Failing even after having won. This happened to a player in Baldur’s Gate 3, who can hardly believe his misfortune.
If the normal Baldur’s Gate 3 is too boring, players can try the “Honour Mode”. Here, everything is not only a bit harder, but you only have one single life – if you die, the playthrough is over and you have to start from the beginning. A challenge that many have mastered, but many more have failed at.
One player failed after the final battle. He had actually already won the game.
What happened? In the Baldur’s Gate 3 subreddit, the player Baggy24 recounts the inglorious end of his attempt to conquer Honour Mode. He writes:
I don’t know who else to share this with, but I am so annoyed, frustrated, and disappointed in myself.
I thought everything was going well until the end. The Netherbrain is dead, I’m with my people, there is no threat – except for Astarion’s brain. His brain looked so good, so delicious. I just had the urge to eat it. I rolled to resist that and failed. But that was okay, I still had inspiration. I rolled again, failed again. The whole camp got mad at me. I panicked. I didn’t want to fight. Someone would save me, right? Someone would put an end to this? I didn’t want to try to kill anyone. I died. Game Over.
The result: The run is not considered complete, and you have to repeat the whole thing again if you want to unlock the success and the golden dice.
How did this happen? The celebration is actually a farewell that takes place after the final battle and poses no threat. However, it is different if you have made the decision earlier in the game to turn into a mindflayer. In that case, you are occasionally haunted by the urge, like all mindflayers, to consume one brain or another. Victims usually don’t take that very well and resist, which in this case was probably the whole celebration.
Could this have been prevented? Yes. The epilogue scene, or the farewell celebration, is nearly all optional content. You have the opportunity to talk to the characters one more time – but you don’t have to. If you want, you can talk directly to Withers and leave the celebrations, which leads to the true ending of the game.
A lesson that Baggy24 has probably learned now – and that should serve as a warning to anyone even considering turning into a mindflayer. Another, safer method is, by the way, to achieve one of the new evil endings – because then you won’t even have a cheerful party.
