"Baldur's Gate 3": Player finds new lines of text through "idiotic behaviour"

"Baldur's Gate 3" received great acclaim after its full release in August 2023 and was rewarded with many awards. Among other things, the role-playing game thrives on its many decision-making options. There are almost always several alternatives to master a situation or task. The developer studio Larian has built in numerous dialogues and options in order to anticipate and cover as many of the player's actions as possible.

The YouTuber "Proxy Gate Tactician" shows an example of how much thought the studio has put into the game in a video. He sets out to put the game to the test by making illogical decisions. It turns out that Larian has also thought of unlikely scenarios. "Proxy" uses his self-described "idiotic behaviour" to get to lines of dialogue and mini-quests that you would normally never get to see.

You shouldn't lose Netherstones

During the course of the game, you will receive several Netherstones. These are mandatory quest items that you need for the final boss in the game. You cannot complete the game without these stones. Various dialogues also make it clear that these things are important. Nevertheless, Larian has built in a safety feature: If you throw the Netherstones on the ground, your dream guardian will report back and inform you that you still need the stones. Normally, you should then pick up the stones again and continue playing.

If you ignore the warnings, the game will penalise you with an immediate gameover when you leave the environment: A video sequence informs you that the final boss has discovered and killed you.

"Proxy" has not let this go, however. He keeps trying to throw the Netherstones out of the inventory at various locations to test whether this triggers new possibilities. And that seems to be the case. In one place at the end of Chapter 2, he drops the first Netherstone without protest from the Dream Guardian. However, he sends the stone back to his warehouse.

Backup for the backup

Inspired by this, "Proxy" tests this in particular in places that he can never enter again after leaving. This includes the "Iron Throne", an underwater prison that is flooded with seawater after the mission is completed. After he removes the Netherstones from the inventory there, the dream guardian reports back and sends him to the beach after surfacing, where he can pick up the stones on the shore after a short fight.

The game will not let him down if he kills these enemies before the mission in the "Iron Throne". Another message then appears and he can buy the Netherstones back from a nearby merchant who found them while fishing.

But "Baldur's Gate 3" goes even further. "Proxy" also killed the merchant as a test before his adventure in the "Iron Throne" - it is virtually impossible for these three coincidences to occur simultaneously in a normal playthrough. And yet Larian has also built in a backup for this. In this case, he finds the Netherstones in the stomach of a fish on the beach.

"Proxy" also drops the stones in a factory that is blown up during the course of the game. In this case, he can defeat goblins in the ruins of the factory and take the Netherstones from them. These goblins only appear if the Netherstones are left in the factory beforehand. If the goblins are not defeated, the gameover sequence follows. Larian's patience with players is apparently not unlimited either.

Not everything can be foreseen

"Proxy" has actually found a place where he can lose his Netherstones without getting them back: the jungle. This is an optional location to which you can be teleported once. If "Proxy" loses the Netherstones there, no message appears and he has no way of getting them back. In this case, "Baldur's Gate 3" cannot actually be completed.

However, the other examples show that Larian has spared no effort even where the overwhelming majority of players would not even notice. In any case, "Proxy" suspects that there is more unknown content in the game because no one has yet thought to try out other unlikely possibilities. <p