Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Latest News Community Update #28 Closed Beta

Ah, the summer. Outside the temperature is rising, the chemical aroma of sunscreen is inescapable, and your dad is on his third day wearing the same sweat-stained tank top. What better time than now to retreat indoors and catch up on the latest updates arriving in Baldur’s Gate 3?

Coming to you this September, Patch 7 rolls out the perfect escape with split screen updates, brand new cinematics for evil endings, plenty of bug fixes, plus our official modding toolkit which we talked more about in our last Community Update!

Let’s take a look! And as always, beware - spoilers lay ahead.

Split Screen Updates



Dynamic split screen mode is incoming! With our next update, friends will no longer be eternally confined to their side of the screen - because the power of friendship transcends all obstacles, including screen partitions.

When playing in co-op, you’ll now have the option to have split screens merge into a single screen when you near one another. You can access this directly from the HUD and within the game settings, both in and out of combat.



Honour Mode Improvements

We’re continuing to make improvements to combat in Honour Mode too. With Patch 7, even more creatures have been bestowed additional Legendary Actions, including the bulette, everyone’s favourite neighbourhood surgeon, Malus Thorm, and githyanki Ch'r'ai Tska'an, Ch'r'ai Har'rak, and Ptaris.

Dror Ragzlin will now also be able to use a new spell called Arachnid Compulsion to rally the spiders that reside in the nearby pit to fight the real enemy - you.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Modding Toolkit

With this update also comes our official modding toolkit! Come September, you'll be able to load up your game with a range of new game mods, and even try your hand at making some yourself.

We recommend giving our Modding FAQ a look for more information on what modding support means for Baldur’s Gate 3.

We’re currently working with Baldur’s Gate 3 Mod Authors during our Closed Alpha, who have been busy testing out the toolkit. To find out what some of the Mod Authors have been working on during the Closed Alpha, keep reading!

The Toolkit itself will give you everything you need to edit or create entirely new content, including:

• Items - Equipment like weapons and armours, consumables, and miscellaneous items.
• Cosmetics - Including different hair, beards, and other textures.
• Classes and Subclasses - Creating new variants or modifying existing ones to edit abilities, powers, and skills.
• Races - These can be created and edited to determine overall appearance, as well as their individual powers and abilities.
• Dice Skins - You’ll also have the ability to edit or redesign the appearance of your dice skins!
• User Interface - Including extensions and restyling of the game UI.
• Quality of Life Improvements - Such as some mods that edit or improve gameplay that don’t directly rely on tools outside of the Baldur’s Gate 3 Toolkit.
  • While we hope to make modding more accessible and increase mod compatibility with our mod manager and toolkit, third-party modding will still remain an option for players and creators. We do not plan to limit modding to only our official pipeline! We recommend giving our Modding FAQ a look for more information on what modding support means for you, and for Baldur’s Gate 3.

Evil Endings

And, of course, Patch 7 will also be bringing several new cinematics that offer your more evil playthroughs a grander finale!

From avatar Origin characters, including the Dark Urge, to the multiple different pathways that you can take as your own player character, each new cinematic is yours to discover through nefarious means.

While we don’t want to give everything away just yet, you can feast your eyes on the teasers below - and be on the lookout for more heading your way soon!


Would you lie with me and just forget the world?


My sugarboo, I’m levitating.

Dark Urge Bug Fixes

Along with the new evil ending cinematics coming this patch, we’ve introduced a number of improvements and bug fixes for our Dark Urge players - ironing out camera pops, missing inspiration, VFX, and a few other issues.

For instance, a bug has now been fixed where combat sometimes fails to trigger in the event that you decide to murder one of your companions as the Dark Urge and attack the party. This will now lead to combat with the rest of the gang. And Minthara will now respond accordingly if you’ve been stripped of Bhaal’s influence.

We may have also let a certain bard now join the party as a controllable character if there’s an empty slot, temporarily, of course.

“But will we be able to kiss Gortash?” we hear you plead. “We want to kiss Gortash!”

Listen, he’s a complicated guy who’s busy contemplating the minutia of death cult office politics. Babygurl doesn’t have time to kiss.

Origin Character Bug Fixes

This update will also see improvements made to some cinematics, endgame dialogues, and Origin characters - specifically things like clipping issues, a couple of broken triggers for quests, dialogues, and romances, the odd case of retrograde amnesia, and persistent exclamation marks.

Oh, and the Blade of Frontiers will no longer absent-mindedly swing his sword mere inches from the aorta of shorter races who try to recruit him.

Let’s look at some of the highlights!

Wyll Highlights

Patch 7 includes a heap of fixes for Wyll, ranging from improvements to his dialogue reactivity to fixes for romance scenes.

If you’ve experienced issues triggering the romance scene with Wyll, this update will fix that. Should your relationship be headed in that direction, the cutscene in question will now trigger when you speak to Wyll at camp before your Long Rest.

A bug that had been preventing his romance greeting from triggering has also been fixed, so players in Act III who have a stable, loving, and committed relationship with Wyll will now see his romance greeting triggering correctly.

We’ve fixed Wyll’s dialogue reactivity during the epilogue for partnered players who have either joined Karlach in the Hells or Lae'zel in the rebellion, and we also determined there simply weren’t enough opportunities to kiss Wyll during the epilogue. This update rectifies that with the option to ask for a kiss in more paths of Wyll’s epilogue dialogue.

And if you're in holographic form during the epilogue, he’ll no longer automatically assume he's talking to Lae'zel, which was weird.

Astarion Highlights

In Patch 7, we’ve made improvements to the facial animations of your character during some kissing cinematics, including with the ascended Astarion.



We’ve also made tweaks to how Origin characters react within certain cutscenes, to enhance their emotional impact. For example, companions will show Astarion more empathy when he loses his ability to withstand sunlight.

Lae’zel Highlights

Lae’zel will now wait a little longer at her recruitment site if you tell her you’ll be returning. And once she’s set up at camp, she will also cycle through more varied idle animations.

This update will also put an end to an annoying issue where resurrecting Lae'zel on the beach in Act I would cause her to appear in the Party Line but not in the world, blocking you from leaving Act I.

Karlach Highlights

Along with some more general fixes for Karlach, she will now react to Dammon if she finds him dead after he has told her that he can help her.



That sketchy fade-to-black that follows her final scene in Avernus, which also unintentionally gave you a very brief glimpse of the region in gameplay mode, was a visual bug that has also been fixed.

The dialogue block caused by choosing to stay with a different companion the morning after your second romance scene with Karlach is no more.

Also, she’ll no longer brush the shaved side of her head during her camp idle animation.
Wrong side, Karlach.

Gale Highlights

With a few tweaks to camera angles and fixes to animation pops, repeated dialogue, and missing VFX, we’ve polished up Gale and his scenes and further refined his donation UI.

That panel that opens when donating magical items to Gale? This will now show all items eligible for donation - including those on your person, your party’s inventories, and your Traveller’s Chest.

This is part of the work that began with Hotfix #16 to improve the donation UI and update a player’s ability to access certain quest-related items, which has now been completed. We’re reinstating the intended behaviour that was removed in Hotfix #17 as a temporary bug fix to missing UI functionality. So if you now deny Gale a magic item three times in a row with magical items either on your person, your party's inventories, or now from your Traveller’s Chest, he will leave your party.

Alternatively, selecting “I’m not giving you anything. Not now, not ever” will still cause Gale to leave your party forever.

We’ve also patched up a bug that was preventing the final dialogue between Gale and Mystra from triggering, as well as a scene in the endgame that would cut off before you could kiss.

Shadowheart Highlights

In addition to fixing a few of her animation bugs, this update fixes a number of quest issues for Shadowheart.

A bug that saw the Spear of Night either not being received, or being spoken about as if it hadn’t already been acquired, is no more. Another bout of amnesia has also been fixed, in which Shadowheart occasionally thought Viconia was still alive after killing her. The 'Daughter of Darkness' quest should also now close properly if you choose to surrender Shadowheart to Viconia.

And yes, we’ve tweaked a few kissing scenes for her too, fixing a broken romance cutscene that should have triggered after giving Shadowheart the Idol of Shar, and a kissing animation that will no longer kick in before the dialogue option is chosen. We’ve also polished up the appearance of neck kissing. In the words of Michelangelo, no great work of art is ever finished, and so too is our approach to the art of snogging.

Party Banter Improvements

Prior to this update, party banter between companion characters was limited to the characters controlled by a single player. In Patch 7, multiplayer parties will support banter between characters assigned to different players.

This patch also resolves issues that had been rendering some romance party banters inaccessible while adventuring.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Toolkit: Closed Alpha Progress

With the Baldur’s Gate 3 Toolkit, we’re hoping to make modding more accessible and convenient for everyone.

To help us expand on what the tool can offer, we invited Mod Authors to join a Closed Alpha where they have been busy building their Baldur’s Gate 3 mods using the official modding tools arriving in Patch 7, and we wanted to show off some of their creations!

Mod Author Padme4000 has been tinkering with the Baldur’s Gate 3 Toolkit during the Alpha, and has been able to bring her Dragonborn Scale Colours mod to life.

- Mod Author, Padme4000.

- Mod Author, Padme4000.




Another Mod Author, TechRoot, has also tried his hand at modifying colours in game:

- Mod Author, TechRoot.



Mod Author, LostSoul, said:

- Mod Author, LostSoul.



Closed Beta - July 22nd

Are you interested in playtesting Patch 7? With all these bug fixes, updates to gameplay, and new features, we want to make sure we haven’t broken anything or introduced something that will make your computer explode. (We’re kidding, our legal representatives ensure.)

We mentioned in Community Update #26 that we were introducing additional internal playtesting, but we’d also like to test Patch 7 at scale, with a variety of different systems and savegames - this is where we would like your help!

Registration Now Open

Head to the Baldur’s Gate 3 store page on Steam and register now for your chance to take part in the Patch 7 Closed Beta which will go live next week on July 22nd!

Entry to the playtest will be given to randomly selected registered players, and if you’re selected, we’ll let you know more about what to look out for, including partial patch notes, and how you can report any issues you might come across!

New Merch Online Now

You’ve been waiting for it, and now it’s here! Check out our new merch available online, including two new original t-shirt designs by Anna Hollinrake, the Baldur’s Gate 3 OST on cassette with exclusive bonus track, Down By The SynthWave, a gorgeously ornate mind flayer poster, and more!

It Ain’t Goodbye Just Yet!

It’s hard to believe it’s almost been an entire year since we launched Baldur’s Gate 3. But the journey isn’t over yet.

Patch 7 won’t be the final update for Baldur’s Gate 3. We still have a few things up our sleeve - including many community-requested features like crossplay and a photo mode to capture and share your unforgettable moments. And we’re working on a host of other enhancements, from gameplay tweaks and quality-of-life improvements to bug fixes and performance optimizations.

We’ll keep you looped in on when those are likely to hit a little further down the line. In the meantime, stay in touch with us on our socials, stay tuned, and don’t forget to wear sunscreen.

I'll join in

Finally my Dark Urge story no longer feels broken

And when I see the floating Durge I will be the very best evil Durge... "Sceleritas prepare everything, we'll get something to do."

*Chuckle* ^^

Thank you for giving Wylls story the much needed backbone and reactivity.



I want to point out, that most of the information disks in the nautiloid are currently not working. Maybe you could address that? For us veteran players, that might not be important, but they contain nice tidbits for new players.

And yay for mod support and not having my Durges smooch GOrtash - I don't get the charme of a 'younger handsome man with an easy smile'

Modding for this game should be wild.

The team is aware of the rune tablets not working and they're currently looking into the issue!

Impressive cruelty, to push even further the illusion of her being an actual party member. Here's hoping her clothes can be stolen.

Any news on fixing Shadowheart's hair during the river scene? If she is Selune her white hair turns black when she removes her clothes.

Thank you, that is great.

Any chance for news about arcane trickster? Still find it really shocking that there have been multiple cosmetic fixes and things like kissing animations when an entire subclass that worked in beta has been broken since launch... It's what I've been waiting for to jump back into the game and I'm starting to lose hope 🫤

I totally agree. I never touched Arcane Trickster anymore after full release and people complaining. I guess, a kissing animation is easier and the fangirls are satified, so I hope, it isn't forgotten and they already work on it in the background.

Patch 6. This bug gets me every time:

if you kill Khaga (and the Shadow Druids) the journal updates, but not the Investigate Khaga quest with the entry prompting you to talk to Zevlor… happens if one of the hostile druids is still alive… typically the lonely guy that walks in the side room when the combat starts, because he may remain far from your characters and not enter combat.

If you then talk to Zevlor (because you know you should…) he acknowledges Khaga is dead, rewards you, but the Investigate Khaga quest does not complete. If you go back, kill the remaining hostile druid (because you know you should…) the quest updates, you’re prompted to talk to Zevlor, but then he just chit-chat…


Short version: Investigate Khaga quest should also update when Khaga dies, not when all hostile druids are dead.

As of today:
Noticed the following errors:
1. Something strange is happening in the cave with the owlbear. If the mother calls for a helper in the form of a male (legendary action), the child remains hostile after killing them and cannot be recruited in the future.
2. The corpses of Mairina's brothers. Sometimes both are lying, but sometimes, either both or one of them periodically do not appear in the swamp. What it depends on, I couldn't figure out.

I am not sure if this helps with your concern, but there is a turn of events in which they do not turn up dead. If you just let them go their merry way, you won't find corpses and Auntie will say something about them being at a farm.


It's nice to read that Gale's camera glitches and endgame kiss trigger are worked on, though they are probably not the gravest bugs on the list. I hope that the missing companion reactions to the act 2 visit by Elminster for Origin-Avatar-Gale will also be patched. It is a bit depressing if only best girl Lae'zel (and sometimes Wyll) care about the grave news Elminster delivers.

If you flee combat and return later (after long resting) the cub will be gone and can be found at the goblin camp and recruited as normal. It's still a bug, but this workaround lets you recruit this very important companion.

Thank you.
I meant the course of events where they is dead, but for a reason unknown to me, their bodies(one or both of them) disappear from the game. There is a red bloodstain, but no bodies. (and hence no way to talk to them).It doesn't always happen, but I couldn't figure out what it depends on.


Thank you. I was afraid if I escaped, he would remain hostile and replayed this fight until baby's mother forgot to summon a helper. Then the further quest goes correctly.

Curious to ask; does mod support via mod.io mean that Steam Workshop support isn't being added or is it possible that Workshop support could come later down the road? I'm playing BG3 exclusively via Nvidia's cloud streaming service GeForce Now due to me not having a PC to play on and GFN only allows mods via Steam Workshop.

so just to clear, this beta test is for Steam on Pc only yes?
Gog, mac xbox etc need not apply

1 = yes that change was last hotfix... you can just leave the cave with the cub still alive and return after a long rest she should have moved on to the Goblin camp where you can talk to her after

2 = yes the swamp has two different maps and it depends on you passing a test to "see' the real swamp... as far as the story goes its the same result seeing one or both brothers dead and you really only miss out on looting his knife