We have been expecting the sixth patch for Baldur’s Gate 3 all week. We expected it around Valentine’s Day, due largely to the inference that romancing your BG3 sweethearts was to be improved with new kissing animations, but there is a lot more to it than that, as Larian pointed out a couple of days ago. And as it is pointing out in a patch notes document bordering on 20 thousand words, there sure are a lot of changes, fixes, and additions.
Anyway, the patch is now live, it’s a massive 20-gig download and you will need 150GB to install it, and that’s on top of your existing Baldur’s Gate 3 install, at least until it tidies itself up after installation. The patch is so big that Larian has suggested if space is an issue to just uninstall the entire game and reinstall the pre-patched version, even though that will likely take hours for a lot of people depending on their internet connections.
Let’s pluck a few highlights from this monster download.
Baldur’s Gate 3 Patch 6 Highlights
- You can now dismiss a recruited companion from your party while speaking to the companion you want to replace them with.
- When a dialogue triggers automatically, the game will now try to prioritize your avatar character as the main speaker.
- And the one you have all been waiting for: Your partner now has a few different kisses! They’re brand new, unique, and randomized – and we’ve also made improvements to how kisses look across the board, particularly for taller and shorter body types.
- Improved the cinematic scenes in the Elfsong Tavern to feel more intimate when you and your romance partner decide your future together after defeating the Netherbrain.
- Added new idle animations for some companions at camp, including:
- Lae’zel: Studying a githyanki disc.
- Minthara: Contemplating a skull, tending to mushrooms, expressing violence, adjusting her armour, plotting her future, and being bothered by the sun.
- Jaheira: Sitting, kneeling and whispering to a rat messenger, and whittling.
- Minsc: Cooking and shaving his head. (These are two separate animations. Although we wouldn’t put it past him, he’s not, in fact, cooking his head.)
- Shadowheart: Polishing the Spear of Night.
- Halsin: Whittling.
- The Shambling Mound is now a fully-fledged Honour Mode boss, with brand new bespoke Legendary Actions and tuned-up abilities. Good luck.
- The trade interface got a graphic overhaul, clarifying which character is bartering for the party, what their Persuasion score is, and how much of a discount they’re getting for the trade. The feedback when bartering has also been improved to indicate the status of the offer.
The word count of the patch notes is as high as any we have seen, Larian really does not do things by half. You might want to settle down with a coffee and an hour to spare before heading into the full list.
