Witcher 3 Blood and Wine: How to Farm Gold Fast
We show you how to get money quickly, as well as how to get an infinite supply of enemies to fight.
Witcher 3: Blood and Wine offers a whole new world and a whole new set of villains to cut through. However, some things are universal, and Toussaint is just as clogged with human bandits as anywhere else. We'll show you how to use these bandits to quickly farm money and crowns, not to mention getting a fair amount of experience into the bargain.
How to Farm Money in Witcher 3
In order to utilise this, you'll have to own the Blood and Wine DLC, not to mention having accessed the region of Toussaint. One of the new additions in this area are Hanse Bases, essentially huge bandit camps filled with enemies. The intended idea is that killing all the bandits and their leader empties the base, whereupon Toussaint's knights can move in and turn it into an encampment. There are three of these massive camps in Blood and Wine, and for those who like combat they represent some of the high points of the game.
The problem is that once completed, there's no official way to reset them and play them over without just restarting the game or going back to an earlier save. However, there's an exploit by which you can essentially play them over and over, and gain major rewards from doing so. We'll go over that now.
How to Farm Hanse Camps
The premise here is that you kill everybody in the Hanse Camp except its leader, loot the place as much as possible, then fast travel to a blacksmith or merchant and sell everything you've stolen. A comprehensive sweep of the place should net you at least 1000 crowns, and maybe twice that, depending on your luck. By the time you've fast travelled back to the camp, the bandits should've respawned and you'll be able to repeat the whole gory, lucrative process.
While there's three separate camps to try this on, we recommend going to the one in the top-right of the map, North-West from the signpost for the Arthach Palace Ruins. It worked well for us, there's a perfect place to fight enemies in an awesome way without getting completely overwhelmed, and the camp leader is nicely separated from the rest of his goons, meaning you won't kill him by accident at any point.
How to Beat the Hanse Camp in the Arthach Palace Ruins
Technically there's any number of ways to beat the bandits - they are just standard enemies in huge numbers with a few dogs thrown in - but we found a way to maximise the money you should make. For a start, you'll probably want to have the following items and skills, none of which are essential, but all of which can help here.
- Whirl ability (very important)
- Thunderbolt potion
- Swallow potion
- Hanged Man's Venom Oil
- Northern Wind bombs
Approach the camp from the direction of the signpost, in the South-East direction. Immediately you'll have a choice to make - whether or not to shoot the bandit with the torch, maked on your minimap. These enemies basically sprint towards a pyre in the base and try to set fire to it, a signal which will bring twice as many enemies down on you.
If you think you can handle that challenge, let him do it, but follow him anyway! He's unintentionally leading you to the perfect fighting spot. Otherwise shoot him with a crossbow bolt, or just sprint and roll past all the other enemies until you can cut him down.
Whichever you choose, you still want to get to the pyre. Head into the centre of the ruins, a little four-way crossroads, and head North along the footbridge to the pyre with the chest next to it. Turn back round, and face down the legion of thugs stampeding towards you. Now things get interesting.
How to Kill the Bandits in the Hanse Camp
The goal here is to bottleneck the enemies along this thin path, hampering their progress with Yrden, Igni and Northern Wind bombs. Then you down a bottle of Thunderbolt, put Hanged Man's Venom on your sword, and just start using the Whirl ability to spin through them like a helicopter. It's devastating, able to bring down multiple enemies who are higher levels than you in a few moments. If things get dangerous, drink a Swallow, back up to the pyre again, and just force them all back with the Aard spell for a moment's respite. Those that fall off the path will have to run back around before they can rejoin the fight, giving you even more time to recover.
Don't make the mistake of twirling into the middle of the crowd where you can get surrounded, however. The last thing you want is to start getting stabbed from all sides. Instead, simply shear the edges of the horde, cutting them down as they approach, and control the fight before it can control you.
Eventually you should have killed several dozen men, but at least it pays well. Loot their corpses and all the containers across this huge camp, stuffing everything into your pack, but don't go up the ladder! The best treasure might be up there, but so is the leader, Antoine "Starling" Straggen, who will attack you immediately. If he dies, you can't farm the camp anymore, so leave him be.
Instead, go to the Signpost again, fast travel to a blacksmith or merchant of your choice, and make all the money. By the time you go back to Arthach Palace, the bandits should've respawned and you can repeat the whole process all over again. You also get the experience for killing a lot of powerful enemies, a nice bonus to boot.
Of course, all this presumes you have the whirl ability. If you don't, check out our guide on how to respec Geralt and get new abilities right here. Or if you're focusing on the main quest of the Blood and Wine, take a look at how to find Milton and his unique Hare mask right here.