There's nothing worth finding in the seas around skellege.

Be supportive of your daughter.....dont make my mistakes

Be a good dad to Ciri. It's extremely important.

Banging prostitutes sometimes gives xp

Put the baby in the oven

Just trust me on this bro

You'll know when the time is right

Good thing to remember about builds. Geralt is a sword fighter first and a magic user 18th. Be good at slicey.

Oils are reusable so don’t try to ration them. I didn’t use them for the first quarter of the game because I didn’t know that. There are a lot of fights that would have been much easier.

Don't chase all the markers on your map, most of them are crap and you'll burn out.

In the first region in the midst of the first small village two neighbors are arguing. They are not giving a quest, they just talk to each other and listening gives such an insight in how war can turn people against each other that have been living peacfully and been friends for years.

Do the side quests and take your time with the dialogue. Some of these stories are impactful, mostly sad and worth your time. If you are told that you should talk to people to find out more about your contract, do it. Some of these quests can be done with only talking to one person but you want to get the information from everyone and especially their side of the story.

Do not look up the outcome of decisions. Make your decisions and live with them at least at your first playthrough. Most decisions have impact and seeing the outcome unfold makes this game special and yes often there is no "good choice" - that's war for you.

Last: Buy every Gwent card you can get your hands on and play with everyone you can. If you can't win just come back later with better cards and obliterate them - it will feel goooood!

The DLC's are a must.

Try out difficulty settings - there is a sweet spot for most people somewhere but what it will be for you no one can know, but it would be a shame if you play through the game not having found the difficulty that fits you best because you "always play on ".

Have fun, I wish I could play this game for the first time again.

Are the games in book order or does it not matter?

If you wish to keep your sanity through the entire game, I suggest only doing the really big side quests and ignoring the majority of the others. The game is fucking huge, and it can easily become repetitive doing everything.

I knew nothing of the game and presumed as a “witcher” I’m supposed to kill witches. Be, um, …selective.

I try to get everyone to try playing on Death March, no fast travel.

I did my first playthrough like this. There's so much to see in the world and so many paths to take. Fast travel is neat and all but you may miss out on so much. I took it a step further and also didn't leave regions/nations until I completed the map. I found more incidental quests by taking a wrong turn or a shortcut over a hill than I did by following the main quests.

On Death March: It's actually not hard at all and feels like how the gake should be played. What it actually does is forces you to look at the bestiary, learn or guess weaknesses and attack patterns then use potions, spells and pils to fight enemies. It actually feels like playing the witcher as lore accurately as possible. Going to the local herbalist, buying supplies, meditating then hunting down the enemies.

Download Deus Ex instead, there's a great mod on steam called Deus Ex: Revision which makes it run better on modern computers

Stop playing this overrated repetitive game.