Today we’ll look at a powerful Witcher 3: Remastered build that maximises Geralt’s poison chance and damage, combining it with the Whirl ability to apply poison to as many enemies as possible. This build is designed for Death March difficulty, and will therefore work just as well on lower difficulties, too.
While you need to be high level to finish the build, we’ve included a progression table in the Skills section so you can start building it from the beginning of the game.
Now we’ll look at how this build works and how you can make it for yourself.
Table of Contents:
- Witcher 3 Poison Build Overview
- Armour and Weapons
- Skills and Perks
- Mutation
- Potions
- How to Play the Poison Build
Witcher 3 Poison Build Overview
This Witcher 3: Remastered Poison Build is intended to be less overpowered than some of our other builds, such as the Whirlwind Tornado and Aard Explosion Build. It is still strong, but it focuses more on a thematic playstyle that doesn’t remove all the challenge from your playthrough.
The build relies heavily on Blade Oils to poison enemies. Collect as many alchemy recipes as you can, and craft them as soon as possible. Visiting alchemy merchants is a great way to find rare ingredients, but Geralt usually has to loot monster ingredients himself.
To get the most out of this build, you will play with high Toxicity, using Mutagen Decoctions and Potions to keep Geralt’s toxicity high and activate multiple toxicity-reliant bonuses from the green skill tree.
You may want to enable the “Automatically apply blade oils” option in the Accessibility settings so you don’t need to keep shuffling through Geralt’s inventory and reapplying blade oils. This is a matter of preference.
You can see more about how the build works in action in the Gameplay section.
Armour and Weapons for the Witcher 3 Poison Build
In this section, we explain the recommended gear for the Witcher 3 Poison Build.
Best Armour
For our Witcher 3 Poison Build, we’re using the Feline Armour. This is a light armour set of Witcher gear which you need to find the diagrams for and craft, and it can be upgraded as you level up. To unlock the full benefits of the Feline Armour (where you get additional set bonuses for wearing a certain number of pieces of the set), it needs to be upgraded to at least Mastercrafted tier. However, these set bonuses are not really important for this build. We’re more interested in the Attack Power each piece of armour grants.
To learn how to obtain Feline Armour, check out our Feline Armour Guide.
Best Weapons
The recommended weapons for this build are the Venomous Viper swords, which increase Geralt’s chance to poison enemies. They are available during the Hearts of Stone DLC. More info about how to find them, with minor spoilers:
The diagram for the 
Venomous Viper Steel Sword is located in a chest in the Borsodi Vault (you’ll end up here during the DLC’s main quest, you can’t get it before that). After finding the diagram, simply collect the materials and craft the item at a master weaponsmith.
The 
Venomous Viper Silver Sword does not need to be crafted. You must agree to help Olgeird at the end of the Hearts of Stone main quest. Inside the mirror world, defeat the shadow creature called “Him” and claim the sword.
Before you can obtain these, just use the swords with the best damage.
Weapon and Armour Upgrades
Here are the recommended upgrades for your gear:
You can find the Runewright in the far northeast of the Novigrad and Oxenfurt region, near the Upper Mill Signpost, east of Brunwich village.
Skills for the Witcher 3 Poison Build
The table below shows the ideal order to unlock Skills for this Witcher 3 Poison Build, so you can start using the build from the moment you begin your adventure. The number in brackets indicates how many skill points to invest in each skill.
| Skill | Explanation |
|---|---|
Muscle Memory (x3) |
Gives a helpful early-game buff to your fast attack damage, triggered by dodging. |
Three Strikes (x3) |
Your third fast or strong attack boosts the damage of the next attack of the same type. |
Undying (x1) |
Consume your adrenaline points to heal instead of dying. Only 1 point to progress down the tree. |
Fleet-Footed (x1) |
Reduces damage taken while dodging. Only 1 point needed. |
Whirl (x3) |
Hold the fast attack button to perform a continuous spinning attack that hits all nearby foes. |
Razor Focus (x3) |
Gain 1 Adrenaline Point when entering combat. Increases Adrenaline generation from weapon strikes. |
Frenzy (x1) |
Just take 1 point to progress the skill tree. |
Poisoned Blades (x3) |
Oil applied to blades has a chance to poison the target. |
Toxic Shock (x1) |
Just take 1 point to progress the skill tree. |
Debilitating Poison (x3) |
Poisoned enemies deal less damage. |
Potent Sting (x3) |
Poisoned weapons deal extra damage, doubling the bonus against enemies who are immune to poison. |
Arrow Deflection (x1) |
Just take 1 point to progress the skill tree. |
Resolve (x3) |
You won’t lose Adrenaline when taking damage. |
Hunter Instinct (x3) |
When Adrenaline is at maximum, significantly increases critical hit damage against the enemy type targeted by your active blade oil. |
Refreshment (x1) |
Take only 1 point to progress the skill tree. |
Adaptability (x3) |
Greatly extends the duration of mutagen decoctions. |
Acquired Tolerance (x3) |
Each known alchemy formula increases your maximum toxicity. |
Tissue Transmutation (x3) |
Active mutagen decoctions increase maximum vitality by 900. |
High Tolerance (x3) |
Above 80% Toxicity, take more damage from enemies, but add your Toxicity level to all critical hit damage. |
Delayed Recovery (x3) |
Above 55% Toxicity, consuming a potion boosts the duration of all active potions. |
|
Each piece of Light Armour worn increases your fast attack and critical hit damage. |
|
We only need one point to unlock the next skill. |
Metabolic Control (x3) |
Increases maximum Toxicity. |
|
Synergy (x3) |
Increases the bonus from slotted Mutagens. Slot red & green skills next to a matching Mutagen! |
This build requires a lot of Skill Points, so try not to neglect exploration and side quests. You can also use the build for a New Game Plus playthrough instead, and you’ll have access to most of its features right from the start.
There are two ways to get more skill points: each time you level up, you will receive one, and the first time you interact with a newly discovered Place of Power, you’ll also receive one.
Mutation for the Witcher 3 Poison Build
For this Witcher 3 Poison Build, we’re using the Euphoria Mutation. This is probably the most overpowered mutation in the game, giving us a flat percentage damage boost to all of our sword and sign attacks based on our Toxicity level.
This synergises well with our build since we unlocked Skill to increase our Toxicity limit. The best way to maintain a high toxicity level for a long time is to consume several Decoctions, since the toxicity from these doesn’t decay until the potion duration expires.
Euphoria is the second mutation on the Green line, so in total you’ll need 6 spare skill points and 6 spare Greater Green Mutagens to access it. To unlock the Mutation system in The Witcher 3, you need to complete the quest called Turn and Face the Strange, which is part of the Blood and Wine DLC.
Alternative option: You can also try the Metamorphosis mutation, which will activate a Decoction for free with no toxicity cost when you poison an enemy, up to five times. If you choose this, stash the Decoctions you don’t want so only the best ones can be activated.
Metamorphosis does allow you to have more Decoction and Potion effects active than otherwise possible, but it comes with the following downsides:
- Cost – Metamorphosis is at the top of the Mutation Tree, so you need to spend a lot of Skill Points and Mutagens to unlock it. This build is already skill point intensive.
- Low Toxicity – Usually, we are using active Decoctions to keep Geralt’s Toxicity high, easily activating skills like High Tolerance and Delayed Recovery. But since Metamorphosis activates them for free, you’ll have to constantly chug potions to keep these effects active.
- Lower Attack Damage – While the extra Decoctions can buff Geralt in various ways, you will miss out on Euphoria’s massive buff to sword and sign damage, which is arguably the strongest buff you can get in the Witcher 3: Remastered.
Potions for the Witcher 3 Poison Build
For this Witcher 3 Poison Build, we generally want to keep our Toxicity level high to make use of the Euphoria mutation. Therefore, we’ve selected three decoctions that we almost always keep active*. These are:
Keeping these decoctions active at all times gives us a big damage boost thanks to the Euphoria mutation, plus extra damage bonuses from the potions themselves and passive healing whenever we dish out damage to enemies.
You can also add other potions, such as 
Superior Swallow for healing, 
Superior Thunderbolt for a bigger temporary damage boost, or 
Superior Tawny Owl for increased stamina regeneration. Be careful not to push your Toxicity too high, though, or you will take damage over time until the extra toxicity decays. Don’t stress too much about upgrading to the Superior potions; while they are worth making when you can, the basic and enhanced versions are still decent.
Finally, prioritise crafting and upgrading the various blade oils available in The Witcher 3: Remastered, as they’re integral to maximising your poison chance and activating various buffs in the Skills section.
*Note that you may have to reduce the number of active decoctions to two to avoid taking damage over time, depending on how many alchemy recipes you have learnt.
How to Play the Witcher 3 Poison Build
As noted earlier in the guide, finishing this build requires a lot of skill points, so you’ll need to adapt your playstyle depending on how far along you are.
Early-Game
- Early on, we are focusing on red skills and standard sword combat.
- Remember to dodge and chain attacks to activate Muscle Memory and Three Strikes.
- Use the correct Blade Oils whenever you have them.
- Keep crafting as many new alchemy items as possible; they’ll pay dividends later on.
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