The Witcher | Quest Order Guide

THIS GUIDE CONTAINS SPOILERS. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!

This is a personal guide based on a single playthrough of The Witcher on normal difficulty. While originally written for personal use, it might be useful for others to navigate the complex quest structure of the game.

This Guide Includes:

- Brief quest descriptions and where to start them.
- Recommended quest completion order.
- Basic game mechanics explanation
- Romance, fist fighting, signs, meteorite, contracts and trophies hints.

This Guide Doesn't Cover:

- 100% completion checklist
- Complete walkthrough of every game aspect
- Collectible locations and strategies
- Hard difficulty strategies

This guide synthesizes information from three main sources: Quest List[witcher.fandom.com], Spoiler Checklist[witcher.fandom.com] and 100 Percent Guide[gamefaqs.gamespot.com]. For more detailed information, please consult these original sources.

Note on Choices:

Since this was originally a personal guide, it includes subjective recommendations for moral choices throughout the game. Feel free to make your own decisions based on your preferred playstyle.

• Sprinting: Move faster by selecting the Fast Style while using the silver sword.
  
• Combat: Use left-click to attack. When you see the flaming icon appear, click again to perform combos. Double-tap any movement direction to dodge, which helps escape when cornered or get behind enemies.
  
• Combat Styles:
  
  • Strong: Slow but powerful, use it always unless surrounded or against fast enemies that keep dodging.
    
  • Fast: Moderate damage, good against quick enemies but should be replaced with a fully upgraded Strong Style around Chapter 4.
    
  • Group Style: Lower damage per hit but actually good when surrounded by weak enemies.
• Weapons: Use the steel sword (quick-select with 'q') for humans and flesh creatures. Use silver sword (quick-select with 'e') for monsters. Spacebar activates Active Pause for switching targets, signs or weapons, but breaks any ongoing combo.
  
• Money Making: Earn through fist fighting, selling alchemy ingredients, selling jewelry or weapons from defeated enemies (In Chapter III, Ceremonial Swords from elves are worth 300 Orens each, though trips to blacksmith take time). Don't buy the Excellent Leather Jacket...
  
• Inns: These locations offer rest, fist fighting opportunities, and unlimited storage for your items.
  
• Books: Essential purchases since they unlock your monster loot drops, expand harvest-able plants, update your journal, and are sometimes required to unlock or complete quests.
  
• Dialogue: Talk to NPCs regularly, notice that most have a routine and won't be in the same place as the day progresses through its night-day cyucle.

A Reliable way to make a couple hundred Orens by resetting the fights after resting for 24hrs. They can be found on the Inns of each chapter, and they are very easy to win, just left-click to hit and then right -click to dodge. With the Brawl talent this becomes even easier with charged attacks that deal massive damage.

Chance mini-game, essentially 3 round poker with dice. High hands are more likely to happen to incentivize playing against the odds, also the lower the bet the higher the win percentage. Opponents seem to get luckier with each loss as a way to avoid abusing the system. At least to me this was not a reliable way to make a profit.

Signs are a useful complement to sword combat, but aside from Igni, their damage output is inferior when compared to words.

They offer versatility in certain situations, though many enemies resist their status effects, and endurance remains a limiting factor even at high levels. Prioritizing sword upgrades makes combat easier, with Signs as a secondary focus. Signs are learned from Circles of the Elements, magical stones that grant spells and provide temporary power-ups that enhance their effectiveness.

Places of Power are areas of strong magic where Geralt can perform rituals to enhance spellcasting. The Ritual of Magic increases Sign intensity by 100 percent for five hours. Upgrades like Cleansing or Life Ritual allow Geralt to additionally reduce toxicity or boost vitality regeneration. These are useful since they require no resources.
Alchemy allows the creation of potions, bombs, and oils, each requiring a specific base, alcohol for potions, powders for bombs, and greases for oils. Stronger bases provide more ingredient slots, with White Gull acting as a powerful five-slot base for potions.

Ingredients contain one of seven primary alchemical elements, with some also carrying a secondary element. These secondary elements enhance standard potions with additional effects. Auto-filling ingredients can be inefficient, as it selects available items without considering rarity, value, or secondary effects.

Potions boost health, endurance, reflexes, and night vision, with recipes learned from books or by drinking unknown mixtures. They increase Geralt's toxicity, which can be reduced through meditation or antidotes. Oils enhance weapon damage against a particular type of enemy, while bombs provide ranged attacks.
You gain experience by killing monsters and completing quests. The amount of experience earned decreases per level by 5. Quests provide a fixed amount of experience but it is good enough to complete the game, so technically you don't need to farm any experience.

In Chapter 1 you could kill Barghests and Drowners until around level 6. The Ghouls in the Crypt might be a faster alternative but you might be too weak to tackle them at first.

In Chapter 2 you could kill Graviers in the sewers crypt, 200 per kill until around level 12. Fight 4 or 5 per run by resting for an hour in a fireplace. However it is a dark spot and using Cat potions can be costly, you could cheat this by increasing gamma settings or wait to grind until Chapter 3.

In Chapter 3, Cockatrices in the Swamp Cave give 675 XP per kill until around level 25. Fight them exit the swamp cave and rest for 24 in the morning. There are many unnecessary fights but if you time the rest in the morning you should only face a few Drowners and one Kikimore Warrior.

Prioritize attributes first: Strength, Dexterity, Stamina, and Intelligence. Then focus on silver sword, then steel sword, then styles and finally signs (Igni and Aard). Avoid upgrades that activate with low vitality since the thresholds are usually too low to be useful.

When you are grinding Graviers and Ghouls use the silver talents for Strength, Dexterity, and Strong Silver Sword. Ingredient Extraction talent is also very helpful to farm alchemical ingredients early that can be then sold for profit.

From Chapter 3-4 onward continue using your Gold Talents for Strength and Dexterity first and your silver talents for any specialization. Bronze Talents should stop appearing around level 41. After level 50 you stop gaining talents aside from the slight increase in Vitality due to the Vigor ability, therefore 50 should be considered the level cap for the game.

For reference in my normal run I finished Ch 1 with Lv 6, Ch2 with Lv 16, Ch3 with Lv 25, Ch 4 with Lv 32 and Ch 5 - Epilogue with Level 38. Honestly, from Ch 3 onward I felt a little bit overpowered (rarely used any potions and I had no need for oils and bombs)

Artifacts resembling stones or amulets representing the 10 divine Words of Creation that were carved on stone long ago. Kalkstein describes each Sephirah as an element of the Tree of Life studied by Alchemy, the tree has energy branches connecting the stones carved with words. Required as part of A Mysterious Tower and Monoliths quests to be placed in ancient obelisks in the Swamp.

Tip: Give the townswoman drinks and she will give information and potions. Also, pay the innkeeper 466 Orens for gossip, at the end tell him it was not worth it for additional loot.