Gwent is the optional card minigame inside The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. This guide covers how a match works, what card abilities do, why hero cards are so valuable, how special and weather cards work and where to collect new cards. It applies to the current Remastered version, as of 19 October 2026.
What Gwent is and where to play it
Gwent is optional. The main story never forces you to play it, so you can skip it entirely. Opponents are everywhere, though: merchants, blacksmiths, innkeepers and named quest characters across different regions and locations will take you on.
On Switch 2, the Remastered version also lets you play Gwent with the touchscreen, the same way you can use touch on the map and in menus.
How a match works
Before you start, you need a deck. It must contain at least 22 unit cards and no more than 10 special cards. The match itself goes like this:
- Both players draw 10 cards. You can swap up to 2 of them for other cards from your deck.
- A coin toss decides who goes first.
- You take turns placing cards. Units go into three rows: Close Combat, Ranged Combat and Siege Combat.
- A round ends when a player passes or runs out of cards. Whoever has the higher total strength on the board wins the round.
- A match has three rounds. The first player to win two rounds wins the match.
Factions
There are five factions, each with its own deck: Nilfgaard, Northern Realms, Monsters, Scoia’tael and Skellige. According to CD PROJEKT RED’s Paweł Burza, quoted by IGN, Northern Realms and Nilfgaard are among the strongest decks. That makes either of them a sensible choice to build around early on.
Card abilities
Many unit cards have an ability on top of their strength. The key ones are in the table:
| Ability | What it does |
|---|---|
| Agile | You can place the card in either the Close Combat or the Ranged Combat row. |
| Medic | You play one card from your discard pile. This doesn’t work with hero cards or special cards. |
| Morale Boost | Adds +1 strength to every other card in the same row. |
| Spy | You place the card on your opponent’s side, so it adds to their strength, but you draw 2 cards in return. |
Other abilities you’ll come across while collecting include Muster, Tight Bond and the Berserker and Mardroeme pair. According to the developers, Spy cards are strong precisely because of the card draw: your opponent gets a few points in one round, while you get two extra cards for the whole match.
Hero cards
Hero cards are the most valuable cards in your deck. Special cards, weather and other cards’ abilities don’t affect them. So when your opponent plays weather that drops a whole row to strength 1, a hero card in that row keeps its strength. There’s a flip side too: Commander’s Horn doesn’t double their strength, and Medic can’t bring them back from the discard pile.
Special cards and weather
Special cards can turn a round around even when you’re behind on points. Weather cards belong to this group too.
| Card | Type | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Commander’s Horn | special | Doubles the strength of cards in a row. |
| Decoy | special | Returns a card from the board to your hand. |
| Scorch | special | Destroys the strongest card (or cards) on the board, including yours. |
| Biting Frost | weather | Sets the strength of cards in the affected row to 1. |
| Impenetrable Fog | weather | Sets the strength of cards in the affected row to 1. |
| Torrential Rain | weather | Sets the strength of cards in the affected row to 1. |
| Skellige Storm | weather | Another weather card. |
| Clear Weather | weather | Removes all weather from the board. |
Save Scorch for a moment when your opponent has a stronger card on the board than you do.
Where to get new cards
The starter deck is fine for your first opponents, but you’ll have to hunt down stronger cards. There are three ways:
- Merchants, blacksmiths and innkeepers. You can buy cards from them or win them. You can only win a card from each merchant once.
- Gwent quests. Quests named “Gwent: …” send you after specific players, and beating them earns you cards, including hero cards.
- Quest rewards. Some cards come as rewards for regular quests.
Gwent quests where you can win hero cards:
| Quest | Region |
|---|---|
| Gwent: Big City Players | Novigrad |
| Gwent: Old Pals | Novigrad |
| Gwent: Playing Thaler | Novigrad |
| Gwent: Skellige Style | Skellige |
| Gwent: Velen Players | Velen |
| Gwent: Playing Innkeeps | Velen |
If you want everything, there’s the side quest Collect ‘Em All, which is about collecting every card. The Hearts of Stone expansion adds new cards as well, so if you’re heading into the expansions, check the right DLC order. For more tips on your first hours, see our beginner’s guide.
Join our Discord to show off your deck or ask how to beat the opponent you’re stuck on: GamersTogether Discord.
FAQ
No. Gwent is an optional minigame, and you can finish the main story without it.
At least 22 unit cards and no more than 10 special cards. At the start of a match you draw 10 cards and can swap up to 2 of them.
According to CD PROJEKT RED, Northern Realms and Nilfgaard are among the strongest decks. Spy cards are strong too, because they give you two extra cards.
Buy and win them from merchants, blacksmiths and innkeepers, and play the Gwent: … quests in Novigrad, Velen and Skellige. That’s also where you can win hero cards.
No. Weather, special cards and other cards’ abilities don’t affect hero cards. That’s also why Commander’s Horn doesn’t double their strength.
Information verified on 19 October 2026. Everything Remastered changed is covered in our Remastered guide, and more guides are in our Witcher 3 guides section.