Get prepared for a new play-through with our recommendations on How to Prepare for Patch 7 of Baldur’s Gate 3!
Larian Studios has recently made announcements for the release of Patch 7 of Baldur’s Gate 3, which will be the last major content update for the game. Consequently, it will include a lot of new content specifically tied to new evil endings. Additionally, the developers will be adding official modding tools for the community to use. With these things in mind, the following guide will break down our Top 10 suggestions of how to prepare for Patch 7 of BG3!
How to Prepare for Patch 7 of BG3
The most important first step in preparing for Patch 7 of Baldur’s Gate 3 is to decide what the goal of your next play-through is going to be. Some goals could be combined with others, depending on the nature of your play-through. However, you’ll want to pick a primary goal that will be the focus of your campaign so that you can set yourself up for success.
Here are the Top 10 Recommended Ways to Prepare for Patch 7 of Baldur’s Gate 3:
- Decide Your Goal: Choose the major goal of your new campaign.
- Biggest Decisions: Strategize what decisions you will make and why.
- Pick an Origin Character: Try a different playstyle style, including Dark Urge, which will showcase the new evil endings.
- Choose a Romance: Pick a new companion to romance.
- Select a Build: Pick one of the best builds for combat performance or persuasion to aid in dialogue.
- Collect Achievements: Unlock the remaining achievements on your list.
- Utilize Mods: Try out mods from Nexus to see if they enhance gameplay.
- Tactical Save Points: Quick save at various cut scenes so you can reload and see changes.
- Finish Honour Mode: Complete Honour mode before Patch 7 so you can play with a load-enabled game.
- Try Solo or Duo: Try a solo campaign if you’ve beaten Honour mode and are looking for a challenge.
Finally, this list assumes that you have played through BG3 at least once and have seen how the major story points play out at least once. The following text will talk about certain decisions or story beats that could be considered spoilers, otherwise.
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10. Play Solo or Duo
If you love a challenge but have already beaten the campaign on Honour Mode (see below), there are several other ways you can increase the difficulty on a new play-though of Baldur’s Gate 3. One of those is by attempting to play through the campaign by yourself. A solo run of Baldur’s Gate 3 means you either ignore all of the potential companions or if you do recruit them, you don’t place them in your active party.
If you’re going to try to pull this off, then you’re going to need to have a build specifically made to prioritize survivability as well as strong damage. Some classes may need to multiclass to enable success, but there are also classes like the Fighter or Cleric which are capable of doing it on their own.
Finally, if you want to try a solo run but feel like the higher levels of Tactician or even Honour mode are a bit out of reach, consider inviting a friend along! A co-op run of Baldur’s Gate 3 can be a lot of fun, and this would be a great way to experience this high-level challenge.
9. Finish Honour Mode
Playing through the Honour Mode of Baldur’s Gate 3 is a gauntlet of a challenge that only gives you one save file and absolutely no ‘do-overs’. If you’ve finished a Tactician run and are looking for the next big challenge, this is it. If you can make it through the game and defeat the Netherbrain without a single total party kill, then you’ll earn the Foehammer achievement, as well as a golden skin for your D20 in-game dice.
The conditions of an Honour mode run are this: A single save slot, end of game on total party death, powerful legendary moves for bosses, and greater supply requirements for Long Rests.
To make it through an Honour mode playthrough you will need to fully maximize the potential of your build. In this scenario, we highly recommend choosing the Dark Urge origin and the Gloom Stalker Ranger class. Additionally, you’ll want to make sure and collect as many of the permanent bonuses as you can.
8. Tactical Save Points
If you’re not playing through a campaign on Honour mode, then don’t be afraid to create a lot of tactical save files as you go. You can and should do this during crucial moments of combat, as well as right before making a critical story decision in dialogue. Furthermore, if you’re concerned about the result of a particular dice roll, then you can use the quicksave function to ‘save scum’ so you can make sure to get the success you want.
Particularly after playing all of the way through the game, saving before you make your final decision about the fate of the Netherbrain can be a good way to see at least a couple of major outcomes without having to play through the game again. Moreover, Act 3 has several pivotal decision points and it can be useful to create save before each. ‘Save scumming’ can have a bit of a negative connotation and some may consider it ‘cheating’. But it’s not a mechanic that the game prevents outside of Honour Mode, and some of us just don’t have hundreds of hours for many multiple playthroughs.
7. Utilize Mods
Although official modding tools will be coming to the game with Patch 7, that doesn’t mean the modding community has been doing nothing but wait for the last year. Hundreds of mods have already been created for Baldur’s Gate 3. Some provide quality-of-life fixes to the user interface, others offer new hairstyles or cosmetics, some new spells, new races, and much more.
If you’re on PC and you’ve only played through BG3 in the standard ‘vanilla’ version, adding in some mods might be a good way to spice up a new playthrough! Party Limit Begone will increase your party limit so you can bring more of your companions along with you. Fantastical Multiverse adds over a dozen new races to the character creator, all based on Dungeons & Dragons. Furthermore, the most popular mod currently available is ImprovedUI. This mod adds a wealth of character creation options and quality-of-life UI improvements.
6. Collect Achievements
There are a total of 54 achievements you can collect in Baldur’s Gate 3. Furthermore, there are 25 shared achievements and 29 that are hidden so players don’t see potential spoilers. Some achievements you’ll earn simply by playing through the story. However, others will require you to make certain decisions, complete fights a certain way, or execute certain tasks. For example, there is the very important responsibility you have to play fetch with Scratch.
Other achievements which have a lower completion rate amongst the player base include Foehammer, which requires you to beat the game on Honour Mode. She Cannot Be Caged! asks you to save Sazza from the Druid Grove, the Goblin Camp, and again at Moonrise Towers. Moreover, if you can defeat Gortash without activating any traps you’ll earn Fancy Footwork. And the amusing Rude, Crude, and Full of Attitude achievement asks you to find and summon the quasit Shovel.
5. Select a Build
Your class and build are some of the most important choices you will make outside of anything within the story. As you prepare for Patch 7 of Baldur’s Gate 3, your class choice will dramatically impact how you play the game. Do you want to be a front-line melee, swinging a giant two-handed sword? A spellcaster launching impressive area-of-effect damage spells? Or maybe the charisma of the Bard is more your style, so you can talk your way out of conflicts and buff your party when fights can be avoided.
Additionally, you should also consider the level of difficulty you will be playing at. On an Honour mode campaign, choosing a powerful class and build are vital to making it to the end of the game. If you want to challenge yourself by going without companions, then a Solo build will be essential. Finally, if you’re looking for a bit more variety in your gameplay, you could try a Multiclassing build for your next campaign.
4. Choose a Romance
Nearly anyone who has played through Baldur’s Gate 3 has their favorite companion, and it’s hard not to want to romance that same character each time you play. However, a brand new campaign might be just the right occasion to ‘expand your horizons’, and discover what other companions might have to offer. For example, a Dark Urge or evil character could allow you the opportunity to try a Minthara romance.
The only two companions who cannot be romanced in the game are Jaheira and Minsc. Given that these are characters from previous games, and that they do not officially become part of your party until Act 3, this makes sense. However, it leaves you with plenty of choice between Astarion, Lae’zel, Gale, Shadowheart, Wyll, Karlach, Halsin, or Minthara.
Finally, for anyone who hasn’t romanced Karlach yet, you might consider wooing her on a new game because her romance is the only one tied into a potential achievement. The Hot Date achievement can be unlocked in Act 3, where you can trigger a scene of you and Karlach going on a date in the Lower City.
3. Pick an Origin Character
If you’ve already played through Baldur’s Gate 3 with both a standard custom character and the Dark Urge, then it might be time to try one of the other origin characters! In the character creator, your Origin Story is the first choice you make in the game. The default selection is a standard custom character, and the Dark Urge origin is beneath that. However, you can also choose from six of the game’s companions. This means that you can choose to play through BG3 as Astarion, Lae’zel, Gale, Shadowheart, Wyll, or Karlach.
Choosing to ‘main’ any of these characters for a campaign means that you will get to encounter the story entirely from their perspective. You’ll get new additional dialogue and even unique cutscenes. Therefore, all of this will give you further insight into their character, background, and experiences.
2. Biggest Decisions
One of the major strengths of Baldur’s Gate 3 is its replayability, and the multitude of branching story paths that you can choose to take. No two campaigns are ever alike unless you deliberately choose to make them that way. These major choices start as early on as Act 1 when you first visit the Druid Grove and Goblin Camp. These decisions you make on who to side with reverberate throughout the rest of the game. Consequently, it possibly determines your character’s morality, but also potentially locks or unlocks certain content in later Acts.
Furthermore, other big decisions include whether or not to save the Nightsong in Act 2 or siding with the Emperor or Orpheus in Act 3. Moreover, some of these decisions will influence how your companion’s stories play out. Shadowheart’s narrative is tightly tied to that of the Nightsong. Lae’zel will have strong feelings regarding the decision you make about Orpheus. Which paths do you wish to see on this play-through? And what kind of character will you use to make them are important considerations on any new Baldur’s Gate 3 play-through.
1. Decide Your Goal
Deciding your goal is the most important step when preparing for another play-through in anticipation of Patch 7 releasing in September. What is the most important part of gameplay for you? Challenging yourself on a higher difficulty? Making different dialogue choices during the story? Romancing a different companion? Focusing on the most essential element of your next campaign will help you make the smaller choices branching out from that.
Moreover, you can potentially combine your primary goal along with other, smaller, goals. Do you want to see how the new evil endings play out? It might be time for a Dark Urge campaign. At the same time, you could plan on romancing a different character or make different choices at significant game moments. Additionally, you could attempt to meet the requirements of an achievement you don’t have yet.
The release of Patch 7 for Baldur’s Gate 3 is a great time to jump back into the game and experience it again in a whole new way!
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