CD Projekt Red’sThe Witcher 3: Wild Huntis the capstone of the renownedWitcherseries of games and is a beautiful, immersive experience that still captivates new players 6 years later. However,even well-polished gamesare not immune to the curse of bugs, especially games likeThe Witcher 3that are massive in scope.
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Over the years, CD Projekt Red has released a number of patches and updates for the game that have removed both minor and major bugs. However, there aresome crazy glitches stillpresent in the game, and game-breaking older glitches can still be experienced by players who roll back the version of their game.
Updated August 02, 2025 by Erik Petrovich: Witcher 3 glitches are relatively uncommon, but that doesn’t mean it’s free from them. As CD Project Red’s reputation has been tarnished by the release of Cyberpunk 2077 fans of the company are going back to their other titles and discovering that they aren’t as polished as they once thought. Some of the most common glitches in The Witcher 3, like morphed faces, NPCs without heads, and all the countless Witcher 3 glitches to do with Roach, still haven’t been fixed. For as amazing a game as The Witcher 3 is, there is a lot that could be much more finely tuned when it comes to obeying the laws of physics – again, looking at you, Roach.
8Decapitated NPCs…
A common glitch seen in many character-led RPGs is the missing head glitch. Head animations tend to be separated from the rest of the body in most games, so when something goes wrong with the head, it simply disappears leaving the rest of the body and clothes fully intact.
This can be a bit jarring to stumble across, and nobody really knows how to replicate it – some players think it’s a memory issue related to older PCs and gaming consoles. It’s not the most common glitch in the game, but it’s one that you’ll never forget if you happen to come across it.
7…And NPCs With Morphed Expressions
Similar to the decapitated NPCs glitch is the morphed facial expressions bug. Sometimes an NPC’s facial expression modifiers will mess up and show a horribly disfigured version of an otherwise “normal” NPC. This doesn’t happen to Geralt as much inThe Witcher 3, but it does appear to affect a number of NPCs throughout the world.
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This was actually one of the most common glitches in the firstWitchergame, and utterly disturbing NPCs (and Geralt’s own face, even) can frequently be seen in theEnhanced Editionof that first entry. When it comes toWitcher 3glitches, this is one of the most disturbing.
6Roach Defies Physics Suspiciously Often
Some of the most commonly-cited glitches inThe Witcher 3all relate to Roach, Geralt’s trusty steed. When calling Roach he may suddenly appear on top of a rooftop, halfway underground, may come bounding in at light speed from the other side of the map, and has even been seen standing sideways and upside down, waiting for Geralt to somehow mount up.
In more recent years CD Projekt Red has gained a reputation for glitchy games, mostly because of the massive bad press from the shoddy release ofCyberpunk 2077.If this old and common bug hasn’t been fixed yet, it likely never will be.
5Pang Of Conscience Glitch
The Pang of Conscience is a sword found just outside Kaer Morhen in a ruined tower. From the fast travel point in Kaer Morhen, the player must guide Geralt through cliffs and ruins to the south of the fast travel point until they come across a ruined tower opposite a C-shaped stone wall. The player must climb up the ladder of the ruined tower until they reach the top, where they will find a skeleton possessing two items: the Pang of Conscience sword and a note, the Letter of Apology.
Thesword is worth hundredsof gold, but don’t leave the tower yet. Save the game immediately upon looting the skeleton, then load back in. The sword will be re-lootable every time the player reloads, making Geralt’s carry weight the only factor for mass gold-making. This isn’t so much a glitch as one of the many now-patchedWitcher 3exploits, though players can still use the exploit if they roll back their version.
4The Infamous Pearls Glitch
The Pearls glitch was one of the easiest bugs to exploit in the early days ofThe Witcher 3. The player simply had to buy out the stock of Shells and Sea Shells from the merchant in Hierarch Square, located in Novigrad, then dismantle these items at the next door blacksmith for pearls and black pearls. These are worthsignificantlymore than the shells, and all the player has to do to repeat this exploit is wait for 5 days for the merchants to have gold again.
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While this glitch was patched out in the 1.05 update, if you roll back the game version to 1.04 the exploit will still be, well, exploitable. It’s a huge help for end-game purchases but isn’t necessary to continue Geralt’s journey. This won’t break your game literallybut will breakthe gold-making aspects of the game almost totally.
3Xbox Series X Fast Travel
The Witcher 3recently received free graphics updates for newly released versions on next-gen consoles like the Xbox Series X. However, these upgrades come at one cost: the chance to break the fabric of reality. Maybe that’s a bit of an overstatement, but the power of new consoles and gaming PCs ironically seems to be almost too much for older games to handle.
On the Xbox Series X, if the player fast travels anywhere, there is a chance that theincrediblyfast load times will break the world’s loading for a moment. The player will temporarily be trapped in a de-rendered plane of distant blurry polygons until the rest of the game can catch up. Usually, this doesn’t cause any issues, but it has caused some players' games to crash, likely overloaded. It’s still impressive, though, just how fast new consoles' SSDs load the world – even if the game itself needs to catch up.
2The Infamous Beehive Glitch
The Beehive Glitch was perhaps one of the most morally abhorrent glitches found inThe Witcher 3to date, but it was also one of the most effective. In White Orchard, the dwarf blacksmith Willis is just up the road from the rest of the town – and a small beehive. The player had to use the Aard sign to knock down then guide itclose to Willisat his smithy. After setting off the bees, they would kill Willis and leave Geralt all of his loot, including the gold the player recently spent with the dwarf.
All the player had to do then was meditate for an hour, which respawned Willis, where hecould be killed againby the bees. In patch 1.21 the exploit was removed, but if you reinstallThe Witcher 3without this, or subsequent, updates they can experience what is certainly the evilest way to make averyquick buck.
1Stuck In The Ground
Some glitches are just unfixable, tied to either the physics engine or terrain of the world, and have never been patched. One of the most famous glitches is of course Roach standing on top of houses and being where he shouldn’t be, but this ultimately doesn’t break the game. However, one bug that has stayed withThe Witcher 3and breaks the game is getting stuck in the ground.
Whether due to a break in the code for object collision in 3D space, or because of a piece of misaligned terrain, Geralt will sometimes “slip” through the ground and never be able to get back out. The glitch is difficult to replicate and happens seemingly out of nowhere, but it can force a player to restart the game from a previous saveor suffer being 3 feetunder the ground until Geralt’s model decides to pop back out of the ground.
The Witcher 3: Wild Huntis available for PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and 5, and Xbox One and Series X/S.
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