The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is one of the best PC RPGs of all time, so the thought of modding it sometimes feels like garnishing a kingly steak with ketchup (and not even Heinz). But the best Witcher 3 mods really do make for an even better game—or at least a more convenient or different game, which is welcome in your second or third trip through the Northern Realms. Even Geralt likes to change things up sometimes.

Below you'll find our list of the best mods for The Witcher 3, updated for a new playthrough in or beyond. The best Witcher 3 mods include texture overhauls, quality of life boosts like auto looting, and the superhuman ability to frolic through shallow water. We've also listed some popular combat overhauls that subtly and dramatically rework The Witcher 3's most criticized element. You can even make Geralt look more like Henry Cavill, his Netflix counterpart. 

Unless otherwise noted, all of these mods should work with the last Witcher 3 patch, version

Utilities

The tools you need to make mods work.

Debug Console Enabler

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If you’re going to be tinkering around with a lot of mods, you’re going to need the god-like powers of the debug console behind you. This little mod unlocks the debug console, letting you use console commands to change settings, spawn enemies, fix broken things, etc.

Nexus Mod Manager

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All of the Witcher mods live on Nexus, and the Nexus Mod Manager is the single best way to wrangle all the competing and conflicting changes that mods might be bringing to your game. While you’re installing mods, pay attention to warnings about conflicts and load orders. If you do see a specific load order, the NMM is where you go to make that change. Otherwise incompatible mods could work perfectly if you load one before the other.

If you are installing a lot of mods, do it just like your mother taught you: go slow, take it easy, and say your prayers.

Mod Merger

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Did you know that there’s a “mod limit”? It was news to us. If you are trying to install more mods than the game wants to allow, the Mod Merger can help. The process will take about 15 minutes, but basically the merger will combine your compatible mods into a single customized bundle just for you. Too many mods? No no, sir, as you can see, I am installing only one enormous mod.

As above, be careful with this one. Only spend the time to merge mods you know work well together, otherwise you’ll end up doing the whole process over and over.

Menu and travel

Mods that expedite your journey, clean up your UI and make Dandelion shut the hell up.

Fast Travel from Anywhere 

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Geralt's world already has dozens of signposts for fast travel, but sometimes you'll still find yourself spending ages coaxing Roach across countryside for the nearest one. If you're not down for that sometimes humdrum bit of roleplay, this mod lets you teleport to any fast travel point from anywhere, much in the style of Skyrim. If that doesn’t sound fun to you, let us suggest the exact opposite: this mod will cancel all fast travel routes, except for a few that hop between regions.

Use your new fast travel abilities with caution and don't get too hasty: overriding the existing system reportedly causes problems with a tiny number of quests. This one isn’t being updated anymore, so it does have some issues with newer mods. When all else fails, try to resolve conflicts with the mod merger. 

All Quest Objectives on Map

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While it’s nice that the map isn’t thickly cluttered with icons like some sort of Ubisoft-produced hellscape, trying to remember where the herbalist is can be pretty annoying. This mod adds every map icon to the map all the time, including nearby merchants and any quest objective for any quest in your journal. If it’s too much, you can always customize and hide any markers you don’t need.

Additional Stash Locations

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Your Stash is accessible from a few places around the world, but this mod asks: Why not more? Installing this will add eight new stash locations and relocate two of the standard stash locations to more convenient areas. This is especially handy if you’re using a realism mod that adds carry weight to money. 

Preparations Mod

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One of the best parts of the early Witcher game is feeling like you need to do your homework before any big contract. You brew up Specter oil for the first time and make sure you’re stocked up on Moon dust, you meditate, and you sharpen your silver sword.

This mod recaptures some of that old magic by making meditation a more meaningful process. You need to meditate to spend points in your skill tree, refill alchemical items and oils, and repair items. By default, eating and drinking during combat isn’t allowed with this mod, so you really need to make sure you’re all set before the Noonwraith hits the windmill.

Friendly Meditation

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If Preparations Mod sounds like more trouble than fun, check out Friendly Meditation. You still get all the potion refilling benefits of vanilla meditation, but you don’t have to look at a boring ol’ menu. Instead, the HUD falls away and you get a nice view of the clouds zipping past, the stars rotating, and the sun rising over the mountains.

Sometimes, a Witcher just needs to take a damn minute, you know? Just don’t forget the Unification patch on this one. 

Friendly HUD

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The Witcher 3's UI can feel a bit cluttered, but turning parts of it off can make the game overly difficult. This mod has several features, available in separate downloads if you only want one or two, that improve the on-screen issues. From holding a key down to enter meditation without using the menu, to hiding quest markers unless you're using your Witcher sense, plus HUD elements that can individually be toggled on and off without having to open your menu, and lots more. 

Lamp on Player's Boat

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Is it a big deal? No. But it sure does look nice. This mod adds a little hanging lamp to your little sailboat. Adorable. Look at that Witcher go. 

Disable Storybook Videos

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Some of us—we’re not naming names or anything—would be happy to feed Dandelion and his stupid mouth into a woodchipper. Since there are no woodchippers in the Northern Kingdoms, this mod that disables those storybook narration videos that you have to listen to over and over again will have to do. 

Jump in Shallow Water

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Oh my god, finally. 

Combat mods

Make combat harder, or easier, or, most importantly, cooler looking.

Critical Slow Motion Combat Mod

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If you've ever felt that The Witcher 3's combat lacks a certain cinematic flair, be sure to pick up this gem. It slows down the action when Geralt lands a critical hit, allowing you to gape in awe at how perfectly that bandit's head flew from his shoulders. If you're feeling particularly vicious, modder KNGR also made a version that combines this with his popular More Blood mod. 

Auto Apply Oils

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One of the finest bits of roleplaying in The Witcher 3 is its system of weapon oils, as there's some genuine satisfaction in knowing the right mixture for the job. But after hours and hours of digging in Geralt's bags and applying them, even the most dedicated roleplayer among us would be hard-pressed to deny it gets tedious. That's where Auto Apply Oils comes in. Once you're in range of an enemy type specific to a certain oil, it'll automatically apply the oil and leave you to the business of hacking at it with a slab of silver.

AutoLoot

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Sick of rummaging through corpses after every battle? This mod automatically picks up all the area loot for Geralt, regardless of whether he's just been battling rotfiends or digging through drawers in Oxenfurt. That's welcome enough in itself, but what makes Auto Loot so great is that it also ensures that Geralt doesn't accidentally steal valuables in his auto-looting frenzy, and it lets you customize what he picks up and what he leaves behind. 

FCR3

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If you crave a stamp of official approval in a mod, the FCR3 mod was developed by a senior gameplay designer at CD Projekt Red. It’s a huge list of minor tweaks, nerfs, and buffs that make the world more dangerous and balanced. If you’re looking for a general overhaul that will work invisibly in the background, this is your mod. There’s no new art or anything to look at, though, so we’re just using a random picture of Geralt as the picture for this one. Any old, random picture we happen to have around. 

E3DodgeSystem

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For some long-time Witcher fans, there was once a golden era. All the wine was sweet, all the swords were sharp, and every ghoul was slow and stupid. They call this time: E3 There are several E3 mods that change this or that to more closely resemble how Witcher 3 looked when it was demoed at that happier, simpler time.

We’re not big on nostalgia, but the E3 dodge system was pretty sweet. Geralt is much less acrobatic, and he keeps his feet on the ground and his sword pointed forward. This is a good mod for players who want a combat system that plays pretty much the same, but without all the Cirque du Soleil showiness.

Plus, if you have a second to breathe in combat, Geralt will flex his hands and idly twirl his sword to stay loose. Menacing!

Gear and trade

Mods to lighten or weigh down your load, rebalance loot and make your gear look cooler than ever.

Over Weight

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Geralt can already carry quite a bit considering he's just a guy with sweet leather getups and two cumbersome swords, but if you're the sort of hoarder who can't bear the thought of tossing away a collection of Witch Hunter's Swords, then this is the mod for you. The resulting weight limit? You guessed it, Vegeta. It's over 9, Now you'll (almost) never have to worry about whether you should hang on to that trophy that's taking up so much room but has an extremely situational bonus. Just do it. 

Increased Creature Loot

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The game may be called Wild Hunt, but hunting creatures and monsters isn't a great way to make a living. If you're tired of bagging a bunch of deer and walking away with little to show for it, the Increased Creature Loot mod will up your chances of animals dropping meat, hide, and other ingredients. 

TradesMan

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It's annoying to cart a load of loot into town and find a vendor so poor he can't afford to buy it all. This  mod gives vendors some deeper pockets, and gently encourages them to pay you more for your goods. This patch was abandoned before , but if you still want to use it you have two options: this unofficial patch or this updated remix uploaded by another modder. 

The Gwent Card Dealer

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It’s tough to travel all the time for work and travel for fun at the same time. Eventually it all starts to feel like work, right? If your Geralt loves a good round of Gwent but just doesn’t feel like climbing into the saddle again to go find cards, The Gwent Dealer will save him a lot of Frequent Roach Miles. This mod turns the Baron’s quartermaster into the all-playing, all-dealing Gwent collector of Velen. He sells all his usual wares and almost every card in the game. 

Useful Witcher Tool Inkeeper

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Just like the Gwent Dealer mod, this mod turns a humble innkeeper into the world’s greatest Witcher quartermaster. The innkeeper in Dandelion’s tavern now sells every Witcher potion, oil, bomb, rune, mutagen, and arrow. Unbalanced? Yes. But you can’t argue with convenience. 

Black Scabbards

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Ugly gear. It’s a shame, but it happens to the best of Witchers, no matter how hard we try to color coordinate. If the new mastercrafted sword set you’ve been working toward for hours turns out to have a hideous teal scabbard set that clashes with the rest of your ensemble, just download Black Scabbards to settle the problem. We’re told that black goes with everything, so this should get you sorted out. 

Geralt Cloak

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On the one hand, this is minor cosmetic change that doesn’t matter at all. On the other hand, this is the most amazing mod ever designed. It’s a fact that looking cool is the single highest priority in a singleplayer RPG, and Geralt absolutely looks cool as hell wrapped in a thick wool cloak. Most importantly, new key bindings will have Geralt raise or lower his hood, depending on the weather and your mood. 

Sezon Burz Witcher Gear

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There are more gear set mods out there than you can shake a silver sword at, but one of our favorites is the Sezon Burz gear. Based on descriptions from the Andrzej Sapkowski book Storm Season, this set fits right in with the Witcher lore and world design while being totally new. Plus, it comes in several level and power options so you can wear it throughout your Northern Kingdom adventure. 

Indestructible Items

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Depending on your personality, some parts of the Witcher’s day-to-day can become interminable—especially after a couple hundred hours of adventuring. If spending time and money repairing your gear is getting tedious, Indestructible Items pulls the entire weapon degradation system out of the game. It’s a small change with big effects. 

Graphics and camera changes

Photo mode, reworked textures, HUD tweaks and more.

HD Reworked (Updated to )

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This graphical overhaul mod hit a major milestone, version in July (Only a year after the update we previously had listed). The latest update, according to the modder's changelogs "reworked almost everything." The video above gives some great transition examples so you can see the difference yourself.

If you looking for better, crisper, more detailed models and textures, feast your cat-like peepers on this mod. Rocks, trees, crates, roofs, walls, waterfalls, furs, and floors have all been overhauled with increased resolutions and brightness. If your rig is chugging already, you probably don’t want to add this mod’s extra workload. You should be OK as long as you’ve got a GTX or higher, though. 

AMM - The Appearance Menu

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This handy tool lets you transform Geralt and Roach at the touch of a button, adding cloaks, new haircuts and changing the appearance of armor that you can combine to create presets that you can switch to instantly. All the changes are cosmetic, so you can give yourself the best-looking gear in the game straight away without breaking the game balance.

Lore-friendly Witchers