Gwent Beginner Guide

Which Gwent is this?

This covers the Gwent you play with characters inside The Witcher 3. The separate, standalone Gwent game has different rules.

Deck requirements

Unit cards

At least 22

Special cards

No more than 10

Leader

One leader card per deck

Factions

Northern Realms

Draw a card when you win a round

Nilfgaardian Empire

Wins any round that ends in a draw

Scoia'tael

Chooses who goes first

Monsters

Keeps one random unit on the board after each round

Skellige (Blood and Wine)

Returns two random units from the discard pile at the start of the third round

The basics

• Each unit has a strength number and a row: close combat, ranged or siege.
• Your total strength across all rows decides the round.
• A match is best of three: win two rounds to win.
• Both players draw 10 cards at the start and may redraw up to two. There's no normal draw between rounds.
• Hero cards can't be affected by special cards or abilities.

Special cards

• Weather — Biting Frost, Impenetrable Fog and Torrential Rain drop a row's units to 1 strength. Clear Weather removes them.
• Commander's Horn doubles the strength of one row.
• Decoy swaps back a card from your board into your hand.
• Scorch destroys the strongest card(s) on the board.
• Spies go to your opponent's side and let you draw two cards.

Passing and managing cards

• Passing ends your turns for that round; your opponent can keep playing.
• Cards matter more than points. Winning a round by spending many cards can lose you the match.
• Consider losing the first round cheaply if your opponent spends heavily to win it.
• Keep strong cards and a weather or Scorch answer for the final round.

Getting cards

You're introduced to Gwent at the White Orchard inn early in the game. More cards are bought from merchants and innkeepers or won from opponents across the world.

Missable cards