I found every Place of Power in the ?'s in the prologue area (4 places? 6? Don’t recall), now I’m trying to knock down all the ?'s in the chapter 1 area (don’t know what it’s called – it’s huge and full of ?'s and boats and stuff), I’ve yet to find a Place of Power yet. Mostly deserter camps, ruins / wrecks with wraiths, some hidden treasures. Mostly I’m looking for easy XP, since even on the lowest difficulty I seem dreadfully under powered.
The game can be tough at the start, but it gets easier after a while. You don’t have to finish every side quest right away; you can always come back and finish things off later. Are you having trouble with the main quest line?
Also note that some “?” spots may not even be accessible until later. E.g. I think there are some spots that are hidden behind teleportation portals that are unlocked in a quest.
Yeah, it’s great. Love the world, love the beauty of the graphics, love that they developed deep systems. I don’t yet fully understand systems, but will continue to get used to them as I go.
I have put my level-up and places-of-power points into combat(quick and strong attack) and delusion. I like persuasion skills, so delusion was something I wanted. Any really useful skills I might miss/overlook early on?
Uh, do I get any XP from killing regular monsters and bad-guys? This may seem obvious, but I am not sure if I get anything other than loot from normal fights. Almost all of my XP is quest completion. I am level 7, approaching level 8. Can you grind like in a JRPG game?
Can I break down my loot or is that only at stores? I see my crafting menu, but it seems to indicate real crafting is only done at armor shops. Is that right?
I found a Place of Power on the map(West Velen) that I could not see to save my life. I even went back to check it again and it is invisible. It must be hidden or part of the main quest or something?
I was. I went on the L5 mission (I was also L5) where the witch (Kiera?) teleports us into some cave that we wander through, and got utterly stuck fighting a gargoyle in a very dark room in very tight quarters. Had to wait for my son to come home from college to get past that, since there’s no way to abort that mission so you’re screwed if you get stuck.
Then I ended up in a Witcher contract where I had to kill a Night Wraith (much like the Noon Wraith from early on, but a lot lot harder). I died and died and died like 11 times, and again my son came to my rescue, finished it using the same tactics I was using. Maybe I just suck, but again this contract was at or below my level. In this case I could have just walked away from that contract and come back later.
Anyway, since then I figured if I could level a couple times I wouldn’t have so much issue with supposedly stuff at my level, I’d just take on stuff slightly below. Or maybe I just suck and should shelve the game.
I did struggle with what I would call the “boss battle” of the mission with Keira. I got the “you can run from battle if you struggle” message for the first time on that mission. I initially took that to mean that you are supposed to run from the big boss guy who shields himself and regenerates health.
I ended up reading that I need to dodge better and defeat him after three waves of regeneration. I did beat him, but he was really. I don’t think he was a gargoyle, though, but perhaps he was or is what you are referencing?
There’s a gargoyle somewhere in the maze of caves; it’s possible to bypass it, though.
And yes, gargoyles are brutal, especially at low levels; they can pretty much kill you with one hit. I don’t have much advice for fighting them other than keep dodging and get the occasional hit in (and use the appropriate oil, if you have access to it).
By the way, I didn’t have much problem with overly dark rooms, but I usually adjust the gamma to a pretty wimpy level.
The fact that torches never extinguish is great, but my problem was the pool of water. Without Cat potions, I would have not made it through. One drink of (console added) Cat and I could see fine.
Not really, no. While killing things does give experience, it doesn’t give you much. You’ll note that if you picked up the Witcher swords in White Orchard( Viper set )and any subsequent Witcher swords that they give experience boosts for killing stuff. But a percentage boost of a tiny amount is still pretty small.
The great bulk of the experience you get is for completing quests. The main quest major nodes have extra-large rewards, but all quests like bounties or stuff like the horse races will grant rewards. However they are scaled to level. Complete a level 5 quest with a level 12 Geralt and you’re going to score…1 experience point . It can still be worth it for the story because some secondary quests are quite interesting and fun (it is a well-written game), but if you are rushing through the main plot while avoiding secondary quests, you’re not going to reap a lot of rewards when you go back to much lower level secondary quests later. And vice versa, really. It all works out, but I don’t think there are many tricks to grind extra experience.
The game starts out pretty hard. You really want to pay attention to those red skull and crossbones symbols - if a bounty or opponent has them, usually you will want to just run away unless you don’t fancy dying twenty times in a row. My vague memory is that if you hit that gargoyle while exploring back passages with Keira Metz early enough it will have those symbols flash up on it. They mean “come back later to kill this thing, because it is likely to annihilate you with two hits.”
As with almost all crpgs it will eventually tilt the other way and you’ll start upping the difficulty rating because it will feel too easy much of the time. But even late game there will be the occasional challenge.
Might be worth pointing out that all the good Witcher gear recipes comes via ‘treasure hunts’, not anything you’ll find on the main quest line. It is worth doing some secondary quests on the way for that reason alone. So come to think of it rushing through the main quest while ignoring secondary quests will actually leave you under-geared.
Although certain individual quests can have loose timers (I can’t remember, but I’m sure there must have been a few), the great majority of the game is not timered. You can do the main plot any old time, so there is no real pressure and you can wander around to your heart’s content.
I’m also a latecomer to this game, having started playing it for the first time about a month ago. I’m playing on PS4, so can’t speak to any PC control issues.
It’s not so much that they’re scaled, as it is that there’s a hard cutoff. Each side quest has a fixed amount of experience points it’s meant to yield upon completion, whether it’s 50, 200, or whatever. As long as your current level is no more than five levels higher than the quest’s recommended level, you will receive that amount. But if you are six or more levels above that level, you receive 1/15 of that amount. Source.
But in general, yes, by far the best way to level up in this game is simply to proceed with the main story. Even the most XP-lucrative side quests don’t give nearly as much XP as main story quests.
In general, and to the OP’s questions in particular, I would recommend looking up online guides for this game. You can try to avoid ones that contain story spoilers, but I don’t feel this game is worth being a stickler for trying to find everything on your own. There’s too much that the game doesn’t explain. One thing I’m glad I did is look up a guide as to where you can buy all the maps that give you the quests to find all the sets of witcher gear.
I don’t think there are any that are timered, in terms of hours or days or whatever; rather, it’s that some quests are dependent on others not having been completed yet. So if you get to a certain point in one quest, you’ll get a notification that another quest failed. (You can also fail individual quest objectives even though the overall quest can still be completed.) Also, sometimes you can fail a quest just by running too far away from whatever it is you’re supposed to be doing.
I don’t remember having that problem in any pools of water. I wonder whether you just need to adjust your gamma.
Correct; unlike in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, which seems to have borrowed this mechanic from The Witcher 3, only blacksmiths/armorers can dismantle equipment. Also only blacksmiths can craft weapons, and only armorers can craft armor. Either one can craft crafting components.
Do you see a little red up or down arrowhead associated with it, which could indicate it’s above or below you? It could be in a cave or something. If you can use a map (like maybe this one) to point out which one you mean, I might be able to tell you how to get to it.
My own thoughts: I have to say, given the amount of praise this game got, I’m a little underwhelmed. It’s a good game, but I don’t get the “one of the greatest video games of all time” level of praise that was lavished upon it. I have the impression one of the reasons people loved it its that it’s so huge and long and engrossing. But one of the things that strikes me, looking back, now that I’m presumably almost done with the main story (being about to start the quest Final Preparations) is that the main story actually isn’t very long. The reason the game seems long is the massive amount of side content. And I tend to be a completionist, so I get it. Once I got to the main story quest where Yennefer is waiting for you on that island in the east of Skellige to begin it, I put that on the back burner, and ran around doing all the side content that was available to me first. But once I went back to the main story, I was shocked at how quickly I was done with the entire Skellige portion. I imagine if you did nothing but the main story, it would go by pretty fast. And I can think of several other AAA games I’ve played in the past 5 years–Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Fallout 4, and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey to name a few–that I found far longer, bigger, and more engrossing than this game.
I suppose some of its gameplay mechanics were innovative. When Assassin’s Creed Origins came out, someone in a thread on this very board called it “a decent Witcher 3 clone.” I didn’t know what they meant at the time, but now that I’ve played it, I see just how much the last two Assassin’s Creed games–Origins and Odyssey–both owe to this game in terms of mechanics.
Though I’m finding it a fairly dark game overall, I do appreciate the humor. I like the way it sometimes breaks the fourth wall in a minor way, or parodies things in the real world, like the side quest about the tower protected by “DRM” and the way to get around the DRM is by using the “GOG.” I also like the nods to ludonarrative dissoance: in the aforementioned quest with Yennefer in Skellige, when I finally met up with her, she made some snide comment about how it took me long enough and I must have had a lot to do. It’s like the writers are subtly acknowledging the absurdity of the fact that Geralt just spent what must have been weeks gallivanting around the entire world, playing Gwent, completing contracts to slay monsters, searching for witcher gear, helping some peasant find out what happened to his missing brother… and the entire time, Yennefer is apparently just standing in one spot, 24/7, waiting for him to arrive.
I presume there is no reverse of that where you get a massive bonus for taking on a quest with a much higher level rating than you are at? I have a Level 15 quest in my bank and I am only level 8.
I posted my thoughts on Fallout 4, which I also played the first time this quarantine due to not have a PC able to run it. I liked it, but it was the weakest of the three first-person Fallout games. Witcher 3 is much more engrossing to me so far(10 hours in, I think).
I don’t know. The wiki I linked to doesn’t mention such a thing, but I just googled the topic and found a few reddit discussions in which people state you do get a bonus. Personally, I haven’t found it worth it in this game to attempt quests that are much higher than my current level.
Note that you can set the game to level up with you - which means that while there will always be quests and enemies that are above your level, there won’t be any below your level, preventing the game from ever becoming too easy. That way, you don’t have to worry about postponing sidequests until they’re too easy, and you’ll always get decent XP.
Regarding expansions, which came with my purchase of the game.
Can I beat the main game before doing them? I’m not looking for spoilers(nice to play a game totally blind), but is it like Fallout 4 and Skyrim, which allow you to play after the main quest is over and go pursue other things, DLC included?
Yes, they are both high level quests. I think you can overlap “Heart of Stone” with the main quest, but “Blood and Wine” is definitely supposed to take place afterwards (and there’s a coda at the end that will depend on the end of the main quest).
. It can still be worth it for the story because some secondary quests are quite interesting and fun (it is a well-written game), but if you are rushing through the main plot while avoiding secondary quests, you’re not going to reap a lot of rewards when you go back to much lower level secondary quests later. And vice versa, really. It all works out, but I don’t think there are many tricks to grind extra experience.