Howdy.

First of all let me congratulate you for clicking the topic, that was your first step on the road of becoming a Gwent
Obsessive deckbuilding and card-hoarding are signs of a true Gwentist.

Now, let me give you a seed for discussion and a word of warning when it comes to card collecting.

As many already know, most merchants & traders can be challenged to play Gwent. This includes barkeeps (almost all), alchemists (some) and blacksmiths (a few). This doesn't include travelling traders and a few stationary traders are Gwentophobes as well.

Many non-merchant NPCs can be played as well, e.g. a guy in the garden in Vizima, the loan shark in Novigrad, a patron in the tarven in White Orchard..

And then there are the quest-related gwent players who give the greatest rewards. The gwent tournament players are the hardest (in my opinion Sasha is the hardest npc to beat in the world to most decks) and they cannot be found for a rematch, so enjoy the tournament while it lasts!

Anyways, my focus is on the merchant NPCs who can be played. Every opponent will give you ONE card as a prize the first time you beat them. Afterwards they give you other rewards, ranging from trader trash to useful crafting materials.

Anyways, from my experience playing nearly all merchants in the world, the card they give you the first time is RANDOMLY GENERATED from a pool of cards that changes between players. The quest NPCs, on the other hand, have a fixed card they'll give you when/if you win.

Most merchants have 2 decks they may give you a card from (2 races, that is), and the card can range from a weak card to a hero card. Hero cards are not fixed!

There are only a few non-quest npcs that have a fixed card they'll give you and those cards are usually leader cards.

My statistics (from save-scumming like a true card hoarder!)

The beggar merchant in eastern Novigrad (afaik appears only after completing the first main quest in Novigrad, could be wrong on this):

The first time I played him ever, he gave me Imlerith. IMLERITH! (He's a power 10 monster hero card, and he was my first monster hero at that time)

Afterwards I went to have my hair cut by a drunk barber (you know who I'm talking about..) and wasted about 200 crowns getting back my look. After this I decided to reload my last save because I was so angry at myself for wasting so much money on looking exactly the same as when I entered the barbershop.

Oh well, the save took me back to a point before I played the beggar. I played him again, beat him as I always do~, and you know what he gave me?

... A lousy Scoia'tael scout.

And thus I learned the hard way that most merchants have an EITHER a rng or a percentage drop from a set pool containing cards from 2 decks (races).

Up to this point I haven't gotten my Imlerith back and the cards I've gotten are quite random from 2 decks. Either it's all up to chance in the rng, or there's a lower percentage drop for hero cards / good cards.

Tested it further with a couple of npcs (a trader in blackbough and the innkeep in the Silver Cat Inn), continuing the trend. I see a lot of the same cards from the alchemist east of Novigrad, for one. Unfortunately for me those cards are low level Scoia'tael or weather cards.. If he's any indication there's either a limited amount of cards in the rng (not the whole deck, this seems the most plausible), or there's a very high percentage for certain cards to be given.

So if you get a good card from a merchant, QUICKSAVE! Or at least don't treat it as business as usual!

Sorry for the long post! Hope this info stands true in the future and that it helps at least somebody! I can't be the only hoarder out there!

EDIT: Now got a neutral card, Villentretenmerth, from him. This story got a happy ending - feel he's more valuable to me than Imlerith at the moment. Maybe I'll get Imlerith from someone from Skellige, I haven't gotten that far yet.

Got Imlerith from that same alchemist now. Phew. Took at least 15 tries. I know, I was bored.

Anyway, questions still sort of unanswered about the gwent card drop system..

Will there ever be a 2nd card given if you play the merchant many times? Seems unlikely.

Will the deck you play affect the card drops and the RNG/Percentage biases / card pools?

Of course the NPCs won't drop cards that quests have already given ("unique" cards), but can I for example get a 2nd Imlerith? Seems unlikely. And if I didn't get an Imlerith right now, would I have gotten it via an innkeeper's trade later on with a higher likelihood?

Anyway, unless someone (like me) really is hunting for the perfect gwent deck, these aren't that interesting things to be talking about. I understand that.

Especially since right now there are no hard gwent opponents anywhere.. I can beat nearly anybody with my nilfgaardian spy deck - although I really love playing with a handicap and removing my spies / playing with scoia'tael. My monster deck is still in its infancy.

Hope the non-free DLC released in the future will have more gwent npcs. I miss playing Sasha & the other tournament npcs already..

[Card location SPOILER]

I didn't play Gwint/Gwent at all in my first playthrough -- found it very annoying. But I have just started a new play session and decided I will give it a go, so I came across this guide to the cards while looking for a guide on how to play the damned game.

I think Villentretenmerth is a better card anyway. Sure that hero is 10 points and can't be countered, but it also doesn't benefit from horns. Villentretenmerth can be added to every deck, and has an ability that can easily turn the tables on a round. On top of that, decoy lets you use his special ability more than once if you want to.

I had a lot of the same questions about gathering cards. I was hoping the cards you get at random were from a pool that is a size equal to the number of card givers, and each time you win a random card it gets removed, so the same card can't be won again unless it has duplicates in the pool. If it isn't set up in a way similar to this, and you can play through without winning every card, mods will probably make it so the random players can be played for cards repeatedly.

SPOILER ALERT










There is a guide ingame. Its a book, in loot. It does seem to show some stats, in realtime, regarding your current accumulated collection vs the possible rng lootomatic cards left to discover.

Did you do the secondary quests in Novi, around Zoltan and Dandelion npc? Cannot remember exact quest, but they yield about 4 cards. So does that quest with 1000 entry fee, up in fancy bar with the slutty giggalos. I missed that one, myself. I did finish the quest, it is doable.

Elf in fairgrounds has a few cards. His reward card is not in list. 8pt artillery, Ssrilla, or something like that.

Elf in the Fairgrounds, yeah, I think that's what I meant before when I said elf at the Carnie. I bought 3 cards and won another playing him.

Back to your previous question, yes, I did the "Dagerous Game" with Zoltan as well played him, which triggered "'Ol Pals" quest. Dandelion "Poet In Distress" quest did not yeild a card whe I played Precilla.

I ventured to travel to the Ofeiri merchant, part of HOS, even though i was 6 lvl below, to see if he was selling cards. Indeed i was able to purchase 3 cards. but the magic book still says 4 cards in Novigrad.

So, I went ahead and enter the tournament. That's where i get a card in 4 matches. All Leader card. "Collect 'Em All" completed after the match.

i have to cheat though. I couldn't get pass the halfling. So, I reloaded our match, 3 times, until I found the right deck arrangement. I removed some, replaced it, and added 1. Contrary to the original poster, To me that halfling gave me the hard fight, Sasha, i beat her on the second round.. The elf almost got me. the final match, I forgot the guys name, was easy as well, but, we still had gotten to the third round.

Tip: Up in the attick, at the barn where the wedding was held, in HOS. There's a special card, I think it's meant for Monster faction. It's a cow. make sure you climb the attick during the wedding.

Finished my collect um all, too. However..
While playing Madman Lugos in Ske, I saw him play two Werewolves, at once, against me. I only have one. How many do you have? His had same pic, both 5 power. I have other types of 5 power, monster cards. But just 1 werewolf.
Card I would like to see is Wham-wham or Bart in next patch. Trolls, maybe.. Ranged. And of course, some more Elf flexibility.. possibilby a Siege and Melee agility. For dorf defenders, all those ordinary melee dorfs are kinda weak, once the uniques come into a players scoi deck. .02

i'm not sure, but i'll take a look. but more likely there only supposed to be one werewolf.

this gwent thing in the game kinda acting up weird I noticed.

like when i was playing in high stake quest, the opponent can pick up "mysterious elf" i laid on their side of the board with decoy card.

and there was a time several cards have double their strength from the time it's been drawn at the beginning of the game to the it was laid on the board. and placing battle horn doubled the already double value.

Ya. I finally got the Leader cards to retrieve a "card" from my discard pile, and it would not let me retrieve a noncreature card. Only working on critter cards is a big thing, to omit in card description.

I do not like that mysterious elf, is melee. He should be ranged, in keeping with elf bow using lore.

It will be hard for you to check my claim, unless you find a list of the his cards in a specific npc deck in a file, because we play him once, in a quest.

I have found, betting 1, playing and losing, to learn which realm his deck is a big help. Then replaying, betting big, with an opposing realm, guaranteed to win, with antiweather in it. Each npc should have multiple decks, and far more variety, in artwork, on the cards.

Fewer neutral cards. They are over powered, OP. Dandelion in Monster deck, with leader to dig him up, is a shoein victory, unless vs a bitter frost deck. Especially if he lingers for next battle, using the Monster skill, letting player use him twice!

Mad Lugos must cheat. He had em both in his melee line. Wierd.

http://www.twinstickgaming.com/2015/06/01/witcher-3-how-to-get-all-gwent-cards-guide-and-walkthrough/

Only shows one werewolf, is possible for us to get.

i was playing gwent earlier in Beauclaire, the armorer dropped two Villentretenmerth card on the first round, there's suppose to be one of this card just like the werewolf

I think they haven't cleaned up all the bugs in this game. Like when I'm doing combat, a lot of times geralt would switch from combat to normal mode (meaning he stops striking like the combat is over, and just stand in position and takes damage) then switch to combat mode again.