Alchemy System is a mess...

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In TW2 a lot of players (including myself) ended the game with their inventory full of potions and oils because of always saving them for later use. I guess it's a psychological effect: if you have to anticipate a hard fight and meditate to drink a potion, you start to believe potions and meditations are meant for boss fights. Which was not true. Potions and oils were abundant and you ended game with large heaps of unused cool stuff.

In TW3 I quaff potions and use oils all the time when figthing stronger enemies. They're easy to make (but still you need to carefully manage your alcohol supplies), they're not overpowered, don't ruin the game balance.
 
I like the new system of only crafting each potion once. But I would reduce the abundance of plants by 10, or more.

1. Because we don't need to recollect so many when we only have to craft the potion once
2. Because I agree it's too easy now, lets make managing the ingredients harder, since we only have to craft it once.
 
what has happened with the alchemy system in The Witcher 3? why have I my inventory filled with ingredients which I don't need? why so many plants in the world if I just need to make the potions once? why can't I choose what potion I want to redo and which not? you screw up the fun with the alchemy system, it was good in The Witcher, perfect in The Witcher 2, making potions have a great importance in the inmersion in this world? it lose part of the essence of becoming a witcher

Other way around chief, it was Perfect in Witcher 1, pretty good in Witcher 2, doesn't exist in Witcher3.
 
It's not overpowered, it just cuts off a whole part of the gameplay.

Instead of farming ingredients to prepare potions, oils and bombs, I... meditate...

Okay
 
It's not overpowered, it just cuts off a whole part of the gameplay.

Instead of farming ingredients to prepare potions, oils and bombs, I... meditate...

Okay

You're probably still collecting as many plants and monster parts as in the previous games anyway, if not more, they're just sitting useless in your inventory, instead of being able to play around with them like in TW1 or at least just use them for something like in TW2.
 
In case you missed it:
There's a neat way to somewhat emulate the alchemy system you know and love from tw1 or tw2.

You just throw away the potion once it reaches 0 out of 3 uses and voila, you're able to brew a new one using ingredients like the first time. Works the same with bombs and oils, although oils you need to get rid of right after using them on your swords since they are inifinite and don't have x out of x uses for some strange reason.
 
You're probably still collecting as many plants and monster parts as in the previous games anyway, if not more, they're just sitting useless in your inventory, instead of being able to play around with them like in TW1 or at least just use them for something like in TW2.

True, but you only collect them for fun/to sell now. That's why I simply stopped collecting regular loot (barrels, packs and plants) around lvl 10, and only check chests and monsters now. If I need anything specific, I simply buy it, and I still never drop below 2k gold.

Changing the alchemy system "last minute" has proven to influence more then one aspect of the game negatively...
 
In case you missed it:

Yes it's a good idea, but the present ingredients list is not appropriate for that.

As it is designed for a single craft, it asks for too many / too rare ingredients.

The mod I was refering to updates the ingredients list to make it more suitable to this behavior.
 
Having to find the mats to re-make the potion each time its empty would be extremely tedious.

My suggestion is to increase the mat requirements for enhanced and superior potions by 5 x the current amount when it comes to the basic mats like flowers, and 2 x for the rarer mats (mutagen should stay the same). You should also be allowed to strengthen a potion by by giving it charges by applying base mats to it like weapon oils.
 
What could be better than opening inventory every 40 seconds to update the oils and potions during battle, digging through dozens of the identical icons and sorting out all the junk? Mmm, I dreamed about it in previous games. Who would want to look for potions ingredients, mix them, drink before the fight, as described in the books?
 
Yes it's a good idea, but the present ingredients list is not appropriate for that.

As it is designed for a single craft, it asks for too many / too rare ingredients.

The mod I was refering to updates the ingredients list to make it more suitable to this behavior.
If CDPR at least would have stuck with how secondary ingredients (Albedo, Nigredo, etc) worked in TW1 and TW2 the rarity of certain main ingredients wouldn't be a problem as well.

Might be something that also gets added to the lore friendly alchemy mod at some point, I hope.

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What could be better than opening inventory every 40 seconds to update the oils and potions during battle, digging through dozens of the identical icons and sorting out all the junk? Mmm, I dreamed about it in previous games. Who would want to look for potions ingredients, mix them, drink before the fight, as described in the books?
Because some people actually don't mind doing that? And it contributes to a more immersive experience?
 
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Yeah the alchemy system is in dire need of an overhaul. To me the perfect alchemy system would be something more akin to the Witcher 1, where you have to actually meditate in order to perform alchemy. Each section of alchemy - potions, bombs, and oils would have their own little animations in the background (kind of like skyrims crafting systems) showing Geralt with a mortar and pestle, and heating flasks over a fire for instance. You could then drink the potion either whilst meditating (like in Witcher 2) in order to gain a more powerful affect (and maybe it lasts longer too), which would be perfect for the Witcher contracts where you actually find out before hand what your hunting, or schoff potions down anytime like in Witcher 1 for those encounters when exploring the countryside (this would require a drinking animation, so you have to time it carefully if your already in combat).

I also don't like the incredibly short durations of potions. In the Witcher 1, potions lasted for a couple of ingame HOURS, which is far more realistic. When you drink coffee, the caffeine hit doesn't last for only 40 seconds. You feel the affects for hours afterwards. Obviously if the potions last longer then some of the effects will need to tuned down for the sake of balance; for instance Swallow would need to regen health at a slower rate so as not to become overpowered.

Also, I hate the fact that meditating no longer has its own animation and screen like in Witcher 1 and 2, I also hate the fact that you can do it anywhere, without needing to use a campfire. I've spotted heaps of small campfires all over the map that would have been perfect for this, and it almost seems like thats what they were originally there for. I don't think I've even used meditation once yet, and I've already played the game for 10 hours. At the moment, the only real purpose behind meditating is to pass the time, which is NOT how it should be.

I believe this system would maximize immersion and enjoyment for the alchemy system, and add some much needed depth to meditating, as the current system just feels empty and lifeless in comparison to the previous games.
 
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Having to find the mats to re-make the potion each time its empty would be extremely tedious.

My suggestion is to increase the mat requirements for enhanced and superior potions by 5 x the current amount when it comes to the basic mats like flowers, and 2 x for the rarer mats (mutagen should stay the same). You should also be allowed to strengthen a potion by by giving it charges by applying base mats to it like weapon oils.

Given the sheer number of herbs to be found in the world and other alchemy mats to be found on monsters and in chests and the like, finding mats for potions would not even be remotely tedious.
Even though I know its wasted, I still collect almost everything I find around the world, which has left me with half my inventory full of alchemy mats alone.
Most of the time I cant take 2 steps without anywhere from 2 to 10 plants showing up on the minimap, and even more if I use my Witcher senses.
 
Alchemy is the biggest disappointment in the game, but we all saw it coming. No drinking animation, no potion bandolier, no crafting mini-game during meditation - it's just so bland and lame that it might as well not even be in the game.

Well, thank God for the mods.
 
You're probably still collecting as many plants and monster parts as in the previous games anyway, if not more, they're just sitting useless in your inventory, instead of being able to play around with them like in TW1 or at least just use them for something like in TW2.

True, but you only collect them for fun/to sell now. That's why I simply stopped collecting regular loot (barrels, packs and plants) around lvl 10, and only check chests and monsters now. If I need anything specific, I simply buy it, and I still never drop below 2k gold.

Changing the alchemy system "last minute" has proven to influence more then one aspect of the game negatively...
 
I never played witcher 1 and 2, so I can't really compare it.
I love this alchemy system though. It's unrealistic, but practical.
If I actually had to find super rare potion ingredients every time I wanted to refill them, I would just completely ignore using alchemy, just like I did in Skyrim.
Would be cool if there were animations for drinking potions and using oils though.
 
Alchemy is the biggest disappointment in the game, but we all saw it coming. No drinking animation, no potion bandolier, no crafting mini-game during meditation - it's just so bland and lame that it might as well not even be in the game.

Well, thank God for the mods.

>no quilted doublets
>no potion/sword/bomb bandoliers
>no books on armor
>barely any pouches on armor
>no alchemy
>no dice poker
>no arm wrestling
>no eating/drinking animations
>no badass meditation pose (you only exit it)
>horrible enemy placement and level selection


It's like not a single person that worked on TW1/2 worked on this, they got everything so right in the previous games and majorly screwed up this one, at least in the details department. Still love it for it's writing and characters, but it's probably the worst game in the series if we don't count graphics. They made it open world and took out a lot of the witchering. I loved both of the previous games because they felt like great adaptations of the world and characters of the ancillary works, this one feels like one of those movie licensed games.

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I never played witcher 1 and 2, so I can't really compare it.
I love this alchemy system though. It's unrealistic, but practical.
If I actually had to find super rare potion ingredients every time I wanted to refill them, I would just completely ignore using alchemy, just like I did in Skyrim.
Would be cool if there were animations for drinking potions and using oils though.

You probably have more alchemy ingredients than you know what to do with, most people just loot every plant they come across. In TW1 and 2 you had to make every potion you used, but they lasted a good while, more than enough. I probably didn't make more than 20 potions during my Witcher 2 playthrough and used potions rather often honestly. It worked great and TW1's alchemy system was amazing. It also had animations for applying oils and drinking potions, TW2 doesn't have animations for oils, but it does for potions.
 
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At first I did not like the new system but it grows on you. The worst part about it now is the clutter in the inventory screen. Usable Items is just WAY too damn big and needs to have sub-categories. Books/Papers should get its own tab. Food should get its own tab and then Alchemy should get a tab with a way to filter by bombs/decoctions/potions/oils.
 
As far as i'm aware of witchers are suppose to meditate when they consume potions preparing there mind and body for the task ahead. Knowing what you are dealing with ahead of time was kind of a big point... I also hate the super short durations of the potions, 30 seconds for a swallow? could you imagine geralt trying to deal with adda with 30 second duration potions? The new system is pretty bad over all, its SIMPLIFIED but as i have quickly become a fan of the witcher 1 and 2 over the past couple months, i was REALLY upset with the new alchemy. Not only did it feel lore breaking, They limited the number of potions you had and bombs to... if i want to make 20 bombs and lob them non-stop, then why cant i? alot of stuff like that... it just feels so gamey, i really hope someone makes a mod changing the alchemy system back to be more like witcher 1... potions should be lasting hours(in game time) not seconds... and gathering materials should have been more vital...as it stands i have 100's of 1000's of materials i just don't need most of the time... I feel like they spent to much time on gwent and not enough time on alchemy
 
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