Currently downloading The Witcher 3 for the first time. Got any advice for me?

PLAY GWENT. The minigame became somewhat notorious because it's really good - you can spend dozens of hours travelling the world and just playing cards.
- I have done literally zero Gwent quests after the first match and even googled one time how to remove quests because they were annoying in the journal (you can't)
- Yooo, Triple Triad anyone?
- I mean do you really have to suggest him that? He’s gonna get hooked like we all did
  In any case W3 gwent is actually kinda crap in terms of balance but that just means you can own them super hard at some point
- Is it common for people to save scum or is that blasphemy?
  
  It's your game you do as you please. I would definitely save scum
  
  I only save scummed the Gwent tournament as it's a one-shot type deal. The rest of the game there was no need as it autosaves frequently and there is basically no consequences to losing a game of Gwent to a rando
  
  If I have played someone a bunch or am on a quest then definitely. Otherwise I try to keep it like live cards. Remember you can always cheat IRL too! It’s up to you if/when/where
- I've literally got a save file prepped where I rushed getting to B&W before doing literally anything else so I can play the whole games's Gwent with the Skellige deck when I decide to play it again. You don't get enough time with it and it's such a fun deck!
- I didn’t finish the game because I am still playing gwent haha it’s that good. I would look up which cards you can only get from quests because you can’t get them afterwards. Just look up a mapping for quests to cards (no spoilers of course). I am on mobile and can’t find one currently

Oils are reusable so don’t try to ration them. I didn’t use them for the first quarter of the game because I didn’t know that. There are a lot of fights that would have been much easier.
- With the real good tips here!
  
  I felt so dumb when I realized
- You're kidding me‽
  Aaaaaaaaaa

Put the baby in the oven
Just trust me on this bro
You'll know when the time is right
- I don't trust you...
- That's a thing everyone needs to find out for themselves.

A note on brewing potions: You only need the herbs the first time you brew any particular potion, after you've brewed it once it will get restocked automatically when you meditate.
- How did I not know this
  
  I spent so much time not using the healing potion because I thought it's so super rare when do I finally get a second one??? lol

If the combat is frustrating, turn the difficulty down. There will still be a learning curve, but it’ll be the difference between surviving and having to do an hour of work again because you forgot to quick save and get slapped by a foglet.
- Interesting. I found the game to be basically boring without the extended difficulties.
  
  The combat is just generally unintuitive. Which early in the game is frustrating. And if you’re like me and spend weeks between sessions you can forget all the timing and buttons you need to press.

ABC:
Always
Be
Cfancying a round of Gwent

If you wish to keep your sanity through the entire game, I suggest only doing the really big side quests and ignoring the majority of the others. The game is fucking huge, and it can easily become repetitive doing everything.
- The sidequests are fucking great though. Didn't play all, but those I did could be main quests in a different game. I had to skip some because there is just stupid amount of them and I was overleveling fast.
  Don't do map completition though - trying to do all is truly insanity
  
  As a general rule of thumb, if it has dialogue, it's going to be pretty good, and surprisingly so a lot of the time. The Witcher 3 is still unmatched for quality and quantity of side quests.
  This wasn't a particularly good open world game even for its time, so I'd say ignoring the map markers completely is often smart.
- This is very true, especially around mid game.
  There are significantly more quests than you need to advance levels and eventually you get level 30+ having done all the side quests and there will be several unfinished missions for recommend level 7-20 that become worthless unless the story/character behind it interests you.
  Definitely grind early missions as they are basically tutorials and also give you lore on all the factions, don't worry too much about gold as you will rarely be able to buy weapons better than what you find.
  Bymid game you'll have tons of access to loot for selling and will probably be more interested in spending money on refining/upgrading items than buying mediocre armor and weapons.
  The bombs and oils are great if you keep them upgraded
  Never sell ingredients you don't have a billion of, you can buy a potion to redistribute your levels and switching from magic/physical build to late game Alchemist is really strong and fun and changes up play style.
- I would say do every actual sidequest but don't bother clearing the map of all question marks. Hunting for Witcher school gear is also just mostly cosmetic and optional, but they're the coolest armors and swords.
  Also, if you're not playing on the lowest difficulty, read the infos in your journal regarding the creatures and prepare accordingly.
- I spent like 4 years playing with my best friend. We were having a beer in the evening he watched me play Witcher on death March, i tried to do everything. It was the best way to play the game i think. Took us 4 years though.
  Red Baron is the best questline imo

Tell your friends and family that you love them but you won't see them for a while
- I'm nearly finishing up The Witcher 2. Judging from the discussions, I'm afraid of starting Witcher 3 because I have other backlog of games I have to finish as soon as possible.
  
  you got deadlines or something?

Don't chase all the markers on your map, most of them are crap and you'll burn out.
- So much this. If I never see another Smuggler's Cache again it would still be too soon!

In the first region in the midst of the first small village two neighbors are arguing. They are not giving a quest, they just talk to each other and listening gives such an insight in how war can turn people against each other that have been living peacfully and been friends for years.
Do the side quests and take your time with the dialogue. Some of these stories are impactful, mostly sad and worth your time. If you are told that you should talk to people to find out more about your contract, do it. Some of these quests can be done with only talking to one person but you want to get the information from everyone and especially their side of the story.
Do not look up the outcome of decisions. Make your decisions and live with them at least at your first playthrough. Most decisions have impact and seeing the outcome unfold makes this game special and yes often there is no "good choice" - that's war for you.
Last: Buy every Gwent card you can get your hands on and play with everyone you can. If you can't win just come back later with better cards and obliterate them - it will feel goooood!
The DLC's are a must.
Try out difficulty settings - there is a sweet spot for most people somewhere but what it will be for you no one can know, but it would be a shame if you play through the game not having found the difficulty that fits you best because you "always play on
<insert difficulty>
".
Have fun, I wish I could play this game for the first time again.

I completely disagree with the top comment. Dont worry about the main game.
I advocate that you go in with the mindset that you are a part of an old and important guild, and that the main story is just an extension of your every day job of being a Witcher. The "side quests" are unbelievably good. So good that half of them have better stories than entire video games and series. I didn't bother with the main story (only in parts, organically). I just wandered the country side and "did the job of a Witcher". There is sooooooooo much to this game. Also, get the DLC's.
One word of warning however. The power scaling is somewhat broken. If you over-level before moving forward, the game can get pretty boring only because the enemies become trivially easy to beat.
edit: Also, try and bang anything with eyes.

Don't try to go for both main romance options, the outcome isn't worth it. Better to do two playthroughs if you really want to know.
- Don't try to romance Ciri.
  /s
- I mean it's definitely an ending worth seeing. So 3 playthroughs. And then all the other variable ending stuff. Let's face it we all YouTubed the other endings after our second playthrough.

If you have the patience for it, try playing on a much harder difficulty. The medium and low difficulty levels don't provide the same weight. Many systems in the game are unnecessary at lower difficulty levels but higher difficulty forces you to engage in them to get the extra edge over certain encounters.
Higher difficulties force you to engage in potion brewing, reading up on enemies, and making genuinely tough choices morally in order to keep Geralt alive. Lower difficulties remove all the tension from these systems.
Also as another user mentioned, don't skip any dialogue and engage in the side quests/contracts as they give a lot of unique flavor and nuance to the world and story.
- This, this game isnt about fighting, it's about prepping, it's about researching your prey and knowing what you need to get the edge on it before you go in, brewing the potions you need and knowing what to hit it with
  
  Oh yeah, I really wish I had played on a higher difficulty for this reason. Especially because one of the most immersive and thematically cool parts of the game for me was the main story section near the end of act 1 where you have to make a blade oil to fight a >!werewolf!< . (Vague wording to minimise spoilers in my main comment.) I really liked this because it made me reflect on what it means to be a Witcher — how the knowledge might be more important than the mutations and the magic.
  An additional point to the prepping is that being open-world means that you can potentially go to areas or take on challenges far beyond the "intended" level. On lower difficulties, I didn't feel sufficiently punished for being audacious in that way, and I think the potential for punishment is part of the fun of the audacity. Especially when getting destroyed like this isn't the game "fuck you for even trying", but rather a "try exploring some more, find some new recipes and come back later (or just read the bestiary and find out that you already have the item you need)"
- I've done two full playthroughs of the game (plus dlc), one on the standard difficulty and one on hard. I can confirm that many of the game's systems are rendered unnecessary by the easier difficulty. I really enjoyed my second playthrough and would definitely recommend.
  However, if you don't think you'll enjoy that (having to plan and work for every advantage to be able to succeed) I would wholeheartedly endorse the easier levels. The story and quest design alone are worth the price of admission! Side quests in this game make many other games main story pale in comparison.

There's nothing worth finding in the seas around skellege.
- I cannot up vote this enough. If you need smugglers caches then go for it. Otherwise that's just a headache.

Don't skip the dialogue, even if you use subtitles and are a fast reader. It sometimes switches from one sentence at a time to whole chunks of dialogue and action getting skipped. Plus, the voice acting is superb, and the physical reactions of characters can convey a lot of emotion.
Apart from White Orchard, you shouldn't need to complete all side quests in your area before moving on. Particularly with witcher gear, it's sometimes expected to need to come back at a later time when you're more powerful.
Others may disagree, but I don't bother dismantling gear and weapons. I find it simpler to just sell things and buy materials I need from vendors.

Roll around on the ground a lot during combat. Works wonders.

There is a setting for an alternative character control mode. Use it, the regular one is dogshit.
The level difference between Geralt and enemies is very important. A difference of +/- 4 can make fights ridiculously trivial or a one-hit KO. Same goes for jobs' recommended difficulty.
Getting swarmed by level 50 sewer rats is not fun.

Crafting armor is 100 percent superior to found and bought armor. But if you don't like crafting, the found and bought stuff will get you through. Also don't sell or dump old crafted armor pieces, you need them to craft the next tier up.

Do the side quests before the main quest as some of the side quests get locked off when you compete main quests.

Be supportive of your daughter.....dont make my mistakes
- "But I thought I was helping!"
  -Me after the bad ending.
  I should have had a snowball fight.
- ..also in the game!

As other folk said, definitely do get the DLCs. There’s a whole other game in there.
It’s been a while since I last played, and this game IS a masterpiece, no doubt about that, but the one of the first sections can be rough. Iirc it’s gloomy af, there’s some hard monsters in some quests that can be demotivating and the combat/mechanics takes some getting used to which makes the previous point worse. Just know that the game opens up and there’s a whole world out there.
There are tons of side quests which are great, so you should do those but also don’t feel like you need to do all of them. It can be easy to get side tracked and then lose steam and quit on the main story.
Especially because like I said the DLCs are amazing. They are also quite self contained so it’s like a breath of fresh air
Enjoy this amazing game. I’m jealous of you

Although this isn't quite relevant before finishing the main game, be sure to pick up both the DLC once you're finished.
Both DLCs are fantastic standalone stories, super rich in content they could even beat some full priced games. You could play the DLCs before finishing the main game (and there is an additional game mechanic introduced in Blood and Wine), but on a first run I would still recommend playing it after to not get distracted and take away the impact of the main story.
- Blood and wine is a masterpiece

Be a good dad to Ciri. It's extremely important.

Whenever you have to make a choice that involves Citi, always make choices with her happiness in mind.
- Rp as good dad.

If you do every sidequest you will be massively overleveled.
If you go to an area where “you are not supposed to go yet” you’ll be massively under leveled.
I’ve heard there are mods that just even everything out so you can play the game at your own pace.
- they actually sorted that out pretty nicely with updates. the pace is quite even since they published the next-Gen rework. the problem with being under-leveled still persists though.

Read the bestiary, always.

First few hours can seem slow with the early map not being the most exciting, but if you make it through the huge world opens up and things start getting much more exciting.
When I played I printed out a side quest list to try to experience as much of the game a possible and checked off ones I completed. Side quests are amazing and better than the main quest as opposed to being the usual fetch quest with a weak or no story.
- Good advice. It took me two or three attempts to finally get hooked by the game. But it was totally worth it.
  
  Yeah, the first map area is small and kind of lifeless and I think like 3 hours long? Some don't give a game longer than that, but the entire game took like 300 hours for me to finish so it was very small portion of a very long dense game.
- Yeah, the intro is honestly awful. The game suffers from some major Kingdom Hearts 2 Syndrome. The goal is to teach you how larger Witcher contracts work, but it just slogs and there’s very little plot development for the first few hours of the game. The plot picks up once you get out of the starting area and to the Bloody Baron, so withhold judgement until you get to that point.
  Also, the combat can be rough in the early game, but the difficulty quickly tapers off as you begin leveling up. By the end of the game, you’ll be mowing through enemies even on the Death March difficulty.

As for mods:
The Witcher 3 HD Reworked Project Arguably one of the best reworks ever.
Realistic Weather
Phoenix Lighting
They just drive home the "cold wilderness" vibe.
Then Better Combat Enhanced Because that's one of the main critque points of this game.
And some more
And for DLC, i was especially impressed with "Blood and Wine" sidequests.
- Would you recommend playing without mods first?
  
  I would say it's entirely up to you. Though, experience with games like Gothic 3 (don't even start without the Community Patch and a visual glitch fix dor trees and the sea) led me to mod first, personally. If you dig a bit deeper, there are LOD fixes (buildings from distance) for Whiterun, for example. Btw, the bumpmapping shader of reshade works especially nice for Witcher 3' roads.
- Mods make this game better. I didn't like inventory management and the equipment repair mechanics in this game, so I modded those things out. Fall damage also sucks, so I modded that as well, Geralt is a witcher, he should be able to stick a landing from 10m up.

I knew nothing of the game and presumed as a “witcher” I’m supposed to kill witches. Be, um, …selective.
- Be, um, …~~selective~~ seductive
  ftfy.
- I believe kill is the wrong verb...
  
  A little death can be good.

Clear the entirety of the first map. You'll save yourself some headaches and power up Geralt a bit which helps a ton in the early game.

Good thing to remember about builds. Geralt is a sword fighter first and a magic user 18th. Be good at slicey.

I recommend playing the quest "The whispering Hillock" before persuing the Bloody Baron's questline. It will make things slightly less depressing. Also, always support Ciri in her decisions and gather the whole crew before the siege of Kaer Morhen.

Banging prostitutes sometimes gives xp

Dont forget the DLCs, both won awards independently of the base game.

Take your time with the combat tutorial - Understand the difference between a dodge roll, a sidestep, a parry and blocking.
Other than that, have fun!
- And in general: Dodge monsters, parry humanoids. Many of the monsters have attacks that are too large or erratic to reliably parry, but you can abuse the hell out of the I-frames from dodging. But soldiers go down much faster when you parry them.

The combat is way too easy on normal difficulty - this is fine if you only want to experience the story but very understimulating otherwise. I honestly suggest trying to play the game on Death March (but turn it up after the first time you fight a pack of Ghouls, they'll fuck you up). On Death March you'll be incentivized to interact with the game systems: Alchemy, Signs, specific monster weaknesses in the bestiary. All this really makes you feel more like a witcher, which in my opinion enriches the gameplay.
Experiment with builds - respec potions are fairly plentiful so don't be scared to put points into stuff. Don't underestimate Alchemy, but make sure you visit all the herbalists you can find to purchase recipes, the difference between basic alchemy and the upgraded recipes is massive.
Play Gwent, and check every single store you come across for cards and instantly buy them all. W3 Gwent is fantastic and half the fun of the game.
With the story calling back to both the two previous games and the books it's not a bad idea to try to find some story recaps on YouTube of what has happened earlier in the story.
EDIT: Completely put 100%-ing the game out of your mind. There are a million ?'s on the map and they are almost all completely meaningless filler content. Trying to collect all the sunken treasure in Skellige will completely burn you out and make you hate the game.
- The combat is way too easy on normal difficulty
  I played all the side quests and by like the halfway point, I took off all my armour and just beat every single enemy to death with my bare hands. I would definitely recommend a higher difficulty if you've played any rpgish games before.
- This is honestly the biggest disappointment in the third game and is due to the console focus. The second game has much deeper combat because kb&m really opens up ability to get creative with complex magic, potion and swordplay combos.

Play with a controller. Makes the slippery-ass controls feel way more natural.

I try to get everyone to try playing on Death March, no fast travel.
I did my first playthrough like this. There's so much to see in the world and so many paths to take. Fast travel is neat and all but you may miss out on so much. I took it a step further and also didn't leave regions/nations until I completed the map. I found more incidental quests by taking a wrong turn or a shortcut over a hill than I did by following the main quests.
On Death March: It's actually not hard at all and feels like how the gake should be played. What it actually does is forces you to look at the bestiary, learn or guess weaknesses and attack patterns then use potions, spells and pils to fight enemies. It actually feels like playing the witcher as lore accurately as possible. Going to the local herbalist, buying supplies, meditating then hunting down the enemies.
- I disagree, it made the enemies become tedious damage sponges and currently making the game less enjoyable.
  This isn't a Souls game. Whatever difficulty setting is one/two below the hardest is an acceptable balance between completely wasting my time or challenging fun.
  
  Interesting! I never really found the combat to be all that tedious or enemies too difficult so long as you kept up with alchemy, oils and gear upgrades.
  Obviously, different strokes for different folks. There's a reason one of the difficulties is story only.

Ignore the advice you saw in this thread, except for the one about trying the DLCs, and enjoy the game however you wanna play it. Romance both options if you want, be a terrible dad if you're so inclined, etc. Have fun, it's your first playthrough so enjoy it unspoiled ane cherish it, you will love it and go for a 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and maybe even more runs and you can minmax things later on in these runs.
The only thing I'd say you shouldn't do is skip the dialogue and cutscenes, and sidequests. This game has a very well-crafted story (which is the main attraction) and that goes also for the sidequests so enjoy them fully.

Quen and side step a lot during combat. Focus on getting sets of armor and weapons because they are better than whatever weird ass stuff you throw together from loot. So that means you’ll have to visit armorers a lot. Do not ignore Gwent. It can be fun. Pick one girl and do not romance them both. Make sure you make Ciri as happy as possible. A lot of quests are about choosing the lesser evil. So basically you’re setup to make a bad choice no matter what. Which makes it interesting honestly. This game is really interesting and rich in story. Explore everything. Have fun.

Pace yourself.
This is a huge game, i thought i was right before the end game twice but it just keeps on going. I have yet to start on the DLC’s and i was actually hoping to have moved the other sp rpgs on my todo list by now.
Its great though, if only cyberpunk was this big but they purposely kept it short because 70% of witcher 3 players didn’t get to the halfway point

Kill all the cows in White Orchard. Repeatedly. Farm them. Good early game coin selling their hides.
- you got me in the first part, but if there's no secret cow level I ain't killing those cows for shit
  
  You just need to kill one more cow.
  
  There is one.

Don't romance them both.

Pick lots of ballise fruit in White Orchard. It is tougher to find later on.

Keep Quen up, roll about, hit stuff.
There's a couple of enemies where this doesn't work, but it should get you through the trickier combat sections.
Don't forget the DLC, and for all the praise Blood and Wine got because of it's size, don't sleep on Hearts of Stone - it's the most memorable part of the game for me.

No advice really, just wanted to say I absolutely love the game and have played through probably 6-7 times now. Very addicting and is especially comforting to play in the winter, with all the beautiful scenery and sounds.

Don't let the upgrade, potion, etc system overwhelm you. My brother gave up cause it seemed too complicated for him. If you mostly ignore it and just play for a bit, it comes naturally
- This is what made me quit too
  
  Like I told my brother. Just explore, do minor quests, gather ingredients and items. Once you have enough ingredients to make a potion or oil, the menu literally tells you and you can do it in one button click.

There's a mod that makes picking up loot less of a pain in the ass. Game is unplayable without it imho.
- sad console game noises

Witcher 3 can be played like the puzzle game on max difficulty.
You don't have to grind level or have good controller skill to beat those boss in max difficulty. In fact, it like puzzle game. If you know how to beat the boss (read in game wiki), or have oil, spell, or do something before, ... you can beat a boss easily, without need much skill or overlevel.

Always buy new shoes in the afternoon - after your feet have expanded.
…Oh, you mean about the game?

Oils

beware the botchling (don't progress to far to fast, level up or things like the botchling will be frustrating)

Pay attention. The game wouldn't always lead you to what you need to do. Some times you'll have to figure things out. There isn't just a marker on the map for what you need to do next. That messed me up because half the time I was following a marker but then there would be a line about giving someone an item or something in my inventory I missed. Ignore 100%ing every quest. Learn to parry and roll. Also, explore! I've run into very cool side quests! It feels really cool to just stumble into a story before a character even sends you out on the quest.

The story was difficult to follow, for me, and plays a significant role in the game and is likely to influence your decisions. What I wish I did and what I recommend you, is make sure you pay close attention to it in the beginning, knowing who's who, who's battling who and why. Consider taking notes haha
Edit: the story and the game are fantastic, I hope you enjoy it like I did. I recently finished the game and started with the extensions.
- But also, don't be afraid to just read this stuff online. The game is so big it gets tedious if you don't have a huge amount of time to devote to it. That can really kill motivation to keep going.

Are the games in book order or does it not matter?
- The games are a sequle, CDPR got the rights to make a game based on the IP in the early 2000s and just did their own thing.
  W1 was a bit rough, plot wise it tried to incorporate a lot of the existing world but played the amnesia card so everyone had to explain shit to Geralt (and by extension the player).
  W2 is a direct follow up to W1 and put CDPR on the world stage by being the high water mark for graphics requirements around 2010. Still a very good game, a bit on rails for modern standards, but still fantastic for how it handles branching paths.
  W3 + DLC won all the awards in their respective release years for a reason, they are magnificent and with CDPR spending 15 years in the IP they make tons of call backs to the books without the players feeling like they are missing something if you didnt read them.
  There are 2 (ok... 4) TV shows.
  The netflix shows starring Henry Cavil, king of the nerds, (who is being recast by the least hot hemsworth because netlfix pissed off the books biggest fan) and what ever that second one was that we dont talk about (There is also an anime, which is pretty good) and the Hexer, a made-for-TV low budget show that loosly follows the plot of the early books, it in polish and I dont think it was ever dubbed (I managed to find it with subtitles years ago).
  I know this is more than you asked for but, enjoy the games, enjoy the books, be aware of the fan opinions of the shows.
  
  No no this is EXACTLY what I was looking for. I'm the rare Witcher fan who's read all the books, seen the shows (actually liked Season 1 Netflix despite changes, but now want the producers to never work again), but never played the games. I hadn't played any because doing 2 games kinda felt like a task to play the one that's so famous. I have W3 and def will play it now, especially cool to see the Wild Hunt in game. Thanks!!!!