You’ve probably heard that the path to a platinum in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is a 150-hour nightmare. Honestly? It sort of is, but not for the reasons you think. It isn't just the sheer size of the Continent or the hundreds of "Question Marks" in Skellige that break most players. It’s the one Gwent card you forgot to buy in a basement in Novigrad sixty hours ago.
Getting every achievement in this game is a marathon. You’re looking at roughly 100 to 150 hours depending on how much you fast-travel and whether you’re playing the next-gen update on PS5 or the original version. The good news is that you can do it all in a single playthrough if you're careful. But "careful" is the keyword here because this game is a minefield of missable content.
The Death March Mentality
If you want that platinum, you’re playing on Death March difficulty. Period. Most people get intimidated by the name, but here’s the secret: the first ten levels are the only hard part. Once you get some decent gear and a few specific skills, Geralt becomes an unstoppable blender.
Basically, you need to live and breathe the Quen sign. It’s your safety net. If your shield isn't up, you shouldn't be attacking. You’ll also want to grab the Gourmet skill (found in the General/Brown tree) as early as possible. Even though it was slightly nerfed in the 4.0 update, having food regenerate your health for 20 minutes is still a lifesaver when you're broke and out of Swallow potions.
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Don't roll everywhere. Use the short dodge. Rolling eats your stamina, which means you can’t cast Quen. If you're fighting a group of drowners, just dance around them. If you’re fighting a boss, dodge-attack-dodge. It’s a rhythm game disguised as an RPG.
Why The Witcher 3 Trophy Guide Starts With Gwent
Let’s talk about Card Collector. This is the trophy that kills 90% of platinum runs. You have to collect every single base-game Gwent card, and some of them disappear forever if you blink at the wrong time.
The biggest traps are the tournaments. During the quest "A Matter of Life and Death," there’s a small tournament at the masquerade ball. If you don't play there, you lose those cards forever. Same goes for the "High Stakes" quest at the Passiflora. You have to win every match. Save your game before every round. Seriously.
Also, keep an eye on the "Zoltan Chivay" card. In earlier versions of the game, if you didn't win it from the scholar in White Orchard, you were screwed. Now, you can usually find it under the Hanged Man's Tree in Velen if you missed it, but don't risk it. Play everyone. Every merchant, every innkeeper, every blacksmith. If there’s a dialogue option to play Gwent, take it.
The "Full Crew" Disaster
Another massive roadblock is the Full Crew trophy. To get this, you need to bring all possible allies to Kaer Morhen for the big showdown. This isn't just a matter of asking nicely; it's about finishing lengthy side-quest chains and making the right moral choices.
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- Keira Metz: This is the big one. At the end of her questline ("For the Advancement of Learning"), you must convince her to go to Kaer Morhen. If you kill her or let her go to Radovid, you can kiss the trophy goodbye.
- Triss Merigold: Finish her Novigrad quests. Even if you don't romance her, she'll show up, but it's safer to just help her out completely.
- Roche and Ves: You have to help them with the "An Eye for an Eye" quest. Make sure Ves doesn't die during the fight.
- Hjalmar an Craite: You need to help either Cerys or Hjalmar become the ruler of Skellige. Once that's settled, the new monarch will send Hjalmar to help you.
Farming the Annoying Stuff
Once the story is done, you'll likely have a handful of combat trophies left. These are the ones everyone complains about on Reddit. Master Marksman (50 headshot kills with a crossbow) is notoriously buggy and tedious.
The best place to farm this—and almost every other combat trophy—is the Devil's Pit in Velen. The bandits there can't leave the gated area. You can lure them to the entrance, where they'll just stand there behind an invisible wall while you aim for their foreheads.
Pro Tip: For Master Marksman, wait until your controller vibrates or the screen shakes slightly. That’s usually the indicator for a headshot. Use Axii to keep them still and unequip your swords so you don't accidentally kill them with a regular hit while softening them up.
While you're at Devil's Pit, you can also knock out:
- Humpty Dumpty: Use Aard to knock 10 enemies off the ledges.
- Overkill: Make an enemy bleed, burn, and be poisoned at the same time. Use Broadhead bolts (bleeding), Igni (burning), and Devil's Puffball bombs (poison).
- Environmentally Unfriendly: Kill 50 enemies using swamp gas or barrels.
The Checklist for Success
To make sure you don't reach the end of your 100-hour journey only to find you've missed something, follow this basic flow:
- Start on Death March. Don't change it. Ever.
- Win the White Orchard tutorial Gwent match. Get that "Miraculous Guide to Gwent" book; it’s a literal checklist in your quest items.
- Complete all "Brothers in Arms" quests before going to the Isle of Mists. This is the "Point of No Return" for most side characters.
- Check every Notice Board. You need to finish all Witcher Contracts for "Geralt: The Professional."
- Don't ignore the DLCs. While Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine have their own trophy lists, they offer "Mutations" and "Grandmaster Gear" that make the base game trophies significantly easier to clean up.
Honestly, the most important thing is to have multiple save files. Don't rely on autosaves. Make a manual save before every major story mission and every Gwent tournament. If a trophy doesn't pop when it should—and let’s be real, this is a massive open-world game, things happen—you’ll be glad you have a backup from three hours ago instead of having to restart the whole game.
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Actionable Next Steps:
Check your inventory for "A Miraculous Guide to Gwent." If you don't have it, go back to the innkeeper in White Orchard or check the merchant nearby. This book will tell you exactly how many cards you are missing in each region, saving you hours of aimless wandering through Velen. Once you have that, head to the Devil's Pit to grind out the "Master Marksman" trophy before you get too high-level, as enemies there don't scale well and become harder to "soften up" without killing them instantly.