I have made it to level 16 without playing Gwent, but I'm now wondering if it has dire consequences for my game. I tried playing when I first started the game, but I really don't like it. It now seems it may have negative impact on my game. Anyone else get through without playing it?

You can get right through without playing a single game.

Thankyou. Glad to hear it :)

During one of the sidequests a violent criminal will ask you to play gwent for some guy's life. The guy is some petty criminal you won't ever see again, but if you lose or disagree, he'll die.

I'm glad it's not just me that hates this card game :)
I've tried to play this card game
Tried watching some How to vids but still just don't get it

So now I've just given up on it & enjoying this epic game without it
Glad to read I can get though the game without playing it

if "oldgrey" is an indication of age, I understand , as I similarly disliked gwent when I first started playing as I couldn't understand it either. Basically it's whoever has the highest point score at the end of the hand, wins the hand. The game being best of three hands. Your startig pack is fairly poor, so you need to buy all the cards you can from innkeepers, merchants to improve it. The easiest deck to play with is northern realms, and using the leader card that can reverse bad weather. You'll find the AI for most npc players is quite incompetent once you get the hang of the game.

I bypassed this game for quite a while, but there are quite a number of quests that involve it, so I would suggest you persist with it. Once it's understood it's a fairly easy game.

Have you actually played one game & got the tutorial to fill out?
Or do you get a message telling you, you don't have enough cards?

Yes I get a message '' not enough unit cards ''
I am really lost with this part of the game

Then before you play, you need to press the H key to bring up your gwent deck.
shift any Northern Realm cards from the left side to the right side (your playing deck)
You need 22 unit cards before you can play.
If you didn't buy the cards from the inn keeper in White Orchid, you will have to just buy some from merchant & traders.
As you get better cards, shift the weaker ones back to the left & use your best 22.
Once you finish your first game, it fills in a very through tutorial section.

Glad to know others out there don't get it, too, LOL. I finally won a couple games (dunno how) on my second playthrough. On my first playthrough, I didn't win any and then I gave up. I wasn't any good at poker dice either in W1 and 2, hahaha. Still not thrilled about gwent, but managed to get a barely decent deck. I probably won't be joining any tournaments, though.

Early tips - you must have 22 unit cards and try to get total deck strength close to 100 in the beginning. Buy cards (early in the game) from innkeepers and merchants to build up your deck, so that you can start winning games. In White Orchard, there's a scholar at the inn who will teach you the game. If you beat him, you win a card.

With innkeepers, try this: ask to see their stock, and if they have cards, buy them. Leave the inn and come back in right away and ask to see their stock. They may have more cards to sell. Repeat until they have no more cards.

To be fair, Gwent probably hates you too.

I don't dislike this game, he is interesting and strategic.

But it would have been welcome to keep the dice poker !

I too hated this game, at first.

But, as some have said, there are quests that require you to play.

Granted, one could bypass those quests ... but why?

I went on a two day campaign to get as many cards as I could and found a site that listed all the Qwent cards and printed them out and scratched them off as they were acquired.

Still have many to go because you can't just buy them but have to win them as random prizes for winning games.

Almost every game I win I pick up a card.

Getting better at it now.

I never was a card player. Poker yeah but never understood ( or tried to ) bridge and those other complicated games.

I still don't understand those symbols on some cards and what they do. Some cards have hearts and some have crosses and some have skulls etc. etc.

But just set the bet for 1 gold and everyone will play you and it won't cost you much to play and learn.

I'm definitely getting better and better.

If you "zoom in" on the cards, it'll tell you what those icons on them mean.

Gwent is love. Gwent is life.


I'm only missing 2 cards now :awesome: