The camp in Baldur's Gate 3 is not just where you rest. It is where your collection lives: two animal companions, a quasit familiar, a chest full of books you meant to read, and the slow achievements that only count if you start them in Act 1. This guide recruits every camp companion, sets up the Bookworm and digging habits, and gives you an act-by-act camp checklist, so the quiet half of the achievement list finishes itself while you play the story.
Legendary items are the orange-framed apex of Baldur's Gate 3 gear, and almost all of them hide behind a quest chain, a boss, or a choice you cannot take back. This collection guide works through every legendary weapon, armour piece and book in campaign order, says what each one is for, and flags the three choices that lock another legendary away, so you can plan one run that collects nearly the whole set.
Most Baldur's Gate 3 achievements arrive on their own, but about twenty live inside a single fight, a single choice, or a single habit window, and a normal playthrough walks past most of them. This guide works through every missable achievement in campaign order, with the exact condition, the save to make first, and the method that makes each one reliable, so a second run is a choice, not a repair job.
Baldur's Gate 3 has 54 Steam achievements, 29 of them hidden, and the alphabetical list in Steam tells you nothing about when to chase each one. This roadmap sorts all 54 by how you actually earn them: story milestones you cannot miss, camp and life counters that need a whole playthrough, one-window boss conditions, and the endings and difficulty runs that need their own campaigns. Global unlock rates below are from Steam on 3 November 2026.
Load order is the sequence Baldur's Gate 3 reads your mods, and the last mod to load wins when two mods change the same thing. This guide explains how order works in the in-game Mod Manager and BG3 Mod Manager, the dependency-first rule, the five conflict types, and a step-by-step diagnosis for a broken stack, with no fixed order table, because no universal one exists: author notes govern.
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 has thousands of mods, so a frozen “Top 10” becomes stale quickly. The safer 2026 shortlist starts with mods whose current pages still show Patch 8 support, then asks what job the player needs: bigger party, harder fights, cosmetics, cleaner UI, more spells or a rules overhaul. A mod with five million historic downloads is not automatically a better choice than a smaller project updated for the current patch.
For most players, the safest Baldur’s Gate 3 mod workflow is the official in-game Mod Manager introduced with Patch 7 and expanded through Patch 8. Open Mod Manager, find a supported mod, subscribe/download, verify dependencies, enable it in Installed, then start a clearly labelled modded campaign. Use third-party PC tools or manual files only when the feature you need is not available in the supported pipeline and you accept responsibility for load order, updates and platform compatibility.
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.
Shadowheart joins as a High Half-Elf Trickery Domain Cleric. Trickery is playable and fits her story, but for a general combat companion the easiest improvement is a Withers respec into Light Cleric 12. This is a Light Cleric companion build, not a Death Domain (necrotic pressure) or Tempest (Wet lightning burst) build: Light trades those damage lanes for Warding Flare, Radiance of the Dawn, always-prepared Fireball and Wall of Fire, Improved Warding Flare, Potent Spellcastin
The Dark Urge is an Origin character with a fixed buried history, but race, class, appearance and most decisions remain yours. A resist run is a complete heroic story, an embrace run is a complete Bhaal-aligned story, and a mixed run is mechanically possible. The one famous exception happens in Act 1: when the bard camp event triggers, the Dark Urge murders the visiting bard during sleep. Most later urges are choices, checks or story-state tests rather than unavoidable kills.
Start Karlach’s romance at the tiefling celebration — do not wait for the old night visit. Karlach’s old “30 approval → she visits you at night before the party” scene is bugged and no longer triggers in an unmodded game. The tiefling refugee celebration is therefore the current practical romance start. From there the route runs on two Infernal Iron engine upgrades through Dammon, an Act 2 long-rest lock-in scene, and an Act 3 date at the Singing Lute.
Astarion’s romance is decided in Act 2, not Act 1. He often approves of self-interest, wit and power, but a successful romance does not require a murder-hobo route. Respecting his autonomy, taking his abuse seriously and helping him against Cazador matter just as much to the long arc. Before Save the Refugees resolves, reaching 40+ approval can make him propose a night together in normal dialogue.
Shadowheart’s romance starts in Act 1 at the tiefling celebration — 20+ approval earns the bottle invitation and the waterfall scene — and it is decided in Act 2 at the Nightsong: spare Dame Aylin and the Selûnite route opens; kill her and Shadowheart becomes a Dark Justiciar. A passive Insight check reads that she expects a kiss, but failing the check does not kill the route: the next-day conversation can acknowledge that the player wishes they had kissed her.
The full companion romances are Astarion, Gale, Karlach, Lae’zel, Shadowheart, Wyll, Halsin and Minthara. Jaheira and Minsc are permanent companions but are not romance options. The game also contains one-off intimate encounters — Mizora, the Emperor, Haarlep, the drow twins and others — but those are not equivalent to a multi-act companion relationship and can affect an existing romance differently.
Recruit all 10 permanent companions before you worry about party composition. Baldur’s Gate 3 has six Origin companions who can join in Act 1 — Shadowheart, Astarion, Gale, Lae’zel, Wyll and Karlach — plus four later permanent companions: Halsin, Minthara, Jaheira and Minsc. You only field four characters at once, but there is almost no reason to leave recruitable story content behind: recruit broadly, keep everyone at camp, then rotate companions into the active party when t
Explore while disguised, steal last, rescue Hope before walking back to Raphael. The clean House of Hope route is: open the Devil’s Fee portal → accept Hope’s Debtor disguise → explore the House and Archive while neutral → obtain access to the Boudoir and the password from Raphael’s safe/notes → take the Orphic Hammer (or retrieve/destroy the Soul-Sworn Contract if that is your deal state) → use the Boudoir rejuvenation faucet if needed → enter Hope’s prison → use the Hammer
Spare Dame Aylin. That is the short answer for most runs: sparing her moves Shadowheart away from Shar, preserves Aylin as an ally and keeps the Act 3 Nightsong continuation open. Killing her makes Shadowheart a Dark Justiciar, removes Aylin, gives the Sharran reward route and causes Last Light Inn to lose Isobel’s protection and fall to the shadow curse.
Do Moonrise first, Shadowfell last. The Gauntlet of Shar is the route to Ketheric’s relic and the Shadowfell. The trials themselves are recoverable. The final Shadowfell portal is not a casual dungeon door: crossing it is a major Act 2 cutoff that closes Act 1 access and resolves many unfinished quests.
Get the Crest first, then the legendary mace is almost risk-free. The clean route is: solve the Dawnmaster stained-glass weapon puzzle in Rosymorn Monastery → take the Dawnmaster’s Crest → finish the crèche/Inquisitor route → rotate the two Lathander statues → cross the three trapped barrier sections → insert the Crest into the final altar → take the Blood of Lathander. Using the Crest disables the defence system and skips the four-turn monastery-destruction emergency.