Steel Swords

The steel sword is the witcher's blade for people, nonhumans and beasts: bandits, soldiers, wolves and bears. The Witcher 3 has 153 of them, and the same name often turns up as a quest relic, a crafted sword and loot copies at lower rarities.

Combat

Pros

Geralt carries it beside the silver sword and switches between the two at will, so the right blade is always one button away.
Oils go on it as they do on silver, each adding damage against one kind of enemy, in three tiers.
Up to 3 runestone slots, and a sword with all three can take a runeword from the Ofieri Runewright at Upper Mill (Hearts of Stone).

Cons

Against monsters it is the wrong blade. Switch to silver.
Durability falls with every swing, and a worn sword hits for less until a smith or a repair kit fixes it.
Steel swords hit for less than silver ones of the same level: a grandmaster steel sword deals 335-409 against 472-576 for its silver twin.

Builds

The six witcher schools each make a steel sword to match their silver one, with the same bonuses and the same place in a set. See Witcher Gear for the set bonuses.

Signs. Griffin, +21% sign intensity at grandmaster tier.
Fast attacks and bleeding. Feline, +10% critical chance and +15% chance to bleed.
Adrenaline. Ursine, +21% adrenaline gain and +75% critical damage.
Hybrid. Wolven, 11% each to sign intensity, adrenaline gain, critical chance and bleeding.
Armour piercing. Manticore, +250 armour piercing and +50% critical damage.

Outside the schools, the Toussaint Knight's Steel Sword is the one to chase: crafted, it carries +300 armour piercing, +100% critical damage and +20% critical chance.

Remastered rebuilt the skill trees and reset every point, so match the sword to your skills in the new tree, not to a build written before 29 September 2026.

Best Steel Swords

Build	Weapon	Key Figure
Hardest hitter	Toussaint Knight's Steel Sword	385-471 damage at level 48
Heavy strikes	Iris	A charged strong attack lands an extra blow
Signs	Grandmaster Griffin Steel Sword	+21% sign intensity
Adrenaline	Grandmaster Ursine Steel Sword	+21% adrenaline gain
Alchemy and bombs	Manticore Steel Sword	Manticore set: +1 charge on every alchemy item

Notes

Iris charges during a fight and glows red when ready; the strong attack that releases it costs some of Geralt's vitality. Olgierd von Everec gives it at the end of Hearts of Stone if Geralt saves his soul.
Witcher swords are upgraded tier by tier, from Basic to Mastercrafted, and to Grandmaster with Blood and Wine. Upgrading keeps runestones and loses a runeword.
In New Game + every witcher diagram becomes a Legendary variant at the same spot.
Remastered adds Reforge: Éibhear Hattori in Novigrad and Yoana at Crow's Perch can change how a sword looks without touching its stats.