Summary
- NPC aggression issues have been fixed to improve the gameplay experience, preventing unnecessary combat.
- Missing character bugs resolved, ensuring NPCs appear where intended with correct dialogue.
- UI enhancements and modding fixes implemented for smoother gameplay and customization.
The latest patch for Baldur's Gate 3, patch 8, has been confirmed by developer Larian Studios to be the last major patch for the game. As such, it's a massive update, with patch notes longer than some short stories. This patch aims to solve all remaining issues with the game, while also adding new subclasses, filling in some extra dialogue scenes, and more.
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While there will undoubtedly be some minor hotfixes needed to smooth out the new additions, the last major patch aims to fix most of the outstanding bugs that players are still experiencing in Baldur's Gate 3. From much-requested UI improvements to smoothing out questing and relationship bugs, patch 8 fixes a lot of persistent issues for long-time players. For players who don't want to read the 48 pages of patch notes, these are the biggest bugs fixed by patch 8.
1 NPC Aggression Fixes
Less Unintended Combat
Biggest Fixes:
- NPCs won't become aggressive when stepping on damaging surfaces outside of combat
- NPCs no longer enter combat for no reason
One infrequent, but frustrating, situation that could happen in Baldur's Gate 3 was NPCs becoming aggressive for no apparent reason. This random bug has been fixed in patch 8, as well as some other damage interactions that could inadvertently start combat with NPCs. They'll no longer get mad if they step on a damaging surface after combat has ended, for example. A multitude of other NPC fixes tackle clipping issues, animations, and more.
2 Missing Characters Fixes
No One Forgets Who's Dead Anymore
Biggest Fixes:
- Fixes to Minthara to stop her from disappearing, getting stuck
- Fixes to certain NPCs not moving on to their intended locations
- Less dialogue where characters mistake other characters' being alive/dead
For some reason, the prominent NPC Minthara had several instances where her AI could get stuck, not appear at specific locations when she should, or otherwise break her questline and interactions.
Patch 8 tackles all of these issues, as well as some other instances of NPCs not appearing where they should or getting stuck in one location. Several instances of characters getting confused about other characters being alive or dead in dialogue have also been resolved.
3 UI Fixes
Readability Improvements
- Discovered traders are now always shown on the map
- Trading showing incorrect tooltips fixed
- Various UI hangs and freezes fixed
One of the best UI additions in patch 8 is the ability to see any trader players have discovered on the map. Their location will be displayed no matter how far away players are, as long as the trader is still available to trade with (i.e., not dead or hostile).
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Items showing incorrect tooltips in the trading window have been fixed, and various instances of certain actions causing the menu UI to hang or freeze have been resolved. There are also multiple fixes for incorrect text appearing in tooltips and character/skill descriptions.
4 Modding And Toolkit Fixes
Ease Of Use
- Mod manager functionality improvements and fixes
- Mods should no longer get stuck loading
Developer Larian is commendably committed to giving their modding community the best experience with their officially supported modding tools. This patch brings several updates to the mod manager, fixes to mod thumbnail displays, better functionality for mod management on consoles, and fixes for mods getting stuck loading. There's also a nice quality of life fix that means players who log into mod.io are automatically subscribed to the latest versions of their installed mods.
5 VFX, Sound, And Cinematics
An Added Layer Of Polish
- Various missing SFX/music transitions fixed
- Shadowheart's wound VFX fixes for multiple scenes
- Improved animations and facial expressions in cutscenes throughout the game
Patch 8 adds an extra layer of polish to Baldur's Gate 3, with improvements to animations, mocap, facial expressions, scene compositions, and camera angles, in scenes and cutscenes throughout the game.
There are also multiple fixes for missing or cut-off SFX, music transitions that were broken, and situations that caused ambient sound to cut. VFX also gets another pass, with several notable fixes for missing VFX on Shadowheart's wounds and several other variables in scenes.
6 Crash Fixes
Hundreds Of Rare Crashes Fixed
- Loading game crashes fixed
- Level-up crashes fixed
Random crashes are an issue that had mostly been resolved in Baldur's Gate 3 before this patch, but patch 8 still manages to address many lingering crash issues, both big and small. Most notably, crashes when loading save files have been fixed, even in instances where save files are incompatible/invalid.
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Occasional crashes that could happen while leveling up have been fixed, and numerous multiplayer and split-screen-related crashes have been ironed out.
7 Balance And Combat Fixes
Working As Intended
- Potent Spellcasting now affects Bursting Sinew and Toll the Dead
- Absolute Consumption no longer stacks
- Fixes to Owlbear's Rage
There are far too many changes to balance and combat to list them all, but most of them apply to very specific instances of skills and passives not applying the correct modifiers, or adding too much or too little damage.
Some more significant changes include fixes to Druid's Wildshape forms, and Bursting Sinew and Toll the Dead now being affected by Potent Spellcasting. Some triggers and effects for minions and adds in boss fights throughout the acts have also been fixed, and the highest difficulties have had a couple of bosses rebalanced slightly.
8 Gameplay And Quality Of Life Fixes
Faster Actions And More
- Alchemy recipes unlock more reliably
- Looting multiple items is now 15 times faster
- Various split-screen issues fixed
There have been minor changes to gameplay elements that weren't quite working as intended across the board in patch 8. Previously, when looting from containers, new alchemy recipes wouldn't always unlock; now that's been patched out.
Looting multiple items is also much faster now, eliminating the perceived gameplay hang that this was causing. Various multiplayer and split-screen gameplay issues have been resolved, including conversations interrupting each other and the associated black screens that this could cause.
9 Companions And Dialogue Fixes
Quests And Relationships Smoothed Out
- Companions no longer think they're in the swamp when they're not
- Various Companion dialogue fixes
- Fixes to multiplayer causing issues with relationship/romance scenes
There are a lot of fixes for minor issues with companion behaviors, conversations, and visual glitches with dialogues and scenes with companions in patch 8. One amusing bug that has been patched is companions calling out barks as though they were in Act 1's swamp in inappropriate places, such as people's homes. Multiplayer issues centering around companion scenes triggering for the wrong characters have also been ironed out.
Baldur's Gate 3
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 96 /100 Critics Rec: 97%
- Released
- August 3, 2023
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Partial Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Larian Studios
- Publisher(s)
- Larian Studios
- Engine
- Divinity 4.0
- Multiplayer
- Online Co-Op, Local Co-Op
- Cross-Platform Play
- Full cross-platform play.
WHERE TO PLAY
- Genre(s)
- RPG
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
