While you scored a starter deck and a few new cards in White Orchard, Gwent doesn’t really pick up until you reach Velen, where a great many of your cards can be found. The lines between Velen and Novigrad are blurry enough as it is, and some quests, like Gwent: Playing Innkeeps will require you to travel between the two in order to complete them, but despite those difficulties we’ll list all the Gwent-related quests, card locations and players in Velen.

Page Breakdown¶

Gwent: Playing Innkeeps¶

Unlike in White Orchard there’s no clear place to start playing Gwent in Velen. Your only real lead is the quest Gwent: Playing Innkeeps which tasks you with challenging Stjepen in Oxenfurt, but to do this you’ll need to get a Transit Pass, a task you can go about in various ways. If you want to get to Oxenfurt quickly you can complete the secondary quests Thou Shalt Not Pass, Fake Papers or the contract Contract: Woodland Beast. Stjepen is a difficult player at this point in the game, but not insurmountable, and the Yennefer of Vengerberg is useful in pretty much any deck, being a 7 Strength Hero card with the “Medic” ability.

Defeating Stjepen will also allow you to play the next two quest-related Innkeepers, including the Innkeep at the Inn at the Crossroads and Olivier in Novigrad. Since Olivier is in Novigrad he’s outside of this page’s scope, but the other Innkeep will forfeit the Menno Coehoorn card, a 10 Strength Hero card with the “Medic” ability. While the Yennefer card is neutral, Menno Coehoorn is exclusive to the Nilfgaardian Empire deck.

Playing Innkeeps Cards¶

Gwent: Velen Players¶

Another Gwent-related quest in Velen is the aptly-named Gwent: Velen Players, which tasks you with besting four notable players, each of whom will forfeit a unique card when vanquished. To start this quest you must advance the main story until Family Matters begins, and progress said quest until after you investigate the two rooms for the Bloody Baron, whereupon you’ll be tasked with seeking out a Pellar. At this point you can challenge the Bloody Baron to a game of Gwent, and if you defeat him you’ll win the Sigismund Dijkstra card, a 4 strength Spy card for the Northern Kingdoms deck.

After defeating the Bloody Baron he’ll tell you about three other players, a Boatwright in Oreton, a Soothsayer in Benek and a dimwitted card savant named Haddy in Midcopse. Defeat the Boatwright or the Soothsayer and you’ll actually be able to challenge Haddy, and defeat all four to complete the quest and obtain their unique cards and Eredin: Destroyer of Worlds - a reward for outplaying all the Velen Players. All the cards you’ll get during this step are as follows:

Velen Players Cards¶

Purchase Cards from Merchants¶

There’s one obvious downside to winning cards from other players, especially some of the quest-related ones mentioned above: you actually have to beat the opponent to get your hands on these new cards! Most of the players in Velen should be beatable with the starter deck from White Orchard (assuming you bought cards from the Innkeeper there - see Gwent in White Orchard for more details) but this could take a good bit of luck and patience. You can reduce the amount of bother winning these matches can be by acquiring new cards before you get stuck in, and there are several merchants in Velen who will sell you a variety of useful cards, as follows:

List of Cards You Can Purchase in Velen¶

If you have the Hearts of Stone DLC installed you’ll find a Merchant northwest of Carsten who sells a wide variety of Gwent cards. This is a Novigrad-region merchant, but his functionality makes it worth mentioning early to hopefully avoid potential confusion. With few exceptions, these cards sold by this merchant act as a failsafe for cards that could otherwise be won or purchased elsewhere. If you buy cards from this merchant, you won’t be able to get them from the original source and vice-versa. Just an alternate way to acquire some of these cards. A full list of the cards he can sell can be found belows:

Cards Sold by the Card Merchant Near Carsten¶

Win Cards From Undistinguished Gwent Players¶

Finally, you’ll win a new Gwent card from “players of no particular renown or skill” every time you beat said player for the first time. These are usually merchants (sometimes the very same merchants you can buy cards from!), but this broad category includes every Gwent player who can yield a card that’s not part of any quest. It’s worth noting that the pool from which these cards are drawn is random, so any player can yield any card from this pool. What you’ll get from each one is pure RNG and can be save scummed, if you desire. It’s also worth noting that, between Velen, Novigrad and Skellige, there are more Gwent players than there are winnable cards, and after you’ve won every card you can from these undistinguished players, you’ll stop getting getting cards. You will also win some random item - usually a crafting component of some description - when you win a game, and you’ll get this (along with whatever crowns you bet) every time you win, even if all the cards in the winnable pool are depleted, even if you’re already beaten that player before. A list of all the “players of no particular renown or skill” in Velen are as follows:

List of Undistinguished Gwent Players in Velen¶