8. Dismantling Items Is Key
Had the realisation that most merchants will pay you next to nothing for all those Drowner brains? It's a mentality many of them carry across a lot of their wares - especially in Velen and White Orchard where peasantry is high and everyone's trying to make a living. Instead of selling, what you want to do is dive over to the 'Dismantle' tab - not one that appears as a dialogue option, and take apart anything you don't have equipped or want as a back-up weapon/piece of armour. Many of the key ingredients needed to forge powerful potions or Decoctions can be obtained by breaking down items this way, and you can even get back any Runestones you might have previously attached in the process.