The Witcher 3: How To Play Gwent Cards Game

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The Witcher 3: How To Play Gwent Cards Game

Let’s find out in The Witcher 3 how to play the Gwent Cards Game. It’s the in-game card game of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, where it draws 10 cards from your deck (of ideally 22 cards) per game. You win a match if you’re the first to beat your opponent across 2 rounds, at which point the loser NPC will give you a card. Time to learn all the gameplay basics…

Watch the official cards game tutorial on how to play Gwent in The Witcher 3:

And read on below for the basics, more advanced strategies, and game-winning tips.

Index of The Witcher 3 Guides:

The Witcher 3: How To Play Gwent Cards Game

Watch a VERY USEFUL beginner level tutorial with voice-over tips on how to play Gwent:

Protip: Collect all 199 Gwent Cards using our “The Witcher 3 Gwent Cards Locations Guide“.

About Gwent:

Gwent is a fast-paced card game that can be played within The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt on every platform. Invented by dwarves and perfected over centuries of tavern table play, Gwent is a game of initial simplicity and ultimate depth, something beloved by both road-weary travelers during long nights around the campfire and elegant nobles looking to liven up dragging dinner parties.

The game is about the clash of two armies locked in mortal struggle on a battlefield where the players are the leaders (generals) and the cards their forces. With four different factions offering unique combat styles and endless paths to victory, Gwent is every adventurer’s first choice when it comes to one-on-one card-based dueling. Take risks and think on your feet, strategize and deliver cunning combos, use potent magic and mighty hero cards and be the last one standing on the field of honor!

Key Gwent Features:

• 199 unique playing cards.

• 4 distinct factions: the mighty and cunning Nilfgaardian Empire, the brave Northern Realms and their siege weapons, the agile and devious Scoia’tael, and the brutal monsters of No Man’s Land.

• Powerful spells allow players to control the weather and affect units on the battlefield.

• An array of combat styles caters to individual playstyles: close range with heavy knights, long range with skilled archers or artillery with powerful siege weapons.

• Powerful hero cards, unique to each faction.

The Rules of Gwent:

• To begin a match, the game selects the starting player with a coin toss.

• Each player receives 10 random Gwent cards pulled from their decks. Players can discard two cards and redraw in the hope of receiving two superior cards. This is done once.

• Players place a Unit Card on the Gwent board in the dedicated combat row. Each player may play one card per turn unless a special ability enables them to do otherwise. Players may also utilize Weather Cards from the Neutral Deck.

• Each unit Card has Strength points that are added for each player’s total. A player will win a round of Gwent when the player has more points than the other and both players no longer have cards to play or the other player passes their turn.

• Matches are set with 2 wins out of 3 rounds.

Gwent Objective:

The objective of Gwent is simple: Make sure the total strength of your cards on the board is greater than that of your opponent’s.

Each player must have a full deck for at least one faction to join in on a game of Gwent. This includes a minimum of 22 unit cards and a maximum of 10 special cards. These unit cards can be made up of faction-specific units or neutral cards, and if a player has more than 22 cards, they may choose to omit them from their deck in favor of drawing a better hand.

As the rules explained, when you start a new game players draw 10 cards from their deck, and may re-draw up to two of those cards, which are usually the cards of the weakest power or least strategic value. A coin is flipped to determine who shall go first.

Players place various unit cards in one of three corresponding tiers: Close Combat, Ranged Combat and Siege Combat. – And a final point to make is that certain cards will provide you with bonus abilities, like adding additional strength to cards in their row or letting you re-draw discarded cards.

Card Correlation:

• Close Combat Cards — Weak to Frost cards.

• Hero Cards — Are immune to special attacks.

• Ranged Combat Cards — Weak to Wind cards.

• Siege Cards — Weak to Rain cards.

• Special & Weather Cards — Are neutral to the factions.

Special Card Abilities:

• Agile Card — Is used in Ranged Combat or Close Combat rows.

• Hero Card — Is impervious to Abilities & Special Effects (like Weather).

• Medic Card — When used, you can pick a card from the discarded pile for immediate use (not valid for discarded Special or Hero Cards).

• Morale Boost Card — Adds +1 to units in a single row (outside of the card itself).

• Muster Card — Allows you to play cards with the same name right away.

• Scorch Card with Close Combat — Destroys your opponent’s Close Combat units if (s)he has a 10 or higher combined strength.

• Spy Card — When used it draws 2 cards from your deck.

• Tight Bond Card — Gives player double the power when put right next to a card with the same name.

Strategy Tips:

• Let your opponent win game 1 by exhausting his best cards, then stomp him in game 2 and 3 because you kept your better cards.

• If you have Foltest’s army, then win game 1 and use the extra card to win game 2.

• Let an opponent develop the row for which you have a weather card, then win the round by playing that weather card. In the next round, play all your saved up cards from that row. – For example: If you have the freezing cold weather card, don’t play melee in round 1, just ranged and siege. Knock out your opponents melee with the weather and win the round. Then play your melee cards in round 2.

• Try to get Dunn banner medic and decoy out of the draw. Play one bad card to get things going. Then once your opponent starts playing throw two really high cards to bait them into playing more cards then you have played. At the end of round 1 throw out a spy card and get one of your best cards back with a decoy. That will usually give you a huge card advantage over your opponent for rounds 2 and 3.

• Modify your deck. Try to get rid of all the low 1-3 str cards. It can be a long process, but with a strong deck you’ll be able to beat high-level players.

• Adapt to the enemies you are facing. Playing against Nilfgard deck? Take all the mists. Against monsters? All the frost. Squirrels? Probably both. – Make sure to adjust your draw based on enemy and cards in your hand as well. For example: Are half of your cards Melee? Then you probably won’t need 2 frosts.

Strategies to unlock the The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt’s “Gwent Master” Trophy / Achievement Guide by completing the “High Stakes” Side Quest:

Be sure to create a save game between each match and before starting the tournament. If your deck is too weak and you lose a match it will fail the quest. The only way to retry is to load an older save game.

First you must build a very strong deck of Gwent Cards and then go to the Passiflora (brothel) in the north of Novigrad. Here you can talk to a person in the back of the Passiflora with a side quest marker. Pay the 1000 Crowns fee to participate and the “High Stakes” side quest will start. You must defeat 4 very strong gwent players to finish the quest.

You can win with any deck, but the Northern Realms deck is highly recommended due to its many spy cards. You may want to wait and work towards the Card Collector trophy first before attempting this. By the time you reach the tournament you will already have learned how Gwent works. While collecting the best available cards you will in all likelihood earn “Geralt and Friends” and “All In” naturally without even trying.

Below are the locations of all gwent cards used in this video:

My deck of cards (Northern Realms, total of 22 Unit cards and 5 Special Cards):
3x Commander’s Horn (buy from merchants at Passiflora, Velen Inn at the Crossroads, Oxenfurt Alchemy Inn)
2x Scorch (buy from merchants at Kaer Trolde Inn, Oxenfurt Alchemy Inn)
1x Geralt of Rivia (Gwent: Old Friends, from Thaler)
1x Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon (Gwent: Big City Players, from merchant in the woods)
1x Yennefer of Vengerberg (Gwent: Playing Inkeeps, from Oxenfurt innkeeper)
1x Vesemir (Gwent: Big City Players, from Vivaldi banker)
1x Zoltan Chivay (randomly earned, can be replaced with any other card)
1x Dandelion (Side Quest: A Matter of Life and Death, win match at masquerade ball)
1x Mysterious Elf (Gwent: Skellige Style, from Alchemist after doing his side quest)
1x Vernon Roche (Gwent: Velen Players, beat the player in Midcopse)
1x John Natalis (Side Quest: A Dangerous Game)
1x Esterad Thyssen (Gwent: Big City Players, from Dijkstra)
1x Catapult (buy from merchant at Passiflora)
1x Dethmold (automatically in your deck from the beginning of the game)
2x Trebuchet (automatically in your deck from the beginning of the game)
1x Ballista (automatically in your deck from the beginning of the game)
1x Ves (automatically in your deck from the beginning of the game)
1x Prince Stennis (automatically in your deck from the beginning of the game)
1x Dun Banner Medic (automatically in your deck from the beginning of the game)
1x Sigismund Dijkstra (Gwent: Velen Players, from Bloody Baron at Crow’s Perch)
2x Blue Stripes Commando (buy from merchants at Crow’s Perch and Midcopse)
1x Thaler (buy from Arinbjorn innkeeper in Skellige)

The must-have / most important cards are: Geralt of Rivia, Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon, Yennefer of Vengerberg, Mysterious Elf, Dun Banner Medic, Thaler, Commander’s Horn.

Strategies used in the video guide:

– Always play your spy cards first. Yes, they will add some points to your opponent’s score, but you can draw 2 more cards. Don’t be afraid to lose the first round if it means you will have 14 cards and your opponent only has 8 cards left. This guarantees a certain win, as your enemy doesn’t have enough cards to keep up with you.

– Keep your deck to the minimum of 22 unit cards and throw out as many special cards as possible. This increases the chance of drawing only your best cards. Keep some Commander’s Horn cards.

– The final player uses a Monster deck which focuses almost entirely on Close Combat. Be sure to have 2 Biting Frost cards and some Scorch Cards in your deck. As long as you can play a Biting Frost card your opponent won’t stand a chance.

Credits: RobPlaysThoseGames, Wiki, GamingSinceGaming, Powerpyx, Aboutfarting, Spin22 & Emnel