Baldur’s Gate 3: Act 1 Checklist (Everything You Don’t Want To Miss)

There are many easy-to-miss quests in Baldur’s Gate 3, especially during the first act, which means the best way to ensure you don’t miss a thing is to follow an Act 1 Checklist. Most party members join the group early on, making it easy to become overwhelmed and forget things, often resulting in an attempt to return to quests after it’s already too late to finish them.

Given that your decisions affect aspects of the game and that Baldur’s Gate 3 is specifically designed for multiple playthroughs, it’s impossible to do everything in the game in one go. Therefore, this list is optimized to see the most things in a single playthrough, which typically means making strictly morally good and orderly selections.

Level 2/3 Checklist For Act 1

Meet Your Party Members & Begin Companion Quests

After completing the prologue, you will find yourself alone on the Ravaged Beach. Your character level will range between 1 and 2 during the beginning of the First Act, depending on whether you decide to fight Commander Zhalk in Baldur’s Gate 3. Regardless, your first order of business should be to recruit a small team and take on some of the easier challenges.

It’s a good idea to start thinking about any potential storylines you may be interested in and which companions you want to romance in Baldur’s Gate 3, since some of these early decisions with your companions can massively affect their story later on and their overall feelings about you.

Especially if you’ve already played through before, you may know that decisions made in virtually any conversation can drastically affect aspects of the game. They can incite unnecessary fights, turn potential party members into enemies, or incur other undesirable permanent game outcomes. That being said, something to keep in mind, if you’re comfortable with it, is save scumming.

Save scumming is essentially continuously creating save points that you can then revert to if the outcome you produce the first time isn’t what you wanted. While some might feel this is disingenuous, it is the best way to ensure you get the playthrough you want. My recommendation is to do an initial playthrough and commit to your choices to see what happens, and then maybe start save scumming on your second playthrough.

Even if you have already completed an initial playthrough, another thing to keep in mind is thatBaldur’s Gate 3 Patch 8 added new subclasses. This means there are several entirely new options to choose from, making them a great way to begin another playthrough without things feeling monotonous.

Keep in mind that while there are what are considered to be traditional good and bad endings, Baldur’s Gate 3 is more about the experience than the outcome. There is no right way to finish the game, so unless you have a specific goal in mind, no choice you make in anything from Act 1 to Act 3 is the wrong one.

Since there are a handful of characters that don’t particularly align, you may have some tension in your party depending on who you recruit. For example, Shadowheart and Lae’zel will frequently get into arguments or disagree, and appeasing someone like Minthara may mean making several decisions that members of your party will not agree with.

Keep in mind that, to add to the previous statement, party members have their own sense of morality. This means that even if you’re sweet-talking them in the camp, they may be put off by you if you make decisions that don’t align with their idea of what you should do. Complicating matters further, not everyone will always agree, so you can’t make everyone happy. This is especially important to keep in mind if you’re planning to romance someone specific.

In addition to having to stay on your potential romance partner’s good side with story-based decisions, you’ll also want to keep in mind how you go about engaging with other party members. While some members are fine with you romancing multiple partners, other party members are not, and you could indirectly hurt your relationship if you pursue someone else as well.

Some of the biggest decisions you’ll make during Act 1 that will affect future aspects of the game are going to be how you deal with the Emerald Grove, Minthara, and the Mind Flayer Parasite.

Level 4/5 Checklist For Act 1

Rescue Halsin From The Goblin Camp & Recruit Minthara

You should soon be around the fourth or fifth level unless you are speedrunning Baldur’s Gate 3’s Act 1. Level 5 is an important milestone, as many classes will begin to unlock their key combat features. For example, the Eldritch Knight Fighter will have two attacks per action. This change, along with your party’s overall ability to deal more damage, makes previously difficult fights more likely to end in your favor.

The Shattered Sanctum is where you’ll first be able to encounter Halsin. While he will join you, he won’t be as fully integrated into your party as some others until later on, when you complete a story quest specific to his character. So, once he joins the campsite, don’t be put off if he doesn’t seem immediately thrilled with your company.

When you encounter Minthara and are working to rescue Halsin, you’ll need to be very careful if you have any hopes of recruiting Minthara. If you provoke a fight and kill her, you’ll have no chance to recruit her and will instead only be able to loot her of her armor and a few small things.

If you’re planning to recruit her, you need to use non-lethal attacks to take her out of the fight without actually killing her. This is another important thing to keep in mind throughout the rest of the game, should you accidentally incite fights with characters you don’t want to kill.

While Auntie Ethel is a sweet old woman on the surface, fighting the Hag in Baldur’s Gate 3 is nothing to take lightly. This could easily result in your first total party kill, as you’re going to face several tasks while working your way to her that will damage your health, and you won’t be able to perform a long rest to recoup in between.

The only way you’ll be fully replenished before that fight is if you sneak around her to her back room in the area where she has imprisoned Mayrina. Once you do, you can sneak out, long rest, and then sneak back in. While this is time-consuming and risky, it’s highly recommended if you don’t want to risk everyone dying in this fight.

Level 6 (& Beyond) Checklist For Act 1

Explore The Underdark & Help The Myconids

Rosymorn Monastery and The Underdark are separate areas, but both officially mark the ending of Act 1. You should consider returning to some of the optional quests in these areas later on, since many of them can still be quite tricky this early, and are not necessarily time-restricted. If you take one path through the end of Act 1, you can access the other in Act 2 to see everything you missed.

Keep in mind that several time-constrained events happen while in the Underdark of Baldur’s Gate 3, so if you’re progressing and picking up quests, don’t forget to keep an eye on the ones that have potential deadlines. Otherwise, you may venture off to save people only to find that they tragically perished already.

Note that the Shadowlands-focused Second Act of Baldur’s Gate 3 is much larger and will have many decisions that significantly affect your overall ending, so be prepared before moving on.

Baldur’s Gate 3

Systems

Released

August 3, 2023

ESRB

M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Partial Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Violence