Death March is 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Witcher 3's hardest difficulty setting. But if you're here, you probably already knew that and are committed to taking on the challenge🦩. What you need to know now is how to prepare for the insanity.
Witchers are highly tactical beings, planning for each battle and devising the most strategic approach for the various threats they face. Though you may be able to scrape by whipping your sword a🌳round and casting a few sporadꦿic signs on more casual difficulties, this is not the case with Death March.
Death March will test the witcher's tactical prowess to i๊ts limits and there will be extreme repercussions for any missteps. Aside from♈ mastering Geralt's swordplay techniques and footwork, challengers will need to strategize not only battles but also their entire gameplay in order to prepare for the onslaught of bloodshed that is to come.
Early Game
Prioritize Places of Power
You'll need a solid skill build for Death Ma🧸rch, which costs copious amounts of ability points. That means you'll want to draw from every place of power as early as you can. Moreover, some places of power have valuable loot nearby, wh꧃ich can help you out.
Prioritize Abilities
You'll have only one ability slot and limited points to spend starting off, so discerning the most effective abilities to start with is vital. Investing in the Griffin School Techniques ability first pairs well with Geralt's starting Kaer Morhen set. It applies stamina and sign intensity bonuses for each piece of medium armor equipped. This allows Geralt to keep his Quen shield active more often. It also enables Geralt to distance himself from enemies with Aard or Igni, an indispensable tactic as armor doesn't ward off much damage o🍒n Death March, especially e🧜arly on.
Adequate Gear
The Kaer Morhen armor provides adequate protection for far longer than typical starting gear in games on normal difficulties. Giving it the upgrade to the Warrior's Leather Jacket as early as possible is the sort of enhanced security Geralt wi🐓ll need on Death March. Even if you're running Death March on NG🔴+, this is a helpful tip as your end-game gear will get substantially nerfed upon restarting.
pointed out that it is easy to upgrade your starting Kaer Morhen armor early on by raiding White Orchard. Namely by killing the cows and looting the guard post across the bridge from the fast travel marker. Geralt will find all the components required for the upgrade, along with some✃ bonus food for healing🔯.
Don't get too greedy with those cows, though; you can safely butcher five at most. Ea꧃rly on, some players exploited these specific bovines' respawn rates through meditation, farming their hides repeatedly. So as a deterrent, the developers set an impossible level Fiend to spawn and terrorize the village after Geralt slaughters six cows (that's three respawns). Suffice to say, the Fiend is already nearly impervious on normal difficulties, but to ta♛ke it on in Death March is instant suicide.
Next up, you'll want to find the witcher Viper School swords. Luckily both of them are stashed around White Orchard, so they're✨ not horribly difficult to obtain early on, ⛄and they're more proficient than Geralt's starting witcher swords.
The Diagram: Serpentine Silver Sword is found inside a small building within the White Orchard Cemetery. The building is directly behind a Place of Power which is guarded by a wraith that may out level Geralt if you take it on too early, but as soon as you feel up to the challenge, go for it. You will also find a 'letter from witcher Kolgrim of the Viper School' alongside the sword, which will trigger the Scavenger Hunt: Viper 💖School Gear.
The Scavenger Hunt will mark locations for the rest of the Viper School diagrams, including Diagram: Serpentine Steel Sword, which can also be found in White Orchard, within the Amavet Fortress Ruins. Here Geralt will come up against a pack of bandits who've taken up residence amongst the ruins. This rabble isn't extremel🅷y dangerous, but as you're running Death March, you'll want to remain cautious and be sure to take them on tactically.
Aard helps keep them a safe distance from Geralt, and you can even knock them off the ruins, which may result in their instant death. Keeping your Quen shield up and moving through the group with Geralt's dodge while landing a couple of fast strikes in between is a solid method for whittling away their health as well. And always remember, humans are extremely susceptible to burning, so lightin꧋g them up with Ignಞi may give you some additional openings to attack without being countered.
Making an effort to acquire the Vipe𝔉r swords early is very beneficial. They will serve Geralt well —right up until he can get his hands on better w🗹itcher swords (such as the Griffin school set).
Mid-Game
After focusing on acquiring the best gear possible early on and getting a head start on ability points, the mid-game will shift focus onto using those ability points and solidifying your build. But more on that in a minute. First, let'🌞s look at the equipment Geralt will want to upgrade to an🌠d the alchemical tools he'll want in his bag of tricks.
Mid-game Gear
The Griffin School gear is going to be your go-to armor for the majority of the mid-game unless you want to convert to a heavy build. If that's the route you wish to take, then you'll want to prioritize the Bear School Gear scavenger hunt once Geralt reaches Skellige. The Ursine witcher gear provides the best resistances in🐠 the game when fully upgraded. However, that set isn't available until Geralt has made a good foothold on those icy isles, so you will still want to grab that Griffin School gear in the meantime.
The easiest place to start on your quest for the Griffin School gear is in Hindold, the watchtower separating Velen and Novigrad. Here you will find the Diagram: Griffin Steel Sword. The tower base is guarded by endrega and harpies roost atop the tower, where you will find the 🍬diagram and paperwork pointing towards additional locations.
Using a mix of fire and sword should work fair🧜ly well on the endrega. Aard, followed by an instant kill, is always your best bet with harpies. This is Death March we're talking about, so again, keep that Quen shield up as much as possible.
The Diagram: Griffin Silver Sword is located within the lighthouse in Crow's Perch's northernmost region. A wyvern now inhabits the building, and drowners guard the underwater entrance at the base. It's not recommended to take on the wyvern within the tower even on normal difficulties, so definitely lure the Wyvern to where Geralt is on the other side of the draw bridge and slay it in the open before heading down to face the drowners. A Place of Power marks the underwater entrance, so try and lure the drowne🅠rs ashore in that area and blast them with 🐲Igni rather than fighting them in their element.
The remaining Griffin Armor diagrams are all stashed within Dragonslyer's Grotto located in Crookback Bog. Geralt will have to face wraiths as you make your way through the fꦰortress. Yrden is your best (and really your only) friend against these phantoms on any level. And again, Quen, Quen, and more Quen.
The diagrams will be behind a crumbling wall Geralt can blast away with Aard. But prepare for a tough fight beforehand. An ekimmara awaits on the other side. Igni will once again be one of the most proficient ways of dealing with the threat. Be sure to loot the corpse afterward, as it may have dropped an ekimmara mutagen, which is a key component for the next step.
Alchemy
You'll have to pick and choose between decoctions until you acquire more abilities,🔯 but here are some of the top recommended decoctions to utilize:
- Ekimmara Decoction restores vitality as Geralt deals damage. It's most easily obtained earlier on from the previously mentioned ekimmara in Dragonslayer's Grotto.
- Ekhidna Decoction restores vitality anytime Geralt uses stamina. You can get the mutagen from killing the ekhidna Geralt encounters upon arriving in Skellige.
- Arachas Decoction decreases damage taken based on inventory weight. Venomous arachas drop this mutagen. It's a rare mutagen, but taking on the arachas in the Skellige's Most Wanted contract, or Harrisi from the Missing Brother contract (also in Skellige) are your best bets.
- Nightwraith Decoction increases max vitality with each enemy slain. This one can be mighty helpful as enemies tend to assail Geralt in hordes on the Death March difficulty. There is a guarded treasure site near the Hanged Man's Alley signpost in Temeria that spawns a Nightwraith liable to drop the required mutagen.
If running Death March on New Game Plus, you'll want to complete your alchemy stores before restarting to have a complete selection of fully upgraded oils and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:bombs to combat any threat Geralt may encount💦er. Otherwise, just make each one as early on as you can.
A Requisite Skill Set
Preparing for battle is imperative on Death March, and a key part of a witcher's preparation is utilizing his potions. This means Geralt is going to need a high toxicity threshold. To this end, Heightened Tolerance, Acquired Tolerance, and Metabolic Control will be priority skills to work towards. These three abilities combined will allow Geralt to consume four decoctions at once, but you may want to wait until you unlock more skill slots to equip all three. Acquired Tolerance is advisable to start witꦏh as its toxicity bonus increases with each alchemic recipe in Geralt's repertoire.
Because Geralt will often be priming his blades for battle with oils for specific threats, activating the Protective Coating ability is advised. It will help protect Geralt from whichever class of enemy the oil on his blades is t💯argeting.
Other abilities are going to depend on your preferred build. Check out 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:how to make Geralt OP for recommendations on specific ability and armor cꦡombinations. These builds were made for taking on the insanity that is Death March.
End Game
While you can make a sufficiently strong build by the mid-game, the end game will focus lꦐargely on fleshing out the rest of Geralt's skill tree to make a truly overpowered build and fully enhancing your armor. For those feats, you'll need to dive into the expansions.
Mutations
The Enhanced Mutation Tree is unlocked in Blood and Wine. The Euphoria Mutation is widely regarded as the🔜 best skill to utilize from this additional skill tree. It increases DPS congruent with Geralt's toxicity level, so activating the aforementioned tolerance-boosting abilities and utilizing them to their fullest extent will send Geralt's outgoing damage through the roof.
That being said, you may consider swapping Geralt's advanced mutation to Second Life for Geralt's end-game encounter with Dettlaff. With this ability in place, Geralt will become temporarily invulnerable and revitalize to 100% vitality when his health is fully depleted. This effect can only be triggered once every 180 seconds. Still, as long as you can nail down Dettlaff's attack pattern and master Geralt's evasion tactics to stay alive for 3 minutes, Geralt becomes effectively immorta💧l. There may be no need for the switch if you've constructed a solid OP build, as Geralt's vitality regeneration and damage buffs may very well be off the charts.
Enchantments
Gear Enchantments will come from the blacksmith in the Heart of Stone expansion. Enhancements take up 3 slots on your swords or chest armor, meaning you won't be able to equip additional Runes. But it's not a big loss as certain enchantments are ༺far more helpful than any given set of Runestones you may equip.
- Deflection negates damage from arrows.
- Invigoration converts vitality regeneration into extra damage output when Geralt's vitality is maxed out, meaning not a single point from any vitality buffs will be wasted.
- Severance is great if you've gone for a melee-heavy build because it boosts the range of both the Whirl Wind and Rend abilities. This enchantment makes it well worth incorporating those special fast and strong attacks in Geralt's skill build.
- Eruption is a must if you rely heavily on signs. It gives Igni the additional benefit of causing enemies killed by the flames to combust, subsequently injuring other nearby foes.
By mapping out your early, mid, and late gameplay to prioritize an effective character build, Geralt will be primed for Dea𒅌th March's unrelentin💞g onslaught. Or at least as ready as he'll ever be.
