Witcher 4 First Hours Walkthrough: Step-by-Step Opening Guide for Kovir

The boat hits the Valdrest docks at dawn and the camera pans across Kovir's harbor. Seagulls. Fog rolling off the canals. A notice board with about six contracts pinned to it. This is where most players freeze up.

Do I explore the city? Chase the main quest marker? Check the contracts?

I went with the main quest marker my first time through. It was fine, honestly. But I missed a silver sword upgrade that would've made the first witcher contract way less painful. Here's what I'd do differently.

Hour 1: Valdrest Landing

Don't leave the docks immediately. There's a merchant by the crane who sells a basic silver sword for a price that seems high but isn't. Silver weapons are scarce in the opening areas and the starting steel sword won't cut it against wraiths. Buy it if you can afford it. If you're short on coin, sell the gem dust from the tutorial section. You won't need it for crafting until much later.

Talk to the harbormaster. He mentions something about a shipment gone missing north of the city. That's not a quest marker. It's environmental storytelling. Head north anyway.

There's a chest with a Lesser Glyph of Yrden tucked behind some crates near the lighthouse. Yrden is Ciri's most important early Sign. It slows enemies enough to let you land chain attacks without trading hits. Simple as that.

Before moving inland, stop at the Valdrest inn. The innkeep sells Gwent cards, including a Lynx School scout card that's easy to miss. Buy the cards first, then talk to her about the notice board. This order matters. She mentions a contract that isn't on the board yet, and you get a dialogue option that leads to a small discount on room prices. Not a huge deal, but early game coin is tight.

Hour 2-3: First Witcher Contract

The notice board has three contracts. Take them all, but start with the drowner swarm near the canal warehouses.

Reason being: drowners are the tutorial enemy. They drop brain tissue for Swallow potions. The contract pay covers your silver sword investment. Three birds, one contract.

Before heading out, brew Tawny Owl. You get the formula during the tutorial but the game doesn't force you to craft it. Tawny Owl's stamina regen makes Elder Blood abilities usable early on. Without it, you spend half the fight waiting for stamina to tick back. Kind of miserable.

At the warehouse, don't charge into the water. Drowners in Witcher 4 have a new lunge attack that tracks your dodge if you roll early. Wait for the lunge animation, dodge sideways, not backward, hit twice with silver, then back off. Repeat. If three surround you, use Aard to create space.

Something I noticed: Aard's knockback on drowned enemies near water has a bonus stagger. They stumble for an extra second. The game doesn't tell you this anywhere.

The contract reward includes a crafting diagram for Drowner Oil. Apply it immediately. Blade oils in Witcher 4 work differently than Wild Hunt. They have limited charges but can be re-applied mid-combat from the quick menu. The animation is about half a second, so you can squeeze it in between dodges.

Hour 4: The First Choice That Matters

After the drowner contract, the main quest sends you to Lan Exeter's canal district. Before you go, talk to the blacksmith in Valdrest. He mentions a stolen shipment of dimeritium. Follow this thread.

This is a small side quest that takes about 20 minutes. It rewards a steel sword with a Sign intensity bonus. Plus 8% to all Sign effects. For an early game Ciri build, that's massive.

The quest itself involves tracking a thief through the Valdrest market and making a dialogue choice at the end. If you let the thief go, you get the sword. If you turn him in, you get coin. Take the sword. Coin is replaceable. Early Sign bonuses are not.

Hour 5-6: Entering Lan Exeter

Lan Exeter is built on canals. This means most of your travel early on is by boat or narrow bridges. It also means drowners and a new enemy type: the water hag.

Nasty things, those.

Water hags throw mud that blinds you. Ciri doesn't have a Quen bubble to hide behind. Your best bet: Yrden trap on the ground near where the hag surfaces, then chain pull when she's caught. The chain staggers hags out of their mud-throw animation. Once they're in melee range, they're squishy.

There's an alchemy vendor in the canal district who sells the formula for Golden Oriole. Buy it even if you don't need poison resistance yet. The price goes up as you progress. You'll want Golden Oriole before entering the northern swamps around hour 15. Trust me on this one.

Around this point, you'll also unlock the first Elder Blood ability upgrade. The game gives you a choice between extending blink-dash range or adding a stagger effect to dash-through. The stagger effect sounds cooler but the range extension is more practical. It lets you close distance on archers and crossbow enemies who'll otherwise chip you down from range.

Hour 7+: Opening Up

By now, you should have a silver sword, a decent steel sword, Swallow and Tawny Owl potions, Drowner Oil, and the basic Sign glyphs slotted. You've got options.

The main quest points you toward the capital's upper district. But the game world opens up significantly here. You can take on higher-level contracts in the surrounding farmlands. You can start exploring the coastline for hidden treasure. Look for seagull circles. Not kidding. Circling seabirds mark sunken chests. Or you can push the main story.

I pushed the main story. The boss at the end of the opening act is a leshen-type creature. It telegraphs its attacks clearly but hits hard enough to two-shot you if your armor is still the starting gear. Before that fight, check every armor vendor in Lan Exeter for medium armor pieces.

The School of the Lynx favors medium armor. Its stamina regen balance is spot on. Having even two medium pieces makes the leshen fight feel fair instead of frustrating. I died three times in starter armor. Beat it first try with medium gear.

That's the opening stretch. Seven hours, one region, and enough foundation that the mid-game doesn't feel like a wall. The only thing I'd emphasize again: brew your potions early, buy Gwent cards when you see them, and don't be too proud to run from a water hag at level 4.