Witcher 3 CRITICAL Tips for Death March! - The Witcher 3 Next Gen Update (Tips and Tricks) 

Do you prefer Death March difficulty or the easier ones? 😀

Human might be the easiest mob to kill, however you'd be surprised how many time I died with arrows Specially with multiples archers. My recommendation is to target the archers first on a pack.

Why I love Death March is that the stakes are higher, makes you more invested in the game, the game actually truly feels dangerous and more exiting this way

Just started my first ever Death March playthrough and am loving it. Even though it took me 4 tries during the very first fight, and i still get killed quite often. Before, i never even bothered with oils and potions, now if i don't, i die.

A quick tip for combat is to use the ekimmara and ekhidna decoctions, they give health for dealing damage and using stamina, once you have those deathmarch is actually quite easy

Only the highest difficulty level, then we appreciate every information in the descriptions of monsters, every flower we find, every oil. The fights are demanding (although still not as demanding as in dark souls) the most beautiful thing is that on the death march level ... when I found bread in a cottage in the countryside, I was happy as if I had reached the next level:D

you got me started (with this video) on playing death march. I learned so much very helpful stuff here and then (by being able to play death march) learned so much about the nuances of the witch (move sets, that Ydren is not only for ghosts, etc. etc. etc.) So, I guess what I wanted to say ist: Thank you very much!

I discovered your channel through your ER content, but your Witcher vids have been so helpful in returning to the game. It’s great being early to a channel that is destined for greatness. Cheers from Oklahoma, mate🍻

Tips for combat, do NOT attack blindly an enemy if you do not know it's movements and attacks. Stay at a safer distance and dodge as many times as you can to see what they do. Only after you understood each move it does attack it. If you have good timing and reflexes you can actually cancel some attacks with normal hits or signs

Just punched through the Griffin in my first DM run. Feels like the same satisfaction that I had when I beat my first DS or Elden Ring boss

1. When low on stamina, only dodge don’t roll. Rolling briefly halts your stamina regeneration, so by simply dodging(multiple times if necessary to get away) you can continue to build your stamina back up while also moving away from danger. 2. He only mentioned Yrden briefly, but don’t forget that you can use it against more than just wraiths to slow other enemies down too - especially when facing groups of enemies(Nekkers immediately come to mind). Plus, its Supercharged version (unfortunately it has a very expensive Point cost to unlock in the Signs tree) can drain enemies health very quickly. 3. To go along with his first point about survivability and merchants, this tip gets expensive Crown-wise, but when you can afford them, consider buying ingredients for recipes. By purchasing what you can instead of waiting to find them, you can craft their Enhanced and Superior versions that much sooner when you do find them. Idk if this is a glitch/bug, but I’ve found Enhanced and Superior recipes to potions before even having their base version. 4. Questing: Like he said in the video, questing is how you level up the fastest, and you should do every quest possible. Even if you’re getting a bit overleveled by the time you reach the end of the (very long) Family Matters quest, still work on those other 7-9 level quests for the crown and even slightly reduced XP rewards. Every little bit help, not to mention all the chests and ingredients you’ll find along the way. Any extra baggage you pick up can be sold to repair your gear, spent on recipes/ingredients/diagrams, or saved up for the VERY expensive high level Witcher gear later in the game. Personally, I’m not a fan of the new camera angle because it’s positioned way too close behind Geralt, drastically reducing the visual range to keep an eye on enemies, meaning you’re likely constantly glancing at the mini-map for red dots. When first starting out, I’d recommend using the default settings so you can see more around you - especially during melee combat and exploration. I don’t do much mounted combat, so that setting is more personal preference, but since you should always be constantly moving while on your horse, the camera distance doesn’t seem to make that much difference. Death March difficulty isn’t even half as bad as a lot of other games’ highest difficulties, so just take your time and plan ahead and you’ll survive. Good luck!

Here's a tip, even if you don't use Decoctions in your build, make the Troll Decoction, before Gourmet TRoll Decoction was the defacto regen method in DM Difficulty, plus it nullifies the Toxicity Overdose. So, TRoll + Gourmet should keep you better topped up.

Death March + enemy level scaling! That's the way to go! If the character is build right, the game will become easy.

Love the vid! I will mention that the temerian legendary armor sold by the white orchard vendor is INCREDIBLE when it comes to early game resistance. Even better than the nextgen gear from yen for those first 15 or so levels on Death March.

I like Deathmarch. Feels more like an authentic Witcher experience. By that, I mean you really need to use decoctions, potions and signs way more than any other difficulty. Also need to learn to dodge lol.

I always tell new W3 players: there is no shame in running! The amount of times I just left poor Roach in the middle of a forest and just ran for it, oops! Currently on NG+ on death march (I started the first playthrough on normal and changed it to death march halfway through and finished it like that) and I am getting one hit killed left and right in the most moronic ways since the new camera angle update, I will be damned if I change it.. got spooked so bad by some drowners when I was checking a house to loot 🤣 (because I couldn't see behind me and didn't pay attention to the mini map). Also I avoid wolves and dogs, that's a sure way for me to die now, I've accounted more deaths like this than in all my first playthrough including DLCs. But you are right, it's good to always be alert and check if you have what you need when it comes to facing monsters. You really have to use a combination of signs, potions and oils for best outcomes.

You hit all of the same points that I learned (the hard way) in my first Death March playthrough! I am trying an alchemist build this time through, and it's a much harder start for sure :P

For the best food just go to the nilfguardian outpost in velen (bottom right on map) and then run south along the wall, you will come to a small house with pigs in a pen, go into the pen kill the pigs and run out. The pigs will have respawned and you can kill them again. Now you don’t have to waste a ability slot on gourmet

Thanks for tips! Here are mine: Take out the archers first to stop them breaking your quen when you're already surrounded. Tumble roll to avoid the arrows. Puppet Master. When shield users are around, I max my axii to puppeteer them into turning on their friends. It distracts them and can save you a few long fights against shields. Pay attention to your environments. Exploding barrels with igni is fun and an efficient way to kill a lot of enemies at once, but dangerous if too close. Miasmas can be your friend with the Golden Oriole giving you health in a pinch. If you're playing on a cliffside or high ledge, none flying enemies can be aarded over the edge to their death.

Awesome to see how recent this video is. Finally going to replay this after years

Incredible guide. I've recently re installed it on my series s and decided to try death March. Quen is def my best friend 😂

So I didn't know any better how hard death march could be, thought I could just spam quen as get out of jail card. Start a NG+ and found out a mob will one shot you (two with quen active). I'm in love and frustrated by it hahah

I bounced off W3 pretty hard back in the day. Quit in a few hours. I was playing on Normal. Decided to give it a go on death march after the update and I'm into it. It's so much better when you actually need to prepare for fights with the right potions/oils/bombs/signs. That's been the most fun part of the game.

Beat the game 11x on Deathmarch. Deathmarch isn’t hard at all. Best tips: Just don’t be a mindless slasher. Just be smart. Use oils first and foremost. Super important. Use potions. Quen is your friend and therefore Tawny owl is also your friend. You do not need to use food. Swallow and White Raffard’s Decoction are all the healing you’ll ever need so don’t bother using the gourmet skill. If you ever need money it means you’re not exploring enough. You explore, pick up shit like armor and swords and then sell them. Easy as that. Learn enemy strike patterns. Don’t be rolling out of the way all the time, just move to the side of an attack so you can easily hit them. Bombs are more useful towards the beginning of the game so use them from afar before you’ve jumped into the melee. Don’t rely on Yrden for wraiths, get the moon dust bomb immediately. Don’t waste your skills at the beginning. Put the first 15 or so skill points into combat. Just upgrade the first two tiers of the light and heavy attack skills. Then move to the first two Quen skills and the first Igni skill then go to the oil and tolerance skills in alchemy

5:52 they also added a new option to allow oils to automatically be applied which is a massive game changer cause it just ups your DPS for free with no downsides. Honestly it feels odd how oils are treated like potions and bombs despite being infinite.

Gourmet is mandatory in this new update. Food + Gourmet was straight up broken in vanilla, and instead of nerfing gourmet, they decided to nerf food instead, which means that food is now useless without gourmet, and having gourmet makes food good to use. It feels like food is now balanced around having gourmet.

Excellent content!! 👌 I'm so addicted to this game atm.

For me disabling enemy health bars was a game changer - most wind up animations for attacks are done great and I've found it way easier to time my parries to animations rather than flashy clutter from heath bars.

The dogs and wolves are my main struggles when I started witch death March

great video.

AXII is great for flying stuff too, it allows you to Coup de Grace them, like harpies

Its been a painful experience but the combat is so much more involved than my past playthroughs

I have never played the witcher and have been using ur vids to educate myself gonna use ur bear build and do death march on my 1st run if i even can access it without completing the game 1st

I tried Jenny when I was like 5 or 6 levels below her and it was really hard, but the Bestiary said not to fight night wraiths at night. So, I activated the fight, ran off, meditated until noon and sure enough, she was still floating around. It was significantly easier to kill her during the day.

Great video man! I noticed at 4:50 that you have this red stripe on the bottom of the screen and i think it appears as soon as you stop the witcher senses (that's how it is for me)... now i have the same problem so i'm asking if you have found a solution to it? Or it doesn't bother you in the first place 😂

Excellent tips mate!! 😁

I make sure to get arrow deflection, it keeps me from getting killed quickly by archers, and allows me to take out archers BEFORE the melee fighters.

Oils usage can be improved by alchemy skill called "fixated", give it a try if you didn't believe me. Gourment skill can be replaced by "Horn Of Plenty" (reward from Gaunter O'Dimm), and if you like combat skill tree than the others but have the needs for better signs usage then you can spent skill point and take the "flood of anger" from combat skill tree. For NG+ i only recommend 3 to 4 alchemy skill if you like the path of combat skill tree. Which is "fixated" + "synergy" + "hunter instinct" (this 3 skill is a must) + "refreshment" or "flood of anger", place them in the extra skill slots and the main skill slot is for combat skill only. For that you can use combat approach for better fight & safety, rather than you use "Euphoria" build which is an "one hit kill" mostly

I think deathmarrch became a looot easier with the next gen patch, before the enemies were health sponges, but now it just feels like normal difficulty.

good tip is to get that ablity that lets you cast signs with andrenilin points

never run into a pack of enemies, even guards, but if you do end up in that situation, use some bombs. when you get access to the runewright, craft an extra dumpling sword for cheap food regeneration (if you didn't invest in the refreshment ability to give potions a 30% heal), use burn, poison and bleed to you advantage. hit them and proc, then evade while doing pot shots, you could even use bolts with status effects to whittle down enemy hp, getting fixative + poisoned blades helps a lot, since it boosts your poison proc chance per oil level and oil applied, superior gives 45% per application, and with the max 3 oils that you can apply, you get a 90% for your steel sword and a whopping over 100% for your silver sword, I recommend burn runes when you don't need other runewords or enchantments.

tbh im on my first death march and im cruising ofc i died alot at the start but i just needed to learn the basics

Blocking\parry works great against wolves and dogs also.

I just got Witcher 3 and I'm someone who usually plays on the hardest difficulty on most games, so I put Death March as my first time and so far its not too bad, I do see playing on Death March would be the best to play the game as.

I just beat DM on NG+ Used the Griffin set upgraded to Grandmaster and a sign build LOL, just because Imlerith and the navigator were easy, Eredin was hard, signs don’t do much, I used Yrden and double cast Igni to remove his icy protection. For Eredin basically you have to remember his attacks and take as less hits and damage as possible. White Raffarfs decoction saved me

First time death march player. Wanna do something different than the pure red build I did before and since this is my second playthrough I'm thinking sign build maybe.

Personal suggestion: Temerian Armor from white orchard is still better than tje new free armor, for light combat build combined with the Cat School skill. Also is a must to get and craft the Viper swords which will give you 20% extra monster xp and 5% extra human xp. On Death march the xp penalty from world and quests is penalised by 20%. These swords makes it up for extra xp at least from world encounters, except the quests. Also to mantain this combined xp of 25% , next swords which should you use once you reach the required level, is the griffin swords. This is a must until you reach the recommended level for your desired full witcher set, based on your build. For me is the Cat School set since i will be going for light Attacks + alchemy build.

as a veteran i really recommend starting your first game already on deathmarch dificulty it is a blast and the best way to learn this game, and i totally agree with the video: always pop quen, first must have skill is gourmet else you will just be eating stuff 24/7 and wasting food. Also put auto save to mininum of 3 minutes and try to get the fleet foot skill? dont know how you call it in english as fast as possible so you are basically unkillable as long you are careful and keep dodging

I find alchemy builds to be one of the best on death march. Decoctions and euphoria is still good even with the nerf

on blood and broken bones atm. saving death march for newgame+. can't wait! >o

You can counter attack monsters, the best way I found is you have to Time block+dodge

the best way i find to heal is ekimmara,ekhidna decoctions combined with tawny owl

What's your video settings? Looks really bright and vibrant

And playing on blood and broken bones and im a level 15 witcher killing level 30 gryphons, think i should have pick death march.

This'll be my first time playing and my boss challenged me to death march the Griffin or game since I'm a souls player

Currently on my first death march play through: gourmet skill is op because you always have slow healing over time. This means you can stagger fights when desperate and out of potions. Use all the advantages the game gives you, buy oils, decauctions etc. One thing I never realized before is that when midday or midnight boss ghosts split to regenerate you should use your crossbow to shoot the 3 mini ghosts as it will instantly delete them and let the boss regenerate less health. It made those missions from frustratingly hard to doable. And don’t wait to calm the barons death child to regen or you will Auto lose because you have to fight it. Anyone else with any tips they recently found?

golden pitrol heals you if u have to much toxic in blood help in fights with toxic monsters to northwind Quen etc. dodge the sword

The food changes is rough

If I change the settings in the middle of the game does it still count for the trophy?

I recently finished the game 2 times, with 2nd being NEW GAME + and tried to get all the throphies, I only need 2 more which are finishing game either on 'Broken Bones' or 'Death March' and the other one is simply on 'Death March' I know I am not the first who tried to cheat and change the difficulty just before Ciri sacrifices herself, when I found out I have to start and end on Death March I was pissed off, so now I have to replay the game for the 3rd time

whirl, but don't go below 1 adrenaline point with it, so you can revive in case of a oneshot.

white orchard is ez but what armor should I use in velen? I am buynt ,,light temerian ,, something from the guy you save from the griffin but I still get 3 shot so I don t know how to survive and deatmarch isn t that hardcore when you have bear school armor but that is level 20 in skellige. So I am now desprete doing thtough Velen ( btw I really suck this is like my 3rd playthrough so that may be why ) sry for spamming Have a nice day :)

I'm on broken bones, used to only play on story/sword and story, but I've gotten a bit better? At games

Playing The Witcher 3 on Death March for my first ever playthrough, every victory i achieve feels earned, it feels a bit easier than other games I've played though, like Sekiro or some parts of Bloodborne.

Was the alchemy tolerance also nerfed? Im losing health with two decoctions and max acquired tolerance

The easiest way to get healing in death march is to use the gourmet perk and eating raw meat. Wolves will usually leave tons of deer carcasses around and you can get raw meat from those, or from the wolves themselves.

SAVE before every game of GWENT :D

Doing my first real playthrough of W3 since it released and about to hit level 10 maybe its all the DS God of War Etc but I am finding Death March to be incredibly easy but feels like the ideal mode to play the game Unsure how loot works in this game but I feel as I've gotten insanely lucky just doing PoIs and finished Bloody Baron with 7 or 8 oils some supreme already, 6 bombs and 3 are enhanced plus stumbled across the Griffin set already 😁 is there a difficulty spike or is NG+ Upscaled enemies the true end gam

Had this game since day release and as bad as this sounds I’ve only just started playing. Main reasons lots of multiplayer and coop games over the years so fell distracted. I tried to play this on the easier difficulty as I truly don’t know what I’m doing. I’m so glad I stopped it as it was way too easy for me, so I started a new game on death march and I’m incredibly addicted! I’m learning the game whilst playing on death march for technically my first play through and absolutely love it! I may have died about 50 times already but I’m learning as I’m going along. I’m just really disappointed in myself for leaving this game so long till I finally play it.

This is mad basic not throwing shade but I have about four hundred hours in death march beat it twice with a cat school light armor adrenaline build.. want to try another build that's organicish and was here looking for ideas

Gourmet is useless now with the new update. The best healing method is Ekinmara and Ekhidna decoctions

I did death march on NG+ and it’s actually doable!

I've beaten death march tanks to alchemy build.

Is it just me, or is DM easy once you get the green Witcher gear, after next gen patch?

is it better to play DM on New Game + or just start the play through?

death march difficulty is like a whole new gameplay for tw3

I’m just gonna have to do this in Ng plus. I’ve gone too far 😂

Everything in Death march is workable but god damn those early game wolf packs.

Could you get the trophy if u turn on death march during the final part of the game Also does the trophy count if you play on new game plus

I have 1 question why do I have only 1 set of gear in Yennefers

The undying skill is also good.

Funny. I find Gourmet completely useless, as it uses a skill slot I need for actual skills. I go for exploding shield, delusion, active shield, muscle memory, resolve, and precise strikes for my first skills up to level 10 (three points in each, there are enough places of power for that). Together with Assassin‘s Gloves for higher critical chance, as well as swords that give a bonus to critical chance and critical damage, that makes for a fine signs and swords build on Death March.

I like starting the game in white ORCHARD havnt been to white orchid tho hahaha

How is your character menu this way i dont have the big Y in the center or de 4 additional slots ???

6:58 Vesemir would be very disappointed that you don’t know the difference between ghouls and alghouls :(

The white radfard's decoction potion is way better than swallow

bonsoir, jai commencé en normal jusqu'au niveau 12, j'ai continué en death march, et franchement y a plus de monotonie, et largement faisable 😊

Axii is underrated. So versatile.

These tips are useful for a new game but on ng+ I haven't died once. I'm lvl 71 with lvl 48 gear and still 1-2 shot most everything. Deathmarch on ng+ is a cakewalk.

I've never played The Witcher before and I'm playing death march. Not my best idea

I'll never forgive CDPR for when I played DM for the first time fighting the final boss and just before we returned to the ship for the conclusion of the fight the camera shot up in the air and I was taking damage and then died without seeing my character lol. It only took me 6hrs to return to that moment lol.

So you mentioned you can’t block monsters but that is untrue. You can block and parry most monsters light attacks. Nekkars ghouls, drowners, wyverns, ghosts, detlaff, and so much more. But you can just hold block you have to block right as they attack to block and if you do it perfect you will parry

I only ever played on death march

I played Death March on my first playthrough, and I loved it. Here are some tips for my personal taste. 1. Learn to use magic instinctively. I played on the PC, which had hotkeys for my magic. I was able to weave the magic I want on a fly. That's why I use light armor. Using magic instinctively and frequently will dramatically increase your chance of winning any battle. 2. Dodge into their rears/blindside. A lot of times, enemies will lunge when they attack. You can use this to your advantage by dodging towards them, a bit to the side. Their backs will be exposed for you to strike. I found this to be a crucial counter to master. This became my most reliable way to punish attacks. 3. Positioning. Never let yourself be surrounded. Enemies on your blindside are dangerous. Move around to the sides and let them come to you. BE mindful of dodging versus rolling. Rolling away from an attack will be safer, but you'll be too far away to do a melee counter. Dodges, on the other hand, will keep you just close enough to strike back.

I'll saving Death March for new game plus. I just want to enjoy the game right now on normal difficulty (which I die a lot on anyways) and do everything possible. I'm not doing it for the extra challenge. I just want my platinum trophy.

Hey did you guys notice the action log not working? It soposed to show the DPS you're doing and whatever you are picking up...

My top tip for Death March: Leave the question marks undiscovered until you completed EVERYTHING including DLCs if you want to get your level as high as possible

Do death match leveling faster ?

So far deatmarch is the best thing to true feel the experience being a witcher! You need to prepare a lot and take the enemy slowly and seriously because witcher only died in battle not in bed or by old age

Me on death march: get reked Also me: I’ll do it again!