Difficulty Settings Explained — The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Guide

Master Deathmarch difficulty in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Learn about healing with Swallow potions, careful looting, and strategic defense.

The Witcher 3 offers various difficulty settings, with Deathmarch being the most challenging. On Deathmarch, only food and Swallow potions restore vitality, and meditating does not heal. This difficulty demands strategic gameplay, constant looting, and careful resource management.

Deathmarch Difficulty

To achieve 100% completion, a full playthrough on Deathmarch difficulty is required. While initially challenging, the game becomes more manageable as you gain levels and acquire Witcher Armor and Swords. Key considerations for Deathmarch:

• Healing: Only Food and Swallow Potions heal Vitality. Meditating does not. Always purchase high-healing food items in towns.
• Saving: Save frequently to avoid losing progress.
• Looting: Collect everything. Weapons, armor, and junk can be sold, but crafting and alchemy ingredients are vital for potions, bombs, oils, weapons, and armor sets.

Endings

The game features three endings: a "good," "interesting," and "bad" ending. These are determined by your dialogue choices with Ciri during four specific main quests near the end of the game. Your choices can inadvertently lead to an undesired ending, so be mindful of your responses.

Gwent

The Gwent card game is crucial for 100% completion and the Card Collector Achievement. You need to collect 169 unique Gwent cards. Some unique cards are missable. Duplicate cards do not count towards the achievement.

Avoiding Attacks

Geralt has several methods to avoid or mitigate damage:

• Blocking: Nullifies most standard melee attacks. Less effective against poison, fire, or magical damage.
• Staggering: Timing a block just before an enemy attack deflects it, stuns the enemy, and allows for a quick counterattack. Only works against melee attacks.
• Dodging: A quick side or back step to avoid danger while staying close to the enemy. Useful for unblockable attacks and creating counterattack opportunities.
• Rolling: Similar to dodging but creates more distance. Less useful against human enemies but can be a lifesaver against large boss monsters with charging or area-of-effect attacks.

Additional defensive bonuses and abilities can be unlocked by investing points in the Defence portion of the Combat Skill Tree. Automatic finishers are enabled by default but should be deactivated on higher difficulties to prevent frustration.