For the second anniversary of Baldur’s Gate 3, Larian Studios has shared new player stats and a thank you from its CEO.
This week marks the second anniversary of Baldur’s Gate 3, the surprise smash hit of 2023, that managed to snatch that year’s Game Of The Year award from the likes of The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom and the Resident Evil 4 remake.
To honour the occasion, developer Larian Studios has shared some new player statistics. Rather than the usual stuff about player choices and preferences, though, Larian opted to focus on the community’s more… niche proclivities.
This includes the number of people who respected their companions’ character classes, with one especially unpopular choice prompting Larian to question some players’ well-being, asking, ‘Are you folks doing okay?’
According to the stats shared on X, only 350 players opted to respec the character of Minsc (an optional companion you can only encounter in Act 3) from his usual ranger class into a death domain cleric.
If you’ve played Baldur’s Gate 3, you’re probably just as baffled as Larian is, since this class simply doesn’t suit Minsc from either a gameplay or character perspective, especially since it involves necromancy – a far cry from the ranger class that’s all about nature and bonding with (living) animals.
The death domain cleric class is more associated with Shadowheart, since she already starts the game as a regular cleric. Larian’s stats reflect this, with Shadowheart being the most respecced companion in the game, at 4,890,005 times, and usually as a death domain cleric, if not a life domain cleric.
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Fans are also baffled by other obscure player achievements. For instance, the fact that 598 players adopted a baby with companion character Wyll.
However, their shock is more due to the fact that they didn’t even know this was an option. ‘Wait what? You can adopt a child with Wyll????’ writes one baffled fan on Reddit.
This has prompted several others to explain how to achieve this, followed by some admitting they now plan to pull this off for themselves. ‘And now I need to try that,’ writes one, ‘How am I supposed to stop playing Baldur’s Gate 3 if there are still things I need to try?’
Other fans are more shocked by the stats for the game’s Honour Mode. For context, Honour Mode is an extra-hard difficulty level that includes permadeath and a single save slot. So, if you die, the game ends, and you have to start over from the very beginning.
The fact that some players have managed to beat the game on Honour Mode isn’t itself surprising, but according to Larian, 4,647 players have achieved this with a level one character.
‘How the f*** can you beat honour mode as a level one ????’ reads the top comment on Reddit, with a fellow fan replying with, ‘I’m certainly not going to find out.’
It’s definitely the kind of challenge you’d have to be a real masochist to attempt, although one fan suggests the strategy is to use ‘many item exploits and tons of barrels.’
Meanwhile, Larian CEO Swen Vincke shared his own message for the two-year anniversary, adding that it’s thanks to the success of Baldur’s Gate 3 that the team can work on ‘our next crazy thing.’
Exactly what Larian’s next project is remains a secret. Beyond vague hints that it might be sci-fi, Vincke has offered no real information and only asked fans be patient: ‘We’re working hard to ensure you’ll have plenty of fun. Like really – loads of it.’
Larian is actually meant to be working on two new games, though neither is Baldur’s Gate 4. Licence holders Hasbro and Wizards Of The Coast, however, absolutely want a sequel and have been speaking with other potential partners about it.
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