Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General How many hours of gameplay will this game provide?

Glad you're onboard with the math approach. Scattershot thoughts:

1. I hadn't though of a Lone Wolf run, but it's a good idea. It goes to show there might be more unique ways to play than appears at first blush.

2. That run brings the count of companions to 11. There has to be a duplicate between the 4 parties.

3. I'd count a Dark Urge kill everyone Lone wolf run as unique, though you might not under your rules (conflict with Party 1).

4. You might get more different parties with hirelings.

• Tav, Astarion, Halsin, Merc1
• Dark Urge, Gale, Jaheira, Merc2
• Karlach (origin), Lae'zel, Minsc, Merc3
• Shadowheart (origin), Wyll, Minthara, Merc4
• Dark Urge solo murder hobo (presumably the other Dark Urge run would be good aligned)

5. The number of companions and "alignements" clearly limits the number of unique combinations. But I wouldn't try to draw the map of events either, that thing must be huge! I think there will be many more ways to traverse the game that will feel unique enough than a list of 4 party options could reveal.

6. I think I get why Larian have trouble marketing BG3. The best argument for their game is the wild event graph and all the ways to traverse it. But that is both hyper conceptual and super spoilery. I wonder if Larian can find a better expression of the game's scope than by comparing it to the length of game of thrones.

7. To answer OP's question, my guess is you can easily get 1000 hours out of this game if the mechanics and tone work for you. If you love it, why count the hours?

Mercs may reduce the story "density" of a single playthrough by removing a story companion slot but definitely allow you to create those five runs rather than 4. I would say the most fresh content is probably going to occur in the first two playthroughs where you take alternate paths for major decisions for the first time, but still the "freshest" occurring in the first. So 150-175 hours of purely fresh content, an additional 100-150 hours of mostly fresh content, and then maybe 425 hours of semi-fresh content (assuming a lot of connective tissue in the game is roughly the same). Then maybe an additional 50 hours of semi-fresh content if you stretch out story density with Mercs. After that, hundreds upon hundreds of hours where the content is slightly different from a previous run. But this game, while large for a Larian game, is MASSIVE by the standards of replayability rather than single run scope.