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| Baldur's Gate 3 stops at level 6 D&D spells, but one player managed a level 7 screwup that locked them out of the RPG's final fight |
In a perplexing series of events that defies description within Baldur's Gate 3's six-level magic system, one unfortunate player has found themselves in an inescapable predicament, missing out on the RPG's final battle due to a sequence of missteps that serve as the ultimate lesson in the importance of quick saving.
Spoilers for Baldur's Gate 3 Act 2 Ahead
Reddit user palomAstra recently shared their unfortunate tale with the CRPG community. It may seem improbable at first glance: "Finished Act 2 without obtaining the Netherstone." Yes, the very Netherstone crucial for kick-starting Act 3's climactic events and one of the three essential elements for confronting the game's ultimate antagonist.
How did this happen? The debacle began during the initial skirmish with Ketheric on the rooftop of Moonrise Towers, as palomAstra recounts. Following their victory over Ketheric, Shadowheart was inadvertently separated from the group, leaving only three party members to descend into the Mind Flayer colony. Shadowheart remained stranded above, with the entrance to the colony sealed.
One might argue that this was the point at which palomAstra should have reloaded a previous save. Regrettably, it gets worse. The player admits, "I definitely should have reloaded a (now-deleted) save like 100 hours ago."
Rather than merely replaying the brief Ketheric tower encounter, they proceeded deeper into the Mind Flayer colony, eventually reaching its depths and defeating Ketheric once again with their three-person team. However, during the second phase of the battle after Myrkul was summoned, they met their demise.
However, Shadowheart remained safe on the surface. In other words, the entire party hadn't technically perished, so Baldur's Gate 3 didn't trigger a game-over screen. At this juncture, one might consider allowing Shadowheart to meet the same fate, but instead, palomAstra chose to revive the three fallen members back at camp. Herein lies the issue: Myrkul still possessed the vital Netherstone, and now, no one on the surface could access the sealed Mind Flayer colony to complete the fight.
"Couldn’t get back into [Mind Flayer] colony, so went to [Baldur's Gate], which triggered Act 3," our beleaguered hero laments. "Continued playing for 100 hours (lol) and now can’t get to [the] final fight because I’m missing Ketheric’s Netherstone."
"Anyone else run into this?" palomAstra inquired of the perplexed Baldur's Gate 3 community.
"My guy, I can quite confidently say that the answer is no. No one has run into this issue," reads the top-voted response.
"This is an advanced, 7th level mistake," observes another astounded reader.
"I deserve to take some flak for this one," palomAstra admits in another response.
"Nothing seemed glitched out, and Act 3 was going great until I tried to get on the boat to the brain, and Emperor was like 'nah, chump! You shall not pass.' Bills came due, I guess," they explain.
The unfortunate aspect is that palomAstra is playing on PS5, making it difficult to maneuver out of this predicament as easily as one could on PC using Baldur's Gate 3 cheats and console commands. Nevertheless, thanks to Larian's cross-platform saves, they could potentially evade this fate by acquiring the game on PC and either teleporting into the Mind Flayer colony or spawning Ketheric's Netherstone. However, this assumes that the game registers all the events correctly after the conclusion of Act 3. Failing that, they'd have to retrieve a considerably old save, a task that seems to have been complicated by deletions. It's a truly challenging situation.
"This may be the little push I need to switch to PC," palomAstra commented.
I've reached out to palomAstra to see if they were able to resolve this unfortunate soft-lock, and I'll update this story if I receive a response. On a lighter note, I've also inquired with Larian if they have any advice for players confronted with such a conundrum.
Update: I've received a response from palomAstra, and it's not the news we were hoping for. "No such luck! The sadness continues, but I’ve decided to get a PC to try console commands," they say. That's true dedication to the cause.
Meanwhile, the actor behind Baldur's Gate 3's Lae'zel is causing chaos in the game, engaging in skirmishes with druids, pilfering idols, and kicking squirrels in truly chaotic evil streams.
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