The Witcher 3: How Bad Is Fall Damage & How To Avoid It?

The world of Witcher is filled with many dangers, from drowners roaming the watery depths to various undead creatures bursting from the cursed grounds. With everything said there has never been an adversary as powerful and able to take down Geralt with such ease as height. Considering the fact that Geralt is a mutated human, it’s strange that a flight of stairs or a simple ledge can take him down. Players have noticed how brutal and unrelenting gravity is when it comes to Witcher 3, and thus this post was created. Let’s see how bad fall damage is in Witcher 3 and how to avoid it.

Fall damage in Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt 

I’m sure you’ve noticed that fall damage in The Witcher 3 is brutal at best. Falling 14 feet from a ledge means instant death, it’s not realistic at all. Falling 5 feet can drain half of your health at best. Considering the fact that the world of Witcher is filled with ledges, hills, balconies, and rooftops that you can scale, climb, and jump back and forth on this is inconvenient. 

Geralt, a mutated human that is able to face the most fiercest and powerful monsters that the world has ever seen falls to his death if he falls 14 feet. Just to give you an idea of how brutal the fall damage is I tried to represent it visually as best as I could, this is my health bar after “falling” from that balcony above me.

Meanwhile, don’t even try to mention “realism” or something like that, because, in that very same game where I’m able to break every single bone in my body by falling 2 feet, this happens 

Yes, It would seem that Roach is immune to fall damage, and Geralt a highly advanced mutant is not. Not even a little bit. We need to fight this outrageous injustice, and luckily I have a few solutions for you. 

How do you reduce fall damage in the Witcher 3? 

You can reduce or avoid fall damage altogether through the following means. 

1. You can press jump (or simply spam it as you’re falling) in order to roll to the ground
2. Casting Quen sign will absorb some of the fall damage as well 
3. You can install mods to reduce or eliminate fall damage completely
4. Roach is immune to damage, you can use him for a quick trip down the mountain

Now that we’ve covered the main strategies related to reducing fall damage it’s time to explain them in a bit more detail so let’s go. 

1. Pressing jump while you’re falling should result in Geralt rolling to the ground 

This only works if you time it right and if the height is not too great. Pressing jump when you’re supposed to land will result in Geralt simply rolling and tumbling to the ground. If you, however, decide to jump off a mountain know that this will not work at all, you will still take fall damage it will result in you dying. This only works if you fall from a ledge or a rooftop. 

2. Casting Quen sign will absorb some of the damage 

Quen forms a protective barrier around the Witcher when cast. Before Quen breaks completely it will absorb some of the damage taken, fall damage can be absorbed by Quen as well. Quen is less useful than roll since most of the time you have no idea when exactly you’re going to fall so I recommend casting it when you’re scaling heights or moving about the rooftops and such. It works in theory, but in practice, it’s a bit more difficult to time it right

3. Install mods to reduce or eliminate fall damage

Witcher 3 can be modded and this means that some of the mechanics can be overhauled or eliminated completely. There are several mods available that tamper with the fall damage in Witcher 3 and I’ve decided to include two of them in this post. 

The first mod is called “Reduced Falling Damage.” You can download it by following this link. As the name says this mod does not eliminate fall damage completely it simply aims to make it a bit more realistic so you don’t die while climbing stairs. 

The second mod is a bit more drastic, it eliminates the fall damage completely, you can download the mod from Nexus mods by clicking here. 

4. Use Roach to cushion your fall 

As it turns out Roach is immune to fall damage in some instances and you can utilize it to your advantage. If you fall from the side of a mountain or a cliff while riding Roach you will take no damage as well. However, be careful while using this “trick”, when I’ve tested this “feature” Roach disappeared from under me in several instances. This automatically dismounts Geralt and well, you fall to your death.  

Fall damage in Witcher 3 Next-Gen update 

Even though we’ve given you some really useful tips and tricks on how to combat fall damage, that’s currently a thing of the past with the release of the “next-gen” Witcher 3 update.

The studio was aware of this shortcoming for a long time now and they decided to balance the damage taken when falling, Petter Webber Narrative Director/Lead Quest Designer at CD Project stated as much via Twitter while showcasing the latest improvements implemented in the game.

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