Discover how to transmog armor and weapons in The Witcher 3 Remastered using the Reforge system. Plus, learn the secret Undvik speedrun to unlock it early!
For nearly a decade, playing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt meant making the same frustrating choice: Do you equip the statistically superior armor for your combat build and look like a mismatched jester, or keep your stylish gear and accept the punishment from enemies that clearly don’t care about your fashion sense?
With the release of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Remastered, CD Projekt Red finally gave players a proper solution: a fully functional transmogrification system. If you’re tired of wearing oven-mitt gauntlets and striped doublets simply because they happen to have better stats, this guide covers everything you need to know about transmog mechanics, where to find the master craftsmen, the best aesthetic combinations, and the community-discovered speedrun trick that lets you unlock the system much earlier than normal progression suggests.
Why Transmog Matters More in the Remastered Game
Before getting into the actual transmog mechanics, it’s worth looking at why the feature matters even more in The Witcher 3 Remastered. The Remastered version upgrades textures and models, improves lighting and shading, and incorporates assets from the HD Reworked Project, giving the world and its equipment a significant visual refresh.
CD Projekt Red’s Remastered release also brings rendering improvements such as a new shading model, improved terrain and material rendering, updated reflections and shadows, and other visual upgrades. When your gear looks better than ever, having Geralt actually wear something that matches suddenly becomes a pretty reasonable demand.
Fact: The HD Reworked Project was originally a huge fan-made mod created by Halk Hogan. CD Projekt Red worked with him for the Remastered version, bringing assets from the project into the official release.
With the game’s upgraded visuals looking better than ever, putting together a visually cohesive outfit becomes even more appealing for immersion. You no longer have to sacrifice those improved aesthetics simply because the armor with the better stats happens to look like Geralt got dressed in the dark.
So, How Does the “Reforge” System Actually Work?
If you’re scrolling through Geralt’s inventory looking for a button labeled “Transmog,” you can stop now. You’re not missing it. In The Witcher 3 Remastered, the actual system is called Reforge.
CD Projekt Red describes Reforge as a way to change the appearance of your equipment without changing its stats. The service is available through Yoana and Hattori, while new appearances are added to your collection through equipment and crafting diagrams added to your inventory. Blood and Wine dyes applied to equipment also carry over when it is reforged.
Using Reforge, Step by Step
Once you’ve unlocked the appropriate craftsman, the actual transmog process is much easier than the quests required to get there.
- Travel to the right master craftsman: Go to Yoana at Crow’s Perch for armor, or Hattori in Novigrad for weapons. You must complete their respective quests first.
- Open the craftsman’s shop interface: Select the Reforge tab. Current launch guides identify it with an eye icon in the interface.
- Choose the equipment slot you want to change: Yoana handles chest armor, gloves, trousers, and boots, while Hattori handles Steel, Silver, and Ranged weapons.
- Pick the appearance you want: Reforge uses appearances from equipment and crafting diagrams you’ve already added to your inventory. If the appearance isn’t in your collection, Reforge can’t simply conjure it out of thin air.
- Preview the new appearance: Check the look before committing. The Reforge interface displays the appropriate control for your platform.
- Confirm the Reforge after checking the price: Reforging costs Crowns, and the game shows the cost before you confirm the change.
- Return to the game: Your equipment keeps its existing stats while using the selected appearance. In other words, you can chase the numbers without allowing the numbers to decide what Geralt wears.
The Reforge Rules You Need to Know
- How to Access It: Reforging is not performed directly from Geralt’s inventory. You need to use the Reforge service at Yoana or Hattori.
- Stats Are Preserved: Reforging changes the equipment’s visual appearance without changing its stats. Your underlying gear remains the equipment you’ve actually equipped.
- The Unlocking Rule: You cannot simply make Geralt look like a Grandmaster right out of White Orchard. You need to add the relevant equipment or crafting diagram to your inventory before that appearance becomes available to Reforge.
- The Economy of Fashion: Reforging isn’t free. It costs Crowns, and the game shows the price before you confirm the change.
Pro Tip: Save your game before a costly Reforge session if you’re experimenting with different looks. Fashion mistakes are much easier to fix when they haven’t already eaten into your Crown stash.
Need Armor Transmog? Start With Yoana
To change the appearance of your chest armor, trousers, boots, and gauntlets, you need Yoana, the master armorer at Crow’s Perch in Velen. Her Reforge service becomes available after you complete the Master Armorers quest.
What You Need Before Starting
- Location: You’ll find Yoana at the forge in Crow’s Perch, Velen, inside the castle area.
- Required Quest: Complete “Master Armorers.” The quest has a suggested level of 24, but that is not a hard level requirement. You can attempt it earlier if you’re willing to deal with the enemies and travel involved.
How to Get Yoana’s Reforge Service Unlocked
- Start the quest: Travel to Crow’s Perch and talk to Fergus Graem. Ask him about mastercrafted armor. Yoana interrupts and reveals that she is the real master armorer. She explains that you need the tools of Clan Tordarroch from Undvik.Lore Fact: Yoana originally comes from the Undvik clan in Skellige and is the actual master behind the forge at Crow’s Perch.
- Make your way to Skellige: Reach the Skellige Isles and then travel to Undvik. The usual route takes you through the Destination: Skellige quest.
- Reach the Clan Tordarroch Forge: Head toward the Clan Tordarroch Forge on Undvik. The standard route takes you from Marlin Coast through the island and eventually to the forge. You normally encounter the area while following The Lord of Undvik, but you can reach the forge independently.
- Collect the tools: Enter the forge cave and deal with the Rock Troll guarding it. Once inside, use your Witcher Senses to locate the chest containing the High-Quality Smithing Tools. You can fight the troll or use a workaround to get past it rather than taking the fight head-on.
- Take the tools back to Fergus: Return to Crow’s Perch. After the conversation with Fergus, Yoana reveals that she needs Archgriffin acid to prove her skill. This leads into The Griffin from the Highlands contract.
- Get the Archgriffin acid gland: Complete The Griffin from the Highlands and obtain the acid gland from the Archgriffin. The quest’s suggested level is around the same range as Master Armorers, so attempting this part very early can be extremely punishing.Combat Tip: Use Aard or your Crossbow to ground the Archgriffin, and coat your silver sword in Hybrid Oil.
- Help Yoana test the armor: Return the gland to Yoana and agree to help with the armor test. This step matters. Refusing Yoana’s test can cause the quest to fail and Yoana to leave Crow’s Perch.
- Finish the quest: Complete the remaining quest steps and finish Master Armorers. Yoana then becomes the master armorer you can return to for Reforge.
Expected Result: Once Yoana is unlocked, return to her forge at Crow’s Perch, open her interface, and select Reforge to change the appearance of your armor.
Want to Change Weapon Looks? Find Hattori
For weapon transmog, Yoana can’t help you. You’ll need to find Éibhear Hattori, the elven master swordsmith in Novigrad. Once unlocked, Hattori handles Steel, Silver, and Ranged weapon appearances.
What You Need Before Starting
- Location: Hattori’s shop is in Novigrad, northwest of Glory Gate.
- Required Quest: Complete “Of Swords and Dumplings.” The quest has a suggested level of 24.
Fun Fact: Hattori is a direct homage to the legendary master sword-maker Hattori Hanzo from Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill, who also came out of retirement after working as a food vendor.
How to Unlock Hattori’s Reforge Service
- Find the cook.
Go to Hattori’s dumpling shop in Novigrad and talk to him about his work as a blacksmith. He explains that Ernst van Hoorn and Cleaver’s gang have effectively squeezed him out of the swordsmithing business. - Meet Hattori after dark.
Agree to help him and meet him at the docks after dusk. Hattori will lead you to Tinboy, one of the King of Beggars’ men. - Negotiate the deal.
Tinboy starts by demanding a larger share. You can push the deal down to 25% if you negotiate correctly. - Survive the ambush.
Once the negotiation ends, Cleaver’s men attack. Defeat them and escape with Hattori. Follow him and use Aard to clear the blocked route when required. - Find Sukrus.
Hattori will ask you to find a bodyguard. Go to The Golden Sturgeon and meet Sukrus. A fistfight occurs, after which Sukrus agrees to help. First, however, you need to deal with the problem involving his brother-in-law and the merchant. - Resolve the merchant problem.
Help Sukrus settle the debt situation. Depending on your choices, you can use Axii with the required Delusion level or destroy the merchant’s mead barrels. - Steal the supplies.
Meet Sukrus and his men at Ernst van Hoorn’s warehouse at night. Deal with the warehouse guard, then enter. You can bribe your way in for 200 Crowns or use the appropriate Axii Delusion option. Inside, use Witcher Senses to identify and mark the crates that smell of ammonia. - Defeat Van Hoorn’s men.
Leave the warehouse and prepare for the final fight against Ernst van Hoorn and his men. Fight alongside Sukrus and clear the area. - Finish Hattori’s quest.
Return to Hattori after the fight. Complete the remaining quest steps and wait the required time for him to finish the promised sword. Completing Of Swords and Dumplings unlocks Hattori as the master swordsmith. - Start Weapon Reforge.
Return to Hattori’s shop, open his interface, and select the Reforge tab. You can now change the appearance of eligible weapons using skins you’ve already unlocked.
Expected Result: Hattori becomes your Reforge destination for Steel, Silver, and Ranged weapons, while Yoana remains your destination for armor.
Don’t Want to Wait Until Level 24? Take the Undvik Shortcut
Here’s where things get interesting.
The Master Armorers and Of Swords and Dumplings quests both have suggested levels around 24, but that does not mean Reforge is hard-locked until Level 24. You can attempt the quests earlier if you’re prepared to deal with the travel and combat involved.
The community-discovered Undvik Tool Speedrun route lets you rush the armor Reforge unlock instead of waiting for normal progression.
The Early-Game Undvik Route
- Start the quest early.
Once you reach Velen, go to Crow’s Perch and start Master Armorers by talking to Fergus. The quest has a suggested level of 24, but there is no hard level gate preventing an earlier attempt. - Book the trip to Skellige.
Travel to the Golden Sturgeon in Novigrad and speak with Captain Wolverstone. The trip to Skellige costs 1,000 Crowns. - Recover your money.
After the shipwreck, search the nearby wreckage and find Wolverstone’s body. His body contains the 1,000 Crowns you paid for the voyage, allowing you to recover the travel cost. - Head straight for Undvik.
Instead of following the normal story route, use a boat to reach Undvik and head toward Marlin Coast. You can reach the forge without first completing The Lord of Undvik. - Make a run for the forge.
Follow the route toward Clan Tordarroch Forge. The community workaround is to avoid as many dangerous encounters as possible rather than trying to clear the island while wildly underleveled. - Grab the tools.
Reach the forge, enter the cave, and collect the High-Quality Smithing Tools. The normal route involves a Rock Troll, but there are ways to bypass or control the encounter instead of fighting it normally. - Return to Velen.
Take the tools back to Fergus and Yoana. This moves the quest into its final phase and leads to the Archgriffin requirement. - Prepare for the difficult part.
The shortcut does not remove every dangerous encounter. You still need the Archgriffin acid gland, so a very low-level Geralt can end up facing a Level 24-class encounter. This is where the shortcut starts collecting its payment. - Complete the armor test.
Bring the gland to Yoana and agree to test her armor. Do not refuse the test if you’re trying to unlock Yoana as your master armorer, because refusing can cause the quest to fail and Yoana to leave.
Important Note: The early route is a community workaround, not a separate official Reforge unlock method. It simply lets you reach the required quest objectives much earlier. It does not magically remove the dangerous enemies attached to the quest.
Story Warning: Rushing to Undvik ahead of the normal story can bypass the natural Skellige arrival sequence. This route is specifically about reaching the forge early, not about following the intended narrative order.
Now for the Fun Part: Transmog Outfit Ideas
Once you’ve unlocked Reforge, you can mix and match styles to create your own silhouettes without giving up the stats of your actual equipment. Here are some recommended aesthetic builds that maintain a lore-accurate, highly detailed look.
Four Looks Worth Trying
- The Rogue Witcher: Manticore Chest paired with New Moon Trousers, Assassin’s Gauntlets, and Feline Boots. The result is a sleek, dark-leather stealth build that works perfectly for the urban streets of Novigrad. The textures on the New Moon trousers blend seamlessly with the Manticore bandoliers.
- The Skellige Mountaineer: Ursine (Bear) Chest Armor paired with Wolven Trousers and Ursine Gauntlets. This gives Geralt a heavily armored, fur-lined trench coat look that fits right into the snowy peaks. The Wolven trousers add a little red flair that breaks up the monochromatic heavy armor.
- The Classic White Wolf: Viper Chest Armor paired with standard Wolven Boots and Gloves. The Viper armor is a dark, scaled-up version of your starting Kaer Morhen armor, making it a canonically fitting look for Geralt throughout the campaign.
- The Battlemage: Griffin Chest Armor dyed white using Blood and Wine dyes, paired with Feline Trousers. This tones down the notoriously bulky Griffin chest piece while giving Geralt a regal, magical aesthetic that suits a sign-heavy build.
Fashion Tip: Blood and Wine dyes applied to equipment carry over when the item is reforged, so changing the appearance doesn’t mean throwing your carefully chosen color scheme out the window.
What Reforge Can’t Do—and Your PC Options
A Few Vanilla Limitations to Keep in Mind
- The Toussaint Exception: Grandmaster Armorer Lazare Lafargue in the Blood and Wine expansion does not currently provide Reforge services. Armor transmog still has to be handled through Yoana, which means you may need to travel back to Velen whenever you want to change an armor appearance.
- Imported Save Mechanics: Reforge’s appearance collection is not fully retrospective for older saves. If an item you want as an appearance isn’t already available to the new system, taking that equipment out of your stash and putting it into Geralt’s inventory can make it available to the catalog.
- What CDPR Confirms About Saves: CD Projekt Red says existing saves are compatible with Remastered, although skills and settings are reset because of other Remastered changes. The Reforge collection behavior is a separate mechanic, so a save loading successfully does not necessarily mean every old appearance is automatically in your Reforge collection.
- Appearance Missing From Reforge: Before assuming the system is broken, check that you’ve actually added the relevant equipment or crafting diagram to your inventory. That is how appearances are unlocked for the system.
- Reforge Tab Missing: Make sure you’re speaking with Yoana or Hattori, not a normal blacksmith or armorer, and confirm that you’ve finished the relevant quest. Those are the two master craftsmen currently offering the service.
Looking for a PC Mod Instead?
- WPIAO Mod (PC): WPIAO — Wear Preview Items As Outfits is a separate PC mod that provides outfit management with up to 10 outfit sets and lets you use preview items as cosmetic outfits. However, its current Nexus Mods listing is tagged Next-Gen Update Compatible, was last updated in April 2025, and explicitly states that it does not support changing weapon looks. Because the Remastered version is newer, check the mod’s current compatibility information before treating it as a Remastered replacement for the native system.
Important: The native Remastered Reforge system is the official way to change equipment appearance. A PC mod is therefore an alternative for players who want a different outfit-management workflow, not something you need for ordinary transmog.
Your Witcher 3 Transmog Questions, Answered
Can You Transmog in Witcher 3?
Yes. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Remastered officially adds transmogrification through the Reforge system. You can change eligible equipment’s appearance without changing its stats.
Can You Change Geralt’s Appearance in Witcher 3?
Yes. Beyond changing his armor and weapons with Reforge, you can visit barbers in major cities such as Novigrad, Oxenfurt, and Beauclair to change Geralt’s hairstyle and beard style.
Grooming Fact: Geralt’s beard grows over time during gameplay, so a clean-shaven White Wolf requires the occasional trip to the barber.
What Is Reforge in The Witcher 3?
Reforge is the in-game name for the Remastered transmogrification system. It lets you change the appearance of compatible equipment while leaving its stats intact.
Why Can’t I Find the Transmog Option?
Look for Reforge, not a menu option literally called Transmog. Also make sure you’re speaking with Yoana or Hattori and have completed the quest required to unlock their service.
Why Is the Armor Appearance I Want Missing?
The appearance needs to be unlocked through equipment or a crafting diagram added to your inventory. For an imported save, also check your stash and move relevant items into Geralt’s inventory if they aren’t appearing in the collection.
Does Reforge Change Your Stats?
No. Reforge changes equipment appearance without affecting its stats.
How Early Can You Unlock Transmog in Witcher 3?
You don’t have to wait until Level 24. The relevant quests have suggested levels, rather than hard level requirements, so you can attempt the unlock earlier. The catch is that the required quest encounters can be brutal when you’re underleveled.
How Did Geralt Get to Virgin?
(Note: This is a common search engine autocorrect error for Velen or Vizima.) After the prologue sequence in White Orchard, Geralt is escorted by Nilfgaardian soldiers to the Royal Palace in Vizima to meet Emperor Emhyr var Emreis. Following this tense meeting, Geralt rides Roach into the war-torn province of Velen, also known as No Man’s Land, to begin his search for Ciri.
What Game Has 36 Endings?
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is famous for having 36 distinct endgame states. While there are three primary endings concerning Ciri’s ultimate fate—Witcher, Empress, or Tragedy—the “36 endings” figure refers to different combinations of world-state outcomes influenced by your choices, including rulers, the fate of the Bloody Baron, the Skellige succession, and Geralt’s romantic outcome with Triss or Yennefer.
Who’s Stronger, Geralt or Ciri?
In terms of raw, universe-altering magical power, Ciri is vastly stronger. She possesses the Elder Blood, making her the Lady of Space and Time, with the ability to teleport across dimensions and unleash devastating waves of magical energy that can stop the White Frost. Geralt has decades more combat experience, physical Witcher mutations, enhanced strength and speed, and tactical knowledge, making him a more disciplined traditional fighter in a standard melee duel.
Is The Witcher 3 Endless?
No. The main story and its two major expansions, Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine, have definitive narrative conclusions. However, after the credits roll, you’re returned to the open world in a post-game state, allowing you to keep exploring, clearing monster nests, playing Gwent, and finishing side quests.
For replayability, the game also features New Game Plus, letting you restart the story while carrying forward your progression under the mode’s rules.
The basic process is simple: unlock Yoana for armor, unlock Hattori for weapons, collect the appearances you want, then use Reforge to give Geralt the look you actually want without sacrificing your gear’s stats.
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