Geralt does not quite begin the game as a blank slate, but he does begin in an undeveloped state. He has access to all of the most basic abilities a witcher can have, but none are refined. In The Witcher 2, you can begin with this “blank slate” Geralt and specialize his abilities in many ways.

This chapter presents a lot of advice and a variety of sample builds for Geralt, but this isn’t a game where the process of leveling up and buying skills is very complicated. When playing on a standard difficulty level, you can easily make a very strong Geralt build by just figuring out what you like to do in fights and investing in skills that let you do that better.

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Geralt begins the game at level 1, with 0 experience. While you can gain experience from simply defeating enemies, the experience gains you earn this way are relatively small. This is not a game where you should go out and shank some monsters when you want to make your main character stronger. Instead, you gain most of your experience (or XP) by completing quests.