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I figure that I am doing something wrong, because most of the Drowners that I find take nearly zero damage from my sword, and the only way to kill them is to dodge until Igni reloads. Is that normal? Maybe I'm doing something wrong. The game isn't as fun because of that

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    Enhanced Necrophage oil on the best silver sword you can equip.
    – Alan B
    Commented Sep 6, 2021 at 16:20
  • Igni is not necessarily the best strategy with drowners, even though they are susceptible to it. With swarming enemies (drowners, nekkers, wolves, etc.) sometimes it's more important to watch your back. Try quen instead of igni so you don't die from being attacked from behind and then just keep hacking with fast attacks. Be sure to recast quen every time it breaks.
    – Joel Brown
    Commented Sep 6, 2021 at 18:52
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    In The Witcher 3, your power improves with your levels, and your gear. But alas, monsters barely give you any XP at this point, while quests propel you to the next level in no time. I know that exploration is very tempting, but this soon in the game, try to stick to quests until you're at least level 5 and have appropriate levelled gear.
    – Olivier Grégoire
    Commented Sep 7, 2021 at 9:51

3 Answers 3

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You’re likely using the wrong sword. Geralt carries two swords, one is made of steel and the other is made of silver. The steel sword is for human enemies and beasts, while the silver sword is used for fighting monsters.

Your Witcher will automatically draw the correct sword for an engagement, but you can overwrite that by manually drawing your sword before moving into combat range. You may also be switching to the wrong sword because you perhaps think it’s better than the one he unsheathed.

Lastly, check both your game difficulty and the monster bestiary to see if you can make combat easier for yourself by both lowering the difficulty and by using oils, poisons, and other consumables before the fight.

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    I have just finished the game (again) on Death March and even at this difficulty you shouldn't be doing "nearly zero" if you're using the right sword. The problem is either using the wrong sword (or not using one at all) or OP is facing overleveled drowners.
    – ihavenoidea
    Commented Sep 7, 2021 at 16:18
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    I was indeed using the wrong sword. I actually didn't know the difference between swords. Either the game didn't explain that or I missed it
    – andrerpena
    Commented Sep 12, 2021 at 10:53
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In addition to what @PausePause said, you should make sure the enemies you're fighting aren't too high-level for you.

You can easily check by looking at the color of the number to the left of the enemy's health bar. According to the game manual:

8. Enemy Health Bar: Displays the currently targeted enemy’s name, level, and remaining health. The health bar’s color indicates the targeted enemy’s type: silver indicates an enemy of magic origin, red indicates all other enemy types. The number to the left of the bar shows the enemy’s level. If you are 5 or more levels above the enemy, the number will be gray. If you are within 4 levels of the enemy, the number will be green. If the enemy is 5 or more levels above you, the number will be red. A skull near the health bar indicates the enemy is a major threat.

Emphasis mine.

Here are a few examples of what this looks like:

Green
Green level

Red
Red level

Skull
Skull level

Enemies far above your own level receive very little damage, unless you're striking their weakness. Drowners are supposed to be among the weakest of monsters, so you may have wandered into an area that's beyond your current level. This means that every enemy — not just Drowners — will be difficult to defeat.

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    I haven't found downers to be particularly easy, compared to other frequent enemies. Even at low level they are hard to parry due to their sheer number and speed, and they do a decent amount of damage.
    – Konrad Rudolph
    Commented Sep 6, 2021 at 15:24
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    Parrying when you're getting mobbed is probably the wrong tactic: better to dodge and move somewhere you're not surrounded (and/or use ard & igni for crowd control)
    – Useless
    Commented Sep 6, 2021 at 17:09
  • I only parry humanoids. I dodge all monsters.
    – muad-dweeb
    Commented Sep 7, 2021 at 20:28
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You have 2 swords: the steel one and the silver one. The silver sword is for killing monsters. Geralt should pull the correct sword out automatically. Check if you manually pulled out the wrong weapon.

The start of The Witcher 3 is pretty rough. Basically you need to follow the main story line until you have gained some levels; the level requirement of the next main line quest may be too high for you. Before this point, every monster is tough for Geralt.

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    Agreed. When I play Witcher 3 I always just do the lowest-level quest I have. The game ends up being easy that way.
    – MackTuesday
    Commented Sep 6, 2021 at 20:35
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    Something to note on this - you primarily level by doing main story quests. Side content has minimal impact on level
    – Pingcode
    Commented Sep 7, 2021 at 12:17

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