The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was released back in June 2015 but proves to still be a reliable money earner to this day. The game launched to critical acclaim and is commonly regarded as one of the best RPGs ever made. Its world is a large, sprawling dark-fantasy universe in an open-world format that doesn't suffer the bloat those kinds of games tend to get nowadays.
Wild Hunt has a PS5/XSX remaster on the way, but there are plenty of mods available for players to make the current version an even smoother and streamlined experience today. Several of its mods adjust things from more friendly user interfaces to gameplay overhauls.
Fast Travel From Anywhere
The vanilla version of the game has its built-in fast travel system, but to try and make it a more immersive mechanic, it's only available from reaching signposts. It's understandable and given the fact that Roach can be called upon at nearly any time, it's not a huge inconvenience. Nonetheless, the Fast Travel From Anywhere mod by JupiterTheGod does exactly as states, making things much more convenient by allowing players to ignore signposts.
It's a straightforward mod that makes a big difference, as it gives more freedom to exploration since players don't have to account for a long trip back to a fast travel point. Note to players that this mod can create some bugs with a few quests (including a mainline quest), so researching fixes ahead of time is recommended.
All Quest Objectives On Map
Wolfmark's All Quest Objectives on Map isn't as big as fast traveling from any point on the map, but it's another simple touch that makes traversing The Witcher 3 more comfortable. This mod adds all points of interest to Geralt's map at all times. It could be up to preference since it's reasonable to think it makes the map far too cluttered--something akin to Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed and Far Cry games.
However, it saves the trouble of having to remember where certain merchants and the likes can be found, especially when navigating dense urban cities like Novigrad. Pairing this with easy fast traveling is a great quality-of-life adjustment like what Skyrim's vast mod selection has done for it. Even better, the mod can be customized to show or hide different icons to help avoid clutter, as well as provide brief quest descriptions.
Over 9000 - Weight Limit Mod
An equipment weight/encumbrance system can be a divisive feature. On one hand, it can be seen as an interesting way to get players to think about inventory management and also an immersive way to ground the experience. However, it can also come across as a needless annoyance to others within the context of simply playing a game.
GiecuMan's Over 9000 - Weight Limit Mod mostly rids of this limitation by driving up the weight value to 9,000. The Witcher 3--and RPGs in general--have a tendency to invite players to grab many consumables and gear they find in the game's world, so this mod is important for those who want to loot items without worry.
Auto Apply Oils
One of the more creative twists to the combat in The Witcher 3 is gathering oils to combine for Geralt's weapons. The right concoctions are meant to be effective against specific types of monsters, offering a satisfying sense of strategy.
However, as engaging as this mechanic can be, rifling through Geralt's inventory every time when players try to focus on the task at hand can get frustratingly repetitive. Auto Apply Oils by SheepDarklord takes that out of the equation by automatically applying the best possible oils within Geralt's inventory upon entering a combat sequence.
Friendly HUD
The Witcher 2 has a similar heads-up-display mod, and it's no wonder it would work even better in The Witcher 3. The different HUD elements on the screen while playing definitely show important information, but can admittedly feel too cluttered. This is especially notable since The Witcher 3, six years later, is still a gorgeous-looking game.
And for a rich fantasy world, players will want it shown off to its maximum potential. Wasteland Ghost's Friendly HUD mod is a highly customizable one, as it lets players should what parts of it to download and install according to what the player prefers to be on-screen--or not.
TradeMan
Having in-game merchants with limited and variable refresh rates of funds on hand to buy from and sell to Geralt is, at least on paper, a good way to engage the player in the world and citizens. It grounds things to make this dark fantasy universe feel more real, but it can be a nuisance when the player wants to buy/sell from a town vendor only for them to be short on crowns to do one or the other.
TradeMan, also by GiecuMan, makes this process smoother by having merchants have more funds available so Geralt doesn't need to travel to the next available town. Like Friendly HUD, it's also customizable, letting players adjust how often vendors refresh crowns, how much their initial and max funds can be, how much their goods are worth, and how much Geralt's goods are worth.
The Witcher 3 HD Reworked Project
While it's no doubt that the vanilla version of The Witcher 3 is a visual stunner--and doesn't need refreshers the same way mods can do for the original The Witcher game--things can look even better. The upcoming remaster for the third game is coming sometime next year, but HalkHogan's The Witcher 3 HD Reworked Project makes the game even more graphically impressive.
This mod touches up the game's many textures and models to make characters and environments throughout the Continent feel even cleaner and more detailed. Colors and resolutions make the world more vibrant and lush.
The Witcher 3 Enhanced Edition
While the combat is solid enough in the game, it's one of its weakest points that the remaster for The Witcher 3 will hopefully address. But in the here and now, players can still retool the current version's combat mechanics with The Witcher 3 Enhanced Edition by the mod's dedicated W3EE Mod Team.
It's impressive how wide the scope of it is, as it's a total top-to-bottom overhaul of the existing combat system to make things far more exciting. It includes other changes, but combat is the most notable, especially for removing auto-aim. Geralt now has to manually aim each attack, which increases challenge but creates more thrilling opportunities to dismantle enemies. Along with those opportunities are new flashy animations to make them possible, too.
Indestructible Items
Degradation of armor and weapons in RPGs is another immersion factor, but it makes sense as to why players, at least after repeated playthroughs, would rather not worry about that level of equipment management. It can be a bummer being far and away from the nearest town and in the middle of a fight, only to see Geralt's weapons and armor breaking in dire moments.
Indestructible Items by SunBroDave is another simple tweak with big differences by just removing that feature altogether. From installation onward, armor and weapon durability will remain at 100 percent. If the player's gear was already degrading prior to installation of the mod, it goes back up to 100 after fighting/getting hit while having the gear equipped.
Increased Creature Loot
Considering that The Witcher 3 is set within the premise of a famous bounty and monster hunter, the spoils left behind are somewhat few and far between and players still have to deal with the possibility of getting the near-useless generic drops--if anything drops at all. Increased Creature Loot by mindkiller316 fixes that with a flexible choice of how much loot creatures drop.
Players can once again choose different versions of the mod that allow the choice of whether creatures drop 2-3, 2-4, or 3-5 extra items. Or they can opt for the basic version of the mod that doesn't give any extra loot but does guarantee that there will always be something. A useful mod for hunting drops for crafting or selling.