a few hours in, but i really don't understand it help!!

alchemy, development tree, combat ,just everything.... I really love i, but its starting to get overwhelming... like how to i get decent healing potions instead of bread. ughhh the list goes on. what ares are what level... please help

not to mention what meditation does? And im broke all the vendors are out of food. i have a million supplies and still cant craft anything.

You can craft a swallow potion for better health regeneration, (you should have the recipe already when you start, just find the ingredients) but you shouldn't overly rely on it. There's also White Rafford Decoction, which is basically the only way to instantly heal health in the middle of combat, but you'll have to find the recipe first. Alternatively if you're playing Sword and Story or lower you can meditate outside of battle to heal to full. You shouldn't ever have to buy food if you're looting stuff. Food is everywhere.

Meditation will also restock any potions and bombs you have already made if you have alcohol. (Like food you can find it for free everywhere.) It also allows you to skip time.

Don't worry too much about understanding everything from the get go. Just experiment with it all as you go along and you'll get it eventually.

Honestly, if you haven't been reading all the tutorials as they pop, read them. They're in the same section as the Bestiary/Characters, etc.

Go to the Glossary tab and read all the tutorials. If you don't understand the game once you get out of Kaer Morhen I don't know that I could explain it any better honestly. Just take learning all the things one at a time maybe?

i have a inventory full of herbs, cant craft anything though

@stop420snitchin: Probably because you don't have the right ones? Like every other RPG look at what you need and then go to a merchant and buy it or go out and find it.

There isn't really heals in The Witcher game per say. Not conventional healing anyway. It's generally all heal over time so it's more tactical in that way. It can get you out of a pinch, but it's not meant to make you immediately safe.

But ya you should make Swallow. It should be the first potion you make actually.

This one has a cool feature where if you have alcohol it will use alcohol to refill your potions so you only have to make them once (when you brew a potion it will say 'you already have this' after you craft it which means you never have to brew it again).

Meditation is for passing time as well as healing and refilling potions. Each notch is an hour of the day. Use it when you're not in danger to heal (only need to do it for an hour to heal and refill potions). Don't ever use food or swallow to heal if you're not in combat- it's a waste. Just meditate for an hour.

Alchemy is just a way to brew potions. Nothing particularly complicated. It tells you which materials you need so you find the materials and then you can craft something (armor and weapon crafting is the same although you have to find a armorer or weapon blacksmith to craft). Is there something in particular you're confused about?

The development tree is your standard skill tree. In the Witcher you can only use so many abilities, though. You should be aware of what you want to slot ahead of time because of this limitation. I personally focus on fighting first and stick to a specific form of fighting I want to excel in when investing my points. Later in the game you get mutations which add more bonuses to your skills. When you invest a point in a skill just move it over to an open box in order to activate it. If it's not in a slot it's not being used. The smaller boxes are for skills, and the bigger boxes are for mutations.

Combat is pretty basic in the witcher. You'll need to be more specific about what is confusing you there. I personally recommend quick attacks and then dodge backwards because of the way the AI is in these games they will always stagger you or get a combo in on you if you get to greedy with attacks. If you get good with dodge you can actually get behind them a lot which helps counter this problem as well. Or you can just attack then dodge back up. Mixing up quick with strong attacks also helps get more hits in. Quick, dodge back, strong, dodge back, etc.

Making money is easy. Loot everything (unless you're around guards) and sell junk always. Do not sell crafting materials, quest items (you can't anyway), or food/books/paper unless it's food or papers/books you don't need (which tends to build up). Sell armor, weapons, horse equipment, and junk (items that are junk are marked junk when you highlight the item) that you don't need. You may find merchants with little money at first but as you progress you find richer merchants so just sell as much as you can. People will tell you ways to maximize your profits, but I've never needed to in these games because of how much I loot stuff and sell it. if you need any tips, skins tend to sell for the most (especially bear and horse skins for some reason), and honeycombs are easy to forage because you just burn down bee hives with 'Igni' then loot the honeycombs. They sell well also because you can collect a lot of them and they are 8 crowns each to sell.

If there's anything else you're confused about just be specific, and I can probably answer =)

Unless you're a hopeless hoarder like me I recommend getting rid of your books and flyers and whatnot as soon as you don't need them anymore. I kept everything because I thought I might want to read some of those books eventually, but it makes scrolling to your bombs, potions, decoctions, and food a real pain in the ass. On my second playthrough I've keeping my inventory clear of that as much as possible and oh my god it makes accessing the inventory so much more pleasant.

As for combat, you can usually get in 2-3 hits (depending on the enemy) before they try to counter. My go to strategy is to get in a couple hits and then sidestep to the side (that parts important) and then as soon as they lunge at you then you have a free opening for more hits. Often you can just repeat that to keep on top of them until they die with little risk of getting hit. Some enemies have especially large attack radiuses though, and you'll have to use your roll to safely avoid them instead.

the merchants are to few and far between

@stop420snitchin: All of your posts just come across as you refusing to even try. Sorry but you just seem lazy and you're not even trying to acknowledge the people that have attempted to help you.

Merchants are everywhere. Practically every single village has one, if not several, and you'll often find them outside of towns too.

If you're still in White Orchard they're not as abundant, simply because the place is small and there's only one real village, but it's one you have easy access to as soon as you arrive.

Oh, and in terms of Witcher combat... Quen is essential as it gives you a free hit. Best to use it before a fight, have your stamina refill quickly, then engage.

And again, read those tool tips.

I think hes looking for someone to play the game for him.

Can't tell if troll or someone who doesn't read game pop ups...but due to that username, I'm leaning towards troll.

I don't believe it's a troll, I'm in the exact same place. There might have been a popup that explains what meditation does, but there also were a million other ones that tell you to use the right stick to move, so it really gets overwhelming soon. But stick to it, I'm around 5-6 hours in and starting to get a grasp on what's what. But the game really doesn't make it easy to get into it, if you haven't really played the Witcher games or RPG's before.

This

This thread has a lot of useful info.

There are actually quite a few things that the game never tells you, like that you can use the right stick to move to different sections of the UI (like inventory left/right sides) or hold attack when on horseback and time will slow during combat. Lots of other stuff.

It also doesn't tell you that meditating refills your potions, except in a random loading bar tooltip. Also doesn't tell you that different merchants give you different prices (except in a tooltip), doesn't tell you that monsters don't give XP or that you can loot nests for rare mats. It doesn't tell you a lot of things, and you learn even less if you aren't regularly fast-travelling.

I love the game, just like I loved Witcher 1 and 2 to death, but it's just as obtuse as those first two games. It's more stramlined than the previous games, but the problem is that its building on mechanics that aren't present in most other games, so they're not obvious to Joe Schmoe coming in to the series for the first time.