The Witcher 3: Essential things to complete before leaving White Orchard

"The goal of this guide is not to be comprehensive, but to help players find some particularly interesting and useful things, even if they don’t feel like scouring every inch of the map. When you’ve finished reading it, there will be plenty left to find on your own.

The game proper begins with the little town of White Orchard, its bright bucolic fields, burned out homes and bloody battlefields. If you can believe it, it’s actually a pretty small area to explore when compared to Velen, the next place Geralt graces with his rugged presence. Nevertheless, there’s plenty to do here, and a few things you probably don’t want to miss."

[johnhineriii]

So, how many other people managed to craft the viper gear?

I ended up having to pay for emerald dust, which was pretty expensive considering how scarce money seems to be in the beginning of the game.

[Stapleface]

Bought the dust, but managed to make them. Good weapons so far.

[XBLSkull]

Hell I did everything that was visible to me before moving on, apparently I missed a bunch of stuff, guess I gotta make a road trip back, and I hope this stuff is still relevant to my Lvl 10.

[orakle44]

I've got all the materials for them except the emerald dust, and don't have enough coin atm to buy them. Absolutely loving this game so far!

[johnhineriii]

I had to wander around looting for a while, but I ended up with enough swords and broken rakes to sell. Lol.

[Alexander1Nevermind]

After you complete all the quests the some of the guards leave and its a lot easier to loot. I made sure I got everything that wasn't nailed down before I left.

[Kingdomcome247]

I tried to with the dwarf, but he wasn't skilled enough. As soon as I hop on I'm going to the garrison to craft them.

[orakle44]

The dwarf is a armorsmith, head to the garrison, as that guy is a weaponsmith.

[Kingdomcome247]

I just found that out last night. I hadn't noticed that before. I just initially thought that he wasn't skilled enough lol.

[Link2DaFutcha]

Found some dust on a wraith near one of the places of power, save your money for Gwent cards!

[XanderZane]

I bought all the Gwent cards in the tavern, which is why I'm broke now. If you leave White Orchard and not buy them, when you come back they won't be for sale. So always buy all the cards. There are a lot of quests to complete in White Orchard before you leave.

[Link2DaFutcha]

Yup, Gwent all the way. I hope at some point there's a free DLC that includes a Multiplayer Gwent option so we can challenge other players. I would also pay money for a Gwent mobile app where you can earn new cards, and maybe some crowns, for use in game.

[Snookies12]

I had to buy one Emerald Dust, but I had the rest of the materials for both swords aside from that. Really happy I was able to get both swords made before leaving White Orchard.

[Dustinf11]

There's just enough wraiths who drop emerald dust to make both weapons. I found one randomly at a POP, and the other guarding a well. But there's the one in the crypts too, who doesn't seem to drop it. I wish the viper silver sword looked different from the first sword you start with.

[xPaYDaYx]

I managed to craft both swords from scratch I didn't have to buy any of the mats. I did however dismantle something I forget what it was and that gave me a silver ingot. I missed the skull in the beginning of the game the article is talking about, now I'm sad I thought I had done everything.

[WizzroSupreme]

Yup, the Witcher 3 is probably the biggest game this year with years' worth of content, honestly. Can't wait to dive deep into it come summer break!

[buttclown]

Definitely lots of content. I've put enough time into this game to beat Witcher 2 and I'm still only level 10

[Xof]

...The Crystal Skull is just an easter egg. It doesn't "do" anything.

And yet gamers the world over are deleting 20+ hour savegames to start over because they missed it.

[chippychan]

Good to know. I wasn't about to start over again just for that, but I thought about it for a split-second.

[SpookyBoogie]

However when you loot the skull it shows up under "quest items" which makes me think it must be of some importance. Still, I'm not deleting 10 hours of gameplay to go back for it.

[johnhineriii]

Tell me about it, that is good to know. I missed it too, but wasn't going back. I assumed it did something, but it seemed to me like the kind of thing that would just make the story different; not better or worse, just different.

[Nirvaniac]

This game is awesome! AWESOME!

[NukaCola]

I failed a quest unintentionally missing finding a brother of some guy.

[aquaticDonut]

Near the border to Novigrad there's a quest where you can get a pass across if you help a guys brother scavenge while he's getting attacked by ghouls. You probably started it, activated the ghouls and didn't know you had to protect him. I knew I had to protect him and he still died :/

[IronChefWong]

Lmao, same here. I was too low level. I couldn't kill the ghouls fast enough. Then later that "shady merchant" was telling me about his brother in the field. I had to tell him that his brother died. He was like ARE YOU PULLING MY LEG? GTFO. Ownage.

[bloodybutcher]

I failed to heal this severly wounded girl, i wanted to leave it for later. Unfortunately it says in my questlog, that i was taking too long and she died. Ooops.

[dangerousbrian0]

Hi I know this is not the place to ask this I have just downloaded the 2 free DLC that came out yesterday 20th may for the Xbox One version of the game thye have downloaded have installed but I cant activate them to equip them in game how do I do that.I was already in a game when I started to download them do I need to delete my save file and start the game again for the game to acknowledge the DLC.I have tried going back to the main menu and continuing from where I left off by selecting continue I have also tried reloading my saved game and nothing seems to work.

[lashes2ashes]

You go back to white orchard and buy the items from the merchant near the bridge.

[Rocky5]

You must be level 4 for the armor, the horse armor you can just buy if you have the coinage.

But the game should have popped up a notification saying that it had detected DLC & to activate it you need to return to the main menu.

[dangerousbrian0]

If you have read my post I mentioned that I tried to activate it by quitting the game mid game and going back to the main menu and nothing happened.I did get a notification though after one of the DLC had downloaded and installed saying that it had detected new DLC.

[Rocky5]

The armor you buy from the guy you saved from the griffin at the beginning of the game, he's in the first village you encounter just before the bridge exiting the village.

Here is all the info you need, if you still can't find anything then time to uninstall the DLC & redownload.
http://gearnuke.com/witcher...

[LAWSON72]

Just finished up most of the area today, but I think one of the abandoned sites is a bug because there is literally nothing there to kill. A good note is don't be stupid and sell your witcher armor like me :(

[Rocky5]

The armor isn't all that, I found a better armor long before I crafted the jacket variant.
(It does look nice though, unlike some of the others)

It's also a level 30 armor, which would have been handy right at the beginning, if I new about it.

[Kingdomcome247]

Are you talking about that shrine? I wondered what was up with that too.

[Mwally29]

Shit i sold my witcher armor because i thought the dlc armor was better. Can i go buy back or should i reload a save game.

[Perjoss]

I'm so overwhelmed, so many items in the game I have no idea what to do with any of it, I need cash but I'm afraid to sell stuff in case I might need it later!

http://tinyurl.com/nba36n2

[LAWSON72]

I think a lot of the crappy swords and armor pieces are a great way to get crafting materials by dismantling them, but yeah it is a all a bit overwhelming

[Stokedup]

Noooooooo I missed the crystal skull from the raven! It's bound to be important. I wonder if I can go back I've only just completed the prologue

[Taero]

The article says that it's vanished if you go back, I'm going to restart as I just finished playing the first gwent game, skipping cutscenes and tutorials etc. shouldn't take too long. Maybe 10-15 minutes.

[Jozinho]

I actually love this game. I was overwhelmed first couple hours.