CD Projekt Red has revealed the full Witcher 3 Remastered patch notes ahead of the game’s September 29 release. The free upgrade brings more than improved graphics: it overhauls the skill system, adds a way to change your gear’s appearance, expands Photo Mode, and introduces new accessibility options.
Biggest Changes in The Witcher 3 Remastered Patch Notes
The biggest Witcher 3 Remastered gameplay change revealed by CD Projekt Red is a reworked skill system. Skills are now arranged in a tree, with three ranks each. Unlocking a new skill requires its prerequisite skills, while CD Projekt Red has also adjusted bonuses and how skills work together.
The update also adds equipment Reforging. This lets you change how gear looks without changing its stats. You’ll need to visit master craftsmen Yoana or Hattori to use the service, and you can unlock appearances by adding equipment and crafting diagrams to your inventory.
Here are some of the other major gameplay changes:
- Non-boss monsters have received updates to their attacks, movement, reactions, and combat behavior.
- Geralt has new finishers and idle animations, along with improvements to jumping, climbing, vaulting, and movement in combat.
- Roach’s movement and mounting animations have been polished. Cantering and galloping now require a button press instead of holding the button.
- You can loot items without dismounting Roach.
- Holding dodge and then pressing sprint now lets you disengage from combat quickly.
The Witcher 3 Remastered Graphics Upgrades
CD Projekt Red has also detailed a long list of visual improvements. The remaster uses an improved shading model, updated textures and models based on assets from The Witcher 3 HD Reworked Project, and new lighting for grass and foliage.
Other additions include native DirectX 12 rendering with multithreading, updated HDR calibration options, ray-traced HairWorks, improved skin rendering, and changes to bloom, motion blur, reflections, and ambient lighting. Signs and skills have also received updated visual effects. Here is the full list of changes:
- Implemented an improved shading model.
- Updated multiple textures and models based on assets from The Witcher 3 HD Reworked Project.
- Improved lighting and shading for grass and foliage.
- Updated the visual effects of Signs, including their upgrade versions.
- Added new visual effects for skills.
- The game now features native DirectX 12 rendering with multithreading for better performance and visuals.
- Updated tone mapping for improved colors, lighting, contrast and detail.
- Added GTAO (Ground Truth Ambient Occlusion) as a new Screen Space Ambient Occlusion option.
- Updated the HDR calibration panel by adding new options and other improvements.
- Added Ray-Traced HairWorks for improved lighting and shading on hair.
- Improved Motion Blur with a higher-quality, more cinematic look.
- Updated Subsurface Scattering for more natural skin rendering.
- Improved terrain and material rendering for more natural lighting, shadows, reflections, and highlights.
- Implemented new Image-Based Lighting (IBL) for improved ambient lighting and reflections across different environments.
- Reworked Bloom for more improved lighting effects across different environments.
Photo Mode Gets a Major Upgrade
Photo Mode is getting one of the largest expansions in the patch. You can now place characters in a shot, choose their poses and expressions, and control where they look. The update also adds placeable lights and props, weather and time-of-day controls, a first-person camera option, and the ability to save camera presets.
You can change a screenshot’s aspect ratio, hide nearby NPCs, and adjust the intensity of rain or storms. A new confirmation prompt should also help prevent you from accidentally leaving Photo Mode before capturing a shot.
New Accessibility and Quality-of-Life Features
The remaster adds a dedicated Accessibility section and a new Bard’s Ballad preset designed to simplify parts of the game for players who experience mental fatigue or have difficulty concentrating. Its options can be customized and include unlimited gear and boat durability, infinite breath, an item weight toggle, faster boats, and the ability to toggle Witcher Senses without holding a button.
Elsewhere, meditation now plays a timelapse instead of opening a UI screen. The map makes it easier to track quests, while new loot options let you group nearby items into one window and preview them before picking them up. Ukrainian text localization has also been added.
- Improved the skill system. Skills are now organized into a skill tree and each skill has three ranks. Unlocking new skills now requires having the necessary prerequisite skills rather than spending a set number of skill points.
- Rebalanced the skill tree by refining skill bonus values, effects and synergies.
- Renamed some skills to better reflect their effects.
- You can now Reforge your equipment to change its appearance without affecting its stats. Only master craftsmen (Yoana and Hattori) offer this service. Unlock appearances by adding new equipment and crafting diagrams to your inventory. Dyes from Blood and Wine applied to equipment will carry over to the reforged item.
- Polished the combat behavior of all non-boss monsters, including their attack patterns, counterattacks, movement, reactions, flight and the application of effects.
- Cantering and galloping now requires pressing the button instead of holding it.
- Added a new “Horse control input sensitivity” slider in Settings → Controls.
- Improved Roach’s and Geralt’s movement, player control and animations:
- Refined Geralt’s jumping animation so that it feels more natural and polished. Note: This doesn’t affect jump distance and height.
- Added new finisher animations for Geralt.
- Added new idle animations for Geralt.
- Improved Geralt’s ledge climbing, ladder climbing and vaulting animations as well as his speed for more responsive, fluid movement.
- Improved Geralt’s gap closing animations in combat for smoother gameplay.
- Improved target-lock switching when moving the camera in combat.
- Polished animations for mounting and dismounting Roach, as well as cantering and galloping.
Where to Read the Full Witcher 3 Remastered Patch Notes
These are the biggest changes coming with the upgrade, but CD Projekt Red’s full Witcher 3 Remastered patch notes also cover platform-specific features, mod support, and bug fixes. If you want to check every change before returning to the Continent, the complete list is available on the official Witcher website.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered launches on September 29, 2026, for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch 2. According to CD Projekt Red, existing owners can receive the Remastered upgrade for free on qualifying platforms.
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