Summary
- Baldur's Gate 3 has many endings, offering thousands of subtle variations based on player choices.
- Side quests, character interactions, and romance options all affect the ending, providing unique epilogues for each.
- While it may not have exactly 17,000 unique endings, the game's attention to detail and responsiveness to player choices make every ending satisfying.
Before its release, the developers of players try to break Baldur's Gate 3. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch at all to say there are thousands of different ways its story can play out, but 17,000 endings is an entirely different kind of claim.
[Warning: This article contains spoilers for various endings of Baldur's Gate 3.]Baldur's Gate 3 does have many different endings. This is far from the typical open-ended RPG structure, which typically just includes a good, a bad, and a true/neutral ending to establish consequences for a variety of player choices. Simply put, Baldur's Gate 3 has way more than three endings. But at the same time, 17,000 different ones is a big promise, and one that few games could truly live up to. Here's the truth about Baldur's Gate 3 and its myriad endings.
One Common Baldur's Gate 3 Mechanic Can Have Hilarious Unintended Consequences
Baldur's Gate 3 is known for its charm and humor, but not all of that is intentional. Some mechanics can be hilarious, despite being unintended.
Developers Reveal The Truth About BG3’s 17,000 Endings
In an interview with BG3's Game of the Year win, its director Swen Vincke and lead writer Adam Smith addressed the 17,000 endings claim, with Vincke insisting, “some of them are subtle.” So, while Baldur's Gate 3 may not have 17,000 perfectly unique ending sequences, it may be more accurate to say that it has 17,000 subtle permutations of the endings that exist.
For one thing, Vincke completely rejected the idea that the ending comes down to a simple choice between two sides: siding with Orpheus or the Emperor in BG3. That's just one of many decisions players make leading up to the ending. To say that this single choice defines BG3's ending simply wouldn't be true. There are further choices players can make after each option, such as whether to control the Elder Brain or destroy it after taking the Emperor's side.
It could be argued that the Emperor-Orpheus choice is the "main" variation in BG3's ending, since it defines how the major conflict of the game comes to a close. But at the same time, there are many different factors at play in BG3's ending, and each player responds differently to each aspect of its story. That's where the 17,000 other permutations come in: There are thousands of minute variations in the final scenes and epilogues, all of which depend entirely on the party's choices and their outcomes. But what are the other variables, and what other choices affect the ending?
Certain Side Quests Affect BG3's Ending
How Different NPC Decisions Factor Into The End Of BG3
For one thing, a wide variety of side quests can affect how the ending of Baldur's Gate 3 plays out. There are tons of them, but in the IGN interview, Vincke gives a special shout out to Raphael. If players choose to side with Raphael in Baldur's Gate 3, they get a unique epilogue cutscene. In it, the cambion details his conquest of the Hells, and says he's coming for the remaining realms next. It may not have too much to do with the central conflict, but it certainly impacts the ending, directly addressing the fate of the Forgotten Realms.
Also, many BG3 side quests affect which characters are present in the game's climactic battle. There are 19 different characters that may come to the party's aid in the final fight: Volo, Dame Aylin, and Dammon are among them, but there are many more allies to be found. Each of these could be called a variation on the ending, and since there are near-infinite different ways to combine them, there are hundreds of different formations in which the party and their allies can fight the final battle.
Some allies can be called in repeatedly, while others are limited to a single use. It's important to read the descriptions of each ally and their abilities before summoning them.
And even after that, some NPCs will write letters to Tav and their party, which they can read by opening the Chest of Grateful Words. Each of these is effectively a letter of thanks, expressing gratitude for the party's help and checking in on the relevant character's activity since they last met. There are 27 different letters available in any number of combinations, and most of them aren't mutually exclusive. The near-infinite permutations of epilogue letters contribute greatly to the variation in BG3's endings.
Character Epilogues Also Define BG3's Ending
Many of the variations on BG3's ending take place in its epilogue scenes, most of which are centered on characters the player interacted with throughout the game. There are six recruitable Origin characters, seven character quests, and eight romance options in Baldur's Gate 3; almost all of these have unique epilogues that play out after the final battle, comprising the emotional core of the ending.
Of course, these scenes will vary based on which characters the player recruited, and which of them made it to the end. But there are even further variants of these scenes depending on how their romance subplots and personal quests played out. Sometimes, it's as simple as a single line changing to reflect a more romantic outcome. Other times, romantic endings comprise entirely different scenes from their platonic counterparts.
Plus, different companions can sometimes get entangled in each other's epilogue scenes, depending on how they interacted and how their relationships developed throughout the game. For example, if the player progresses Karlach's quest all the way through to the end, and chooses to let her return to Avernus, she'll sometimes do so with a companion. Tav may agree to her themselves, but if they don't, Wyll might also go in their place. These slight character variations count toward the total of 17,000 endings as well.
BG3 Also Has Many "Secret" Endings
Gale's Bad Ending, Killing Orpheus, & More
There are also many "secret" endings in Baldur's Gate 3, even if most of them are negative. Players can meet with an unfortunate end by accepting the Mind Flayer's kiss of death after the Nautiloid crash, detonating Gale's Netherese Orb when they first reach the Elder Brain, or killing Orpheus despite the Emperor's warnings.
If the player has a save file available prior to one of these bad endings, they can load it and try again.
Since these endings only have one permutation each, they're not as numerous as the Origin character epilogues. And each of them cuts the game off long before it's done - players could easily miss the majority of the game if they die by Mind Flayer in Act One. These endings don't include any emotional epilogues, either. Each is very abrupt, and once the final choice is made, the credits roll. But they contribute to the total count of 17,000 nonetheless, especially when combined with other, more subtle variations.
Even BG3's Major Endings Have Minor Variations
The Orpheus and Emperor endings may not vary too much in of broad strokes, but have thousands of variations in the tiniest details. For example, if a sorcerer sets off a Wild Magic surge just before the end of the final battle, and winds up transforming the entire party into a menagerie of domesticated animals, they'll stay that way for the remainder of the epilogues.
These tiny changes that result in fringe variations speak to the incredible level of detail in Baldur's Gate 3. In the IGN interview, Vincke and Smith address the vastness of BG3's dialogue trees. Its writers put a lot of effort into ensuring all options made sense and all possibilities were ed for, and those thousands of little what-ifs create thousands of possible endings.
Will BG3 DLC Introduce New Endings?
DLC has provided many RPGs with additional endings - some DLC has even expanded game stories beyond the point where the credits roll. That's understandably desirable. If the worldbuilding and characters are rich enough, DLC can add whole new chapters to a game, even when it already has thousands of ending variations. However, since it's been confirmed that Baldur's Gate 3 won't get any DLC, there probably won't be any completely new endings added, either.
Still, that doesn't mean there'll never be new ending content. Larian has made it clear that it still intends to release patches and updates for the base game. New endings aren't typically added in free updates, but that's just another way in which BG3 has broken the mold. In fact, new story cutscenes and voice lines have been included in many Baldur's Gate 3 patches to date, and that trend is likely to continue. Vincke has stated that a future BG3 update will include new ending cinematics, so there may be even more slight variations coming in the near future.
So, while BG3 doesn't really have 17,000 completely unique endings, there are at least 17,000 variations on the endings it has. Most players will probably never see the same exact ending variation twice, which makes each replay as interesting as the last. But the exact number of endings doesn't count for much. What's more important is that every single one is attainable, interesting, and sensible. That's something Baldur's Gate 3 certainly achieves: its endings are incredibly responsive to player choices, and all create satisfying, complete conclusions to the stories the game is trying to tell.
Source: IGN
Baldur's Gate 3
-
- Top Critic Avg: 96/100 Critics Rec: 98%
- Released
- August 3, 2023
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Partial Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Larian Studios
- Publisher(s)
- Larian Studios
- Engine
- Divinity 4.0
- Multiplayer
- Online Co-Op, Local Co-Op
- Cross-Platform Play
- Full cross-platform play.
Developed and published by Larian Studios, Baldur's Gate 3 is an role-playing game set to release in August of 2023. Players will create a character to embark on a large-scale journey and can do so solo or cooperatively with a friend. Combat is a turn-based style this time around.
- Franchise
- Baldur's Gate
- Platform(s)
- PC, macOS
- How Long To Beat
- 100+ Hours
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