You’ve spent forty hours building a Geralt that specializes entirely in bombs. It seemed like a fun idea at the time. Watching Nekkers explode in a shower of green gas and fire is objectively hilarious, but now you’re facing a boss that moves like lightning, and your slow-toss Grapeshot just isn't cutting it. You’re stuck. You feel like you’ve wasted your Ability Points on a niche build that’s hit a brick wall. This is exactly why the potion of clearance witcher 3 exists. It’s the ultimate "get out of jail free" card for players who realized mid-way through Velen that they actually hate the Alchemy tree or that they should have invested way more into Quen.
Where to Actually Find the Potion of Clearance
Getting your hands on one isn't always as simple as walking into any random village herbalist's hut. Most vendors don't carry it. You need someone with actual alchemical pedigree. The most reliable spot is in Novigrad. Look for the merchant located near St. Gregory's Bridge in the northern part of the city. He’s an elven alchemist who sells a lot of high-end stuff, and he almost always has a bottle in stock. He's tucked away in a shop filled with jars and strange smells.
If you aren't in Novigrad yet, don't panic. Keira Metz is usually your first point of contact for this. After you finish the "Magic Lamp" quest with her, she opens up her shop. She sells the potion for 1,000 Crowns. That’s a steep price when you’re level 6 and struggling to pay for sword repairs, but it's there if you need it. Later in the game, specifically in the Skellige Isles, you can find it with Gremist. He’s the grumpy druid you have to impress by doing a series of annoying chores involving clouds and booze. Once he’s your friend, he’s a steady supplier.
The 1,000 Crown Problem
Is it expensive? Yeah. Especially in the early game. Honestly, 1,000 Crowns is a lot of monster contracts. You’d have to kill about five or six Archgriffins or Foglets just to afford one reset. Because of this, you shouldn't just chug it because you’re bored. You use the potion of clearance witcher 3 when your build is fundamentally broken or when you’ve finally unlocked the Blood and Wine mutations and realize your old point distribution is totally inefficient.
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Interestingly, the price never scales. Whether you are level 10 or level 100 in New Game Plus, it’s always 1,000 Crowns. By the time you’re exploring Toussaint, that’s pocket change. You probably have 40,000 Crowns sitting in your pockets from selling ornate Touissant swords. But in the early hours? It’s a massive investment. Choose wisely.
How It Actually Works (The Nitty Gritty)
When you drink the potion, Geralt goes through a bit of a literal identity crisis. Every single Ability Point you have ever spent is refunded. This includes the points you got from leveling up and the points you clawed out of the ground at Places of Power. If you’re level 30 and you’ve found twelve Places of Power, you’re going to have a massive pool of points to redistribute all at once.
Everything goes blank. Your equipped skills are unequipped. Your mutagen bonuses drop to zero. You’re basically a blank slate.
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One thing people often forget is that it doesn't touch your Mutagens. You keep those. It only resets the skills themselves. If you’re playing the Complete Edition or the Next-Gen update, the way skills interact with your total power is slightly different than the 2015 launch version, but the potion’s core function remains identical. It’s a total wipe.
When Should You Reset?
Don't do it for a 5% damage increase. That's a waste of money. Instead, think about the "The Witcher 3" transition points.
- The Playstyle Pivot: You started as a heavy-armor bear school tank, but you find the combat too slow. You want to switch to a cat school fast-attack build. This requires a total overhaul of your red and yellow skill trees.
- The Mutation Unlock: Once you hit the Blood and Wine expansion and unlock the advanced mutation system (like Piercing Cold or Euphoria), your old build will likely be suboptimal. Euphoria, for example, rewards high toxicity. If you didn't put points into the green Alchemy tree, you aren't getting the most out of it.
- The Trophy Hunt: Some people reset just to grab specific combat trophies that require certain skills, then reset back to their "real" build.
Common Mistakes and Misconceptions
There is a weird myth that you can lose points if you use the potion while under certain status effects. That’s not true. I’ve tested this across multiple playthroughs on PC and console. Your points are hard-coded into your save file. However, there is a known quirk with the "Acquired Tolerance" skill. If you unspec out of it, your maximum toxicity drops instantly. If your current toxicity level was high because you drank a bunch of decoctions, and then you reset your skills, you won't die, but you’ll be stuck with a "poisoned" screen effect until the toxicity naturally drains or you drink White Honey.
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Also, the potion of clearance witcher 3 does not refund the points you spend inside the advanced Mutation tree from the DLC. Those require a different, even rarer potion called the Potion of Restoration. Don't mix them up. The Potion of Clearance is for your basic 5x5 grid of skills; the Potion of Restoration is for the big circular mutation brain in the middle of the menu.
Tactical Advice for Your New Build
If you’re sitting there with 60 refunded points, don't just click things randomly. Start with the "General" (yellow) skills first. These provide the backbone of your build, like "Griffin School Techniques" if you wear medium armor. Then move to your core combat or sign skills.
Always keep one Potion of Clearance in your stash. Not your inventory—your stash. You never know when a patch might nerf your favorite build or when you’ll simply get tired of spamming Igni. Having a backup means you aren't hunting down a specific merchant in the middle of a major story beat.
Practical Next Steps for Your Build
- Check your current Crown count. If you have less than 2,000, go clear a few "Points of Interest" (those white question marks) in Skellige or Velen to loot some swords to sell.
- Travel to the Elven Alchemist in Novigrad. He’s the most consistent source. Buy two if you can afford it.
- Save your game before drinking. This is the most important step. Drink the potion, spend your points, and go fight a group of bandits. If the new build feels "clunky" or you realize you missed a prerequisite for a high-level skill, you can just reload the save without wasting the 1,000 Crowns.
- Prioritize Synergy. If you're going for a Sign build, make sure you have the blue mutagens to match. If you're going for raw damage, stack those red mutagens. A Potion of Clearance is only as good as the strategy you apply after drinking it.
Once you’ve redistributed your points, make sure to re-equip your mutagens and your skills into the active slots. The potion clears them out, and it’s a classic "Geralt moment" to walk into a monster nest only to realize you have no active skills equipped. Check your character menu one last time before you head back into the wild.