Six Gwent cards have no fallback once their tournament opportunity is gone in an updated copy of The Witcher 3: Milva, Dandelion, and the four High Stakes leaders. Vampire: Bruxa is also missable, but Blood and Wine adds a second opportunity controlled by a quest choice.
This guide covers only those cards: their images, opponents, quests, locations, and the actions that keep them obtainable. It assumes a patched game without mods or console commands. Side-quest spoilers follow.
Missable Gwent cards at a glance
| Card | Quest | Opponent | How to avoid missing it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Milva | A Matter of Life and Death | Vladimir de Cret, match 1 | No fallback. |
| Dandelion | A Matter of Life and Death | Marius Florin, match 3 | No fallback. |
| Foltest: The Steel-Forged | High Stakes | Bernard Tulle, match 1 | Win this match. |
| Emhyr var Emreis: The Relentless | High Stakes | Sasha, match 2 | Win the first two matches. |
| Francesca Findabair: Queen of Dol Blathanna | High Stakes | Finneas, match 3 | Win the first three matches. |
| Eredin: Bringer of Death | High Stakes | Count Tybalt, final | Win all four matches. |
| Vampire: Bruxa | A Matter of Life and Death | Gomo Seeling, match 2 | Blood and Wine adds a second route with its own choice requirement. |
Each numbered match below is a tournament opponent, rather than one of the rounds within a single Gwent match.
Milva and Dandelion: the Vegelbud masquerade
Quest: A Matter of Life and Death, with Triss Merigold. Location: Vegelbud Residence, east of Novigrad; use the residence signpost. The Gwent tables are in the party gardens, to your right as you enter the grounds. Look for the croupier in the southern section of the masquerade area.
- Follow Triss’s quest until you enter the masquerade together.
- Before continuing the Vegelbud meetings and hedge-maze sequence, speak to the croupier and join the small tournament.
- Beat all three guests. Losing here allows another attempt while the party is still accessible.
- Check that you received all three cards before moving the quest forward and leaving the party.
1. Milva
Opponent: Vladimir de Cret, the first player. Faction: Scoia’tael. Defeat him to receive Milva. Finishing the party without this win removes your only normal source for the card; another merchant or random opponent cannot replace it.
2. Dandelion
Opponent: Sir Marius Florin, the third player. Faction: Neutral. Beat Vladimir de Cret and Gomo Seeling first, then defeat Marius. If the party ends before you win this match, Dandelion is permanently missed in that playthrough.
Gomo, the second opponent, awards Vampire: Bruxa. Its additional Blood and Wine route is covered below.
The four missable High Stakes leader cards
Quest: High Stakes. Location: the Passiflora, Marquise Serenity’s brothel in the Gildorf district of northern Novigrad. Speak to the tournament scribe inside. Entry costs 1,000 crowns, and the scribe must approve the strength of your deck.
- Make a separate manual save before paying the entry fee.
- Bring your finished deck. Once registered, you cannot leave to collect more cards and resume the tournament normally.
- Win all four matches in order. A defeat eliminates you from the competition.
- If you lose, reload a save from before that match. Continuing Sasha’s storyline does not award the leader cards you failed to win.
Losing does not remove cards you already won. It locks you out of the card held by the player who beat you and the rewards from later matches you can no longer reach.
3. Foltest: The Steel-Forged
Opponent: Bernard Tulle, in the first match. Card faction: Northern Realms. Reach this match without being eliminated, then beat Bernard Tulle. Leaving or losing before this victory prevents you from earning this tournament reward through another normal source.
4. Emhyr var Emreis: The Relentless
Opponent: Sasha, in the second match. Card faction: Nilfgaardian Empire. Reach this match without being eliminated, then beat Sasha. Leaving or losing before this victory prevents you from earning this tournament reward through another normal source.
5. Francesca Findabair: Queen of Dol Blathanna
Opponent: Finneas, in the third match. Card faction: Scoia’tael. Reach this match without being eliminated, then beat Finneas. Leaving or losing before this victory prevents you from earning this tournament reward through another normal source.
Finneas starts a fistfight after losing at cards. Win the fight to proceed to the final.
6. Eredin: Bringer of Death
Opponent: Count Tybalt, in the fourth and final match. Card faction: Monsters. Reach this match without being eliminated, then beat Count Tybalt. Leaving or losing before this victory prevents you from earning this tournament reward through another normal source.
Older guides sometimes swap the names Bringer of Death and Destroyer of Worlds for Eredin’s reward. This guide follows the current reference: Tybalt awards Bringer of Death, the leader that returns a card from your discard pile to your hand.
7. Vampire: Bruxa: missable, with a Blood and Wine second chance
First opportunity: Gomo Seeling, the second player at the Vegelbud tournament during A Matter of Life and Death. Beat Vladimir, then Gomo, in the same party gardens before completing the quest.
Without Blood and Wine: missing this party reward leaves no alternative source. With Blood and Wine: Till Death Do You Part offers a second route in Beauclair. To preserve it:
- During the argument between Louis and Margot de Corentin in Beauclair’s cemetery crypt, side with Margot and remove Louis’s urn.
- Place his urn in the Gwent Friendship Society’s chambers elsewhere in the same catacombs.
- Return to Margot. She reveals where she hid the cards at their former home.
- Visit the de Corentin Nursery just east of Coopers’ Gate in Beauclair. Climb into the garden, kill the archespore, and search beneath the roses.
Removing Margot’s urn and letting Louis stay closes this second route. If you also skipped the Vegelbud card, both opportunities are gone. Obtaining Bruxa in Toussaint does not replace Milva or Dandelion and does not, by itself, reactivate an already failed collection quest.
How to save before these cards become missable
- Keep a save from before the Vegelbud masquerade until you have checked Milva, Dandelion, and Bruxa in your collection.
- Keep another save from before registering for High Stakes. Add later saves whenever allowed, without overwriting the pre-tournament copy.
- Do not assume you can manually save before every opponent: the Sasha-to-Finneas sequence restricts this. Autosaves can also be overwritten.
- After an irreversible cutoff, reload an earlier save. Changing difficulty afterward or starting New Game+ does not restore cards within your current playthrough.
Sources and card images
- Prima Games: Vegelbud Estate players
- GameBanshee: A Matter of Life and Death
- GameBanshee: High Stakes
- Witcher Wiki: High Stakes
- Witcher Wiki: Vampire: Bruxa
- Witcher Wiki: Till Death Do You Part
Original The Witcher 3 card images belong to CD Projekt Red and were accessed through GwentChecklist.
