The popularity of Baldur’s Gate 3 shot up about three weeks before release with the teaser for the now infamous bear love scene. Now a speedrunner has unlocked the scene in his game – in a world record time of 50 minutes.
Which speedrun are we talking about? The new sex speedrun was published by YouTuber weedmoder (YouTube). The channel currently has 6 videos, three of which focus on Baldur’s Gate 3. Among other things, the YouTuber explains how speedruns work in the game.
In his world record video, weedmoder reaches the infamous sex scene with the druid Halsin in just 50:30 minutes. Notably, this is an Any%
run. Most speedruns in Baldur’s Gate 3 fall into this category.
Recently, we reported on the then current record of YouTuber Mae, who completed a full run in 30 minutes. Mae also managed to complete the game in just 4 minutes in an Any%
-speedrun.
In addition to full and Any%
speedruns, there is also a large community in Baldur’s Gate 3 that aims to unlock sex scenes with a companion in ever new record times. Until Patch 4, this was possible by impressing the Githyanki companion Lae’zel.
A speedrun with the bear sex goal is, however, new.
Bear love
in Baldur’s Gate 3 is complex to unlock
Why is this cool? To get Lae’zel to offer a hot night as described above, you only had to provoke a tiefling in the Emerald Grove. Druid Halsin, on the other hand, the partner of the player character in the bear sex scene, needs much more than unfriendly words:
Whoever wants to bring their character together with Halsin must first free him from the goblins’ captivity in Act 1. It’s probably also helpful to save the grove and not ally with the goblins.
If all goes well, Halsin will join your camp. In Act 2, the real work begins: Halsin has a serious trauma that you help him to solve in some quests. If you progress far enough and, most importantly, successfully, he will finally be unlocked for your combat group.
But only in Act 3 can you begin to truly romance him. And even here, you need to put in a real effort, as Halsin’s impression of your character starts at neutral
– even though you have already stood by him a lot.
Only once you have raised his approval for your character and chosen the correct dialogue options will he confess his feelings to you.
To accomplish all of this in just 50 minutes and 30 seconds, considering all the hurdles to be taken, is impressive.
What was the strategy of the speedrunner? Like other speedrunners before, weedmoder uses the combination of Feather Fall
and Enhance Leap
to move faster with his character. Next, he uses the old Shadowboxing
trick, where the companion Shadowheart is first killed and then put into a box.
With the preparations now made, the YouTuber sets out to successfully complete the necessary steps in Halsin’s romance quests described above. For this, he uses, among other things, the kidnapped
-glitch to carry a character transformed into a gnome on his shoulders. In one of the most important battles, he also heals
his characters by adjusting the difficulty of the run up and down.
Weedmoder explains all his steps in his YouTube video. For spoiler reasons, we do not want to reveal more details about the strategy here. But you can watch the speedrun here:
Why is the scene so important for Larian Studios and the game? Baldur’s Gate 3 is a sequel to the two previous parts but was released 23 years after the initial release of Baldur’s Gate 2. Additionally, turn-based RPGs are currently less in vogue than games with action-based combat systems.
During a live stream with the developers, Larian Studios showcased some of their features, including the sex scene with Halsin in bear form. This surprised fans and journalists alike, leading to a wave of media coverage and community posts.
The scene became so well-known that even people outside the C-RPG, Dungeons-&-Dragons, or Baldur’s-Gate cosmos took notice of the game. The fact that the live stream also resulted in a TikTok ban for Larian further positively impacted the game’s visibility.
At the Golden Joystick Awards 2023, Larian Studios won a lot of awards with their hit game:
Baldur’s Gate 3 is the “Ultimate Game of the Year”, winning so many Golden Joystick Awards that the head can hardly carry them
