As we’re coming up on three years since the release of Baldur’s Gate 3, there are still countless little details that players are discovering on a new playthrough. Whether they be bits of foreshadowing and lore, magical items, completely new areas or something else entirely, there is always something more than meets the eye.
If anything, it’s a testament to just how jam-packed and genuinely massive this game is.
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Going back through, you’ll wonder how you happened to even miss these things the first time, or how you didn’t notice something what is seemingly in plain sight. I’m the kind of person that combs through maps with meticulous precision, and even still there’s new things to find, no matter how crazy and ridiculous (and believe me, some of these things are insane).
The truly crazy thing, however, is how there is still more beyond what’s been found here.
You Just Need Some Gold and Be High Enough Level
If you go to the top floor of Sorcerous Sundries in Baldur’s Gate, a series of portals will appear with a message from Lorroakan. Ignore him and the portals, your attention should go to the door on the far left. It’s locked, though, and trying to trespass in will not be met well, so be sure to sneak in.
Once inside, go to the bookshelf and pull a book, which will activate another portal, leading to the vaults of magical riches. Obviously, there are traps, puzzles, and trapped puzzles in the vaults to keep thieves away, but it’s nothing you can’t handle for the absolute treasure trove that awaits.
Of course, there are all kinds of scrolls and valuables (even a djinni lamp, which you can actually go in), but you want to keep an eye out for a few scrolls in particular — or rather, books.
Reading The Red Knight’s Final Strategem, a book located in the Northern Vault will give you the Scroll of Artistry of War, which is basically a far more powerful version of Magic Missile; and reading Caution Before the Seelie located in the Southern Vault will give you the Scroll of Bestial Communion, which allows you to summon a Deva. In the Karsus Vault, you’re able to find the Scroll of Dethrone, which is an immensely powerful necromancy spell.
However, if you have a wizard in the party, you’re able to actually learn the spells on these scrolls so long as you have the gold — and with all the treasure you just looted, you absolutely will have the gold. You can build your wizard (or Gale) however you want, but these spells are particularly insane to have in your arsenal for a casual combat encounter.
9
Minthara Can Join a Good-Aligned Party
You Just Can’t Romance Her
A lot of players who were playing the game as active updates and patches were coming out would likely remember the sudden addition to have Minthara in your party without having to betray and slaughter the Emerald Grove. Anyone who played after the hype about it died down, though, might actually miss it on a few playthroughs.
Basically, you have to knock her out — use non-lethal attacks (which, Sneak Attack and magic spells tend to always be lethal) — at the Goblin Camp. From there, you can take out the rest of the goblins without issue and then go about your business. If you don’t kill her, she’ll actually flee to Moonrise Towers.
So when you do actually get to Moonrise Towers in Act 2, you’ll see her in the Throne Room trying to defend her case to Ketheric Thorm, who calls for her execution anyway. After finishing the dialogue and doing whatever else you want to do in the towers, head down to the Prison (the same one you rescue the Tieflings from) and follow the trail of blood. In the first room to your left, Minthara can be found there with a few jailers.
From there, you’re able to rescue her and break her out, and she’ll join you at your camp for refuge. Just be ready: at the end of Act 2 she’ll ask you why you chose to knock her out instead of kill her. It’s that detailed.
8
Magical Items Hidden in Plain Sight
Just Peek Through Waukeen’s Rest
There are countless little things that are actively hidden in the most obvious places — things that would be very easy to glance over and never think about. However, you’d miss out on some good loot that way, especially in Act 1 when you don’t really have too much for your party just yet.
One example happens to be very easy to miss: because everything is quite literally on fire.
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Roll for … well, everything.
Naturally, you won’t want to stick around and explore before the place is reduced to ash, but if you actually go into the rooms, you’ll be able to snag some good stuff before it’s gone forever. Most especially, the Hamarhraft, which allows you to do thunder damage wherever you land after you jump.
Combine that with the Athlete feat, and you’ve suddenly got a monster of whatever martial class is wielding it as early as Act 1.
7
Shovel the Quasit
You Need Her for a Platinum, After All
While exploring the Blighted Village, you’re able to find a cellar in the apothecary’s shop — and while you’re down there, you can find a hidden lever behind a stack of crates. Pulling it will open a hidden stone door, and exploring deeper inside, you’ll find a cavern full of caskets, leading to a mirror hiding a lab.
Thankfully, you don’t actually have to go all the way into the lab to grab Shovel, you can actually find her in the immediate cavern of caskets. In one of the caskets, you’ll find a Scroll of Summon Quasit along with some toilet humor environmental storytelling (not even an exaggeration).
Summoning her will grant you the trophy Rude, Crude, and Full of Attitude, which will get you one step closer to getting a coveted platinum trophy for the game.
Not to mention, you can actually talk to her and have her stick around in your party, and she’s as hilariously chaotic as you’d expect her to be.
6
The Dark Urge in a Normal Playthrough
Orin Got Her Hands on Him
If you played as a normal Tav on your first playthrough, you likely overlooked the Fallen Bhaalspawn located in Orin’s Chambers (all the way in the Temple of Bhaal). And if you played as a Dark Urge, you don’t even encounter them — they are one and the same, after all. While you’re able to make them look however you want when you create them, their main (dare I say, canon) appearance is a white, male Dragonborn, and that’s exactly what you find.
The poor devil, it’s clear Orin got her hands on him and absolutely relished slaying him in Bhaal’s name. While the corpse isn’t as graphic as others we see, it’s a clear ritualistic sacrifice, so one can only imagine how genuinely horrific the killing actually was while it happened. It’s a glimpse into another universe.
In true D&D fashion, nearly every single avenue has been thought through, including what would have happened to The Dark Urge if you weren’t playing as them, and it’s just the cherry on top for what’s already a genuinely magnificent game.
5
You Can Trigger Shadowheart’s Confession Early
Just Get Her Ranting About Selûne
In the owl bear cave back in Act 1, you’ll be able to find a small shrine to Selûne, the goddess of the moon, with a gilded chest among the natural rocks. To open this chest, you have to say a prayer, one that can thankfully be found right behind the Selûne statue. You don’t even have to pass the Religion check.
Just go back in front of the chest and then open the prayer sheet to read it again. That will unlock it easily … and if you have Shadowheart in your party, she’ll have some choice words.
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In fact, she’ll be so anti-Selûne that you’ll now have a dialogue prompt to figure out what her problem is. With a frustrated sigh, she’ll then reveal that she’s a worshiper of Shar, the goddess of darkness and Selûne’s evil twin sister. It’s a reveal you can push far earlier than when she would normally say.
As far as the contents of the gilded chest, there are some trinkets and the Moondrop Pendant, which is more symbolic than it is magical (but it does have magical properties). I like to make Shadowheart wear the Moondrop Pendant. It’s like a Get-Along-T-Shirt.
4
Religious Kuo-toa
Yeah, It’s as Weird as You’d Expect
Just when you think you’ve seen all the strangest things in the Underdark, you’ve not seen anything yet. Northeast of the Arcane Tower (which has its own secrets) but southeast of the Decrepit Village, you’d be able to find a rift. Go through it and climb down the rock, and suddenly you’ll be in the Festering Cove.
In this cove, you’ll find a group of Kuo-toa — fish people — committing a ritualistic sacrifice lead by one particularly zealous member, aptly named Pooldripp the Zealous. Talking to them, you’ll learn that they worship the God of Murder. Any Baldur’s Gate 3 player would tense up, knowing that means Bhaal … but in fact, it’s BOOOAL.
Basically, a Red Cap trying to be Bhaal. What you end up doing with him and the Kuo-toa are up to you and that particular playthrough, and you definitely have no shortage of options, but it’s a genuinely funky time from start to finish (in all the best ways).
3
The Harpers Left Their Mark in Act 1
The Worldbuilding is Drip-fed
You wouldn’t think that hints of the game’s overall story would take a couple beats before starting to make an appearance, but the beauty of Baldur’s Gate 3 is the fact that the story is literally everywhere from the moment it begins. It’s equal parts history and history coming back to haunt the narrative, and it often goes unseen.
Right after crash landing right off the Nautiloid, on the path to get Astarion, there’s a small patch of rocky waters you’re able to climb down to. The vines to climb down blend in well with the natural surroundings, so it’s incredibly easy to overlook, but if you climb them down and explore the small cavern, you’ll actually be able to notice a large stone.
Moving this stone out of the way will reveal a hidden chest. Opening the chest will reveal all sorts of really nice valuables right off the bat … and a notebook from the Harpers. Already, you feel the scars of battles long ago all the way over here, and it’s only emphasized when you find the Harper’s Stash later on in the game (right by the Emerald Grove).
So when you finally come face-to-face with the Harpers yourself in Act 2, you’ll remember the seeds that were planted so early on, and you’ll just fall in love with the story all over again.
2
Kagha is a Shadow Druid
You Can Get Her to Escape Indoctrination
This one surprises me, as someone who continuously has Kagha reject the Shadow Druids and be on the path of good again — time after time online, on various social media, I’ll see people making the discovery that Kagha is a Shadow Druid, and you’re able to fully investigate her and throw it in her face.
And if you haven’t seen that before, one neat detail is also in her outfit when compared to the other druids: the leaves on their clothes are a hydrated, healthy summer green, while Kagha’s are brown and decaying, showing her turning towards the darkness.
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Life in the Forgotten Realms isn’t kind.
You can find Kagha’s chest within the Emerald Grove itself, tucked away in the library and easy to miss. It will be instructions to meet at a specific tree — one located in the Putrid Bog, surrounded by mephitis and Wood Woads — and following the trail even further will give you evidence that you can then confront Kagha with.
There are all kinds of ways that this conversation can go, but you’re able to actually get her to see the error of her ways and try to repent … but if you want Cloakwood to take over the Emerald Grove, you can do that too.
1
You Can be Banished to a Jungle Island of Dinosaurs
Make an Enemy of Akabi
The circus is already a great time, even the one that ends in disaster in Rivington. Hilariously, it keeps going on despite the whole Dribbles the Clown fiasco, but you’re not here for that anyway.
Right by the entrance to the circus is a djinni named Akabi, and you can spin his wheel to see if you can win a fortune. He’s cheating, of course, and if you try to call him out on it he’ll turn you into a wheel of cheese. However, if you actually pickpocket him and take his Djinni Ring (which has the Mage Hand cantrip attached) away, you’ll actually win the wheel spin.
With that, he will be enraged, calling you a cheater (as if he wasn’t cheating) and then teleporting you away to a Jungle full of dinosaurs. It’s not just full of them (and they’re hostile), but the only way you’re able to get out is to actually find the treasure inside: a magic ring, Band of the Mystic Scoundrel, and a magic trident, Nyrulna. For a grand prize, it’s actually pretty great, and it’s a surprisingly fun adventure in spite of it all.
On your next playthrough, give it a shot, and have fun defeating The Absolute with your new toys.
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Released
August 3, 2023
ESRB
Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Partial Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Violence
Engine
Divinity 4.0
Multiplayer
Online Co-Op, Local Co-Op
Cross-Platform Play
Full