The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt · Remastered | Every Hunt

The Case File

Case No.TW3

SubjectGeralt of Rivia, the White Wolf

LocationThe Continent, war-torn

Status87 main quests · 35 contracts · ~150-180 hrs

Case Summary

Nothing in The Witcher 3 is gated by reflexes alone. What decides how hard it feels is preparation: the right oil on the blade, the right Sign, a potion before the fight, and a look at the Bestiary before a contract. Remastered also rewards reactive play. Muscle Memory and Counterattack pay you for a clean dodge, so Souls instincts help, as long as you prepare like a witcher. Take contracts at level, because they go grey and pay nothing if you leave them. Treat The Isle of Mists as a wall: finish every character arc before it. The Path is Geralt's road through all six acts; The Continent is what is worth hunting out there; The Witcher is who you become, down to a bittersweet set of endings. The hunt is for family. Every tick saves on this device as you go.

0/87

Main Quests

0/35

Contracts

0/14

Great Hunts

Overall

🐺 The thesis

Preparation is the difficulty setting.

A witcher wins the fight before it starts: know the monster, pick the oil, cast the Sign, drink the potion, then swing.

⚡ The 30-Second Version

Pick Blood and Broken Bones! (Souls players), or Story and Sword! for a relaxed first run. You can change it any time.
Steel for humans and beasts, silver for monsters. Geralt swaps automatically; check which one is out.
Before every monster fight, apply the oil that matches its family (the Bestiary tells you). Oils are permanent in your inventory.
Quen is your panic button. Cast it before you get hit, not after.
Meditate to heal and restock potions, bombs and oils. It does NOT respawn enemies. Carry strong alcohol so potions refill.Verify in-game · 29 Sep
Dodge, then punish. A quick sidestep beats a roll in most fights. Muscle Memory pays you for it.
Take contracts at level. Grey-level contracts pay almost nothing.
Every Place of Power (blue light) = a free skill point. White Orchard has six.Verify in-game · 29 Sep

🟢 Easy Mode: the one thing that matters

Quen up, correct oil on, Swallow in your pocket. That combination carries you through almost any fight in the first 20 hours.

🩶 Spoiler level

Light. Systems, monsters and the opening only. The six-act route is on The Path; contracts, hunts and every missable on The Continent; builds, gear and endings on The Witcher. Contract monsters that are the twist stay withheld everywhere.

Edition: Remastered, game v5.00b (Steam), base game plus Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine. On New Game pick Fresh Start, not the expansion-only starts: those skip the base game with a pre-built Geralt.

✓Your First Hours, Ticked

01Tourist Traps

🔴 Tourist Trap: buying swords from merchants

Witcher school gear and quest rewards outscale anything a shop sells, and you outlevel shop swords in hours. Spend crowns on crafting and diagrams instead.

🔴 Tourist Trap: skipping oils

On any difficulty above Story and Sword!, the wrong oil (or none) doubles fight length. The oil is the damage.

🔴 Tourist Trap: letting contracts go grey

XP scales with level difference. A level 10 contract done at 20 is wasted. Take them at level.

🔴 Tourist Trap: leaving White Orchard early

Three side quests fail and six free skill points are easy to miss. Imperial Audience is the door; do not walk through it until the valley is done.

02The Witcher's Kit

Every Path uses it. Four habits, before every fight that matters.

Tool	What it does for you
Oil	Matches the monster family; switch as you switch targets.
Quen	Absorbs a hit; recast between openings.
Potion	Swallow (heal) as the baseline. Thunderbolt for damage later.
Bestiary	Read the entry when a contract updates it. It names the weakness.

03Coming from Souls?

Your instincts are an asset. Here is how they translate, and where they stop.

Your Souls habit	The Witcher version	What does NOT carry over
Dodge, then punish	Muscle Memory and Counterattack reward it directly	Rolling everywhere; a sidestep dodge is faster
Stamina management	Stamina also fuels Signs	You spend the same bar on magic
Damage types and weaknesses	Oils and the Bestiary	You set them before the fight, not mid-swing
Estus	Potions (refill on meditation)Verify · 29 Sep	Potions carry Toxicity; you can't chain them
Bonfire	Meditation	Resting does not respawn enemies
Build by stats	Build by skill trees and mutagens	There are no attribute points; gear and school techniques do that job

04Know the Monster, Pick the Answer

Family	Oil	Sign	Bomb / tool
Specters (wraiths)	Specter	Yrden	Moon Dust
Necrophages (ghouls, drowners, hags)	Necrophage	Igni	Grapeshot for nests
Draconids (griffins, wyverns)	Draconid	Aard	Crossbow to ground flyers
Hybrids (harpies, sirens)	Hybrid	Aard	Crossbow
Cursed (werewolves)	Cursed	Igni	Moon Dust
Relicts (leshens, fiends)	Relict	Igni	Dimeritium
Insectoids (arachas, endregas)	Insectoid	Igni	Golden Oriole potion
Ogroids (trolls, nekkers)	Ogroid	Quen	Dancing Star
Elementa (golems)	Elementa	Quen	Dimeritium
Vampires	Vampire	Igni	Black Blood potion
Beasts (wolves, bears)	Beast	Igni	Northern Wind
Humans and nonhumans	Hanged Man's Venom	Axii, Aard	Northern Wind

Honest unknowns: Remastered reworked monster behaviour. Weaknesses carry over from 4.x per the patch notes' "no content changes", but confirm the Bestiary on your first kill.Legacy data · 29 Sep

05How the Systems Work

Signs, Witcher Senses, Bestiary. Five Signs (Aard, Igni, Yrden, Quen, Axii) run on stamina. Witcher Senses (hold the button) shows tracks and clues. The Bestiary fills in as you fight and read, and names each monster's weakness.
Alchemy. Potions, decoctions, bombs and oils are crafted once and refilled from then on. Potions and decoctions raise Toxicity; stack too many and you take damage.
Meditation, crafting and repair. Meditate to pass time and restock. Diagrams let smiths and armorers craft gear; gear wears down, so carry repair kits or pay a craftsman.
Weight and merchants. Overloaded Geralt cannot run. Sell junk to merchants who stock that type, and dismantle what nobody wants.
Places of Power and mutagens. Each blue-lit Place of Power gives a skill point the first time. Mutagens slot next to your skills and multiply with matching colours (the rule is below).

💡 Remastered changes worth knowing

The skill tree has 3 ranks per skill.
Every point also pays a tree bonus, so filler points are never wasted.
Reforge at Yoana and Hattori changes a gear piece's look, never its stats.
Quick disengage: hold dodge, then sprint.
Loot from horseback, and a grouped loot window.
A Bard's Ballad preset on the easiest difficulty for story-first runs.

Source: CDPR's Remastered patch notes ↗

🧬 The mutagen rule

A mutagen's bonus is multiplied by the number of same-colour skills in its group of three: 0 = x1, 1 = x2, 2 = x3, 3 = x4. In-game: a blue +10% Sign intensity mutagen became +40% with three blue skills. General (gold) skills never match, so put them in the group with your weakest mutagen.

🃏 Gwent, in one card

Optional, never needed for the story. Win cards from innkeepers and traders.
Three Gwent quests can be lost. They sit on The Path with ⚠️.
The full card collection is a post-game hobby.

06What Kind of Witcher Are You?

Three recommended Remastered starting archetypes. The full cards, key skills and the planner live on The Witcher.

🐈 The DuelistDodge, punish, reposition. The Souls-veteran start.See the Path → 🧪 The AlchemistEvery fight is half-won in the meditation menu.See the Path → 🔵 The SpellbladeShape the fight with Signs, then finish it with the blade.See the Path →

Route progress0 / 0 tracked

Your ticks save automatically as you go, on this device. Contracts, hunts, Places of Power, gear, craftsmen and Gwent tick once and show everywhere.

msnMain quest optSide quest or contract bossGreat Hunt statPlace of Power gearWitcher gear keyUnlock 📜 contract · ☠️ Great Hunt · ✨ Place of Power · 🗝️ gear/unlock · 🃏 Gwent · ❤️ character · ⚠️ missable · ↪️ detour · ✋ hold here · ↑↓ linked

⚡ The Continent, in one line

Everything worth hunting out there, region by region: 35 contracts, 14 Great Hunts, 30 Places of Power, 29 gear hunts, 5 craftsmen and 9 Gwent quests. Tick them here or on The Path; each counts once. Maps: Game8's Witcher 3 hub ↗ or witcher3map.com ↗.

01The Regions

02Worth It?

What is actually worth doing out there, and what to leave for a second run.

Activity	Verdict	Why
Witcher contracts	★ Must-do	The heart of EVERY HUNT; best stories-per-hour in the game
Places of Power	★ Must-do	30 free skill points; 6 are quest-only
Character quests (❤️ on the Path)	★ Must-do	Endings, allies and the best writing
Your Path's school gear line	★ Must-do	Outscales everything else you can buy
Other schools' gear hunts	Worth it	For set bonuses, and Reforge looks at Yoana or Hattori
Gwent quests	Worth it	Three are missable; the rest are relaxed side stories
Monster nests and bandit camps	Worth it, once per area	XP and crafting parts; bombs close nests
? markers on land	Worth it early, skip later	Good loot at your level, diminishing after 25
Skellige sea ? (smugglers' caches)	Skip-run-one	Sirens, repetitive loot; leave for a completionist run
Collect 'Em All (all Gwent cards)	Skip-run-one	A post-game hobby
Horse races, fist fights	Skip-run-one	Only the ones a quest asks for
Wine Wars chain (Toussaint)	Worth it	Short, funny, gives Corvo Bianco upgrades

⚠️The Anti-Fumble Ledger⚠️ Protected: 0

Every warning on The Path, in the order you meet them. Each line names the quest that closes something, never what to pick. Tap a zone to jump to it.

03📜 Contracts

35 notice-board contracts, by region, at the level they pay best. Eight monsters are the twist, so their family is withheld; the 🔗! link opens a wiki page that names them.

04☠️ Great Hunts

The 14 fights that make the rest of EVERY HUNT. Names stay neutral and every link goes to the quest, never the creature.

05✨ Places of Power

30 blue lights, one skill point each. ⚠️ marks the six that exist only during a quest.

06🗝️ Witcher Gear, Craftsmen and Gwent

New for Remastered · tool

Skill Tree and Build Planner

All 80 skills, every rank read in-game. Type your level, pick a Path, see what to unlock next.

🐈 Duelist 🧪 Alchemist 🔵 Spellblade ✏️ Custom

No third-party build calculator supports the Remastered tree yet, so this one is the only one. Every number in it was read off the game by hand.

01Five Facts First

Four trees of 20 skills: Combat (red), Signs (blue), Alchemy (green), General (gold). One point in a skill unlocks the next skill down its line.
Every rank adds its rank 1 value again, and pays a tree bonus.

Tree Bonus per rank

Combat +1% Adrenaline gain

Signs +0.5 Stamina/s in combat

Alchemy +2% potion duration and bomb damage

General +1% Vitality

Honest unknown: does the bonus apply while the skill is unslotted?Open · 29 Sep About 20 skills scale some other way at ranks 2-3; the planner shows every one as read.
12 skill slots in four groups of 3, plus 4 mutagen slots. Level 1 has 1 slot; level 16 has 10 skill and 3 mutagen slots (in-game); all open by about level 30 (wiki, legacy).Verify · 29 Sep Blood and Wine's Mutations add 4 more.
The mutagen colour rule: x1 to x4 by matching skills in the group. General never matches.

Tree	Bonus per rank
Combat	+1% Adrenaline gain
Signs	+0.5 Stamina/s in combat
Alchemy	+2% potion duration and bomb damage
General	+1% Vitality

School Techniques are armor-weight passives, and all six are open from your first point.

Technique	Armor weight	Per piece at rank 1
Cat	Light	crit damage +8%, Fast Attack +2%
Wolf	Medium	weapon damage +2%, Sign intensity +2%
Bear	Heavy	Vitality +2%, Strong Attack +2%
Griffin	Medium	Sign intensity +2%, Stamina regen (reads 0/s until rank 3, a display quirk)
Manticore	Medium	sword +2%, bomb +2%
Viper	Medium	Vitality +2%, poison +2%

02What Kind of Witcher Are You?

Three recommended Remastered starting archetypes. Not a meta, not "the best build": the three honest shapes the new tree takes. Stars are priority; every effect below was read in-game at rank 1.

Trait	🐈 The Duelist	🧪 The Alchemist	🔵 The Spellblade
Identity	Speed · Precision · Criticals	Preparation · Knowledge · Exploitation	Signs · Control · Swordplay
Feels like	Dodge, punish, reposition. The Souls-veteran start	Every fight is half-won in the meditation menu	You shape the fight, then finish it with the blade
Ideal player	Souls and Lies of P veterans (Gibs's default)	The player who reads every Bestiary entry	The player who likes control over reflex
Beginner fit	Medium	Medium-High	High
Prep burden	Low → raise it on purpose	High	Medium
Survivability	Low-Medium	High	High
Power ceiling	High	Very highValidate	High
Tree / mutagen	Combat / red	Alchemy / green	Signs / blue
School	Cat (light)	Viper (medium) early; Manticore lateWeight? · 29 Sep	Wolf (medium, sword + Sign); Griffin for purer Signs
Late Mutation	Bloodbath	Euphoria	Conductors of Magic

Speed · Precision · Criticals

🐈 The Duelist

Dodge, punish, reposition. Your first point is Muscle Memory.

Key skills

★★★Muscle Memory: after a dodge, the next 1/2/3 Fast Attacks deal +30%.
★★★Crippling Strike: Fast Attack crits make the target take +10% damage per rank.
★★Strength Training: Fast Attacks power up the next Strong Attack by +15% per rank.
★★Three Strikes: the third hit of the same type has a 20% per rank chance to empower the next.
★★Counterattack: the next hit after a dodge or counter deals +33% per rank.
★★Razor Focus · Undying (your safety net)
★Fleet-Footed · Whirl
General★★★ Cat Techniques, ★★ Battle Frenzy, ★ Attack Is the Best Defense
Signs dip★★ Exploding Shield → Active Shield (Quen that heals)

Progression

1-12Muscle Memory first, then down the fast-attack line, with Quen investment for safety.
12-30Cat gear at 17. Crippling Strike, Counterattack, Battle Frenzy. Fill red mutagen groups with Combat skills.
30+Mastercrafted Cat at 34, Grandmaster Feline at 40, Bloodbath Mutation.

Muscle Memory hits harder with the right oil on the blade. Prepare like a witcher; dodge like you learned in the Lands Between.

Plan the Duelist →

Preparation · Knowledge · Exploitation

🧪 The Alchemist

Win the fight in the meditation menu. Toxicity is your power bar.

Key skills

★★★Acquired Tolerance: each known recipe gives +1 max Toxicity per rank.
★★★Hunter Instinct: at max Adrenaline, +20% per rank crit damage with the correct oil.
★★Refreshment: each potion dose heals 10% per rank.
★★Protective Coating · Tissue Transmutation · Endure Pain · Side Effects
★High Tolerance (late; take it knowingly: you take 150% damage above 80% Toxicity) · Delayed Recovery
Poison★★ Poisoned Blades, ★★ Toxic Shock, ★ Potent Sting
General★★★ Viper Techniques, ★★★ Metabolic Control, ★★ Metabolic Boost

Progression

EarlyFrenzy start, Refreshment, Acquired Tolerance. Learn every recipe you find: each one raises max Toxicity.
MidViper Techniques with medium armor, the poison branch, Tissue Transmutation, green mutagens.
LateManticore (Blood and Wine), Euphoria Mutation, High Tolerance if you can hold 80% Toxicity.

The Witcher's Kit still applies: oil, Quen, potion, Bestiary. You just do all four better than anyone.

Plan the Alchemist →

Signs · Control · Swordplay

🔵 The Spellblade

Shape the fight with Signs, finish it with the blade.

Key skills

★★★Catalyst: Aard and Igni +30% per rank inside Yrden.
★★★Resonance: after a Sign, 3 melee hits add 10% per rank of Sign intensity.
★★★Exploding Shield → Active Shield
★★Sidestep: a dodge makes the next Sign cost 20% per rank less.
★★Sustained Glyphs · Chain Reaction · Focus
★Aftershock · Melt Armor
Combat dip★★ Muscle Memory
General★★★ Wolf Techniques, ★★ Adrenaline Burst, ★★ Elemental Attunement

Progression

EarlyQuen line to Active Shield, Yrden to Sustained Glyphs.
MidWolf gear at 14 (Kaer Morhen), Catalyst, Chain Reaction, Focus, blue mutagens.
LateResonance capstone, Grandmaster Wolven or Griffin, Conductors of Magic Mutation.

Yrden first, then the blade. A Sign cast before the swing is the oil of this Path.

Plan the Spellblade →

🔄 Respec

Remastered reset every imported save's points once, for free (official).
Potion of Clearance is the legacy respec method (wiki).Still sold? · 29 Sep

Respec is cheap enough to experiment; switch Paths at the mid-game if a school's gear calls to you.

03Gear and Crafting

Tiers: basic → enhanced → superior → mastercrafted → grandmaster (Blood and Wine).
Craftsmen: journeyman (up to superior) → master (Yoana for armor, Hattori for swords) → grandmaster (Lazare Lafargue). The Continent tab tracks all five unlocks.
Reforge: at Yoana or Hattori only. It changes looks, never stats (official).

Set	3- and 6-piece bonus (legacy text; IGN launch-day agrees)
Feline	Strong attacks boost Fast Attacks
Griffin	Free follow-up Sign; Yrden becomes a buff zone
Ursine	Free Quen recast; Quen damage
Wolven	Bleed stacks
Manticore	Bomb crits; +1 alchemy charge
Forgotten Wolf	Potion duration; Aard in Yrden

Honest unknown: Manticore's armor weight versus the Medium-keyed Manticore Techniques.Open · 29 Sep

04The Endings

🕯️ Where the endings are decided

We name the quests. We never name the fates. Each "See consequences" link opens the wiki, which does.

Base game: several endings, shaped by how you treat the people closest to Geralt and by who holds power in the North. The quests that shape them:

Hearts of Stone: two endings, decided in Whatsoever a Man Soweth... See consequences

Blood and Wine: several endings, shaped in Beyond Hill and Dale... and Pomp and Strange Circumstance. Its epilogue remembers your base-game ending. See consequences

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Quest data: Witcher Wiki (community, CC BY-SA). Skill data read in-game. Not affiliated with CD PROJEKT RED.
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