Baldur’s Gate 3 monumental launch secured it a well-deserved spot among the top RPGs playable today, but developer Larian Studios wasn’t quite done with its behemoth of a game. Instead of resting on its laurels, the title’s patch notes timeline shows how the studio kept releasing updates and hotfixes to address issues and introduce new content.
BG3’s patch notes timeline will very likely continue beyond 2023, as more hotfixes and updates become available over the coming weeks and months. Whether you’re a frequent adventurer or have just recently returned to Faerûn after a break, read on below to catch up on how the title changed.
Baldur's Gate 3 Patch Notes Timeline
- Baldur's Gate 3 patch 1: August 25, 2023
- Baldur's Gate 3 patch 2: August 31, 2023
- Baldur's Gate 3 patch 3: September 22, 2023
- Baldur's Gate 3 patch 4: November 2, 2023
- Baldur's Gate 3 patch 5: November 30, 2023
- Baldur's Gate 3 patch 6: February 16, 2024
Following its August 2023 launch, Baldur’s Gate 3’s patch notes timeline begins with a set of hotfixes meant to quickly address smaller but nonetheless pressing issues.
On August 4, hotfix 1 tackled several crashes, including one that could occur at startup and another that involved a piece of Astarion dialog.
Four days later, hotfix 2 fixed more crashes, while improving UI stability and convincing companions to no longer block the camera during cinematic dialogs.
Hotfix 2.1 went live on August 10, re-enabling Steam Cloud Saves, after an issue with cross-saves appeared shortly after launch.
On August 11, hotfix 3 brought with it even more fixes, including multiple for various combat-related bugs, as well as one that could prevent you from talking to Withers in Act 3, potentially blocking the ability to resurrect fallen party members.
On August 16, hotfix 4 was deployed, addressing several progress blockers and issues affecting gameplay flow.
It was rolled back shortly after due to a “rare compiler issue” and redeployed on August 17.
BG3 Patch 1
The first major update on BG3’s patch notes timeline was patch 1, which went live on August 25, 2023.
It squashed more than 1000 bugs and fixed more progress blockers while further polishing the game’s narrative flow.
Player characters received a bigger HP bonus while playing in Explorer Mode, while the ability to have multiple Mage Hands active at one time was removed.
NPCs should also no longer spot you when they shouldn’t be able to in the first place, while kissing contact with shorter races looks more natural.
BG3’s update 1 patch notes are linked above and, as you probably expect, take a while to read through.
BG3 Patch 2
Baldur’s Gate 3’s second major update launched a few days after its first, on August 31, 2023. It fleshed out Karlachs’ ending with an additional scene and several new choices.
Withers’ Wardrobe of Wayward Friends introduced the ability to dismiss co-op party characters alongside a set of performance improvements, while also reducing the size of savegames.
The quest to remove all the crashes and progress blockers in the sprawling RPG also continued, while multiple hotbar icons were made more intuitive.
Quality filters were added to the inventory while joining a combat encounter late could no longer cause your resources to not be restored after the fact, among many other changes.
Baldur’s Gate 3’s patch notes timeline resumed its smaller updates with hotfix 5, which, on September 5, had its sight on a particularly nasty bug that could lock players out of many of Minthara’s dialog lines.
In addition, it also improved performance when going through character sheet tabs while playing in splitscreen and fixed a memory leak when creating and destroying many objects.
Two days later, hotfix 6 introduced three new fixes, including one for an issue that could prevent players from starting new dialogs.
BG3 Patch 3
On September 22, 2023, BG3’s Patch 3 introduced Mac support alongside the Magic Mirror, which allows you to freely change your character’s appearance.
Performance in the Lower City was also improved, the interaction between Nere and Minthara was reworked in the service of a more natural narrative flow, while your choice between trade or barter remained saved on your player profile going forward.
Five days later, hotfix 7 addressed a handful of other issues related to crashes and loading savegames.
As the month of October began, Baldur’s Gate 3’s hotfix 8 followed, addressing Twitch drops not being claimable on PS5, a visual issue with volumetric fog and materials generation, and more.
Three days later Hotfix 9 made the Magic Mirror usable on hirelings while allowing it to change your character’s name, optimized line of sight for entities with no sight range, and ushered in even more fixes.
BG3 Patch 4
November 2, 2023 was when Baldur’s Gate 3’s patch 4 introduced an accessibility setting to aid colorblind players. It allows choosing between protanopia, deuteranopia, or tritanopia filters.
In addition, it also made it possible to customize our hirelings’ appearance when recruiting them.
Scratch became more willing to fetch any item. On top of that more autosaves were added to challenging areas like the Shadow-Cursed Lands.
Baldur’s Gate 3’s hotfix 10 dropped on November 10, making Shadowheart less likely to stop following the party alongside several other issues.
One week later, hotfix 11 made soaps encountered in savegames created before the launch of Patch 4 once again usable, while making dominated followers stay obedient even after loading savegames.
BG3 Patch 5
BG3’s patch notes timeline saw patch 5 launching on November 30, 2023.
Aside from a brand new epilogue section and two new modes, it also tackles performance during Act 3, adds a new battle in Ramazith’s Tower, makes Orin’s outfit wearable, and more.
It was followed by hotfix 12, which fixes two smaller crashes.
On December 8, 2023, hotfix 13 brought with it fixes for an exploit that allowed traders to be bought out with only 1 gold and a container, a crash that could occur when leaving Act 2, PS5 performance, and more.
December 15 brought us hotfix 14, which brings fixes for several crashes, including two related to loading savegames in Honour Mode and players joining splitscreen games.
On December 21, hotfix 15 addressed issues tied to autosave crashes when changing levels or swapping to Honour mode, performance issues related to a certain important Shadowheart cutscene, and more. This was the last BG3 update of 2023.
As 2024 rolled in, BG3’s hotfix 16 dropped on January 9, bringing with it a new set of changes.
It stopped cross-save from syncing modded save games, since console players cannot access them. It also added categories to the in-game list of Waypoints, while ensuring that the Spectral Form passive is no longer hidden, and much more.
Hotfix 17 followed soon after, on January 15, 2024, introducing another batch of fixes.
BG3 Patch 6
Baldurs’ Gate 3’s patch 6, the RPG’s first major update of 2024, went live on February 16.
Aside from a series of unique kisses that better reflect each character’s personality, it also added idle camp animations for certain companions.
Dismissing companions can now be done while speaking to the replacement you had in mind, while long resting with only alcohol as camp supplies grants the Hungover condition for 10 turns, among many other changes and fixes.
Come February 20, hotfix 18 got rid of two bugs that caused crashes when attempting to barter with vendors and showed them as having no gold whatsoever on them.
Two days later, hotfix 19 deployed a handful of additional fixes, targeting a crash during Minthara’s turn in the Emerald Grove, a pair of hotbar bugs, and Xbox multiplayer invites not working properly.
With Baldur’s Gate 3’s patch notes timeline, its updates, and hotfixes covered, drop by our articles on the Shadow Monk and Divine Intervention.
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