Blood and Wine

Blood and Wine

Blood and Wine is the second and final expansion for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Announced on April 7th, 2015, along with the Hearts of Stone expansion, it was released on May 31, 2016 for all three platforms: PC, Xbox One, and Playstation 4. On October 15, 2019, it was released for the Nintendo Switch.

Official statement

Blood and Wine, a 20-hour-plus tale that will introduce the all-new in-game region of Toussaint, will take Geralt to a land untainted by war, where an atmosphere of carefree indulgence and knightly ritual masks an ancient, bloody secret.

The expansion features new characters, new dangerous monsters, new armors, new weapons, and a new Gwent deck of cards. It will also introduce a new gameplay mechanic armor dyeing in addition to so called Mutations. The quests are designed for Geralt characters level 34 or higher. Its content can be accessed before and during New Game +.

Become professional monster slayer Geralt of Rivia and explore Toussaint, a remote land untouched by war, where you will unravel the horrifying secret behind a beast terrorizing the kingdom. With all trails leading to dead ends, only a witcher can solve the mystery and survive the evil lurking in the night. Introducing an entirely new realm to traverse, new characters and monsters, Blood and Wine is a 30+ hour adventure full of dark deeds, unexpected twists, romance and deceit.

Features

• Explore an entirely new part of The Witcher's vast open world – the land of wine, Toussaint.
  • Embark on over 30 hours of new adventures and discover a land unlike anything you've seen in Wild Hunt or Hearts of Stone.
  • Visit new points of interest and set out on new side-quests in a realm rivaling Velen and Novigrad in size.
  • Kick back and relax in your very own vineyard, a real home away from home.
• Hunt down an elusive beast terrorizing the kingdom.
  • Unravel the mystery of the strange killings – investigate a series of brutal murders and decipher the pattern to predict who's going to die next.
  • Discover the dirty secrets of Toussaint's capital, Beauclair – explore the city by day, ask questions by night.
  • Use new gear, items, and combine them with your skill to slay monsters never before seen in the series.
• Embark on your final quest in a world still brimming with things to do.
  • Visit a world of fairytales gone wrong and battle surreal creatures you know from children's tales and books.
  • Dye witcher armors in different colors thanks to an all-new game mechanic.
  • Take on knights in a grand tourney to show your true fighting skill, or set out to discover the gruesome mystery behind a spoon-collecting creature known as a wight.
  • Team up with powerful allies to take down the beast terrorizing the kingdom, or turn a blind eye to what's going on and play Gwent with an all-new Skellige deck.
• Meet Regis.

Gameplay

The new region of Toussaint has never before been seen in The Witcher series and contains:

• Over 90 new quests.
• Over 40 new points of interest.
• Over 30 hours of new adventures.
• Dynamic Point of Interest system – interacting with the main POI of a given area will affect adjacent points of interest (e.g. killing bandits in their main hideout located in a ruined castle will affect the number of enemies in surrounding camps).
• 14000 lines of dialogue (Hearts of Stone had 6000 lines).
• 100 individual pieces of armour (this includes new witcher sets).
• More than 30 new weapons.
• More than 20 new monsters.
• New Game + maximum level increased to 100.
• All new armour dye mechanic – every piece of witcher gear can have its color changed by using a dye. Dyes can be obtained in various ways: they can be bought from the new dye merchant; crafted from a recipe; dropped as loot. Dyes can only be obtained in Toussaint.

Mutations

For main page, see Mutations (Blood and Wine).

12 new game-changing abilities. Obtained through new research mechanics. Their true potential can be unlocked by playing NG+ mode.

Few examples of mutations:

• Instead of dying, the Player is healed and gets damage immunity.
• A sign can land critical hits. Enemies killed with a critical hit from a sign explode
• Opponents knocked down by Aard freeze and die instantly. Opponents that were not knocked down become frozen.

User Interface

The UI (user interface) has been significantly changed, making bigger use of space while improving content information and identification flow. Books have been moved to the glossary section and looting a readable book offers a notification that grants instant access to its entry. Geralt of Rivia's model can also be rotated in the panel for Statistics. This news are available for every player with error installed.

Redesigned UI panels:

Old Character panel

Redesigned Character panel

Old Crafting panel

Redesigned Crafting panel

Old Inventory panel

Redesigned Inventory panel

Old shop interface

Redesigned shop interface

Old Statistics panel

Redesigned Statistics panel

Quests

For a complete list of the quests in the expansion, see Blood and Wine quests.

Videos

The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt - Blood and Wine Launch Trailer ("Final Quest")

The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt -- Blood and Wine "New Region" Trailer

The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt - Blood & Wine Developer Diary

The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt - Blood and Wine (teaser trailer)

The Witcher 3 GDC Dialogues slide from Toussaint

Gallery

Concept art of wine festival

Concept art of tournament

Concept art of road to Beauclair

Mood Board concept art

arriving in Toussaint

The outskirts of Toussaint

A New Land Awaits

Anna Henrietta and her court

A Beauclair feast

Lost in a fairytale world

Getting the ribbon

Tourney festival

Regis and the Duchess

Geralt and bandits

Geralt and the Giant

Geralt doing autopsy

Archespores

Shaelmaar

Geralt encounters giant centipedes

Placeholder image

First screenshot showing Beauclair

First screenshot showing some vineyard

Official wallpaper

CDPR team wearing T-shirts with first appearance of the logo at the Game Developers Convention 2016