Baldur’s Gate 3 walkthrough: a structured route through Acts 1-3
A reliable Baldur’s Gate 3 walkthrough is less about memorising every dialogue option and more about understanding the rhythm of the campaign. The game is split into three acts plus a short prologue, and each act shifts both the geography and the kind of problems you are solving. In the opening chapter you are still learning how the dice, action economy, and party positioning fit together, while the final act becomes a dense urban sandbox where dozens of quests, companion storylines, and faction choices all converge on a single ending branch.
This guide gives you a structured route through the entire campaign. Rather than treating every quest as an isolated checklist, the approach groups objectives by chapter, flag points where companion approval and major decisions start to lock in outcomes, and notes the points at which side content stops being optional flavour and starts feeding back into the main story. The result is a plan you can follow on a first run while still leaving room for the kind of improvised choices that make the game memorable.
How the campaign is actually organised
Before following any specific route, it helps to understand the scaffolding the game is built on. Baldur’s Gate 3 is divided into a prologue, three main acts, and a large set of side and companion quests that run in parallel with each act. Main quests carry the parasite storyline and the push toward the city of Baldur’s Gate, while side quests and companion arcs open and close in response to the zones you visit and the dialogue choices you make.
Within each act, several quest chains share locations, NPCs, or decision points, so the order you take them in changes what you see. A quest that begins in one area can quietly resolve in another if the relevant NPC is still alive and reachable. The walkthrough structure below treats each act as a logical block, with internal guidance on which side content to pick up before triggering irreversible story branches.
| Campaign segment | Primary objective | Typical party size | Common failure mode |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prologue: Escape the Nautiloid | Tutorial combat, learn basics, meet key characters | Controlled to 1 then expanded | Skipping the optional party member encounter and losing recruitment context |
| Act 1: Wilderness and grove | Remove the parasite, recruit companions, learn the map | Up to 4 active | Triggering grove defence before resolving key companion approval checks |
| Act 2: Shadow Curse region | Investigate Moonrise Towers, choose an approach to the tower | Up to 4 active | Committing to one Moonrise route before finishing the other path’s content |
| Act 3: Lower City and final assault | Resolve companion arcs, manage factions, choose ending | Up to 4 active | Starting the final quest before exhausting companion personal quests |
Prologue: Escape the Nautiloid
The prologue is short but it sets the tone. You begin aboard the nautiloid, learn the basic turn-based combat, meet several key figures, and end up on the beach that starts Act 1. Because the prologue is essentially a tutorial, the walkthrough here is light: engage with the combat tutorials, pay attention to the environmental storytelling, and reach the crash site so that Act 1 can begin cleanly.
One detail worth noting: there is an optional encounter during the prologue that can introduce a potential party member. Even if you do not plan to recruit that character, the dialogue choices you make here establish approval and attitude values that echo through later acts. Treat the prologue as a safe space to experiment rather than something to rush through, because the systems it teaches are the ones you will rely on for the rest of the game.
Act 1 route: the grove, the road, and the parasite
Act 1 takes place in a wilderness region centred on the Emerald Grove. The main thread is removing the mind flayer parasite from your main character, but the act also doubles as the game’s recruitment phase, where you meet almost every companion, decide your party composition, and learn how the open world is stitched together by fast travel, camp, and resting.
A reasonable order for a first run is to clear the immediate grove surroundings, recruit companions as you encounter them, then tackle the road and the goblin camp before triggering the grove’s defence. The exact order is flexible, but the grove defence is one of the early act’s most significant decision points: how you resolve it, and which NPCs survive, feeds back into Act 2 and influences some of the companion arcs.
Core objectives in Act 1
- Stabilise the parasite by speaking to the druid healers and the tiefling refugees in the grove.
- Recruit companions through their personal encounters on the road and around the grove.
- Explore the goblin camp and decide whether to negotiate, sabotage, or fight your way through.
- Resolve the druid grove storyline and the tieflings’ request for safe passage.
- Trigger the transition to Act 2 only after companion approval checks in the grove feel stable.
Resting is part of Act 1’s rhythm. Long rests advance companion personal quests, allow scripted camp scenes, and let your party recover resources. A common pitfall is to treat resting as a minor resource, when in fact the camp scenes are where much of the relationship work happens. If a companion seems to be drifting in approval, the next long rest will often reveal a new conversation that explains why.
Act 2 route: the Shadow Curse and Moonrise Towers
Act 2 moves the campaign into a darker, more linear region under a Shadow Curse. The main thread shifts from the parasite to a factional conflict in and around Moonrise Towers, and the act introduces a sharper decision: how you approach the tower, and what you are willing to do once you are inside it. Multiple quest paths lead into the tower, and the game notes where they share NPCs so that you can experience as much of the story as possible.
The walkthrough structure recommended by community and editorial guides is to start the Infiltrate Moonrise Towers quest with the option that matches the route you actually took to reach the towers. If you entered the region from a specific direction or completed a particular set of side quests first, choosing the matching opening dialogue keeps continuity tight and avoids the sense that the quest has skipped a beat.
| Act 2 path | How it begins | Tone and content | Companion relevance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Path through the town under siege | Approach from the Last Light Inn direction | Investigative, heavy on dialogue and faction choices | |
| Path through the gauntlet | Approach via the darker, combat-heavy road | More combat and stealth, fewer diplomatic options | Good for testing party combat roles |
| Mixed path | Alternate between both before reaching Moonrise | Most content, longest Act 2 | Best for first runs that want full companion coverage |
Within Act 2, side quests are not just flavour. Several side objectives can lead to alternative resolutions for the main conflict, and skipping them can close off outcomes that only become visible in the late game. The walkthrough recommends prioritising side content in the same zone as a main quest objective, since travelling back later is possible but usually more expensive in terms of resources and time.
Act 3 route: the Lower City, factions, and the ending
Act 3 drops you into the Lower City and its surrounding districts. The pacing here is different from the earlier acts: instead of clearing a wilderness region, you are navigating an urban sandbox with many overlapping quest lines. Companion personal quests, faction storylines, and the main quest all run at once, and the act ends with a series of final decisions that determine which ending you see.
If a specific puzzle, boss fight, or hidden encounter is not covered here, the broader walkthrough hub maintained by IGN remains a useful companion for individual quest pages, while the structure above is what you keep in mind as you move from the nautiloid to the Lower City and finally to the ending you have earned.
The most important walkthrough rule for Act 3 is to delay the final main quest as long as you can. Companion personal quests, especially the ones that have been running in the background since Act 1, will quietly surface conversations and choices during this act. Starting the endgame before those conversations have resolved can lock you out of certain endings and certain companion epilogues.
Act 3 priorities in order
- Explore the Lower City districts in a controlled sweep, marking quest givers and entrances rather than committing to one quest at a time.
- Advance each active companion’s personal quest through dialogue and camp scenes, taking long rests when new conversation markers appear.
- Resolve the major faction storylines, paying attention to NPCs whose survival is tied to side quests rather than the main thread.
- Approach the endgame area last, after the companion and faction situations feel stable, so that the final dialogue options reflect the relationships you have built.
Because Act 3 contains the most concentrated decision content, the walkthrough also recommends saving often and keeping at least one manual save from the start of the act. The endings in the game branch on a small set of major decisions, but within those branches there is a long tail of smaller choices that affect who survives, who leaves, and what kind of epilogue each companion receives.
Companion quests across the campaign
Companion quests work differently from location-based side quests. They appear in the journal as ongoing or passive entries when you meet a character and invite them to your party, and they unfold as you explore. The walkthrough treats them as a parallel track that runs alongside every act, rather than a separate phase, because their triggers are usually tied to story progress rather than to specific map locations.
Each companion has a personal arc with two or three major decision points. These decisions are often disguised as routine dialogue, and missing one can quietly close a path for the rest of the campaign. The safest approach is to read companion dialogue carefully, rest at camp when a new conversation prompt appears, and avoid skipping party banter in areas where the quest log is updating.
Companion arc checklist
- Astarion: trigger his Act 2 personal revelation before committing to the main Moonrise path.
- Shadowheart: resolve the Act 1 and Act 2 faith decisions before reaching the Lower City.
- Gale: keep his personal conversations active through each act, as his storyline feeds into one of the major endings.
- Karlach: address the engine room scene in Act 1 and follow up in Act 2 to keep her arc open.
- Wyll: his pact storyline is tightly bound to the goblin camp and the grove, so handle it before the grove’s resolution.
- Halsin and Jaheira: their personal content is mostly Act 2, but it branches from the grove and the Shadow Curse regions.
- Minthara: the path here is conditional on how the goblin camp is resolved, so it is best treated as a separate run rather than grafted onto a standard playthrough.
Side quests and exploration
Side quests in Baldur’s Gate 3 are tied to specific locations and act as the connective tissue between main objectives. They can change the difficulty of certain fights, unlock alternative resolutions, and reward gear, weapons, abilities, or information that is useful in the main quest. The walkthrough recommends treating side quests as part of each act’s critical path rather than optional extras, especially in Acts 2 and 3 where the open world expands rapidly.
A useful routine when entering a new area is to scan for quest givers, map transitions, and points of interest before engaging with the main objective. Many side quests begin as ambient dialogue, environmental clues, or items picked up off the ground, so reading notes and talking to NPCs who are not directly part of the main thread is part of completing an area rather than delaying the main quest.
| Quest type | Where it appears | How it feeds the main quest | Risk of skipping |
|---|---|---|---|
| Companion personal quest | Triggered by dialogue, runs across acts | Unlocks companion-specific ending content | Misses ending and approval branches |
| Location side quest | Bound to a specific map zone | Can offer alternative resolutions to nearby main objectives | Reduces available dialogue options in the act |
| Faction storyline | Mostly Act 3 | Determines which NPCs survive to the ending | Locks out some ending variants |
| Lore and exploration quest | Throughout, often hidden | Provides context, sometimes a unique item | Mostly cosmetic, occasionally mechanical |
Combat and build considerations across the walkthrough
Combat difficulty rises steadily through the three acts, and the walkthrough benefits from a party composition that covers a mix of roles rather than maximising a single damage type. In Act 1, basic control spells, a frontline tank, and a ranged damage dealer are enough. By Act 2, enemy resistances and status effects start to matter, and by Act 3, fights often include multiple enemy types with different vulnerabilities, so a balanced party is more reliable than a stack of specialists.
Resting policy is also part of combat planning. Long rests restore resources but advance time, which can close certain quest windows. Short rests use class-specific mechanics to recover partial resources without advancing the clock. The walkthrough treats long rests as deliberate story beats, taken when a new companion conversation appears or when a major fight is coming, and short rests as the default recovery tool between encounters.
Build and party rules of thumb
- Keep at least one frontline character with high hit points and a reliable crowd control option.
- Carry a healer or a class with strong healing spells, especially before the Act 2 transition.
- Maintain a mix of physical and magical damage so that high-resistance enemies are not automatic walls.
- Use consumables and scrolls rather than hoarding them, as their value is highest in the fights they are designed for.
- Test companion AI behaviour by switching to direct control in unfamiliar fights, since default behaviour can be conservative.
Endings and how the walkthrough prepares you for them
The game supports multiple endings, and which one you see depends on choices made across all three acts rather than a single decision at the end. The walkthrough does not push you toward a particular ending, because the recommended approach is to let the choices you make in companion arcs, faction storylines, and key main quest decisions build toward the ending that fits your playthrough. Saving at the start of Act 3 and again before the final quest gives you the option to explore more than one ending without replaying the whole campaign.
If you want to see how the story ends without spoilers, the editorial guidance is simple: avoid reading ahead in the journal, keep companion conversations active through long rests, and do not start the final main quest until the companion and faction situations feel resolved. The endings reflect the relationships and decisions you have made, so a walkthrough that supports those relationships will support the ending naturally.
Practical walkthrough routine for a first run
Putting the structure above into a routine, a first run works well with a small set of repeatable habits. These habits are the ones that carry a player through three acts and a long list of side content without losing track of decisions that matter.
Step-by-step routine
- Start each play session by checking the journal for updated objectives and by visiting camp if a new conversation prompt is visible.
- When entering a new zone, walk the perimeter and pick up points of interest before engaging the main objective, so side content does not get stranded behind later decisions.
- Before any major decision, save manually and check which companions are in the active party, since approval changes affect what dialogue options are available.
- After resolving an act’s central conflict, take a long rest and let companion conversations play out before travelling to the next region.
- At the end of each act, take a labelled save so that a problematic decision in the next act can be revisited without losing earlier progress.
What the walkthrough does not try to do
This walkthrough is intentionally not a full quest checklist. A line-by-line list of every chest, every dialogue option, and every hidden reward would push the guide past the point where it is useful as a route. The aim is to give you a framework that fits how the game is actually built: a prologue that teaches the systems, three acts that layer story and exploration, and a final act where companion, faction, and main story decisions converge.
Players moving between very different games in between sessions can also use the routine above as a reset tool. Coming back from a session in a racing game, for instance, the rhythm of checking the journal, taking a rest, and walking a new perimeter keeps the campaign from feeling like a memory test, and turns Baldur’s Gate 3 into a route you can follow without burning out before the ending.
Frequently asked questions
How many acts are there in Baldur’s Gate 3?
There are three main acts, plus a short prologue called Escape the Nautiloid. The prologue teaches the basic systems, the first act is set in a wilderness region, the second act moves into a Shadow Curse region centred on Moonrise Towers, and the third act takes place in the Lower City and surrounding districts.
Should I do side quests before or after the main quest in each act?
The recommended approach is to do side quests as you encounter them rather than batching them at the end of an act. Many side quests are tied to specific NPCs or locations, and resolving them early keeps more dialogue options open later. In Act 2, the walkthrough notes where multiple paths to Moonrise Towers share NPCs, so doing side content in the same zone as the main objective is usually the most efficient order.
How do companion quests work?
Companion quests appear in the journal when you meet a character and invite them to your party. They unfold through dialogue, camp scenes, and story progress rather than being tied to a single location. The walkthrough treats them as a parallel track that runs across all three acts, because their major decision points can be triggered by main quest progress as well as by exploration.
Can I finish the game in one playthrough and see everything?
No single run will show every ending or every companion outcome, because some branches are mutually exclusive and some companion decisions are tied to faction choices. The walkthrough recommends saving at the end of each act so that a second run can target the content the first run missed, rather than trying to force a single playthrough to cover all of it.
When is the right time to start the final quest in Act 3?
The final main quest in Act 3 should be started only after active companion personal quests feel resolved and the major faction situations in the Lower City are stable. Starting it earlier can lock out certain ending variants and certain companion epilogues, so the walkthrough treats it as the very last step of the act rather than just another quest in the list.
Do choices in earlier acts affect the ending?
Yes. The endings in the game branch on a combination of decisions made across all three acts, including companion personal quests, how the goblin camp and grove are resolved in Act 1, how Moonrise Towers is approached in Act 2, and the faction and companion outcomes in Act 3. A walkthrough that supports those relationships across the campaign will support the ending that reflects them.
How important is resting in the walkthrough?
Resting is part of the campaign’s pacing. Long rests restore resources, advance time, and trigger companion conversations at camp. Short rests recover partial resources without advancing the clock. The walkthrough treats long rests as deliberate story beats, taken when a new conversation prompt appears or a major fight is coming, and short rests as the default recovery tool between encounters.
What is the difference between main, companion, and side quests?
Main quests drive the central parasite and city storyline. Companion quests are personal to a party member and run in parallel with the main thread. Side quests are usually tied to a specific location and can affect how main and companion quests resolve. The walkthrough lists all three because they are designed to feed into each other rather than run on separate tracks.
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