Oils | The Witcher 3 Wiki

Oil Crafting

Similar to Potions and Decoctions, Oils can be crafted via the Alchemy skill, an age-old traditional craft amongst Witchers honed through years and years of experience, as well as subjecting themselves to various toxins and chemical compounds to better understand their properties. Oils can be crafted using various Alchemy Ingredients found throughout the environment, obtained from opponents or purchased from Alchemists and Herbalists in cities, villages and other settlements.

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In order to craft a type of Oil, you must first learn its Formula by finding and reading its  Manuscript Page — these are crafting instructions similar to Weapon and Armor Diagrams and each one is specific to every single Oil. Aside from the Necrophade Oil and Specter Oil which Geralt starts the game knowing how to craft, Manuscript pages for Oils have no fixed location but are typically found randomly in chests and guarded treasure. 

All Oils also have upgraded versions with the Enhanced and Superior prefix. Each version of an Oil provides different levels of damage bonus. For example, the base version of Beast Oil provides a 10% damage boost to Beasts, while the Enhanced Beast Oil provides a 25% bonus and finally, the Superior Beast Oil provides a 50% bonus.  Each upgraded version also has its own Manuscript Page that you will need to find and the forumlas for these will require that you have learned the formula for the previous version. For example, while you may be able to find the Manuscript for Superior Relict Oil early on, you will not be able to upgrade to it directly from the basic Relict Oil as the Enhanced Relict Oil is required as one of the crafting components.

Oil Usage & Replenishment

Once crafted, Potions can be used from the Inventory even while in the middle of combat. Additionally, up to four Oils can be assigned to your Consumables Quickslots for easy usage without going into the inventory. However, this is typically better reserved for your Potions.

Each Oil has a set number of Charges, and by default, Base Oils have 20 Charges, Enhanced Oils have 40 Charges and Superior Oils have 60 Charges. Charges are depleted with each successful hit, even against Monsters that your current Oil is not targeting. Unlike Potions and Decoctions, Oils have an infinite amount of uses and do not need to be replenished via Meditation. This means you can keep reapplying them as they run out. When you draw an Oil-Coated Sword, you will be able to see the Oil's icon under your Health, Stamina and Toxicity bars on the HUD. The number represents the amount of Charges remaining:

Your Oil Charges can be vastly increased by investing in the Fixative skill of the Alchemy Skill line. At max level, this skill completely prevents Oils from wearing off so you only need to apply new Oils when switching between different enemy types. However, the value of this skill may be thought of as more of a convenience as you can simply reapply Oils indefinitely, even in the middle of combat. This ability was furthermore nerfed in the 4.03 Patch, with the addition of automatic applying of Oils. Note that by default, you can only apply 1 type of Oil to a Sword. However, with the Blood and Wine DLC's addition of the Grandmaster Wolven Witcher Gear, wearing 3 pieces allows you to apply 3 different Oils at once on your Swords.