When you arrive in Velen you’ll have had a small taste of what the Gwent minigame has to offer, and only two real leads when it comes to expanding your deck - the quest Gwent: Playing Innkeeps and the rather open ended and uninformative Collect ’Em All!. The latter is of little help and the former will lead you to a handful of unique cards, provided you can defeat their owners. Aside from that, playing random merchants and buying them from shops is your best bet - check out the page Gwent in Velen for more details. There’s another option, however - more skilled players can be found with unique cards just begging to be won, and finding and defeating all these players is the subject of the quest Gwent: Velen Players.

Quest Objectives¶

Starting Gwent: Velen Players¶

Although it may not be readily apparent, this secondary Gwent quest is intertwined with the Bloody Baron questline, as this quest won’t appear until after you advance the latter. Specifically you have to meet with the Bloody Baron in Crow’s Perch and complete the followup quest Ciri’s Story: The King of the Wolves. After that, the next quest Family Matters will begin, whereupon Geralt will be convinced to help the Bloody Baron in exchange for more information on Ciri’s whereabouts. You’re supposed to follow the Bloody Baron upstairs and investigate some rooms, but you’re not actually required to do so - instead you can leave and check out the notice boards at Crow’s Perch or Midcopse to find the notice Gwent: Looking for New Players. Or you could wait until after you’re done being escorted around by the Bloody Baron first. You know, rude. Reading this notice will start this quest, but if you finish searching the rooms for the Bloody Baron and report to the carmine despot you’ll be tasked with seeking out a Pellar, upon which the Bloody Baron will head to his office, where you can finally play Gwent with him. This will also start the quest and, if you wind, complete its first objective.

Defeat the Bloody Baron¶

Once the quest [Family Matters] has started you can finally pick up this quest, and if you read the Gwent: Looking for New Players notice you’ll quickly find that your first opponent is the Bloody Baron himself. You cannot play Gwent against him until you finish searching the rooms on the upper floor of his castle, so get that out of the way and challenge him to a game of Gwent - an objective you can complete whether you’ve read the aforementioned notice or not.

The Bloody Baron is more loyal to Temeria in Gwent than in real life, and he’ll demonstrate this by using a Northern Kingdoms deck. As a relatively early-game Gwent player. He’s got a surprisingly mediocre deck, making use of the odd Tight Bond combo Spy cards (likely Prince Stennis and/or Sigismund Dijkstra) and perhaps a weather effect. Honestly it should be that hard to simply outpower him, even with the starter deck and whatever cards you could have purchased from the Innkeeper in White Orchard. Thrash the Bloody Baron at Gwent and he’ll give you the SIgismund Dijkstra card, a 4 strength card with the “Spy” ability - a very useful tool for out-carding your foes.

In addition to the card, the Bloody Baron will also tell you about some more exceptional Gwent players in Velen, including:

• A boat builder in Oreton
• An old Soothsayer
• A daft lad who plays “a devilish hand”

Defeat the Boatwright in Oreton¶

After defeating the Bloody Baron, the Boatwright in Oreton is both the nearest and easiest opponent for you to face off against. You’ll find Oreton south of Crow’s Perch, and along the way you can stop by Claywich to purchase some cards, including another Crinfrid Reavers Dragon Hunter card.

Challenge the Boatwright and you’ll find he plays a competent Nilfgaardian deck. He’s not afraid to flip Spy cards at you and sacrifice a round to build up for later, and he’s got plenty of 10 strength cards he can play. If you toss Spy cards back at him, he may give you a nasty surprise in later rounds by using Medics to revive them and put them back into play, giving him a perhaps unexpected late-game surge. Since he can put a lot of points on the board and match the Northern Kingdom’s Spy shenanigans, he can be a tricky opponent - especially if you still have a weak deck. A few upgrades and a bit of luck are all the base Northern Kingdoms deck needs to win, however - Tight Bomb cards boosted by a Commander’s Horn can match or best the Nilfgaardian deck’s strong hero and archer cards.

Speaking of which, emerge victorious and you’ll win the Letho of Gulet card, a 10 strength Hero card exclusive to the Nilfgaardian deck. Following the bout, the Boatwright will also give a name to the slow lad with the fearsome deck - Haddy, who resides in Midcopse.

Defeat the Soothsayer¶

Most of the Velen Players are in the rough vicinity of Crow’s Perch. Save for the Soothsayer. You’ll find this man (named an Old Sage“) far to the east of Crow’s Perch, in a village called Benek. Stick to the roads and you shouldn’t encounter much in the way of monsters, but your luck will run out when you reach Benek itself, as the Old Sage plays a Monster deck.

Monster decks are… odd. If you’ve got enough cards to field a Monster deck,you’ve got enough cards to be dangerous. This is mostly due to “Muster” ability many Monster cards have, which will summon all related cards from the player’s deck and hand and put them on the battlefield. The Vampire and Crone family of cards are especially dangerous, as one of these cards can put a lot of strength on the board all in one go. On top of that, the Old Sage uses the Eredin: Commander of the Red Riders card, which will give his Close Combat row a free Commander’s Horn in one round. Mix these two together and the Old Sage is all but guaranteed to drop a lot of strength on the board without burning many cards. When they’re both at full strength the Northern Kingdoms deck is more than a match for a Monster Deck, but early on Monster decks can be a nuisance.

Persevere and you’ll obtain the Crone: Weavess card, one of the Monster deck’s better cards - while it only boasts 6 strength, it has the “Muster” ability and will summon every other Crone card when played. There are three such cards in the game, which will net you a total of 18 points in one go - not bad at all.

Defeat Haddy¶

Haddy is possibly the most difficult of the four Velen Players, and for that reason you may want to challenge him last, even though his location - Midcopse - is far less travel than the Soothsayer. When you think you’re ready, head to Midcopse and search for Haddy near a house along the southwestern edge of the town and challenge him to a game of Gwent.

Haddy plays a Northern Kingdoms deck, and if you haven’t seen flashes of what this deck can become yet, Haddy might just give you a demonstration. His tactics are usually simple enough - Tight Bond cards bolstered by Commander’s Horns with the odd weather effect thrown it. If your luck is poor, Haddy can put down a lot of points on the board with surprisingly few cards. On the plus side, Haddy also has a lot of junk cards in his deck, which balances things out and keeps the difficulty manageable.

Dethrone Haddy as the premiere Gwent player in Velen and you’ll get the Vernon Roche card, a 10 strength Hero card for the Northern Kingdoms deck. Haddy, being a good sport, takes the loss in stride.

Once you’ve defeated all four Velen Players you’ll also obtain the Eredin: Destroyer of Worlds cand, a Leader card with the ability “Discard 2 cards and draw 1 card of your choice from your deck.”. If you really need a specific “Muster” card, weather card, Commander’s Horn, Scorch, or Villentretenmerth, this leader ability could prove quite useful.