Among the many reasons that some players prefer to play The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt on a PC is ability to use with console commands, which are debugging tools that allow for users to do a wide range of actions in a game that are typically not meant to occur. Sometimes a console command lets players engage in ridiculous behavior, while at other times this can be used to progress past areas that have been bugged.
In order to reach the debugging tool, users can select from two options. The first choice is fairly common among PC games and involves downloading a file from Nexus Mods and adding it to the Plugins folder and “dsound.dll” to “The Witcher 3 Main Folder > Bin > x64.” This does require players to only use v1.31 of their game, however, which is not ideal.
The second way to access console commands requires a little more effort, but works on all versions and is how most people access the debugging tool:
- Go to the game’s folder on your PC
- This is usually found by default at C:\Program Files (x86)\Steamteamapps\common\The Witcher 3\bin\config\base
- Copy the ‘general.ini’ file and put it on a USB drive (This serves as a backup in case there is a problem)
- Open the ‘general.ini’ file in the game folder
- Right-click and open the file with Notepad
- Look for the following:
- [General] CR LF
- ConfigVersion=2
You may now access the debugging tool / console by pressing ‘~’ at any time in the game.
Which Console Commands Are Best?
There are so many console commands to use, which makes sense considering that these can be used by the developers to test new ideas in their builds. Players have a few options here, and ultimately it depends on what one wants to do.
On the one end, some players enjoy using console commands simply to make their playthroughs a little more enjoyable, for example, by having more inventory space. In that case, additem(‘Horse Bag 3’) provides the biggest horse bags, allowing for more looting and less time travelling to sell goods. The same strategy is used in The Elder Scrolls games to avoid having to leave a dungeon or delve simply because your character cannot carry all their found loot.
Any Item, Any Time!
A little further along the spectrum of practical uses is the ability to add any item or armor into a player’s inventory. Again, this could be useful if on a playthrough one simply wishes to bypass the necessary crafting steps, or if a quest chain has bugged, allowing players to use a console command to proceed. For this, additem(‘Abarad’), or replacing ‘Abarad’ with whatever they want, will add it to one’s inventory.
Along those same lines is the ability to instantly learn a skill at any rank, for example, learnskill(‘alchemy_s9’) provides the ninth level of Alchemy. Magic, perks, and sword skills can all be acquired in an instant. At this point though, one starts to wonder if they are skipping too much core content in the game.
Playing As Ciri
Console commands also allow for players to switch between Geralt and Ciri at will, along with customizing virtually everything important about the character. Typing in “Ciri” or “Geralt” will instantly switch from one to the other, and addabl(CiriBlink) provides the Blink skill immediately. Finally, addabl(Ciri_Q501) will pump up her health to 2500 health points and 800 attack points, while additem(q403_ciri_meteor) grants her Meteor. This might be the least practical use of the command console, but also the most fun in having an immensely powerful Ciri right off the bat.
Control The Weather, Win All Games Of Gwent
Finally, on the extreme end of console commands is the ability to change the weather (changeweather(weather ID)), win Gwent games instantly (winGwint(true/false)), instantly kill all enemies (killall(distance)), and more. From here the core spirit of the game becomes shattered, but there is great fun to be had. For a complete list of what a player can do with console commands, click here.
At the end of the day, it’s completely up to each player how they use console commands. One thing is certain, and that is that using these on the PC version of the game can add all sorts of replayability and customization not available on the console versions. Yet another reason to game on PCs, I suppose.
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