always

Be

Cfancying a round of Gwent

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Zoomboingding@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Tell your friends and family that you love them but you won’t see them for a while

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- TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I’m nearly finishing up The Witcher 2. Judging from the discussions, I’m afraid of starting Witcher 3 because I have other backlog of games I have to finish as soon as possible.
  
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  - acosmichippo@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    you got deadlines or something?
    
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johannesvanderwhales@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Don’t chase all the markers on your map, most of them are crap and you’ll burn out.

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- AnimePhantasm@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  So much this. If I never see another Smuggler’s Cache again it would still be too soon!
  
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Anderenortsfalsch@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
In the first region in the midst of the first small village two neighbors are arguing. They are not giving a quest, they just talk to each other and listening gives such an insight in how war can turn people against each other that have been living peacfully and been friends for years.

Do the side quests and take your time with the dialogue. Some of these stories are impactful, mostly sad and worth your time. If you are told that you should talk to people to find out more about your contract, do it. Some of these quests can be done with only talking to one person but you want to get the information from everyone and especially their side of the story.

Do not look up the outcome of decisions. Make your decisions and live with them at least at your first playthrough. Most decisions have impact and seeing the outcome unfold makes this game special and yes often there is no “good choice” - that’s war for you.

Last: Buy every Gwent card you can get your hands on and play with everyone you can. If you can’t win just come back later with better cards and obliterate them - it will feel goooood!

The DLC’s are a must.

Try out difficulty settings - there is a sweet spot for most people somewhere but what it will be for you no one can know, but it would be a shame if you play through the game not having found the difficulty that fits you best because you “always play on <insert difficulty>”.

Have fun, I wish I could play this game for the first time again.

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TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I completely disagree with the top comment. Dont worry about the main game.

I advocate that you go in with the mindset that you are a part of an old and important guild, and that the main story is just an extension of your every day job of being a Witcher. The “side quests” are unbelievably good. So good that half of them have better stories than entire video games and series. I didn’t bother with the main story (only in parts, organically). I just wandered the country side and “did the job of a Witcher”. There is sooooooooo much to this game. Also, get the DLC’s.

One word of warning however. The power scaling is somewhat broken. If you over-level before moving forward, the game can get pretty boring only because the enemies become trivially easy to beat.

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Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Don’t try to go for both main romance options, the outcome isn’t worth it. Better to do two playthroughs if you really want to know.

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- Shard@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Don’t try to romance Ciri.
  
  /s
  
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- Maggoty@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I mean it’s definitely an ending worth seeing. So 3 playthroughs.
  
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bugieman@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
If you have the patience for it, try playing on a much harder difficulty. The medium and low difficulty levels don’t provide the same weight. Many systems in the game are unnecessary at lower difficulty levels but higher difficulty forces you to engage in them to get the extra edge over certain encounters.

Higher difficulties force you to engage in potion brewing, reading up on enemies, and making genuinely tough choices morally in order to keep Geralt alive. Lower difficulties remove all the tension from these systems.

Also as another user mentioned, don’t skip any dialogue and engage in the side quests/contracts as they give a lot of unique flavor and nuance to the world and story.

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- yokonzo@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  This, this game isnt about fighting, it’s about prepping, it’s about researching your prey and knowing what you need to get the edge on it before you go in, brewing the potions you need and knowing what to hit it with
  
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  - AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Oh yeah, I really wish I had played on a higher difficulty for this reason. Especially because one of the most immersive and thematically cool parts of the game for me was the main story section near the end of act 1 where you have to make a blade oil to fight a >!werewolf!< . (Vague wording to minimise spoilers in my main comment.) I really liked this because it made me reflect on what it means to be a Witcher — how the knowledge might be more important than the mutations and the magic.
    
    An additional point to the prepping is that being open-world means that you can potentially go to areas or take on challenges far beyond the “intended” level. On lower difficulties, I didn’t feel sufficiently punished for being audacious in that way, and I think the potential for punishment is part of the fun of the audacity. Especially when getting destroyed like this isn’t the game “fuck you for even trying”, but rather a “try exploring some more, find some new recipes and come back later (or just read the bestiary and find out that you already have the item you need)”
    
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- somtwo@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I’ve done two full playthroughs of the game (plus dlc), one on the standard difficulty and one on hard. I can confirm that many of the game’s systems are rendered unnecessary by the easier difficulty. I really enjoyed my second playthrough and would definitely recommend.
  
  However, if you don’t think you’ll enjoy that (having to plan and work for every advantage to be able to succeed) I would wholeheartedly endorse the easier levels. The story and quest design alone are worth the price of admission! Side quests in this game make many other games main story pale in comparison.
  
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charade_you_are@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Roll around on the ground a lot during combat. Works wonders.

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Alwaysnownevernotme@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
There’s nothing worth finding in the seas around skellege.

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- Maggoty@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I cannot up vote this enough. If you need smugglers caches then go for it. Otherwise that’s just a headache.
  
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Sonicdemon86@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Do the side quests before the main quest as some of the side quests get locked off when you compete main quests.

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Maggoty@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Crafting armor is 100 percent superior to found and bought armor. But if you don’t like crafting, the found and bought stuff will get you through. Also don’t sell or dump old crafted armor pieces, you need them to craft the next tier up.

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lemmyng@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Don’t skip the dialogue, even if you use subtitles and are a fast reader. It sometimes switches from one sentence at a time to whole chunks of dialogue and action getting skipped. Plus, the voice acting is superb, and the physical reactions of characters can convey a lot of emotion.

Apart from White Orchard, you shouldn’t need to complete all side quests in your area before moving on. Particularly with witcher gear, it’s sometimes expected to need to come back at a later time when you’re more powerful.

Others may disagree, but I don’t bother dismantling gear and weapons. I find it simpler to just sell things and buy materials I need from vendors.

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rtxn@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
There is a setting for an alternative character control mode. Use it, the regular one is dogshit.

The level difference between Geralt and enemies is very important. A difference of +/- 4 can make fights ridiculously trivial or a one-hit KO. Same goes for jobs’ recommended difficulty.

Getting swarmed by level 50 sewer rats is not fun.
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P1k1e@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Be supportive of your daughter…dont make my mistakes

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- figjam@midwest.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  “But I thought I was helping!”
  
  -Me after the bad ending.
  
  I should have had a snowball fight.
  
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- daddy32@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  …also in the game!
  
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JimmyMcGill@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
As other folk said, definitely do get the DLCs. There’s a whole other game in there.

It’s been a while since I last played, and this game IS a masterpiece, no doubt about that, but the one of the first sections can be rough. Iirc it’s gloomy af, there’s some hard monsters in some quests that can be demotivating and the combat/mechanics takes some getting used to which makes the previous point worse. Just know that the game opens up and there’s a whole world out there.

There are tons of side quests which are great, so you should do those but also don’t feel like you need to do all of them. It can be easy to get side tracked and then lose steam and quit on the main story.

Especially because like I said the DLCs are amazing. They are also quite self contained so it’s like a breath of fresh air

Enjoy this amazing game. I’m jealous of you

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WolfLink@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
If you do every sidequest you will be massively overleveled.

If you go to an area where “you are not supposed to go yet” you’ll be massively under leveled.

I’ve heard there are mods that just even everything out so you can play the game at your own pace.

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- lemminger@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  they actually sorted that out pretty nicely with updates. the pace is quite even since they published the next-Gen rework. the problem with being under-leveled still persists though.
  
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Gimpydude@lemmynsfw.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Whenever you have to make a choice that involves Citi, always make choices with her happiness in mind.

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- Bigfish@lemmynsfw.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Rp as good dad.
  
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stardust@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
First few hours can seem slow with the early map not being the most exciting, but if you make it through the huge world opens up and things start getting much more exciting.

When I played I printed out a side quest list to try to experience as much of the game a possible and checked off ones I completed. Side quests are amazing and better than the main quest as opposed to being the usual fetch quest with a weak or no story.

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- rainerloeten@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Good advice. It took me two or three attempts to finally get hooked by the game. But it was totally worth it.
  
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  - stardust@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Yeah, the first map area is small and kind of lifeless and I think like 3 hours long? Some don’t give a game longer than that, but the entire game took like 300 hours for me to finish so it was very small portion of a very long dense game.
    
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- PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Yeah, the intro is honestly awful. The goal is to teach you how larger contracts work, but it just slogs. The game picks up once you get to the Bloody Baron, so withhold judgement until you get to that point.
  
  Also, the combat can be rough in the early game, but the difficulty quickly tapers off as you begin leveling up. By the end of the game, you’ll be mowing through enemies even on the Death March difficulty.
  
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falkerie71@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Although this isn’t quite relevant before finishing the main game, be sure to pick up both the DLC once you’re finished.
Both DLCs are fantastic standalone stories, super rich in content they could even beat some full priced games. You could play the DLCs before finishing the main game (and there is an additional game mechanic introduced in Blood and Wine), but on a first run I would still recommend playing it after to not get distracted and take away the impact of the main story.

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- yokonzo@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Blood and wine is a masterpiece
  
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MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
The Witcher 3 HD Reworked Project

Realistic Weather

Phoenix Lighting

They just drive home the “cold wilderness” vibe.

And some more

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Coelacanth@feddit.nu ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
The combat is way too easy on normal difficulty - this is fine if you only want to experience the story but very understimulating otherwise. I honestly suggest trying to play the game on Death March (but turn it up after the first time you fight a pack of Ghouls, they’ll fuck you up). On Death March you’ll be incentivized to interact with the game systems: Alchemy, Signs, specific monster weaknesses in the bestiary. All this really makes you feel more like a witcher, which in my opinion enriches the gameplay.

Experiment with builds - respec potions are fairly plentiful so don’t be scared to put points into stuff. Don’t underestimate Alchemy, but make sure you visit all the herbalists you can find to purchase recipes, the difference between basic alchemy and the upgraded recipes is massive.

Play Gwent, and check every single store you come across for cards and instantly buy them all. W3 Gwent is fantastic and half the fun of the game.

With the story calling back to both the two previous games and the books it’s not a bad idea to try to find some story recaps on YouTube of what has happened earlier in the story.

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N0body@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Be a good dad to Ciri. It’s extremely important.

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Bahnd@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Dont forget the DLCs, both won awards independently of the base game.

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TotallyNotSpezUpload@startrek.website ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I recommend playing the quest “The whispering Hillock” before persuing the Bloody Baron’s questline. It will make things slightly less depressing. Also, always support Ciri in her decisions and gather the whole crew before the siege of Kaer Morhen.

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