Am I alone In not finding a single silver sword this far into the game? I'm currently doing the witches of the bog story quest and I'm still using the silver sword you start with. I do have the recipe for one but I also have not found a weapon smith either yet. (Plenty of armourers though)

I know it makes sense that few people would carry a silver sword but this seems silly, I have a whole collection of steel swords to choose from.

You mostly get them from diagrams. I did find one in a buried treasure in a lake though.

You craft a good one in the first area when you find a diagram, the materials aren't hard to get either.

Was that in the starting area? I have an undiscovered location in the middle of a lake there but the enemy's around it where red skulls like time I looked.

@johnnymcginley: The starting area? I thought that guy only did armor.

I was really struggling with this game until I hit about level 6, at which point I felt more confident wandering around the world discovering the hidden locations. I can tell you that if you do all the events on the coast and in the plains to the west of Crow's Perch in Velen you'll come away pretty pleased with yourself. I was even well-equipped and versed in the game at one point the other night to take down a level 15 Water Hag when I was only level 8. I went from level 6 to 10, halfway to 11 after that run, came away with a 163 damage silver sword with 75% crit boost.

Also got two really cool steel swords, one that's a little weaker but has a 9% chance to light people on goddamn fire (and it seems to hit way more than 1 out of every 10 swings, especially on bandits) and a 97 damage with +39 armor piercing and 50% crit bonus.

Being Destiny is really the only loot-based game I can think of playing since older JRPGs up through Final Fantasy XII and a rental of Fallout 3, I'm not sure if the loot is at all randomized in this game so I'm not naming names in case you don't get exactly what I got, but there's a lot of good treasure out there. Even got some diagrams for level 20-24 stuff that looks super cool, albeit a bit teasing as well.

They are much rarer then steel swords in circulation, which makes sense only witchers use them. You won't find them on regular enemies. But there are definitely still a lot around to be found. Some can be found in treasure spots like loot and gear left behind by other witchers or sometimes rarely as a quest reward.

The most reliable way to keep your silver swords up to date however is definitely diagrams and crafting them yourself (breaking down your old ones for silver). There is a weapon smith in two of the little towns around Velen, only a short bit away from the Baron's place. Lindenvale and Blackbough, they are literally the settlements next to Crow's Perch. And in Novigrad of course.

At level 8 the most surefire and biggest upgrade would be to get the Griffin school basic silver sword crafted (lvl7 sword), diagrams can be found as part of one of the witcher school treasure hunt quests. If you need to know how to start those outside of stumbling onto them by just exploring buy the map quest items from blacksmiths/weaponsmiths. The easiest would be to at least craft the Viper school silver sword diagram found in the tutorial starting area.

There's a named one (level 5 or 6ish I think) to find on the quest where you get the Eye thing which dispels illusions. You can't get it right away because you need the Eye, but if you double back immediately after getting it there's a door in the back corner of the room where you fought the Hunt guy. Through the door is a pile of rocks you need to dispel with the Eye, then a short underwater section. It's down there somewhere I think. Unless that kind of loot is randomised I guess....

There's also the Cat or Griffin (I forget which comes first) silver sword which you can craft. I think the diagram for that can be found beneath the crypt near White Orchard (you probably came across it - it has a place of power right outside and a wraith to fight).

Yeah I struggled too. I was using the starting sword till lv 7 and run into a werewolf that was regenerating faster than I could harm him. I restarted the game on hardest diff and committed to exploring for schematics and treasure and pause following the ciri quest. Biggest problem was finding a smith out in the world but going through one village to another I found one and crafted a lv 2 silver sword. I still don't have any other schematics but it did the job. Bandit hideouts and underwater treasure chests netted me some good stuff

@tennmuerti: I have one of the diagrams from of the treasure hunt quests but couldn't find a place to craft it. I'll check out the places you mentioned.

I crafted mine. I have never been in want of new gear.

You definitely don't come across any off of bodies early on. Most of the ones I have found have been in chests in random areas and caves and such. Be sure to keep an eye out for chests when doing side and main quests.

The blacksmith in the garrison in the starting area can craft the sword. He's right before the dude who gives the griffin contract.

Oh I never noticed that guy, Ill check it out.

The only weaponsmith I have found is that guy in the nilfgaardian encampment, and it gives me a message that he's too low level at crafting to make the diagram I have for the griffin silver sword. Anyone else find another weaponsmith? I think I ran into an elven smith in Novigrad, but his quest is like level 24. Anyone happen to do his quest and see what he crafts?

The Witcher bounty in Lindenvale in Velen gives you a really good silver sword when you defeat the monster.

I've found maybe 6-7 out in the world. One of them I am using now because its better than anything I can make so thus far. All the others were weaker than the diagrams I've found though.

@shaggydude: There are several smiths in Novigrad, at least one of them can definitely craft journeyman swords (besides the mastercraft elf guy ofc). The Mastercrafter smith quest basically enables him to work again and he can craft anything and everything of the weapon variety.

Wait, really? I wouldn't say that I've found tons but I certainly have a few of them. I'm using one called Adein Deith (I think that's how you spell it?) right now and it's pretty good. I've got a fair number of diagrams, too.

Two questions:

1) Are you sticking to the main quest and rushing through things?

2) Are you turning on Witcher Senses, or whatever it is, to see what you can interact with? All you have to do is hold it for a second and everything that you can interact with gets a yellow highlight. Fantastic for poking around rooms that might have treasure. You should be poking your head in everywhere you feel like, for that matter.

The city that the Bloody Baron lives in has a smith and an armorer in it, so try there.

Crows nest only has an armorer.

You can find like nine by looking for sunken treasure around the coast in western Velen.

@shaggydude: Aside from the guy at the Nilfgaardian garrison, there is also a blacksmith early on in Blackbough, which is literally the next town over to the west from Crow's Perch.

You must not be exploring too much. I had about 7 diagrams for swords by then. Like others mentioned the swordsmith is in the Nilfgarrdian garrison. Explore White Orchard. You can find the Viper Silver Sword diagram there and it is really great. It's witcher gear as well. Or just look up how to find it if you don't mind spoilers.

Pretty sure I've found most of mine from guarded/hidden treasures on the map. Maybe from a few side quests or main quests as well. There is also a weapon smith in one of the smaller settlements to the west of Crow's Nest. I believe it's the one you go to immediately when you're following the finding the witch storyline. My main issue has been finding swords that are better than the ones I have. Oh and sword repair kits. My swords are hitting 50% every 2 or 3 missions and they give you nowhere near enough repair kits with a significant repair value to make up for this. Most of my crowns go to keeping those things at a safe percentage.

If you're having trouble finding any kind of gear, whether it be silver swords or what have you. Make sure you are exploring those question marks on the map. Nearly every one should have a lootable spot with a ton of stuff in it. It'll be gear in the case of bandit camps, guarded/hidden treasure, caves, etc. Some like monster nests will give lots of materials. Make sure you're sensing around the entire area before you leave. I've found some chests that are hidden in the most unusual spots and they tend to have lots of good diagrams sometimes including witcher set gear. My rule of thumb so far has been to not leave the last room of a large quest line or fight until I find a chest that seems like the "congratulations" chest.

I'm at level 6 and I'm tripping over silver swords. I haven't even repaired a single silver sword. I just pick a new one and use that instead. The amount of loot in this game is crazy. I couldn't tell you where I found the swords, since some rooms contains like 3-4 chests with all sorts of loot. Sometimes there's a silver sword in one of those. Keep exploring those Question Marks.

was lvl 3 and found a ton. now im lvl 7 and i still have seen a few. even in a cave to a main quest early on. did i find 2

I'm also at level 6 and am still using the starting silver sword. I have some diagrams for real good ones that are at high levels, and I crafted a level 12 silver sword that I've been sitting on for awhile, but I am starting to get annoyed by not having something better that I can actually use at this point.

You can get the Serpentine Steel and Silver sword diagrams back in White Orchard, in the crypt with the wraith and place of power. They're solid low level weapon that should at least make it easier to go out into the world and find some better stuff.

Try to track down the Griffin set though. It's a really good set of equipment that you can even upgrade multiple times with more advanced diagrams.

@zeik: nod nod, those are pretty great weapons. That with the pre-order armor set (you buy off the vendor) you are set for gear for a long time.

I'm thinking maybe you're not exploring very much. Also, read. Often times, I don't read everything in games like this, but this game really rewards you for paying attention to clues in books. Sometimes just opening a book or note will add a quest or bestiary entry. I'm almost level 9 and have found several silver swords. Do side quests as well as the main quests. Right now I have a bad ass relic silver sword with three slots as well as a good relic dwarven axe. I also have decent backups that I keep in my inventory. The game won't necessarily GIVE you good gear. You have to be looking for it. Use witcher sense to try to find chests, etc.

Witcher contracts drop amazing unique Silver weapons. No point of crafting new ones IMO.

I'm like level 5 and I just got a sweet silver sword from the elf's lab. This is the place were you get the item to see thru illusion walls. Just go to the other side of the room.. blast the door and go thru the illusion wall there.

Weird. I don't know, I feel I've found as many silver swords as I had steel ones honestly...

Weird. I've never really felt wanting for silver swords. I'm level 12 and I feel like I've found or crafted a new, better silver sword every 2 levels or so recently. If I had to guess I'd say I've gotten most of them off of the hidden chests which I have done a fair amount of.

So I put about an hour aside tonight and went around clearing up some of the undiscovered locations near where you start in Velan. I got a lot of cool stuff out of it including a nice new silver sword.