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This spoiler-light Baldur’s Gate 3 walkthrough helps you complete the Prologue and Acts One–Three, understand combat and camp, and avoid the major documented quest cutoffs—without choosing your morality, romances, class build, party, or endings for you.
Baldur’s Gate 3 does not have one correct quest order, party, class, or ending. This walkthrough gives you a reliable, spoiler-light route through the Prologue and Acts One–Three, explains the systems that make exploration and combat click, and flags the transitions that can close quests. Your moral choices, romances, builds, and resolutions remain yours.
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Version context: this guide is written for the live game as of March 26, 2026. Patch 8 (April 15, 2025) was the final major update, adding cross-play, 12 subclasses, Photo Mode, an updated modding toolkit, Xbox Series S split-screen support, and fixes. It was not the final update: Hotfix #36 was listed on March 26, 2026 for crash and performance fixes. UI, mod, and platform-specific advice can change with later hotfixes.
Spoiler policy
- The main route below is spoiler-light: it names destinations, systems, quest names, and progression warnings without revealing outcomes.
- Clearly marked spoiler sections identify main-story objectives in Act Three. Boss tactics, quest resolutions, companion endings, identity reveals, and final choices are intentionally not covered here.
Before you start: the systems that matter most
Combat is about turns, options, and the battlefield
Combat uses an evolved turn-based D&D 5e ruleset. Initiative decides turn order, then each character normally works with an action, a bonus action, movement, and possible reactions. Do not spend a turn only looking for the highest damage number: a shove, jump, reposition, thrown object, spell surface, blocked route, or help action can be the play that wins the encounter.
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- Read the turn order. If allies act next to one another, coordinate control effects or focus fire before an enemy gets another turn.
- Check range, line of sight, and elevation. Move before committing an action when it improves your odds or prevents a wasted attack.
- Watch advantage and disadvantage. Positioning, conditions, visibility, and other modifiers can matter more than a small damage upgrade.
- Use the environment. Surfaces, height, chokepoints, destructible or movable objects, and hazards are tools, not decoration.
- Save reactions for the right moment. When the game prompts for one, pause long enough to decide whether the trigger is worth spending it on.
If the game is becoming a wall rather than an adventure, change the difficulty. Baldur’s Gate 3 provides three difficulty settings; using the one that keeps you moving is a valid way to play. For a deeper explanation, link this section to a dedicated beginner combat and action-economy guide.
Choose a character fantasy, then learn its loop
There is no universally best starter class. The game supports 12 classes, 46 subclasses, more than 600 spells/actions, and progression to level 12. Pick the kind of character you want to role-play first, then learn that class’s basic rhythm: what it spends, when it recovers resources, what its action and bonus action usually do, and which ability scores support it. Build optimization can wait until the fundamentals feel natural.
A character-creation/classes/subclasses guide is the right place for current build details, because Patch 8 expanded subclass options and exact recommendations can be patch-sensitive.
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Quests are recorded in the Journal, and important objectives can continue across multiple acts. Re-read active entries before assuming a lead has failed or that a destination is mandatory. Camp is your Long Rest, storage, and a major place to speak with companions and camp followers. Check in with companions regularly, especially after meaningful story progress; dialogue and story choices can affect relationships. Do not treat approval or romance as a guaranteed recipe.
Keep a separate camp/resting/inventory guide updated for exact interface steps and platform differences.
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Prologue walkthrough: Escape the Nautiloid
Your immediate main objective is Escape the Nautiloid. The Prologue is short, but it teaches the habits that matter for the rest of the game: rotate the camera, inspect the environment, use turn-based combat deliberately, talk before fighting when the opportunity appears, and pay attention to rolls and modifiers.
- Follow the escape objective and use the on-screen prompts to learn movement, interaction, and the camera.
- Take time to read your available actions in the first combat rather than rushing through it. This is a safe place to learn the difference between movement, actions, bonus actions, and reactions.
- If you encounter the optional captive-rescue objective, decide whether you want to pursue it. It is an early example of the game offering a choice rather than a compulsory checklist.
- Finish the escape sequence and treat the next region as an open exploration space, not a corridor with one prescribed route.
Act One: explore, recruit, and resolve the local crisis
Act One is the game’s onboarding-and-exploration act. It is broad on purpose. Explore the initial Wilderness, recruit people as you encounter them, learn how your party plays, collect supplies, and follow cure leads without worrying that every interesting path must be completed in a single perfect order.
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A spoiler-light Act One route
- Explore the Wilderness first. Learn your party’s combat tools, find early supplies and equipment, and meet companions organically. Speak to NPCs before deciding that every tense scene requires a fight.
- Follow cure leads. Find a Cure is a multi-act main quest with multiple possible subquests, not a single narrow solution. Pursue leads that fit your character and the information you have.
- Settle the grove/goblin conflict if you care about its connected content. Choose the resolution that fits your playthrough; this guide does not prescribe a moral outcome.
- Choose an Act Two approach. Both the Mountain Pass and the Underdark are routes toward Moonrise Towers. They are meaningful paths through the world, not a “right” route and a “wrong” route.
How to choose Mountain Pass or Underdark
Choose based on curiosity, role-play, and the leads you have found. The important practical step is not selecting a supposedly optimal route; it is resolving the time-sensitive local conflict first if you want its quests available. After that, use your Journal to decide whether there are side stories you personally want to close before progressing.
A standalone Act One route and transition-warning page should carry current quest-specific edge cases rather than turning this walkthrough into an unstable exhaustive checklist.
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Act Two: Shadow-Cursed Lands and Moonrise Towers
Act Two takes place in the Shadow-Cursed Lands. Your broad purpose is to reach and investigate Moonrise Towers while confronting the Cult of the Absolute’s activity. You may arrive through the Mountain Pass or the Underdark.
A spoiler-light Act Two route
- Secure a safe foothold. Learn how the region’s hazard affects exploration before wandering too far. Prepare before treating every dark-looking path as routine travel.
- Explore at your pace. Advance companion objectives and side content that interest you. The Journal is the best current record of which threads your party has actually opened.
- Visit and investigate Moonrise Towers. Infiltrate Moonrise Towers is the Act Two wrapper main quest and contains several subquests. Visiting and investigating are part of the act’s intended flow; do not assume that every important destination must be attacked immediately.
- Pause when the game warns you about later Gauntlet of Shar progression. Treat that warning as a cleanup checkpoint, not background text.
Companions in Act Two
Companions are story participants, not interchangeable combat pieces. They have their own moral perspectives and react to player choices. Bring people whose current concerns you want to explore, speak with them at camp, and let your character make choices that feel consistent rather than trying to farm a hidden “correct” approval score.
Exact recruitment conditions, personal-quest branches, and romance triggers belong on separately maintained, spoiler-labelled companion pages. They are too choice- and state-dependent to present as universal instructions in a broad walkthrough.
Act Three: Baldur’s Gate and endgame preparation
Act Three begins after the party leaves the Shadow-Cursed Lands and reaches Baldur’s Gate. It is the final act, where the main story and companion stories converge. Give it room: the city is not one small hub.
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Arrival and city orientation
Start with the outer-city/Rivington material as you encounter it, then move into the Lower City when the story and access lead you there. Recheck the Journal after major discoveries, visit camp, and make room for returning-character and companion threads without assuming that one quest order serves every save.
Spoiler-light Act Three habits
- Keep an eye on companion objectives before pushing the main story forward.
- Use the Journal to distinguish current leads from completed or superseded ones.
- Close optional content you genuinely care about before committing to obvious endgame progression.
- Do not rely on an unverified claim that a particular interaction is the final lockout. Check a current quest-specific source when you are about to make an irreversible commitment.
Spoiler section: Act Three main-story tracker (quest names only)
The listed main objectives are Gather Your Allies, Get Gortash’s Netherstone, Get Orin’s Netherstone, and Confront the Elder Brain. Use these as a high-level tracker, not as a required order or a promise of a single outcome. This guide deliberately does not reveal resolutions, identities, boss tactics, companion endings, or endgame choices.
Co-op and cross-play: keep a shared campaign coherent
Online multiplayer supports up to four players, and parties can split up to pursue separate quests or agendas. That freedom is excellent for role-play, but it makes communication more valuable. The following are practical coordination habits, not official rules:
- Agree who initiates major dialogue and quest transitions.
- Ping the group before entering areas that present an obvious progression warning.
- Decide whether one player will keep the Journal and shared loot organised.
- Expect role-play choices to diverge. Because the game supports split parties and separate agendas, a quick discussion prevents accidental story decisions.
Cross-play and platform setup should be covered in a dedicated co-op/cross-play page, labelled by platform and last-checked date.
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The official game site lists PC (Steam and GOG), PlayStation 5, Xbox, Mac, and GeForce NOW. Patch 8 rolled out on PC, Mac, PlayStation 5, and Xbox. Do not carry a PC keybind, interface, performance workaround, console radial-menu instruction, or split-screen detail to another platform unless it has been verified there.
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Mods are optional. Official mod tools arrived before Patch 8, and Patch 8 updated the modding toolkit, but individual mod compatibility is volatile. Before installing or troubleshooting a mod, record your platform, current game build, mod version, load order where relevant, and the date checked. Keep current patch notes and modding instructions on a separate updateable page; the March 26, 2026 Hotfix #36 is a reminder that post-Patch-8 fixes continued.
What to buy, if you want a physical copy
The relevant physical recommendation is the game itself, not a generic controller, headset, dice set, or unofficial strategy guide. If you are shopping, use the search phrase Baldur’s Gate 3 PS5 Deluxe Edition. The official release information includes a Physical Deluxe edition and PlayStation 5 availability. Before purchasing any listing, verify the seller, region, platform, and exact included contents; do not assume stock or contents are identical across regions.
Useful companion pages to keep this walkthrough current
- Beginner combat and action economy
- Character creation, classes, and subclasses
- Camp, resting, and inventory
- Act One routes and the Rite of Thorns transition warning
- Shadow-Cursed Lands and the Gauntlet of Shar cleanup warning
- Act Three quest tracker
- One spoiler-labelled recruitment and personal-quest page per companion
- Co-op and cross-play
- Current patch notes and modding
Use this page as your map, the Journal as the record of your save, and current quest-specific pages only when a particular choice or cutoff matters to you. That leaves room for the surprises that make a first Baldur’s Gate 3 playthrough memorable.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to finish every Act One quest before going to Act Two?
No. The game is designed for varied classes, companions, quest routes, and choices. The important documented Act One warning is to resolve Rite of Thorns before entering the Shadow-Cursed Lands or Rosymorn Monastery Trail if you want the tied refugee and grove/goblin content preserved; many other Wilderness and Underdark quests can still be revisited.
Should I take the Mountain Pass or the Underdark?
Both the Mountain Pass and the Underdark lead toward Moonrise Towers. Choose the path that interests you, but read the Act One transition warning first and resolve the grove/goblin conflict if you care about its connected quests.
When is the major point of no return in Act Two?
Treat the later Gauntlet of Shar warning as a major cleanup point. After it, returning to the Wilderness is impossible, Wilderness waypoints become inaccessible, and incomplete quests there automatically end. Review the Journal, speak to companions, and finish content you value first.
The Bottom Line
Resolve the grove/goblin conflict before the documented Act One transition if you want that quest line preserved, treat the later Gauntlet of Shar warning as real cleanup time, and otherwise follow the paths and companions that matter to your party.
Quick Recap
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