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The Witcher 3 is one of the best, and most visually striking games ever made. Period. It is a genre and generation-defining release, way ahead of the times, and hence, finds itself in the discussion even today.
CDPR built a worldwide reputation for its prowess in development through Witcher 3, and rightly so, as a combination of perfect storytelling, a great conclusion, award-winning mechanics, and stellar visuals, the Witcher 3 was the Game of the Year for 2015, and the Crysis of its time.
That already is very high praise for any art department that is not part of Crytek.
In any case, perfection doesn’t exist and something which is already brilliant can always be improved upon to make it into something that is even more breathtaking, and that is where modding comes in.
Modding allows for more texture, depth, and quality of life changes to a video game and can sometimes so drastically change a game that it can be turned into a different one and sold separately.
These are the best Witcher 3 mods that we could find, which simultaneously improve upon the visual and technical quality of the game.
Witcher 3 Mod: How Do You Get Started With Modding?
As with any modding endeavor, to improve the visual and technical quality of any game, we must first look towards a manager that will help us effectively compile and manage the myriad of mods that we will be discussing in this article.
So, without any further ado, let’s take a look at the instructional. Do you remember how to bow, Witcher?
First of all, most of these mods are going to be from Nexus Mods, a website that houses practically all of the mods in the world, for a plethora of games.
The first thing to do is to install the Nexus Mod Manager for Witcher 3. This will help us do the necessary compiling and managing all mods you install for your game.
Once you have the Nexus Mod Manager, modding is a breeze. We know, it sounds like an ad, but once you fire it up and get the basics down, it takes the majority of the trial-and-error work, work that you will otherwise have to do if you want to install mods the old school way, not recommended at all.
Next, you will need the Script Merger. What the Script Merger does is simple; it looks for any conflicts between mods and settles them, preventing the game from freezing and/or crashing.
If you don’t want your savings to be a corrupted mess due to you just pushing numerous mods at it, we suggest getting the Script Merger and allowing it to do its job.
The final thing is the Mod Merger. This is pretty simple too, it allows you to get past the barrier of mods that you can install and run at a specific point of time, which is usually 49.
Now that you are set on how to download, install and enable mods for Witcher 3, all we have left to do is discuss the various mods that will absolutely change the way you play Witcher 3.
Read on, Witcher.
The Witcher 3 Mod: Best of The Lot
1. The Witcher 3 HD Reworked Project Mod
The Witcher 3 on its own is one of the most beautiful and visually stunning games ever made. But still, a modder has managed to add astonishing 4k visuals and textures to the entire game, with the painstakingly crafted detail of the original game maintained in all its glory.
To make it work, all you have to do is download the four-part set of files from Nexus Mods and import them into your game.
2. Super Turbo Lighting Mod
Again, as a standalone, the default lighting that the game ships with is one of the best.
But in case you want to make your sunsets look just that bit more picturesque, you have the Super Turbo Lighting Mod, which makes the lighting in the game even fuller and makes all the colors pop just a little bit more.
Sounds like a Street Fighter game, but with the HD textures, you need this lighting mod to make Geralt’s magnificent beard shine in the silver moonlight.
3. Improved Sign Effect Mod
Everyone knows the variety of Signs that the Witchers use in a variety of situations. So why not make the Signs a lot cooler by giving them the oomph that they need?
The improved Sign Effect Mod does just that, with the Igni and Aard spells getting a nice little visual makeover that warps the space right in front of them, making them have a lot more impact than they already have in-game.
Related Read: Best Witcher 3 Armor Sets
4. High Quality Faces Mod
This mod pretty much does exactly what it says on the box.
The drab, dull, and pale faces of the Witcher 3 are quite well-known, and while they may be part of the overall charm of the face, this mod improves upon these NPC faces by quite a lot, giving them a digital lift, in a manner of speaking.
Better faces also help with immersion, so download this one now.
5. Lore Friendly Witchers
In the lore, the Witchers only become as such after undergoing horrifying mutations that drastically change every part of their body, personality, and being, making them more lithe, ruthless, animalistic, and efficient at magic and magic-related actions.
As such, this mod gives Geralt more of his iconic look as described in the books and in the game’s lore, thereby making your playthrough a little more immersive.
Also, his skin is paler, and his face has more of the signature markings.
6. More Shadows Mod
Again, this mod does exactly what it says on the box. The More Shadows Mod adds more shadows to more objects in the game and enhances the shadows that are already present, giving the game world a more rounded look as opposed to the stock shadows.
This synergizes perfectly with the textures and lighting mods, adding contact shadows and more visual goodness to the mix and enhancing your experience.
7. New Clouds Mod
The skybox in any game is an astounding feat of technological advancements, and CDPR is not one to be left behind.
The stock Witcher 3 skybox is great, but this mod takes them to the next level, both in immersion and in visual fidelity, be it at any time of the day that you decide to get off Roach and just marvel at the sky.
You’ll be sure to notice the increased textures and better patterns of the clouds.
8. Aqua Mod
Now that we have covered the ground and the sky, why should the water be left behind?
This is what the Aqua mod does, it enhances the textures and details of water in the game, making it appear more blue, clear, and time appropriate.
More often than not, we forget how difficult programming water is into a game, but this time modders have improved upon the quality of something that was already very good.
Try it out.
9. Beautiful Grass Mod
The Witcher had some of the best foliage models available at the time of its release.
Now, while the vanilla version is already great at hiding the bottom half of Geralt while he is skulking around, why not improve upon the textures and grass models by installing the beautiful grass mod?
Once you install this mod, the grass in the game behaves according to the blowing of the wind, and is much fuller and thicker visually, providing greater depth to your experience.
10. Better Trophies Mod
As you fight the monsters and creatures throughout the land as a contract killer and assassin, the Witcher 3 has a feature that lets you collect a trophy from the corpse of the monster that you just annihilated.
As such, the trophy isn’t anything but useless furniture increasing the weight on Roach, but with this mod, the trophy will give you additional stat boosts, making your trophies useful even when you are in battle.
11. Lore Friendly Silver Swords
Our next mod covers the Witchers’ famous silver swords, making them shinier and more visually striking as Geralt lunges at monsters to strike them down.
Similar to other mods, this mod makes the lore of the sword accurate, because the vanilla version makes them look like just a variation of the steel swords, and with this mod installed you get the familiar chime of silver cackling as you strike at your monster opponents.
Go forth, Witcher.
12. Blood Mod
The Witcher 3 is not a game for kids, as you fight hordes of monsters and men, with your trusty swords by your side.
It is surprising, then, that this installment contains very tame amounts of blood compared to the cutscenes and the lore, which do not hold back.
Luckily, there is a mod to fix this.
Just download and install the Blood mod, and Geralt is back to his gory best, with all of the vicious blows and strikes ending in a spatter of blood.
13. Immersive Camera Mod
Doing exactly what it says on the box, the Immersive Camera mod unlocks the third-person camera that helps you navigate Geralt throughout the map and helps you select the height and distance of the camera that follows Geralt around, and it can be fully adjusted in order to be as immersive as you would like it to be.
This also lends a certain amount of particularity to the camera transitions and their general movement.
14. Next Gen Candles Mod
Wait, candles?
Yep, you heard that right. With this mod, the various intractable candles that Geralt can light and extinguish at whim get better models, textures, and shadows around them, with the flames having much better lighting than ever before.
A small addition but will go a long way in terms of general immersion.
The candles in this game are a very peculiar addition to it, but nonetheless are time period sensitive, and now you have a way of enhancing them. Have fun!
15. Travel from Anywhere Mod
Fast Travel can be a bother in the Witcher 3, to say the least, which makes the Travel from Anywhere mod one of the most essential Witcher 3 mods on this list.
Traditionally, you could only travel from a marked crossroad point to another, which was painful as you would have to travel all the way to the crossroad point in order to initiate said fast travel.
With this mod, you can practically travel anywhere on the map without needing the help of a hindering signpost.
16. Indestructible Items Mod
Another life improvement mod, the Indestructible Items Mod does just that, it turns all of the destructible weapons and armor in your inventory permanently in the condition that they were acquired in.
This helps as you may not want to go to a blacksmith in the middle of a fight just to get that old chest piece fixed, instead, you can just keep fighting, safe in the knowledge that your armor is blessed by Thor himself.
17. The Wolf Medallion Mod
Any Witcher fan knows of the famous Wolf Medallion that Geralt always has as part of his accessory.
It is one of the more famous jewelry items in video games, and with the help of the Wolf Medallion mod, you can now see it in all its glory, shining with bright red eyes in even the most pitch-black caves.
18. Remove Weapon and Armor Level Restrictions Mod
Everybody knows the frustration of grinding hard to collect the currency for a certain sword or collecting a certain secret piece of armor and then never being able to equip it until you get to a certain arbitrary level.
Well, this mod removes all of those restrictions leaving you free to wear all of the gear and wield all of the weapons you couldn’t before. This one is a life-changer.
19. Roaming Witcher Armor Mod
Another little masterpiece here is the Roaming Witcher’s Armor Mod, which allows you to get four brand spanking new armor sets into your playthrough.
I mean, all of them look almost the same, but there are aesthetic differences here and there to keep you interested in each of them.
These sets can be acquired by completing the mission Master Armorers, after which you can obtain all of them.
But you can only craft and have one at a time, so choose wisely. However, you can dismantle the set you are currently wearing to make another one if you so fancy.
20. Witcher 3 Enhanced Edition
Well, the title says it all. This mod covers and enhances every single thing that is present in the game, from the texture of grass and the behavior of foliage to water behavior, and includes a number of changes we cannot list for the sake of saving time.
However, one of the caveats is that your old save will not work anymore after you install this mod.
Due to the sheer number of changes and additions this mod makes, the old save is rendered unusable for such a time that this mod is installed.
So, we would suggest making a fresh save after you install this mod, or the game will make one for you anyway.
21. All Quest Objectives on Map
The navigation design in Witcher 3 quite often lets the game down, and if you are like me, and even 50 hours later can’t find the damned herbalist even after hours of searching for the completion of a damn quest, then this is the mod for you.
Like it says, the mod unlocks all the arbitrary objectives and specifies where you need to go.
A lifesaver.
22. No Fall Damage
Universally, Geralt is one of the few protagonists that rarely seems vulnerable, unless you as a player are underprepared to take on the next big Griffin.
Regardless, Geralt is a slave to video game physics and will hurt himself and probably die if you decide to test the limits of his invulnerability.
Now, with this mod, you can go and chuck him off the highest point in the game, and he won’t take any fall damage, letting you know how much you can probably manipulate in the game, how strong he is, and how much of a monster you truly can be.
23. No Time For Gwent
I’m just going to come out and say it; Gwent is boring and tedious.
Wait, before you sharpen that steel sword and come after me, do you really have the time to sit down and play a game of cards at every other interval for a paltry prize?
Wouldn’t you rather win all the time instead?
Well, if you would rather use Geralt’s mind-bending and destroy your opponents every round, this mod is perfect for you.
24. Vagabond Armor Mod
One of the sleekest armor sets to ever exist, this is the one to put on Geralt if you want to slay monsters all the while looking like a peak Albert Wesker from Resident Evil, er, evil and creepy quotes sold separately.
This armor mod gives Geralt some flowing robes and a very menacing attire that can strike dread in even the most remorseless Ghouls.
Go on then, do your best Wesker impression.
This only works as a DLC, so make sure to put it in the appropriate folder.
25. Visual Immersion Overhaul
Changing a few more elements than just on the visual side, these mods cater to your movement speed, adding depth of field to the environment, bloom effects, changes to shadows and lighting, and textures.
However, it does take a heavy toll on your system, causing a slight misstep in performance, so be careful about that. If your computer is beefy enough, then this mod should be no problem for you to run.
26. Increased Draw Distance
Another mod that requires a monster of a pc to run properly, the Increased Draw Distance mod, well, increases your draw distance beyond the normal threshold that the game allows in its own graphic settings.
Install this mod at your own risk because the fps may plummet towards downright unplayable and the little house across the river might not be worth it after all.
Again, if you have a powerful enough pc, then you can afford to see the extra pixels at a greater distance without having to ‘sacrifice’ anything.
27. Realistic Weather
The Realistic Weather mod requires the prior installation of the DLC Blood and Wine to work (which is a fantastic DLC and its own game by the way) and generally improves upon all-weather types in the game, from the sunny villas of Novigrad to the various swamps to the high mountainous areas of Kaer Morhen.
This adds much more realism and immersion to the game, which puts minimal extra load on your system to churn out the extra details on textures and skyboxes.
28. Improved Particle System
No, there is nothing gimmicky about particle effects, they are fantastic, and they are required, and I will defend them until the end of time.
Ahem, well, this mod improves upon the generally very good particle effects that the base game has, giving them an exterior shine and a little bit more body, at least in terms of the spells and the vast types of explosion effects in the game.
You’ll have fun with this one.
29. Immersive Sound
While there are absolutely no complaints about the quality of audio in the base game, players (like me) have noticed certain sound effects sounding very choppy and appearing out of place.
The Immersive Sound mod fixes all of these issues, along with adding a few more fixes here and there to round out the brilliant effect track of the game, without taking anything away from it.
30. HD Monster Rework
Like the NPCs in the game, the monsters can have their facial and body textures reworked as well, and that is exactly what this mod does.
I mean, what use is the high fidelity of the game when a Griffin looks like a low-res Senu from Assassin’s Creed Origins? Or a Werewolf looks like one of the Twilight ones?
Get this one today, and you will actually be afraid of clearing a room the next time, while you anticipate one of these jumping out at you from an unseen angle.
Sweet dreams, Witcher.
Conclusion
The third installment of the Witcher series brought with it one of the greatest fidelity improvements of the generation, and it is baffling to see that people still manage to trump the Game of The Year 2015, not only in the visual but also in the technical department.
The sheer amount of technological prowess on display only stretches the fidelity and the quality-of-life improvements that games can have beyond what the mind can foresee for now. We are sure to have more mods for you in the future.
For now, be sure to toss a coin to a friend of humanity.
