You'll see question marks all over the maps. Those are areas in the wild to explore. Of course you don't have to wait until those appear and can just start venturing out. You'll pick up a million side quests, don't worry. You get a lot of them at the notice boards in the villages you visit.
That's the main story line. The game has 4-5 main areas with tons of side quests in each. Right now, you are in White Orchard, which is the first, easiest, and smallest of those areas. I would explore the White Orchard map. Go to the towns and read the Notice Boards. You pick up questions there. Also, I would make an effort to visit all of the '?' spots that appear on the map after reading the Notice Boards. Tons and tons of interesting stuff and content. Do the same thing once you get to the other main areas (Velen, Novigrad, Skellige, Toussaint). Enjoy the first play through man. I'm jealous. Don't rush it. Take your time. Talk to everyone. The game has an incredible level of depth.
Also don't get super drunk and do the Gwent tutorial and then not understand what is going on and skip the game altogether.
How do I trigger the Gwent tutorial? I saw some cards for sale in the inn that Vesemir leads you to, but didn't buy any.
Is there a way to find out where certain plants grow? I was doing the Devil in the Well quest where you have to kill a noonwraith and wanted to make some specter oil. I needed a certain plant to make the oil, though, and couldn't find it. Is there a way to find out where a specific plant is likely to be growing?
you can look for herbalists, merchants, or innkeeps to buy it from if you don't encounter it roaming around.
The herbalist lady that you meet in white orchard probably has it. The good thing is it never runs out once you make it
Fuck me. I bought enough ingredients for 10 samum bombs last night because I ran out of it while destroying a monster nest.
More questions for you guys... How common are runes and glyphs? I have a handful saved up, but don't really want to waste them on gear that I'll be replacing. But if they're relatively common then I'll use them when I find them. How will I find the best gear? Is it usually found while exploring/questing, bought from stores, or do I need to craft it? In what order should I do the main quest and expansions? I just left the palace and arrived in Velen and a few popups told me about the expansion packs. At what point or level should I start doing them? If they're going to give me some nice gear or abilities then I'd like to do them sooner rather than later so I can use them in the main quest. Can you do any kind of combos or linked attacks in combat?
The best armor is the witcher armor which is crafted. You find the diagrams for it during treasure hunt quests. For the best armor only master armorers can craft it. Runes and glyphs are pretty common, you can buy them pretty much everywhere.
Do the treasure hunt quests for the witcher gear. Gwent is life. The best strategy is to have as many spy cards as possible. I'd just follow the recommended levels. The best armorer is in Touissaint, and Hearts of Stone gives you the runewright but you'll get whacked by the lowest level monster there. Just follow along the recommended levels and I'd say do as many side quests as possible before progressing the story because you might not be able to do them afterward. There's good gear in some loot but you make a lot of the gear as well
Is there a library or bookstore somewhere where I can find recipes for different oils/potions/bombs? I'm trying to kill Shrieker the cockatrice but I'm struggling and some draconid oil would be awesome, but I can't find the recipe for it.
I spent so long searching for the White Gull recipe, before I realized it was an alcohol and that I had had it the whole time. Needed it for those insane superior potions, Golden Oriole will heal you whenever you take poison damage. I'm on my last playthrough, been trying to do everything there is to do; I finally cleared all the question marks in Velen.
Mother of god. Did you actually get all of the treasure ones in the water? I did everything besides those. Completely pointless
Just started playing this. In Velen and just finished beating the golum and first Hunt of the Wild guy. Completely cleared White Orchard. Cleared a couple of bandit camps in Velen and did the werewolf side quest. Almost level 6. As was said early in this thread, the main quest will level you up pretty quickly. Going to try and get to level 7 or 8 before trying to complete a lot of the question marks. Keep running into level 15 and above monsters that wreck me. The best swords I have are the snake ones you can get in White Orchard. I've found a few steel swords with higher damage but nothing else useful about them. I'm putting points in Quen and Fast attack so far. Can't figure out if I should use swords with lower damage and much high crit or keep with the snake swords.
Did anyone bother to fight the gargoyle in the cave you go into with Keira? I've skipped that fight both times. That fucking thing wrecked me. I demolished the first Wild Hunt dude though. I'm at the start of the Crones quest now. Played this before until a few hours into Skellige (probably 60 or so hours) and put it down for so long that I felt the need to just start over to catch myself up on the story.
That Keira quest was so damn hard the first time around. Lawnole23, I usually go with the not so special higher dmg swords at those levels; don't bother if the damage is only 3-5 higher. The Viper swords are good for a few levels, but you're gonna have to abandon them abruptly. Make sure you pick up all them crafting materials.
Yea I'm getting to the point where I will need something better. I pick up everything I can. All my extra swords I've paid to have them disassembled. Going through the golum dungeon I picked up a number of armor and sword diagrams so going to work on creating better weapons and armor. I need to find some master level people because most of what I can have crafted so far is worse than what I currently use.
Yea I need that flamethrower attack. Should I invest a point early on in the sign that opens up additional dialogue options?
I normally don't but had to pay a lot of crowns because I did not have the perk, which would have let me get by for free.
My first 3 points went into mind control. It gets really fun to make guards attack each other when there's a lot of them.
Need the mutation that cuts people in half and slices off their heads and shit in the DLC. Combined with the twirly quick attack and youre slap chopping ampendages eurrrrwhere
I'm still in Velen. Almost level 14 just been doing side quests for awhile before Novigrad. Made the entire Griffin armor set. Not sure how I feel about a sign build. Been neglecting putting points into it outside of Quen. Figure I'll put a few in Igni and see how it goes. How is playing with the cat armor?
I almost exclusively use Quen, Yrden when needed. I use bombs when I want to set things on fire, almost never Igni. But that's just my playing style.
I almost never use bombs. I think I'm afraid it will take too long to aim. Igni is useful if they actually set on fire and started falling back. You can then take them out very quickly.
if you just tap the button he just throws it. As long as the enemy is standing relatively close to you, you'll hit them. You don't have to aim.
What level did everyone go to Skellige? I'm level 15 and just wandering around doing side quests and exploring area I haven't seen yet. Most of my contracts are level 20 and above so I can't do them yet. Not sure if I need to find shit to do in Novigrad and Velen until level 20 or so then hit Skellige or head over there shortly.
That does seem low. I'm 12 and just got to Novigrad. I think I was 22ish when I went to Skellige the first time but I did ALL of the question marks and bullshit all over Velen/Novigrad. Side note: the level 8 contract Shrieker beat my ass yesterday.