I wouldn't say it's a hard game, it's just the wrong kind of difficulty for me. It's tedious and I don't enjoy it.
I immensely enjoy the atmosphere and stories in The Witcher, so I focus on those instead.

Other people are the other way around. And similarly, other games are probably tedious to some players, but I enjoy their difficulty.

Difficulty options and mods make everyone happy :)

Last edited by GermainZ on 6 May 2020 at 10:56 am UTC

Totally get your point... I'm a casual that play the game at the easiest level, accepting death when I do dumb things (like when I'm too lazy for minimal combat strategy)... And it happens. :)

But, in B&W, I make it hard on myself, trying to level Aerondight, whenever it's possible.

Hehe, it's hilarious to see Geralt dancing jig :) Pretty fun quest




Last edited by Shmerl on 8 May 2020 at 6:51 am UTC

I wouldn't say it's a hard game, it's just the wrong kind of difficulty for me. It's tedious and I don't enjoy it.
I immensely enjoy the atmosphere and stories in The Witcher, so I focus on those instead.

Other people are the other way around. And similarly, other games are probably tedious to some players, but I enjoy their difficulty.

Difficulty options and mods make everyone happy :)

It's a very big and long game, especially when taking Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine into account as well, so I can understand your view. Difficulty-wise it's not that hard, but then I have played through it about 3.5 times. It was harder in the beginning, and eventually things become easy, which makes combat less interesting (but there are some things in BaW which are much tougher, which I shan't spoil). Even Death March isn't really all that deadly, at least once you get 5 levels under your belt or so.

As you mention, thankfully there are mods to tune this further. Currently my Witcher 3 save is on hiatus and I've had loads of fun with Pathfinder: Kingmaker lately, but I can heartily recommend the Ghost Mode mod to make the game more difficult. It changes a great deal of things while maintaining the core gameplay. The main thing is that combat has adopted a stamina based system, which means you need to make some changes. At least I had to, as I would routinely run out of stamina early on, because I kept dodging and swinging the sword. Soon enough Geralt basically can't move, which isn't the best situation to be in when you have a row of angry drowners, bandits or overgrown bugs ganging up on you :P As a side effect, I started to use non-sword tools more often, especially potions, plus the occasional bomb.

Overall I definitely grew to like it, and it's a fantastic piece of work from one sole developer/modder. She really knows her stuff. It's worth to check out if you find the game too easy, or want a different play experience: https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/992/

Just a beautiful view. San Sebastian backyards at night


The "color palette" in B&W is pretty bright, rich and vibrant... Not as dark and grey as the rest of the game. It fits pretty well with Toussaint's fairy tale theme. It's a nice touch, imo. Just have a look at the blue of the sky... Many awesome screenshots of the vineyards and valleys are possible throughout Toussaint.

Hey! You got the Viper gears!

Last edited by Mohandevir on 13 May 2020 at 12:43 pm UTC

Just a hint, in case you didn't already know... Keep an eye on the quest "There can only be one". This is the one that will give you Aerondight. Once you will have finished it and gotten the blade, head back to the enchanter in HoS where you will be able to add rune slots on it. I wished I knew this in my first run. This blade is much more powerful than stats are telling.

Last edited by Mohandevir on 13 May 2020 at 3:04 pm UTC

Just a hint, in case you didn't already know... Keep an eye on the quest "There can only be one".

Yep, I discovered that quest already, and passed all the trials (Till Death Do You Part about noises in the cemetery was especially funny and interesting, and it gave Honor virtue).


Need to head back and talk to the hermit. Also, need to spend some time decoding inscriptions on the stones. One of the interesting examples of long texts on them.

The "color palette" in B&W is pretty bright, rich and vibrant... Not as dark and grey as the rest of the game. It fits pretty well with Toussaint's fairy tale theme. It's a nice touch, imo. Just have a look at the blue of the sky... Many awesome screenshots of the vineyards and valleys are possible throughout Toussaint.

Yep, feels like you stepped into a painting. Really amazing job they did.

Hey! You got the Viper gears!

Probably the best looking armor. They should have made Wolven set look like that.

Also, a pity they didn't keep Raven's Armor from TW2 in the game.

Last edited by Shmerl on 13 May 2020 at 5:57 pm UTC

That Beauclair theme. Beautiful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtIMem0mswE

Last edited by Shmerl on 15 May 2020 at 5:42 am UTC

Found the complete Witcher 3 (Original game + 2 DLC) OST on Deezer. The Swallow and the Wolf... The song when Geralt finally finds Ciri... It plays during the cutscene. Great song too, imo.

Last edited by Mohandevir on 15 May 2020 at 1:20 pm UTC

GOG has the OST (including FLAC) if you buy GOTY edition. But some themes are missing there. You need to extract game resources for them.

Found Voynich manuscript displayed by one of the merchants :) Together with some Leonardo da Vinci anatomy sketches.


Last edited by Shmerl on 17 May 2020 at 3:29 am UTC

GOG has the OST (including FLAC) if you buy GOTY edition. But some themes are missing there. You need to extract game resources for them.

In addition to the soundtracks, it should also come with artbooks, wallpapers and comics (for each expansion too). The map is quite pretty too, if anyone wants to frame it. :)

(Same for Steam, look into ~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/The Witcher 3/.)

Hehe, "Portrait of the Witcher as an Old Man" was funny :)

Last edited by Shmerl on 18 May 2020 at 3:45 am UTC

Funny Monkey Island reference:


One of the fistfighters in Beauclair is called Mancomb (paraphrasing Guybrush), and he also engages with Geralt in the taunting sparring.

Last edited by Shmerl on 17 May 2020 at 11:20 pm UTC

Extreme Cosplay - very intense quest. Those living statues are hard. And Geralt after that was pretty angry, and I made him vent out to Durand about how humans drove elves away from their land.

That fight was horrible. Think I actually gave up on it after countless tries because Geralt kept dying in seconds from those very powerful and damaging "statues". It's possible this was much worse on NG+ though, and I've only played the expansions with that. Many other encounters were fine, but this one (plus one or two Ciri quests) were brutal.

The "boxing" encounter mentioned above was fun, and I wish there were more missions that could be solved peacefully.

At other times I wish it was possible to kill NPCs, but almost everyone is immortal.

That fight was horrible. Think I actually gave up on it after countless tries because Geralt kept dying in seconds from those very powerful and damaging "statues". It's possible this was much worse on NG+ though, and I've only played the expansions with that. Many other encounters were fine, but this one (plus one or two Ciri quests) were brutal

Yeah, I discovered that quest when traveling back to Beauclair from the Termes palace ruins (after exploring the crypts there to find grandmaster wolven gear diagrams), so I already got some background on the conflict between humans and elves that happened in that area in the past, so Extreme Cosplay fell right into the context I was just analyzing before that.

I'm not in NG+, but I'm using Death March so those statues are indeed very hard, since they teamed up pikemen with sorceresses and when they all attack together it's huge amount of damage. So not getting surrounded was the first priority. Using some bombs and evasion I managed to distract the pikemen enough to take them out gradually. Then I tried to stall sorceresses with Axii. It barely works on them, and they also have some kind of force shields similar to Quen. Felt bad about it, and wasn't sure if they were really machines, they felt quite alive. Probably one of the hardest fights in the game so far (may be besides for Eredin and the Toad prince).

The "boxing" encounter mentioned above was fun, and I wish there were more missions that could be solved peacefully.

At other times I wish it was possible to kill NPCs, but almost everyone is immortal.

I actually manage to avoid killing in some encounters, unless necessary in self defense. For example, I was exploring the Bastoy prison ruins, and that hooded woman turned into an Alp. I managed to get the treasure there without killing her, assuming she was just defending her territory. Axii works wonders.

Last edited by Shmerl on 18 May 2020 at 10:45 pm UTC

Witcher 3 is on a 70% sale now on GOG, which is the highest it has been (often seen it 60% off). Witcher 1 and 2 are also on sale at 85% off. A great time to pick it up. Apparently it's a 5 year anniversary for the third game's release. Strange that I only started playing it a year ago or something, because before that it wasn't truly playable on Linux.
https://www.gog.com/promo/witcher_birthday

Yeah... Quite hard. Those 2 wizards are pretty powerful... If you don't keep moving, you become an easy target. You must get rid of them in the first place or else, you are literally toast.