The Witcher Diaries: Starting a New Game

I have two versions of this game in my memory. The first, a playthrough where I knew nothing and this world was as new to me as it was for a memoryless Geralt of Rivia in The Witcher, game one. I was clueless but intrigued. The second version being an observer with a wealth of knowledge and backstory of the entire Witcher Universe leading up to the moment when but four words appear on screen; The Witcher Wild Hunt.

However, I don’t think any experience can quite live up to the dramatic way this story was unveiled to me through my first playthrough. Simply an unknowing voyeur slowly learning the truth about this dark and twisted world, one tantalizing clue at a time. It required me to read into the context of every conversation as they play out before me, revealing just enough to provide the information I needed to start to piece together the history of a single white haired Witcher destined to forever be forced to make hard choices. But can we truly know what choices will lead us down the path of a lesser evil? That is yet to be seen, as we, or Geralt, are forced to make choices that will unknowingly mold the future of the entire world we are just now entering. 

Note: It becomes almost jarring now, going back to play the original Witcher game that started it all and ultimately led to this AAA game we all know and love today; Truly a game that all other games are compared to. In the first game, the stories and characters are over explained at every point, with so many dialog options and questions to be posed which explain not only your own personal history as Geralt and the memories that you forgot, but the history of the world you are trying to learn and understand. Despite interacting with a world of characters that know Geralt intimately and that we do not know at all - it feels so unnecessary to explain this with dialog rather than showing us through story lines and quests. Instead we find ourselves conversing with practically every nameless NPC for an absurd amount of time that does nothing but pad the game time. I should add that I don’t dislike the first Witcher games, it is just that they are very flawed pieces of artwork.

Our interaction with this game starts by triggering the game to load with a single click; we are greeted with a voice, a narrator. As he speaks he lays out a brief history of a Temeria under siege, an attack sanctioned by Emperor Emire, and a world full of insignificant people. He shares a series of events: a time known only as the Conjunction of the Spheres, the sudden appearance of different races and terrifying monsters, and a new world that has been blessed - or perhaps cursed - with the power of magic. We are then introduced to the crux of this story: mere boys who were mutated and trained to be lethal killers known as Witchers, and an army of riders these Witchers now face known simply as The Wild Hunt.

Opening Cinematic

The Witcher The Wild Hunt opens with a dramatic cinematic experience introducing us to a war torn Temeria, in the year 1272, amidst an epic battle between two warring factions. A raven haired woman rides into view as a soldier brings down his sword and decapitates the horse this woman is riding. She flies and rolls across the ground. She is left to crawl, struggling to escape the soldier. Suddenly, a raven appears and it starts to burrow its way through the eyeball, the brain, and only seconds later, his skull - ripping through his head and reemerging out the other side. In this moment we are brutally introduced to the horrors this world has to offer.

An unknown amount of time later, we see the woman as she notices a line of soldiers who release a volley of fire arrows in her direction. They fly over head as she turns to look. A stampede of enemy soldiers come riding, barreling towards her and the soldiers behind her. She bends down and as they approach she drops something. It releases a powerful spell, a shock wave and a large billow of smoke that blows the incoming riders up into the air. The black smoke draws in the ejected soldiers and we soon lose sight of their struggling bodies as the smoke consumes them. We see the remaining men ride past the woman, and she sees a horse with no rider whom she mounts. The raven follows the woman and as she rides away. The spell wears off and the raven turns into a shock of smoke and all that is left is a single token, a raven skull made of crystal falls to the ground.

Throughout this cinematic we also get to see glimpses of two men who are tracking our raven haired woman, expertly reading the signs and unraveling the mystery of what happened to her as if they were there to observe these events themselves.

Iconic Imagery

The sequence that soon follows is the most iconic scene in the entire game to ever grace pop-culture, and a moment that is replicated in the Netflix live-action adaptation. We enter a cut scene of Geralt relaxing in a hot bath of water. We see the bottom of his feet as they are propped up on the side of the bathtub and, between them, we see Geralt’s face: relaxed and his eyes closed.

A woman, as we soon learn, is just off to the side. A crab-like creature crawls into the tub and pinches Geralt in the, well we don’t know, but this prompts him to speak to the unknown guest. She urges him to get out of the bath and attend to a character only known as Ciri. Begrudgingly, he complies, but not before stealing a passionate kiss from this mystery woman.

We are led into a tutorial sequence, a quest known as Keir Morhen.

Keir Morhen

Main Quest: Keir Morhen

If you are playing this game for the very first time we are next led through a series of tutorials which take place at Kaer Morhen. This is the Witcher school of the Wolf, where Geralt was raised and trained to be a Witcher. In a moment we will be introduced to the way we navigate conversations in this game. We are provided with a series of dialog trees where we will be forced to choose one of the options in order to progress the story.

In this room we will learn how to interact with the world and we are now able to take a look around. We can see a few key things scattered about giving us clues as to who this mystery woman is. An empty decanter of juice which she would like Geralt to refill; A jewelry box of silver as gold clashes with the woman’s complexion; A change of clothes that are comprised of only black and white fabrics; A green perfume bottle and we can smell the scent of Lilac and Gooseberries; And lastly a key.

The tutorial prompts you to find a locked door to make use of the key, but you would be remiss if you did not take a moment to go out onto the balcony to take in the view of the mountain pass from the top of this tower. Geralt even comments on how beautiful it is. Down on the ground below, (don’t jump as you will kill yourself - or maybe do just because you can) you can just make out the sounds of a child training with a sword.

Once you are done here, you can progress and interact with the locked door. We descend the tower and we once again enter a cut scene where we are introduced to Vesemir who we will learn raised Geralt. We soon get a chance to interact with the child we saw from the balcony, known as Ciri. You can choose to be hard on the child, or be kind and jest.

You get to choose if you want to run through a quick tutorial that will teach you how to interact with the different obstacles you will be met with throughout the game. After another cut scene you will have to choose if you want to go through the next tutorial which is to review the fundamentals of the combat features used in this game.

A nightmarish scene plays out and we soon awaken to find ourselves, a bearded Geralt and our mentor Visemer, sitting near a camp fire.

Here we are at the end of our very first quest Keir Morhen and Toto, we are aren’t in Kansas anymore. Instead we are on a small introductory map known as White Orchard.

Lilac and Gooseberries - White Orchard

Last we left off, we were at the end of the major tutorial, the quest known as Keir Morhen. We are instead in a location known only as White Orchard. We are soon presented with but two clues that will continue us on our journey, a letter with the scent of Lilac and Gooseberries and a trail nearly run cold.

Main Quest: Lilac and Gooseberries

This is where the game starts, so to speak, and our only quest now is Lilac and Gooseberries which gives us the task: Kill the ghouls. Ghouls are nasty creatures but you can learn more about them by viewing the Glossary and looking in our Bestiary. We learn that they are actually vulnerable against Necrophage Oil, an ointment that can be applied to our silver sword to help us weaken enemy ghouls. Unfortunately for us, if we check out our inventory and view what oils we have, we have none - I guess we’ll have to figure out how to make some later. For now we’ll just have to fight them off the old fashioned way. Thank god for Witcher Silver Swords.

While fighting these ghouls you may notice some blue orbs floating in mid air. If you interact with this, we are presented with what is called a Crystal Skull. If you were observant, this is the same skull we saw from the cinematic. Do you remember the raven that the woman with the black hair had? Well this is that raven’s skull, and on top of that we now know the woman who the bird was protecting. We know her as Yennefer. You would be remiss if you didn’t piece together that the raven haired woman in the cinematic was the same person we saw in our dream. We can pick up the skull and Geralt says, “A black crystal, why do I think it is Yen’s?” We will actually be able to return this to Yen at a later date.

Once the ghouls are slain we can take a look around us and pick up the items the ghouls dropped using our Witcher Senses to find them. Our Witcher Senses also notice other things we can interact with and pick up such as forgeable items. It’s always a good idea to pick up anything and everything you can find, if not to create an oil, potion, or bomb, or upgrade our weapons and armor - we can sell them to make money.

A new task is set out for us in our quest. Follow Vesemir.

Going Off Quest

It is important that you take time to explore the map as thoroughly as possible and we can do this almost immediately. If you look at the map, we are just south of a significant landmark, a field - that being the location of the battle we witnessed in the earlier cinematic. Although we are meant to follow Vesemir, I suggest exploring the field just north of our camp fire. We’ll find lots of things here that we can later use or sell, so collect everything you find.

At the very least you’ll be able to collect: 14 Rusty Novigard Swords, 51 Blunt Axes, 8 Ashes, and 2 Horse Hide. There are at least two documents that we can pick up, one being the Dead Soldier’s Letter, and a recipe for Albedo, an alchemy substance. The letter reveals a point of interest where loot an be found. Maybe we should look for it.

If you continue north towards the tree line, Geralt will make a comment about "a place of power” and that his medallion is humming. This acknowledgment will place a marker on your map. However, don’t interact with it just yet - we will come back to this later. These Places of Power grant Geralt a temporary bonus and 1 Ability Point that can be invested later. There are five places of power on this map and if you activate all five at the same time, you can unlock an Achievement.

We can leave it here for the time being and get back to our quest. Call Roach over and mount him so that we can meet back up with Vesemir.

Follow Vesemir

Once on the road you can canter and Roach will automatically follow it. As you ride, you will pass through the village and witness the tragedies of a war torn country as the locals cry for their loved ones and the loss of Tameria. If you take a moment to look at your map you will see that green sign posts will appear as you find them. These are for fast travel, so unlocking them are a main priority to save time in the later game.

You’ll be forced into a cut scene and your next fight begins and will end rather abruptly. Talk to the commoner and you are left with a choice. He will ultimately direct you towards an inn which might as well be your next stop. Before we go anywhere however, we have a new entry in our Bestiary that will give us some more insight that will help us kill the Griffin a little later.

Go to the tavern in White Orchard

Cross the bridge and we can enter the Inn Bram suggested we visit. The innkeeper offers food on the house, and gives you four Roasted Chicken Legs. You can peruse what she has on offer but there are quite a few things we can accomplish now. First go to your inventory and look at Other. Here we can sell 42 of our Blunt Axes for 4 gold a piece clearing her out. But now you’ll have some extra cash to pick up the 5 Gwent Cards she has on sale for 160 gold.

• Decoy, Neutral Card: 20 gold - Allows you to switch out one card in play.

• Catapult, Northern Realms: 50 gold- A multiplier card, meaning it’s value will increase when both of these cards are put into play. The second card will be acquired at a later date.

• Blue Stripes Commando, Northern Realms: 20 gold - A multiplier card. The second and third card will be acquired at a later date.

• Crinfrid Reavers Dragon Hunter, Northern Realms: 20 gold - A multiplier card. The second will be acquired at a later date.

• Foltest, Northern Realms: 50 gold - This is a leader card that gives you the ability to clear any weather effects once per game. This is my favorite leader card so getting it even before your first game of Gwent gives me a good advantage.

Once you buy the cards you can sell the remaining nine Blunt Axes for 36 gold, eight Ashes for 8 gold, two Horse Hides for 78 gold, and any food items you have. Only exit once you’ve either sold all your items or she has no gold left to offer. This interaction of buying Gwent cards will start a Secondary Quest Collect ‘Em All which requires you to find every Gwent card available in the game. This does take some effort as you will need to do very specific things at specific times during the game in order to acquire every card and unlock the Achievement.

If you do not use the “There a contract on the griffin?” prompt in the tree dialog when talking to the innkeeper, she will ask about it once you end the interaction. However, you refuse to do anything about the griffin until you are offered coin to rid of it.

Ask travelers about Yennefer.

There are only two other NPC’s you can have a conversation with about Yennefer inside the inn, the scholar and Master Mirror. Talking to Master Mirror, you will have an interesting conversation but the dialog choices you make here have no influence on anything except a tailored response from the Master. You will receive a Nilfgaardian Lemon - an Alchemy ingredient - during this conversation.

Engaging the scholar in conversation will prompt a bit of back and forth until you end the conversation. It is at this point he will offer to teach you Gwent, and - upon agreement - you’ll receive a base deck, a copy of the book “A Miraculous Guide to Gwent”, and enter a tutorial. See Gwent Tutorial.

The last thing you might want to interact with is at the back of the Inn which is the chest called Stash. “You can store weapons, armor, or junk in your stash for safekeeping, confident they will not be stolen or otherwise disappear. You can access your stash in a number of places throughout the world. Items stored in your stash in one location will be available in all other locations as well. Stash locations are always visible on the map, just look for the chest icon.” The stash is great especially early on in the game as you can store particularly heavy items to prevent you from becoming over burdened.

You may notice that cats are compulsively scared of you and will hiss at you. They are not a danger to you in any way, they just don’t like you. Something about your eyes perhaps.

You can now leave the inn. At this point you will be confronted by three commoners - there is no way to avoid this fist fight. Be on guard and use parry to nock them back. You’ll have your opening to take them down fast. The interaction ends here and you can continue on with no further distractions.

Notice Boards

Continuing our journey west we will be met with a Notice Board which will have an offering of quests for us to collect.  By interacting with Notice Boards you will automatically unlock points of interest that will be marked on your map by white question marks, and collecting the notices on these bords will add quests to our logs. Here we can collect Missing in Action and Contract: Devil by the Well.

Here for the first time we will be presented with a quest that has a number besides it’s name. This number is the suggested level you should have before attempting to complete said quest. Here we pick up Contract: Devil by the Well which has the number 2 in front of it. The game suggests that we are at least level two before attempting to go through with our task.

When collecting quests know that there may be a time frame in which some quests must be completed by or you will lose the ability to complete them. For example, you must complete the following quests before leaving White Orchard or your departure will force them to fail:

• A Frying Pan, Spick and Span

• Missing in Action

• On Deaths’ Bed

• Precious Cargo

• Twisted Fire Starter

A Marked Quest

Occasionally when you are wandering the world of the Witcher, you might pass by an area and realize a Quest Marker appeared. These are quests that you can collect just by being in the area. To actually accept the quest and add it to our log you will need to interact with the Quest Giver. If we continue our way west, we can over hear a very angry Dwarf hammering away at his anvil.

Engaging him with conversation we’ll learn someone set his whole forge on fire and in the process he lost everything. Talking with him, we can convince him to higher us on to find the arsonist. See Twisted Firestarter - White Orchard. We can continue to explore or we can head north to learn more about Yennefer.

Ask the Nilfgaardians about Yennefer.

Heading north we don’t have to go far to find our next Yellow Marker, a woman standing on the side of the river. We get our first opportunity to interact with the environment with our Witcher spells. Interact with the woman to find out how you can help. See A Frying Pan, Spick and Span.

Our trip is quite the hike to the upper boarder of the map but if we hug the river we will happen upon a dead body that we can loot. Take the Temarian Lily Key. Be quick as two Drowners will attack. It’s not hard to fight them off however. If we look in our Bestiary we can figure out what they are vulnerable against; Necrophage Oil and Igni, one of our Witcher signs. We’re still missing a few ingredients to make the Necrophage Oil, but we know how to make fire. See if you can collect a Drowner Brain from the drowner courpses - we will need this to make Swallow, a heath potion.

If we use our Witcher senses we’ll quickly find a chest at the bottom of the river to pick up a few items, including a book “Blood-Soaked Military Orders”, what remains of an unheeded request. While we are in the water, forage some Buckthorn that can only be found in the deepest part of the river. We will need that later.

Upon reading the book we just found, we unlock a new quest, Temarian Valuables. You’ll notice that it suggests being at least level 4, so we will put this aside for now.

Just west of our current location, we can find our first Location of Interest. If you happen upon the bee’s hive - you can use Igni to dispel the bees and collect 3 Honeycomb, it is a consumable food item. The Location of Interest turns out to be a place of power. As mentioned earlier, we need this to unlock an achievement so we will ignore it for now, but remember it’s location.

Let’s get back to the road and continue north. This will lead us to another Location of Interest, a Guarded Treasure. We’ll find wolves protecting the treasure that we must fight off. To prepare us for this battle, I use the Meditation function to heal up before taking them on. Once complete, check the wolves dropped loot for Dog Tallow as it is a valuable Alchemy Ingredient. You may also find Wolf’s Liver. The Guarded Treasure will provide us with various Crafting Components that will be useful later.

The road towards the north will turn west and we will come upon a set of wooden stairs. Ascend them, and turn right to participate in a cut scene. The two guards will welcome you in. There are quite a few forgeable items such as Verbena and Blowball, and a quartermaster you can purchase and sell crafting and weapon items to. I usually sell off low level runestones, glyphs, and any extra weapons or armor I’ve found along my journey to pad my wallet, while keeping items like Repair Kit.

Follow the stairs right of the quartermaster and you’ll enter into a cut scene. This interaction does give you hope that there can be peace between the Temerian people, and the Nilfgaardian army that took over the area. You will ask after Yennefer, and the Nilfgaardian will set his price; Deal with the griffin or be turned away. You’ll be directed towards a herbalist named Tomira, and a hunter names Mislav. You can end the interaction.

To continue with the Lilac and Gooseberries quest, you will have to complete the griffin contract: The Beast of White Orchard.

Prepare to leave White Orchard With Vesemir

After finishing The Beast of White Orchard, I made one quick stop before meeting up with Vesemir. This means making our way to the Inn once again.

A Gwent Tutorial

Getting Started with Gwent

Getting started with Gwent might feel a little overwhelming at first, but the game is pretty simple, especially if luck is on your side. Your ultimate goal is to be the one to wrack up more points than your opponent at the end of each round. Do that twice and you win. This may require some finesse to learn to play your cards right, meaning knowing when to pass or, figuratively, when to double down.

At this point in the game you will have a base deck for all of the deck sets, but you’ll only have enough cards to play a round with the Northern Realms Deck. You will have to collect more cards for your Socia’tael, Monsters, and Nilfgaardian Empire decks before you can play with them.

Building Your Northern Realms Deck

To start building your Norther Realms Deck you first want to access your deck from the settings menu. I have no idea why it’s embedded there. Once there you will want to move the new cards you just bought from the Innkeeper during the Lilac and Gooseberries quest into your deck. Keep in mind that once you accept to play an opponent, you can not edit your deck. That can only be done outside of a match.

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What’s on Screen

At the very top of the screen we can choose which deck we want to edit by switching between them. At this point in the game that includes the Northern Realms, Socia’tael, Mosnters, and Nilfgaardian Empire decks.

On the left hand side of the screen we can sort through all of our cards that are not currently in our deck. Opposite of this on the right side of the screen we can sort through all of the cards that are currently in our deck. Within these we have the option to sort our cards by type. So we can view All Cards in our deck, or we can look at just the Close Combat Unit Cards, just the Ranged Unit Cards, just the Siege Unit Cards, just the Hero Cards, just the Weather Cards, or just our Special Cards.

Down the center we have the ability to change our current Leader card.

Below this is a running tally of the different types of cards you have in your deck. Total cards in deck will describe how many individual cards you currently have in your deck. Number of Unit Cards describes how many Combat, Ranged, or Siege cards you currently have in your deck. (You must have at least 22 unit cards in your deck to take on opponents.) Special Cards describes how many decoy and weather cards you currently have in your deck. Total Unit Card Strength describes how many points your deck has in total. Lastly there are the Hero Cards which tells you how many Hero Cards are currently in your deck.

Choosing Your Cards

You only need 22 unit cards in total, so I like to keep the number of these cards as low as possible, meaning only having 22 unit cards at any time to make better use of the high point cards we have. This allows you to remove any excess cards starting with the lowest scoring cards. So move the Blue Stripes Commando, Catapult, Crinfrid Reavers Dragon Hunter, and Decoy cards into your active deck.

Next we will want to switch out our current Leader card for the one we bought at the inn. Instead of the Foltest King of Temeria card, we want to use the Foltest Lord Commander of the North card which grants you the ability to clear any weather effects in play once per encounter.

You start with 9 Special Cards already in your deck, but we only want to keep the essentials that will help us win. Again, keeping the number of cards in our deck low will help us make better use of the high point cards we acquire. So we can remove the Impenetrable Fog, Torrential Rain, and Clear Weather cards (as long as we have our Leader Ability, we won’t need any Clear Weather cards). We will only be needing the two Biting Frost Cards.

We end up with 22 Unit Cards and 3 Special Cards in our deck. Twenty Five in total.

Cards of Note

Make note of any Leader, Spy, Medic, Tight Bond, or Hero Cards you have as they all have special abilities that are particularly useful. As of right now those cards include the two Foltest cards, the Prince Stennis Spy card, Dun Banner Medic card and Blue Stripes Commando Tight Bond cards. You’ll also want to be familiar with your Decoy, and Biting Frost cards. All together these are our more powerful moves.

Keep in mind that your opponent can apply these same tactics against you - so watch out!

Leader Cards: as mentioned earlier, leader cards allow you one special ability per game. The default leader is the Foltest King of Temeria card which allows you to ‘Pick an Impenetrable Fog card from your deck and play it instantly.’ I consider this to be the weaker choice as it may or may not be a necessary card depending on what deck you are playing against. You won’t know what deck you are playing against until a game starts so this card is not essential to your victory in all circumstances.

Alternatively you should already have the Foltest Lord Commander of the North card which allows you to ‘Clear any weather effects in play.’ I consider this to be the superior choice as all decks include weather cards so this one will be more essential to your strategy no matter who your opponent is.

Prince Stennis Spy: spy cards when played go down on the opponents side and gives all his points towards your opponents total score. Although this might seem like a disadvantage, his ability allows you to draw two additional cards from your deck and that is always more useful and more powerful than the points you just gave your opponent. Always play these cards so that you can grow your hand with even more powerful cards. Keep as many of these cards in your deck as possible.

Dun Banner Medic: medic cards when played will allow you to revive a single card from your discard pile. They themselves usually have decent point scores allowing you to put two cards down in one single turn.

Blue Stripes Commando Tight Bond: tight bond cards when played allow the player to ‘Place next to a card with the same name to double the strength of both cards.’ This means that one single Blue Stripes Commando card when played is worth four points, but that value will double when you have two or three in play.

Hero: hero cards are a special type of card independent from the others. They feature a main character, such as Geralt or Yennefer and usually carry a high point count. Hero cards can not be nerfed, so they are unaffected by weather cards, and can’t be discarded until the end of a round. Some can double as Spies or Medics.

Decoy: decoy cards allow you to ‘Swap with a card on the battlefield to return it to your hand.’ These cards are quite useful because you can call back a card to your hand, either to use in a later round, or apply its effect for a second time within the same round.

An example of this would be to use a Medic card twice. If you play a Medic card once you can draw a card from your discard pile. If you then recall your Medic by using a Decoy card you can then play the Medic for a second time, later in the game giving you the ability to recall yet another card from your discard pile.

Another example would be if your opponent uses a Spy card, you can switch their Spy card on your playing field for your Decoy card so that you can then play that Spy card and receive two cards from your deck. It does not matter if that card was originally used by your opponent, if you play the card you will receive two additional cards from your own deck.

Weather Cards: different weather cards have different effects. Biting Frost cards ‘Sets the strength of all Close Combat cards to 1 for both players'. Close Combat cards are cards that are delt to your first row. Impenetrable Fog cards ‘Sets the strength of all Ranged Combat cards to 1 for both players.’ Ranged Combat cards are cards that are delt to your second row. Torrential Rain cards ‘Sets the strength of all Siege Combat cards to 1 for both players.' Siege Combat cards are cards that are delt to your last row. Clear Weather cards ‘Remove all Weather Card effects.’

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Playing Against Monster Decks

When facing an opponent they will use a variety of cards and the Scoia’tael and Nilfgaardian Empire decks will usually be on level footing versus your Northern Realms deck, that is - as long as you are going against someone who is at a similar level of difficulty. Play against people that are at the same level of difficulty and you will usually do just fine as long as luck is on your side.

The deck you need to outsmart is going to be a Monster deck- no matter their level of difficulty. Monster Decks are primarily comprised of not only Close Combat cards, but Tight Bond cards that can easily overpower whatever cards you’ve got on the playing field so you have to be strategic. This means building a deck with cards that are primarily either Ranged Combat cards or Siege Combat cards. The only Close Combat cards you want to have in your deck are other Tight Bond cards or Hero cards.

This is why you want to have those two Biting Frost cards in your deck. Remember that this card will only effect Close Combat cards, so when played against a Monster deck - which has the potential of placing a ridiculous number of points in their first row - we can dramatically reduce their number of points with this weather card to hopefully eek out a win.

Technique

Although people who play with Monster Decks have a slight advantage - they tend to follow a pattern. Usually in the first round they will throw everything they’ve got at you. Wait it out and let them play all their major cards, wracking up points… and at the last second, use your Biting Frost card to reduce their points to an amount you can easily beat.

The best strategy is to try and play the Weather card after they pass, or they can use their Foltest card, or a Clear Weather card to remove your Biting Frost card from play securing their victory at the last moment. This is why having a second Biting Frost card is useful because if they remove your Weather card from play - you can use your backup. If you were lucky to be delt multiple Spy cards, the chances of having these Weather cards is much higher.

The great thing about this strategy is that you aren’t wasting your cards, because once you’ve played your weather card, those points out in the playing field aren’t just going to waste, they are going towards your point count and you are way more likely to pull a W.

At that point you just have to go through the motions as the second round will prove to be a whole lot simpler.

My original technique against these decks was to just hold on as long as possible, scrap the first round and hope to god they got most of their cards out in the initial round. I would pass and ultimately lose my first round. This meant I had to win two rounds in a row, but with a smaller hand this got hard to do especially if it turned out they still had something really good left up their sleeve. This usually led to me losing a few games until I got lucky. This technique was not as efficient and led to more losses then wins. Tailoring your deck this way will prove to pull an easy win from all the other Card Factions.

This alternative strategy, to stack your deck against Monster Decks, is the most efficient way to win against them, especially in the early game when you don’t have as many high point cards.

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Start your first game.

You have up to three chances to win two games against your opponent. If you end a round with less points than your opponent, you will lose that round. Lose twice and the game is over - your opponent wins.

At the start of each game and your first ten cards are delt, you will get the opportunity to redraw any two cards for the hopes of getting two, more efficient cards. I usually focus on removing lower point cards in hopes of getting something better. We are looking to stack our hand to have as many points as possible or as many useful cards as possible. This can be hard to do in the early game with so little points, practically useless cards, and not really knowing what you are doing can lead to a quick L.

On your turn you will have the option of Passing, which will automatically end this round for you, use your Leader card, or play one card from your hand. The point of the game is to try and outsmart your opponent - and ultimately to have some fun.

There are going to be different techniques you can use such as just throwing all your high cards to overpower your opponent, you can draw it out by using a lot of low point cards to get your opponent to play his hand and run out of points for a round 2, play your high cards and wait so that they deal up a lot of combat cards that you can knock out at the last second with a weather effect, or you can use spy cards to draw more cards and use Medic cards to bring back old cards, and just run them into the ground… it all depends on what you have in your hand and just how many points the opponent has.

Each game will be different, but it is usually a good idea to draw each round out just a little to really get a feel for your opponent. For example, just because your cards are being affected by a weather card doesn’t mean you have to immediately dispel it. Remember, even if your total score might be low now, your cards still hold potential. The score isn’t tallied until you both pass, or one of you run out of cards... But waiting does give us a small advantage.  See what the enemy does, that way you have more information and can make better choices. Best case scenario: our opponent ends their round - giving us time to play anything we want giving us a total advantage. 

Twisted Firestarter - White Orchard

Noticing a yellow marker on our map, we over hear an angry voice. You always want to pay attention to the sounds and events going on around you. They may often lead to interesting interactions that you might have otherwise overlooked. Taking the time to look for the source - we notice a dwarven Blacksmith, Willis.

After a brief interaction we learn that someone set fire to his forge and in the process, our poor Willis, lost everything he had to his name - save an anvil and hammer. Choosing to continue the conversation we can convince Willis to higher Geralt to find the arsonist. Ending the conversation, we can set our focus on the Twisted Firestarter quest.

Using our Witcher senses we can look around the burnt out hut for clues. We can’t actually go inside, but if we look around the back of the hut we will find our first hint. Interact and Geralt will divulge his knowledge for us.

After following the trail we are led to a second hut, and here we are going to be faced with our first major choice. Although this is just a small interaction, our choices do have consequences. Depending on what we choose one person’s life may figuratively, or sometimes literally, hang in the balance.

In the world of the Witcher Geralt is often burdened to make a choice that may have unforeseen consequences. Often it is truly impossible to know in the moment of making a choice, in the moment of picking a side, which will lead to the best outcome. So, Geralt tries to choose which action is the one of a lesser evil. Make the choice that will lead to the best outcome. But we learn that sometimes doing the right thing can cause terrible consequences, while doing the wrong thing may ultimately lead to the best outcome for every one. But, often times, it’s truly impossible to know in the moment of making a choice, in the moment of taking a side, what will lead to the best outcome.

Whichever path you choose here, your reward is 20 gold. A low reward for what might be a hefty consequence. We are taught early on that even the smallest of choices. ones that feel mondain and inconsequential can lead to a larger web of future events.

Trading with a Blacksmith or Armorer

Whatever your choice, we can now interact with Willis as a vender (296 gold) and offload our 14 Rusty Novigrad Swords for 3 gold a piece (42 gold). You can usually sell crafting materials to blacksmiths, but it’s early game and we have a lot of stuff to unlock so it’s best to hold onto whatever you’ve found and wait till you’ve collected at least 10 of a certain thing before we start selling off the extras.

Here you will also have an opportunity to purchase Saddle Bags to put on Roach to increase your maximum inventory weight from 60 to 90. It will cost you 186 gold for the upgrade, it is up to you if you want to spend the gold. Usually, at this point, we can afford to put it off a bit longer, but the upgrade will allow you to collect even more to sell off later.

Here we can learn with a quick scroll to the ‘Repair’ screen and see that blacksmiths can help us when our armor and weapons get damaged. For a price they will repair them. You can see how badly damaged an item is by selecting it. None of your items should be too damaged at this point - but it is an important thing to keep track of. They can also dismantle equipment or other resources for their basic parts, or you can craft new items.

Here, our story of the Twisted Firestarter, officially ends.

Frying Pan, Spick and Span - White Orchard

Along our travels to find Yennefer, we head north from the Inn, and on the river’s side we hear a woman. She seems a bit frantic as we approach her and she wishes to tell us a tale. All this to say she needs help getting her Frying Pan back. There are many quests like this in the Witcher that require us to interact with actual people out in the world to find, accept, and complete tasks. Some are small, some ask for a bit more.

Here we just need to break down the door to get access to the hut, but to do that we need to use our Witcher magic, so switch to using Aard. Once inside feel free to take anything that isn’t nailed down. You’ll soon upon a dead body, a broken Silver Monocle, a fireplace containing Burned Papers, and the Frying Pan. Geralt will explain what he makes of these clues.

The burned papers and the broken Silver Monocle give us some unspoken insight into the story that had unfolded in this hut. The words in the papers and the monocle we found on the floor remind us of an old friend.

Leaving the hut and approaching the old woman a second time, she will offer a token of thanks, 5 Baked Apple and 5 Apple Juice. The quest ends here just as soon as it had started. We can continue on.

World Map: White Orchard

REMINDER: Always check large fallen trees for stashed GOLD!

Player Notes:

There are a myriad of Locations of Interest on my map that I wish to clear. With no HUD and no Map, this will be a hard task. The first location is a ghoul’s nest. I’ve no bombs crafted yet. I must move on.

Success. My second location was a guarded treasure with only three bandits to protect it. I picked up a few weapons I’ll be able to trade for gold.

Success. For my third location I happened upon a chest of valuables that I read about in a Dead Soldier’s Letter. I recovered a Vicovaro blade, Reliever’s decoction, Basilisk decoction, and a Diagram: Broadhead bolts. Sadly three men died, also trying to recover the valuables located here. To climb back up to the road, simply go left of the chests and climb the stone face. From here I must head north, but first I meditate to recoup.

I know how to access the next location.

Success. For my fourth location I was able to use a finishing move to decapitate one of the bandits. I can sell some of the looted items. I found the book Interrogation Report, and a Diagram: Serpentine Steel Sword. The report depicts the suspected actions of Witcher Kolgrim accused of kidnapping Vitty, son of Paul. The Witcher was proven innocent but had already been killed via trial of ordeal.

“…rather than face the baronet’s judgement, he chose trial by ordeal. Sir Ignatius agreed and ordered he cleanse the Verrieres family crypt of specters. Kolgrim never emerged from said crypt. It is highly likely the motley wraiths, specters, and evil power residing therein proved too much for him.”

I now head west into the forest.

Success. I slew the bandits and recovered the Water Hag Decoction at my fifth location. I head towards a nearby bridge.

Success. I looted the items from under the bridge at my sixth location.

I follow the road from the bridge to my seventh location. Success. I killed the ghouls and the local population has returned to the site; a shrine to which they pray. A merchant stands here and I purchased a recipe for White Gull.

I’ve finally collected what I need to create Necrophage Oil.

Success. At my eighth location I found a Place of Power. I should draw from it.

Success. At my nineth location I found a Place of Power. I should draw from it.

Success. I was confronted by a band of bandits in my tenth location, but they were sloppy. I cut a man clean in two. I located the Earth Elemental Decoction and Forktail Decoction. My travels will take me north towards the Sawmill.

Success. At my eleventh location I found the Sawmill abandoned. Clearing the ghouls allowed the population to return.

Success. At my twelfth location I cleared the bandits. I came across the recipe for the Dancing Star bomb, and Succubus Decoction.

Success. I cleared my thirteenth location. To access more locations I must travel East.

I encountered a quest.

Success. I was able to locate my fourteenth location at the bottom of a lake. I found an Enhanced Saddle.

Success. At my fifteenth location I found a Place of Power. I should draw from it.

Success. At my sixteenth location I found a Place of Power. I should draw from it.

Success. At my seventeenth location I found a Place of Power. I should draw from it.

Success. At my eighteenth location I fought wolves and found Scrawled Notes, Diagram: Exploding Bolt, and Leshen Decoction.

Success. At my nineteenth location I fought wolves and found Spy’s Notes.

Success. At location twenty, I encountered a large group of bandits and it took a while to cut them all down. Looting the site completed the quest Dirty Funds.

Success. At the twenty first, and very last location in White Orchard has been cleared. I found the Tawny Owl recipe. * There is a twenty second location, but is not accessible at this point in time.