Game Guides
Baldur's Gate 3 · Gear, Honour & Platform. Gear, Honour Mode, mods, cross-platform play and advanced setup. Browse Baldur's Gate 3 Steam Deck Native Guide: Best Settings, Saves & Mods, Baldur's Gate 3 Photo Mode Guide: Controls, Camera, Poses & Screenshot Paths, Baldur's Gate 3 Crossplay Guide: PC, Mac, PS5 & Xbox, with requirements, routes and walkthrough steps.
Since Hotfix #34, Baldur’s Gate 3 has a native Steam Deck build. Larian says the native version uses less CPU processing and memory than the Proton version, targeting more stable frame rate, lower loading times and smoother gameplay. Hotfix #35 then changed the Native default upscaler from FSR 1 to FSR 2.2 and fixed additional loading/controller/crash issues. For a normal current playthrough, start Native.
Patch 8 added official Photo Mode. On PC press F9; on controller/console press both analog sticks, or use the Photo Mode icon beside the minimap. During normal exploration and combat you can move the camera, adjust party members, poses and expressions, change lens/scene settings, then apply post-processing, frames and stickers.
Baldur’s Gate 3 now supports full cross-play between Windows PC, Mac, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S through the Larian Network. Every player should be on the current game version, connect the platform account to a Larian account, enable Allow Cross-Play under Gameplay, then use the Cross-Play tab in Multiplayer. Existing campaigns need cross-play enabled for the save before the host loads it.
This is not a difficulty picker — for choosing between Explorer, Balanced, Tactician and Honour, see the difficulty guide. This guide is the Honour ruleset itself: one rolling save, Tactician-style enemy numbers, encounter-specific Legendary Actions, stricter action economy and a set of anti-exploit damage and rule changes.
Do not rank armour by AC alone — pick by what the build needs. Armour of Agility can produce enormous AC on a high-Dex character and adds +2 to every saving throw. Armour of Persistence has lower headline AC but permanent Blade Ward/Resistance-style defence and flat damage reduction. Helldusk starts at 21 AC and treats the wearer as proficient, making it flexible across classes.
A “best weapons” list becomes misleading when it compares a thrown trident to a Charisma staff or a finesse support sword as if all three were competing for one slot. Baldur’s Gate 3 rewards engines: Titanstring is exceptional when Strength is deliberately added to an archer; Phalar Aluve is exceptional when the party profits from Shriek/Sing; Markoheshkir is a caster tool, not a melee stat stick; Nyrulna is a throw build endpoint, not a reason for every Fighter to drop a two-hander.