You’ll be introduced to Gwent early in The Witcher 3, even before fist-fighting! While there’s not a whole lot you can do with Gwent in White Orchard, there are still a few optional cards floating around in the prologue, and at this stage in the game, every card can significantly improve your deck. This page will detail all the Gwent-related quests, card locations and players in White Orchard.

Page Breakdown¶

Get the Starter Deck from the Scholar¶

The first step in your Gwent journey is to reach the tavern in White Orchard, where the main quest will take you during Lilac and Gooseberries. Once there, you’ll chat with the innkeeper, after which you’ll need to talk to various patrons to gather intel on Yennefer’s whereabouts. All well and good, but one of these patrons happens to be a scholar desperately trying to teach some peasants how to play Gwent - probably not the easiest feat when the peasants in question might not be literate nor capable of solving basic arithmetic. Talk to this scholar and he’ll give up his futile attempts at spreading Gwent among the peasantry, instead choosing to poison the heart of a gambling-addicted Witcher.

By accepting to play with the Scholar you’ll be given a starter deck, which includes various cards for the Northern Kingdoms faction. Other factions, including the Nilfgaardian Empire, Scoia’tael and Monsters will have to be unlocked. It takes 22 unit cards to make a deck, so you’ll be playing the Northern Kingdoms faction for a while. In any event, the cards you’ll get as part of this starter deck include the following:

• Biting Frost x2
• Impenetrable Fog x2
• Torrential Rain x2
• Clear Weather x2
• Dethmold
• Trebuchet x2
• Ballista x2
• Ves
• Siegfried of Denesle
• Kiera Metz
• Sile de Tansarville
• Prince Stannis
• Dun Banner Medic
• Sabrina Glevissig
• Sheldon Skaggs
• Blue Stripes Commando x2
• Yarpen Zigrin
• Poor Fucking Infantry x2
• Redanian Foot Soldier x2
• Kaedweni Siege Expert x3
• Foltest: King of Temeria

You’ll also get Emhyr var Emreis: His Imperial Majesty, Francesca Findabair: Pureblood Elf and Eredin: King of the Wild Hunt, leader cards for the Nilfgaardian, Scoia’tael and Monster decks, respectively, but until you get a lot more cards you won’t be able to play them.

Win the Zoltan Chivay Card from the Scholar¶

After agreeing to play the scholar you’ll get your first game of Gwent using the cards mentioned above. There are no stakes in this match - if you somehow manage to lose you can just challenge him again and again until you win. When you finally do you’ll get to keep your starter deck and you’ll win the Zoltan Chivay card from the scholar. This is a neutral card, so it can be included in any deck, although at only 5 power with no special abilities you shouldn’t get too attached to it.

When you defeat another Gwent player you’ll generally win a card from them, but following the Scholar you’ll usually also have to bet some Crowns. If you lose, you lose whatever Crowns were wagered, but no cards. Defeating other Gwent players will be your primary source of new Gwent cards… well, that and buying them from Innkeepers (which we’ll get to, shortly). It’s worth noting that the cards you win from other players are usually randomly drawn from a pool of cards you don’t already own, with a few odd exceptions who usually yield specific hero cards. These NPCs are usually important NPCs or the opponents you’ll have to defeat for the various Gwent quests that pop up.

Buy Cards from the Innkeeper¶

As mentioned above, aside from beating other Gwent players your best source of new Gwent cards will be Innkeepers, who have the odd habit of selling these things. You can expect most innkeepers to have several for sale, and the Innkeeper at the tavern in White Orchard is no different, selling the following cards:

• Decoy (20 Crowns)
• Catapult (50 Crowns)
• Blue Stripes Commando (20 Crowns)
• Crinfrid Reavers Dragon Hunter (20 Crowns)
• Foltest - Lord Commander of the North (50 Crowns)

Again, it’s a Northern Kingdoms heavy selection, but since that’s all you can play right now, that might not be a bad thing. Catapult, Blue Stripes Commando and Crinfrid Reapers Dragon Hunter are all cards with the Tight Bond ability, which can be very, very potent - the more of these cards you have the better. Decoy will also be very useful, especially as you collect more cards with effects that trigger on play, like cards with the Medic, Spy and Scorch abilities.

::::: note: showType : Multiple Decoy Cards
The Innkeeper at White Orchard can sell multiple Decoy cards, just check her inventory every time you’ve been away for a while. She can sell up to four of them, but if you don’t buy them here, don’t worry - other Innkeepers will sell them. Decoy cards become very, very useful for the Northern Kingdoms/Nilfgaardian Empire decks, but right now you probably don’t need four. Not that it’ll hurt you to nab them all now.
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Play the Nilfgaardian Nobleman in Vizima¶

The next card can’t be obtained until you leave White Orchard, but you’ll get it before you reach Velen and it’s still in the prologue, so we’ll count it here. After you complete both the main quests in White Orchard, Lilac and Gooseberries and The Beast of White Orchard you’ll travel to Vizima, where the quest Imperial Audience will occur. After meeting with Emhyr and Yennefer, head to the garden just outside of the room where you met Yennefer and you’ll find a Nilfgaardian Nobleman who plays Gwent. He’s got a much better Gwent deck than you, but with some skill (read: luck, mostly just luck) you’ll win. He yields a random card when bested, something that will become much more common going forward.

::::: note: showType : DLC Roach Card
You can get the Roach card if you link your account via the “My Rewards” option on the main menu, as well as the Dol Blathanna set of arms and armor. The Roach card doesn’t count towards quest or achievement completion and is frankly not very good - it shouldn’t make it into your deck at all, although it is a neutral card, so if you wanted to start another deck sooner, this will help. It should automatically be added to your collection upon loading the game again after linking your accounts.
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That’s it for the Gwent cards in White Orchard… or rather, the prologue. A lot of Gwent players await in Velen, Novigrad and [Skellige], however, or you can check out our [Ultimate Gwent Guide] to find the location of every Gwent card in the game!