The Witcher 3 Bear School Gear: All Diagram Locations Guide

The Bear School gear set is the go-to choice in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt for players who want to hit hard, absorb punishment, and stack adrenaline points into devastating strong attacks. Every piece of heavy armor you wear amplifies your maximum vitality by 5% and boosts strong attack damage by 5%, thanks to the passive Bear School Techniques ability. Stack enough pieces and Geralt becomes a walking siege weapon.

The diagrams are spread across Skellige and Velen, with the Grandmaster tier locked behind the Blood and Wine DLC in Toussaint. Here's exactly where to find all of them.

What makes the Bear School set worth hunting down?

The Bear set rewards an aggressive playstyle. Adrenaline point generation feeds directly into strong attack power, so the more you stay on the offensive, the harder each swing lands. The passive Bear School Techniques (available in the skill tree) multiplies these bonuses across every equipped heavy armor piece, making the full set significantly stronger than mixing and matching pieces from other schools.

The set scales through five tiers: base, Enhanced, Superior, Mastercrafted, and Grandmaster. Each upgrade requires the previous diagram plus new crafting materials, so collecting all diagrams early saves a lot of backtracking later.

Where are all the base and Enhanced Bear School diagrams?

Most of the base and Enhanced tier diagrams are scattered across Skellige's main island and its surrounding smaller islands.

Skellige: south of the main island

Three diagrams sit in this region:

• Bear Steel Sword: Inside a destroyed ruin beside the road. Use the Aard sign to clear debris blocking the cellar entrance, then defeat the apparitions guarding the chest inside.
• Enhanced Bear Boots: Found in a chest at the center of a large cave.
• Enhanced Bear Armor: Located in a chest at the far end of a grotto.

Skellige: north of the main island

Another three diagrams are here:

• Bear Silver Sword: Hidden inside a skeleton in dilapidated ruins.
• Enhanced Bear Silver Sword: In the basement of a fortress, at the end of a cave, inside a chest.
• Enhanced Bear Gloves: In a chest inside a ruined tower.

Skellige: Svorlag Island

• Bear Crossbow: In a cave along the sea coast. Head up the rise on the right side of the cave interior, then jump across to the skeleton on the opposite side to retrieve the diagram.

Skellige: Urialla Island

• Bear Armor, Bear Pants, Bear Gloves, and Bear Boots (base tier): All four are inside a large fortress. Take the spiral staircase down, defeat the apparition, pull the lever, and drop through the hole into the dungeon. Follow the hallway, go up the stairs, and pass through a hole in the wall to reach the throne room where a single chest holds all four diagrams.

Skellige: Kaer Almhult Fortress

• Enhanced Bear Steel Sword: Enter Kaer Almhult, take the stairs on the right, and find the chest in a dead end on the left.

Skellige: Spikeroog Island

• Enhanced Bear Pants: Inside a flooded cave on the small northeastern island of Spikeroog.

Where are the Superior and Mastercrafted Bear diagrams?

These higher-tier diagrams are split between southern and northern Velen.

Southern Velen

• Superior Bear Silver Sword: Inside a cave hidden behind a wall of illusion. After passing through, the chest is on the left.
• Superior Bear Steel Sword: In a destroyed ruin, easy to spot in a chest.
• Mastercrafted Bear Silver Sword: On a small island off the coast, in a half-buried chest.
• Mastercrafted Bear Armor, Mastercrafted Bear Pants, Mastercrafted Bear Gloves, and Mastercrafted Bear Boots: Right next to a grindstone in destroyed ruins. A Cyclops guards this chest, so come prepared.

Northern Velen

• Superior Bear Armor, Superior Bear Pants, Superior Bear Gloves, and Superior Bear Boots: In a cave near scaffolding. After entering, follow the dead end on the left to find all four diagrams.
• Mastercrafted Bear Steel Sword: At the end of the same cave, behind a rock, in a chest.

Where is the Grandmaster Bear School gear?

The Grandmaster tier is exclusive to the Blood and Wine DLC. The diagrams are spread across Toussaint and can only be crafted by Grandmaster Blacksmith Lafargue, the only craftsman in the game with the skill level to produce them.

The Grandmaster Bear set consists of four armor pieces and two swords. The Bear Crossbow does not have a Grandmaster upgrade and cannot be improved beyond the base version.

This is the strongest version of the Bear School set available in the game, and it retains the same core identity: heavy armor, adrenaline generation, and strong attack bonuses.

Bear School set tier overview

Common mistakes players make with the Bear set

• Skipping Bear School Techniques: The passive skill is what makes the set worth wearing. Without it, the heavy armor penalties hurt more than the bonuses help.
• Collecting diagrams out of order: You need each tier's diagram to craft the next upgrade. Grabbing Mastercrafted diagrams before you have the Superior set crafted just means extra storage weight.
• Ignoring the Cyclops: The southern Velen Mastercrafted chest is guarded. Players who sprint past it to loot the chest get caught off guard by a monster that hits harder than most bosses at that point in the game.
• Missing the Urialla Island fortress: The lever mechanic trips up a lot of players. Pull it, drop through the hole, don't try to fight your way through the locked door.

FAQ

Can you upgrade the Bear Crossbow to Grandmaster? No. The crossbow stops at the base version. Grandmaster Lafargue can only craft the four armor pieces and both swords.

Do you need all previous tiers crafted before upgrading? Yes. Each upgrade tier requires the previous crafted piece as a material component, so you can't skip directly from base to Mastercrafted.

Is the Bear set good for the main story or just endgame? The base and Enhanced tiers are solid throughout the mid-game in Velen and Skellige. The Superior and Mastercrafted versions carry you through the late game, and Grandmaster handles everything Blood and Wine throws at you.

Where do I craft the diagrams once I have them? Any blacksmith can handle base through Mastercrafted, provided you have the materials. Grandmaster pieces require Lafargue in Toussaint specifically.

For more help across Velen and beyond, the full Witcher 3 strategy guide collection covers everything from side quests to combat builds in one place.