*For more chest locations, see the post on chest locations in Velen/Novigrad and in White Orchard. Chests contents are kinda random so you might get the recipes, diagrams or other items from those chests.
Oils in The Witcher 3 are applied to your swords to give you bonus damage against different monster types. For example, if you are about to encounter a drowner, apply a necrophage oil to give you bonus damage against them. To know what type of oil you need to apply against a monster, check the Beastiary menu as it lists all monsters you’ve encountered and what category they belong to.
Oils have three 3 tiers – basic, enhanced and superior.
- Basic oils give +10% bonus to attack power.
- Enhanced oils give +25% bonus to attack power.
- Superior oils give +50% bonud to attack power.
Oils also have “charges”. Basically each strike to the enemy consume 1 charge.
Oils have charges depending on the tier.
- Basic oils has 20 charges.
- Ehanced oils has 40 charges.
- Superior oils have 60 charges.
When all charges are consumed, you need to apply the oil again. You can’t apply oil during combat so best to do it before engaging an enemy.
There is a skill in the alchemy tree called “Fixative” which will increase the number of charges the oils will have.
Below is a list of oils, the recipe and the “possible location” on where you can get the oil manuscript/recipe. You can get them on chests or buy them on merchants. Unfortunately they can be random. But I list some of the locations where the oil recipe dropped for me.
| Name | Possible Location | Recipe |
|---|---|---|
| Beast Oil | 1x Dog Tallow 2x Wolf's Liver |
|
| Beast Oil (Enhanced) | Alchemist Merchant in Electors Square   | 1x Beast Oil 1x Celandine 5x Bear Fat 1x Puffball 1x Bison Grass 1x Bear Hide |
| Beast Oil (Superior) | Inside last ship on Novigrad Docks.   | 1x Enhanced Beast Oil 1x Celandine 1x Alchemy Paste 1x Puffball 1x Cockatrice Stomach 1x Bison Grass 1x Rubedo |
| Cursed Oil | Found in a chest during The Dead Has No Defense quest.  | 1x Dog Tallow 4x Wolfsbane |
| Cursed Oil (Enhanced) | Herbalist's Hut outside Oxenfurt.  | 1x Cursed Oil 1x Puffball 1x Bear Fat 1x Wolfsbane 1x Balisse Fruit 1x Ekimmara Hide 1x Wolf's Liver |
| Cursed Oil (Superior) | 1x Enhanced Cursed Oil 1x Mistletoe 1x Alchemy Paste 1x Ekimmara Hide 1x Cave Troll Liver 1x Rubedo |
|
| Draconid Oil | 1x Dog Tallow 4x Ergot Seeds |
|
| Draconid Oil (Enhanced) | 1x Draconid Oil 1x Nekker Warrior's Liver 1x Bear Fat 1x Moleyarrow 1x Arenaria 1x Cockatrice Stomach 1x Bryonia |
|
| Draconid Oil(Superior) | 1x Enhanced Draconid Oil 1x Alchemy Paste 1x Cockatrice Stomach 1x Nekker Warrior's Liver 1x Arenaria 1x Bryonia 1x Albedo |
|
| Elementa Oil | 1x Dog Tallow 4x Puffball |
|
| Elementa Oil (Enhanced) | Alchemist Merchant in Electors Square | 1x Elementa Oil 1x Puffball 1x Bear Fat 1x Allspice 1x Honeysuckle 1x Moleyarrow 1x Buckthorn |
| Elementa Oil (Superior) | 1x Enhanced Elementa Oil* 1x Alchemy Paste 1x Ekimmara Hide* 1x Essence of Wraith 1x Allspice 1x Honeysuckle 1x Albedo |
|
| Hanged Man's Venom | 1x Dog Tallow 4x Arenaria |
|
| Hanged Man's Venom (Enhanced) | 1x Hanged Man's Venom 1x Nekker Eye 1x Bear Fat 1x Fool's Parsley Leaves 1x Arenaria 1x Hanfiber 1x Mandrake Root |
|
| Hanged Man's Venom (Superior) | Below cliff east of St. Gregory's Bridge   | 1x Enhanced Hanged Man's Venom 1x Devourer's Blood 1x Alchemy Paste 1x Fool's Parsley Leaves 1x Green Mold 1x Bloodmoss 1x Quebrith |
| Hybrid Oil | 1x Dog Tallow 4x White Myrtle Petals |
|
| Hybrid Oil (Enhanced) | 1x Hybrid Oil 1x Ginatia Petals 1x Bear Fat 1x Erynia Eye 1x White Myrtle Petals 1x Hornwort 1x Bryonia |
|
| Hybrid Oil (Superior) | Found this on a bandit camp beside the Condyl marker.  | 1x Enhanced Hybrid Oil 1x Ginatia Petals 1x Alchemy Paste 1x White Myrtle Petals 1x Bison Grass 1x Erynia Eye 1x Albedo |
| Insectoid Oil | 1x Dog Tallow 4x Ranogrin |
|
| Insectoid Oil (Enhanced) | 1x Insectoid Oil 1x Puffball 1x Bear Fat 1x Ranogrin 1x Hornwort 1x Endrega Heart 1x Honeysuckle |
|
| Insectoid Oil (Superior) | Found this on a loot bag in the sewers during the quest "Now or Never". This was located near the exit.  | 1x Enhanced Insectoid Oil 1x Puffball 1x Alchemy Paste 1x Hornwort 1x Bloodmoss 1x Endrega Heart 1x Hydragenum |
| Necrophage Oil | 1x Dog Tallow 4x Beggartick Blossoms |
|
| Necrophage Oil (Enhanced) | Novigrad Herbalist  | 1x Necrophage Oil 1x Blowball 1x Bear Fat 1x Arenaria 1x Pringrape 1x Rotfiend Blood 1x Cortinarius |
| Necrophage Oil (Superior) | Found this on one of the chest in a cave/tomb. The cave entrance is shown on the pic.   | 1x Enhanced Necrophage Oil 1x Beggartick Blossoms 5x Alchemy Paste 1x Arenaria 1x Pringrape 1x Devourer's Blood 1x Hydragenum |
| Ogroid Oil | 1x Ursine Fat 4x Ginatia Petals |
|
| Ogroid Oil (Enhanced) | Yolar at Gedyneight camp  | 1x Ogroid Oil 1x Longrube 2x Beare Fat 1x Ranogrin 1x Ginatia Petals 1x Cave Troll Liver 1x Ribleaf |
| Ogroid Oil (Superior) | During the quest "Peace Distrubed" lv.25(?), on the last area, there is a breakable rock. Climb up above after breaking the rock to see the chest.    | 1x Enhanced Ogroid Oil 1x Arenaria 2x Alchemy Paste 1x Ranogrin 1x Ribleaf 1x Cave Troll Liver 1x Aether |
| Relict Oil | 1x Dog Tallow 5x Mistletoe |
|
| Relict Oil (Enhanced) | 1x Relict Oil 1x Cave Troll Liver 1x Bear Fat 1x Beggartick Blossoms 1x Hop Umbels 1x Water Hag Tooth 1x Green Mold |
|
| Relict Oil (Superior) | Found it in a "Spoils of War" chest.  | 1x Enhanced Relict Oil 1x Hop Umbels 4x Alchemy Paste 1x Beggartick Blossoms 1x Green Mold 1x Devourer's Blood 1x Nigredo |
| Specter Oil | 1x Ursine Fat 4x Arenaria |
|
| Specter Oil (Enhanced) | Alchemist Merchant in Electors Square | 1x Specter Oil 1x Arenaria 1x Bear Fat 1x Mistletoe 1x Wolf's Liver 1x Essence of Wraith |
| Specter Oil *(Superior) | 1x Enhanced Specter Oil* 1x Mistletoe 1x Alchemy Paste 1x Ergot Seeds 1x Longrube 1x Essence of Wraith 1x Rebis |
|
| Vampire Oil | 2x Dog Tallow 4x Ducal Water |
|
| Vampire Oil (Enhanced) | Sold by Yolar at Gedyneight camp  | 1x Vampire Oil 1x Wine Stone 2x Bear Fat 1x Cortinarius 1x Wolfsbane 1x Fifth Essence 1x Ribleaf |
| Vampire Oil (Superior) | 1x Enhanced Vampire Oil 2x Alchemy Paste 1x Fifth Essence 1x Wine Stone 1x Cortinarius 1x Wolfsbane 1x Vermillion |
