THE WITCHER 3: WILD HUNT

This achievement is gained by completing the High Stakes quest and winning every Gwent match therin. You can find this quest in Novigrad on a notice board in a square just a bit south west of the Glory Gate signpost (at the curved bridge on the southern part of Novigrad. (Note: this is where I found it, I don't know if it pops up or can be found anywhere else).

This achievement is missable if you lose any match in it and then proceed to lose your saves, including autosaves and checkpoints. Hence, I recommend you have a backup save before beginning the quest, and save at the points mentioned in the guide.

Read my Gwent strategy and tips at the end if you struggle with winning.

Preparation:

Before you can enter the tournament, you must have a sufficiently powerful deck. I am not sure what counts as being good enough, but I played through the Gwent questlines (Gwent: Velen Players, Gwent: Big City Players, and Gwent: Playing Inkeepers) and had a few special cards such as Cirilla, Yennefer, and Vernon Roche.

Note: if you still don't have a powerful deck then try doing Gwent: Skellige Style (found on notice board in Kaer Trolde) and Gwent: Playing Old Friends (Talk to Zoltan Chivay and play him).

You must also pay 1000 Crowns to enter. Money is easy to come by if you loot and sell, or complete witcher contracts.

You will also have to be good at Gwent; the players you must beat have very good decks and play effectively, therefore a lot of practice can help. Playing through the Gwent quest lines will not only get you the cards you need, but also the experience against harder opponents.

Tournament:

Now that you are prepared, go to the Passiflora, the brothel in Novigrad, found to the east of the St Gregory's Bridge signpost (you will be directed if the quest is active).

If you lose any Gwent matches then the quest will not fail, but you will pass the achievement

Enter, talk to a guy (will be shown by quest), pay and pass card inspection. The quest will now begin. There will be a few cutscenes and some conversation, then you will be told to play against the Halfling.

Before you sit down to play, save you game, then talk to the Halfling to begin the match.

I found this to be the easiest match. The Halfling has a standard deck, no harder than players you may have beaten in Gwent: Big City Players. He plays as the Northern Realms.

Once you have beaten him, there will be a plot development, as far as I know it doesn't matter what you say, but I agreed with the course of action.

Now, you will go and play your second match. Again, save before you sit down. This time you will play Sasha, she uses Nilfgaard. I found her to be the most difficult. She has a lot of spies and decoys, which means she will take your spies and use them. Often she will give you the first round, but then has a lot more cards than you, thusly winning the next two rounds. Hence, I suggest you keep trying until you get a brilliant hand, or get lucky.

After beating Sasha, you will not have an opportunity to save before your next match, so make sure you win it, otherwise you will have to go back and play Sasha again. You will play the Half-elf who hates you. He plays as Scoia'tael and plays a typical high end Scoia-tael deck. I beat him first time, so probably not that hard compared to Sasha (unless I got super lucky).

If you beat him then you will have to beat him in a fistfight. The game will autosave before this fight, so don't worry about losing. Thanks to DoubleDRAGON666 for this info.

Now, you will have to beat Count Tybalt at Gwent. You should save before this match. He plays as Monsters. I found him easier than Sasha, but that might just be my play style.

Once you have beaten him the achievement should pop.

Gwent Tips and Strategy:

I'm going to work off the assumption that you understand the rules of the game, and have experience in it. You must also note that this works as an outline to help you. It is based off my own experience and play style. Furthermore, Gwent begins with a certain amount of luck by getting the right cards.

Strategy:

Northern Realms:

My deck has Foltest, the Siegemaster as the leader, and one of each special card (Torrential Rain, Biting Frost, etc..., for this achievement I didn't have decoys, but they are very useful). The rest of my deck consists of cards going down in order of power so that there are 22 unit cards (the minimum required), this ensures I will get good cards.

At the very start you can re-roll two cards. I usually change out cards that have lower than 5 power, unless they have special abilities such as medic. Once the round begins I use any spies I have, and then play my worst cards, simply to get the enemy to place their own cards and waste as many as possible, then I lose that round (unless they use spies and the round is close, in which case I try to win it). The second round is a must win if I gave up the first one, this means going pretty much all in. I can use medics to revive lost cards from the last round, and try to use special cards buff/debuff. If I win the first round then I play this one cautiously, trying to save my most powerful cards for later, or the next round. If I have reached the third round then I go all in.

Nilfgaard:

I found that Nilfgaard is the most strategic faction. While Monsters can have a large amount of total power quickly, it is not as fun or elegant, and is prone to weakness. Scoia'tael focus on having units that can be either infantry or ranged, allowing for choice, it does not have the strength needed. Northern Realms falls down because it is too general and so doesn't have any particular advantage.

Your Nilfgaard deck should have at least all the spies available, Black Infantry Archers, Heavy Zerrikanean Fire Scorpions, Auxiliary Archers, and hero cards such as Yennefer and Menno Coehoorn. Furthermore, having cards such as Young Emissaries and Impera Brigade Guard is useful because each extra one you place gives them all +x power where x is the card's starting power. Also, dandelion is useful because he has war horn. For a leader card it doesn't matter until you have beaten Sasha (she gives you his best leader card).

Average game with Nilfgaard:

As with Northern realms, switch out any cards you think are not useful right now. Ideally you will have a lot of spies.

First Round - Here you want to place all of your spies before doing anything else. The larger your hand at the end of this round the better. If your enemy has also placed spies, and you have a decoy, then take their spy and place it. Furthermore, if you have scorch and you need a better hand, then you can (if their spy is higher power than any other cards out) scorch the card and place a medic such as Auxiliary Archers to use the spy.
Once all your spies are out then you want to win the round if you are 6 points per spy you placed behind then enemy or less. If so then waste a turn by either using a leader power, or placing a weak card. Then if the enemy skips the turn you can place two or three cards and be both ahead on rounds and cards (if you have medics don't be afraid to use high power cards here such as Black Infantry Archers, it is better to have more cards than higher power cards). If the enemy does not skip then you must judge whether it is worth playing more cards or not. It may be to waste their cards, meaning you win the next rounds easily. If they have more points than specified above then just skip the round.

Second Round - This round is a necessity to win if you lost the first one, but not so important if you won it. If you won the first round then this round is only to be won if you can't help but win (if they are terrible). Play your weakest cards first to try and just get them placing all of theirs. If they have 3 cards or less then you may want to just go all in and beat them, otherwise get them to a low amount of cards and then skip the round.
If you lost the last round then you have to win this one. They will go first. If they play a weak card then match it or go one better just in case they skip the round. If they continue then play a hero card (One with 10 or 15 power, but no special abilities), at this point they will likely skip. If they don't skip then you want to go with high power cards. If you have multiple Young Emissaries or Impera Brigade Guards then you can place them now, and even war horn them for enormous points (watch out here, when you have units about 7 or higher the enemy may scorch, therefore you want to use protection. Place a Black Infantry Archer to be scorched in their place, and don't war horn them until a scorch has been used). Make sure you have at least one card left for the next round.

Third Round - at this point you have to win this round. It is possible that you will win because the enemy is out of cards (place your last one(s)). If not then just go all in. Playing hero cards first will mean you are safe from weather cards and scorch, do this first to see what they have. If you have a scorch then you can get rid of their cards because your cards wont be affected (if they are heroes). Place weather cards last and use clear weather last (if you need to use clear weather).

Note: against Sasha this can be difficult because she does the same thing (pretty much). Therefore against her use more decoys; you must have more cards than her after the first round.

Tips:

- Use war horn only if necessary, otherwise save it for later. But, use it if it will save you placing more than two higher power cards.
- Use debuff cards if it will reduce your enemy's power significantly, or will allow you to win.
- Clear weather is useful to save until you really need it, such as if you use a war horn and then they use biting frost, rendering the war horn useless.
- Use leader abilities in a similar way to war horn.
- Apply spies early on so that you know your hand.
- Use decoys to retrieve spies, medics, and special cards such as Villentretenmerth.
- Use scorch cards/abilities when there are multiple enemy cards with the same power (must be their highest power units), as it will take them all out in one sweep.
- Apply medics only when you can retrieve a powerful unit or preferably one with a power. You will have to judge the best card; if you are running out then a spy could be useful, or a unit such as Villentretenmerth, who can be used to take out a lot of enemy units at once (particularly against monsters).
- Apply Hero cards only to counter debuffs and use abilities, unless you really need some more power points.

- Northern Realms are all round, so be prepared for an even fight.
- Nilfgaard has a lot of spies, and some good archers. This makes them very difficult because they get more cards than you.
- Scoia'tael have pretty much no ballistae, this means they are strong in ranged and infantry units, but this means they are easier to control with debuffs.
- Monsters have little ranged units, and are particularly strong on infantry. Their cards usually summon more cards. Thus giving them the first round is often the easiest solution, or use biting frosts.

If there is anything I should add then please comment.