Baldur's Gate 3 player loses 80-hour Honor Mode run to a persistent bug that removes dialog options

15.03.2024 - 13:37 / gamesradar.com / Hirun Cryer

A persisting bug caused one Baldur's Gate 3 player to obliterate their 80-hour Honor Mode playthrough after mistakenly choosing a dialog option.

Honor Mode is basically permadeath mode in Baldur's Gate 3 - you only get one save file, and if you die at any point, no matter how stupid the death, you're sent packing to the game's main menu and the save file gets wiped. Honor Mode has no do-overs, which is why dying is infuriating, but dying because of a bug is even more frustrating.

That's precisely what happened to the player writing below on the game's subreddit. Sadly, there's an ongoing bug in Baldur's Gate 3 where some dialog options are replaced with text reading 'Continue.' The dialog option is still there and present, but it's effectively overwritten by the 'Continue' text, with the dialog option itself being buried behind it.

As the player approaches the Emperor to free Orpheus, they point out the former's "lies and illusions, and why I will never trust him." That's all fine - you can still free Orpheus from the Astral Plane after challenging the Emperor's lies - but the next dialog option was replaced with the 'Continue' text. The player hit this, thinking it would let them progress the scene, but it was the option to hand the Emperor the three stones to free Orpheus.

Things go from bad to worse. The Emperor uses the stone to devour Orpheus, which naturally prompts Lae'zel to want to fight the player character. The Emperor somehow bolts from the entire scene, and the Netherbrain enters and turns the player character into a little squid with a simple flick of its tendrils. Unfortunately, that's game over for our player, and their 80-hour Honor Mode journey ends there.

Apparently, there's a workaround for this bug. A commenter on Reddit claims that by pressing the space bar on PC, you'll be able to skip the dialog that's already played. The true dialog options will then appear, effectively overriding the 'Continue' option. It would've been great if the player in question had known that before their accidentally showdown with the Netherbrain.

Alternatively, another player claims you should simply quit out to the game's main menu whenever the bug appears. Apparently, in Honor Mode at least, you'll be loaded back in right to the same point at which you quit out, but the dialog will now appear properly. Again, it's too late to save this one player's Honor Mode run, but this could still be vital information for others out there.

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