Walkthrough for the Side Quest No Place Like Home in The Witcher 3 Blood and Wine. Including information about how to acquire the Corvo Bianco vineyard, how to upgrade it, and what upgrades you can purchase for it.

You’ll visit Corvo Bianco during the quest The Beast of Toussaint, and despite the rustic charms of the idyllic country villa, your first impressions can’t be positive. After all, it is a tad corpsey at the time. After you deal with your business there, you’ll need to make your way southwest to the Tourney Grounds, and after you help Guillaume with another monster-related incident, you’ll be given the deed and key to the Corvo Bianco vineyard by Anna Henrietta; a rare down payment for the work she expects you to do. It’s not mere generosity, however, as real estate is notoriously hard to take with you, and for a nomadic witcher, a vineyard is essentially a ball and chain… albeit a very valuable and pretty one.

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(1 of 2) The Majordomo will give you a tour of Corvo Bianco,

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The Majordomo will give you a tour of Corvo Bianco, (left), after which you can talk to him to upgrade your estate. (right)

When you’re ready to start making a proper home out of your gilded cage (likely after the completion of the Main Quest Blood Run, return to Corvo Bianco and approach the estate. You’ll be intercepted by the Majordomo, Barnabas-Basil Foulty, who will list his credentials, tell you about the history of Corvo Bianco, then give you a guided tour of the grounds.

How to Upgrade Corvo Bianco¶

The tour eventually ends back at the house, and by now you’ve undoubtedly pieced together where this is going. Your estate, as nice as it is, is a money pit, and the Majordomo listed many things that can be upgraded. Some of these upgrades are more functional than others, while some are just to make the place look prettier and to allow you to show off some of the arms, armor and trophies you’ve accumulated until now.

That said, you’ll earn the achievement/trophy Playing House if you fully upgrade Corvo Bianco, not to mention you’ll need to fully upgrade the vineyard to complete this quest. You’ll also gain various boons when you upgrade the manor house, including the Hidden Laboratory and access to further upgrades that can give you bonuses to Vitality, horse stamina and access to herbs. Whether these are worth the money is another matter, especially considering how much money you’ll need to obtain grandmaster Witcher sets.

Below you’ll find the first tier of upgrades, which can be initially purchased:

Once you purchase the “House Upgrade” for 5,000 Crowns, you’ll need to wait three days, then return to the Corvo Bianco estate and talk to the Majordomo, who will tell you about a discovery made in the cellar, which gives you the optional objective to explore it and unlock the Hidden Laboratory. You’ll also be able to purchase six new upgrades:

Once you’ve purchased all upgrades and they’ve had the time to be implemented, you’ll earn the achievement/trophy Playing House and this quest will end.

Playing House

Use all available options for developing Corvo Bianco.

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What Bonuses Do You Gain From Upgrading Corvo Bianco¶

After you’ve upgraded the house once, talk to the Majordomo and peruse the new upgrades that have unlocked, which include upgrades to your stables, garden and bed, as well as some more frivolous upgrades like more weapon and armor racks and a major renovation to the guest room.

Upgrading your stables will, when used, give Roach a Stamina boost of 100% for sixty seconds, so if you still have some races left to finish… well, they’ll be easier than ever with such a boon. A superior bed will also yield superior results from resting, a 1,000 point Vitality boost lasting a whopping two-hours. Finally, upgrading the garden will place various plants in the once-barren garden and in the greenhouse, allowing you to gather ingredients without having to bother leaving the confines of Corvo Bianco. These herbs include Wild Cherry, Blue Lotus Flower, Nazairi Basil, Berbercane Fruit, Beggartick Blossoms, Moleyarrow, Han Fiber, Blowball, Celandine, Fool’s Parsley Leaves, Ribleaf, Wolfsbane and Pringrape. Truly a diverse selection of herbs.

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(1 of 2) You can grind up cash by killing bandits around Velen,

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You can grind up cash by killing bandits around Velen, (left), and selling the weapons they drop. (right)

How to Earn Money to Upgrade Corvo Bianco¶

Upgrading Corvo Bianco is easier said than done, and all told it’ll set you back 14,000 Crowns. Perhaps time-consuming, too, although you can simply meditate through the wait, and you can have multiple upgrades in the works at the same time.

Your time is arguably better spent raising funds, however, should you have a need, and an easy way to do this is by picking on weakling bandits back in Novigrad and Velen, where they can be found in the fort near Devil’s Pit, at a camp northeast of Alness, and along the shore south or Ursten. All of these areas are close enough to reach via the aforementioned signposts, and while the bandits may be weak, their weapons scale in level… and hence, in value. A single run can net you over 1,000 Crowns, after which you can rest several days for the baddies to respawn. Needless to say, this method also gives plenty of time for upgrades to Corvo Bianco to cook, so there’s no good reason you can’t do both at the same time.