Substances

Substances are the active components in the main ingredients used to create potions, oils, and bombs. The ingredients can come from plants, minerals or animals. There are two kinds of substances: basic and additional.

In The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

In The Witcher 3 there has been a return to the same ingredients as the first game. The former "secondary" substances, albedo, nigredo and rubedo are now of equal importance to the "primary" substances and mutagens are included as well. Additionally, all substances can now be brewed from more basic alchemical ingredients.

Substances

Aether	Albedo	Hydragenum	Nigredo	Quebrith	Rebis	Rubedo	Vermilion	Vitriol

Mutagens

Blue mutagens			Green mutagens			Red mutagens
Lesser	Normal	Greater	Lesser	Normal	Greater	Lesser	Normal	Greater

In The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

There are no secondary alchemical substances in The Witcher 2.

Basic substances

Vitriol	Rebis	Aether	Quebrith	Hydragenum	Vermilion	Sol	Caelum	Fulgur

In The Witcher computer game

Basic substances

The basic (or primary) substances include Vitriol, Rebis, Aether, Quebrith, Hydragenum and Vermilion. They are the basic building blocks of all bombs, oils and potions. For more specific information, just click on any of the icons below.

Vitriol	Rebis	Aether	Quebrith	Hydragenum	Vermilion

Additional substances

Additional (or secondary) substances include Albedo, Nigredo and Rubedo. Having all the ingredients in a single potion containing the same additional substance provides additional benefits not present in basic potions. For more specific information, just click on any of the icons below:

Albedo	Nigredo	Rubedo

Note: There is no benefit to leveraging these additional substances for oils, bombs or mutagenic potions. They are only of use in regular potions which Geralt takes to enhance his fighting and/or healing abilities. There is also no benefit derived from making White Gull with a dominant additional substance as its effects do not transfer to the resulting potion.