The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Alchemy System Explained, Details a More Refined and Accessible System

Senior Game Designer for The Witcher 3 : Wild Hunt, Damien Monnier, gives a detailed explanation on the Alchemy system in The Witcher 3, detailing a more refined and more accessible system than before.

We have kept a lot of classic Witcher potions that you have used in the past, things like Cat (its effect being more similar to W2 than W1) and Swallow for example. Ingredients like rubedo are also still present.

Now as far as the system goes, it’s pretty straightforward, once you make the potion it is yours and you can refill it automatically, or any empty potions in your inventory by meditating, assuming you have some alcohol with you (pure…don’t go pour wine in there). There are however different types of alcohol for different potions types. It is automatic and only one bottle of alcohol can refill multiple potions.

One of the reasons behind this is that with the open world it quickly became a pain to go really far to grab that one plant you need for a potion. If it’s a potion you use often there is no challenge in that, it’s just annoying. So instead the challenge shifts to when you first make it, the ingredients are not easy to find, but once you have learned to make it you’re good and you can refill it. This doesn’t get rid of the challenge at all; like I said we’ve just shifted it to the initial crafting phase of the potion rather than have pointless repetitiveness. It’s much better and fits our world.

As for being able to use the potions mid combat, this feature was praised during our hands on because due to the size of the world and the fact that it is an open world, you can walk around and suddenly you will be attacked by some monsters. Now, you could have some useful potions on you but you wouldn’t be able to use them with the old system which was frustrating – you would also sometime use potions, then have nobody causing you trouble, and thus you would have wasted a good potion for nothing.

You still have to be prepared and have what you need on you to go attack a specific monster. If you are going in the woods at night you better have the right stuff on you and make sure that you have meditated too of course (preferably in a safe spot). Going against bigger, unique creatures, the preparation also includes researching the creatures that you are hunting. Finding out its weaknesses, where you are likely to find it and of course having the right potion on you ready for when you find the creature (or it finds you…).

Overall the goal was to get rid of pointless repetitions whilst keeping the preparation aspect and even expanding it more (which is why we say that preparation is more important than ever) because by not understanding the monsters you are going up against, will cost you. On top of that, as I mentioned above, having the right potions will help. Personally I am a big fan of it, it allows me to be a bit more daring and more generous with the potions I use on myself and in some cases too generous and that’s when the toxicity level kicks in. : D Some potions are amazing but they will take you close to the “danger zone” as soon as you drink it – if you’re not sure how you’re doing you can check the toxicity bar or even Geralt’s face.

The reviews for The Witcher 3 will go live a week before the release of the game

We have previously reported that the reviews for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will go live a week before the release of the game, which goes to show how dedicated CD Projekt RED is to their fans and the community.

You can checkout the last Ultra settings 1080p 60fps footage provided by YouTuber ImAnderZEL, as well as the previous video here. Note that the video is not of the highest quality and it from a previous build of The Witcher 3 and not the final. The specs of the system are – GTX 980, i7 4790, 8GB.

The Witcher 3 is just two weeks away from release, and as we have previously covered, CD Projekt has already announced that pre-load options are already live, as well as the unlock times for The Witcher 3.

The Witcher 3 will release on May 19 2015 for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. We will bring you any new information on The Witcher 3 as soon as it becomes available.