In Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, you always want to have the best weapons and best armor to be able to fight the tough monsters that await. Obviously, the loot you get will not always stay up to the mark, and your armor and weapons will need constant upgrades in The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt.
Many players wonder if they can upgrade the armor and, if they can, how they can upgrade it. This has become very confusing for the players. In this guide, we’ve got you covered on how you upgrade your armor in The Witcher 3 to keep improving its effectiveness in combat.
How to upgrade armor in The Witcher 3
There are a few things that you need before you can start upgrading armors in TW3 Wild Hunt. The process of upgrading your armor in TW3 Wild Hunt is pretty much the same as upgrading swords in The Witcher 3.
Almost every armor set in TW3 can be upgraded, including the starting witcher gear, the Kaer Morhen armor.
Below, we will tell you about them separately, so you don’t have any problem.
1. Get the Crafting Diagrams
The first step before upgrading an armor is getting the diagram for the upgrade. To get the diagrams, there are different ways. You can find the diagrams while exploring the world of The Witcher 3.
Moreover, the gear crafting diagrams are found the same way you come across the basic witcher gear: by chance while looting or by purchasing maps from NPC vendors, which in turn will start certain quests.
That being said, these specialized quests are equally important as you can complete them to get the crafting diagrams of the armor you want to upgrade. Apart from that, sometimes you can also buy crafting diagrams from various merchants in The Witcher 3, so visiting them is not a bad option either.
2. Work on improving your Craftsman level
Blacksmiths and Armorer have different levels in The Witcher 3, and for crafting armor of a certain level, the Craftsman level, the Armorer, or the blacksmith had matters a lot.
An armorer with a low level cannot craft a higher level armor for you. In that case, you must look for another armorer with a higher Craftsman Level.
3. Gather the Required Items
Having a diagram doesn’t mean you have the required items for the armor upgrade. You must loot and purchase the items required for the upgrade before heading to the Armorer to upgrade your armor in The Witcher 3.
Dismantling your old weapons and armor also helps you get the essential items if you don’t want to search for them.
4. Farming enough cash to upgrade armor
Once you have the diagrams, you can get to the Armorer, and he will upgrade your armor. However, upgrading armor will cost you a fair amount of crowns as well. So before you head to the Armorer to upgrade your armor, ensure you have enough Crowns. If you are running low on cash, then you can find different ways to farm gold quickly in The Witcher 3.
Craftsman requirements to upgrade armor
There are five levels of Witcher Gear that can be upgraded. These will include tiers such as Basic, Enhanced, Superior, Mastercrafted, and lastly, the Grandmaster tier in The Witcher 3. Each of these tiers will involve you reaching certain levels during your playthrough in order for you to upgrade the base sets to higher-tier versions.
- Level 11 is required for the “Basic” tier.
- Level 18 is required for the “Enhanced tier”.
- Level 26 is required for the “Superior tier”.
- Level 34 is required for the “Mastercrafted” tier, which is Quest-locked
- Level 40 is required for the “Grandmaster” tier, which is Quest-locked and locked behind DLC.
Unlocking Mastercrafted amor in TW3
To unlock the “Mastercrafted” armor in The Witcher 3, the first thing that you will need to do is complete a specific secondary quest. The quest you need to complete is “Master Armorer,” which you will get from an NPC dwarven armorer called Fergus Graem. You can find armorer Fergus Graem at Crow’s Perch in Velen, near the Quartermaster of Baron’s Castle. He can upgrade armor to Master level.
Unlocking Mastercrafted weapons in TW3
On the other hand, if you want to upgrade your weapons, then you will need to unlock the Mastercrafted Weapons in TW3. For that, you will need to speak with a certain NPC character called Hattori in Novigrad, who is a master level blacksmith. By speaking with him, you will have to undergo the events of the quest called Of Swords and Dumplings in The Witcher 3.
Apart from these two, there are other armorers and blacksmiths that you can visit to upgrade your weapons and armor early on in The Witcher 3.
Unlocking Grandmaster Gear in TW3
Similar to this, to unlock the Grandmaster gear, you will need to complete a series of quests that you can get from the NPC Grandmaster Armorer called Lazare Lafargue in Hauteville. However, this is only available in the Blood and Wine DLC, so you must install it first in The Witcher 3.
The quest you will get from Lafargue is “Master Master Master Master” and the required level for undertaking this particular quest will be Level 40. This will add five Scavenger hunts in your quest tab, which will require you to find diagrams for 5 Grandmaster gear sets in TW3 Wild Hunt. These will include crafting diagrams for each of the five Witcher schools’ Grandmaster Armor sets, including Feline, Ursine, Griffen, Wolf, and Manticore.
Upgrading your armor to Grandmaster tier is resourceful, especially on higher levels, since you will get the benefits of an additional perk by simply wearing three pieces of Grandmaster gear (for any Witcher school). Apart from that, if you have managed to craft the complete Grandmaster Armor set and equipped it on Geralt, you will be awarded with a secondary perk in The Witcher 3.
The Grandmaster Gear offers you a lot of Perks so you can equip these best Armor sets in The Witcher 3 for the benefits listed below
| Best Armor Set | Perks |
| Griffen School Gear (Upgraded- Grandmaster Griffen Gear) | Best for Sign Builds in TW3.Casting consecutive signs won’t deplete your stamina (Grandmaster version)Allow you to cast bigger Yrden circle along with stamina regeneration.Increase in sign intensity. |
| Ursine School Gear (Upgraded- Grandmaster Ursine Gear) | Preferred for Tanky builds.Allows you to cast Quen signs automatically without consuming any stamina (Grandmaster perk).The Damage dealt by casting the Quen sign increasing massively by 200 percent.(Grandmaster perk). |
| Feline/Cat School Gear (Upgraded- Grandmaster Feline/ Cat Gear) | Preferred for a Tactical Sword BuildIncreases the damage of your fast attacks. (Grandmaster Perk)You can stun enemies by targeting their backs with your sword attacks. |
| Manticore School Gear (Upgraded- Grandmaster Manticore Gear) | Makes for a great Alchemy Build.Adds Critical hit chance on your bombs.Adds Critical Damage on the bombs you use during your fightsIncreases Alchemy items max capacity by 1. |
| Tesham Mutna Armor | Grants you with a restorative vitality perk which increases your survival chances. |
Apart from that, there are certain armor sets that you cannot upgrade, like the Armor of a Thousand Flowers, which are attainable at Level 7 in the base game and Level 50 on NG+ in The Witcher 3.
Similarly, the Kaer Morhen Armor is also a crucial armor piece that you should upgrade as it will provide you with a lot of defense bonuses such as slashing, bludgeoning, etc.
Item enhancement for gear upgrades
The Hearts of Stone expansion adds Item Enchanting to The Witcher 3. There are two types of item enhancement: Glyphs(for the armor) and Runestones(for the weapon). These give extra bonuses but also fill upgrade slots on weapons or armor.
The glyphs will help you in increasing the power of different signs. There are various Glyphs in the Witcher 3, and each will increase the intensity of a specific sign.
