There are a lot of unique game overs in Baldur’s Gate 3 you can only discover in extremely specific circumstances. Maybe you fail a Wisdom saving throw and a dying mind flayer eats your brain. Maybe you taunt the god-queen of the githyanki and she wishes you out of existence. (Yes, I learned about those ones the hard way.)
YouTuber SlimX has added another to the list in a video compiling hidden secrets of BG3. This one you can only find in act three, after entering the city of Baldur’s Gate. There’s a portcullis leading to the upper city you can’t approach, because when you do a stunning effect teleports you back a few steps. You’re only allowed into the upper city during the climax, after you’ve gathered all the Netherstones that will protect you from the Elder Brain who would otherwise dominate you, and you get there by a different route accessed from beneath the city.
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The stunning effect, which is called “mindbroken”, is a Constitution saving throw with a difficulty of 99. You need to roll a natural 20 to pass it, and then it triggers again and again just in case you fluked the roll. However, SlimX has some loaded dice (by which I mean access to Cheat Engine), and shows what happens if you pass that test every time.
There’s an entire bespoke dialogue you’ll only hear by passing all those tests and making it to the gate. It’s a bit busted, with subtitles that have percentage symbols in them, but it still works. The Elder Brain tells you to approach and yield, and your extremely trustworthy best friend the Emperor tells you not to do that until after you’ve finished the fetch quest to collect the Netherstones. You’ve got to eat your vegetables first, kiddo.
Ignore the Emperor’s advice and approach the gate, and you’ll be mind-controlled by the Elder Brain, and chastised by the Emperor to make it even worse. It’s an immediate game over that you can only find by being lucky enough to pass a heap of impossible rolls and then dumb enough to face the final boss unprepared.
Like the ultra rare game over you can only get by losing a vital Netherstone, it’s impressive that Larian even bothered to include this possibility. Stumbling across something like this game over demands a kind of perverse dedication, but it turns out that perversity is something Baldur’s Gate 3 fans have in abundance.
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