I haven't played the game since it was new but only got as far as dealing with the Bloody Barron's baby. Have there been any major updates/changes (other than new game plus) that I should keep in mind? Any really good mods? Not for new content but tweaking the game experience like HUD or graphics. I'm on a 1070 now but I still doubt I'll be able to run Nvidia hairworks.

I'm playing through the game right now on deathmarch difficulty and I'm just past the whole Barron thing. The further you go, the easier it gets. At the start, get sun and stars for the health regen thing. Also use Quen. Only use quen. All other signs are worthless in comparison to quen. Its alternate mode is the best heal you'll find in the game and using it normally gives you a Ghosts n' Goblins shield that absorbs any hit for no damage, no matter how hard. Get your stamina regen up, spam the sidestep, and you're practically invincible

@shadow: Man I'm sorry, but I've got to disagree with you on the whole Sun and Stars thing. After a few levels it's entirely useless given the size of your health pool and just carrying around some food gets you the same health regen effect without needing to waste a skill point. Your better off rushing Quen to get the health-absorb from blocking damage. If you do everything in White Orchard you should have enough levels plus places of power to get the alt-Quen.

Also, Quen got changed in one of the patches so it no longer absorbs everything that gets thrown at you. Real powerful shots will punch through it now.

I'll second this advice against using sun and stars. You're much better off using "gourmet." It makes the healing effect of food last 20 minutes. I still can't believe it's in the game, because it's super OP. It makes swallow/white raffards entirely pointless. You basically just have to drink water every 20 minutes and you'll have constant health regen. All food and drink heal at minimum the same amount as basic swallow and food and water are extremely plentiful.

It's useless once you fully level quen's alternate fire, but that's not going to happen until at least level 4 unless you bum-rush the places of power right after the prologue. You get a respec potion later on, and the single skill point spent to make your life easier early on is going to make almost no difference since from my experience, the prologue is by far the hardest bit of the game on death march, I'd say it's worth it

Definitely get the Better Trophies mod. That's one area where CDPR really dropped the ball. The vanilla trophies are useless and redundant whereas this mod makes each trophy much more unique. You may consider it a change to "content" but it's a small change that makes a major improvement to the gameplay. You'll see what I mean after you find the umpteenth "+5% XP from Human and Non-Human enemies" trophy on vanilla settings.

And +1 to the Quen argument. I can't believe I played almost 100 hours of that game before using the alt-Quen. Needless to say, I seriously learned the advantages of it once I started playing the expansion quests.

EDIT: Just saw your comment on hairworks. You shouldn't have a problem with using hairworks. They added a lot of hairworks related options post-launch:

• Hairworks AA
• Hairworks for just Geralt vs Hairworks for all
• I could be wrong, but I think there's a low/high setting for the hairworks quality

Between those settings you should have no problem using hairworks with a 1070. I have a 970 and have it set to 2x AA/Low and have no problem running the game.

Ok that I can see. I wasn't aware gourmet worked that well

Here's some advice from Reggie.

I'm on a 1070 and use hairworks. Sure the FPS drops below 60 sometimes going down into the 40's but I don't notice it much. It still runs much better than on console.

For me the mod that allows you to pause the game during dialog and cutscenes was essential because I have a kid and needs to pause a lot.

Aside from trying a few ENB, ReShade or SweetFX presets, something about adding mods to this game rubs me the wrong way. I mean, it's not a Bethesda RPG, no shots fired intended.

So I bought Witcher 3 GOTY for PS4 a couple days ago. Haven't started it yet cause I've fallen hard into Mafia 3, but I was wondering if I should play the first two games or at least read up on them before taking 3 on?

I've got them both installed on my PC, but I just haven't started them yet.

@megabattimus: I just finished playing through it the other day, and having known not one single thing about the first two witchers I was totally fine. They give a decent amount of context for Geralts various relationships naturally throughout the story, and extra history and finer details are available in a character lore menu. There's a few story beats that are tied to decisions from witcher 2, but they let you manually make the handful of decisions in a short cutscene, and honestly no matter what you decide the changes are pretty minor.

@megabattimus: The Witcher 1 hasn't aged well, and isn't worth playing anymore in my opinion. The Witcher 2 is still great though. If you wanted to get into The Witcher 3 ASAP, but don't want to go in cold, search "the witcher movie" or "the witcher cutscenes" on YouTube.

Thanks for the thread @alistercat. It'll come in handy when I replay The Witcher 3 sometime after the last book is released in English.

@megabattimus: Well Witcher 1 and 2 are great games that i recommend you to play on their own merit but they are not at all requiered to play 3. There are some nice fanservice in 3 for those that played the earlier games but not to the point where you are missing out if you havnt.

The saves that carries over aint exactly important either.

@dudeglove: that is incredible but also seems like it would double the length of the game. Regarding updates, that was my main reason for asking because I don't know whether the UI is good enough to not need mods now or what problems need fixing by mods. I at least tried the alternate movement back around launch and that seemed fine.

Do all the secondary quests involving characters that you meet during the main story quests, such as Triss and Keira. Those usually have an impact (not always pronounced) on the world, or even the main quests. Other than that, I'd say try not to exceed the recommended levels for the main quests in particular. Main story quests typically net you the largest gains of experience points, so it'd be a shame to lose that. And yeah, if you're trying to figure out what type of build to go for, take the Witcher gear into consideration. Crafting Grandmaster Witcher gear is likely to drain your resources, and eventually, you'll have to make a choice that is, more or less, irreversible.

Is there a mod that switches you instantly to combat mode after a cutscene? Every time a fight starts right after you exchange words the enemies have one to two second advantage to take a free hit on you. Every. Single. Time.

I know it's a really small thing, but it bugs the hell out of me.

Jump in shallow water

Apart from rich vendors and more carry weight (if you're ok with that sort of thing), this is the only one you really need.

• HD Reworked
  http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/1021/?
• Fast Travel from Anywhere
  http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/324/?
• Indestructible Items
  http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/342/?
• Auto Apply Oils
  http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/625/?
• Debug console enabler
  http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/1334/?
• Over 9000 - Weight limit mod
  http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/3/?
• Always Full Exp
  http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/820/?
• Increased Creature Loot
  http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/38/?