With how many conflicting choices you have to make, are your Baldur’s Gate 3 quests time-sensitive, or can you quest in any order you like?
Some Baldur’s Gate 3 quests are time-sensitive, but there are still many quests that you can complete whenever you stumble across them. You will miss out on parts of the story on your first play-through. You still shouldn’t stress out about hitting every possible quest. Many choices conflict with each other, and that’s what makes Baldur’s Gate 3 so replayable.
Which Quests are Time Sensitive in BG3?
In general, quests within Acts are time-sensitive and must be completed before transitioning to the point of no return. You cannot transition to Act 2, and then return to Act 1 quests, and that’s true for every Act. Luckily, you are prompted with a warning before entering the next Act. This keeps you from accidentally moving to the next act before you are ready.
There are also primary quests in each Act that close off sections of the game. Completing certain quests changes your possible decisions in other parts of the act. While this is not a problem for many side quests, these large actions change your play-through. For example, you cannot raid the Emerald Grove in Act 1 and still do all the quests in the Grove.
Urgent Quests Are Time Sensitive in Baldur’s Gate 3
Quests that have a perceived sense of urgency are usually time-sensitive. Arriving at Waukeen’s Rest for the first time is a great example of this. There is a large fire trapping many of the village NPCs in the burning buildings. While most games allow you to leave and come back, many NPCs die if you don’t save them. Any quest with perceived urgency like this is usually time-sensitive in some respect.
Often, you have to fully rest to miss out on completing an urgent quest. Quests like these aren’t directed by the player, they have different outcomes depending on how long you take. The opportunity can pass if you take too long to save somebody.
Your Companion Quests Are Time-Sensitive
Your companion quests are time-sensitive in the time required to progress their storylines.
With your companions, you want to play with them at your party and speak to them often. Many companion narrative triggers happen when you long rest, so if you are not resting enough, you might delay significant character development in your party. This doesn’t always matter, especially if you want to play with specific companions, but you should keep it in mind.
Your Actions in BG3 Matter
Many of us are used to fake decisions in video games. More often than not, the choices you make in games do not drastically affect the rest of the story. You might have small narrative changes in the overall story arc of a video game, but your choices usually are directed by your involvement in them. This allows you to return to them whenever you like.
Many quests are like that in Baldur’s Gate 3, but there are still a lot of time-sensitive quests you should be aware of.
While you may want to complete everything and do everything on your first play-through, the reason why this isn’t possible is because Larian Studios made almost every decision you make matter. This means NPCs you save or kill, no matter how small a part they might play in the story, will change your play-through.
Time Sensitive Quests Are Obvious in Baldur’s Gate 3
While your choices in the game are often permanent and affect your story, the decisions that drastically change your play-through are often easy to spot.
Baldur’s Gate 3 often lets you double down on your choices. In the quest Saving the Goblin Sazza, for example, you can save Sazza without having to continue down the path that the narrative takes you. Because that choice surrounds a larger weighty decision, Baldur’s Gate 3 gives you a few chances to back out of making that choice, if you decide you don’t want to.
This isn’t true for all quests, but the larger quests that are time-sensitive often indicate you are missing out on other choices by going down that path.
Save Often For Time-Sensitive Quests
If you are worried about changing your decisions in quests, autosaves will not cut it. Baldur’s Gate 3 does not save as often as it should for how dire some decisions can be. While this successfully makes decisions feel weighty, some decisions drastically change your story in a way that you may not like.
To avoid having to replay sections of the game to change one decision, you should make it a practice of saving often, if you’re someone who wants to change undesirable changes in your play-through. You might not realize quests are time-sensitive until it is too late, so saving often will allow you to play those quests that end up being time-sensitive.
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