Baldur's Gate 3: 12 Things We Wish We Knew Before Playing

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#1. Save All The Time
#2. Get A Full Party First
#3. Seriously, Loot Everything
#4. Where To Find A Shovel
#5. Even More Ways To Interact
#6. Movement Abilities Are OP
#7. Money Solves Problems At The Camp
#8. Use Stealth To Thin Out The Herd
#9. Sleep Is Unstoppable
#10. Gale’s Magic Item Hunger
#11. Where To Find Halsin
#12. When All Else Fails, Shove

Baldur’s Gate 3 adds new layers of simulation and complexity to an already hardcore series of RPGs. There’s so much to learn while exploring the vast new regions of the Sword Coast, there are details you’ll inevitably miss. Whether you’ve just started Act 1 or you’re preparing to dive into your first Dungeons & Dragons adventure, these are 12 tips we’ve picked up after dozens of hours playing. The starting hours of BG3 are rough on new players learning the ropes, and these are the simple tips we think you really need to know.

Some of the tips below are for general play, others are specific, but we won’t tell you how to play anywhere here. While BG3 is very difficult, there’s no challenge you won’t be able to overcome with almost any build and a full party of balanced companions. As long as you bring several different class companions along for your adventures, you should be able to defeat stiff challenges. If enemies are too tough, go adventure somewhere else until you find better gear, a magic item, or level up. There’s so much to do in the world, there’s no reason to butt your head against a difficulty wall.

And remember that the point of this game is to have fun. If you’re truly struggling, I recommend lowering the difficulty — even if it’s only temporary. There are so many options for roleplaying, so take advantage and enjoy experimenting with the hundreds of spells, skills, and strategies.

More Baldur’s Gate 3 guides:

#1. Save All The Time

Save your game all the time. Set your game to autosave every few minutes. Quicksave [F5] and quickload [F8] before every enemy encounter and before every important dice roll. Yes, you can save scum literally everything at the start of the game, and you’re going to need it. Battles are excruciatingly difficult in the early game, with your characters barely getting a 50% to score a single hit on more enemies until you level up.

And you can quicksave before every perception check or social check in the game. You can quicksave during a conversation — and you should! While you’ll probably be fine letting certain failures fly and progressing anyway, there are times when you’ll really, really want to succeed. If you want to succeed at your rolls, save your game, reload and try again. Unlike other games, the dice roll is not determined early — it is only determined when you roll the dice. That means you’ll get different results after every time you reload. Use that to your advantage. This is especially important for dirty min/max players. If you took all your points out of Wisdom and Charisma, you may need reload saves sometimes just to progress the story properly.

#2. Get A Full Party First

Before you follow any storyline, you’ll want to collect a full party. This can be done in record time and doesn’t require actually completing any quests — just explore the map to quickly snatch up +3 companions. Your party limit is x4 and you’ll want a well-rounded team. By following the story, you can get a Cleric, a Fighter and a Wizard in less than an hour.

Shadowheart: The Cleric is only available if you rescue her from the Mindflayer ship in the prologue. To do that, get the key from the room to the north before entering the control room. Release her and she’ll appear on the beach after the crash.
Gale: The Wizard is next. Enter the crashed ship and head north to a cliffside road with a glitching, broken waypoint. Interact with it and an arm will pop out — pull the arm free to rescue Gale and he’ll immediately team up with you.
Lae’zel: The Fighter is just northwest of Gale’s location. Further north, before reaching the Emerald Grove, you’ll find two Tieflings threatening Lae’zel in a wooden cage. Scare the Tieflings away or fight them, then use a bow to target and shoot the wooden cage.

This is a strong, well-rounded party that’s perfect for beginners. And even more characters can be found almost immediately! Travel north from Lae’zel’s spot to reach the Emerald Grove, where you can recruit Wyll. He’s a Warlock, so if you want a more aggressive edge to Gale, he’ll fill that spot well.

#3. Seriously, Loot Everything

You can take literally everything with you in Baldur’s Gate 3, but most stuff is genuinely junk. The reason you’ll want to look everything? Camp Supples. Collecting food adds to your total camp supplies — and you’ll need all the supplies you can get. To restore your magic charges, fully heal and restore your daily skills, you’ll need to spend 40 Camp Supplies for a Long Rest. Long Rest also restores your two daily Short Rests which heal your party for 50% health. You’ll need to think hard about when you return to camp for a Long Rest — and food is literally everywhere.

Multiple Disarm Toolkits and Thieves’ Tools can be found directly west of the Emerald Grove large gate. There’s a hidden cave entrance blocked by vines. Clear out the goblins to find multiple kits in the crates near the wounded gnome.

In addition to food, random crates and barrels in every location will often contain other useful items like Lockpicking Kits, Trap Disarming Kits, or functional tools like shovels. Don’t forget to hold down [Left Alt] to make all the items you can collect in an area appear highlighted. This makes finding tiny scrolls or potions in the environment so much easier.

#4. Where To Find A Shovel

Every party needs a shovel. If you have high perception, you’ll spot buried chests all over the overworld map as you explore. The simple Shovel is the only tool you need to dig up chests and loot the hidden contents within. To find a shovel, travel west of the Emerald Grove main gate. You’ll reach a goblin-infested village across the bridge called the Blighted Village. Once you’re safe to explore, look for a shovel sticking out of dirt just west of the Blighted Village waypoint.

You can even put it to work. Leave through the west exit of the village to reach a cliff with a view of the Goblin Camp across the gorge. If your perception is high, you’ll spot a hidden buried treasure here. Start digging! There are treasure chests like this all over Faerun.

#5. Even More Ways To Interact

The world of Baldur’s Gate 3 is incredibly intricate, and you can interact with almost everything in multiple ways. Right-click objects for a pop-up menu of different interactions — you can throw objects like barrels, lockpick doors or chests, disarm traps, flip switches and much more. Carefully examining the environment is important, and while holding [Left Alt] will show many items you can collect, there are many more that just won’t be highlighted.

Doors and crates with health bars can be destroyed by attacking. You can break chandeliers or barrels to spread fire, oil, acid and other damaging effects. You can shoot arrows to activate levers from far away, or break open locked chests with your sword. Some interactions are totally secret. If you’re holding fish in your inventory, you’ll be able to lure away a bear with fresh fish. You’ll have to get clever, and don’t forget to turn on lights in dark areas to make perception checks so much easier. Don’t miss out on traps or secret doorways! You can even gain magic spells that summon spectral hands to manipulate objects from far away that can’t normally be activated with an arrow.

#6. Movement Abilities Are OP

Every character in Baldur’s Gate 3 has the Jump action. This allows you to hop from one surface to another — and unlocks some insane exploration possibilities. The deeper into Baldur’s Gate 3 we got, the more we’re forced to contend with the incredible power of Jump. Using Jump, you can access seemingly impossible areas, attack enemies from behind or from amazing vantage points. Jump can be used defensively, to hop over a puddle of summoned acid or other hazards.

All movement abilites are strong. Later, you’ll get Magic Items to unlock Misty Step. One is located in the Goblin Priestess’s room in the Defiled Temple of the Goblin Camp. The spell allows you to blink to new locations instantly. This is a game-changer in combat and for exploration. Later you’ll gain abilities that make you immune to Fall Damage, so you’ll be able to jump down into the Underdark from the surface without hurting yourself. Very useful for any class. Often these hard-to-reach paths have optional treasure chests. The web of upper-level platforms in the Shattered Sanctum are literally crawling with treasure chests. The longer your jump, the better!

#7. Money Solves Problems At The Camp

Don’t freak out over dead party members. If a party member falls in battle, return to your camp and talk to the mysterious NPC Withers. This skeleton will revive party member and return them to the camp for 200 gold — no weird side-effects. He’ll even collect the body and all the gear to return to the camp exactly as they left. If they were in your party, they’ll join immediately.

Money can also be used to change your class. For 100 Gold Withers will swap your class, and if you’re a Paladin with a broken oath, you can restore your honor with a 2,000 gold payout to the Oathbreaker Knight. All this is done in your camp, so keep extra cash for emergencies.

#8. Use Stealth To Thin Out The Herd

Stealth is an unstoppable way to deal high damage. Combine Stealth, Bows and Hide gives your Rogue, Assassin or Ranger to deal critical damage every turn. Position your sniper on a high ledge or rafter and shoot down — you’ll gain advantage and can use your movement to back away, hide again, and score another stealth attack next turn. At Level 2, Rogues unlock Hide as a Bonus Action, so you can hide and attack in the same turn. Get yourself a Crossbow and Proficiency to deal even bigger damage. Hilariously, you can even dual-wield crossbows.

As long as enemies don’t see a dead body in your (red) field-of-view, you can stealth kill minions before initiating a big combat encounter. This is especially useful for getting rid of patrolling enemies before taking on tough leader characters. Make boss fights way easier.

#9. Sleep Is Unstoppable

The Sleep spell is a class of debilitating magic that is very powerful in Act 1. Most of these types of spells — Sleep, Hold Person, Gust of Wind, and much more — are used to stop, slow, disadvantage and weaken enemies. In Act 1, they tend to have a 100% hit rate and can put an enemy out-of-action for a turn or more. If you knock an enemy over, you’ll gain Advantage, giving all your party members a much better chance of landing hits or critical hits.

Anything to delay tough enemies is beyond useful. Put a powerful monster to sleep so you can safely take care of its underlings before focusing all your efforts. Freeze a charging marauding monster in place so you can pelt it with arrows and cantrips. All of these weakening spells will make your party so much more powerful.

#10. Gale’s Magic Item Hunger

One of your first party members is Gale the Wizard. You’ll find him just north of the Illithid ship crash site trapped in a broken waypoint portal. After some adventuring, he’ll admit that he needs to suck the magic out of Magic Items to keep his horrible affliction under control. It seems awful at first, but you don’t have to sacrifice useful items. There are plenty of useless Magic Items you can collect to sacrifice.

Cap of Curing: Emerald Grove – On the high cliff north of the Emerald Grove, you’ll find a Tiefling NPC playing a Lute near some ruins. Look behind the ruin pillars to find a hidden locked chest. Lockpick the chest to gain this item.
Uncommon Helmet. Soothing Songs: When you inspire an ally using Bardic Inspiration, they also regain 1-6 hit points.

Blazer of Benevolence: Camp – After recruiting Volo (rescue him from the Goblin Camp / Shattered Sanctum) you’ll be able to talk to him at your camp after a Long Rest. Allow him to examine you and you’ll get this magic armor.
Uncommon Light Armor. Remedial Rhymes: When you inspire an ally using Bardic Inspiration, you gain 4 temporary hit points.

Loviatar’s Scourge: Shattered Sanctum – Dropped by the torturer Abdirak in the main chambers. You’ll find him in the bloody shrine near the prisoner.
Uncommon Mace. Willing Whip: Grants resistance to Necrotic damage. Deals an additional 1-6 Necrotic damage to nearby targets, including the wielder. Grants Resistance to Necrotic damage.

You only need THREE Magic Items to sacrifice. It takes many hours before Gale will request another magic item to consume, giving you plenty of time to collect more. Above, those three essentially useless items can be easy shared with Gale. See? There’s no reason to throw away the treasure you want to keep!

#11. Where To Find Halsin

At the very start of the game, you’ll discover the Emerald Grove — a not-so-secret druid enclave in the forest north of the beach crash site. The grove is in chaos due to feuding refugees and druids. To resolve the situation and discover where you need to go to find a cure to your tadpole problem, you’ll need to find the lost Druid Leader Halsin. Funnily enough, he can be easy to miss even after asking around the camp. You can clear out the Goblin Camp where he’s supposedly captured and STILL not find him.

Halsin is located in the Goblin Camp, a vast castle ruin west of the Blighting Village, which is west of the Emerald Grove gate. Through the courtyard, you’ll enter the Shattered Sanctum area. This massive indoor dungeon is guarded by three leaders. From the first room (with True Soul Gut) go right and up across the wooden bridge to a small tomb. There’s a door here to the Warg Pens.
In the Warg Pens, you’ll find three goblins harassing a bear. Halsin IS that bear. Free him and clear out the goblins — if you kill them before they run to the door, they won’t alert the base — to talk to Halsin’s true form.

Halsin is incredibly helpful here. He’s a powerful companion and guest character. He’ll join your party as a special fifth party member. His bear form can tank damage and he’s very strong, making your job so much easier in the Goblin Camp. All the leaders are Level 5 and very powerful. With Halsin’s help, you might be able to take them down one-by-one.

#12. When All Else Fails, Shove

Shove is one of your most powerful Bonus Actions in the game. If you’re Athletic and have high STR, you can push around even the biggest monsters. Lure big monsters near bottomless pits or high ledges and start shoving to instantly kill them. Seriously, you can kill some of the toughest bosses in the game just by pushing them off a nearby bridge.

Even if you don’t want to kill them with infinite pits, you can push them multiple stories down to deal high damage and knock them down. When downed, they’ll need to slowly get back up. While they’re on their back, they’re disadvantaged. Shove is a very simple skill that is always useful. If you want to run away from a fight, just shove your enemy and start moving to avoid an automatic reaction attack.

Shoving can be used creatively too. Shove monsters into traps. Shoot arrows to lure enemies into rafters, then shove them down when they get close. Shoving is versatile, easy-to-use, and always very satisfying.