CD Projekt Red's The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is a massive open-world game with tons to discover, and fans will soon have another incentive to dive back in when this month's next-gen update releases. And while some hardcore fans of the game have seen most or all that the game has to offer, Geralt of Rivia's final outing has plenty of content that's easy to miss.
Some of the easiest things that go uncovered in The Witcher 3 are unsurprisingly the various treasure hunts. However, there are also some tucked-away side quests to take part in more than worth seeking out.
Complete The Continent's Extensive Treasure Hunts
As far as completionist playthroughs go, the many treasure hunts scattered across The Continent are essential to getting 100% on The Witcher 3. But since most players don't opt for hardcore completionist, and how tucked away some treasures can be, these are also likely to be missed, by and large.
How these hidden treasures are marked or discovered varies case by case. Sometimes, uncovering the locations is as simple as interacting with notice boards, or requires extensive exploration of the landscape, swimming underwater, etc.
Take On The Role Of A "Judge" In A He-Said-They-Said Case
As any great open-world fantasy RPG should have, The Witcher 3 has a plethora of optional side quests on offer. However, given the sheer depth of those available, several can go under the radar. The quest "Karmic Justice," where Geralt of Rivia is asked to conjure up his inner judge, is one such quest.
This isolated story is an excellent showcase of the game's nuanced role-playing mechanics and attention to detail in the writing, as it asks the player to have Geralt make tough decisions with little evidence on hand. A group of gruff elves claims they're after revenge for a merchant selling them poisoned narcotics, but the vendor claims they're lying as an excuse to rob him.
Re-specialize Skill Points With A Unique Potion
In this dark fantasy world, some of a witcher's most important tools in combat are potions. There are various useful potion combinations in The Witcher 3, but some players might not realize there's one dedicated to re-specializing Geralt's skills.
It's not an uncommon game mechanic in the RPG genre, but this isn't a game where many players likely think to do it. But if players feel like they've allocated too many points to the wrong ability schools, then they can find the Potion of Clearance in stock through select vendors around The Continent for a clean slate. Most of these vendors are, fittingly, herbalists.
Exact Justice On Sporadic Groups Of Violent Looters
Another one of the easy-to-miss side quests in The Witcher 3 involves encountering clusters of hostile peasants fighting and looting corpses. It's an unmarked series of three quests, making it one of the more sprawling side quests to happen across in the game.
It's also another grim look into the political, economical, and cultural state The Continent is suffering in, as it's shown that some of these groups took part in the killings of surviving village residents. What makes these quests somewhat tough to find - aside from being unmarked - is that they occur along different paths of the war-ravaged lands of Velen.
Sell Specific Loot To Corresponding Merchants
Though it's not the most frustrating of open-world game tropes since it's a more niche feature in the genre, the game mechanics for how merchants in The Witcher 3 function could make it tough for some players to earn extra cash on the side. It might seem simple on the surface for players to offload as much of the excess loot they're carrying have to avoid becoming over-encumbered (a popular open-world trope), but knowing when and where to sell is key.
How much merchants are willing to buy from Geralt depends on several factors, including location, their items of interest, and the money they have on hand at the moment. But if players are careful, they can get make more money by knowing which merchants appreciate which kinds of loot the most - e.g. selling weapons/armor to blacksmiths.
Save A Troll From Monstrous Bullies
In another one of the more comedic side quests, players can also stumble upon an incident that sees him take the side of a persecuted monster. Deceptively titled "Harassing a Troll," it turns out that not only is it the troll who's the victim, but he's being harassed by another group of monsters.
The troll seems strangely more intelligent than the typical of his species, and it's that intelligence - specifically his culinary knowledge - that compels a group of nekkers to bully him. While Geralt's job is to hunt monsters, he actively avoids killing out of persecution.
Take An Arrogant Knight Down A Few Notches
The Witcher 3 has plenty of compelling side quests, with some being even more gripping than certain mainline quests, while others are just outright amusing. "Face Me if You Dare!" is certainly on the funny side and this quest goes on for longer than some might expect.
It sees an arrogant knight on a mission to defeat 100 knights in an attempt to impress a woman, with this cocky quest crossing paths with Geralt. He technically qualifies as a knight, leading Geralt to brawl with him three times. The knight's ego results in him refusing to accept defeat, and he even resorts to dirtier tactics to try and kill the monster hunter.
Help Out With Hazard Control
Somewhat going off the beaten path, players can have Geralt discover an overturned cart of plague-ridden corpses, a pack of hungry ghouls, and a victim trapped underneath the cart. Engaging with this dire situation triggers the "Hazardous Goods" side quest, as the victim desperately hiding from the ghouls makes his living carting away the dead despite their infectious remains.
Gert Borel stubbornly thinks he can't get sick from this kind of work, and what makes this quest even easier to miss is how it triggers a subsequent event regardless of Geralt's actions. To truly see the end of this small side story, Gert can be found again between Reardon Manor and Benek.
Anger The Bovine Defense Force
Early on in the life cycle of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt's release, players found an exploit to cultivate some early-game gold. In the small village of White Orchard, there's a field of cows that players would repeatedly slaughter to farm their hides to sell.
Amusingly, CD Projekt Red implemented a new "feature" in patch 1.05 to counteract this. Now, if players kill too many of those innocent cows, the "Bovine Defense Force" would step in to punish Geralt. In this case, the "Bovine Defense Force" is a hulking Level 27 chort that would spawn and thrash the player.
Discover A Haunted Ship
One of the elements that leave so many players awe-struck in this game is the depth of content that can be discovered for the first time at any point while playing. A veteran with 200 hours and multiple playthroughs invested in The Witcher 3 could find something surprising by chance, while a beginner just 20 hours in could do the same.
And in the waters of Skellige, players can discover a stunning spectral ship sailing endlessly. Named the Flying Redanian, this ghostly ship can be found haunting the sea between Hindarsfjall and Ard Skellig. Some players claim it can be found between 1:00 and 3:00 a.m., and it's a clever reference to the "real-world" myth of the Flying Dutchman.
