Summary
- Baldur's Gate 3 offers a highly interactive world with plenty of secrets and rare endings, showcasing the extensive thought put into the game by developer Larian.
- Despite the presence of bugs and glitches, many of them minor, players can exploit some of these glitches to their advantage, gaining advantages such as extra gold or easier combat encounters.
- Exploits can help make infinite money, obtain powerful items early, and deal thousands of damage in one hit to give players significant advantages, creating an absurdly easy experience.
Baldur's Gate 3 lets players do damage in the thousands, steal tons of gold, and skip entire sections of the plot, even if the game doesn't always make it easy. In this detailed RPG, developer Larian has created a truly rich, highly interactive world. Odd little secrets and super rare endings seem to prove that Larian thought of everything possible in Baldur's Gate 3, but even so, it couldn't catch everything.
Bugs and glitches run rampant, even though most of them are pretty minor and easily ignored. However, with just a little know-how, hard work, and advance planning, it's possible to exploit these glitches for an absurdly streamlined experience. From the easily replicated ones that save the party a few extra gold to the frame-perfect ones that turn the most crushing battles into trivial encounters, here are some of the biggest and best game-breaking exploits to know in Baldur's Gate 3.
10 Trapping NPCs In Dialogue
This is one of the easiest exploits to achieve in Baldur's Gate 3. All a party has to do is have one character talk to an NPC they intend to fight, and linger over the dialogue options while the rest of the party gets into position around them. Then, they can hide, and attack at a moment's notice for a round of surprise or a Sneak Attack bonus. It's a nice little advantage, even if it's not exactly earthshaking. But this exploit can be recreated in a wide variety of combat scenarios throughout the game, so that the player party always has the upper hand.
9 Infinite Money Glitch
This exploit only works on PC, and requires the use of an autoclicker. With the series of rapid-fire, turbo clicks provided by the appropriate software, it's possible to sell a single item to a merchant multiple times in quick succession on the Trade menu. This allows players to rack up thousands of gold at little to no personal expense. However, it is somewhat limited. The requisite amount of gold will disappear from the merchant's inventory each time, and once that's depleted, they'll no longer be able to buy anything. Even so, this trick can earn the party more than enough gold to carry them through the entire game.
8 Free Respecs
Baldur's Gate 3 lets players respec their entire party at a moment's notice, for only a small price of 100 gold per character changed. However, Withers is willing to waive this fee entirely. Passing a Sleight of Hand check with a roll of at least 19 allows players to steal their gold back out of Withers' inventory. Withers doesn't seem to mind being pickpocketed, and doesn't become hostile, so this can effectively be repeated until the player passes the check and gets their money back. As a result, respeccing becomes effectively free, allowing the party to tweak their builds as much as they like, potentially even before every single encounter.
7 Instant Act One Level-Up
This glitch allows the entire party to reach level three almost immediately, giving them a great head start. One party member will have to trigger the initial conversation with the cambion Raphael outside the Emerald Grove. Another can exit the dialogue and sneak around behind him for an easy opening strike. Raphael isn't programmed to fight back here, so the party can take him down without resistance for a cool 1,400 XP. This should get them most of the way to level three. However, Raphael can't be killed in Act One, so they'll have to use non-lethal damage and be ready to deal with him again later.
6 Triple XP
This exploit takes advantage of the way Baldur's Gate 3 rewards differing approaches to the same situation. On resolving certain encounters, the game grants the party equal amounts of XP no matter what methods they've used: successful dialogue checks, non-lethal damage, or outright murder. It's sometimes possible to do all three, starting with talking NPCs down and saving the game. Then, players can load and knock them out with non-lethal damage. Save and load again, turn non-lethal damage off, and kill them. If done right, XP gains will trigger each time, reducing the time it takes to level up by orders of multitude.
Related
You're Probably Making Baldur's Gate 3 Harder Than It Has To Be
Baldur's Gate 3 can be a challenging game, but it appears that players are overlooking one key element that can make virtually everything easier.
5 Getting An Act Three Sword In Act One
Players aren't technically supposed to equip Voss' Silver Sword until Act Three, but it does appear earlier and can be picked up with a little quick thinking. The sword is named for its wielder, Kith'rak Voss, one of the githyanki patrol members who lurk outside the Mountain Pass. If the party triggers the fight with Voss and his allies, they can force him to drop his weapon by any means - Disarming Attack and command: drop are some of the most reliable options - then pick it up for early access to this powerful weapon.
4 Victoria Bomb
Players may discover the best-kept combat secret in Baldur's Gate 3 during Astarion's quest line. As they explore Cazador's Palace, the party will likely happen upon the corpse of a girl named Victoria, whose very blood has been cursed to radiate necrotic damage. Victoria can be picked up and thrown into battle for a constant AoE - since she's dead, she has little use for initiative, which means she deals a constant wave of damage to all around her. Of course, whoever picks her up is also at risk, so this strategy isn't without its drawbacks.
3 Stealth And Blood Money
The Act Two boss Gerringothe Thorm carries a morningstar called Twist of Fortune, which can be used to execute a high-damage boss-nuking strategy in Baldur's Gate 3. The weapon's unique action, Blood Money, deals an extra four piercing damage per every 300 gold in the target's inventory. Therefore, it's possible to reverse pickpocket an enemy, dropping thousands of gold pieces into their inventory, then smack them with Twist of Fortune to deal hundreds of damage in a single hit. Of course, this strategy requires tons of money, but with a decent rogue and ample use of the infinite gold exploit, it's not out of reach.
2 Owlbear Divebomb
At level six, a druid can use Wild Shape to take the form of an owlbear. Owlbears have access to a move called Crushing Flight, in which they jump down on an enemy group, bludgeoning everyone nearby and negating fall damage for the druid. Now, this can be very effective on its own, but Crushing Flight deals damage based on mass and height difference, both of which can be artificially increased.
Druid players can stack up as many crates as their patience allows, climb up them as an owlbear, and have another character cast enlarge to raise their mass. Depending on the height of the crate stack, this exploit can deal damage in the thousands to multiple enemies at once, ending some battles in a single move.
1 Shadowboxing
Shadowboxing is quickly becoming a popular speedrunning strategy, allowing players to complete the game in less than four minutes. It involves exploitation of node flinging, in which items moved into inaccessible areas spawn outside the map and trigger cutscenes. Players must first kill a character - usually Shadowheart - and stuff them into a crate, then set it on fire and attempt to move it into an inaccessible area. The box will instead spawn outside the map, the fire will cause it to break, and Shadowheart will emerge alive in the middle of a late-game cutscene. Unfortunately, outside speedrunning, it's not the most universally useful exploit in Baldur's Gate 3.
These exploits aren't always easy to pull off, but they can be extremely helpful. Exploits can be used to get past difficult parts of the game, set a new speedrun record, or just to put a little extra cash in the player's pockets. As much effort as they make take, most of these Baldur's Gate 3 exploits are well worth the trouble.
