There are numerous dangers to beat in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The open world is fairly harsh with a massive bestiary of things that want to kill you. Hence, it reasons that you need to know how to heal yourself in The Witcher 3.
Something important to keep in mind is that Geralt automatically regenerates health when out of combat if you are playing on the lower difficulty settings. However, on high difficulties like Blood and Broken Bones or Death March, the auto-health regeneration mechanic gets disabled. You will have to then stick to alchemy and foraging to keep your health bar up.
There are several ways to restore vitality in TW3, and they all heal for a specific amount, meaning that you have a healing option for all kinds of situations. It is best if your inventory is equipped to meet all emergency healing scenarios to ensure Geralt survives.
Food and Drinks to restore health
There are a ton of different food and drinks that you can purchase from any innkeeper or vendor. You can also find them in abundance in the open world.
They are all cheap options to regain a small portion of your health. However, keep in mind that food and drinks cannot be stacked. You need to finish consuming one food or drink before consuming another or else the second one will replace the first.
Use Healing Potions
There are several potions and decoctions that help you regain health in The Witcher 3. Take note that potions can be upgraded twice to increase their effects as well as a bonus effect for their Superior versions. However, decoctions last longer and have more powerful effects. Do remember that drinking potions will increase your toxicity.
Swallow, on the other hand, increases your health regeneration, in and outside of combat. However, your health regeneration will pause for a couple of seconds upon taking damage. This can be countered by drinking a Superior version of the potion.
| Potion | Effects | Ingredients |
| Swallow | +80 vitality regeneration, +40 during combat | 1x Dwarven Spirit, 5x Celandine, 1x Drowner Brain |
| Enhanced Swallow | +100 vitality regeneration, +65 during combat | 1x Swallow, 1x Alcohest, 6x Celandine, 4x White Myrtle Petals, 5x Drowner Brain |
| Superior Swallow | +150 vitality regeneration, +80 during combat, enemy damage does not pause regeneration | 1x Enhanced Swallow, 1x White Gull, 6x Berbercane Fruit, 6x White Myrtle Petals, 4x Celandine, 4x Crow’s Eye, 2x Vitriol |
Decoctions as an alternative to healing potions
Decoctions are more toxic in comparison and can only be used once. You will have to meditate to clear your toxic levels if you want to use them again. Keep an eye on your toxicity meter. Geralt’s face will show you his toxic levels as well. Do not cross the toxicity threshold, or you will start taking damage. This makes decoctions kind of a risky way to heal yourself in TW3.
White Raffard’s Decoction immediately restores a portion of your health. This makes White Raffard’s Decoction the best healing potion in The Witcher 3. You can gain all of your health back with a single potion. Their usefulness is why White Raffard’s Decoctions are highly toxic.
| Potion | Effects | Ingredients |
| White Raffard’s Decoction | 35% vitality restored, 60% in NG+ | 1x Dwarven Spirit, 2x Ribleaf, 4x Nekker Heart |
| Enhanced White Raffard’s Decoction | 60% vitality restored, 80% in NG+ | 1x White Raffard’s Decoction, 4x Ribleaf, 1x Bryonia, 5x Nekker Heart |
| Superior White Raffard’s Decoction | 100% vitality restored, grants immunity to damage for a few seconds | 1x Enhanced White Raffard’s Decoction, 1x White Gull, 4x Ribleaf, 4x Bryonia, 1x Pringrape, 1x Bison Grass, 1x Vermilion |
Ekhidna Decoction is another potion that you can drink to regain health in the game. It, however, acts a bit differently from the other two.
You only recover lost health when doing actions that consume stamina, such as sprinting, jumping, and strong attacks. Do note that in the case of the latter, your strong attacks have to hit an enemy for the potion to heal you.
| Potion | Effects | Ingredients |
| Ekhidna Decoction | +10 vitality regeneration for every stamina-consuming action | 1x Dwarven Spirit, 1x Ekhidna Mutagen, 1x Ribleaf, 1x Berbercane Fruit |
Troll Decoctions are the same as Swallows. They increase your health regeneration in and outside of combat. This decoction is particularly useful in higher difficulty levels where your automatic health regeneration is disabled.
| Potion | Effects | Ingredients |
| Troll Decoction | +100 vitality regeneration, +20 during combat | 1x Dwarven Spirit, 1x Troll Mutagen, 1x Crow’s Eye, 1x Honeysuckle |
Meditation
If you don’t want to spend money on buying items or making potions to heal yourself, then the best way comes in the form of Meditation. It is one of the easiest ways in which you can get your health bar up in The Witcher 3.
For that, you need to find a quiet place where you won’t be disturbed to sit and relax, and then you can meditate. You will find an hourglass that will indicate your meditation time, and this will help replenish your health without costing you much. Meditation is also a great way of replenishing your potions and bombs if you have Alcoholest on you.
The only drawback is that Meditation can not help with the healing process if you are playing on Blood and Broken Bones difficulty setting or higher, but for the rest of the levels, it can prove very resourceful in terms of healing capabilities in The Witcher 3.
