Baldur’s Gate 3’s Patch #5 is bringing more reasons than ever to go back to Larian Studios’ excellent RPG with new modes and, more importantly, a new epilogue that takes place six months after the main game.
Patch #5 will be available later today, November 30, and it comes with a whopping 130GB free space requirement to install. The headliner is the new epilogue that will be accessible to anyone who loads the game before “the final fight.” In a statement issued to Kotaku, Larian says this specifically refers to the final boss fight, but you’ll need a save before you make a decision about how to handle the Netherbrain. The epilogue is described as a gathering of all your friends six months after the original ending, letting you say your final goodbyes to everyone. Well, everyone who’s alive, anyway.
That does mean players who choose the evil ending won’t be able to access the epilogue, though players who went this route will be getting some additional story in future updates. Larian’s full statement issued to Kotaku reads as follows:
“Players that commit to the evilest of endings won’t be receiving party invites from Withers! He arranges this party to give you closure with your allies – if you have no allies left, the new epilogue scenes don’t apply. That said, we’re working towards how we can improve the evil ending experience, which should come in a later patch.”
According to Larian, this epilogue includes “some of the most complex writing” in Baldur’s Gate 3 as it accounts for relationships and choices made throughout the whole game. The team wrote 3,589 new lines for this segment, but you’ll likely only hear a fraction of those in any given playthrough.
While that’s a reason to play the ending again, Baldur’s Gate 3 is also getting two new modes that will change up the entire game if you are looking for a reason to start over. The first one is Honour Mode, which is essentially a permadeath option that makes combat, stat checks, and boss fights more difficult. If you die in this mode, you’ll have an option to continue that save file, disabling Honour Mode, or to start over. If you manage to make your way to the end, you’ll unlock a golden D20 for your dice rolls in future playthroughs.
The second new mode is Custom Mode, which lets you tweak different variables for your journey. Some options include hiding dice roll requirements and enemy HP bars, which Larian says is meant to better imitate a tabletop game experience. If you want to change things up for an easier time, you can also make changes like having short rests heal your party fully instead of partially.
Updated: 11/30/23, 11.30 a.m. ET: This post originally published with work-in-progress patch notes provided by Larian Studios. However, those patch notes may not accurately reflect the final patch. We regret the error and will update this post with the final patch notes when we receive them.
