The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt patch 1.2 adds enemy level-scaling and a lot more

There's a huge new patch for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt that introduces key new features such as level-scaling for enemies; a book that shows you how many Gwent cards you're missing and where you can find them; and an overhaul for the user interface. Cor blimey.

Patch 1.2 (2.6-2.8GB on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One depending on region; 4.5GB on GOG; 2.5GB on Steam) coincides with the release of second Witcher 3 expansion, Blood and Wine, which is out now and you should buy, as our Witcher 3: Blood and Wine review points out.

Level-scaling can be turned on and off, and does not affect experience point gain or loot received. The Gwent book is called 'The Miraculous Guide to Gwent' and is either given by the scholar during the prologue or can by bought from a merchant near St. Gregory's Bridge in the Gildorf district of Novigrad.

Books and scrolls can now be read at the click of a button (thumbstick on console) rather than by rifling through your inventory; and the Quick Access radial menu can now be accessed in game-paused or game-slowed mode depending on the button used. Sounds a bit cheaty to me!

Crucial visual improvements include Geralt's clothing being properly restored after sex scenes, and Nvidia Hairworks now showing a proper change in appearance between three-day and four-day beard.

There's a ton of stuff and it's all listed below.

Improvements

• Adds book titled 'A Miraculous Guide to Gwent' which displays number of gwent cards missing from player's base-game collection and information on where to find them, thus facilitating completion of achievement titled Collect 'Em All. Tome in question can be obtained either from gwent playing scholar in Prologue or from merchant near St. Gregory's Bridge in Gildorf district of Novigrad.
• Adds option to display herb names above available interactions.
• Adds option in Options/Gameplay to enable enemy level upscaling. If foes are too easy to defeat due to level difference, upscaling will render them a challenge. Change will not affect experience point gain, loot, or quest rewards. Option can be enabled or disabled at any time, even during combat (however, Vitality/Essence of foes is then fully restored).
• Adds option in Options/Gameplay to disable automatic drawing and sheathing of sword.
• Increases incidence of, and thus chances of finding, several monster-based ingredients required for crafting high level alchemy formulae.
• Improves Player Statistics panel, adding maneuverable Geralt model. Improves visuals in panel for better readability.
• Adds new functionality to books and scrolls. When first collected, they can be read immediately using single button without need of navigating to Inventory panel. All found but not yet read books and scrolls are stored in Quest Items and Other categories. Once read, books and scrolls can be sold as their content is saved in Books section of Glossary.
• Improves overall visuals in Character Development panel.
• Improves Inventory whereby items are divided into additional subcategories within their grids: weapons and armor; oils, potions and bombs; quest items and others; food and equestrian gear; crafting and alchemy. Additionally, introduces redesign of tooltips enabling their resizing with single button. Also, item comparison is easier than ever given addition of summary of changes in stats.
• Improves Inventory navigation when using gamepad. Slots are divided into sections and right stick can be used to jump between them.
• Improves Crafting panel in merchant shops. Adds option to purchase missing diagram components directly from Crafting panel when talking to merchant, as well as clearer descriptions and option to resize item descriptions.
• Introduces redesign of Repair panel in merchant shops. Adds single button enabling players to repair all equipped items.
• Improves Remove Upgrade panel in merchant shops.
• Improves Quick Access Menu whereby it can be accessed in one of two modes, with action either paused or slowed depending on button used.
• Adds functionality whereby crossbow bolts can be switched via Quick Access Menu rather than being equipped from Inventory.
• Adds counter for bombs and crossbow bolts to Quick Access Menu.
• Improves region maps by adding pin filtering, more intuitive quest tracking, and a region overview for faster navigation.
• Adds three new custom pins allowing players to mark areas for future reference.
• Improves Adrenaline Bar which better displays number of stored Adrenaline Points and their status.
• Improves display and behavior of Buffs, displayed in more intuitive manner showing time left, strength percentage, stacks, charges, or permanence where applicable. Buff icons now blink for approx. 10 seconds before expiration. For improved visibility, names and exact expiration times for all effects are only visible when Quick Access menu is active.
• Changes icons for decoctions, rendering them recognizable at first glance.
• Changes icons for oils, rendering them recognizable at first glance.
• Changes gwent card icons in shops, rendering factions recognizable at first glance.
• Changes icons for mutagens.
• Adds feature whereby equipment exceeding player character level can be previewed on character.
• Improves sorting in Journal whereby active quest tab is always open and tracked quest is at top of quest list.
• Improves quest item visuals so that Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine quest items are now tagged with blue and red exclamation points, respectively.

Gwent

• Quest titled Collect 'Em All is now marked as failed if player does not succeed in collecting Milva, Vampire Bruxa and Dandelion gwent cards during gwent tournament in quest titled A Matter of Life and Death.

Visual

• Fixes PC-specific issue whereby there was no change in appearance between Nvidia Hairworks three-day beard (stage 2) and full beard (stage 4).
• Fixes issue whereby Geralt's clothing was not properly restored after sex scenes.
• Fixes visual issue whereby guards holding torches would have inverse kinematics when animated.
• Fixes PS4-specific visual issue whereby texture of water puddles would not fade properly.

Gameplay

• Updates description of Superior Blizzard potion. Potion now slows time for a short period whenever an enemy is slain. Additionally, during this period actions do not deplete Stamina if 3 Adrenaline Points are available.
• Fixes issue whereby indicator for Oil charges would appear incorrectly in New Game Plus mode.
• Fixes issue whereby Flood of Anger skill could endlessly increase Sign intensity.
• Fixes issue whereby Ciri could be missing her scabbard in certain situations.
• Fixes issues whereby damage from Northern Wind bombs could be calculated incorrectly.
• Fixes issue whereby pool of experience points would invert to negative value when player reached level 70 cap or used Potion of Clearance.
• Fixes PC platform-specific issue whereby only the 'E' key would open Stash chest despite user manually changing relevant key binding.

Hearts of Stone

• Fixes issue whereby Rotation Runestone effect would not appear correctly in Hearts of Stone expansion.
• Fixes rare issue whereby foliage in Velen and Novigrad would disappear upon completion of Hearts of Stone expansion.
• Fixes rare issue whereby a chest in quest titled From Ofier's Distant Shores in the Hearts of Stone expansion would not contain relevant diagrams.
• Modifies Vitality cost of Olgierd's Saber to 15% in Hearts of Stone expansion.
• Fixes issue whereby trap door in herbalist's hut in Hearts of Stone expansion could not be opened.
• Fixes issue whereby bandit camp north of Zuetzer Castle in Hearts of Stone expansion would not gray out correctly.
• Fixes issue whereby question mark would not disappear upon exploring Kilkerinn Ruins in Hearts of Stone expansion.
• Fixes issue whereby treasure hunt titled Sword, Famine and Perfidy could not be completed.
• Fixes rare issue whereby an infinite loading screen could occur after speaking with Olgierd subsequent to completing all tasks requested by him in Hearts of Stone expansion.
• Fixes visual issue involving reflection on river's surface in new location added for Hearts of Stone expansion.

Other

• Fixes issue whereby Vivaldi could fail to appear in Novigrad.
• Fixes issue whereby interaction could be missing from chests containing loot in quest titled Scavenger Hunt: Wolf School Gear.
• Fixes rare issue whereby Triss could be rendered immobile in quest titled Now or Never.
• Fixes issue whereby treasure hunt titled Shortcut could not be completed.
• Fixes issue whereby treasure hunt titled Freya Be Praised! could not be completed.
• Fixes issue whereby treasure hunt titled Unlucky's Treasure could not be completed.
• Fixes issue whereby treasure hunt titled 'The Things Men Do For Coin... could not be completed.
• Fixes issue whereby treasure hunt titled Temerian Valuables could not be completed.
• Fixes issue whereby quest givers for contract quests titled Deadly Delights, Jenny o' the Woods, and Phantom of the Trade Route could occasionally fail to appear.
• Fixes issue whereby players could not speak with an NPC in quest titled Novigrad, Closed City.
• Fixes issue whereby an ifrit in quest titled Redania's Most Wanted could not be reached.
• Fixes issue whereby quest titled Hey, You Wanna Look at My Stuffcould not be completed through interaction with relevant merchant.
• Fixes rare issue whereby interaction was inactive on treasure chest in quest titled Take What You Want.
• Fixes rare issue whereby, under certain conditions, the Francesca Findabair the Beautiful gwent leader card was not awarded as intended.
• Fixes issue whereby a witch hunter in quest titled Novigrad, Closed City could prove immortal.
• Fixes issue whereby certain bandits appearing in quest titled Get Junior would have empty health bars.
• Fixes rare issue whereby, under certain circumstances, objective titled Gather Allies would fail incorrectly in quest titled The Isle of Mists.
• Fixes issue whereby players could not start a New Game Plus despite having completed the game.
• Fixes rare issue whereby services provided by master armorers were not unlocked properly.
• Fixes issue whereby Sukrus would fail to appear by van Hoorn's warehouse in quest titled Of Swords and Dumplings.
• Fixes issue whereby players could not talk with Fergus and complete quest titled Master Armorers.
• Fixes issue whereby door to bathhouse could be locked during quest titled Get Junior.
• Fixes rare issue whereby forktail in quest titled To Bait a Forktail... could prove immortal.
• Fixes issue preventing completion of minor quests titled The Soldier Statuette and The Nobleman Statuette.
• Fixes issue whereby two Zoltan gwent cards would appear beneath the Hanged Man's Tree.
• Fixes issue whereby players could not complete quest titled Contract: The Griffin from the Highlands if attempted to do so after completing quest titled Master Armorers.
• Fixes issue whereby interaction with Roche was impossible in quest titled An Eye for an Eye.
• Fixes issue whereby Sigismund Dijkstra gwent card could not be acquired from the Bloody Baron under certain conditions.
• Fixes rare issue whereby werewolf could disappear during quest titled Wild At Heart.
• Fixes rare issue whereby infinite loading screen could occur during quest titled King's Gambit.
• Fixes issue whereby quest giver would fail to appear in quest titled Contract: The Creature from the Oxenfurt Forest.
• Fixes issue whereby Kurisu would fail to appear in Freya's Temple during quest titled Taken as a Lass.
• Fixes issue whereby interactions were blocked during exploration upon completion of quest titled Disturbance.
• Fixes issue whereby cockatrice would appear underground in quest titled Contract: Shrieker.
• Fixes rare issue whereby an infinite loading screen cold occur after talking to Avallac'h in quest titled On Thin Ice.
• Fixes issue whereby Sven would respawn despite having been killed in quest titled In the Heart of the Woods.

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