Baldur’s Gate 3 has an enormous amount of content to play through that spans three different acts.
The story is told through both main quests and side quests. While most of these quests are pretty straightforward and simple, some are quite long and involved, intertwining through the lives of several characters and greatly influencing the main story.
These eight quests take you through the entire story and will impact your game state by involving themselves with other quest lines.
1) Find a Cure
Find a Cure begins as soon as you complete the prologue and get off the Nautiloid. While most of the quest takes place in act one, the quest doesn’t officially end until you know the truth about the parasite infection and why ceremorphosis isn’t happening.
There are six branches of this quest which will see you talking to different NPCs to try and cure yourself and your party of the infection.
- Ask the Goblin Priestess for help: This part of the quest triggers in the Goblin Camp when you meet with Priestess Gut. It turns out to be a bust when the Priestess tries to abduct you instead.
- Get help from Auntie Ethel: Ethel turns out to be a Hag who is only interested in learning more about your parasite and trying to abduct unassuming strangers for her plans.
- Get help from Healer Nettie: Healer Nettie in the Druid Grove says she cannot fix your problem and instead gives you poison to kill yourself before the transformation takes place.
- Rescue the Druid Halsin: Once you rescue (or recruit) Halsin from the Goblin Camp and stop the invasion, he will mention that he can’t heal you but you might find help at Moonrise Towers.
- Find the Githyanki Crèche: Going through the Mountain Pass will lead you to the Githyanki Crèche. Interacting with the Zaith’isk and passing skill checks will lead to it blowing up, removing another potential lead.
- Help Omeluum investigate the parasite: Going through the Underdark will take you to the Myconid colony where you meet the Mind Flayer Omeluum. He will comment on how your case is different from regular ceremorphosis and that he can’t help with this one.
After exhausting all of your options, the quest seemingly halts until you find out the reason why ceremorphosis isn’t happening. This happens in the interlude between acts two and three and will tie into the ending when you fight the Elder Brain.
2) The Daughter of Darkness
Shadowheart’s companion quest starts when you first talk to her after the Nautiloid crash. There will be very little told about Shadowheart, on account of her lost memories, until you get to act two and reach the Gauntlet of Shar. Completing this dungeon will introduce you to the Nightsong and freeing her will yield some useful information.
The questline then continues till you kill Ketheric Thorm at the end of Act Two and make it to Baldur’s Gate in Act Three.
Here, head to the House of Grief to meet a familiar face, Viconia. You can either choose to hand over Shadowheart to the worshippers of Shar or fight them and proceed further. If you choose to fight, head into the inner sanctum after you win.
Shadowheart will meet people from her past and try to save them. Depending on the choice you make, Shadowheart will either embrace her past or reject it for Shar, ending the quest and granting you differing rewards based on the choices made.
3) The Pale Elf
This quest begins when you first meet Astarion and recruit him to your party. You quickly learn he is a vampire sworn to Cazador Szarr and wants a way out of his pact. This will prompt Raphael to arrive when you get to the Risen Road and you can make a deal with him to learn more about Astarion’s past. This quest then continues in Act Two.
When you get to the Thorm Mausoleum in the Shadow-cursed Lands, Raphael agrees to help Astarion if you kill the hellspawn Orthos. Doing so will reveal the true nature of the words on Astarion’s back and the next step is taking down Cazador in act three. When you make it to Baldur’s Gate, head to the Szarr Mansion to continue.
Break into the mansion and head to the bottom to interrupt Cazador’s ascension ceremony. After a long battle, you can either choose to free all the vampire spawn or sacrifice them to Astarion instead.
The latter option will lead to Astarion becoming a Vampire Ascendant and a powerful asset in the battles to come with the Elder Brain.
4) The Wizard of Waterdeep
Pulling Gale out of the rogue portal will trigger his companion quest. At first, Gale will occasionally request magic items to consume. After consuming three of them, his quest will proceed where he explains his backstory with the goddess Mystra.
This is when you learn of the Netherese Orb implanted in Gale’s chest with the potential to wipe out an entire city if left unchecked.
Before you get to the Shadow-cursed Lands, you run into Elminster who tells Gale about the goddess’ demands. Mystra wished for Gale to blow up his Netherese Orb to take out the Elder Brain but this fate can be alleviated. When you get to act three, head to Sorcerous Sundries and break into the vault to gain access to the tome titled The Annals of Karsus.
After reading the book, Gale will learn how to reforge the Crown of Karsus (which is in the grasp of the Elder Brain) and relieve himself of his duty. After gathering the three Netherstones and defeating the newly-transformed Netherbrain, the Wizard of Waterdeep quest will come to an end along with the main storyline as well.
5) The Githyanki Warrior
Freeing Lae’zel from her Tiefling captors begins this quest. From this point, you learn the Githyanki patrol is on its way to Crèche Y’llek through the Risen Road. Catching up with them with Lae’zel will continue the plot into the Crèche. This is where a few quests tie in, including the Find a Cure quest, as you make your way to the Githyanki queen, Vlaakith.
Talking to her will prompt her to tell your party to kill the Dream Visitor in the Githyanki Artifact. The reward for this is Lae’zel’s ascension in the Githyanki ranks. As you get to the Dream Visitor in the Astral Plane, you will learn they are the reason for keeping your impending ceremorphosis in stasis and that Vlaakith plans to betray your party once you come out.
After you get out, you tear your way through the Crèche and eventually meet with Kith’rak Voss who prompts you to free the true Githyanki prince, Orpheus.
When you enter the artifact again, you can either choose to side with the Dream Visitor or the Githyanki. Choosing Orpheus will grant Lae’zel her best weapon and the allegiance of the Githyanki in the final battle as the quest ends.
6) The Blade of Frontiers
When you meet Wyll at the Druid Grove and recruit him to your camp, his companion quest will trigger. He will mention hunting for a Tiefling named Karlach (who ends up being your companion eventually). If Karlach is already in your camp, you can resolve their differences and progress both their quest lines forward.
When you get to act two, you learn of the existence of Mizora, who forged a pact with Wyll on behalf of the demon overlord Zariel.
After Mizora’s disappearance and subsequent rescue from the Mind Flayer colony at the end of Act Two, Mizora will join your camp and the quest continues into Act Three. You can also choose to break or honor Wyll’s pact with Mizora with varying consequences.
Act Three is also when you will have to save Wyll’s father, Grand Duke Ravengard, from the Iron Throne. After the rescue, the quest progresses when you find the legendary dragon Ansur. Find a path underneath Wyrm’s Rock Fortress, defeat Ansur’s resurrected remains, and reconvene with the Grand Duke to end the quest.
Since this quest is intertwined with the next one, there are more potential outcomes involved.
7) Our Fiery Friend
Karlach’s first encounter in the Wilderness followed by her joining your party will start this quest. The first order of business here is to save Karlach’s mechanical heart before it overheats her to death. Meeting Dammon in the Druid Grove and then later again in the Last Light Inn will lead to him stabilizing Karlach’s heart using pieces of Infernal Iron.
The quest then continues into Act Three where Karlach is determined to kill Gortash. Upon his defeat, Karlach will note how she doesn’t have much time left to live. Unless you can find a way to fix her heart, Karlach will die by the end of the storyline.
An alternative option involves talking to the Emperor and turning Karlach into a fully-fledged Mind Flayer to keep her alive.
If you have progressed Wyll’s quest far enough, towards the end of the game, he will offer to take Karlach back to Avernus to ensure her survival. You can either choose to go with her or let Wyll take her to end her questline. If these steps are not followed, Karlach will die once the main storyline comes to an end.
8) The Urge
This quest is a special one because unless you’re playing as a certain character, there is no way of triggering this quest.
Unique to the Dark Urge origin character, the Urge is a quest that starts at the beginning of the game and culminates at the end. The entire questline is about the Dark Urge finding out about their lost memories and learning why they have violent impulses plaguing them.
There will be certain interactions unique to the Dark Urge. One such example is when you first meet Gale, you have the option to hack his arm off and leave him for dead.
Another example is if you recruit Alfira to your camp from the Druid Grove, at one point, you will find her dead at night. This will prompt the arrival of Scleritas Fel who will address you as their master and inform you about your memories.
The quest then takes you to act two where you will be tasked to murder Isobel at the Last Light Inn. Doing so will grant you access to your Slayer form and eventually, a vision that tells you that you’re the last pureblood spawn of Bhaal. The questline ends when you kill the usurper Orin and reclaim your place as the champion of Bhaal.
From this point on, you can choose to either quell the urges or accept the Netherbrain’s proposal and enslave all of humanity in the name of Bhaal.
