Welcome, traveler, to the alchemical arts of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Whether you’re looking to brew deadly decoctions, amplify your strikes with oils, or simply keep Geralt alive through prolonged monster encounters, understanding alchemy is critical. This guide walks you through how alchemy works in the game, highlighting the core mechanics and useful strategies for every budding Witcher.

Ingredients and Gathering: A Forager’s Foundation

In The Witcher 3, ingredients come in two primary categories: base and advanced. Base ingredients are raw elements such as herbs, monster parts, and other natural resources. These are the building blocks you’ll forage from the wild or collect from slain creatures. The good news is that foraging is much more accessible than in previous titles. Herbs and plants now appear on your mini-map as green leaf icons, popping up as you move close. Activating Witcher senses will highlight them even more clearly, making herb gathering a breeze. Still, for those looking for a more challenging experience, you can disable these helpers and rely entirely on your senses and memory.

Advanced ingredients, like hydrogum and rido, are crafted from these basic materials. These play a key role in upgrading potions and creating more potent concoctions, encouraging you to always keep an eye out for rare loot. Monster organs, for instance, often serve as core components in high-level alchemy recipes.

Alcohol: The Lifeblood of Alchemical Refill

Alcohol in The Witcher 3 serves a dual purpose. Sure, you can down a few drinks and enjoy the company of tavern folk, but in the context of alchemy, alcohol is essential—it’s what allows you to refill your potions after use. You’ll need it every time you meditate to restore your used concoctions. Alcohol can be found in three primary ways: crafting it yourself using herbs and water, looting it from the world (including corpses, crates, and caravans), or purchasing it from vendors with Novigrad crowns or Temerian currency. Choose wisely between stocking up for potion-making or celebrating your latest contract with a drink too many.

Toxicity: Power at a Price

With every potion or decoction Geralt consumes, he poisons himself—slowly. This is represented by the toxicity meter below your health bar. It depletes over time, regardless of whether you’re in or out of combat, but overdoing it brings severe consequences. Exceeding the safe threshold causes side effects and can eventually kill you, despite even your healing potions.

Toxicity management is more than just a balancing act. Some powerful skills actually require you to have high toxicity—over 90%—to activate their effects. So, for certain builds, walking the edge of lethal dosage is not only manageable but strategic. As you progress, you’ll be able to unlock skills that either increase your tolerance or reduce toxicity decay time, making your build more potion-friendly.

Potions: Brew Once, Use Often

One of the biggest overhauls to alchemy in The Witcher 3 is how potions function. Unlike in Witcher 2, you no longer need to constantly brew new potions. You create them once, and then simply refill them through meditation—as long as you have alcohol. Potions come with multiple charges, letting you use them a few times before needing to refill.

Another key feature is potion upgrading. As you explore the world, you’ll find or buy recipes for enhanced and superior versions of potions. For example, the Swallow potion can be upgraded into Enhanced Swallow and then into Superior Swallow, each iteration offering more health regeneration and extra uses. However, there’s a caveat: upgraded potions have level requirements. You might find an Enhanced Swallow early, but won’t be able to use it until you reach level 20.

You’ll also have to manage your inventory space carefully. Geralt has only two slots for consumables in combat, so planning which potions you’ll use in and out of battle becomes crucial. Though recent gameplay shows you can switch potions during combat, it’s best to prepare ahead.

Decoctions: Power for the Prepared

New to the series are decoctions—potent, long-lasting elixirs that offer massive bonuses but come with steep trade-offs. Decoctions instantly inflict 100% toxicity and only come in single-use form. Once consumed, they can’t be refilled like potions; you’ll have to craft them again. They also require mutagens, making them expensive to produce.

Despite these downsides, decoctions are highly valuable due to the powerful effects they grant—far surpassing those of regular potions. But they’re not affected by potion-specific buffs, like increased duration. They demand a tactical approach: use them when the benefit justifies the cost, and make sure you’ve balanced your toxicity load to survive the encounter.

Oils: Edge Against the Supernatural

Oils are vital in a Witcher’s toolkit. Applied to weapons before battle, they increase damage against specific monster types. A Specter Oil won’t help you against a werewolf, and vice versa. Preparation is everything. Learn your enemy, apply the right oil, and watch your effectiveness skyrocket.

Oils, like potions, can be upgraded for stronger effects. Unlike Witcher 2, they don’t have a time limit. Instead, their effect wears off after a number of weapon strikes—more akin to equipment durability. So, while you don’t have to rush through your oil timer, you still need to reapply it when it wears down. Whether or not you can apply oils to projectiles is unclear at this time, so if anyone has insight, feel free to chime in.

Bombs: A Witcher’s Arsenal of Destruction

Bombs are your go-to for disruption, damage, and crowd control. You only get two active slots for bombs in combat, just like potions, so picking the right ones matters. At the start, you can carry three of each bomb type, but with the right skills, this expands to eight per type, allowing you to hold up to 16 total bombs.

You can throw bombs two ways. One is a quick-tap method where Geralt lobs the bomb at your target automatically. The other slows down time to let you manually aim—perfect for precision strikes in chaotic fights. This mechanic carries over from Witcher 2 and feels right at home. As for upgrades, the current info is unclear, but if it works like potions and oils, it’s safe to expect enhanced versions of bombs somewhere down the line.

Final Thoughts: Alchemy is Survival

Alchemy in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is more than just a system—it’s a way of survival. Mastering it will let you go from barely scraping by to slaying monsters with ease. It rewards preparation, experimentation, and careful planning. From balancing toxicity to selecting the right combination of oils and bombs, every encounter becomes an opportunity to refine your approach.