Baldur's Gate 3 Unleashes Massive Patch 2 Update - Jaw-Dropping Enhancements Revealed!

Highlights

Baldur's Gate 3 Patch 2 brings significant improvements to performance, crashes, and UI, making gameplay smoother and more enjoyable.

Patch 2 has recently been released for Baldur's Gate 3, offering significant updates that include improved optimization, bug fixes, and the ability to dismiss multiplayer characters. Additionally, this patch signifies the start of Baldur's Gate 3's efforts to enhance companion dialogue and epilogues, ultimately enhancing the game's ending.

In a recent community update, Baldur's Gate 3 announced the imminent arrival of its second major patch. Larian Studios stated that this update primarily aimed to enhance performance and execution in Act 3.

Now, an impressive update has been released for Baldur's Gate 3. While it may not be as big as the initial patch, Patch 2 is still substantial, bringing numerous changes to enhance stability, minimize crashes, and optimize performance. Additionally, Patch 2 includes enhancements to the user interface and controller accessibility, along with the addition of new quality-of-life features for both solo and multiplayer gameplay.

Patch 2's prompt release, just a week after Patch 1 and shortly after the game's launch, is truly impressive. Alongside multiple hotfixes, it shows Larian Studios' dedication to enhancing the player experience in their new CRPG, Baldur's Gate 3. Below, you can find the extensive patch notes, but be warned - they contain spoilers.

Baldur's Gate 3 is out now for PC. A PS5 version releases on September 6, and an Xbox Series X/S version is expected to launch in late 2023.

Source: Larian Studios

Highlights

FeaturesIntroducing Withers' Wardrobe of Wayward Friends! You can now dismiss co-op party members from your campaign.

Performance optimizations across the board.

Reduced the size of savegames.

KarlachThis patch brings an additional scene to conclude the ending in which Karlach decides to travel to Avernus.

Revamped avatar Karlach's storyline to include a contemplative moment about the risk of her engine burning out following the installation of her second upgrade.

Resolved the issue where players were unable to select their character to end their turn, thus ensuring smooth combat progression.

Resolved a bug that was causing players to become trapped in dialogue with Angry Mar'hyah and Oyster Boy Dringo from the Sword Coast Couriers.

Enhanced the user interface by introducing a 'Delete all but latest' feature for each campaign, providing users with the ability to free up storage space.

Your Turn notification now lists which character’s turn it is.

The character summary on Level Up will now update to reflect changes in ability scores.

The Active Search list now persists after being opened and is more informative.

Action Radial now creates containers for spells created by other spells, making them easier to manage.

Fixed a crash when finishing Character Creation.

Fixed a crash when generating loot that can't be picked up.

Fixed a crash when switching between controller and keyboard while scrolling up and down the credits.

Fixed a crash when assigning an action to a slot in the radial menu.

Fixed a crash when loading a savegame.

Fixed a crash when selecting 'Pick Up and Add to Wares' on a multiselection that included a corpse.

The character will no longer be permanently destroyed when placed in a container and thrown into a chasm. Instead, they will float around as a resurrectable Soul Echo, as intended. Additionally, disconnecting during an active roll and reconnecting will no longer result in getting stuck in dialogue.

Going to camp, utilizing the platform, and subsequently returning from camp will ensure that you no longer experience any instances of becoming trapped or encountering fatal accidents beneath the platform at the Adamantine Forge.

Resolved a problem that was causing players to become entangled in prolonged conversations with Angry Mar'hyah and Oyster Boy Dringo from the Sword Coast Couriers, preventing progress.

Improved performance and made optimizations across the game.

Improved CPU load.

Made performance improvements related to controller movement.

Made optimizations for when moving around the world on controller.

Moved surface texture and decal creation to worker threads.

Moved loading shroud textures to worker threads.

Optimized the controller map by removing some duplicate items.

Reduced the size of savegames.

Improved loading speed for savegames made in older patch versions, ensuring continued speediness in future patches and hotfixes.

Reduced stuttering by eliminating unnecessary updates to the hotbar.

Removed an irrelevant sound analytics event for optimization.

Fixed a memory leak when opening the inventory with a controller connected.

Fixed a memory leak when streaming textures.

Wrote velocity vectors to help with overall visual quality (e.g. when using TAA, to reducing visual aliasing).

Fixed hotbar sliders disappearing when changing the selected character while sliding them.

Fixed the portraits of summons not fitting in their frames in the Party Line.

InventoryImproved the Light Source tooltip to clarify the purpose of the slot.

Removed duplicate 'close' prompts when the equipment slot pop-up is open. We got it the first time, thanks.

Revamped the layout of equipment slots on the Character Sheet during splitscreen.

Whenever a character is held in your inventory and the weight of their items alters, the weight of that character will now be automatically adjusted.

The Active Roll UI in dialogue may sometimes display fixed advantage and disadvantage indicators, even if you do not have any available.

The Combat Log will now include records of all items obtained from looting corpses.

Fixed the health bar animation.

Fixed the Unbreakable Will of the Netherbrain missing its portrait and character model in its Examine panel.

Revised: Enhanced reaction tooltips now provide additional details on the enabled status and triggering preferences. The tooltips now also display the resource type as 'Reaction' at the bottom. Moreover, the 'Ask' icon for reactions can now be edited solely when the reaction is enabled.

The issue with the Learn More Spells button has been resolved. It now opens the window for the character you have selected, instead of the character whose Character Sheet you clicked on.

The hardcoded text 'Manage powers' has been modified to allow for translation.

The names of all speakers in a dialogue will no longer be truncated in the Dialogue History UI.

The Quest categories and entries in the Journal will now retain their expanded or collapsed state.

Added Agonizing Blast's Charisma modifier bonus to the damage on the Eldritch Blast tooltip.

SavesAdded the difficulty setting to the savegame information.

Character-specific savegames when polymorphed.

Savegames will now be stored under your character's name even if you are polymorphed. Say goodbye to savegames labeled as 'Sheep'... unless that is actually your character's name.

Revamped text for better fit within the Load/Save window.

The Options menu now closes when you enter a dialogue while it's open.

Fixed the Reset Tutorials button in the Options menu not working as expected.

Character Creation, Level UpYou can skip the Level Up animation.

Fixed the class icon overlapping the Level Up banner.

Made sure some non-player-facing conditions and passives don't rear their heads.

Made the context menu animation snappier and tweaked the background for a brighter, neater appearance.

Brightened up the tutorial pop-ups and improved the alignment.

Fixed the Change Difficulty screen fading a little too late and appearing briefly on the Main Menu.

Fixed overlapping text for bonus names in the Active Roll UI.

Fixed some text being cut off in the Alchemy UI for translated languages.

RadialsThe shortcut menu and character selection are now accessible from the Action Radial menu.

Added Fast Travel to the character radial menu.

Shortcut prompts for the Jump and Hide actions have been included in the Action Radial menu.

A slight delay has been implemented for stick input following the selection of an Action in the radial menus. This aims to prevent unintentional selections immediately after or unintentional camera movements.

Fixed tooltips showing up in the Action Radial menu even if you have nothing selected.

Added additional error messages for the radial menus.

We have improved the controller's warning messages to provide clearer explanations for why a specific spell or action cannot be performed.

To enhance consistency and user-friendliness, spell variants will now appear at the top of the Action Radial menu, rather than in the next available free slot.

Fixed the Light Source menu not filtering light sources properly.

Added a brief description of what reactions are.

Fixed the abbreviations for Abilities not fitting properly in Russian.

Fixed some clipping and overlapping in the Character Sheet.

The Consume action has been relocated to the context menu, and the Equip action has been reinstated as the default action in the inventory panel.

The issue with the prompt for toggling tooltips appearing in the Character Sheet filters has been resolved, and the problem with the background of the slots expanding when the text on them is lengthy has also been fixed.

Repositioned tooltips slightly when checking equipment slots.

Fixed some missing tooltips in the Character Sheet.

World InteractionAdded information about the state of containers (e.g. if they're empty) to the Active Search menu.

Fixed a small issue in cursor error messages.

Made it possible to select and inspect more items in the Examine panel, like item descriptions and conditions.

Fixed some portraits missing in the Examine panel and polished the selector.

Fixed the context menu not being navigable using the D-pad.

HUDFixed issues with overlapping text and UI fading in the Party Line and the Resource Bar.

Fixed an issue preventing you from grouping or splitting summons when you only have one party member available.

Removed arrow icons from D-pad button prompts.

Fixed the issue where the Long Rest button prompts would exceed the screen boundaries or obstruct other button prompts, especially when using translated languages.

Resolved the problem where button prompts would overlap with the Resource Bar in Turn-Based Mode.

Improved consistency of button prompts at the bottom of the screen.

Enhanced the position and color of the action resource bar.

Modified the movement indicator to accommodate larger numbers and increased the width of icons to prevent stretching.

Improved the presentation of default spells in the Prepared Spells section of the Spellbook to enhance their accessibility.

Augmented the information provided in the Spellbook regarding the instances when modifying spells is permissible or prohibited, regardless of whether one belongs to a spellcasting class.

CombatMade it more obvious if you're low on health at the start of your turn in combat.

Fixed not being able to attack stalactites with ranged spells.

Improved readability in the Combat Log by reducing empty space and tightening up the list.

Made reactions that are turned off still readable and gave them a grayed out icon.

Adjusted the margins and sizes in tooltips to prevent problems such as truncated damage text.

Enhanced the tooltips by incorporating new icons; refined their appearance with updated font sizes and placement; resolved the issue with the Inspect prompt; introduced the appropriate color and icon for the Equipped line; and implemented a fresh frame, footer, and header style.

Tooltip prompts now show if they're enabled or not.

Tweaked the placement of tooltips for open containers.

TradingPressing your cancel button will now close the filter pop-up in the Trade UI.

Fixed the trade button prompts overlapping the split item button prompts.

Fixed the issue where the trader attitude was not displaying in the Trade window.

In Character Creation and Level Up, you can now easily rotate, zoom in, and zoom out on your character while selecting a name.

Character Creation on controller sometimes obscures fixed characters with tooltips.

Integrated a grid icon and button prompt in Character Creation options on controller to open up a color-selection-like grid for easier selection.

During splitscreen gameplay, if one player is watching the introduction of an Origin character, while another player is zooming in, spinning, and customizing their own character in the Character Creation menu, the button prompts from the second person will no longer interrupt or affect the progress of the Origin character's introduction.

In the Character Creation menu, the alignment of spell tooltips will now remain consistent, always appearing in the same horizontal position.

Made general visual improvements to the controller UI.

Fixed scrolling and cropped text in the Journal.

Added information about how long you need to press-and-hold.

Fixed some issues with navigating the Dialogue History UI.

Revamped the Save/Load window with an enhanced layout, incorporated in-game destinations for swift saves and auto saves, and enabled the display of lengthier savegame titles.

Streamlined line heights in the multiplayer lobby and Options menus to optimize space utilization and minimize scrolling requirements.

Fixed some host error messages appearing on client screens.

Dialogue interface settings (such as font size) will now be applied to both players in splitscreen.

Enabled the Combat Feed on splitscreen.

Fixed some of the UI getting cut off on splitscreen when a player is in the multiplayer settings.

Fixed an empty notification when another player starts their turn in splitscreen.

Fixed multiselection for containers in splitscreen.

The issue of the splitscreen not disappearing when a fullscreen UI, such as the Save window, is opened has been resolved. This ensures that elements like tooltips are no longer visible in the fullscreen UI.

Additionally, the alignment of the Turn Order UI in split screen has been fixed for situations where two players are engaged in different combats simultaneously.

Gameplay

If you dismiss your companion to camp and shove them into a chasm, Withers will now be able to resurrect them... so you can shove them into a chasm again, probably.

Fixed characters' Soul Echoes sometimes teleporting away from where the character died.

Fixed projectiles not waiting for items to leave inventories.

Improved the 'Hide during dialogues' option for helmets to prevent the character from losing their hair unexpectedly after a dialogue.

Resolved the issue of the portal to the House of Hope becoming invisible.

Removed the examine option from some objects that shouldn't be examinable.

Fixed knocked-down entities always playing their knocked-down animation when loaded into frame.

Improved the accuracy of the Falling damage number preview before making a Jump, ensuring it reflects the actual amount of damage inflicted.

Resolved the issue with edge panning not functioning properly while the camera is focused on a party member.

The tutorial pop-up for trapped items won't trigger anymore when coming near certain destroyed traps.

Fixed the option to pickpocket your companions sometimes disappearing in single player.

Prevented you from being able to multiselect and then drop other players' items.

Fixed not being able to split item stacks outside of your turn.

Fixed not being able to enter Turn-Based Mode with a Downed character.

Fixed items briefly appearing beneath your feet when you pick them up.

Combat and Balance

Fixed an issue with auras causing NPCs to make inefficient choices like running towards you to Shove you, then running away again to make a ranged attack.

Ansur's Stormheart Nova can now penetrate ice shields, leaving no place to hide.

Aggressive beasts will no longer flee when attacked from a distance; instead, they will engage in combat. Moreover, when you initiate an attack on an NPC from a distance while out of combat, they are now more inclined to sprint towards you rather than becoming stuck.

The timer in the Chamber of Courage will now reflect the correct number of turns remaining.

Fixed certain spells not taking into account inherited conditions.

Updated the grace period for joining a combat late to be at the end of world items' turn in the 1st round.

Flow and Scripting

Resolved the issue where silenced characters were unable to initiate story-critical dialogues, such as with other party members or end-of-combat bosses.

Addressed the problem causing party members to become silenced after each dialogue.

Fixed an issue where only the character who accepted the quest from Lucretious to find Dribbles could talk to her after doing so.

Fixed Gale not reacting to you having.

Fixed Gale's dialogue force-closing when offering him.

Fixed Gale's romance scene not triggering in Act I.

If the dialogue fails to trigger after destroying the portrait, Kerri will no longer be trapped in the Atelier. Fixed an issue where enemies would occasionally spawn outside of the Atelier at the Jannath Estate when the portrait was hit.

Prisoners saved from Moonrise Towers and accompanying you on the boat will no longer try to arrest you upon reaching Last Light.

Resolved the issue where Astarion would be rendered unconscious indefinitely by the vampire spawn during a camping night and disappear after a Long Rest.

Dark Urge players turning into the Slayer during dialogue will now have the appropriate level of the Slayer form during the duel with Orin.

Character Creation and Level Up

You can skip the Level Up animation.

Fixed characters in Character Creation sometimes getting obscured by tooltips on controller.

Spell tooltips in Character Creation will now always show up in the same horizontal alignment.

Fixed the class icon overlapping the Level Up banner.

The character summary on Level Up will now update to reflect changes in ability scores.

Fixed the alignment of chevrons in the Character Creator.

Level Design and Map

Fixed some artefacts appearing at the bottom right of the screen due to fog of war.

Steam Deck

Reworked our system for default video options so that values are defined per platform. For example, the Steam Deck will now default to 16:9.

Settings now default to auto-rotate camera with speed set to max. This works better for a snappy handheld experience.

Cinematics

When taking the final Netherstone from Orin, dead Gortash is no longer floating in the air.

Fixed your head clipping into Wyll's as you kiss on the ground.

OTHER

Fixed several text issues, like typos.