<aside> 📅 Last update on March 3, 2020.

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Hello and welcome to my definitive modding guide for Witcher 3. This guide comprises my own selection of mods and how to manually install them. The mods were selected based on quality of work, compatibility between each other, ease of use, fidelity to the original game design, and my own preference.

Space and time

You'll need about 10GB of space to download everything and probably 10GB more after installation. If you're using Nexus' free tier there's a download speed limit, so it'll likely take a few hours to download everything. You should plan ahead. Once the downloads are finished the whole process should take no more than 30 minutes.

Results

I have tested—and still am—this guide, but you should keep in mind that if you install additional mods, miss a step or take extra steps I can no longer testify it all will work. Even then you might still run into issues I haven't, in this case refer to the Troubleshooting section at the end of this guide.

On my machine it ran pretty well; ~60fps, using the highest settings at 1080p. At 1440p I had a hit but still decently playable; ~45fps. Here are my specs:

• i5-8400 @ 4Ghz (Boosted)
• 2× 8GB DDR4 @ 2400Mhz (Dual Channel)
• Gigabyte GTX 1070
• Samsung 860 EVO M.2

Preparations

• You really should have your Windows and graphics card driver up-to-date.
• If you're afraid that something might go wrong, have a backup.
• Ideally you'll want to launch and test your game after each mod installation to make sure it still working alright. If not that often at least one test run every few mods is highly recommended. This way if you start having issues or crashes you'll have some idea which mod is causing it.

<aside> 📢 Finally I just wanna say that this whole process can be a whole lot easier if you use Nexus' mod management tool Vortex. If you just want to click Next, Next, Finish, and hope everything work itself out you should give it a try. Otherwise, if you're feeling adventurous or know your way around read on! I'll lead.

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🔤 Getting started

First off, you'll need to:

• Have a totally legitimate and ****brand new Witcher 3 installation—meaning no mods have been installed and no game files have been altered—including all the DLC. This is important as most mods won't work with just the main game.
• Have created an account on Nexus Mods.