The Witcher III: Wild Hunt Complete Edition

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was recently upgrade to the PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 5 Digital Edition. If you have the Complete Edition of this open-world role-playing game but are currently experiencing a lot of crashing and freezing, then you can take a look at this troubleshooting article from Seeking Tech.  

1. For the first step, we recommend touching your PS5 and PS5 Digital Edition. If it feels hot, then the overheating console may be causing The Witcher III: Wild Hunt Complete Edition to crash. 

If you believed that this is the case, then we recommend turning off your console and then unplugging its power cord from the wall. Afterwards, let the PS5 cool down at room temperature before plugging it back into the wall socket again. 

Furthermore, we recommend repositioning the console to allow for more air flow so that it won’t overheat again in the future. To find out more about how you can prevent this gaming system from getting too hot, you can check out this post.  

Once your system has cooled down, turn it back on and then start playing The Witcher 3 again to see if it will still crash. 

2. If the console storage or M.2 storage where you have The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition installed on is too full, then that may be causing performance and/or crashing issues. 

Therefore, you should make sure you have at least 10% of free space remaining on these storage options.  

3. The Ray Tracing Frame Rate Mode may also be causing the game to crash; thus, you may want to switch over to Performance. 

In order to do so, you need to do the following: 

• While playing The Witcher III: Wild Hunt Complete Edition on your PlayStation 5, press the Options button to bring up the Options menu. 
• From there, you need to go to Display. 
• You then need to select Graphics from the Display menu. 
• After getting inside the Graphics menu, you need to make sure that the Frame Rate Mode is set to Performance. 

4. You can also try clearing the cache and rebuilding the database of your PS5.  

You can find both of these options by opening the Safe Mode menu. To get there, turn off your console and then hold the power button until you hear a second beep. 

Afterwards, connect your controller to the PS5 by using a USB cable and then press the PS button. You should be able to select Clear System Software Cache and Rebuild Database afterwards.  

5. Of course, you should also make sure that you keep The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition updated.  

To check to see if a new patch is available, move the cursor to the game’s icon in the home screen menu of your PlayStation 5. You should then select the Check for Update option to see if there is a new version available to download. 

6. Furthermore, you should also keep your PS5 system software firmware up to date. To check, you need to go to the home screen of the console and then select Settings > System > System Software > System Update and Settings > Update System Software > Update Using Internet.

The Witcher III: Wild Hunt Complete Edition uses a close-up camera angle on the PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 5 Digital Edition so that players will get a better look with the improved visual fidelity of the next-gen upgrade. 

If you think that the new camera angle is making exploration and/or combat more difficult, then you can take a look at this guide to see how you can move it back so that you can a wider view of the area surrounding the character.  

Method #1 

For the first method, you can use the main menu. You can get there when you open The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition on your PS5’s home screen.  

Alternatively, you can press the Options button on the DualSense controller to pause the game while you are playing it and then select Quit to Main Menu. Afterwards, select OK when asked if you are sure you want to quit as you may lose any unsaved progress.  

From the main menu, you need to select Options > Gameplay. From the Gameplay menu, scroll down until you see the following settings: 

• Exploration Camera Distance 
• Combat Camera Distance 
• Horseback Camera Distance 

To move the camera angle back of these settings, make sure you set them to Default instead of Close.  

Keep in mind that you will be able to mix and match these camera settings. So, for example, you will be able to keep the camera up close during exploration or horseback racing while being able to zoom out when you are engaging the enemies during combat. Therefore, you should play around with these settings to see which combinations you prefer.

Method #2 

You can also change the camera distance while you are playing Witcher III on your PS5.  

In order to do so, you need to first press Options on your controller. By doing so, you should be able to pause the game and bring up its Options menu. From there, you need to head into Gameplay. 

After getting to the Gameplay menu, you will be able to zoom the camera outwards by setting Exploration Camera Distance, Combat Camera Distance and/or Horseback Camera Distance to default.

You should now be able to play The Witcher III: Wild Hunt at 60 frames per second on your PlayStation 5 or PlayStation 5 Digital Edition console. To do so, you need to enable performance mode.  

If you can’t find this mode in the menus of the open-world role-playing game, then you can take a look at this troubleshooting article from Seeking Tech. 

The reason why you aren’t seeing the performance mode is due to the fact that you are playing the PlayStation 4 version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt or The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition on your PS5 or PS5 Digital Edition system.  

Both of these iterations do not have an option where you can play the RPG at 60 fps even if you update them to patch version 4.0 or higher. Instead, you need to download the native PlayStation 5 version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition. 

The good news is that the next-gen upgrade is free if you already own The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt or The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition on PS4.  

If you previously own a disc copy of the PlayStation 4 version, then make sure you have the disc linked to your PlayStation Network account. To do so, you simply need to install it to the console storage of your console previously. With that said, you will need to keep this disc in the disc drive of your PS5 in order to play the next-gen upgrade. 

For the digital version, you need to make sure that you have the PS4 version of Witcher 3 linked to your PSN account. 

If you have a hard time trying to get the next-gen upgrade of the game for free, then you can take a look at this tutorial. 

If the upgrade is done correctly, you should be able to find The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition with the PS5 label on the home screen of your PlayStation 5 or PlayStation 5 Digital Edition console.

This version should contain the performance mode you are looking for. 

How to enable performance mode for Witcher 3 on PS5 

Once you managed to upgrade to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition on your PlayStation 5, you have two ways to enable performance mode. 

The first is by using the main menu of the game. From there, you need to select Options > Display > Graphics. Afterwards, you need to make sure that Frame Rate Mode is currently set to Performance. 

You can also change the graphical settings while playing the RPG. In order to do so, you must first press the Options button on the DualSense in order to pause the action and bring up the Options menu. From there, you should select Display > Graphics. You should then make sure that Frame Rate Mode is set to Performance from the Graphics menu. 

When trying to load a save file from the PlayStation 5 version of The Witcher III: Wild Hunt Complete Edition, you may notice that some of your manual and/or auto saves are missing or deleted.  

To see how you can potentially fix this issue, you can take a look at this troubleshooting article from Seeking Tech. 

1. If you are using the Crossing Progression feature for this game, then you may have been signed out of your GoG account. As a result, the save data you have stored on the cloud servers may be lost. 

In order to recover them, you need to sign back into your GoG account from within The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition. In order to do so, you need to take the following steps: 

• Open the game on your PlayStation 5 if you haven’t done so already.  
• In the main menu, you need to select Load Game.  
• From the Load Game menu, press the L2 button to enable Cross Progression.  
• You should now see the Connect Your Profile screen. Visit the link provided here on a web browser. 
• On the webpage, you should see the My Rewards screen. Here, you need to select Claim. 
• Afterwards, log into your GoG account. 
• You should now see the Your Rewards screen in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition. Here, you need to press X to Accept them and sign into your GoG account in the game. 
• Back in the main menu, select the Load Game option again. 

2. If you are using cross save, then you should make sure that you properly transfer the save from the PlayStation 4 version of The Witcher III: Wild Hunt to the complete edition on the PlayStation 5. 

If you are having problems doing so, then you can take a look at this troubleshooting guide. 

3. You can also try downloading your backup save files from the PlayStation Plus cloud servers if you previously uploaded them by doing the following: 

• Go to the home screen of your PS5. You can do so by long pressing the PS logo button on your DualSense.  
• In the home screen, move the cursor over to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition. 
• With the game highlighted, press the Options button on the controller.  
• In the pop-up menu, you then need to select Upload/Download Saved Data. 
• After getting to the Upload/Download Saved Data screen, you then need to select the Download option. 

4. Currently, The Witcher III: Wild Hunt Complete Edition is a little bit buggy. In addition to missing save files, the game is also suffering from a few other notable glitches. 

Therefore, we recommend that you don’t play the game at all until a new update is available to address lost saved data.  

To see if there is a new patch available, press the Options button with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition highlighted on the home screen of your PS5. Afterwards, you need to select the Check for Update option.

When playing The Witcher III: Wild Hunt Complete Edition on your PlayStation 5 or PlayStation 5 Digital Edition, you may notice that there is a bit of delay in between your button presses and the corresponding actions that appear on the screen. 

To see how you can potentially lower the latency for this open-world role-playing game, you can take a look at this guide from Seeking Tech. 

1. For the first step, make sure you have Game Mode, Game Optimizer Mode or a similarly named picture setting enabled on your television set.  

By doing so, you will get the lowest input possible for the screen when it comes to playing games. 

2. We also recommend using the Performance Frame Rate Mode in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition as it makes the game run at up to 60 frames per second as opposed to 30 frames per second. The smoother experience should also help reduce the input delay.  

In order to change the Frame Rate Mode, you need to do the following: 

• While playing The Witcher 3, press the Options button (which has the three horizontal lines icon at the top) on the DualSense controller. 
• From the Options menu, you need to select Graphics. 
• Next, you should make sure that Frame Rate Mode is set to Performance.  

3. If your television or monitor supports Variable Refresh Rate, then you can also try enable this feature on the screen’s settings menu. 

On your PlayStation 5, you then need to head over to the console’s Settings menu and then select Screen and Video > Video Output. Afterwards, make sure that the VRR setting is set to Automatic.  

4. You can also try using the DualSense as a wired controller as the wireless connection may introduce some latency. In order to do so, you need to connect it to your PS5 console via a USB cable. 

Afterwards, you need to open the Settings menu and then select Accessories > Controller (General) > Communication Method > Use USB Cable.

Make sure keep the DualSense connected to the console via the USB cable when playing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition and you should get a more responsive experience. 

5. If you haven’t done so already, make sure you have the latest patch downloaded for the game. Furthermore, you should also have the latest firmware releases installed on your PS5 as well as your screen. 

These new updates to the software and hardware may help with reducing the input delay. 

6. Some screens are better equipped at handling input lag when compared to others.  

Therefore, you can try connecting your PlayStation 5 or PlayStation 5 Digital Edition to another television set or monitor to see if you are able to decrease the latency.

When playing The Witcher III: Wild Hunt Complete Edition on your PlayStation 5 or PlayStation 5 Digital Edition console, you may notice that the game may run a little choppy in some instances.  

To see how you can potentially fix these frame rate stutters, you can take a look at this troubleshooting article from Seeking Tech.  

1. To start off, you may want to change the Frame Rate Mode of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition to Performance.  

While you will miss out on ray tracing, you should end up getting a smoother running game as a result since the frame rate should go as high as 60 fps as opposed to 30 fps.  

In order to do so, you need to take the following steps: 

• While playing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition on your PlayStation 5, press the Options button on the DualSense to pause the game and open the Options menu.  
• You should then select Display from the Options menu. 
• Afterwards, select Graphics from the Display menu. 
• On the Display screen, make sure the Frame Rate Mode is set to Performance. 

2. If your television set or monitor supports Variable Refresh Rate, then you can try enabling this feature from the screen’s settings menu.  

You can then turn on VRR on your PS5 by going to Settings > Screen and Video > Video Output > VRR. Afterwards make sure that VRR is set to Automatic. 

3. At launch, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition is a little bit buggy, including suffering from frame rate issues. Therefore, we recommend checking to see if there are any new updates available.  

In order to do so, hover over the game’s icon in the home screen menu of your PlayStation 5 and then press the Options button. In the small window menu, you should then select the Check for Update option. 

A new patch for the game may make the game run smoother. 

4. While you are updating the game, you should also check to see if there is a new firmware available for your PS5 as it may help improve the overall performance of the gaming system.  

To check, you need to go to the Settings menu of your console and then select System > System Software > System Update and Settings > Update System Software > Update Using Internet. 

5. You may notice that the game will hitch or even momentary pause. This is due to the auto-saving feature; so, there is really not much you can do in these scenarios.

The Witcher III: Wild Hunt Complete Edition on PlayStation 5 should come with the with the following expansions: 

• Hearts of Stone  
• Blood and Wine 

If the two DLC packs are missing and/or can’t be accessible, then you can take a look at this troubleshooting article from Seeking Tech. 

1. To start off, make sure you have the correct version of the game downloaded.  

In order to check, hover over the game’s icon on the home screen menu of your PS5 or PS5 Digital Edition console. You should then be able to see the “PS5” label as well as “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition.” 

If you are seeing something else, then you need to head over to The Witcher 3’s product page on the PlayStation Store App of your PS5. From there, select the three dots icon to open a small menu. From there, you can select the Complete Edition.  

If you are having problems trying to download the free next-gen upgrade for The Witcher 3, then you can take a look at this tutorial. 

It is important to note that, even if you never purchased The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Game of the Year Edition or the two major expansions on the PlayStation 4, these DLC packs should still be included when you upgrade to the native PS5 version of the game. 

2. If you still can’t access Hearts of Stone or Blood and Wine in the complete edition, then you can try deleting the game and then re-installing it again. Make sure you wait until the download is completed before you open it. 

3. If you upgrading the game by using a physical disc from the PlayStation 4 version, then you should also make sure that you are downloading the next-gen upgrade on the PlayStation Store from the same region.  

If you have a disc copy of Witcher 3 on PS4 that was made for the United States region, for example, then you may need to download the upgrade from the U.S. PlayStation Store. 

4. Restoring the game licenses for your PlayStation Network account may also help.  

In order to do so, you need to first head over to the Settings menu of your PS5. From there, you need to select Users and Accounts > Restore Licenses > Restore.  

5. If you are able to start from a fresh save for Hearts of Stone or Blood and Wine but your imported save file from the PS4 version won’t load, then you can try doing the following: 

• Download the latest patch for the PS4 version of Witcher 3.  
• Open the PS4 version of Witcher 3 and then make sure you enable Cross Progression.  
• Load the save file you want to transfer over to the PS5 version of the game. 
• Manually save the file and it should automatically be uploaded to the cloud storage from the PS4 version of the game.

• Next, you need to open The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition on PS5. 
• Make sure you have the Cross Progression enabled on the PS5 version as well so that the save file you previously created will be automatically downloaded to the Load Game menu.  
• You should now be able to continue the progress you made in the PS4 version of Hearts of Stone or Blood and Wine in the complete edition upgrade on your PlayStation 5.

When playing The Witcher III: Wild Hunt Complete Edition on your PlayStation 5 or PlayStation 5 Digital Edition console, you may notice that the HDR may look off. Some darker screens may appear to be too dark while brighter screens may be overly bright. Furthermore, the colors may be washed out as well. 

To see how you can fix the HDR display for the native PS5 version of this open-world role-playing game, you can check out this troubleshooting guide from Seeking Tech.  

1. For the first step, we recommend that you re-calibrate the HDR output setting on your PlayStation 5. You can do so by going to the Settings menu of the console and then select Screen and Video > Video Output. 

From the Video Output menu, you first need to make sure that the HDR setting is set to On When Supported. Afterwards, select the Adjust HDR option from the same screen.  

You then need to follow the instructions over the next three screens in order to calibrate your HDR brightness output of the game console to your screen.  

2. In the Video Output menu, you can also try adjusting the RGB Range setting. 

By default, it is set to Automatic (Recommended). You can try changing it to Full or Limited instead to see if you can get a better HDR picture while playing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition. 

3. You can also try adjusting the Gamma output for the game. To do so, you need to take the following steps:  

• While playing The Witcher III on the PS5, press the Options button on the DualSense to pause the game and bring up the Options menu. 
• In the Options menu, select Display.  
• After getting to the Display menu, select Gamma. 
• In the Gamma menu, follow the instructions on screen, which is to move the slider until the image inside of the circle is barely visible.  
• If you prefer to be able to see more in darker scenes, then you can move the slider more to the right. To add more visibility to lighter scenes, you can move the slider more to the left.  
• You may have to slider constantly if your television set is not good enough at displaying darker and/or lighter scenes in order to get the HDR picture to be just right. 

4. A new feature added to the PlayStation 5 version of The Witcher 3 is ray tracing, which may help improve the HDR image quality in certain scenes.  

In order to turn on ray tracing, you need to do the following: 

• Press the Options button on the controller to pause the game and open the Options menu. 
• Select Display from the Options menu. 
• You then need to select Graphics from the Display menu.  
• In the Display menu, select Frame Rate Mode until you see Ray Tracing. 
• By using Ray Tracing, you should get better lighting. With that said, the frame rate will be limited to 30 fps at the maximum. 

You will be able to transfer your save file from the PlayStation 4 version of The Wither III: Wild Hunt and The Wither III: Wild Hunt Game of the Year Edition to the PlayStation 5 version The Wither III: Wild Hunt – Complete Edition. 

With that said, the process can be very tricky. So, if you have a hard time figuring out how this works, then you can take a look at this troubleshooting article from Seeking Tech. 

Before we start, it should be noted that the PS5 version of The Wither 3 won’t be able to read the saved data from the PS4 version even if you have it directly stored on the console storage. Instead, you will need to use the cloud storage servers provided by CD Projekt RED.  

The good news is that you don’t need to subscribe to PlayStation Plus Essential, Extra, Deluxe or Premium in order to take advantage of cloud saves. Not to mention that the cloud uploads will be automatic once you have cross progression set up. Last but not least, you will be able to transfer your save file from the PS5 version back to the PS4 version if you desired to do so as well.  

1. If you haven’t done so already, make sure you update the PlayStation 4 version of The Witcher 3. It needs to be version 4.0 or later. Otherwise, you won’t be able to turn on the Cross Progression feature. 

In order to update, highlight the game’s icon on the home screen and then press the Options button. Afterwards, you need to select the Check for Update option. 

2. Once the PS4 version has been updated, open the game and then head to the main menu. 

3. On the main menu, select Load Game. 

4. Inside of the Load Game screen, press the L2 button. 

5. If you aren’t already signed into your GOG account in the game, then you should get a link that you need to visit. 

6. Visit that link on a web browser. 

7. You should see the My Rewards page after going to the link. Here, you need to select Claim. 

8. Afterwards, you should arrive at the GOG.com login screen.  

If you have an account, then you need to sign in. If you don’t, then you need to create one.  

9. After signing in, you should see the following message on your web browser: 

• “You have successfully claimed goodies. Your rewards will be waiting for you in your collection.” 

10. On the PlayStation 4 version of the game, you should see the Your Rewards screen. Here, you need to press X to accept these gifts in order to continue. 

11. You should be brought back to the main menu, where you need to select Load Game again. 

12. In the Load Game screen, press the L2 button.  

13. If you are now signed in, you will get pop-up window saying the Cross Progression has been enabled. Press the X button to Accept. 

14. It is important to note that your old saves won’t be uploaded to the cloud servers even if you enable Cross Progression. Instead, this feature is only intended for new or updated save files that were created after Cross Progression has been enabled. 

Therefore, you need to load into a save file that you went to bring over to the PS5 version of the Witcher 3 and then manually save your game.  

15. Afterwards, return to the Save Game menu and you should see a cloud symbol with a check mark on the file you previously created. This indicates that the saved data has been uploaded to the cloud. 

16. Once you have the PS4 save file uploaded to the cloud servers, open The Wither III: Wild Hunt – Complete Edition on your PlayStation 5.  

17. In the main menu of the PS5 version, select Load Game. You should then be able to find the save file you previously uploaded to the cloud from the PS4 version. 

If you don’t see your save file from the PS4 version, then you need to press the L2 button to enable Cross Progression. You may then be prompted to sign into your GOG account.  

To do so, follow the link to TheWitcher.com on a web browser, claim your reward, sign into your GOG account (make sure it is the same one you used to upload the saved data from the PS4 version of the game), accept your reward on your PS5 and then go back to the Load Game menu to find your cloud save. 

If the Load Game option is not available in the main menu of the PS5 version, then you can select My Rewards. By doing so, you should be prompted to sign into your GOG.com account. Follow the same steps as above to get the Load Game option, with the cloud save, to appear on the main menu.