Baldur’s Gate 3 Chunky Patch Adds Difficulty Tweaking, Performance Enhancements, and New Epilogue Scenes

Baldur’s Gate 3 releases massive Patch #5 that adds a new epilogue, difficulty selection, and performance updates.

Chunky Baldur’s Gate 3 Patch Adds Difficulty Tweaking, Performance Enhancements, and New Epilogue Scenes

The developers over at Larian Studios always have their hands full. Between the recent Physical Deluxe Edition, PS Plus Trials, and Xbox Release, there’s already so much that the developers have been working on. However, these are the guys that keep on giving, as they historically have provided immense post-launch support for all their games, most recently Divinity Original Sin 1 and 2.

Released on the last day of November was Patch #5 – an update so big that it weighed in at 30 GB, and required that users have at least 130 GB of free space to install. So, what do all those gigabytes contain? Let’s find out! 

A Worthy Ending

Arguably the biggest highlight of the patch is a new epilogue sequence after the players triumphantly defeat the [Redacted]. It looks like there are hundreds of new lines of dialogue that help neatly wrap up many story threads, as well as give players a “sense of closure” with their allies and ultimately let you bid farewell to the companions that have shared your blood, sweat, and tears. 

This new Epilogue to Baldur’s Gate 3 will take place 6 months after the conclusion of the main game. It will be the penultimate scene defined by the player and their actions, weighing in every choice, consideration, and consequence that might have followed you around. Larian even mentions that this is some of the most complex writing in the game so far, as it takes into account tons and tons of variables throughout your journey. 

While players still need to sift through the content, it has been confirmed that some of Karlach’s ending beats were tweaked to give her proper closure (if she’s lucky to live long enough in your playthrough to survive till the end). There are also special cinematics tailored specifically to Gale and Lae’zel, depending on how they are in a playthrough. 

A Customized Baldur’s Gate 3 Challenge

New to Baldur’s Gate 3 are the Honor and Custom game modes, which come after Tactician in the Difficulty selection Menu. 

For Honor

The first of which, Honor Mode, is Tactician Difficulty dialed up to 11. Instead of just upping the difficulty for the sake of it, Honor Mode makes changes even outside of combat. There are also “30 new tweaks” to the game’s boss fights. These changes are said to include new Legendary Actions that the bosses can take, giving them some unexpected tricks up their sleeves that even the most battle-hardened veterans might not anticipate. 

Honor Mode will also have a light version of Permadeath. We say light as once the player’s party succumbs to death, they will be presented with various statistics and feats they accomplished while being not dead. Players do get a chance to continue with their save, though that will disable any Honor Mode achievements, specifically the Golden Dice. 

This new trinket in Baldur’s Gate 3 is simply a reward for completing an entire playthrough in Honor Mode. It is a gold dice skin that players can use to show off their awesome skills. 

Customized Difficulty

Another change is the new Custom Mode, which lets players tweak specific settings to make things easier or more difficult for themselves. Players can tweak many things to their heart’s delight, such as whether or not you can only have one save (no more save scumming!), enemy aggression and loadouts, player power, proficiency bonus offsets, and more. 

Some more interesting settings are the Short Rest Full Heal which does exactly what it says on the in. You can also choose to hide the random failed Perception rolls while exploring out in the wilderness. Now, players will be none the wiser that they might’ve potentially missed some epic loot. 

Performance and Quality-of-Life All Around

Larian has also improved the performance of the game, especially in Baldur’s Gate Act III (again). While the recent Patch #4 implemented FSR 2.0, which greatly improved things for non-Nvidia users (specifically the Steam Deck), there is always room for improvement. Those who play Baldur’s Gate 3 on machines with lower VRAM and RAM are supposed to see better performance in general while PlayStation 5 users should also have dynamic resolution that will adjust on-the-fly whenever things get too intense. 

Other changes include the biggest QoL for the game to date: inventory management updates. Now, players can access and manage their companions’ inventories while at camp even if they’re not actively in your party. No need to constantly swap around followers just to see what they’re hiding in their backpacks. 

In other news, check out Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 Introduces the Banu Haqim as the Third Playable Clan, and Age of Darkness: Final Stand To Release Campaign Act III In December 2023.