Ultimate Early Game Build - Alchemy Tank - Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Final Build

This build invests in roughly equal proportion between Combat, and Alchemy. The fast attack skill branch offers sizeable damage when used with the Cat School technique, while Alchemy provides us with several potent options to increase our survivability. Additionally, we use our gear to stack an astronomical 38% chance to crit. When complete, this build can accumulate over double the regular Vitality that Geralt has at this level.

Skills

Here are the final skills that the build uses at level 11. The Progress Section of this guide will cover the recomended order in which these skills are to be taken.

Gear

This is the final gear setup that this build uses at level 11. All these items are guaranteed to spawn or can be crafted from recipes with reliable spawn locations. The progression section of this guide will cover where and how to find them, as well as intermediate items that can be used while approaching the final version of the build.

Level	Item	Information
11	Nine-Tailed Vixen steel sword	+10% crit chance +5% chance to bleed High damage Guaranteed to be found in Vizima. A fearsome weapon, that generally outclasses Griffin school Steel Sword on most combat builds, especially here.
11	Nine-Tailed Vixen silver sword	+11% crit chance +6% chance to bleed Very solid damage Guaranteed to be found in Vizima. One of the best silver swords in the early game, and one of the precious few that have +% crit chance as a modifier. Fantastic.
10	Nilfgaardian Armor	Fantastic physical damage resistances Guaranteed to spawn and cheap to buy Stylish Among the best early game armors. It enables us to stack our resistances to increase durability even further.
3-12	Assassin's Gauntlets	+10% Crit Chance Common loot item in treasure chests across Velen Can be found early, and upgraded later. Reliably found crafting diagram. A monstrously powerful item in general, but especially on this build. Very commonly found on every playthrough in Velen, but has a crafting recipe for a backup/upgrade.
11	Assassin's Trousers	Solid Resistances +350 Vitality Reliably found Crafting Diagram This item is rarer to find than the gauntlets. However, the crafting diagram has a consistent spawn location, which is convenient to pick up on a normal playthrough.
10	Assassin's Boots	Decent resistances. Craftable. Count as Light gear. Possible +1-4% adrenaline gain. Can be substituted by any light armor boots that match your level. For my build, I crafted multiple copies until I found one with a +3% adrenaline gain. Any light armor boots can roll this modifier when crafting.

Don't forget to infuse your swords with medium Chernobog runes for 3% extra attack power. This bonus stacks multiplicatively with all the others, so it should not be ignored.

Decoctions

Here is a list of Decoctions that you may consider using on this build, but only 2 may be used at a time. Troll is by far the best choice and is an autoinclude on my build. The secondary choice is more up to preference, with my 2 favorites being Griffin and Nightwraith.

Mutagen	Decoction	Location
Griffin		Acquired by completing the main quest in White Orchard
Troll		Acquired by killing Trollolo the Troll in the White Eagle Fort as part of "The Volunteer" quest in Oxenfurt.
Ekimmara		1. Acquired by starting the  Unraveling the Thread quest in Novigrad. 2. Acquired in the witcher contract Mystery of the Byways Murders in Oreton.
Nightwraith		Acquired by completing the Jenny o' the Woods witcher contract.
Wyvern		Acquired by killing the wyvern guarding the place of power in the North-Western peninsula of Velen.

With all this, Geralt now has close to 9k health, almost double what is standard for this level, about 465 DPS on our steel sword (not counting blade oils, which stack multiplicatively), and close to 780 DPS with our silver sword. Additionally, consider the 10-30% damage bonus that can be attained from Adrenaline.

This build can plow through a group of equally leveled enemies with little to no issue, disregarding precaution and simply mashing the light attack button. Even on Deathmarch difficulty. A White Raffard's potion gives us a guaranteed insurance policy for scary fights, and we are immune to being one-shot by any single attack that I've come across, even when fighting enemies close to 3 times my level.

Progression

Skills

Here is the order in which I recommend acquiring the skills:

Build Breakdown

There are some important mechanics that we need to discuss before proceding.

Endure Pain is a massively overlooked skill that increases our total vitality after all the added modifiers such as tissue transmutation, greater green mutagens, or even gear, by 30%. This skill has a downside, however as we have to be above the safe toxicity threshold for it to work.

This means that Geralt is overdosing on potions, which causes constant damage over time equal to 0.5% of total health per second. This is quite serious, as it effectively means that Geralt is losing a little less than 45 health per second unless we do something about it.

This health loss can be offset by any source of gradual healing such as the swallow potion. However, the game provides us with an alternative, and much better option to mitigate it, and it is not the Gourmand Skill.

Troll decoction will give us passive regeneration of 100 vitality per second while out of combat. This means that we can out-heal the overdose damage while exploring. It also provides us with sizeable passive healing, making recovery between fights trivial.

The second half of the tooltip lies, as it does for all mechanics that enable in-combat healing. Instead, it is best read as, "20 Vitality regeneration during combat" and it works exactly the same for all food and the swallow potion well. This reduces our health loss from 45/s to 25/s. This health loss is negligible in my experience, and I've never died of it. Still, always keep a White Raffard's potion on standby as your emergency button.

Area Guide

White Orchard

Below is a checklist of all the things we need, including a map of all the places of power.

Places of Power

There are a total of 6 in this area. Some of them you can stumble across as you complete the various side quests you can come across, while others demand being deliberately sought out. They are generally dispersed around the edges of the map. So pay a visit to the most distant points of interest. Here is a full map of their locations:

Viper School Swords

Level	Sword	Information
2	Viper Steel Sword	By far the best early-game weapon. Recipe found in the crypt in the graveyard North of the village of White Orchard.
1	Viper Silver Sword	Solid option for the early game, though can be comfortably replaced before the Viper Steel Sword. Recipe found in the ruined castle infested with bandits, northwest of the Ransacked Village.

Both of these swords can be crafted at the Nilfgaardian Garrison by the quartermaster. The emerald dust can either be found randomly while exploring White Orchard, or with high likelihood obtained from one of the ghost enemies found in the area. One guards the Viper steel sword recipe, in the crypt, while the other can be found guarding the place of power South East of the Nilfgaardian garrison.

Additionally, if you complete the level 2 witcher contract, "Devil by the Well" it is possible to acquire emerald dust by looting it off the corpse of your prey.

Temerian Armor Set - Level 4

The set can be bought from Bram in White Orchard. He will be near the bridge leading to the main village. You saved him from Griffin at the start of the game.

Item	Effects
Temerian Armor	+15% Resistance to piercing damage +15% Resistance to bludgeoning damage +20% Resistance to slashing damage +5% Resistance to damage from monsters +5% Resistance to elemental damage
Temerian Trousers	+5% Resistance to piercing damage +5% Resistance to bludgeoning damage +5% Resistances to slashing damage +3% Resistance to damage from monsters +3% Resistance to elemental damage
Temerian Gauntlets	+2% Resistance to piercing damage +2% Resistance to bludgeoning damage +2% Resistance to slashing damage +1% Resistance to damage from monsters +1% Resistance to elemental damage
Temerian Boots	+3% Resistance to piercing damage +3% Resistance to bludgeoning damage +3% Resistance to slashing damage +1% Resistance to damage from monsters +1% Resistance to elemental damage

This set is quite pricy, coming in at around 800 gold. However, it is 100% worth the purchase.

Vizima

There are a couple of important items which can be found in Vizima. If we are playing on the Newgen version of the game, the White Tiger of the East set will be found in Yennifer's room after our conversation with the Emperor. If we created a RED account and connected our email to it, the Valley of a Thousand Flowers set will be there too. While we do not plan on using the armor, the swords are essential and are guaranteed to be found here, and will greatly help our progression. For more info on how to gain these items on other platforms look here.

Level	Sword	Information
7	Sword of a Thousand Flowers (Steel)	Guaranteed to be found Very solid damage +5% crit chance +10% crit damage This is an excellent weapon. Use this in case you don't find any Dwarven Gwyhir type relic weapons. It will serve you well until level 11.
7	White Widow of a Thousand Flowers (Silver)	Guaranteed to be Found Great damage +5% crit chance +10% crit damage Found alongside The Sword of a Thousand Flowers. The armor-piercing stat is irrelevant since monsters don't use armor mechanics in the game code, however, this sword is solid until level 11.
11	Nine-Tailed Vixen steel sword	Excellent damage +10% crit chance +5% chance to bleed An amazing weapon. +10% crit is insane, and the bleeding is useful when fighting dangerous enemies.
11	Nine-Tailed Vixen silver sword	Excellent damage 11% crit chance 6% chance to bleed Same as the steel sword, this weapon is excellent for all the same reasons. These swords can take you to level 17 with minimal challenge.

The swords from the Thousand Flowers set are not mandatory as we can reliably find serviceable alternatives. My playthrough was done without them. 

Velen

This is where Geralt's adventure truly begins. If you have not reached level 4 already, continue the main questline until you do, and equip the Temerian Infantry armor set. Precise Blows should also be complete by that point. This means that you are ready to start working on the alchemy skill tree.

Here is the complete checklist of everything that we need to find:

Item	Information	Map
Werewolf Mutagen	Obtained through the "Wild at Heart" by interfering and slaying the werewolf at the climax of the quest. The quest starts in Blackbough village.
Scoia'tael Sword	Multiple Scoia'tael commandoes can be killed and looted in the Woodland Beast contract near the Redanian outpost in northern Velen. This weapon is a nice upgrade to bridge the gap between the Viper Steel Sword and the Sword of a Thousand Flowers.
Troll Decoction	White Eagle Fort. North of the bridge connecting Oxenfurt and Velen.  Across the river from King Radovid's ship. Target of "The Volunteer" side quest.
Nilfgaardian Armor	Can be purchased from the Quartermaster at Crow's Perch for around 450 crowns.
Assassin's Gauntlets Diagram	Found in a smuggler's cache as part of "Queen Zuleika's Treasure" questline. Western Velen, north-facing coast, northwest of Hangman's Alley.
Assassin's Trousers Diagram	Found in a smuggler's cache southwest of an abandoned fortress infested with bandits. Western Velen. Southwest of Refugee's Camp.

It is generally advised to complete the Baron's questline first, as that gives you access to Crow's Perch as your base of operations. Additionally, the Baron will grant you access to Oxenfurt where you can find competent smiths and armorers to whom you can sell your loot for a high price. On Deathmarch, the alternate "Hunting a Witch" questline with Keira makes for a somewhat serious challenge if you decide to take it on unprepared. I advise you to venture there once you have equipped the Swords of a Thousand Flowers.

I like to take the "Wild at Heart" quest very early on in my playthroughs because it gives us a guaranteed werewolf mutagen, which gives us +15% attack power almost as soon as we enter Velen. I advise you to do the same.

If you are struggling to fight monsters before level 7, and you still have not found an upgrade to your Viper Silver sword, buying one that is appropriate for your level may be a reasonable choice. I suggest waiting until level 5 or 6 before making the decision. Swords can be bought from the Quartermaster in White Orchard or from the smith in eastern Oxenfurt.

Troll Decoction is essential for the build, and I advise completing "The Volunteer" questline as early as you feel comfortable. With frequent use of Quen, it is possible to kill the troll as soon as you reach level 4 and equip the Temerian infantry armor. 

Useful Considerations

Along the way of making this build, I have made numerous decisions that led me to take certain skills over others, clear quests in a certain order, or pursue one decoction option over the next. Here we will discuss some of them, as well as the circumstances in which I may favor them over some of the choices covered by this guide.

Metabolic Control

This skill adds 30 flat toxicity limit, meaning it outperforms Acquired Tolerance in the first couple of levels, while only requiring 1 skill point investment. It is possible to take this instead of Acquired Tolerance, which results in a build that is less reliant on finding places of power. However, this perk falls way behind Acquired Tolerance by the time you are done exploring Velen. We cannot afford to run both because of our limited skill slots. Take this if you aren't interested in doing much exploration, to help the build come online in the early parts of Velen.

Farming Mutagens

While it isn't necessary, if you want to upgrade your mutagens as early as possible, check out my mutagen farming guide.

Ekimmara decoction

This is a very strong decoction, however acquiring it can be challenging early, requiring completing either the witcher contract "Mystery of the Byways Murders" or the side-quest "Pulling the Thread" in Novigrad, meaning it is outside the scope of this guide. Still, at this point in the game due to our high health total, the healing effect of this decoction is quite insignificant, and in my opinion less valuable than some of the other options. It does become much better later, in the midgame, when I would choose to get it.

Conclusion

Thank you for reading this Build guide. As was stated earlier, this build is ideal for a completionist playthrough, is beginner-friendly, and Deathmarch viable on account of its superb durability and good damage. Even though the early game may be challenging, the information provided in this guide should help you comfortably progress through Velen, while setting you up for a fluid transition into the cat witcher set once you reach Novigrad.

Stay tuned for a continuation of this guide, as we look at transitioning into the midgame. We will cover interesting quests with useful rewards, subsequent perk investment, and places where we could hope to find more red mutagens to continue increasing our damage output.