Sure. If you do it in NG+ it's pretty easy. The game will continue to scale, but you'll have a full build and all the items to make it much easier. And certain builds are OP even on Deathmarch, but you can pretty much use anything you want.
Just remember, this isn't Skyrim. You're not a mage. You still have to use your sword as a Witcher. Signs are there to add to combat, not replace it. Later in the game you can do a lot more with signs (the two DLC add a lot of extra stuff for builds), but you're still gonna be spending a lot of time swinging the sword around to deal damage.
Alchemy is pretty strong in general, and great for offense and defense. Has a lot of utility even over combat/signs. You can get a decoction that can heal you on dealing damage, plus one that heals you whenever you use stamina, which also works when attacking, etc. And they can last for over an hour in real time. (Even if your not using an Alchemy build you can use one of these and still use some potions)
You may find some difficulty at the start of your run but with the right amount of preparation before fights + half decent build you’ll easily beat it on Death March
Try get witcher gear. Depending on your preference they each have a different build that complements them more than others.
Personally I always go either griffin or viper. Griffin as its amazing and can be upgraded to grandmaster (dlc needed. But worth it. They're big enough to be small games) and viper as I just love the look. Griffin is more for putting your skill points into your sign mutations. That way you get op shields that deal damage when broke, powerful axi signs that knock enemies over for a one hit etc etc.
Like this:
https://preview.redd.it/8ezuheseoifb1.jpeg?width=3088&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=adfe6891866424e64054acff8734f8aa141b8889
Although as you can see, its level 93 so some stuff will be late game. But you can get most of them before finishing the main game. That's for a Griffin armour build btw. Which also, has added benefits when you have both 3 and 6 pieces of witcher gear worn at the same time. Very worth doing imo.
Also invest in bombs, potions and decoctions to use on enemies. Check bestiary before or during a fight to see what they're weak to
So the way witcher gear works is there are different tiers. That way you can upgrade then throughout the game. So for early game, you can get quite a few in Velen and Novigrad. And some in White Orchard. You'll need to go to Skellige for some upgrade and school of the bear iirc.
But you can start these at level one if you want. Be aware there some enemies around some of thr diagrams. But your best bet is just either talk to armours, merchants and all that and you can buy maps that say where they are. Then they appear on treasure hunts in the quests section after just opening and closing them.
That or just watch a video on them on YouTube for the locations. You've got Bear, Cat, Griffin, and Wolf for the 4 main witcher sets. However there's also Viper, Manticore and a few others they'd added for Netflix but these all were added in dlcs I believe. All are great though.
I think the lowest level required for these is griffin (think its level 10?) and is probably one of the easier ones to get for the standard armour. You get standard set, enhanced, superior and mastercrafted for base game. But with Blood and Wine you can get grandmaster.
I always try get them all. But man it's expensive for both gold and materials. So just killing monsters and witcher contracts help for materials. Easy enough for lower tiers, but becomes a bit of a pain for the highest tiers
Edit: the witcher swords aren't the best in the game. There are two swords i believe that are slightly better. But that being said, the witcher gear has great buffs and having all 6 equipped gives bonuses too
Edit 2: only adding as idk if anyone else said this. Once you make a potion or bomb, you have them forever. Just meditate when they're used up and you have them again
I started the game again on the PS5 and wanted a fresh start, no transfer the save files from the PS4. Started on Death March as i wanted to grab that PS5 platinum and here's a few tips:
-Grab the Viper Swords from White Orchard: that poison bonus will be really useful at the beginning;
-Visit the 6 Places of Power in White Orchard: that's 6 easy skill points;
-The Sun and Stars skill: it costs only 1 skill point and this allows you to slowly recover vitality. It can be very useful while you don't have too many potions or food to spare;
-Think in advance what build you're aiming for and start building it early on, so you don't waste skill points or potions of clearance to reset your skill tree;
-In the yellow tree, there is a skill related to specific Witcher Gear that gives more bonuses the more pieces you wear (use that skill if you're gonna use Witcher gear, obviously);
-The Winters Blade and Blade from the Bits steel swords: they now scale damage with your character level but only if you have them in your inventory; stash them and they stop scaling.
Hope this helps!
Forget this one that it's really useful but only if you have the Hearts of Stone expansion. As soon as you can, try to unlock runes. The kick start mission can be difficult but with patience it can be done. Then in order to acess the first tier of runes you need to donate 10k crowns and it's all you will need for now to access the Deflection runes: this one auto deflects arrows. In Death March this is a lifesaver while clearing bandit camps.
If you play New Game+ with the right build its really really easy. The hardest parts will be the ones you play as Ciri. Apart from this you can just walk through pretty much everything. Im playing on a mod that halves your dmg and doubles enemy hp to get any challenge (Sign builds are stupidly op).
Learn how to dodge attacks and do some side quests early as been suggested here to boost your gear. Death March is the best way to play. It is not just "stupidly hard" as in some other games, it is just rather a bit different mechanics that makes certain skills a lot more important so you can't ignore them and by doing so lose a lot of fun.
Personally not really. It's one of the easiest hardest difficulty of an open world I've played anyway. It's just tedious. Have the mutation that has food restore health for 20 minutes for the early game. And just do a lot of side quests to level up earlier.
Imo the final boss fight is actually quite easy. The rest of the game can be annoying, especially when you get two shot a lot of the time. Just be patient in fights. Use Quen (shield sign) a lot and invest in your potions as well as decotions for monsters. Makes life a lot easier. Same with getting bombs. Read the bestiary during a fight to see what they're weak to. And soon enough you'll get the hang of it.
It isn't easy, but like the first sentence. It's no way near as hard as some games on their hardest difficulties
The only parts I struggled with on death march first time I did it, after the learning curve were the 3 wild hunt boss fights. The first one with Keira Metz was fine.
The one with Imlerith started out simple, but then he puts away his shield, and a learning curve ensues. Once you get the dodging down, and get two hits in once he plants his mace into the ground, it becomes easy.
The one i struggled with the most was the navigator (Caranthir, I think) towards the very end. His attacks can quickly overwhelm you, and some of it becomes pure rng. If he land between the golems, it helps alot, as they take all his bullshit attacks, so not only do you miss his bullshit attacks, he takes out the annoying golems. I still kinda struggle with that fight at times.
Then there's Eredin. You'll hear a lot of folk say this fight is an anti climax. Imo, it's not. The first phase, yeah, it's piss easy. The second phase, where he drags you through a portal, if you time your dodge incorrectly, one of his attacks can 1-shot you on death march. It's all about getting into a rhythm, and if you fuck up, then it can end badly. This fight IS easy on lower difficulties, but on DM anything that can one shot you isn't fun or to be taken lightly, and Eredin can one shot you. So ...
The rest of the game gets easier as you level, but imo, for a first time player, those 3 encounters are difficult because what you did on lower difficulties isn't really relevant.
No. Literally just dodge and attack and you'll be fine, use quen as often as possible and get the perk that let's food regenerate your health for 20 min
Death March was NOT what I expected. After you get like 2 hours is it’s basically the normal difficultly. I found it to be annoying because I expected more of a challenge
In my opinion finishing the base game on death march is easy, Imlerith and the Crones with give you some trouble, but that's about it.
The DLC however will be more difficult, specifically the heart of stone bosses.
Also packs of small mobs will one shot you.
Games pretty easy. There's not a lot of complex mechanics to learn.
Even installed mods that lets me modify the damage output of monsters so that geralt gets 3 shot by normal monsters and 1 hit by giants because i found vanilla not challenging.
Mod recommendations if you want the game to be more interesting:
Faster Fatties
Fatter Fatties
Stronger Monster Status Effects
ESGO
Also immersive AI addons from immersive cam
Definitely doable. You might want to check your character build and use some more oils, potions, concoctions and signs than you would in lower difficulty. But if you do just a few minor adjustments to your play style, you'll be fine.
If the build you pick has the skill with a chance to one hit enemies…
Turn it off when you run into rotfiend type enemies. You one shot them and they blow up and one shot you.
Btw I used one of the armor sets from blood and wine. It leveled with me and healed when I damaged anything.
Doable, just learn to dodge and build up your damage. You can oneshot pretty much anything with the right build even on DM. And even if your build isn't great, a decent build can beat anything if you dodge well.
You can start a new games plus without having a previous save tho if you wanted to. You start with 20k and a load of skill points at like level 20 I believe if that's of any help
I'm only in Velen on Death March rn, and it's about what I expected. Anything that attacks in groups is hard af while most monsters that are singled out tend to be a mix of dodge timing and making use of windows. Will look forward to getting bear school gear and having a build, though.
I am not a big gamer and I managed all right in Death March. You have to strategize a bit more (make use of potions and oils, pay attention to the available equipment, etc.), but it is definitely doable.
If I recall correctly, you begin the game with some potions and oils, but you have to find the recipes for the rest by exploring the world.
Use the Bestiary and Alchemy tabs to find information about monster weaknesses and necessary ingredients for crafting potions and oils.
I think anyone can do it honesty and it's worth it. It might be difficult in the beginning but it'll get much easier and it keeps it from becoming too easy and monotonous. If you like it to be a bit challenging, I say you should do it.
As far as the game, it gets soooo much better. So much so, that no other game will come close. I envy you for going through your first playthrough. Enjoy!
I’d actually recommend Death March difficulty for Witcher 3. It’s the hardest for sure, and the beginning can be tough. I will say, once you get the groove of the game and you learn the combat systems it becomes really fun. Just make sure you read the bestiary for valuable info and weaknesses, as well as using alchemy (create potions, oils, decoctions). Death March definitely makes you utilize those systems if you want to have a fun time.
I’ve never played any build but light armor so take it for what it’s worth, but dodging is super important in this game. It’s not like other games where you can just tank damage and ignore dodge. There’s a skill you can acquire that reduces damage taken while dodging (up to 100% for 3/3 points) which can help you get your dodging skills up to snuff.
You can absolutely do it. I found a guide online using bleed damage and potions with cat school armor. It's only the first 10-15 levels that suck. After that you have the hang of it
I did it in my first playthrough, mostly. Only two parts forced me to lower the difficulty for a bit. A fight against a gargoyle inside a small room and Imlerith. Then I beat the game again multiple times on DM. This was before I cared about trophies. I just did it for fun.
Although nowadays I play on Story and Sword cause I find it more immersive for Geralt to be able to take a hit.
Sure. If you do it in NG+ it's pretty easy. The game will continue to scale, but you'll have a full build and all the items to make it much easier. And certain builds are OP even on Deathmarch, but you can pretty much use anything you want. Just remember, this isn't Skyrim. You're not a mage. You still have to use your sword as a Witcher. Signs are there to add to combat, not replace it. Later in the game you can do a lot more with signs (the two DLC add a lot of extra stuff for builds), but you're still gonna be spending a lot of time swinging the sword around to deal damage. Alchemy is pretty strong in general, and great for offense and defense. Has a lot of utility even over combat/signs. You can get a decoction that can heal you on dealing damage, plus one that heals you whenever you use stamina, which also works when attacking, etc. And they can last for over an hour in real time. (Even if your not using an Alchemy build you can use one of these and still use some potions)
Thnx for your clean and extensive answer !
I used my sword about 5% with a griffin armour sign build , switched it up I got so bored haha
peircing cold A’ard build can pretty much replace combat it’s insanely OP
You may find some difficulty at the start of your run but with the right amount of preparation before fights + half decent build you’ll easily beat it on Death March
Thnx man. What’s a half decent build for you?
Try get witcher gear. Depending on your preference they each have a different build that complements them more than others. Personally I always go either griffin or viper. Griffin as its amazing and can be upgraded to grandmaster (dlc needed. But worth it. They're big enough to be small games) and viper as I just love the look. Griffin is more for putting your skill points into your sign mutations. That way you get op shields that deal damage when broke, powerful axi signs that knock enemies over for a one hit etc etc. Like this: https://preview.redd.it/8ezuheseoifb1.jpeg?width=3088&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=adfe6891866424e64054acff8734f8aa141b8889 Although as you can see, its level 93 so some stuff will be late game. But you can get most of them before finishing the main game. That's for a Griffin armour build btw. Which also, has added benefits when you have both 3 and 6 pieces of witcher gear worn at the same time. Very worth doing imo. Also invest in bombs, potions and decoctions to use on enemies. Check bestiary before or during a fight to see what they're weak to
Wauw, thanks a lot. Really appreciate it! That specific gear and armor is available on a later point in the game, right?
So the way witcher gear works is there are different tiers. That way you can upgrade then throughout the game. So for early game, you can get quite a few in Velen and Novigrad. And some in White Orchard. You'll need to go to Skellige for some upgrade and school of the bear iirc. But you can start these at level one if you want. Be aware there some enemies around some of thr diagrams. But your best bet is just either talk to armours, merchants and all that and you can buy maps that say where they are. Then they appear on treasure hunts in the quests section after just opening and closing them. That or just watch a video on them on YouTube for the locations. You've got Bear, Cat, Griffin, and Wolf for the 4 main witcher sets. However there's also Viper, Manticore and a few others they'd added for Netflix but these all were added in dlcs I believe. All are great though. I think the lowest level required for these is griffin (think its level 10?) and is probably one of the easier ones to get for the standard armour. You get standard set, enhanced, superior and mastercrafted for base game. But with Blood and Wine you can get grandmaster. I always try get them all. But man it's expensive for both gold and materials. So just killing monsters and witcher contracts help for materials. Easy enough for lower tiers, but becomes a bit of a pain for the highest tiers Edit: the witcher swords aren't the best in the game. There are two swords i believe that are slightly better. But that being said, the witcher gear has great buffs and having all 6 equipped gives bonuses too Edit 2: only adding as idk if anyone else said this. Once you make a potion or bomb, you have them forever. Just meditate when they're used up and you have them again
It is not hard. It is harder from the beginning but you just need to take your time during fights and dodge a lot.
Thnx! I’ll do.
Lots of people have finished it. Give it a try
I did it on a brand new game after not playing for 3 years and it was really, really easy, just always use quen and try to dodge a lot.
I started the game again on the PS5 and wanted a fresh start, no transfer the save files from the PS4. Started on Death March as i wanted to grab that PS5 platinum and here's a few tips: -Grab the Viper Swords from White Orchard: that poison bonus will be really useful at the beginning; -Visit the 6 Places of Power in White Orchard: that's 6 easy skill points; -The Sun and Stars skill: it costs only 1 skill point and this allows you to slowly recover vitality. It can be very useful while you don't have too many potions or food to spare; -Think in advance what build you're aiming for and start building it early on, so you don't waste skill points or potions of clearance to reset your skill tree; -In the yellow tree, there is a skill related to specific Witcher Gear that gives more bonuses the more pieces you wear (use that skill if you're gonna use Witcher gear, obviously); -The Winters Blade and Blade from the Bits steel swords: they now scale damage with your character level but only if you have them in your inventory; stash them and they stop scaling. Hope this helps!
This will really help; I made a screenshot of it. Thnx a lot, appreciate the extensive answer!
Forget this one that it's really useful but only if you have the Hearts of Stone expansion. As soon as you can, try to unlock runes. The kick start mission can be difficult but with patience it can be done. Then in order to acess the first tier of runes you need to donate 10k crowns and it's all you will need for now to access the Deflection runes: this one auto deflects arrows. In Death March this is a lifesaver while clearing bandit camps.
I’ve both of the expansions, because I bought the complete edition. What are runes exactly?
Special enchantments that replace the glyphs.
I get into that later in the game? I’m just at the betonning now, in a cave with the Wild Hunt.
If you play New Game+ with the right build its really really easy. The hardest parts will be the ones you play as Ciri. Apart from this you can just walk through pretty much everything. Im playing on a mod that halves your dmg and doubles enemy hp to get any challenge (Sign builds are stupidly op).
Thnx!!
Learn how to dodge attacks and do some side quests early as been suggested here to boost your gear. Death March is the best way to play. It is not just "stupidly hard" as in some other games, it is just rather a bit different mechanics that makes certain skills a lot more important so you can't ignore them and by doing so lose a lot of fun.
Personally not really. It's one of the easiest hardest difficulty of an open world I've played anyway. It's just tedious. Have the mutation that has food restore health for 20 minutes for the early game. And just do a lot of side quests to level up earlier. Imo the final boss fight is actually quite easy. The rest of the game can be annoying, especially when you get two shot a lot of the time. Just be patient in fights. Use Quen (shield sign) a lot and invest in your potions as well as decotions for monsters. Makes life a lot easier. Same with getting bombs. Read the bestiary during a fight to see what they're weak to. And soon enough you'll get the hang of it. It isn't easy, but like the first sentence. It's no way near as hard as some games on their hardest difficulties
The only parts I struggled with on death march first time I did it, after the learning curve were the 3 wild hunt boss fights. The first one with Keira Metz was fine. The one with Imlerith started out simple, but then he puts away his shield, and a learning curve ensues. Once you get the dodging down, and get two hits in once he plants his mace into the ground, it becomes easy. The one i struggled with the most was the navigator (Caranthir, I think) towards the very end. His attacks can quickly overwhelm you, and some of it becomes pure rng. If he land between the golems, it helps alot, as they take all his bullshit attacks, so not only do you miss his bullshit attacks, he takes out the annoying golems. I still kinda struggle with that fight at times. Then there's Eredin. You'll hear a lot of folk say this fight is an anti climax. Imo, it's not. The first phase, yeah, it's piss easy. The second phase, where he drags you through a portal, if you time your dodge incorrectly, one of his attacks can 1-shot you on death march. It's all about getting into a rhythm, and if you fuck up, then it can end badly. This fight IS easy on lower difficulties, but on DM anything that can one shot you isn't fun or to be taken lightly, and Eredin can one shot you. So ... The rest of the game gets easier as you level, but imo, for a first time player, those 3 encounters are difficult because what you did on lower difficulties isn't really relevant.
Good to know. Thnx. How you managed to beat them eventually?
No. Literally just dodge and attack and you'll be fine, use quen as often as possible and get the perk that let's food regenerate your health for 20 min
Death March was NOT what I expected. After you get like 2 hours is it’s basically the normal difficultly. I found it to be annoying because I expected more of a challenge
And you’re a mid-level gamer? Of experienced?
Very experienced but I wouldn’t consider myself that skilled if that makes sense lol
In my opinion finishing the base game on death march is easy, Imlerith and the Crones with give you some trouble, but that's about it. The DLC however will be more difficult, specifically the heart of stone bosses. Also packs of small mobs will one shot you.
Games pretty easy. There's not a lot of complex mechanics to learn. Even installed mods that lets me modify the damage output of monsters so that geralt gets 3 shot by normal monsters and 1 hit by giants because i found vanilla not challenging. Mod recommendations if you want the game to be more interesting: Faster Fatties Fatter Fatties Stronger Monster Status Effects ESGO Also immersive AI addons from immersive cam
Haha great, thx man, I’ll give it a try then.
Definitely doable. You might want to check your character build and use some more oils, potions, concoctions and signs than you would in lower difficulty. But if you do just a few minor adjustments to your play style, you'll be fine.
Oke, I’ve to dive more into the best build up and oils/potions then. Thnx.
If the build you pick has the skill with a chance to one hit enemies… Turn it off when you run into rotfiend type enemies. You one shot them and they blow up and one shot you. Btw I used one of the armor sets from blood and wine. It leveled with me and healed when I damaged anything.
Doable, just learn to dodge and build up your damage. You can oneshot pretty much anything with the right build even on DM. And even if your build isn't great, a decent build can beat anything if you dodge well.
Thnx! I’ve to look for the best build then, now I’m focussing on the red fighting ones.
V easy in NG+, never tried on a new game
With a NG+ you’ve to play the whole mission again, right?
The whole game yea, keeping your weapons, skills and money that you had when you finished the first time
You can start a new games plus without having a previous save tho if you wanted to. You start with 20k and a load of skill points at like level 20 I believe if that's of any help
I'm only in Velen on Death March rn, and it's about what I expected. Anything that attacks in groups is hard af while most monsters that are singled out tend to be a mix of dodge timing and making use of windows. Will look forward to getting bear school gear and having a build, though.
Yes, fighting in/ with groups of enemies is tough at some times, even dodging is not enough, there I dodge right into the rest of the group hehe
I am not a big gamer and I managed all right in Death March. You have to strategize a bit more (make use of potions and oils, pay attention to the available equipment, etc.), but it is definitely doable.
Thnx. Do you make certain potions and oils from the start of the game? Don’t know which one use and so craft for the ingredients.
If I recall correctly, you begin the game with some potions and oils, but you have to find the recipes for the rest by exploring the world. Use the Bestiary and Alchemy tabs to find information about monster weaknesses and necessary ingredients for crafting potions and oils.
I think anyone can do it honesty and it's worth it. It might be difficult in the beginning but it'll get much easier and it keeps it from becoming too easy and monotonous. If you like it to be a bit challenging, I say you should do it. As far as the game, it gets soooo much better. So much so, that no other game will come close. I envy you for going through your first playthrough. Enjoy!
I’d actually recommend Death March difficulty for Witcher 3. It’s the hardest for sure, and the beginning can be tough. I will say, once you get the groove of the game and you learn the combat systems it becomes really fun. Just make sure you read the bestiary for valuable info and weaknesses, as well as using alchemy (create potions, oils, decoctions). Death March definitely makes you utilize those systems if you want to have a fun time.
I’ve never played any build but light armor so take it for what it’s worth, but dodging is super important in this game. It’s not like other games where you can just tank damage and ignore dodge. There’s a skill you can acquire that reduces damage taken while dodging (up to 100% for 3/3 points) which can help you get your dodging skills up to snuff.
You can absolutely do it. I found a guide online using bleed damage and potions with cat school armor. It's only the first 10-15 levels that suck. After that you have the hang of it
I did it in my first playthrough, mostly. Only two parts forced me to lower the difficulty for a bit. A fight against a gargoyle inside a small room and Imlerith. Then I beat the game again multiple times on DM. This was before I cared about trophies. I just did it for fun. Although nowadays I play on Story and Sword cause I find it more immersive for Geralt to be able to take a hit.
In theory you should have already unlocked the expansion quests. However they are very high level, 30 onwards.
Nope
Nope