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.

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.

Put the baby in the oven

Just trust me on this bro

You'll know when the time is right

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.

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.

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.

Tell your friends and family that you love them but you won't see them for a while

Don't chase all the markers on your map, most of them are crap and you'll burn out.

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.

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 ".

Have fun, I wish I could play this game for the first time again.

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.

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.

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.

There's nothing worth finding in the seas around skellege.

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

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

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.

1. There is a setting for an alternative character control mode. Use it, the regular one is dogshit.

2. 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.

3. Getting swarmed by level 50 sewer rats is not fun.

Be supportive of your daughter.....dont make my mistakes

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.

Whenever you have to make a choice that involves Citi, always make choices with her happiness in mind.

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

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.

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.

I knew nothing of the game and presumed as a “witcher” I’m supposed to kill witches. Be, um, …selective.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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!

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

Banging prostitutes sometimes gives xp

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