The Witcher 3 Combat Tips: 8 great tricks for fighting enemies

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is an open-world RPG in which Geralt must fight many monsters and human foes to survive. Geralt can fight with two swords, a crossbow, and unlocked magical signs, which are your primary combat weapons. Mastering combat is crucial to progressing in Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Here are some Witcher 3 combat tips for killing the monsters and humans that get in your way.

Upgrade and Utilize Quen

First, I cannot emphasize enough how essential the Quen sign is for Witcher 3 combat when upgraded with Explosive Shield and Active Shield. Upgrading Quen with Explosive Shield gives you a protective shield that pushes back and inflicts damage on enemies when it breaks. Quen restores Geralt’s vitality (health) from absorbed enemy attacks when upgraded with Active Shield.

Upgrading Quen with Explosive Shield and Active Shield with six skill points sooner rather than later will make combat somewhat easier in Witcher 3. When you’ve fully upgraded Active Shield, you can utilize Quen to regularly restore lost health during combat without consuming food or drink. The kick-back you’ll get from Explosive Shield also turns Quen into a handy weapon for inflicting additional damage and presenting opportunities to counter-attack.

Use Axii Against Human Foes

Utilizing Axii can make fighting human enemies somewhat easier when upgraded with Delusion and Puppet. Unlocking Delusion level 3 for three skill points will enable you to temporarily stun human foes, making it easy to hit them because they won’t parry or block when disorientated. Delusion also works against some monsters like Drowners, but it’s most effective against humans.

Upgrading Axii with Puppet takes things to a whole new level. Utilizing Axii Puppet will turn human targets into temporary allies who will attack other enemies (inflicting 20% to 60% more damage than usual). Or you can simply attack your allied enemies to kill them when they don’t fight you. Thus, using Puppet is a great way to temporarily disorientate human foes for easy kills.

Take Out Archers First When Fighting Humans

Human enemies (typically bandits) often fight in groups that include archers (or crossbowmen) who can hit you from a distance. These are weakly armored foes you should try to eliminate first before turning on those with swords axes. If you don’t kill archers first, they’ll inflict more damage with their arrow attacks when you’re fighting other enemies.

Set Human Enemies Ablaze With Igni Firestream

Human enemies are very vulnerable to fire attacks, which is why you should upgrade Igni with Metal Armor and then the Igni Firestream. Unlocking Firestream enables you to attack enemies with a stream of fire from Geralt’s hand. This is a very potent weapon against humans because it always sets their clothing alight and can also melt their armor.

Furthermore, setting humans ablaze with Igni also generates a temporary panic effect that makes it much easier to hit them with your sword. Enemies won’t block your attacks when they’re burning in panic. Plus, humans often permanently drop their flammable, wooden shields after being set ablaze, which makes it even easier to kill them.

Dodge and Roll

Dodging and rolling are two crucial fundamentals of combat in Witcher 3. So, make sure you dodge and roll during combat by pressing the Alt and Space keys (for PC players). Utilize the dodge to jump back when an enemy attacks and then hit him (or it is a monster) on the counter with your sword.

The roll consumes more energy and stamina but is more useful than dodging when fighting large numbers of enemies. Rolling is the best way to dodge charge-like attacks that monsters will often throw at you. You should also roll a lot when fighting many enemies to avoid getting surrounded by them.

Parry Human Opponents With Swords

Parrying is an important combat fundamental for fighting human enemies that Witcher 3 introduces at the beginning of the game. The parry is important because it’s harder to hit human foes armed with swords directly, as they often block attacks with their weapons. So, let humans swipe at you first and parry their attacks with the right mouse button. Then, you can often hit humans with quick counter-attacks after parrying.

Upgrade Fast Attacks ASAP

The swords are your bread-and-butter weapons for killing enemies with fast attacks in Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. So, it makes sense to upgrade the damage of your fast attacks ASAP by investing in Muscle Memory combat ability during the early game. Investing three skill points in Muscle Memory to increase the damage your fast sword attacks inflict by 30% is a simple and effective way to enhance combat proficiency.

Exploit Monsters’ Weaknesses

Most monsters in Witcher 3 have oil or sign weaknesses you can exploit to kill them more easily. However, you’ll need to read the bestiary to discover those weaknesses. The Witcher 3 bestiary is a record of the monsters (including bosses) encountered that tells you about their sign or oil weakness. You can access it by bringing up the map (or inventory) and scrolling through to the bestiary section. Read the bestiary to find out what works best against monsters, and then utilize the signs or oils recommended when fighting them.

Having completed The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and its additional DLCs myself, I tell you from experience what worked best for combat in the game. Applying these Witcher 3 combat tips will make it easier to finish the game (unless you want to take the easy way out and lower the in-game difficulty setting). Good luck on the journey to save Ciri.

Did these Witcher 3 combat tips help you out in your battles on The Continent? Let us know in the comments.