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.