Sometimes the simple life is the one I crave when I fire up The Witcher 3. Go away, warring rulers, meddling mages, and otherworldly elven harbingers of the apocalypse, let me concentrate on being medieval pest control. A modder’s seemingly heard my protestations, having just released a standalone monster hunting mode for the game, which comes with an optional extraction shootery twist if you fancy an extra challenge.
This modded mode’s dubbed Wild Monster Hunt, and is the work of REDkit-armed developer Aeltoth. Drawing inspiration from the hunting grounds of Capcom’s monster hunting series, the mode whisks you off to a new region that’s “roughly the size” of Toussaint from the base game’s Blood and Wine DLC. Here, you find a witcher camp that’ll serve as an upgradeable base to rest at between the procedurally-generated monster hunts which populate the area.
As Aeltoth outlines in this intro doc, starting from the camp, you can take on up to five regular contracts on monsters ranging from Wraiths to Wights at once. After gearing up and exiting the camp, you’re off into the hostile wilds, with the goal of taking down as many beasts as you can or fancy via sword or trap before returning home to collect rewards and prepare to head out again. Every departure sees the landscape refreshed, down to any loot or herbs you’ve picked up.
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Finding your targets won’t always be a walk in the park, with factors like the time, weather, and different biome requirements for monsters influencing when and how you can encounter them. Aeltoth’s worked in a levelling system for the hunts dubbed reputatation, which’ll see you dished out more important milestone contracts every so often. These are tougher, but are the only way of progressing up the mod’s totem pole and earning gear diagrams.
If that’s not enough challenge for you, the modder’s created a “Merciless Path” option, which “turns the mod into a sort of extraction game where gear is lost upon dying. The mod adjusts the rewards when this mod is enabled for somewhat faster progression.”
Regardless of which you pick, these monster hunts are an alternative way of earning crowns and experience you’ll then be able to take back into the base game, though it does look like some of the witcher camp’s various vendors and special forge are designed to act as a semi-closed economy. I assume this is to ensure you do earn the mod’s bounties by taking on its hunts. It might get old fast if the story-free hunts aren’t varied enough, but as a pocket dimension for those who just want to test their fighting skills, it sounds ideal. The modder also has plans to expand it with the likes of new dungeons, regions, and mechanics like a spot of on-the-go distilling in the future.
Wild Monster Hunt requires you to start a new playthrough upon installing, and you can either hop directly into it from the main menu or warp into the region anytime via a signpost in White Orchard. That said, the former option does look to be causing crashes early doors, so the sign might be the better option. Installing looks as simple as dropping the files into your game directory.
