Exploration

Master efficient travel in The Witcher 4. Learn about waypoints, fast travel, horse riding with Roach, and boating to navigate the vast world of The Witcher 4.

The game's world is broken down into five maps – one for Kaer Morhan, Vizima, Velen, White Orchard and Skellige. On the maps, areas of interest are marked with a ‘?' until Geralt investigates to determine what it is. These then change to icons that include: Side-missions, fast travel points, dungeon entrances,vendors and side-tasks.

Travelling Efficiently

There are a few cool things you can do with the world maps to increase your efficiency at travelling around in-game:

Waypoints

During quests you'll receive objective markers that act as waypoints showing you exactly where you need to go to continue your quest. On the world map you can also set your own custom waypoint which will appear on the mini-map when you return to regular gameplay. You can then follow said waypoint to any destination of your choice.

Whilst waypoints are active, a white dotted trail will appear on the world map, giving you the quickest route to your destination. A small footprint icon will also appear by the mini-map with a number indicating your distance from the waypoint and arrows beside it telling you if it above or below your current position.

Fast Travel

As you explore the world you'll find fast travel signposts. As you ride or walk past them, they will be added to your wold map. By approaching one of these and interacting with it, you are able instantly select and travel to any previously discovered destination on the map where you have unlocked a fast travel point.

Horse Riding

You can summon Geralt's faithful horse, Roach at any time on the world map. Riding him around is much faster than Geralt's standard walking pace! If you get bored with him, you can use Geralt's AXII sign on wild horses to temporarily tame and ride them around!

The horse has three speeds:

• Walking – The slowest speed, but the most manoeuvrable.
• Canter – Hold down the run button and the horse will canter at a faster pace.
• Gallop – tap and then hold down the run button to gallop. This is the fastest setting.

A useful, yet unexplained feature of the horses is autopilot. If you hold the run button down to canter whilst on a road and do not touch the directional sticks, your horse will automatically run along the road you are on as if it were stuck there with glue – it may not always take the route you want at crossroads or forks though!

Whilst riding a horse, a Stamina meter will appear at the bottom of the screen. By tapping and then holding the run button, the horse will break into a gallop which will slowly consume the stamina bar. Once the bar is empty, the horse will revert to a walk until some of the Stamina is recharged.

Note: Finding and equipping different saddles can increase Roach's total Stamina.

In addition to stamina, the horses also have a spook meter. If you get too close to enemies whilst on horseback and cannot escape the area quickly enough, the horse will get spooked, rear back and Geralt will fall to the ground. So avoid enemies!

Boating

You'll find numerous sailboats scattered about the waterways of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. These can be used to quickly traverse bodies of water in a much quicker fashion than Geralt's normal swimming pace. To sail a boat, Geralt needs to hop on board and interact with the rear of the vessel.

In general boats have three speeds:

• Slow – The slowest speed, but the most manoeuvrable.
• Fast – Hold down the run button and the boat will accelerate.

Once in a boat, you'll be able to make out a silhouette of the boat located on the left side of the screen beneath Geralt's health bar (and other gauges, meters and bars of course). This starts off as white, indicating that there is no damage. Bumping into rocks or having enemies hit you can damage the boat. Damaged portions of the boat will be shown in red. If the boat takes too much damage it will sink and you'll be left with no option but to swim to shore.