The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Wiki

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is a 2015 open-world action role-playing game developed and published by CD Projekt Red, the third mainline entry in the series adapted from Andrzej Sapkowski's novels. Players control Geralt of Rivia, a professional monster hunter, as he searches for his adopted daughter Ciri while the otherworldly Wild Hunt races to claim her for its own ends. The campaign spans the war-torn Northern Kingdoms, the free city of Novigrad, the Skellige isles and the witcher fortress of Kaer Morhen, and it is built on contracts, investigation and preparation as much as on swordplay: Geralt tracks monsters with his Witcher Senses, reads the bestiary, brews the right oils and potions, and chooses signs to exploit a creature's weakness. Its two expansions, Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine, added the Ofieri curse story and the untouched duchy of Toussaint, and the 2022 next-generation update rebuilt the game for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S with ray tracing, faster loading and a photo mode.

• Two-Sword Combat: Geralt carries a steel sword for humans and a silver sword for monsters, and every fight is a mix of fast and strong attacks, dodges, rolls, parries and counterattacks rather than a single attack button.
• The Five Signs: Aard, Igni, Yrden, Quen and Axii are the witcher's simple magic, each with alternate casting modes and an upgrade path, and they are the main answer to shielded, armoured or grouped enemies.
• Witcher Senses and Investigation: A held-senses mode highlights tracks, scent trails and interactive objects, and most main quests and witcher contracts are built around following those clues to a conclusion.
• Preparation and Alchemy: Potions, decoctions, blade oils and bombs are brewed from herbs and monster parts, and the bestiary records each creature's weaknesses so a prepared witcher can walk into a fight with the right oil applied and the right decoction running.
• Witcher Gear and Crafting: The six witcher schools each field a four-piece armour set and a matching pair of swords, found through scavenger hunt diagrams and upgraded through several tiers at a blacksmith or armourer.
• Contracts and the Bestiary: Notice boards across the world post monster contracts, each a short investigation with a moral decision at the end, and every creature killed fills in a bestiary entry with its weaknesses and lore.
• Choices and Consequence: Dialogue choices, quest resolutions and the treatment of Ciri decide the fate of rulers, villages and companions, and the ending is assembled from several of those decisions rather than picked from a menu.
• Gwent: A full collectible card game played against innkeepers, merchants and nobles, with four factions, faction abilities, weather cards, spies and hero cards, and its own tournament questline.
• Open World Regions: White Orchard, Velen, Novigrad and the Skellige isles are separate open maps scaled for different level bands, connected by fast travel signposts, sailing and horseback travel.
• Expansions: Hearts of Stone adds the Ofieri curse and the Gaunter O'Dimm bargain in the Velen and Novigrad map, while Blood and Wine opens the separate duchy of Toussaint with its own map, grandmaster witcher gear, mutations and a vampire war.