Baldur’s Gate 3 Beginner Tips & Tricks: Ultimate Guide

As someone who didn’t warm up to Baldur’s Gate 3 until my second try, I can confidently tell you it’s worth playing. But it takes a bit to get there. And I know how daunting it can be (and overwhelming, and frustrating) if you don’t know much about D&D or this type of RPG. Because I didn’t and it almost put me off Baldur’s Gate 3 entirely. 

But between my second and first playthrough, I found quite a few things helped to make everything easier and more fun. So, I decided to share these tips. 

Some are more concrete (go there, do this), but some are more general — how to look at this game overall. I hope you find them helpful! 

Baldur’s Gate 3 Essential Tips

My essential tips are the things I realized and things that can save you tons of time and effort. They’re something to always keep in mind and they will greatly improve your enjoyment of Baldur’s Gate 3. For more of my thoughts on this game, check out my full review.

Choose the Easiest Mode on First Playthrough

When you first start playing Baldur’s Gate, you’ll have the option to choose between different difficulty settings. Now, they’re not very clearly described. My first playthrough, I thought that the easiest one would be mostly story and very little fighting and instead picked “Balanced”. Boy, was I wrong. It was super hard for me as a first-timer. 

If it’s your first time playing, choose the easiest difficulty setting. Once you’ve been through it all once, you’ll have an easier time and a better understanding of the game, so you can pick a different setting on your second playthrough. 

Also — keep in mind that you can always change the difficulty setting. No, literally, you can change it any time except in the middle of a battle. So if you made the same mistake as me, check your main menu. 

Save Often

The Autosave on Baldur’s Gate 3 doesn’t activate that often, so make sure you save often. Before battles, after battles, before and after important conversations, etc. It’s easy, quick, and will save you tons of trouble down the line. 

You can reload to get the best version of events or just before a battle that you lost previously. This would have saved me so much time at the beginning when I was losing the battle at the crashed Nautiloid ship — I didn’t know you could do that and had to go through the whole Shadowheart meeting like five times. 

Rest a Lot

Something I didn’t know I should or could do often is resting. You have the option to long rest in the camp or short rest while out and about. For each long rest, you have two short rests. A short rest will replenish your health and some spell slots, while a long rest will replenish everything. You do need some resources for long rest but those are pretty easy to find even in early game. 

The Camp is such a fun place too — you’ll get to know your companions and romance them, experience some fun cut scenes, etc. So, don’t be afraid to do it. You can camp pretty much everywhere (and the map will glow red where you can’t). 

Be Creative With Battles

Battles in Baldur’s Gate 3 aren’t a straightforward thing — which was really surprising for me. I’m very much used to screaming and smashing buttons randomly whenever there’s a fight in the game. I get by. But Baldur’s Gate 3 is totally different. 

First of all, it’s turn-based so you have time to strategically pick your attacks and victims. It’s not timed, so just relax and think things through. 

And second of all — pretty much anything goes. There’s no one right way to play the battles out, so have fun with it, be creative. You can even avoid battles entirely (in some cases) if you’re persuasive, intimidating or deceitful enough. 

There are numerous ways to access each location, so you don’t have to face enemies straight-on. You can pick them off in small groups and then handle the boss. 

You can also use the environment to your advantage. For instance, if you goad your enemies to stand on water, you can electrify the water and cause more damage. You can blow up a bridge if they’re standing on it (just make sure your companions aren’t there), douse them in grease and then light it on fire or cast Cloud of Daggers and then shove enemies into it. Also, you can use objects and other elements to your advantage. 

It’s really insanely good and fun to figure these things out.

My main point, though, is that you should have fun with it. Save before battle, try things out, reload if you fail. But I promise you, this game rewards creativity in battle so much that you’ll likely succeed. 

Relax — Nothing is Urgent

One of the biggest mistakes I made with Baldur’s Gate 3 on my first try is that I was rushing. Act 1 has a sense of urgency — get the tadpoles out of your head, do this, go there. But the thing is, none of it is timed. There’s no reason to rush. You can loiter and explore and camp and nothing bad will happen. 

Take some time to explore, to get to know your characters and skills. Get to know the area and what you can do. The battles aren’t timed either so you can take your time to strategize. Just relax and enjoy — it’s an awesome game. 

There’s No Right or Wrong

Another huge mistake I made on my first go (related to above) is thinking there’s a certain way to do things, and everything else is wrong. But this is not the case with Baldur’s Gate. This game has around 17 000 variations of the ending. Your choices matter, yes, but they’re not inherently good or bad. It all depends on what you want out of the game. 

If you want romance, adventure, to be heroic and mostly good, you can do that.; if you want to be self-serving but neutral — you can. Want to antagonize people? You can. Basically, whatever you can imagine and want to do, you probably can. 

This game is so freeing, and once you realize that there are no wrong choices, you’ll have so much more fun with it. 

Send Loot to Camp

The problem with loot is that it’s heavy. If you exceed or even come close to what you can carry, you’ll walk slower and lose points in battles and dice rolls. If you don’t have a trader nearby, it’s good to know you can send loot directly to camp. Like literally, just send it there to sort out later. Keep only what you’ll need until the next long rest. 

And considering you can long rest often and pretty much everywhere aboveground, you’ll never have trouble accessing it. 

If you feel like you might need something before long rest but you don’t have time for it, just send it over to a companion — also easily done from your character info sheet. 

You should send food and related items, books, etc. straight to camp because those things are mostly useful over there. No, you won’t lose them and you don’t actually need any resources to go to camp. You’ll only need food and camping materials once you decide to go to sleep. 

Your Attacks Can Hurt Companions

Be mindful of where you’re shooting spells or attacks — they can hurt your companions too. For example, if you’re shooting a Cloud of Daggers, your companions will get hurt by it too. Same with Eldritch Blast or most poisons, freezes, electric attacks and others. Basically, if your companion is next to the enemy or close to you (within the radius) when you cast certain spells, cantrips, attacks or poisons, your companions will get hurt. 

Most of the time, you can heal them easily, but you should be aware of this, especially when they’re low on health. 

Use Spells Outside of Combat

One thing that really surprised me about Baldur’s Gate 3 is that you can use your spells and attacks everywhere, on everything. It probably wouldn’t have if I was playing on PC, but I used Steam Deck and so all of the spells are on radial menus that have to be pulled up. 

So, just in case you don’t know or haven’t seen it yet — yes, you can use your whole arsenal everywhere. If you can’t unlock a door, maybe you can burn it. If you can open a chest, maybe you can smash it. If you can’t speak to an animal, use a spell. It’s an extremely useful feature and one that will definitely save you time. 

Use Bonus Actions in Battle

I cannot overstate this enough — bonus actions matter. Yes, action points are flashy and you can do cool things with them, but bonus actions can make or break a battle. Use them! 

In bonus actions, you can heal someone or yourself, push someone off a great height, shove someone (which makes them lose a bit of health), use objects or environment in battle and so much more. Don’t ignore this option because your enemy sure won’t. 

I found jumping, for example, really useful when I couldn’t move close enough to where I wanted to be. Shoving enemies has killed and saved me more than once (especially when they have that pesky one or two health points left). 

If you’re stuck, do something else

Baldur’s Gate doesn’t hold your hand and it certainly doesn’t tell you where to go or which quest to do first. The freedom is great, but because of that, you might end up doing a quest you aren’t quite ready for just yet. For example, I wandered off to the mountain pass (where you meet the Githyanki dragon riders that are supposed to help with the tadpoles) immediately after the Blighted Village. 

I didn’t even do the Emerald Grove part fully, just wandered around a bit — and I definitely didn’t do the goblin camp. So when the Gith started attacking, I was completely lost. I tried doing this battle a few times, but they won every time, which makes sense because they were a much higher level than me. 

My point is — if you find that you can’t do a quest or a boss, just go do something else. There’s plenty of stuff to do that will level you up and then the hard stuff will be a piece of cake when you go back to it. 

Useful Additional Baldur’s Gate 3Tips 

And here are some of my tips that maybe aren’t going to save your life, but are certainly good to know. 

Find a Shovel Early On

While exploring, you’ll find that there are many places where you can dig for treasure. My advice is to find a shovel early on (like as soon as you finish the crashed nautiloid ship battle) and keep it with you at all times. You only need one shovel and you can share it between companions, so no worries about needing to look for more. 

Shoot Traps to Disarm Them

Eventually, you’ll find or buy a trap disarming kit, but if you find a trap before then, just shoot it with a ranged attack and you’ll likely disarm it. 

Jump to Hard-to-Reach Areas

If you see an area where you want to be but can’t quite reach it (for example, there’s a gap), use the jump option to get there. This is especially good for goblin camp where there’s tons of deteriorating walls and walkways that have loot just over a gaping hole. 

Disguise Yourself to Get Through Tight Spaces

If you run into a cave or a hole you can’t get through (and your companions can’t get through), you can disguise yourself into a gnome or a smaller race to get in there. 

Take Advantage of High Ground

Have at least one ally with ranged attacks on high ground. This will give you an advantage when shooting and will likely land more hits. Being on lower ground than your enemies can result in some misses. This way, you can also pick off other enemies on high grounds more easily. 

Switch to Companions in Certain Conversations

In certain situations, it’s best to let your companions talk. For example, if you run into Githyanki, it’s best to let Lae’Zel talk rather than talking yourself. Usually, it’ll be easy to tell because the companion will offer or the person you’re talking to will be of the same race/class. 

Sometimes, though, you’ll need to figure it out yourself since some of your companions may have better persuasion/deception/intimidation skills. For example, as a Bard, my intimidation skills were horrid, but Lae’Zel or Wyll were much better at it. I was great at persuasion though. 

Use Explosive Oil Barrels (Freely)

When you run into explosive oil/alcohol barrels, pick them up and send them to camp. Before a battle, run to camp and pick them up. These things are incredible in battle and will save you more than once. 

Speak With Animals and Dead People

Animals and dead people can give you tons of information about the world, people, places, your quest and more. Speak to them whenever you can. Plus, it’s a fun little side thing that will help immerse you into the game. To speak with animals, you can collect an amulet near Withers in camp or use a spell (Bards, Warlocks, Druids). 

Encounters Continue Without You

If you run into someone in need of saving, you need to save them immediately (if you want to). Once you enter that situation, it will go on without you, even if you leave. For example, if you leave that gnome on the windmill in Blighted Village after seeing him (without even engaging), you won’t find him there if you take a long rest or if you leave the village for a while, then go back. Keep that in mind if you want to do these little side quests. 

Give Your Companions Time

You won’t like all of your companions immediately. I didn’t — in fact, I liked none of them. But if you give them time, they will grow on you. Yes, even Lae’Zel. And Gale is a bit… cringe at times, but he’s a good guy. 

A big part of Baldur’s Gate 3 are the characters and their stories. Some would argue it’s the best part. So give them some time, and you’ll be rewarded with a fuller, more touching experience of the game. 

Some More Quick and Dirty Baldur’s Gate 3 Tips

• Turn off the Karmic Dice setting — it will give you and your companions less damage most of the time. 
• You can swap spells mid-battle. 
• Hold left-ALT (or press R on Steam Deck/PS) to highlight items you can loot in the vicinity. 
• You can save scum in the middle of conversations to reload and see what results different dialogues give you. This is especially useful if you’re romancing someone and really want to get them to go along with it or if you’re trying to manipulate an enemy.
• Respec your companions if you want to, or if you have the same class as one of them. You can keep the characters (personalities) that you like and just give them the class you need. Do this in Camp with Withers (available mid-Act 1). 
• Wash off poison and acid on your characters with water spells. 
• If a dead character doesn’t want to speak to you because you killed them, disguise yourself before talking to them. 
• Do not kill Gale — he has a (slight spoiler) some sort of a bomb-ish thing in him that will explode and end the game (kill you and all of your companions). 
• Don’t kill bosses by pushing them or exploding them off things. They have valuable loot and if they fall somewhere you can’t reach them, the loot is lost. 
• If you carry a lit candle with you, you can drop it during battle and dip your weapon into it to have it on fire. You can also dip your weapon in acid and other dippable surfaces. 
• Destroy war drums and other things that can alarm other enemies as soon as possible. There’s nothing worse than when you’re almost done with a battle, only to have an enemy go beat the drum or something and call a few more enemies. Destroy those things on sight. 
• Don’t use your illithid (tadpole) ability on random mobs. You get one per each long rest and they’re best saved for bosses or bigger fights since they can almost assuredly get you out of things. 
• You can use the turn-based system even outside of battle, which is useful for hiding from enemies and ambushing. 
• Use Shadowheart’s Guidance skill before rolling the dice since it will give you extra points and could very well save your roll. 
• It’s okay to split up the party. If you, for instance, have your rogue separate while your party engages the enemy, the rogue can sneak attack and backstab them. This gives you an extra attack you wouldn’t normally get. 
• Similarly, don’t group all of your characters together. Rangers and squishier characters should go high up, Rogues do best in the shadows so they get the sneak attack advantage, tankier characters and fighters should be on the floor. This helps when you’re throwing wide-range spells as well — fewer allies to keep an eye on.