GWENT: Community Q&A Thread - Ask Your Questions Here

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Howdy, I recently started playing gwent and I am wondering how I should be spending the resources the game gives me. For card crafting I can just check what the meta is once i have a large enough collection, but what I am really interested in is which card kegs I should be buying. So far I focused solely on Monster Kegs, but I know next to nothing about how luck and expansions factor into card opening.
Lately I have been finding more and more duplicates and my questions would be:
-What number of unique cards would be optimal to stop at? From previous experience, opening packs just hoping for epics or legendaries is a wasteful tactic, should I stop once I have every rare card in a faction?
-Do faction kegs contain cards from all expansions?
-If they do, is there absolutely no point for a new player to be buying non-faction kegs?
-What do I use the green dust for apart from making cards look pretty?
-Do you get your money back for cards that get nerfed?
-Is there a particularly favored strategy that has a low cost, yet high success rate I should be gravitating towards?

Thanks in advance.
 
Howdy, I recently started playing gwent and I am wondering how I should be spending the resources the game gives me. For card crafting I can just check what the meta is once i have a large enough collection, but what I am really interested in is which card kegs I should be buying. So far I focused solely on Monster Kegs, but I know next to nothing about how luck and expansions factor into card opening.
Lately I have been finding more and more duplicates and my questions would be:
-What number of unique cards would be optimal to stop at? From previous experience, opening packs just hoping for epics or legendaries is a wasteful tactic, should I stop once I have every rare card in a faction?
-Do faction kegs contain cards from all expansions?
-If they do, is there absolutely no point for a new player to be buying non-faction kegs?
-What do I use the green dust for apart from making cards look pretty?
-Do you get your money back for cards that get nerfed?
-Is there a particularly favored strategy that has a low cost, yet high success rate I should be gravitating towards?

Thanks in advance.
By buying faction kegs (focusing on one or two factions you like), you will more quickly be able to generate quality decks using that faction. But you will never acquire neutral cards beyond those that come in the starter decks. On the other hand, by buying ultimate kegs, you will get fewer duplicate epic and legendary cards. You are correct that ultimately, you will use scraps to acquire most legendary cards because of the infrequency that they appear in kegs. However, every duplicate becomes one more card to purchase with scraps.

Faction decks do contain cards from all expansions; but that doesn’t make ultimate kegs irrelevant. I think you are correct to switch factions after getting all rare cards — at least until you get a good sized bronze collection.

As to your question about low cost strategy, no top tier deck is particularly cheap, but there are very competitive decks that are cheap — using a variety of strategies. I would look for bronze cards that have high but achievable ceilings and build around them: monster swarm with bone talismans; NR boost with Lyrian Scythemen; NG assimilate with duchess’ informants, imperial informants, and experimental remedy; NG with viper witcher mentors; SK with many high return bronze units are only a few examples.

Of course, you will want gold units in your deck as well. Long term, you will reach a complete collection using fewest scraps if you wait to buy cards with scraps until you have enough scraps to complete your collection (this gives fewest duplicates from kegs). But this is a very slow process and requires building your deck around cards you own — many of which will not be ideal. And weak decks make earning rewards slower.

Most people therefore use scraps to craft decks. I strongly advise avoiding complete crafting of the latest meta deck. The meta changes with every release of new cards. Rather, choose good core cards that you expect to be useful in a variety of decks. A card like Oneiromancy is always going to be good. Yghern and/or Ozzrel are useful across monster archetypes and different metas. On the other hand, Viy is highly specialized, still a possible target for a further nerf, and very likely to eventually be power crept. Keltullis is an interesting and very strategic card, but one that is again specialized demanding a very precise supporting cast. It may be more enduring than Viy, but is still very restrictive — and hard to pilot. It is fine to pick a meta deck as a model, but I would only craft those cards that I think will remain useful if the meta changes, and find substitutes for others.

So, if I want to play monsters and I look at team leviathan gaming’s latest meta list, I see 3 monster decks: Arachas Swarm, Carapace, and Viy.

Viy totally revolves around the one card, Viy, which I do not consider a durable investment. Moreover, it demands lots of tutors. While one or two tutors could be useful, it is unlikely any other deck will ever use more than two. I would not pursue this deck.

Upon examining carapace, I notice it is a Keltullis deck. Now Keltullis is a very gimmicky and fussy card; I wouldn’t look to craft it immediately. Ciri Dash is not a bad card, but without protection, will almost always be locked or destroyed and is expensive at 10 provisions. Although she presently seems to only be used with Keltullis, she seems sound enough to be valuable in other decks — if she can be protected. Unless I can look at cards I own and see a clear way to keep her alive for the turns before she triggers (unlikely for a beginning player), I would not craft her. Maxxi is a good consistency card, but will never make or break a deck; I would not waste resources on her at this point. And I would not buy a stratagem. The advantage even a good stratagem like Crystal Skull just doesn’t offer that much improvement over tactical advantage that I would give up a good gold card for it. The other gold cards in the deck (oneiromancy, heatwave, Yghern, cave troll, ozzrel, wrath, nithral, beast, phantom, and parasite) are all useful across many decks and should be considered. But if I’m on a budget, I don’t want to craft them all. So I would look for cards that are most impactful. Oneromancy is only impactful if I have good cards to draw from my deck, so I ought to get some good cards first. A defender like cave troll is always useful, but it’s better with something to defend. Ozzrel is already owned from my starter set and Yghern plays for a lot of points. But how much do I lose if I substitute a card like Old Speartip asleep which I already own? Similarly, I might consider what removal I already own in place of parasite, heatwave, wrath. I probably would buy Nithral, Beast, and Phantom. But at this point, I realize that without the signature Keltullis card, my deck will not bear much resemblance to the meta deck — perhaps I am better off building Arachas Swarm.

So what would I do with Arachas Swarm? The theme of this deck is to generate lots of units and then to boost them — while keeping enough control to contain my opponent. And most of the spawning and boosting is done by bronze cards! So looking at gold cards, I begin with those that directly support spawning or boosting. Triss is generally used to play an extra boost or swarm card. She is expensive and inconsistent; hence not used in a lot of decks. But I have found any card that anytime I can effectively play two cards in one round, it is not bad. Triss I would not mind crafting. Whispess is similar, but summons a card you already have in deck rather than creating a new one. And while several organic cards are excellent, unfortunately, bone talisman is not organic. But organic cards are used in many decks, and it is not bad to have a tutor for them. I would probably buy only one of Triss and Whispess — which one is kind of a toss up. Yennifer of avenger berg is maybe the biggest boost card in the deck. But because she also boosts opponents, her net value is not always high. And she is very specialized, virtually useless in other decks. I would look for an alternative. Dol Dhu Lokke provides two spawn as well as another chimera — a very valuable card in this deck. And it is a card I like in lots of decks — I definitely want it. It is available in one of the way of the witcher reward trees if you prefer not to spend scraps. Finally, Arachas behemoth spawns and boosts. It seems like he is rarely used elsewhere, but even without the boosting, he plays for sufficient value to be helpful. I would buy this. I would look for reasonable substitutes for other gold cards — although buying some tall removal might be worthwhile if I don’t already have it.

This has become a very long post. I don’t know if my strategy is optimal. I offer it as an option.
 
By buying faction kegs (focusing on one or two factions you like), you will more quickly be able to generate quality decks using that faction. But you will never acquire neutral cards beyond those that come in the starter decks. On the other hand, by buying ultimate kegs, you will get fewer duplicate epic and legendary cards. You are correct that ultimately, you will use scraps to acquire most legendary cards because of the infrequency that they appear in kegs. However, every duplicate becomes one more card to purchase with scraps.

Faction decks do contain cards from all expansions; but that doesn’t make ultimate kegs irrelevant. I think you are correct to switch factions after getting all rare cards — at least until you get a good sized bronze collection.

As to your question about low cost strategy, no top tier deck is particularly cheap, but there are very competitive decks that are cheap — using a variety of strategies. I would look for bronze cards that have high but achievable ceilings and build around them: monster swarm with bone talismans; NR boost with Lyrian Scythemen; NG assimilate with duchess’ informants, imperial informants, and experimental remedy; NG with viper witcher mentors; SK with many high return bronze units are only a few examples.

Of course, you will want gold units in your deck as well. Long term, you will reach a complete collection using fewest scraps if you wait to buy cards with scraps until you have enough scraps to complete your collection (this gives fewest duplicates from kegs). But this is a very slow process and requires building your deck around cards you own — many of which will not be ideal. And weak decks make earning rewards slower.

Most people therefore use scraps to craft decks. I strongly advise avoiding complete crafting of the latest meta deck. The meta changes with every release of new cards. Rather, choose good core cards that you expect to be useful in a variety of decks. A card like Oneiromancy is always going to be good. Yghern and/or Ozzrel are useful across monster archetypes and different metas. On the other hand, Viy is highly specialized, still a possible target for a further nerf, and very likely to eventually be power crept. Keltullis is an interesting and very strategic card, but one that is again specialized demanding a very precise supporting cast. It may be more enduring than Viy, but is still very restrictive — and hard to pilot. It is fine to pick a meta deck as a model, but I would only craft those cards that I think will remain useful if the meta changes, and find substitutes for others.

So, if I want to play monsters and I look at team leviathan gaming’s latest meta list, I see 3 monster decks: Arachas Swarm, Carapace, and Viy.

Viy totally revolves around the one card, Viy, which I do not consider a durable investment. Moreover, it demands lots of tutors. While one or two tutors could be useful, it is unlikely any other deck will ever use more than two. I would not pursue this deck.

Upon examining carapace, I notice it is a Keltullis deck. Now Keltullis is a very gimmicky and fussy card; I wouldn’t look to craft it immediately. Ciri Dash is not a bad card, but without protection, will almost always be locked or destroyed and is expensive at 10 provisions. Although she presently seems to only be used with Keltullis, she seems sound enough to be valuable in other decks — if she can be protected. Unless I can look at cards I own and see a clear way to keep her alive for the turns before she triggers (unlikely for a beginning player), I would not craft her. Maxxi is a good consistency card, but will never make or break a deck; I would not waste resources on her at this point. And I would not buy a stratagem. The advantage even a good stratagem like Crystal Skull just doesn’t offer that much improvement over tactical advantage that I would give up a good gold card for it. The other gold cards in the deck (oneiromancy, heatwave, Yghern, cave troll, ozzrel, wrath, nithral, beast, phantom, and parasite) are all useful across many decks and should be considered. But if I’m on a budget, I don’t want to craft them all. So I would look for cards that are most impactful. Oneromancy is only impactful if I have good cards to draw from my deck, so I ought to get some good cards first. A defender like cave troll is always useful, but it’s better with something to defend. Ozzrel is already owned from my starter set and Yghern plays for a lot of points. But how much do I lose if I substitute a card like Old Speartip asleep which I already own? Similarly, I might consider what removal I already own in place of parasite, heatwave, wrath. I probably would buy Nithral, Beast, and Phantom. But at this point, I realize that without the signature Keltullis card, my deck will not bear much resemblance to the meta deck — perhaps I am better off building Arachas Swarm.

So what would I do with Arachas Swarm? The theme of this deck is to generate lots of units and then to boost them — while keeping enough control to contain my opponent. And most of the spawning and boosting is done by bronze cards! So looking at gold cards, I begin with those that directly support spawning or boosting. Triss is generally used to play an extra boost or swarm card. She is expensive and inconsistent; hence not used in a lot of decks. But I have found any card that anytime I can effectively play two cards in one round, it is not bad. Triss I would not mind crafting. Whispess is similar, but summons a card you already have in deck rather than creating a new one. And while several organic cards are excellent, unfortunately, bone talisman is not organic. But organic cards are used in many decks, and it is not bad to have a tutor for them. I would probably buy only one of Triss and Whispess — which one is kind of a toss up. Yennifer of avenger berg is maybe the biggest boost card in the deck. But because she also boosts opponents, her net value is not always high. And she is very specialized, virtually useless in other decks. I would look for an alternative. Dol Dhu Lokke provides two spawn as well as another chimera — a very valuable card in this deck. And it is a card I like in lots of decks — I definitely want it. It is available in one of the way of the witcher reward trees if you prefer not to spend scraps. Finally, Arachas behemoth spawns and boosts. It seems like he is rarely used elsewhere, but even without the boosting, he plays for sufficient value to be helpful. I would buy this. I would look for reasonable substitutes for other gold cards — although buying some tall removal might be worthwhile if I don’t already have it.

This has become a very long post. I don’t know if my strategy is optimal. I offer it as an option.
Thank you for the detailed post, I already crafted Oneiromancy since it seemed like such an unconditionally good card, same for the Nagalfaar. I like the look of Aen Elle knights a lot but apparently their frost oriented deck is not exactly viable so I will try making the swarmy deck, thank you for the help. Also glad to hear that you can get Dol Dhu Lokke from that reward track, kinda wish the rewards were visible even to those who havent unlocked it yet.
 
Hope this is the right topic for this question... Does bribery "create and play unit from opponent's starting deck" mean random three from full deck or from remaining cards that are not played yet? If it is the former then I must be unluckiest person alive, if it is the latter then the card is too powerful...
My opponent just created King Roegner to pop all the shields and win the game with his last card, and I had last say with Roegner in hand...
 
Does bribery "create and play unit from opponent's starting deck" mean random three from full deck or from remaining cards that are not played yet?
Starting decks refers to the full deck. "Current deck" would refer to what's left in the deck.

Bribery is a really RNG card.
 
When it will be able to play gamemodes with friends? Because i would like to play double spells with my friends instead of getting to play vs syndicate and elves all the time -_-
 
I'm new to Gwent this year, and I have some questions about contracts. Is there a site someplace that describes what's required to complete a contract? For example,
  1. I'm at 30/36 in the TEMPEST contract, which is for completing all of the weekly quests for Yennefer's journey. It looks like there are only 11 weeks in her journey, so how do we get to 36? Did I miss a week? This contract plus associated ones are worth at least 50 RP so it's important!
  2. I noticed I'm 16/25 in the NEW MOON contract, but I don't know how to progress it. It would be great to see a blurb about what's required.
  3. I earned the Unicorn Coin so I thought I'd try to fulfill the SOUVENIR FROM THE KORATH DESERT contract, but I can't get it to trigger. i equipped the coin and played dozens of matches, but I'm still at 0/50.
Thank you!
 
I'm at 30/36 in the TEMPEST contract, which is for completing all of the weekly quests for Yennefer's journey. It looks like there are only 11 weeks in her journey, so how do we get to 36? Did I miss a week?
The Journey will end with the current season, so on May 6th. There will be 12 weeks of quests.

I noticed I'm 16/25 in the NEW MOON contract, but I don't know how to progress it. It would be great to see a blurb about what's required.
Doesn't it have a description in the Contracts tab on your profile?

I earned the Unicorn Coin so I thought I'd try to fulfill the SOUVENIR FROM THE KORATH DESERT contract, but I can't get it to trigger. i equipped the coin and played dozens of matches, but I'm still at 0/50.
That contract is from Ciri's Journey and requires the Unicorn coin from that. I'm guessing you're using the Unicorn coin from Yennefer's Journey.

(Post moved.)
 
Thank you for the answers!

For #2, the contract says "Win 25 matches with Year of the Wererat abilities." Any idea what those abilities may be?
 
Hi, I started Gwent a month ago. Bought everything in the store so I made Pro-rank quickly, in about 10 days.

A tech support question: There's an achievement for "Play 50 games with Unicorn Coin". It's not progressing for me.
Got the Unicorn Coin from Yennifer's Journey.
 
For #2, the contract says "Win 25 matches with Year of the Wererat abilities." Any idea what those abilities may be?
Ah, it's one of those. They are a bit confusing.

This contract lists all Wererat abilities:
1618543290813.png

There are similar contracts about Thronebreaker and Crimson Curse abilities, too. You can search the contracts for, for example, 'wererat', 'crimson', and 'throne' to find the corresponding ones that list the abilities.


There's an achievement for "Play 50 games with Unicorn Coin". It's not progressing for me.
Got the Unicorn Coin from Yennifer's Journey.
Same thing as the person above you had: that contract/achievement is from Ciri's Journey and can only be completed if you have the Unicorn coin from that Journey.
 
Btw, it would be great if you could purchase old journeys...
Two relevant answers from This Week in GWENT episodes:

Q: Old Journeys, or at least their cosmetics, ever returning?
A: Journeys as a whole might not, but it might be cool for content from previous Journeys to return in some ways. Nothing concrete.

Q: Ability to complete incomplete past Journey contracts?
A: No.

Based on those, nothing is guaranteed or even particularly likely to return. Time will tell.
 
A bug? I consumed Miruna and Manticore with an Endrega Warrior.
There were two units on the opponents side of the table, strength 4 and 5.
I should have destroyed one and captured one, yes?
But only one of them was destroyed. Miruna's ability didn't work.
 
A bug? I consumed Miruna and Manticore with an Endrega Warrior.
There were two units on the opponents side of the table, strength 4 and 5.
I should have destroyed one and captured one, yes?
But only one of them was destroyed. Miruna's ability didn't work.
Unlike in many real-life card games, where the turn player gets to choose the order in which simultaneous effects resolve, everything in Gwent is handled automatically. I believe it all comes down to card placement, so you would have needed to place Miruna on the left and Manticore on the right for their abilities to have resolved correctly. That's just the way it is. Sorry.
 
Yeah. Left to right, melee to ranged.

Really useful information for many situations, but I've no idea if the game ever mentions it.
When waiting for a match to start, when your opponent has been selected already, one of the tips that appear on the bottom of the screen provides that exact information. Sometimes it's too fast if there's a lot of text, but those tips are quite useful to new players.
 
When waiting for a match to start, when your opponent has been selected already, one of the tips that appear on the bottom of the screen provides that exact information. Sometimes it's too fast if there's a lot of text, but those tips are quite useful to new players.
Oh yeah, I remember seeing that now.
 
Hi everyone. I had no idea where to post this, so I am trying my luck here. I am new to the game (started today) and I wondered if there is only an online option to the game? I do prefer to play offline or in some kind of story mode - but it seems it doesn´t exist? So for example on the main menue I have "standard" mode and then play. I noticed after some games that I was actually playing against human adversaries. I had assumed this is an offline game like the gwent in The Witcher 3. Ok, so then I went to "training mode". Here it is obvious that I played against the AI. However, I did not receive any kind of rewards. So to summarize: the only way to experience this game 100 % (including receiving levels, rewards, materials etc.) is to play against human adversaries? I do so much hope not...
 
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