Starting The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt for the first time? This guide walks you through your first hours in the Remastered version (patch 5.01): what to do in White Orchard, where to find quests and contracts, how to survive your first fights, why alchemy matters and which Remastered features make the start easier. At the end there’s a list of mistakes to avoid. Everything applies as of 19 October 2026 on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S and Switch 2.
Your first hours in White Orchard
The game opens in the White Orchard region. It feels like a big world, but it’s only a fraction of the map you’ll ride across later. It’s worth exploring, doing a few side quests and getting used to the controls. Just don’t get stuck there for dozens of hours, because the main regions are still ahead of you.
One thing you should definitely do there: find the Places of Power. You earn skill points for every new level and for discovering each Place of Power for the first time. Even developers at CD PROJEKT RED advise grabbing the Places of Power in White Orchard before you leave. Extra points early on mean a stronger Geralt when you need it most.
Notice boards and contracts
Villages and towns have notice boards with side quests and contracts. Reading a notice reveals new locations on your map, so check the board every time you arrive somewhere new.
Contracts (Witcher Contracts) are proper witcher work: hunting a specific monster for a reward. You’ll find them mostly on notice boards and from people in villages and towns. They’re a good source of money and of monster parts you’ll need for crafting.
Combat: dodge, roll and two Signs to start with
The first thing to learn in combat is the difference between two defensive moves:
- Dodge is short and quick. Use it against smaller enemies when you want to stay close and strike back right away.
- Roll covers more ground. It’s the right call against large monsters whose attacks hit a wider area.
Two Signs pay off most early on. Quen wraps you in a protective shield that absorbs a hit. Axii stuns an enemy, opens extra dialogue options in conversations and even calms a spooked horse.
Alchemy and oils
Potions, oils and bombs aren’t extras for hardcore players. They’re a core part of a witcher’s kit. You buy recipes from merchants and find them in loot, so search chests and fallen enemies.
Oils make your sword more effective against a specific type of enemy. Remastered has an option to apply oils automatically, and patch 5.01 fixed it, so you don’t have to dig through menus before every fight.
Roach and horse races
Geralt’s horse Roach can follow the road on its own. Double-tap or hold the button and Roach sticks to the road without you steering, even at a gallop with no stamina drain. Perfect for long rides.
When you come across horse races, give them a go. They pay out money and upgrades for Roach, such as saddlebags that raise your carry capacity.
Remastered features that make the start easier
Remastered added several helpers that are especially useful early on:
- Just the Story difficulty is the lowest difficulty. Pick it when starting a new game and the Bard’s Ballad preset switches on too.
- Bard’s Ballad lives in the new Accessibility section and can be turned on at any time. It offers boosted vitality regeneration, infinite breath, indestructible gear and boats, ignoring weight, faster boats and toggling Witcher Senses.
- Merged loot in a single window. Turn it on in Settings → Gameplay.
- Quick combat disengage: hold dodge, then sprint.
- Looting from horseback, so you don’t have to dismount for every herb.
The new skill tree: don’t trust old advice
Remastered rebuilt the skills from the ground up. They now sit in a tree, each skill has three levels, and new skills unlock through earlier ones rather than by spending a set number of points. The tree has been rebalanced and some skills have been renamed.
For you, that means one thing: guides telling you “what to pick first”, or explaining slot and mutagen layouts from the older 4.x version, no longer apply. When you find one, check its date. Everything Remastered changed is covered in our guide to the Remastered versions.
Saving and romance
The game autosaves after completing objectives and at checkpoints. Don’t rely on that alone; save manually and regularly.
Be careful with romance. Trying to romance both Triss and Yennefer in the same playthrough can backfire. We won’t say more here to avoid spoilers; the details are in our endings guide.
What to avoid
- Don’t stay in White Orchard longer than you need to. Most of the game is elsewhere.
- Don’t leave White Orchard without the Places of Power.
- Don’t ignore notice boards. Without them you miss contracts and revealed map locations.
- Don’t play without potions and oils. Alchemy is part of a witcher’s core kit.
- Don’t trust builds from before Remastered.
- Don’t rely on autosaves alone.
- Don’t pursue Triss and Yennefer at the same time unless you’re happy to take the risk.
Once you’ve settled in, try the card minigame Gwent, and see when to start the expansions in our DLC order guide.
Join our Discord, where players who’ve finished The Witcher 3 several times are happy to help. Come over to the GamersTogether Discord.
How players and critics rate the game is summed up in our Witcher 3 review (9/10).
FAQ
Long enough to get the hang of the controls, finish a few side quests and, above all, collect the Places of Power. White Orchard is only a fraction of the map, so don’t get stuck there.
If you’re mainly here for the story, choose Just the Story. It’s the lowest difficulty and switches on the Bard’s Ballad preset, which makes combat and travel a lot easier.
You get points for every new level and for discovering each Place of Power for the first time. Start looking for Places of Power right from the beginning.
No. Remastered reworked the skill tree, each skill has three levels and skill points were reset during the switch. Advice for version 4.x no longer fits.
No, Gwent is an optional card minigame. Several side quests revolve around it, though, and you also earn cards as quest rewards.
Information verified on 19 October 2026. More guides are waiting in our Witcher 3 guides.