Witcher 3: How to Level Up Quickly Past the Griffin on Death March (the hardest difficulty)

So, I beat the griffin at the end of my third level, and I got enough EXP from it to level up. So, starting off in the new map, I was level four. I wandered for HOURS AND HOURS, killing everything I could and doing side-missions, but I just wasn’t leveling up very quickly.

Witcher 3 is hard here, because, when you’re playing on the hardest difficulty, there just aren’t many missions that are recommended for your level. Many monsters have 1 hit kills on you.

However, I figured out how to get out of the hole that is being low level: the main mission called, “Hunting the Witch” and the two follow ups, “Wandering in the Dark” and “Magic Lamp.”

These are easy missions, even on Death March (which is what I've been playing) at level 4, and in the course of it and the side quest she gives you right after, I leveled up twice, which allowed me to continue the game past the level-block.

Here’s a map:

Witcher 3 Quick Level Up Map

For the mission, I recommend bringing Swallow potions and plenty of food. There’s a part where you face a member of the Wild Hunt. The Swallow is for the portal-closing section. You’ll know it when you get there. You must protect the witch as she closes portals, forcing you to take a bunch of hits. There’s also the Wild Hunt boss, but he’s easy. Use your shield sign, then roll away and let the witch distract him. Rinse, repeat.

Doing this will net you the EXP to get out of the too-low-level-for-any-quest stage. Hopefully that saves you the time I wasted looking for something I was able to do at my level.