Gwent

"Invented by dwarves and perfected over centuries of tavern table play, Gwent is a game of initial simplicity and ultimate depth, something beloved by both road-weary travellers during long nights around the campfire and elegant nobles looking to liven up dragging dinner parties."

Gwent is a card game in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Players duel with other characters using over 150 playing cards with multiple combat styles, heroes and spells. Gwent represents a "clash of two armies locked in mortal struggle on a battlefield," in which players' decks act as their forces, and players can collect cards to improve their decks. There are 4 factions and cards from each faction cannot be used in decks outside of that faction.

Rules

 * To begin a match, the game selects the starting player with a coin toss.


 * Each player receives 10 random Gwent cards pulled from their decks. Players can discard two cards and redraw in the hope of receiving two superior cards. This is done once.


 * Players place a Unit Card on the Gwent board in the dedicated combat row. Each player may play one card per turn unless a special ability enables them to do otherwise. Players may also utilize Weather Cards from the Neutral Deck.


 * Each unit Card has Strength points that are added for each player's total. A player will win a round of Gwent when the player has more points than the other and both players no longer have cards to play or the other player passes their turn.
 * Matches are set with 2 wins out of 3 rounds.

Card Types

 * Close Combat Cards - Weak to Frost cards


 * Ranged Combat Cards - Weak to Fog cards


 * Siege Cards - Weak to Rain cards


 * Special & Weather Cards - are neutral to the factions


 * Hero Cards - are immune to special attacks.

Factions
There are four "sets" or decks of cards. You choose one of these to play with provided the found set has at least 22 cards. Each faction set includes unique cards and leaders. All four factions, when chosen as active deck, provide a different bonus during the Gwent match:


 * Nilfgaardian Empire: Wins any round ending in draw
 * Northern Kingdoms: Grants an extra card upon winning round
 * Scoia'tael: Decides who takes first turn
 * Monsters: Keeps random Unit Card out after each round

Tips for playing

 * Be very careful of when you choose to Pass in a round if your opponent has not. When you Pass you will not be allowed to put down any more cards for the remainder of that round, no matter how many your opponent puts down afterwards so even if you had a higher points score when you Passed your opponent could easily keep putting down cards to surpass you and win the round
 * Unless you have the special abilities of the Northern Kingdoms or Monsters factions your 10 cards is ALL YOU HAVE for your full three rounds and you discard everything played after each round, so make sure to plan the long game. If you empty your deck in the first round and win but your opponent has at least two unit cards left at that time, he can simply put down one unit card each in the following two rounds to beat you. Try to win each round with as few cards as possible, and this also chains into how to develop your deck when collecting cards; for your Units try to only have cards with very high point values so that you don't need many for a very high points score in a round. In fact, sacrificing the first round to make your opponent burn out most of their deck while keeping several of your own high strength cards in reserve can be an extremely effective tactic.
 * Related to the above, Close, Ranged and Siege unit types by themselves have no inherent strengths or weaknesses to each other (i.e. Ranged does not get a bonus against Close, Siege doesn't get a bonus against Ranged, etc)...the only thing the unit Type defines is which Weather effect cards will affect them and certain special effects from other unit cards that boost/hinder cards of a specific type. So when hunting for cards for your deck always focus on ones with very high point values regardless of their type, and having an even mix of types can really restrict how much Weather effects can harm you.
 * For setting up your deck know that there are several rules you must follow. First, your deck must have at minimum 22 Unit cards in it, no matter how weak some of them may be. Second, you are allowed multiples of a card (and some cards in fact have special abilities that depend on this). So even if you are in a shop with cards and it says "You already have this card", ignore that; read all of the statistics that it gives and consider buying another copy anyways. Some cards, particularly in the Northern Kingdoms set, double in strength if you put two of the same one next to each other while in play. Others when played can pull every card of the same name out of your un-dealt deck and put them in play immediately. Filling your deck with cards like this is one of the best ways of making it very powerful, so don't be afraid to take out weak ones and keep your unit count in your deck just at 22.

Gwent Players and Purchase Locations

 * Province of Velen
 * Free City of Novigrad
 * Archipelago of Skellige

Associated Quests

 * Gwent: Playing Innkeeps


 * Gwent: Velen Players


 * Gwent: Big City Players


 * Gwent: Old Pals


 * Gwent: Skellige Style


 * Gwent: Collect ‘em All!


 * High Stakes

Physical version
Although Gwent is mini-game in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt there are curently two physical version one in Xbox One Colectors Edition with two decks (Northern Realms & Nilfgaardian Empire) and Hearts of Stone Limited Edtion (Scoia'tael & Monsters) for PC and Playstation 4 (Xbox One obtainable only in american Gamestop).

Trivia

 * Gwent was also a medieval kingdom in Wales, lying between the Rivers Wye and Usk.
 * Card game is inspirated by dwarven game Helix (or Barrel) in Polish and Czech Gwint.