How skills work in The Witcher 3
Geralt earns an ability point each time he levels and each time he draws from one of the thirty Places of Power, and every point goes into one of the four Witcher 3 skill trees on this page. Swords covers melee and the crossbow, Signs covers the five signs, Alchemy covers potions, oils, bombs and mutagens, and General holds the perks that sit outside the three schools.
A Witcher 3 skill only works once it is slotted. The character screen has twelve ability slots in four groups of three, and a skill left in the tree does nothing until it is placed in one of them, which is what makes a Witcher 3 build a question of which twelve abilities to run rather than which skills to buy.
Reading the Witcher 3 skill trees
Each tree on this page is laid out the way the character menu draws it. The top row holds the core skills, the ones every playthrough starts with, and the four rows below them are the tiers: a Witcher 3 skill in the second row needs six points already spent in that tree, the third row twelve, and the bottom row eighteen. Columns follow the branches, so the Swords tree runs fast attacks, strong attacks, defence, marksmanship and battle trance from left to right.
Most Witcher 3 skills take three points, and each point raises the numbers on the ability. The individual skill pages list what every level gives, so you can see what a second or third point in Muscle Memory or Igni Intensity actually buys before spending it.
Mutagens and the colours of a Witcher 3 build
Each group of three ability slots has a mutagen slot beside it. A mutagen raises the bonus it grants for every slotted skill in that group whose colour matches it, so filling a group with red Swords skills next to a greater red mutagen is worth far more than spreading colours across the board. That single rule is why Witcher 3 builds are usually described by colour.
Witcher 3 mutations from Blood and Wine
Blood and Wine adds mutations, a second layer on top of the skill trees. There are twelve of them plus Strengthened Synapses, and each one costs both ability points and mutagens of a given colour gathered from monsters. Unlocking a mutation also opens extra ability slots, which is the main reason Euphoria and Piercing Cold reshape a late Witcher 3 build so completely.