Baldur’s Gate 3‘s romance patch was met with joy when it was released right after Valentine’s Day. Players quickly got to work talking to Shadowheart at camp, winning over the lovable barbarian Karlach, and requesting newly animated smooches from the swoon-worthy sorcerer Gale. All’s fair in love and war with the Elder brain, though; sadly, lots of players have run into game-ruining bugs after installing patch 6.
Larian’s intention with the Baldur’s Gate 3 update was to squash pesky bugs, add more dialogue options, and expand the existing array of romantic moments found in the fantastic RPG game. And while it did have us jumping for joy, not everyone got to share in the fun. It broke the game for some fans.
You can read through the Baldur’s Gate 3 patch 6 notes to see everything Larian did fix, but an unintended consequence for a few players has blocked them from finishing the act 2 quest Gauntlet of Shar (minor spoilers ahead, if you’ve not reached it yet).
Part of the main storyline and an essential piece of Shadowheart’s companion quest, to progress the player needs to acquire three gems and combine them with an alter in Shar’s Inner Sanctum. After installing patch 6, some playthroughs have come to a screeching halt here due to the alter not recognizing the items being inserted properly.
u/BroGameTime on Reddit — who did a public service by compiling all the reported bugs from the update — described the issue in more detail, “Inserting the 3 gems will have the altar only recognize one gem. The other two are not considered in the altar. The altar takes one gem, the rest disappears and the door remains locked. This completely stops the path dead.”
An unfortunate reality of releasing a mammoth game like Baldur’s Gate 3 with complex D&D systems, game-spanning quests, and choose-your-own-story elements is that it can be much harder to weed out the bugs due to the sheer scope.
It’s sad to see some fans dealing with issues of this scale, though. Some players think it’s a matter of quality control, or the lack of it. On the thread, u/beansahol commented, “It’s garbage QA to release a patch with this many bugs. Especially ruinous for people who enjoy honor mode, where bugs can make you lose dozens of hours of progress.”
There aren’t many games like Baldur’s Gate 3 out there, so if you’re still trucking alone in its immersive world and aren’t afraid of things going a bit haywire, check out the best Baldur’s Gate 3 mods.
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