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About this mod

A complete and comprehensive rework of The Witcher 3, offering a much higher quality experience than the original game ever could.

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  • Russian
  • Polish
  • Mandarin
  • Korean
  • Japanese
  • French
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Are you tired of the same old banal activities that the vanilla game offers you? Are you looking for complex and challenging gameplay that will stimulate your mind, body and soul? Are you looking for the answers to life's most daunting questions?
Well look no further than the The Witcher 3: Enhanced Edition, the result of years of toil and rumination, all conducted with a burning passion and with one singular purpose in mind: IMMERSION.

W3EE is a complete overhaul of most of the game's mechanics and systems, offering great depth and stimulating gameplay that will keep you wanting for more each time you delve into the carefully crafted world it lays out before you.
Indeed, so potent, so perplexing is the level of IMMERSION this mod offers, that several titans of thinking and literature have risen to comment on it:

    "The life without The Witcher 3: Enhanced Edition is not worth living." - Socrates
    
    "I play The Witcher 3: Enhanced Edition therefore I am." - Descartes
    
    "I might be blind, but even I can see this mod is amazing." - Homer

    "This made me NOT regret selling the patent to CDPR." - Andrzej Sapkowski 

    "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but The Witcher 3: Enhanced Edition." - Aristotle
    
    "And what is better than wisedoom? The Witcher 3: Enhanced Edition. And what is better than The Witcher 3: Enhanced Edition? Nothing." - Chaucer

    "This mod made me touch myself." - Catullus

    "The greatest consolation in life is to play The Witcher 3: Enhanced Edition." - Voltaire
    
    "Hell is the inability to love. Heaven is The Witcher 3: Enhanced Edition." - Tolstoy
    
    "Good." - Hemingway
    
The mod was designed with realism in mind, but in keeping with the spirit of actually having fun in a game, thus keeping tediousness to a minimum while simultaneously trying to offer enticing and somewhat realistic gameplay to the player. Among the mechanical and gameplay changes, it also offers a myriad of bug fixes that the vanilla game sorely needed and a vast options menu where most things can be tweaked to your own liking.






Installation

Make sure to install THIS mod limit fix before proceeding.
The default value should do, but raising it is recommended if you run into weird issues.

Quick and Simple:
Spoiler:  
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Boomertech:
Spoiler:  
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Updating:
Spoiler:  
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First Launch

After installing all mod files to the correct locations,launch your game. Before the game window appears, a window named “RED engine 3” will appear and say it is compiling scripts.
If the game starts without errors, close it and start it again. Always take this extra step any time the “RED engine 3” window appears. Your game will contain errors no one can fix if you forget to close and reopen it after it compiles its scripts.
 

Warnings and Tips

•You must begin a new game after installing Enhanced Edition. No exceptions.

•New Game Plus is not supported.

•Quick start is not supported.

•It is highly recommended to turn in-game tutorials on if this is your first time playing or if migrating from a previous, much older version.

•Using mods which modify the menus and aren't expressly made compatible will break mod functionality.

•Using mods like Brutal Blood which change entity files will break loot list fixes implemented in W3EE. Make sure to let W3EE overwrite if any conflicts regarding .w2ents occur and the mod is not explicitly compatible.

•You can change the controls to your liking using the in-game menu located in Options > Key Bindings. While you have this menu open, do not use the option to reset all controls to default (do not press [R]). If you do this, the game will “forget” controls added by the mod, and you will be unable to use them even if they appear to have corresponding input buttons. If you have wiped your controls by mistake, you can fix this by reinstalling the mod’s input.settings file.

•Enhanced Edition does not care if Unification Patch is or is not present. Do not play versions of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt older than 1.31 (September 12, 2016). If you do not know your version number, check the game’s main menu.

•Enhanced Edition is distributed only in English. If you play in another language, look for the translations at the top of the description page. If no translation is available, you will have to force the game to load Enhanced Edition’s English text, or many text boxes will appear blank. Go to the Mods folder in your Witcher 3 top level directory. Visit each of the subfolders with W3EE in its name, and in the content subfolder you will find a file named en.w3strings. Rename this file, replacing “en” with the two-letter code for your language.

•If Enhanced Edition is causing a performance drop, go to Options > Mods > W3EE> Addons > Friendly HUD > 3D Markers, and set “Enable 3D Markers” to off.

•Instead of installing a mod to change the timescale of the game, go to \Mods\modW3EEMain\content\scripts\game\r4game.ws, find the line “setHoursPerMinute” and change the number in the parentheses.

•The debug console can be opened with [~]. If this does nothing, edit general.ini, located in \bin\config\base. Add “DBGConsoleOn=true” to a new line, then save the file.

•Enhanced Edition imports various engine functions. This means that the Community Patch - Shared Imports is redundant, if you were planning to use it for whatever reason.


Installing Other Mods

Enhanced Edition is an extensive mod and includes the features of many simple and necessary mods by other authors, credited where appropriate. Before installing a mod, check to see if Enhanced Edition already adds the desired feature, including minor things like scabbards for NPCs. Check first.
Do not use the “automatic merge” feature of Script Merger. Review the comparison screen in KDiff3 and move the lines from the script files intelligently to avoid creating bugs.

Completely Arbitrary Mod Recommendations

Spoiler:  
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Credits

• Big Balls Bob and his famous Bean Gumbo recipe, none of the work would have been possible without him.
• The Witcher 3: Enhanced Edition by Reaperrz
• Special contributions by Corvah
• W3EE – Lazarus Project by falki, Kolaris, and Charan666
• Friendly HUD and some vanilla bug fixes by Wasteland Ghost
• No Decorative Container Looting by Partoutatix
• Lore-Friendly Economy menu by stefan3372
• Manual Bomb Aiming by Eutirion
• Primer by DominusSicarum and skyliner390
• Enhanced Targeting by Mpstark
• Immersive Cam by ksolberg
• More Quick Slots and Quick Inventory by Wolfmark 
• All Quest Objectives on Map by Wolfmark
• No Duplicate Relics by Partoutatix
• E3 2014 VGX More Blood Mod by KNGR
• Special contributions by tmentink and BloodyCharacter
• Potion bottle asset by RayDess
• XML edits by PeasantHenry
• Weapon assets by billyro
• Horse particle trails by erx
• Runeword VFX by ScoutbrO
• HUD assets by Hyadum27
• Description text by Lady Glass

Table of Contents
 
The mod description will proceed topically, one subject at a time.Topics will be addressed in the following order:
 
1.     Combat Controls
2.     Combat Concepts
3.     Exploration and Economy
4.     Alchemy and Crafting
5.     Signs and Talents
6.     Technical Information

Download a copy of the manual (same content as the description) to read when you're offline!

Combat Controls
 
            - Attack
The Witcher 3: Enhanced Edition is a more skill-focused game with an emphasis on player involvement and control. It uses a manual targeting system by default to aim every attack at the center of your screen. Move the camera to aim your attacks as though you had a
crosshair on your display.
You will take one step forward with every attack, which may not be enough to reach the enemy in front of you. To change your attack distance, hold the medium distance modifier or the long distance modifier. These inputs can be customized in Options > Key Bindings.
 
            - Attack Bending
The direction of your attack is not fixed once you begin the swing. Move the camera while swinging to change its aim. You can use this bending technique with long attacks to wrap around enemies and strike from behind, even when they try to face toward you.
 
            - Whirl and Rend
Hold fast attack or strong attack with a weapon to trigger these alternate attacks.
 
            - Special Attacks  
If you fast attack while holding the parry key, you will perform a stamina-draining kick attack instead of a weapon attack. If you strong attack while holding the parry key, you will perform a double heavy attack, which may kill human opponents instantly if they are missing 70% or more of their health. Weapons are required for special attacks.

      - Block
While you hold the parry key, you will enter the defensive stance. Attacks that come at you from the front while you block will be deflected and have no effect. Arrows and bolts can also be deflected, but not special projectiles like cockatrice spits.
You must have a weapon drawn to parry any attack more dangerous than a bare fist.
Parrying an attack costs stamina, and if you cannot pay the full stamina cost, only part of the incoming damage will be
prevented.
Some attacks, such as drowner leaps, are specially marked as unblockable, and attempting to parry them guarantees a long stagger.
 
             - Counter
Pressing the parry key once after an opponent has initiated an attack will counter that attack.When you counter an attack, it will deal significantly reduced damage if unblockable or no damage at all. Countering an attack counts as attacking for most purposes, including stamina payment (see Stamina).
Without a weapon, you have access only to the fist counter, which can only counter enemy fist attacks. When you counter with a weapon drawn, you will perform an evasive slash, which will miss if you are too far away.
Holding the medium distance modifier while countering someone will change your sword counter to a kick counter, which drains stamina in the same way as the special fast attack (see Special Attacks).
The long distance modifier replaces your sword counter with a shoulder bash that has a chance to knock your opponent down.
These body contact counterattacks do not work against large enemies.
 
            - Dodge and Roll
Press the dodge key to take a step back.Combine it with the direction inputs to dodge in a specified direction. You can do the same with the roll key.
Every enemy attack has an invisible cone called the safe dodge angle, which is 90degrees wide by default, pointed straight at you. If you are dodging away from an attack in this angle, you are immune to damage from that attack during the beginning to middle part (20% - 60%) of the dodge’s animation.
The first part provides no protection and the last part of the dodge provides reduced protection. Partially dodged attacks are called grazes. Hold block while dodging (not rolling)for extra protection; you will be able to counter some of the attacks you would have failed to dodge.
 
             - Jump
Roll and jump are on the same key. Roll will be chosen contextually when enemies are near, and jump will be chosen otherwise.
To roll while no enemies are near, use a fast attack and then roll immediately after. To jump while in combat, sprint first.
 
            - Sign Casting
Selecting a sign using its selection key will immediately cast it. Select a sign using the radial menu if you do not wish to cast it immediately.
 
            - Crossbows
Crossbows require ammunition to fire. Use usable item key to fire your crossbow and to load it. Hold the fire key to aim your crossbow and release it to pull the trigger. Use the jump key while aiming to put your crossbow away without firing it.
Crossbows can be fired underwater.

Combat Concepts
 
            - Vitality
Your health bar appears in red. If it’s not there and you want to see it, hold [Enter] to force Friendly HUD to show it to you. At the beginning of the game, you have a vitality maximum of 6,000 points. At 0 points, you die. Ways of increasing your maximum vitality are uncommon. In Enhanced Edition, increases to your survivability usually take other forms, like points of increased dodge safe angle or evasion speed.
Be aware of your vitality percentage. As your health bar empties you lose stamina regeneration, vigor regeneration, poise, and even resistance to damage. When you fall below 30% of your maximum vitality, you lose the ability to sprint and run out of combat and will begin to limp.
You can get your vitality back by consuming food and drink or potions. Most of these consumable items have little immediate impact but have a long duration, making them your primary source of vitality between encounters. You can only benefit from one food item and one
drink item at any time. The vitality regeneration of both food and drink is suspended during combat, but the stamina regeneration of drink items continues.
You can use the time-lapse feature of meditation (see Meditation) to quickly pass time and regenerate. You also regenerate 1 point of
vitality every second under most circumstances, enabling you to meditate away
scratches without consuming food or drink.
 
            - Stamina
The stamina bar is yellow and wraps around the bottom of the wolf medallion. It refills rapidly over time. When you dodge, roll, attack, counter, or sprint, you pay a stamina cost for that action, and you incur a small regen delay.
The sword icon on your stamina bar glows when you have high stamina and fades when your stamina bar empties. You deal more damage while the sword is glowing red and less while it is faded up to a 40% damage penalty at no stamina.
Additionally, attacking and evading is not possible while out of stamina.
 
            - Vigor
The red half-wheel to the left of the medallion is vigor. Every sign you cast in its standard mode costs 1 vigor point. Every point of vigor missing from your bar reduces your damage by 10%, down to a minimum of 70% when all vigor has been spent.
The alternate modes of Aard, Yrden, and Axii also cost 1 vigor point. The alternate modes of Igni and Quen cost vigor continuously while they are cast.
Casting a sign imposes a small regeneration delay which lasts 1 second after a cast. The standard mode of Quen also impedes vigor
regeneration, halving the regeneration speed.
 
            - Toxicity
Below the health bar is a bar with a skull icon at one end. This bar fills up bright green with toxicity points when you drink your alchemy creations. By default,it holds up to 100 points. There is no special effect or penalty for completely filling up the bar, but you cannot consume an alchemy product that would put your toxicity total above your toxicity maximum. Of a potion's total toxicity, 75% is added as Active Toxicity, which lasts for twice the potion's duration. The remaining 25% is added as Dormant Toxicity, and can easily remain in your system for a day. Each potion in effect increases the toxicity cost of the next potion by 25%.
Toxicity has no direct repercussions, but when your toxicity exceeds a quarter of your maximum you become at risk of contracting a Toxicity Fever. This will significantly hinder your fighting capabilities for a while, and may lead to your demise.
 
            - Adrenaline
Adrenaline points are temporary boosts you can get in combat. They appear among the buffs on your HUD as a percent over a picture of a heart. Each point of adrenaline buffs you by a small amount, up to +100% stamina and vigor regeneration and +20% damage when full up. You also experience up to a 15% time slowdown effect, making it easier to make decisions in combat. There are ways to increase your adrenaline maximum above 100%, which will enable you to gain even more stamina, vigor, damage, and time slowdown.
Adrenaline gain is severely penalized while vitality is high and they rapidly fall off after a few seconds of inaction.
 
             - Poise
Poise is granted by the armor you wear.Heavy armor provides significantly more poise than light armor. You gain poise while at high toxicity and lose poise while at low vitality. You gain a temporary multiplier to your poise while performing an action: +20% while sprinting, +30% while attacking, and more.
Every point of poise gives you 1% chance to resist the stagger effect of any attack you could parry. Once your poise reaches 110, you can resist the staggering effect of unblockable attacks. Many heavy attacks have a high “poise damage” value, which calculates your stagger chance as though your poise were that many points lower. This is why heavy enemy attacks are more likely to stagger you, and also why poise values above 100 continue to be valuable.

             - Injuries
Every unblocked attack that hits its target has a 2% chance to injure the victim, including you. The second swing of the strong special attack (see Special Attacks) comes with a guaranteed injury if both swings of the attack connect. Injuries are selected depending on the area of the body the hit causing the injury landed on. Everyone is immune to all injuries they already have.
Limb (arm, leg, wing) injuries cause immense pain when moving. When you dodge with a leg injury or attack with an
arm/wing injury, there is a chance that your action is interrupted by a brief stagger.
Chest and spine injuries apply heavy bleeding (see Status Effects) immediately. Spine injuries increase the damage you take
from behind as well.
Head injuries briefly blind you and inhibit stamina regeneration.
Injuries remain until the victim is restored to full health, and are then removed.
 
             - Finishers
Finishers can be triggered by finishing off human opponents with fast attacks and then attacking them again while they’re holding their
throats. You can choose which finisher to use by combining your attack input
with a direction key.
Whenever you finish an enemy off, you regain some stamina and gain extra adrenaline.
 
             - Status Effects
Burning deals continuous damage until it times out. No stacking.
Bleeding deals continuous damage until it times out. Stacks up to 15.
Poison slowly increases your Residual Toxicity, which (unlike Active or Dormant toxicity) is degenerated at a fixed rate. Poison on others deals continuous damage. Stacks up to 5.
Blindness makes an actor unable to attack until it times out. Blindness also briefly turns the screen white when applied
to you. No stacking.
Slowdown or chilled makes an actor move slower. Slowdowns stack additively up to 100%. Chilled is increased to frozen
by stacking it twice from different sources.
Frozen or paralyzed makes an actor stop moving until it times out. Frozen actors take additional damage during this time.
No stacking.
Stun makes an actor stand in place and take no actions until it times out. Taking an attack cancels stun. No stacking. Also called confusion and snare.
Hypnosis on you turns the screen dark until it times out. No stacking.
Stagger removes the ability to take other actions until it times out. No stacking.
Knockdown and heavy knockdown are similar to stagger, but instead of the staggering animation, knock the actor onto their back and make them play a stand-up animation. Heavy knockdown creates a window of time where an enemy can be instantly slain with a stab to the heart.

Exploration and Economy
 
-   Your Inventory
You can carry up to 75 lbs, beyond which you lose the ability to move faster than a walk. Every item has a weight, even the coins in your pocket and the quest items the game forbids you from dropping. The inventory screen only displays values down to the hundredths (0.01), so if an item does not appear to have weight, you will see it when you have more of them.
You cannot open your inventory screen or eat food during combat. While you have the radial menu open, your Quick Access items will be displayed in the lower-left of the screen in two columns. Tap a quick item key to use a corresponding item from the left column. Hold that key to use the item in the right column.
 
-   Roach’s Inventory
Press [P] while near your horse to open her saddlebags, or double tap the whistle button.
The saddlebags hold up to 250 lbs by default and will not allow you to put in more, but you can increase this number by equipping saddlebag items in the appropriate slot in your inventory screen.  While haggling with merchants, you can sell from the contents of your saddlebags, regardless of proximity to Roach. You can dismantle or repair things in the saddlebags, and so on, just as if they were in your inventory. You also have access to the stash while crafting and performing alchemy, regardless of Roach’s location.
 
-   Area Looting
When you open a container, dead body, or herb container, the game also checks other nearby objects of the same type. Their contents will be displayed in the same loot window, listed below the contents of the central container.
Area looting is performed in a radius around you, not around the container.
 
-   Horseback Looting
Visit Options> Key Bindings to set an input to loot herbs while on horseback.
Herbs in a radius around you will be picked and added immediately to the saddlebags.
 
-   Horse Riding Mechanics
Horse riding mechanics have been overhauled. The spur key (previously canter) increases speed by an increment while the back key lowers the speed of the horse. Holding the spur key will make the horse instantly go into a full gallop instead of gradually increasing the speed, while holding back will instantly stop the horse.
The horse will always stick to the road automatically unless given other movement commands.
While already moving, holding forward will steer the horse towards where the camera is facing and letting go of the forward key will not stop the horse. If stationary, holding the forward key will bring the horse to cantering speed and as soon as the key is released, the horse will automatically stop.
Steering always has priority over any other directional input, allowing for complete rotation instead of diagonal movement, regardless of the forward key being held.
The used dismounting animation is now chosen based on the camera's relative facing to the horse, making you get off facing backwards if looking towards the back of the horse.
Additionally, riding will kick up dust or snow particle trails while riding as well.

-   Sailing Mechanics
Sailing has been changed as well. There are two keys to change boat speed: accelerate and decelerate.
Holding accelerate will take the boat to full speed (it takes some time), while simply pressing it once will change between the three available speeds. Holding the decelerate key stops the boat completely (again, it takes some time), while pressing it once slows it down through the available speed levels or makes it go backwards.
If stationary, holding forward will take the boat to the second speed level and once the key is not held anymore, it will automatically stop after a while. Steering still works as before.

-   Loot Scarcity
Many of the chests, barrels, and bundles in the world have little or nothing in them. 
 
-   Prices
The selling and buying prices of every item in the game have been tuned, greatly increasing the value of the Novigrad Crown and greatly decreasing the value of the miscellaneous items that you might try to sell to local merchants.
 
-   Relic Restoration
There are no duplicates of relic weapons.Only one copy of each of The Harpy, Headhunter, etc., can be found. When you find these items, they will be in an unusable condition, unable to be equipped, and without a damage rating. They must be taken to a craftsman for restoration, an expensive one-time process. Some relic weapons are found well-preserved, and do not require restoration.
 
-   Weapon Alternatives
You can wield one and two-handed axes and maces, but cannot use attack distance modifiers with the two-handed versions. Axes, maces, and steel swords have high durability and deal damage to all enemies except the supernatural, like werewolves and wraiths. Silver swords, which can be used to kill these enemies, have low durability and will need frequent repair work.
 
-   Monster Trophies
When you complete a contract, you will take a trophy off the monster’s body. To the right buyer, these are quite
valuable. They are also fairly heavy and have no other uses.
 
-   Item Enhancements
Grindstones and workbenches apply charges to your weapons and armor that are consumed in combat. They last indefinitely
otherwise. Until these charges are depleted, your equipment will not degrade in
quality.
 
-   Night Sight
Press Night Sight to toggle night vision.
 
-   De-leveling
There are no “character levels” or “item levels” in Enhanced Edition. There are no quest levels, area levels, or display elements that mention levels.
Individual enemies of the same type vary in health and damage by plus or minus 10%, generated at spawning.  Even the best light armors provide less protection than the weakest of heavy armors, and even the best swords deal less damage than a blunt halberd. Instead of simple number upscaling, items showcase their quality through rarity, in color-coded tiers: common (gray), uncommon (blue), rare (yellow), and relic (brown).
Items of greater rarity are more likely to have helpful secondary effects like stamina gain, movement speed, and bonus carrying capacity.
To learn more about improving your character, see Skills and Talents.

Alchemy and Crafting
 
-   Meditation
Meditation is an integral part of a witcher’s routine. You must be meditating to repair your weapons and armor, spend skill points, equip mutagens, or perform alchemy.
Press [N] to meditate. If there is a fire nearby, you will kneel facing it. If your character does not detect a nearby fire, you will light one, spending wood from your inventory. If no wood is available, you will not make a fire. If you do not wish to spend the wood you have, hold [N] to kneel down without building a fire. Any time you meditate at a fire, you will whistle for Roach.
While in meditation pose, you can press [N] again to stand up, or hold [N] to bring up the clock interface, which lets you fast forward to a set time of day. You can also hold the sprint key while meditating to see the world time-lapse around you. Each meditation-exclusive action you take (spending skill points, etc.) causes time to pass around you. If you meditate at a fire for at least 7 hours, you gain the Well Rested buff: +1000 maximum vitality for one real-time hour.
While you meditate, your safe toxicity threshold is elevated by 20% of your maximum toxicity, your toxicity points clear faster, and you resist some bleeding damage. Oils you apply to your blades and potions you drink during this time have their duration increased by 20%.
 
-   Crafting
To make an item in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, you find the entry for the item you wish to make in a drop-down menu, then click on it to view its ingredients. Fill each of the product item’s ingredient slots with an appropriate item, then fuse them with a button press. Each type of crafting also has a contextual requirement: you must be speaking with a blacksmith to craft a sword, must be kneeling at a fire to brew potions, and so forth. Some ingredients, like the broken sword in a restoration recipe, cannot be substituted. Many other ingredient requirements, especially alchemy ingredients, can be satisfied with more than one available item.
To switch between eligible ingredients,click on them in the crafting interface and use the up and down arrow keys or mouse wheel.
 
-   Dismantling
Many ingredients called for in bulk, like leather scraps, are also difficult to find. In order to get large numbers of these ingredients, visit the dismantling menu, only available when bartering with a craftsman. Here, you can see what ingredients can be made out of the ingredients in your inventory.
 
-   Component Quality
Every component is an item, and every item in the game has a rarity (see De-leveling). Whenever you craft an item, the average rarity of your components is calculated. Common items have a rarity of 1, counting up all the way through relics, at  4, and “witcher gear” (green) items, which have a rarity rating of 5.  In some recipes, certain ingredients,like the bottles in your potions, are excluded from the calculation of an average, because multiple versions of these ingredients at different rarities do not exist.
Increasing the average quality of your components results in higher-quality output. A preview of your item is displayed in the upper right part of the crafting screen.
 
-   Ability Sets
Armors and weapons may have multiple“ability sets” available when you craft them. If they do, then the name of their recipe will be prefaced with the word “regular.” Use the indicated controls at the bottom center of the crafting screen to cycle through the ability sets. Each set will change the prefixing word of the item’s name and grant it a few themed bonuses. The exact values are random and determined when you craft the item.
 
-   Alchemy Recipes
Alchemy recipes in Enhanced Edition require you to mix “primary substances” into “bases” to create products. Blade oils use various greases as their base, bombs can be made with a variety of powders, and potions and decoctions require alcohol.  For example, Swallow, the basic healing potion, is made of an alcoholic base and three of the six primary substances: aether, rebis, and vitriol. You will also need an empty bottle in which to put the potion. (You get empty bottles by consuming alcohol, which happens naturally when you brew potions. You won’t run out.)
After you line up the ingredients and craft the item, a sound will play, indicating success, and the quantities of ingredients in your inventory will update. However, the item will not be added to your inventory, as it has not been created. Instead, it has been added to a queue, which fills up with the items you create. When you exit the alchemy screen, the game will briefly fade to black and every item in the queue will be added to your inventory.
 
-   Primary Substances
An item is an alchemy ingredient if it is a base or if it contains one of the six primary substances: aether, hydragenum, rebis, quebrith, vermilion, and vitriol.Every alchemy recipe requires at least one “unit” of a primary substance. Most recipes require multiple primary substances in differing amounts, but no recipe requires that a primary substance be added twice.
 
-   Ingredient Quantity
Every base and alchemical substance has a quantity rating of 1, 2, or 4. Each ingredient provides a number of recipe units equal to its quantity rating.
Every alchemical recipe requires 4 units of its corresponding base type (grease, powder, or alcohol), meaning that 2 copies of a quantity 2 base will fulfill the requirement, as will 4 copies of a 1-quantity base or 1 copy of a 4-quantity base. Ingredients cannot share the load in a recipe slot, even if they are interchangeable.
Alcoholic bases are described as “weak,” “strong,” or “pure,” corresponding to quantity scores of 2, 4, and 4, respectively.
Oil bases are “low,” “standard,” and “high quality”, also corresponding to quantity scores of 2, 4, and 4.
Powder bases are also “low,” “standard,” and “high quality,” but these match up with quantity scores of 1, 2, and 4, different from the other bases.
Other ingredients are described as “low/weak,” “moderate,” or “rich” sources of their corresponding primary substance, indicating their status as 1, 2, or 4 quantity ingredients, respectively.
 
-   Distilling
In your alchemy screen is a drop-down menu called “Substances: Primary.” These recipes are called the “distilling recipes.” When you make one of these primary substances using a “contaminated” (common) ingredient, you will receive a “quality” (uncommon) sample of primary substance.
Use a “quality” ingredient in the distilling process to create “pure” (rare) samples of the primary substance. Distilling a “pure” ingredient does not improve it further.
 
-   Secondary Substances
Some alchemy ingredients contain one of the three secondary substances, nigredo, albedo, and rubedo. If you line up ingredients for your potion (and only potions) that all contain the same secondary substance, then your finished product will contain that secondary substance as well.
Ingredients that do not contain primary substances (bottles, bases, etc) do not need to contain the secondary substance.  When you drink a potion with a secondary substance, the secondary substance will appear on your display as a buff, with a separate timer from the duration of the potion. They tick down and expire separately.
The nigredo buff grants you 10% bonus damage. The albedo buff hastens all active toxicity degeneration by 20% until the buff expires. The rubedo buff heals you 0.3% of your maximum vitality every second.
Secondary substances disappear from an ingredient when you distill it into a sample of primary substance.
 
-   Cooking Recipes
You can purchase cooking and brewing recipes from innkeepers, enabling you to combine and upgrade your food items, increasing their efficiency per weight unit. You can also prepare your own alcohol for potions.
 
-   Potions
Potions have a drinking animation by default. Do not expect to be able to consume a potion while under immediate pressure.
 
-   Oils
Any oil can be applied to any melee weapon. When you exit the inventory screen after applying an oil, you will play an animation running your hand down the length of your weapon on both sides.
While you have an oiled weapon drawn, its remaining effectiveness will display on your HUD, but it will slowly drip away over time. To keep the oil on a weapon, keep it sheathed. Each hit with the weapon will also deplete the remaining oil until none is left.
Oils will remain on a blade indefinitely if it is not drawn, including when it’s unequipped.
 
-   Bombs
While you hold the key to throw a bomb, a bright white/red spot will appear on the ground where your bomb will land. (The indicator’s color is affected by ambient lighting.) On key release, you throw the prepared bomb in a line to the target.
To cancel a prepared bomb throw, use the jump key.
 
-   Decoctions
There are 10 decoctions, each associated with a monster family (necrophage, vampire, etc). To learn the recipe for a decoction, you must read 2 books about that monster family, available from book vendors throughout the world.

Signs and Talents
 
            - Aard
Aard is the sign of air. Use it to put out fires, give enemies a push,and deal a burst of damage to them. Use it underwater to create a shockwave that will crush anything in front of you.
You can upgrade it to unlock its alternate mode: hold the cast button for half a second to hit everything in a circle around you, instead of the cone in front of you. Alternate Aard does less damage and has much better crowd control capabilities.
 
             - Igni
Igni is the sign of elemental fire. It ignites things in a cone in front of you: campfires, candles, explosive barrels, and enemies. Enemies who catch fire will take damage over a few seconds and might panic, standing in place instead of attacking or defending themselves (see Status Effects).
Its alternate mode fires a continuous stream that also slows enemies. Enemies on fire take less damage from the
alternate fire mode.
 
             - Yrden
The “fifth element,” Yrden represents an unknown force. Cast it to create a temporary circle on the ground that enhances your reflexes while inside it. Enemies in the circle receive a burst of damage every 0.9-1.1 seconds, and enemies who take three pulses of the damage are snared (see Status Effects). Additional ticks may be require to apply the snare, based on the enemy’s slow resistance.
Upgrade the sign to unlock its alternate mode. This creates a single rune on the ground which destroys enemy projectiles near it and fires staggering blasts at enemies who take offensive actions against you.
 
             - Quen
Quen is the sign of earth. When cast, it creates a layer of electric force that protects you from harm until it expires or is depleted. When you take a hit, the damage is reduced by the number of points remaining on your Quen shield,then Quen loses a portion of its strength. Quen loses fewer points on a hit if you have a higher armor rating or sign intensity.
Alternate Quen creates a spherical force field around you that blocks incoming damage and turns it into stamina and adrenaline, but depletes vigor when blocking hits and while channeling it.
Cast Quen while your base Quen shield is up to dismiss it.
 
             - Axii
This is the sign of elemental water. Use it to stun the enemy in the middle of your screen. It does not always work; increase your sign intensity and try weaker-willed opponents to up your chances.
Its alternate version allows you to switch an enemy to your side instead of stunning them (see Status Effects).
 
             - Skills
On your Character screen, there are five tabs: Combat (red), Signs (blue), Alchemy (green), General (brown), and Mutagens (gray). The Mutagens tab is just an alternate way of viewing your inventory, so be sure when you check it that you’ve retrieved all your mutagens from your saddlebags. The red, blue, green, and brown tab all feature a grid of talents. Each talent belongs to one of sixteen skills.
In the red, blue, and green tabs, there are fifteen talents at the top of the grid that are automatically unlocked. Each one of them is the “base talent” of its corresponding skill. The other talents below it in the column also belong to the same skill. You can hover over any of the fifteen base talents to see your skill progression in that skill. Every time your skill progression reaches 100%, it resets to 0, and you receive a skill point.
Each skill point is associated with the skill that generated it, and cannot be used interchangeably with the other fifteen types of skill points.
You gain progression in each of the sixteen skills by using that skill.
 
•   Fast Attack: Use fast attacks. Progress 75% faster by hitting enemies.
•   Strong Attack: Use strong attacks. Progress 75% faster by hitting enemies.
•   Defense: Use blocks, dodges, and counters.
•   Ranged Combat: Use a crossbow. Progress 75% faster by hitting enemies.
•   Battle Trance: Complete combat encounters. At least one enemy must die for a skill increase to happen. Progress 50% faster by taking no damage.
 
•   Aard Sign: Use the Aard Sign.
•   Igni Sign: Use the Igni Sign.
•   Yrden Sign: Use the Yrden Sign.
•   Quen Sign: Use the Quen Sign in its standard mode. Block damage with the Quen Sign in its alternate mode.
•   Axii Sign: Use the Axii Sign.
 
•   Brewing: Craft any recipe in the “Potions”category.
•   Oil Preparation: Craft any recipe in the “Oils”category. Apply oils to your weapons.
•   Bomb Creation: Craft any recipe in the “Bombs”category. Throw bombs. Plant bombs in monster nests.
•   Mutation: Craft any recipe with a mutagen in its ingredient list. Read any of the twenty books that teaches a decoction recipe.
•   Trial of the Grasses: Drink potions and decoctions.
 
•   General: Complete quests and discover fast travel signposts.
 
            - Talents
While meditating, you may spend skill points to unlock and upgrade talents. General talents cannot be upgraded once unlocked. All other talents have 5 ranks, which each cost 1 skill point. Each skill has 4 talents in it except General, which has 20. Each skill is therefore fully upgraded after you have spent 20 of the correct type of skill point.  Fully upgraded skills continue to earn skill points, and the extra skill points can be used to unlock mutations after traveling to Toussaint.
All the talents where you have spent your points are always on, regardless of how many different talents you have.
 
            - Mutagens
Your Character screen has four slots for equipping mutagens, which unlock as you earn skill points (across all skills).
Color mutagens (red, blue, and green) have no effect. These are used as alchemy ingredients (see Decoctions).
Monster mutagens, named after their monster (Griffin, Noonwraith, etc.) can be looted off the corpses of the appropriate monster type. While equipped, they confer abilities loosely themed to match the monster you killed. The exact value of the buff from each mutagen is determined when you loot it.
 
            - Archmutagens
You can learn alchemy recipes for“Archmutagens,” which combine monster mutagens from all the monsters of a family to create a more powerful effect. Archmutagens have a nonrandom buff value and can be equipped as normal.
 
             - Mutations
When you have unlocked the ability to research mutations, an icon will appear on your Character screen, centered between your mutagen slots.  On the Mutation screen, accessed by clicking the mutation icon on your Character screen, you can research new mutations by meditating and spending their costs (color mutagens and skill points).
They are organized in a dependent tree structure, requiring you to research the central ones first and the branching ones after.
You can only equip one of your researched mutations at a time.

F.A.Q.

Q: Can I merge other mods with this?
A: Most likely not, unless you merge the mods manually. It can and probably will cause problems otherwise due to the extensive changes to
the script files.
    
Q: Will you make this installable with Nexus Mod Manager?
A: No.

Q: Will you (help me) merge mod X with this?
A: No.

Q: I don't like X because of [insert inane bitching here]. Will you change it?
A: No.

Q: Will you add [insert any number of implausible features that require laborious implementation]?
A: No.

Q: How do I uninstall this?
A: You delete every file you installed and use the cleardevelop console command in-game to reset your stats, equipment and skill tree to the vanilla state. This will also put you back to level 1, though.

Q: My entire HUD disappeared! Wat do?!
A: Read the Friendly HUD description page and the in-game tutorials or turn the HUD elements back on under the Video options.    

Q: My level indicators disappeared and now I am lost! Wat do?!
A: Read the fucking description.

Q: Will there be any more updates to this?
A: X) Doubt

Q: By being doubtful you mean no?
A: Yeah, pretty much.

Q: So I opened your Nexus profile and I can't find the romance option. What do I do?
A: Send kisses and truffles.

Q: What kind of fat motherfucker are you to ask for truffles donations on your mod page?
A: That is for me to know and you to never find out.

Q: Again with these questions - you lack the seemliness required for a properly written FAQ. Where did it all go wrong?
A: It's a natural byproduct of reading comments over the years.

Q: QUEST NPCS KEEP GETTING KILLED! HOW DO I SAVE THEM?!
A: It's definitely possible to do so, you just actually have to put some effort into it this time around.

Q: WHY ARE YOU MAKING ME ASK QUESTIONS IN ALL CAPS? THIS IS NOT HOW I USUALLY TALK!
A: I believe this falls on the spectrum of "Modding PTSD", wherein reasonable questions and reports begin to seem like inane ravings.

Q: I INSTALLED THIS MOD AND IT BROKE MY FUCKING GAME!
A: Maybe reading the description would have helped.

Q: Your description offends me.
A: I am offended that you're offended.
Q: You don't get to be offended, I was the one exposed to this hateful mockery.
A: I am now doubly offended by you mocking my description.
Q: YOU CAN'T BE OFFENDED! THE USER IS ALWAYS THE VICTIM HERE!
A: Quadruple offense taken.
Q: I WILL UNINSTALL AND UN-ENDORSE YOU SO BAD! I'M OFF TO REDDIT AND THE CDPR FORUMS TO BITCH AND WHINE ABOUT HOW TACTLESS, CHILDISH, UNFUNNY AND OFFENSIVE YOU ARE!
A: Good. I'm at the point where I actually want to discourage people from downloading my mods, if only to filter out idiots and whiners.
    
Q: You've become very bitter over the years, you know that?
A: Keep calling me bitter and I'll secretly make drowners and ghouls spit magm... I mean, thanks for the feedback.

Q: You suck at support. You know that, right?
A: Yeah, but I'm not exactly a helpdesk and I can't set up a huge load order for everyone according to their wishes and tastes. Not like I care to.

Q: The last person I knew who used the phrase "not like I care" was an angsty edgelord who used it to hide their insecurities while having nothing going on in their lives and no outlook for even a remotely successful future. What's your response?
A: Uninstall and un-endorse.

Q: You can't hide behind that phrase forever. One day we'll start endorsing your mods out of spite. What then?
A: I will give you kudos out of spite.

Q: I will file your kudos for harassment.
A: If I drink myself to oblivion the voices will go silent, so I win.