Gwent: Best Open World Mini Game?

I love gwent. I've spent too much time riding around to find players and getting cards.

I now have a playable, and strong Nilfgaard deck. I am 4 cards away from a playable Scoia'tael deck. And 10 cards away from a playable monsters deck.

Personally I really love Gwent. Definitely one of the best card based mini games out there (along with Triple Triad).

There's more strategy then is immediately obvious and the different factions are fun to explore, even though I really don't like the monster deck combo stuff.

If it isn't much trouble could someone just explain the basics for me. Just the rules please, I wish to stay away from "tips and tricks" that's why I wont just google it. I want to learn on my own. Is it anything like poker, or black jack? Thanks

Gwent is pretty good, but trying to get good cards is a pain.

Cant think of any other, so sure :P

It seemed awfully simplistic and first, and it's base rules are indeed quite simple, but there are some fun interaction to be had.

I love Gwent, but I love more the idea of all of these super important people with all of these super important things to do (i.e. war) will take precious time out of their day to play a CCG.

@vahleticar: I feel like it would be more beneficial to play through the in game tutorial then someone trying to relay the rules indirectly without visual aid. Would really recommend doing that more then anything really.

Anyway I'll try. It is it's own thing, it has value cards like hearthsone or magic the gathering, but it's own little battle system. You have a deck of cards that have values or special effects and get 10 of those randomly (with option to repick 2) for the match, you play them on the board one at a time and the opponent does the same in turns. Whoever has the highest value on board at round end, wins. Best 2 out of 3. but you do not get any new cards, you are using the 10 you got (there are some effects that can get you extra cards tho) it's up to you how you use those limited cards to win 2 rounds. A round ends when both players "pass" a turn, passing a turn means that player will not able to play any more cards that round and the other is free to do as they will. At it's most base level for example it might be beneficial to concede 1 round if the opponent is overextending, leaving you better positioned for the next round(s).

The extra layers come in from all the special effects, for example weather effects can reduce the value of all ranged cards or all melee cards etc, or units being able to bring back other units from discard pile, or spies that fight for the enemy and give you exra cards, or target dummies that return a card to you hand, and so forth

I have not been a fan.

@vahleticar: Why wouldn't you just play it? It's very straight forward and explained in the game.

Meh.

it's alright.

It's addicting. I've beaten almost everyone in the game at it, including the tournament. My Nilfgaard deck will fucking wreck you, son.

I think it's fun but it's a little overly reliant on having a really good deck. Sometimes you can luck out a win if fortune will really favor you, but other times your opponent will pull out a 10 after a 10 with special abilities stacked on top and it's like, welp, I have this fog card I can play..

I feel like they missed out on a great opportunity to make a small MP aspect for gwent. Releasing it as a mobile game, or a stand alone arcade game maybe. So you could play against other people, and they could monetize it some how.

It's Ok. I played it with the dude at the bar in White Orchard, I thought it was pretty intriguing, but I haven't played it since because, dude, I'm here to witcher not to spend time and concentration on a card game.

I've yet to properly dig into the game, but I would totally buy physical Gwent decks if they sold them as merchandise. Seems like a fun card game that would be easily explained to those unfamiliar with the Witcher series.

They made two of the four decks and included them only in the xbox one collectors edition. People are going nuts for them on ebay. But ya, I would buy all four decks if they sold them in stores at reasonable price.

Can't get enough of it. Just got enough cards to use the Nilfgaardian deck. Haven't attempted to enter the tournament yet. I hope the tournament rewards some ACTUAL coin, because so far, the only reason I have been playing is for the cards themselves. Who cares about 10 crowns?

I don't enjoy it one bit and am somewhat disappointed that there are like half a dozen achievements/trophies attached to it in one way or another. Won't be getting those cheevos.

@sterling: I agree about the missed opportunity for making Gwent an MP game. Of course they'd probably have to do a lot extra work, so it doesn't just turn into Hearthstone were everyone plays the same decks. (Fuck net-decking.)

I didn't bother with it for the first 30 hours. Why would I play cards when I could be killing monsters? But then I thought "I'm rushing through this game too fast for my liking, better just play some cards for a while." And now I'm loving it. At first I thought I'd had a hard time getting a good deck going without going back to early areas, but it hasn't been bad at all, not even in the later areas (dunno if Gwent opponents scale with the area they're located in). Once I got some decoys, scorches and horns it's been a fairly even playing field.

Overall, I'd say it's a brilliant mini game. However I don't think it would work in MP without some changes, like limiting the overall power of decks and maybe some kind of resource management like MtG or Hearthstone, though the latter would completely change how the passing of turns and bluffing works.

Story spoiler:
I do kinda regret getting the Baron killed before winning his card.

@loafsmooch: You should get a notice in the quest log that you can win that card from someone else now. (You might have to pick up some letter in his estate first, though.)

Oh, I see. I assumed that quest was about some other cards.

I just can't get into it, like any CCG. When the second guy I run into has nothing but 5+ cards, and my highest is a 6 and I stand no chance, it made me avoid any and all Gwent.

But ever since my friends played Pokemon back in the day, I've been down on finding rare cards and building decks. I'm sure it's fine for CCG people.

I was trying to beat the Baron with the base deck and had no luck and I was hating it. Eventually I decided to go around and challenge weaker people to build up my deck and somehwere in that process I really started digging Gwent.

I played some yugioh back in the day so it all immediately clicked. It's a bit funny to imagine Geralt running around challenging people to duels as he talks about the Heart of the Cards.

Oddly I don't like CCG games. But I like gwent. I do miss dice poker from 2 though. I really liked that.

I really love Gwent, but I'm finding my go-to strategy

(winning the first round by one or two points to conserve cards, using all my cards except one in the second round in order to get my opponent to waste theirs and then playing the one attack card I have left against whatever weather cards they have left over to take the game)

has kind of broken the game for me. Hopefully the AI gets a little trickier, but so far I've found that I can win in one or two tries with that strategy, even with opponents whose decks far exceed my own.

35 hours into the game and I haven't played it once, and don't play to either. If Hearthstone does nothing for me Gwent sure won't. I've never liked card games of any kind.

You should really give it a shot, I was dismissive of it as well but the games are actually really fast and its a fun side activity to take away from all the monster hunting.

Its awesome to see so many people are enjoying Gwent even if it isn't your cup of tea its simplicity combined with a surprising depth is to much to ignore.

My Northern Realms strategy has been to have Foltest as my leader, save all of my siege cards and play the Melee and ranged cards and get the AI to waste most of their hand, I can normally beat them on the last two rounds because they waste their hand in the first one I am hoping for more tricky plays but its still a ton of fun to make the deck stronger and stronger.

Glad to see so many people are having fun with this game and this weird little CCG.

The thing with Gwent that made it so enjoyable for me is that it's close enough to a "normal" card game and yet has some of that CCG depth, but it's fairly free of typical bullshit like completely overpowered cards or brute force tactics.

I would love to see a printed version. This would be an awesome pub game if they reworked some of the mechanics (mostly the rush cards the Scoia'tael and Monster deck use, since they could be hard to pull off in a physical deck) - it's complicated enough to be engaging and simple enough to explain it to a layperson.

I'm especially interested how crazy the baiting game would be with a real person. I can bait the AI to waste its better cards pretty easily now, to the point where I'm able to win round 3 with two 4-5 cards and a weather card.

Its not a very well crafted game. I dont feel skilled when I win, I feel lucky. FF14 has Triple Triad with revolving additional rulesets, whenever I log on I always end up burning at least an hour on it. That's a game where by and large I feel like I know why I lost. Not the case here. I feel like the testiment to a really solid minigame is "would I want to play this thing by itself" and the answer here is emphatically no.

@babblerock: Then maybe you're not very good at it yet, or have a very limited starting deck? I've won consistently around 9/10 ratio with several dozen different opponents, there really isn't all that much luck involved, some yes, hence those few loses, but aside from that I have not relied on luck to win any of the matches. There are multiple solid strategies to all but guarantee wins.

@tennmuerti: Im winning most of the time, but the win never feels like a skill based thing. Feels like most of these idiot AIs just burn through their best cards round one and I just have to hold on to a few for the next round. And burning through more of a game I dont like to get better cards so I can have more unfullfilling wins doesnt sound like a great way to spend time. Thanks though, "use more skill" never thought of that. Still isnt fun for me. Opinions. I almost never win at chess but I recognize the brilliance of the game. I lose about half the time in triple triad. You winning 9 times out of 10 tells me there's not a lot to this game.

@babblerock: I wasn't arguing personal opinion of liking it or not, to each his own. And I know there isn't a lot to it, said as much. You talked of it feeling luck based which is what I was addressing.

There was a mission where you could choose to be paid in gold or in cards. Spoiler alert: I chose the cards. I will drop everything that I'm doing in the game if a new Gwent related quest pops up. I want this to become a real game that people play.

It's alright. I really hated it at first but I wanted to stick with it because I was dirt poor and wanted a way to make some quick money. It got much easier for me once I picked up the upgraded Foltest card. Now I'm hustling every merchant I meet 20 crowns at a time.

I love playing Monster decks that load up on melee against me when I have the winter card and this dragon that kills off the strongest melee card, or more if they match. I wait 'til they go all in with like 5+ cards on the line, play the winter card to take them to 1 or 2 points depending on if there are matched cards, and then get the dragon out there. I usually kill off about four cards with that play, then I pop the Foltest siege skill and it's gg.

I've spent so much time playing gwent it's so good. Every time I go to a new town or city I look for merchants just to see if their selling cards. I have playable decks for every leader except monsters, my favorite probably being the Scoia'tael. I know there's monsters to kill and all but witchers need hobbies too..

The rules are okay but I don't understand how I'm supposed to get good cards. Whenever I play a guy he's either rolling in powerful cards or I beat him and get jack shit. Thanks to the quest from Zoltan I finally have a unique character but that's not enough for me to take on the actual quests. Maybe I need to buy more from inns.

I'm absolutely loving Gwent and look forward to making a Monster deck a bit further into the game. It's definitely one of the best mini-games ever created. The news that there are physical cards floating around in the real world is amazing and I'd love to have a set of those someday.

I like it quite a bit, but I really don't like not being able to tell at a glance how powerful your opponent is. I hate wasting 5-10 minutes losing against someone that I should never have been playing in the first place (and wouldn't if I could see their relative deck strength). Unless I'm missing something.

its no ff8 but still its fine

it's decent, they could make it an phone app and i'd play it.

Other than the tutorial guy, I can't beat anyone. Everyone has better decks. Where do I get more cards? I don't have a higher card than a 6 but I'll play guys that drop 10 cards and that's it for the round for me.

Even the most powerful deck can get reduced to nothing with weather cards, don't be afraid to let them dump their hand out, losing that first match is a strategy in itself, holding on to combos for the last 2 rounds is a great way to win.

@handlas: Barkeeps frequently sell basic cards.

That said you don't really need a bunch of 10s to start winning. A few of special effects cards like commanders horn and target dummy with some weather effect cards can really screw up the opponents strong cards. If they play big stuff you can let them win a round, or play some trash so that they have to put more down or pass, thus making them waste their string stuff and win later rounds. While basic cards like Crinfrid Reavers or Bluestripes Commando multiply each other values can become more 15 or 12 strength when triple comboed. Target dummy can be used to counter spies, or to pull back your own strong cards overextending the opponent, commanders horn to double a row strength, and weather effects to neuter those enemy 10s into 1s.

Playing against any merchants and smiths will also net you a card for the first time you beat them. And doing the quest will net the more unique cards.

Don't do this to me man, in my 30+ hours I've ignored Gwent and didn't buy one card, and I don't think I will replay Witcher 3 after I beat it (love it but it really feels like a one-time game) so basically I'm never going to play Gwent! Enjoy it for me.

Gwent gave me a similar feeling to Archmage in Might and Magic 8. Just feels like a simple small game you can do every now and then

It's no triple triad, or dice poker from Witcher 2.