Image: Larian Studios
Baldur’s Gate 3’s latest patch is a whopper, adding a whole new epilogue along with much-needed performance fixes.
Larian Studios’ latest update for Baldur’s Gate 3 is unexpectedly massive, adding a whole new epilogue with thousands of lines of extra dialogue, new game modes and performance fixes for Act 3 in particular. The epilogue is set six months after the events of the game, where the player and their friends find themselves gathered back at camp to say a final goodbye to the party.
Patch 5 also seems to have added a new way to recruit the companion Minthara, who previously could only be added to the party by losing Karlach and Wyll as companions.
Baldur’s Gate 3 adds a goodbye party
When Larian Studios released Patch 4 to tune up some of Baldur’s Gate 3’s performance issues and add a couple quality-of-life updates, players reported that Act 3 of the game was performing worse than ever. Companions suddenly wouldn’t follow the player, character interactions would take minutes to load, and the game’s framerate took a blow. To that end, Patch 5 introduces multiple performance improvements mostly targeting Act 3. If you’ve been experiencing these problems, they may now be fixed.
Otherwise, here are the biggest highlights for Patch 5: new playable epilogues have been added to the game set in the High Hall camp. This chapter of the game comes right before the credits at the end of the game, taking place six months after the main story. Depending on the choices players have made and the characters they have befriended, the epilogue is intended to provide closure and hint at what their friends might be up to next.
The gathering at camp is organised by Withers of all people, and I assume there’s a story there to discover on its own. The epilogue contains new cinematics with 3,589 lines of new dialogue, depending on who appears in camp and what they think of the player’s actions. You’ll also receive letters sent by various characters across the main campaign, and updates in the Baldur’s Mouth Gazette will keep you updated on the latest happenings in the game world. You can also play fetch with Scratch using the Astral Prism instead of a ball, but why? Just why.
The epilogue will feature new outfits for the player’s party, and while we’re on the topic of outfits, you can also now loot Orin for her costume and dye it in the colour of your choosing. Larian has also added two new game modes: Honour Mode and Custom Mode. Honour Mode is the most difficult mode of the game by far, introducing over 30 tweaks to bosses in the game with a Legendary Action system for more challenging combat, allowing them to perform new actions and catch players off guard. You also won’t be able to ‘save scum’ by loading previous saves in this mode. If players die, their journey will end unless they choose to continue with Honour Mode disabled. If they beat the game in Honour Mode without dying, they’ll get a Golden D20 as a reward.
Custom Mode is more of a pick-and-choose mode, allowing players to select options such as hiding rolls to succeed dice checks or hiding enemy HP for a customised gameplay experience. Inventories are also getting a much needed quality-of-life update, with players now able to manage the inventory of all their companions from the camp, even if they aren’t currently in the party. Another interesting tidbit in the patch notes is that “Minthara will still appear at Moonrise Towers if she was knocked out in Act I,” which theoretically means that the player could knock her out in Act 1 instead of killing her in a good playthrough, and still recruit her later without murdering a bunch of tieflings in the process. This has yet to be confirmed, however.
Patch 5 is a hefty update: the update takes up 30GB, but needs 130GB of total storage space to be installed. We’ll list Larian’s highlights from the patch below, but you should check out the full patch notes here for a complete overview of its changes.
Main Highlights
- Epilogue: An entirely new section at the end of the game after the defeat of the Netherbrain that aims to provide a well-deserved sense of closure with your allies.
- Two new play modes: Honour Mode and Custom Mode.
- Many performance improvements, particularly in Act III.
- Added dynamic resolution for PS5.
- Players playing on machines with low VRAM/RAM should see improved performance.
- The game is now available in Korean!
- While at camp, you can now access and manage the inventories of companions who aren't in your active party.
- Added a brand new fight in Ramazith’s Tower if you betray Nightsong there.
- Orin’s outfit now drops as loot and is wearable by anyone. We also gave it a suitably disgusting description and name.
Other Highlights
- Shadowheart will always be the owner of the artefact during the tutorial if she is a follower.
- Becoming half-illithid will now also visually affect your eyes.
- Basic Action variations (e.g. a free version of Dash that you can perform because of a class feature) that share a hotkey by default will now gain a hotkey according to a certain priority order.
- A romanced Minthara can now refer to her bond with you using a drow word for deep, unbreakable love.
- Fixed a bug where party members would sometimes not change back into the armour set they were displaying before entering camp.
- You can now talk to Mol more about her contract with Raphael in the Guildhall.
- Withers will sneakily resurrect any dead companions that fell before the final battle so they can join the ending cinematics. What a helpful skeleton.
- Gave Jaheira her own scene with Danthelon if she approaches him alone.
- Improved the physics of characters and walls to prevent NPCs being able to shoot through ceilings inside houses.
- Fixed an issue where Gale's scene with Mystra after the final combat of the game only played if you had no one else in your party.
- Made cinematic tweaks to restore sections of Astarion's Act III Ascendant sex scene.
- Improved companion reactivity when making the decision before the Netherbrain.
- The loading screen art now unlocks gradually as you progress through the game.
- Boo will no longer take damage when thrown.
- Fixed the puzzle in Cazador's Palace.
- Fixed the screen going black during Astarion's endgame romance scene.
- Added some additional audio and cinematic work to the intimate scene with the drow in Sharess' Caress.
- Wild Shapes that do not have weapons will now benefit from having the Tavern Brawler feat.