The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
78 Achievements
100-120h
Killed It
Win a round of gwent with a total strength of at least 187.
7.8%
How to unlock the Killed It achievement in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Definitive Guide
This achievement is gained once you have won a round of gwent with your total strength over 187. Note that it is only a round; you do not need to win the game. Also, this is unmissable; you can play gwent (e.g. with innkeeps) even after the end of the game (free roam time).
Strength in gwent is how much each unit card is worth (it is basically a form of points), this base strength on each card can be modified with certain cards such as commander's horn. You total strength is the combination of the above.
Realistically, you will need to have, or very nearly have the Card Collector achievement. This would mean to are skilled at gwent, and have all, or most of the cards available.
Generally, it is useful to lose the first round, this often means the opponent just passes on the next, thus allowing you to play all of your cards without worrying about weather cards or scorch. This can be dependant upon the opponent faction, I've found Nilfgaard opponents pass more on the second round than monsters.
Because you don't need to actually win the game, this is much easier than you may immediately think, however it does require some good RNG with your hand.
Here is how I got to this strength with different decks:
Monsters:
Using this deck and method I achieved 198 total strength after a few attempt for the perfect hand. iAlecP said that removing the commander's horn and dandelion, and using Eredin, Leader of the Red Riders helps.
The strength to the monsters deck is that the Vampires, Crones, and Arachas can call each other in. This means you only need one of each in your hand. More would reduce your ability to reach 187 total strength. Also, because most of these are close combat you can use a horn (or Dandelion, they do not stack) to double all that strength. This allows you to get to high strength very quickly.
Leader - Eredin, Bringer of Death (you can use any leader card, but this allows you to play a couple of cards at the start, to increase the chance of your opponent passing on the next turn).
Total cards in deck: 26;
Number of unit cards: 24;
Special cards: 2;
Total unit card strength: 153; (This number doesn't account for horns).
Hero cards: 8;
Deck - 2x Commander's Horn, Geralt, Cirilla, Yennefer, Villentretenmerth, Dandelion, Mysterious Elf (Avallac'h), Draug, Imlerith, Leshen, Kayran, Erath Elemental, Fire Elemental, Arachas (all four), Crones (all three), Vampires (all five).
Ideally, your hand will contain: Dandelion (If not, then a horn), a Vampire, a Crone, an Arachas (only one of each, no more), Mysterious Elf (Avallac'h), then the rest could be anything, obviously it is preferable to have higher strength cards (Kayran is good for +1 to all melee cards). A commander's horn as well as dandelion is ok, you can use it on the siege units.
Round one - If you have Avallac'h then play him first, then place any non-hero card that isn't the vampire, crone, or arachas (e.g. Dandelion), play another card as well, then pass.
If you are lucky you will get two cards with are not vampire, crone, or arachas (if you already have one of each).
Round two - Hopefully, your opponent will pass immediately. Regardless, play all of your cards (start with hero cards if they continue). If you don't quite get there, don't worry, try again for the optimum hand.
Round three - you will probably lose this one, but it doesn't matter.
Nilfgaard:
Using this deck and method I achieved 203 total strength on my first try.
Nilfgaard's potential is in it's use of spies and its card's 'tight bond' ability which adds the units base value to the unit if another card of the same name enters the field (contrary to what the game says, they are additive not multiplicative).
Leader - Emhyr, the Relentless (allows you to take an extra card, or even retrieve a spy to gain two more cards).
Total cards in deck: 26;
Number of unit cards: 24;
Special cards: 2;
Total unit card strength: 171; (This number doesn't account for horns or tight bond).
Hero cards: 9;
Deck - 2x Commander's Horn, Geralt, Cirilla, Yennefer, Triss, Villentretenmerth, Dandelion, Mysterious Elf (Avallac'h), Letho, Menno, Morvran, Tibor, Black Infantry Archer (both), Heavy Z Fire Scorpian, Stefan Skellen, Shilard, Cahir, Young Emissary (both),
Vattier, Impera Brigade Guard (all four).
Ideally, your hand will contain dandelion, and all or most of your spies, then any combination (it shouldn't matter too much because you will gain up to 8 more cards from your spies, 10 if you retrieve one with your leader ability).
Round one - play all of your spies here. Hopefully you will get all four Impera Brigade Guard, and both Young Emissaries, however I got 203 with 3 Guards and one Emissary, so don't worry too much. Then pass.
Round two - Now you can go all in. Start with your hero cards to be safe if the opponent continues to play, then place dandelion and stack your tight bond units to get over 100 easily, then just systemically place your cards. If you don't reach >187 then just try again with better RNG.
Round three - doesn't matter, you have the achievement.
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I can add a guide for Scoia'tael and/or Northern Realms if anyone really wants them, but for the sake of reducing the volume of text I will leave them out. If you are struggling make sure you have tries the Nilfgaard deck and method, as it is less reliant on RNG.
RNG means random number generator, and refers to the way the computer randomly determines which cards you receive.
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Thanks to Lyzyrd for pointing out the lack of necessity of DLC.
I used Northern Realm deck vs a Northern Realm deck to get as many spies played and for the NPC to quit on the first round
I would suggest using the Northern Realms deck for this attempt as how many spy cards you can get and also all the different cards that multiply off each other. Also I would switch the Gwent difficulty to Easy in the options under gameplay if you haven't already.
Go to any NPC who plays Gwent and face them. There are different ways to go about this, but I just kept forfeiting until I had a decent amount of spy cards on me and then used them all to get the extra cards and then passed. During the next hand I laid them all out to get 188 with a few cards to spare. Make sure you have at least one commander's horn and use Foltest The Siegemaster as your leader for another free one on your siege line. Make sure you also have the cards that multiply off each other too. Just keep trying until you get it, it took me a few attempts to start out with the cards I needed.
I took the core ideas of my build from this blog then adjusted it a little for better consistency.
The deck is a Northern Realms deck, focused on buffing strong siege units with Foltest, the Siegemaster and stacking buffs on the ranged units, specifically Crinfrid Reavers Dragon Hunter.
While you don't need every card, you'll want many that aren't included in the starter deck, so at least getting started on the Card Collector achievement isn't a bad idea.
On top of the core ideas above, my deck focused on consistency with heavy spy usage, and added the neutral DLC cards Gaunter O'Dimm and Gaunter O'Dimm: Darkness for an easy way bonus 24-28 strength.
The deck I used was:
Leader: Foltest, The Seigemaster
Close Combat:
1x Prince Stennis
1x Sigismund Dijkstra
Ranged:
3x Gaunter O'Dimm: Darkness
1x Dethmold
3x Crinfrid Reavers Dragon Hunter
Siege:
1x Gaunter O'Dimm
2x Catapult
2x Trebuchet
2x Ballista
1x Siege Tower
1x Dun Banner Medic
1x Thaler
Hero:
1x Geralt of Rivia
1x Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon
1x Mysterious Elf
1x Vernon Roche
Weather:
2x Clear Weather
Special:
1x Decoy
2x Commander's Horn
Besides Spies and Heroes, avoid regular Close Combat units. For the winning round, you're going to have both the Ranged and Siege rows buffed, so even a 4-strength Ranged/Siege unit is better than any Close Combat unit available for NR decks. Additionally, since you're not trying to win the match, cards like Villentretenmerth are pointless.
The ideal opponent is another Northern Realms player. Especially the early game players, they normally rarely use weather cards (or only have one in their hand, so you can cancel with Clear Weather) and don't use Scorch. NR players also generally use quite a few spies themselves, so you can use Decoy to turn their spy into yours.
Remember: You don't need to win the game for this achievement, just the round so your goal is to amass as many cards as possible and spam them out in one round.
Ideally, your hand for the winning round contains at least:
3x Crinfrid Reavers Dragon Hunter
1x Commander's Horn
6x any 6+ base strength Siege cards
1+ any other (non-spy) unit cards.
Winning a round of Gwent with such a massive strength may seem challenging, but it is more luck-based than difficult. There are undoubtedly several different strategies that can be taken when attempting this achievement, though this solution will focus on utilizing a specific 22 Unit card Northern Realms deck. Yes, 22 Unit cards is the absolute minimum amount to start a match of Gwent, but with this deck you will be want as few cards to draw from as possible as a means of increasing your chances in drawing the recommended starting hand.
As such, check below for the deck involved in this strategy, then proceed to build yours the same way. Make sure to refer to THIS GUIDE for the locations of any Gwent cards you might need.
- 2x Commander's Horn
- 1x Clear Weather
- 1x Geralt of Rivia
- 1x Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon
- 1x Villentretenmerth
- 1x Dandelion
- 1x Mysterious Elf (Avallac'h)
- 1x Vernon Roche
- 2x Catapult
- 2x Trebuchet
- 1x Ballista
- 1x Siege Tower
- 1x Prince Stennis
- 3x Crinfrid Reavers Dragon Hunter
- 1x Dun Banner Medic
- 1x Sigismund Dijkstra
- 3x Blue Stripes Commando
- 1x Thaler
It is also important that you set your Leader card to “Foltest, The Siegemaster.” Now that your deck is set, go out in the world and look for an Innkeeper, Merchant, or Trader to verse in Gwent. Once the match begins and you draw your 10-card starting hand, make sure to deliberately forfeit (even if that takes multiple forfeits) until you get the following hand:
- 1x Clear Weather
- 1x Spy (any will do)
- 1x Commander Horn
- 2x Catapults
- 3x Crinfrid Reavers
- 2x Units (any Unit card will do)
It may seem very unreasonable to suggest that you draw such a specific hand, but this particular solution relies heavily on the aforementioned cards.
So with that, use your first three turns to place out the Catapults and your Leader card. That will net you 64 points alone. After that, use the following four turns to place out all three Reavers and the Commander’s Horn on the Ranged Units. This will give you another 90 points, thus putting you at a total of 154 points.
At this time you’ll have four cards left in your hand, and you’ll only need to score another 33+ points and win the round in order to snag the achievement. Regardless of what your 2 leftover Unit cards may be, place them out. Let’s assume one was a Trebuchet and the other a Blue Stripe Commando. That would give you 12 and 4 points respectively for a total of 170 points.
Now play your Spy and you will draw two more cards from your deck. The best thing about this strategy is that almost – not everything, but almost – anything you pull from your deck at this point will give you the remaining 17 points of strength needed for the score requirement. Look at it on a one-card basis then apply the same thought to the two-card draw. If you pull another Trebuchet or Ballista, or even the Dun Banner Medic, that would give you another 12 or 10 points. If you pull a Blue Stripes Commando, that would give you another 12 points. If you pull Dandelion’s card, that would give you an additional 6 points. If you pull a Hero, that would either give you 10 or 15 points. If you pull but another Spy, that’s another two cards you can add to your hand. In short, whatever combination of two cards you pull is going to help you achieve 17+ points easily.
It should be noted that the very last card you play out of your hand should be the Clear Weather card. You’ll want to hold onto this one for the final play just in case your opponent used any weather effect cards against you earlier. If they did, don’t panic and play Clear Weather right away! Make sure it’s the last card you play in case they have another weather effect up their sleeve.
Now there are a few things that could go wrong with this method, but only one that is worth mentioning. Your opponent may use a Scorch card and destroy your Catapults or Reavers at any time, so you’ll need to be extremely lucky that they don’t have the card in their hand. Another thing to keep in mind is to avoid NPCs who use a Monster deck. This is because the Crones’ and Vampires’ “Muster” ability will seriously hinder your chances to win. Because remember, it’s not just about reaching a strength of 187+ points but you also have to go on to WIN the round in order to unlock the achievement! So with that in mind, feel free to follow this detailed solution and test your luck in Gwent.
As mentioned, there are countless other strategies involving other decks and other card combinations, and there are even a few unsaid nuances that may hinder your match due to the game’s AI, but I found this method to be extremely effectively and it was very consistent to pull off when playing. Be patient, play smart, and you’ll have the achievement in no time.
The trick is to find a vendor with a lot of spy cards so you can keep playing spy cards against one another, putting a decoy in their place and playing them for yourself and vice versa. This should get you enough cards in your hand with some luck to be able to push you over the top.
This will take a lot of luck, so just keep retrying until you get it. If you own the Blood and Wine expansion Francollarts has an innkeeper who plays a lot of spy cards and has several decoys. It's easy to keep playing spy cards and decoying them against her. After trying against other vendor numerous times it only took about a half dozen tries against her to get lucky enough to make it work.
I did this with a Northern Realms deck with the perk to clear weather effects. When building your deck, remove weather cards or any special cards that don't help your attack, such as scorch. I had 3x warhorns, cards that bond with each other to double their attack, three spies, and some medics. This is also easier with an opponent who uses spy cards, because you can revive them from the graveyard to get even more cards.
In round 1 you want to get a hand with all your spy cards. You don't need to start with all of them, but you want to draw them all in round 1. If you don't, forfeit and play again. The idea is to use your spy cards to get the biggest hand you can. This is a good idea in almost any gwent match! If you drew a medic, you can revive any spies the enemy used on you in round 2. If you built your deck with a small number of good cards, you should be able to get most of your cards in your hand. In particular, hope you get your war horns. By playing every card now, clearing bad weather, and using two or three warhorns, you might be able to hit 187 strength if your deck is good enough.
Cards with the ability Strong Bond:
Blue Stripes Fighter (3 pieces)
Rubails from Krinfrid (3 pieces)
Catapult (2 pieces)
Cards with the Spy ability:
Sigismund Dijkstra
Prince Stennis
Thaler
Mysterious Elf (neutral hero card)
Cards with the Healer ability:
Doctor Brown Banner
Yennefer of Vengerberg (neutral hero card)
Cards with the Execute - Melee ability:
Villentretenmert
Special cards:
Scarecrow (1 piece)
Commander's horn (1 piece)
Neutral hero cards without abilities:
Geralt of Rivia
Cirilla
Triss Merigold
Philippa Eilhart
Esterad Thyssen
Jan Natalis
Vernon Roche
Leader card:
Foltest Leader of the North
Now, actually, the tactics: The main thing is not to take advantage of the offer to change two cards at the beginning of the game, since you already have a deck assembled for almost all occasions, just press . In the first round, you hand over all your existing spies to the enemy, take away the analogues sent to you in stuffed form and send them back. Having given up all the spies, it is best to surrender the round to the enemy, but you can look at the situation - if the enemy has already passed, and he has about 5-14 points on the scoreboard, then if you have the appropriate neutral card, you can get ahead. Second round, if after the first round there were more than one spies sent to you, then first of all, if you have Healers, release them onto the field and resurrect the spies - this will give you additional cards from your deck. Then bring fireproof neutrals into battle. As practice shows, in the second round the enemy most often prefers to pass quickly, so answer several of his cards with one neutral fireproof one. Sometimes the enemy gets stupid and releases the Execution card onto the field, destroying the most powerful card on the entire field, so if you have at least one ten on the field, the card will work idle, without causing you any harm. Finally, the last, third round, in which it’s time to get rid of all your cards. Throw the enemy with a strong connection, after spies you should have a lot of it, thicker neutrals. If you see that your opponent (most often with a Monster deck) does not give up and persistently gains points, then wait for the peak point of this set and release Villentretenmert against the enemy melee unit, which will greatly fry the tail of the enemy. The main thing is not to waste Healers on all sorts of nonsense; it is best to use them to raise spies, of course, if there are any in the enemy’s deck. If the enemy ruins the weather on the field (most often this happens in the last round, when the enemy has few cards left), then do not pay attention to it, continue to lay out your cards on the field. If your opponent, losing, passes ahead of time, do not spare him, lay out all your cards. Remember, you don't just want a win, but a win with more points. After laying out all your cards, see which row is the strongest and add the Commander's Horn to it. Finally, use the leader card Foltest Leader of the North to improve the weather on the field. That's all, with a successful set of circumstances you will score a very large number of points in the last round, sufficient to receive a trophy. If not, replay the game and you will succeed.