Decoctions | The Witcher 3 Wiki

Decoction Crafting

Decoctions are new alchemical compounds introduced in The Witcher 3, meant to supplement the Potions that Witchers are known to have profound mastery over, having honed their craft through years and years of experience, and the study of Alchemy, as well as subjecting themselves to various toxins and chemical compounds to better understand their properties. Just as with Potions, Decoctions 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. Unlike Potions, however, the Decoction brewing process requires Mutagens as key ingredients. Mutagens are genetic material that can be obtained by killing Monsters. Each Decoction requires a specific Mutagen which drops from a specific Monster.

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In order to craft a Decoction, you must first learn its Formula by finding and reading Torn-Out Pages — Similar to Potion Manuscripts, these are crafting instructions akin to Weapon and Armor Diagrams and each one is specific to every single Decoction. Many of these pages m.jvd dsss can be found randomly in chests and guarded treasure throughout the world, while some can be purchased from Alchemists and Herbalists. Few even have fixed locations or specific points in the game where they can be obtained.

Unlike Potions, Decoctions do not have upgraded versions. However, their effects are substantial enough and specific enough to certain situations that upgraded versions are not warranted.

Decoction Usage & Replenishment

Once crafted, Decoctions can be used from the Inventory even while in the middle of combat. Additionally, up to four Decoctions can be assigned to your Consumables Quickslots for easy usage without going into the inventory. However, Decoctions have such long durations that it is usually better to save your Quickslots for Potions and use Decoctions prior to a fight as part of your preparation.

Each Decoction has one Charge only and needs to be refilled if you want to use the Decoction again. You do not need to craft Decoctions over and over. Instead, charges can be replenished by Meditating for at least One Hour while you have some Strong Alcohol in your inventory. Strong Alcohol refers to high concentration alcoholic spirits that can be used for alchemical purposes. The following items qualify for this purpose:

Note that you only need 1 unit of any of the above to refill all of your Decoction charges via Meditation. This will also refill all of your Potions and Bombs. These alcoholic beverages can commonly be found throughout the world and they can also be purchased from Merchants. Some can even be crafted through Alchemy using other components. Dwarven Spirit in particular is quite abundant so you should rarely be found wanting for these.

The Cockatrice Decoction, when imbibed, grants an additional use of all Potions, Decoctions and Bombs. This bonus charge/dose is available until the Decoction's effect wears off or is removed manually via Meditation or imbibing a White Honey Potion and its variants.

It should be noted that despite its name, the White Raffard's Decoction and its Enhanced and Superior variants are not Decoctions but are in fact Potions. The name is simply a carry-over from previous games where the item existed but Decoctions, as a feature and mechanic, did not.

Potions, Decoctions & Toxicity Level

One of the many mutations that Witchers develop is a superhuman resistance to poisons. This does not make them immune to harmful substances, but they have a massive advantage in this regard, allowing them to imbibe alchemical substances such as Potions, made of the harshest ingredients that would otherwise kill a regular human. Geralt has a Maximum Toxicity stat — A measure of his ability to resist the toxic effects of Potions and Decoctions. In order to understand Toxicity's relation to Decoctions, first understand its mechanics pertaining to Potions:

The Toxicity stat is represented by a green bar under your Stamina bar and can also be seen in the Character Menu. Each Potion has a set amount of Toxicity which fills this bar every time you take a dose. This can be referred to as Potion Toxicity. Potion Toxicity depletes overtime at a rate of about 1 point every 2 seconds. The Toxicity mechanic essentially prevents you from abusing potions as you cannot imbibe another one if it would cause you to go over your max limit. However, there is also an Overdose Effect that comes into play. By default, going over 75% of your Max Toxicity will cause you to start losing health at a significant rate per second, persisting until you dip below the threshold. This threshold can be raised by investing in the Heightened Tolerance skill of the Alchemy skill line. Each point in the skill raises your Overdose threshold by 5%, up to a max of 25%, which effectively eliminates the health loss issue.

Aside from the health loss over time, the Overdose status also has adverse effects on Geralt's appearance, causing dark circles to form around his eyes, with dark veins appearing all across his face and his scars taking on a more reddish appearance, as if they had opened back up. This is accompanied by a misty green effect around the borders of the screen, beginning once you hit 50% of your Overdose Threshold and becoming more pronounced as your Toxicity rises. These effects also appear even with max levels in Heightened Tolerance, but it is purely cosmetic.

By default, you have 100 points of max Toxicity but there are several ways to raise this maximum. Metabolic Control in the General Skill line gives a straightforward bonus of +30 Max Toxicity. The Acquired Tolerance skill in the Alchemy Skill line raises your Max Toxicity by 1 for every Alchemy Formula you have learned. This skill has 3 ranks, with each rank taking into account each respective tier of formulas learned. At Rank 1, it only considers all Level 1 (Base) alchemy formulas while at Rank 2, it extends the consideration to Level 2 (Enhanced) formulas and so on. This skill works retroactively, meaning you do not need to acquire it before starting to collect formulas as it will add to the bonus any formulas you've already learned prior to obtaining any level of the skill. The Armor pieces of the Manticore School of Witcher Gear added with the Blood and Wine DLC each also grant a small bonus to your maximum Toxicity when worn, with the Legendary New Game+ version adding even more.

Decoctions also affect Geralt's Toxicity level, albeit in a different way. Each Decoction has a Toxicity rating of 50 points, the sole exception being the Basilisk Decoction with 40 points. It also appears as a darker green on the Toxicity bar. However, Decoctions have a much longer duration and Decoction Toxicity (an important distinction from Potion Toxicity) does not dissipate over time, only being cleared once the Decoction's effects wear off or when the effects are manually removed via Meditation or by imbibing the White Honey potion and its variants. Decoction usage essentially "holds" a sizeable chunk of your Toxicity bar, severely limiting the amount of Potions you can imbibe. Raising your max Toxicity can alleviate this limitation and it is entirely possible to have a high enough max Toxicity to imbibe 2 or even 3 Decoctions at once while still being able to use Potions. Do note that Decoction Toxicity moves the baseline for your Potion Toxicity with regards to the Overdose Threshold because Decoction Toxicity is not considered in the calculation for the threshold. Maxing out Heightened Tolerance makes this quirk irrelevant. Further still, for players who invest in the Delayed Recovery skill, keep in mind that its effects rely on Potion Toxicity, not Decoction Toxicity.