(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.
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
unique cardStjepan's- Win a unique card from
the innkeep at the Inn at the Crossroads.- Win
unique card.Olivier's
Gwent: Big City Players (Novigrad)
- Win
unique cardVimme Vialdi's- 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