Months have passed since the events of The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings. The north is in ruins due to the third major invasion by Nilfgaard, a conquest made easier by the turmoil caused by the assassinations of powerful northern monarchs. This no longer concerns Geralt of Rivia, however, who has once again resumed the life of an itinerant monster slayer, his trade as a Witcher. That is, until he hears that his former lover, Yennefer of Vengerberg, has returned…
Embark on an epic quest to reunite with Yennefer and rescue your adoptive daughter, Ciri, from the Wild Hunt. Along the way you’ll have to put your Witcher training to use and slay monsters, deal with zealots and bigots who threaten your friends, play kingmaker in the north and on the rough islands of Skellige…and a few games of Gwent here and there wouldn’t hurt, either.
This is a full beginning-to-end walkthrough for The Witcher 3, written in an “ideal chronological order”. It is meant to be followed step-by-step. Along the way you’ll complete every main quest and the side-quests that affect important NPCs, and hence the outcome of major storyline arcs.
Nathan “Haeravon” Garvin (Author) and Claire Farnworth (Editor-in-Chief)
Update: December 2022
This guide has been comprehensively overhauled since it was first published to modernize it, and also include new features that the 2022 Next Gen Update brought to the game.
I'm afraid I cannot recommend this guide in good conscience, particularly after enjoying Haeravon's previous two Witcher guides. This walkthrough was originally fantastic in the GameFAQs era but it now appears to have been chopped up and butchered and restructured for (reasons?!) so things now appear out of sequence and refer back to things you've not done yet.
The first expansion Hearts of Stone is completely absent, and the second expansion Blood and Wine is partially featured but just stops halfway through.
Sokkus appears to have a complete guide for the base game and both expansions on GameFAQs, failing that if you want a nice experience check out the mod "Progress on the Path" which acts as a checklist/breadcrumb trail for absolutely every quest, item, event, etc in the game.
Also check out a fantastic order of doing things on this Reddit link if you just want to know which quests to do https://www.reddit.com/r/thewitcher3/comments/18uthid/the_witcher_3_optimal_quest_order_guide_updated/
I'm sorry you can't recommend our guide in its current form and I don't disagree with your feedback. Haeravon is back working on this with me to properly bring it up to date, with new media and a proper structure that isn't out of sequence. We will finish the DLCs as promised. I hope people will find it useful again soon and thanks for checking it out.