Tips and tricks

Originally Posted by zahratustra
Jade soldier task is kind of lame. Apparently he was compressed to prevent him from delivering battle orders. Why go through such a deliberate process as magic compression? Why not just kill him?

Coral just like to compress people it would seem.

Please put quest info in a spoiler tag. I haven't done that quest yet and don't like knowing what will happen ahead of time.

I've been stumped about what a certain icon means when you hover over a weapon or piece of armor. For example, here is what I see when hovering over a Novigrad Longsword I looted:

94-116(-8 [and a red hammer icon next to the -8]) Damage -15

I understand the 94-116 is the damage output range and that the damage of this sword is 15 less than my currently equipped sword, but apparently I'm too stupid to understand what the -8 is about.

At first I thought it was relating to the item's durability but that can't be it. Can anyone clear this up? Thanks.

Originally Posted by TheMadGamer
At first I thought it was relating to the item's durability but that can't be it. Can anyone clear this up? Thanks.

It is indeed due to the durability. Take it to a blacksmith or use a weapon repair kit on it, and the negative number will be removed.

Weapons and armor are reduced in effectiveness when they reach a certain durability level (I think 75 or 80%) and will continue to accumulate a penalty the lower their durability % goes.

Originally Posted by JDR13
It is indeed due to the durability. Take it to a blacksmith or use a weapon repair kit on it, and the negative number will be removed.

Weapons and armor are reduced in effectiveness when they reach a certain durability level (I think 75 or 80%) and will continue to accumulate a penalty the lower their durability % goes.

Before posting, I did a test. I repaired all my gear to 100%. I then noticed that there was no longer a negative number on any of my gear. But then I watched my equipment carefully as I went into combat.

As my gear began to lose durability in the 90% range there was no negative number. This was a bit confusing. I kept watching as my gear durability loss went into the 80% range… still no negative number.

Finally, I have a piece of gear that has 53% durability along with a whopping -16 number. It seems you can lose durability for a while then at a certain point, as you indicated above, you begin to see the performance loss as represented by the negative number.

It's all a bit counterintuitive since I can't seem to find much explanation about tool tip popup boxes along with the fact that you don't see the performance drop move in direct tandem with the durability reduction.

I guess I somehow have to be less stupid. Since I'm unteachable and untrainable, this isn't going to happen.

I don't think I've ever seen my equipment lose effectiveness. Now that my gold is near the dangerous rollover value of ~64k, I won't be going back to the shops selling junk and repairing as much. We'll see.

Never researched the issue, I visited repairmen often (to drop or dismantle the loot and repair stuff while at there). A few times in long quests I used tools in inventory when the icon with a red item shown up and that's it.
Basically, I don't know what happens when items go into red as seeing that bloody big red icon on the left of the screen was getting on my nerves so I repaired gear myself when needed.

I did have gear wearout problem early on in Velen. It's such a huge area and I couldn't find a blacksmith or an armorer shop for a while.

Yes, at the beginning it was a bit of a panic. I had the red symbols but wasn't sure if I experienced reduced performance. I was so weak at the time, it was hard to tell anyway.

EDIT: I was looking forward to a long difficult battle with the ice giant. However, the power of superior devil's puffballs was underestimated… Instawin. LOL!

Originally Posted by joxer
Basically, I don't know what happens when items go into red as seeing that bloody big red icon on the left of the screen was getting on my nerves so I repaired gear myself when needed.

It's annoying as fuck. Eventually, the sword becomes completely unusable and if you don't yet understand that mechanic in the beginning of the game when you're in the middle of a hard fight, you are left to wonder why in the Nine Hells you are now fighting barehand against those blasted hounds.

Originally Posted by Thrasher
EDIT: I was looking forward to a long difficult battle with the ice giant. However, the power of superior devil's puffballs was underestimated… Instawin. LOL!

I just fried his ass

Originally Posted by Thaurin
It's annoying as fuck. Eventually, the sword becomes completely unusable and if you don't yet understand that mechanic in the beginning of the game when you're in the middle of a hard fight, you are left to wonder why in the Nine Hells you are now fighting barehand against those blasted hounds.

That I can kind of understand but what REALLY annoyed me was when (on many occasions) Geralt auto-drawn and then auto-sheathed his sword after dealing with first few enemies and then started a punch up with the next lot…

Originally Posted by zahratustra
…but what REALLY annoyed me was when (on many occasions) Geralt auto-drawn and then auto-sheathed his sword after dealing with first few enemies and then started a punch up with the next lot…

Yeah, that happens to me often enough that it really makes me mad now when it happens. Would have been a better design if players just had to learn to draw the proper sword manually for each fight because the game gets confused too often about when to sheath and when not to sheath.