One of the brand new components of Blood and Wine, the newest expansion to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, is Mutations. This is a mechanic used to further augment Geralt’s Witcher abilities. However, in order to put it to use, you must first unlock the ability to do so.
Shortly into the Blood and Wine expansion, players will receive a hand-delivered letter from Yennefer, informing them of a mysterious professor who did research on the Mutations that give Witchers their abilities. She’ll provide you with a map leading you to his secret laboratory’s entrance. This begins the secondary quest “Turn and Face the Strange.”
The quest itself is pretty straightforward, if not a little dangerous. You’ll have to deal with some of a new enemy type, giant centipedes, a bit of swimming with Drowners, and a risky experiment. As long as you remember everything that’s kept you alive this far, you should have no problem dealing with any threats that may be thrown at you.
After completing the myriad objectives, you’ll unlock an entirely new skill tree that can help you become the most powerful warrior out there. Humans will cower in your presence and monsters will avoid you like the plague (or at least die a bit easier).
You can access this new tree by entering the Character menu (where you normally assign abilities) and hitting the appropriate button (Triangle on PlayStation 4, “Y” on Xbox One). This will bring up the new abilities available to you.
To use a Mutation, simply “Research” (the term used for unlocking each) one by paying the appropriate amount of Ability Points and Mutagens necessary. The first level requires two of each, and the price increases as you move up. After unlocking one simply select it to make it active. You can only have one Mutation active at a time, so swap them whenever you need a different approach.
Of course, it would help to know what each one does so you can save up your Ability Points for the ones that suit you most.
