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The Witcher 3: Gwent |OT| The original cardgame from Ancient Poland

Chariot

Member
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(Thanks to Raticus79 and boskee for editing the white hair and the face)

"Wait… did you just summon a bunch of monsters in one turn?"
"You passed, dumbass."


Greetings traveler!

Welcome to the official thread for gwent, an addictive card game in the world of Witcher 3. Grab a chair and a cold beer. It's time to get your deck out of your pants, slam it on the desk and show us your tactical skills and unique cards. The kings may play with our lives outside of this desk. But here and only here, it's the kings lives that lie in our hands. Choose your side: fight for the Northern Realms as Foltest, make others bow to you as Emhyr var Emreis, send monsters to reap souls as the King of the Wild Hunt or stand for your freedom as Scoia'tael leader Enid an Gleanna.

Let's show of and compare our big decks, talk about tactics, bad luck and where to find specific cards.

-- Gwent Card List with Locations (Thanks to TMC!)

Rules
The general rules of gwent are simple. Two players play against each other with their own decks to achieve two won rounds against the other.


Deck
There are four factions one may choose from which specific cards, mixing them is not possible. However neutral faction cards my fit in every deck. Every deck has to have at least 22 creature cards, but can be bigger. Most of your cards will be creatures, since there is a limit on special cards of 10.

Attention! Having too many cards is not recommended since it makes it more difficult to draw the cards you need and there is no thing as deck burn. Even with a lot of cards that allow you to draw new cards, you won't be out of cards.

Leaders
Your deck has a certain leader, but there are several versions of every leader to be found in the world with different effects. The player starts with a basic version of every leader that can summon a weather card from the deck.

Starting Phase
Unless there is a Scoia'tael player, the game begins with a coin toss that decides who starts. Every player shuffles his or her deck and draws 10 cards. Up to 2 cards may be put back into the deck to draw as many new cards.

Attention! You won't draw any new cards, unless you have special cards that allow you to. So play resourceful!

Round
A players uses alternating one card per turn until he or she passes. Instead of playing a card the leader's ability may used as well. There is no way to do nothing during a turn, except for finishing the whole round with a pass. When a player passes, the other player still may continue to play as many cards as he wants and can until he him- or herself passes too.

When both players passed the round ends and the player with the higher overall added score of melee, ranged and siege wins the round, no matter how big the difference is.

Faction Rules
  • Northern Realms - When the Northern Realms win a round the player draws another card at the beginning of the next round
  • Niilfgardian Empire - Niilgard wins at any kind of draw
  • Scoia'tael - Scoia'tael can decide who begins the game
  • Monster - A random by the Monster player owned creature stays on the field after a round ends

Special Cards
There are several special cards that aren't creatures or people.

  • Commander's Horn - Doubles the score of all creatures and people in a row (is applied after weather effect and doesn't stack with a leaders score double effect)
  • Decoy - Swap with one of your creatures or people on the field to get them back into your hand.
  • Scorch - Destroy all creatures and people of the biggest score value. Affects every card on the field, including your own

Then there are weather cards that affect both player's rows at the same time and will take out one at a time "Biting Forst" for melee, "Impentetrable Fog" for Ranged and "Torrential Rain" for Siege. All weater effects can be cleared by the special card "Clear Weater".

Card Abilities
Most gwent creatures and people only have a score that adds to the row score. However there are a few that have special effects.

  • Agile - Can be placed either in close or ranged row.
  • Medic - You may choose a creature or human from the graveyard directly back on the field.
  • Morale Boost - Raises the score of every card in the row, except itself
  • Muster - Calls cards of the same name from the deck and put them onto the field instantly.
  • Tight Bond - Doubles the score when next to a card of the same type. Works cumulative with more than two cards.
  • Spy - Places the card as an enemy card adding to their strengh, but let's you draw new cards.
  • Dragonthing - If the enemies melee row has a score of 10 or higher, kill his highest scored creature(s) instantly.
Attention! With Decoy you can take a card from the field back to the hand and play it again to use the card's effect again.

Heroes
Aside from the usual cards there are hero cards. They usually have a very high score worth, but what makes them truly special is the their immunity to every other cards. The don't get influenced by any special card or creature's effect.
Where to get cards and who to play
When wandering into a new area, look out for merchants, blacksmiths and Inn keeps. The first two play you for money and drop a random card after you win the first time. They are good low risk adversaries to experiment. Inn Keeps have unique cards and play you for them. They are usually harder than merchants and blacksmith, so be prepared when you face them.
Every area has top players. You only need to locate one and beat him or her to get a quest that lead you to the others ones. Everyone of them plays for money and give you a unique card at your first win.

Keep your eyes open when visiting merchants, they sell sometimes sell cards to boost your decks.

Attention! Buy the Foltest card of the Inn keep at White Orchard before you advance in the story, since she vanishes at some point and you can't acquire the card from her anymore.
  • CDPR is working at a solution to let you buy the cards even afterwards, however for now you should check if you have bought them before finishing the White Orchard Questline
    • Update! With patch 1.04 CDPR enabled you to buy the cards even after Elsa departs from the merchant you saved at the beginning. The one that also sells the Temerian DLC Armor.
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Kudos to whoever on reddit made that, Radec to bring it GAF and Rixa to bring it into the thread.
Quests

Gwent: Velen Players
  • Win a unique card from
    the baron
  • Win a unique card from
    the man in Oreton
  • Win a unique card from
    the Soothsayer
  • Win a unique card from
    Haddy of Midcopse

Gwent: Playing Innkeeps
  • Win
    Stjepan's
    unique card
  • Win a unique card from
    the innkeep at the Inn at the Crossroads.
  • Win
    Olivier's
    unique card.

Gwent: Big City Players (Novigrad)
  • Win
    Vimme Vialdi's
    unique card
  • Win a unique card from the
    Marquise Serenity
  • Win a unique card from
    Dijikstra
  • Win a unique card from the
    Elven Merchant in Squirrel hideout

Gwent: Old Pals
  • Win a unique card from
    Zoltan Chibay
  • Win a unique card from
    Vernon Roche
  • Win a unique card from
    Lambert
  • Win a unique card from
    Thaler

Gwent: Skellige Style
  • Win a unique card from
    Ermion
  • Win a unique card from
    Crach an Craite
  • Win a unique card from
    Sjusta the Tailor
  • Win a unique card from
    Gremist the druid
  • Win a unique card from
    "Madman" Lugos

High Stakes (Novigrad)
  • Find the scribe in the Passiflora and sign up for the high-stakes gwent tournament
 

Enduin

No bald cap? Lies!
I suck at this game so much. I always feel like I'm playing from behind, even when in the lead.
 
Want to get your ass kicked? Go play the female help of the dwarven blacksmith at the Baron's keep. Managed to defeat the Baron though, took me some tries as I had a lot of problem with his spies and destruction cards.
 
Does the game pop up one of those tutorial prompts the first time you play Gwent? I turned those off in the options menu really early, so I've had to pick things up on the fly by losing over and over, but I think I'm getting the hang of it now. Unfortunately, now I'm out in the wild playing ringers with amazing decks, so I'm still yet to win a single game. I'm going to get there, though. Right after I finish exploring. Just... one... more... village...
 

Chariot

Member
Does the game pop up one of those tutorial prompts the first time you play Gwent? I turned those off in the options menu really early, so I've had to pick things up on the fly by losing over and over, but I think I'm getting the hang of it now. Unfortunately, now I'm out in the wild playing ringers with amazing decks, so I'm still yet to win a single game. I'm going to get there, though. Right after I finish exploring. Just... one... more... village...
It's one of the guys in the inn at the beginning fo White Orchard. He ask you if you want to learn and gives you a introduction to the game.
 

bombshell

Member
I thought the only deck restriction was that you need to have 22 unit cards. What does the 30 card restriction refer to?
 
I find the key to winning is basically letting the opponent win the second round. Put down cards that are making your total 1 higher than your opponent's and they'll start playing their good cards. By the third round they don't have anything left to play. Feels good throwing down every card you have after the opponent passes from having no cards and winning 38-2.

I thought the only deck restriction was that you need to have 22 unit cards. What does the 30 card restriction refer to?

It's just a strategy. There's no actual restriction.
 
Subbed. Even though after hours of gameplay I've still only done the first introductory Gwent game at the inn, I have a feeling I'm going to enjoy the shit out of playing it.
 
It's one of the guys in the inn at the beginning fo White Orchard. He ask you if you want to learn and gives you a introduction to the game.

Yeah, he was the first guy I played, but it just dropped me straight into the game with no explanation. Probably would have been wiser to leave the tutorial prompts on for the first few hours of the game :p
 

Enduin

No bald cap? Lies!
You'd be surprised how well he can be neutered with well-timed weather cards.

How? Half his cards ignore weather cards completely and he has a ton of cards that multiply strength. I've had several games where I'll neuter his front line only for him to put out three of the same card tripling their strength, then he threw out a trumpet card which increased it further.
 
The game is legit crazy. Wish they made an app for it. I had this sequence where the opponent put a spy on my side then I used a decoy to take the spy back into my hand and I played it again, getting another spy from my deck, played that, another spy. After all that I froze his close ranged dudes and I had a full hand and he had like 3 cards lol

These dudes with the hero cards are waxing me hard though
 
So, do we know if that Inn in White Orchard is the only place where you can get the Foltest card sold there?

I'm honestly expecting a mobile version of this game at some point.
DO IT CDPR
 
How? Half his cards ignore weather cards completely and he has a ton of cards that multiply strength. I've had several games where I'll neuter his front line only for him to put out three of the same card tripling their strength, then he threw out a trumpet card which increased it further.

The only card I saw of his that ignored weather was Letho. Gwent in general is about getting your opponent to overextend in one round so he doesn't have enough firepower for the other two. Start the first round by playing your weakest guys; if he wants to drop multiple high-value guys *and* multipliers in the face of a weather effect to win a round, he won't have as much strength to combat your own hard-hitters in the latter rounds.
 

TMC

Member
Great OT for this! Thanks for the tip regarding the Foltest card. I really hope I can still get it. I have completed many side quests and other miscellaneous things after meeting the lady at the inn keep. I have yet to fight the Griffin so I hope she is still there.
 
Great OT for this! Thanks for the tip regarding the Foltest card. I really hope I can still get it. I have completed many side quests and other miscellaneous things after meeting the lady at the inn keep. I have yet to fight the Griffin so I hope she is still there.

It's still there. Go back and clear her out! Once you buy all her cards she'll restock a couple more Decoys before running out of cards to sell.
 
I still cant figure this game out. I try to pass and it will not let me, so I put all cards down, then to end round I have to use leader card, but that leaves me no cards for the next rounds so I lose.
 
I still cant figure this game out. I try to pass and it will not let me, so I put all cards down, then to end round I have to use leader card, but that leaves me no cards for the next rounds so I lose.

You have to hold the button (or key) down for a few seconds to pass. I missed that the first few times, but there's one of those circular bar things that fills up on the left of the screen as you hold the button (don't know what you call those. The same thing you see when you dismount your horse).
 

Enduin

No bald cap? Lies!
The only card I saw of his that ignored weather was Letho. Gwent in general is about getting your opponent to overextend in one round so he doesn't have enough firepower for the other two. Start the first round by playing your weakest guys; if he wants to drop multiple high-value guys *and* multipliers in the face of a weather effect to win a round, he won't have as much strength to combat your own hard-hitters in the latter rounds.

I don't know I played him 5+ times and he never ran short of good cards. He has at least two of those change side cards that puts the card on my side but lets him pick up 2 new cards from his deck. So while I might win that round he'll pick up 2-4 new cards and have a bevy of options to wreck me in the other two. I know for a fact he has at least 3 10 power cards that ignore weather affects and at least 3 melee cards that multiply their power when two are together. He also has a burn card that destroys everything on the board. As well as a trumpet card or two.
 
My only real bummer with the game is I wish there were more people to challenge! I'm spoiled by Triple Triad where literally everyone is playing cards but I guess that isn't realistic.
 
I've done really well with this minigame so far. Only trouble I had was with a Nilfgaardian in Vizima that had like 3 Hero cards, and all I had was the starter deck lol. Managed to get it after 3 or 4 tries though. The Foltest card he gives is freakin awesome.

My strategy is to throw the first round with shitty cards in order for the opponent to use as many cards as possible, and then bolster up for the second and third rounds. This strategy works even better if you have Spy cards at your disposal - put em out at the very beginning so you can have even more cards for the last two rounds.
 

Kanhir

Member
Yep. The guy in the courtyard at *location spoilers, I guess*
Nilfgaard
is my arch nemesis now. That son of a gun has an insane deck.

Isn't he only the second person you get to play in the game? He completely crushed my spirit and I haven't played gwent with anyone since.
 

TMC

Member
My only real bummer with the game is I wish there were more people to challenge! I'm spoiled by Triple Triad where literally everyone is playing cards but I guess that isn't realistic.

I was wondering where else I can play people. I am still very early in the game (before Griffin fight like aforementioned), but the only one I found is the one who teaches you how to play at the inn. Is there something I should keep in mind to make sure I take advantage of any opportunities to challenge others in the future? I am trying to go for the trophies too so I want to make sure I don't miss anyone. You win cards from beating them, correct?

Also, who else will sell cards for me to purchase? Should I just be checking the inventory of all merchants?
 
I don't know I played him 5+ times and he never ran short of good cards. He has at least two of those change side cards that puts the card on my side but lets him pick up 2 new cards from his deck. So while I might win that round he'll pick up 2-4 new cards and have a bevy of options to wreck me in the other two. I know for a fact he has at least 3 10 power cards that ignore weather affects and at least 3 melee cards that multiply their power when two are together. He also has a burn card that destroys everything on the board. As well as a trumpet card or two.

Don't know what to tell you, I was able to beat him with the starting deck. Keep in mind though that the burn spell only kills cards tied for the highest value on the board, so try to stagger your values when building up your board.
 

Ray Wonder

Founder of the Wounded Tagless Children
Haven't played yet, because I don't want to not do quests for hours. I feel like I'll get stuck playing this.
 
I was wondering where else I can play people. I am still very early in the game (before Griffin fight like aforementioned), but the only one I found is the one who teaches you how to play at the inn. Is there something I should keep in mind to make sure I take advantage of any opportunities to challenge others in the future? I am trying to go for the trophies too so I want to make sure I don't miss anyone. You win cards from beating them, correct?

Also, who else will sell cards for me to purchase? Should I just be checking the inventory of all merchants?

He's the only person you can play in the first area (at least the only person I found). Keep going and you'll find more people, usually at inns.
 

TMC

Member
He's the only person you can play in the first area (at least the only person I found). Keep going and you'll find more people, usually at inns.

Thanks. I will keep an eye out for sure and check with everyone at the inns.

Make sure to play everyone you can in the new areas as well. They always give a card on the first win.

That's what I thought. Thanks for confirming!
 
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