Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Technical & Gameplay Problems Unable to camp thanks to Raphael

When I go to camp for the night, Raphael shows up and the initial cutscene plays. When it gets to the bit where he transports us to his place, the screen goes black and then....nothing. Just a black screen. So basically, the run is broken because the party needs rest for spells and such and I cannot go.

Does this happen reliably every time you try? If so, then this sounds like something it’s worth providing a save file and bug report to Larian for.

There are a number of these black screen bugs in the game, but they are often intermittent. A workaround that sometimes helps is to save (while the screen is black) then reload the game you’ve just saved. That sometimes restarts the action.

It is reliable. I even tried going underground to camp at one of our 'alternate' camps and he showed up there to the same effect. Haven't tried saving from the black screen. Didn't figure that would work. Will have to give that a shot. Not sure how to submit a save file to them for this.

You can do this by;

• Clicking the HELP button during the game's launcher
• Submitting an official bug report
• Providing your save file

People who manage to get these black screens cooked into their saves are rare so submitting a bug report officially could help in getting them investigated and fixed for good.

Just while we’re sort of on the topic of these black screen bugs, thought I’d mention something that I only saw on my last playthrough. When jumping down the hole in the Whispering Depths, I got a black screen but it wasn’t quite the same as it still gave me the icons down at the bottom left that you normally get in dialogue, including the one to switch characters that I could pick to refocus on my main character and continue.

Not sure whether anyone else has seen this either here or elsewhere. Or whether it’s a variation on the black screen bug or something else entirely.

I think both this thread and Game becomes unresponsive - Gnarled Door are talking about the exact same issue you're describing, where the game has to transition a dialogue scene into another location for the scene through a black fade in transition, but the black fade in transition does not progress into the next scene. So you still have your UI and buttons and can hear everything, but cannot do anything.

I also experienced this issue myself, however only once and never am able to get it cooked into my save file, as quitting the game and reloading fixes it for me.

Mostly when I get the black screen bug I can press escape and access options in the menu, but don’t have access to any in-game UI elements or hear anything progressing. It’s apparently just stuck. Sounds like there are different bugs, or different manifestations of the same underlying problem.

EDIT: If you have had a black screen bug that’s still given you access to the buttons on the bottom left, did using them to switch to one of your party work like it did for me in the Underdark?

So saving in the black screen and reloading advanced the action though I didn't get any further chance to talk to Raphael. It just sort of skipped the rest and went to the after-discussion with SH.

I submitted a save via the feedback function before finding the help button thingy. Hope that works as well.

Well, that’s something, even if not wholly satisfying.

Hopefully your bug report will help Larian track down and eliminate these annoying black screens for good.