The most challenging part of Baldur’s Gate 3 may very well be Act 1. In later acts, you will have optimized your party through multi-classing as well as building devastating item combos – but at the start of the game you won’t yet have the tools to break the combat balance the same way. This guide aims to provide you with a safe path through Act 1 on Honour Mode, where permadeath lurks around every corner.
This guide will start as a more detailed and specific walkthrough, but becomes more of a generalized checklist as your characters get more developed. This isn’t a speed run – it’s actually fairly completionist, with the goal of trying to soak up most of the available XP along the way.
This guide assumes that you’ve played through Act 1 before.
There’s not much to say about the Nautiloid other than to get through it. It is possible to get the Everburn Blade in Honour Mode, but inconsistent without the ability to save-scumming. I don’t bother, personally. Maybe try a Command: Drop and see if you get lucky?
Consult the IGN interactive map as needed.
Of the four companions available at this point, I feel that Lae’zel and Astarion are the strongest picks to carry you to level 3, likely with Shadowheart as a third to provide Bless (sorry, Gale.) But obviously this will depend on your Tav.
Our next major goal is to get to Level 3, where most characters will get a significant power bump, and to find Withers so we can fix up our party members.
Head to the Emerald Grove gate for the Goblin fight. Use stealth to position your party on the central high-ground with a melee in front. When the fight triggers, you should be directly adjacent to an archer. You might lose one or two of the NPCs, but the battle should be fairly safe otherwise.
After the fight, go just a little West and climb the hill to the Harper Outpost and collect the Silver Pendant from the skeleton. Empty the barrels, the chest loot, and the spider hole loot. After collecting the bag from the spider hole, you can aggro the spiders for a total of 12 more XP.
Enter the grove and begin speaking to NPCs. Many small interactions in town net you small bits of XP here and there. Collect Wyll. Visit Kagha and Nettie. Hike up the trail to Alfira. DO NOT do the harpies before you’re level 3 and, ideally, have access to Calm Emotions (from Shadowheart, for example).
Check if Dammon has +1 Hand Crossbows if you want them. You almost certainly want the Safeguard Shield for someone.
Remember that Auntie Ethel sells Elixirs of Hill Giant Strength if you need them. You can buy three every time you long-rest or level up. Dammon also refreshes his stock and could have more +1 Hand Crossbows.
The goblins in the Underground Passage just west of the Grove are an easy source of XP as well – use stealth and high-ground. Just don’t die to the statues!
You should be level 3, or nearly so, depending on exactly what you did in the Grove.
Head to the Overgrown Ruins.
Either convince the looters to leave (XP: 50), or kill them (XP: 25+15+15+15 = 70). It’s up to you to decide if it’s safer to risk failing the conversation checks or doing the combat. I usually do the combat because you can initiate from stealth / high-ground. I don’t advise using the falling rock as it alerts the people inside and makes that fight much harder.
Enter the Ruins to and kill Andorn for another easy 15 XP. Mari should be alone and easy to kill if you didn’t alert the looters for another easy 15 XP.
You should be level 3 (if not, do some exploration.)
You can probably take the final fight against the looters straight up, but you can play it safe and use a level 3 Assassin (such as Astarion) to stealth-snipe Barton through the door and then move back and flee combat to reset the fight. You can actually clear the entire room with those kinds of shenanigans.
Finish clearing the Ruins and wake up Withers.
At this point you should have cleared the Overgrown Ruins, the Underground Passage, and wandered through most of the Emerald Grove.
Withers should be waiting for you at camp, so you can take this opportunity to respec your party members to at least have better attributes even if you aren’t changing their class.
Don’t re-level your companions all at once – do it one level at a time and shop at Dammon & Auntie Ethel in between to take advantage of shop resets. (Assuming you need +1 Hand Crossbows and Strength Elixirs.)
Do:
Don’t:
If you’re single-classed, you’ve gotten yourself a Feat (or ASI) and should be feeling quite durable now – though some classes don’t get a significant boost to damage output until Level 5.
Do:
Don’t:
Most characters get a MASSIVE offensive power boost at this point: Stronger cantrips, extra attacks for martial classes, level three spells, etc…
Assuming you’ve Deposed Kagha / Rescued Halsin / Raided the Grove, you can proceed through the Mountain Pass to Rosymorn Monastery Trail without locking yourself out of the Emerald Grove.
You can clear the trail and monastery up to Crèche Y’llek, gaining access to some important items from the vendor – but you may wish to delay the confrontation with Ch’r’ai W’wargaz, until level 6. I don’t think using the Zaith’isk is worth the risk, since failed saving throws are so ruinous.
It’s time to wrap up every part of act one now, including:
Make sure you’ve purchased anything you need from A’jak’nir Jeera , Esther, or from Ebonlake Grotto.
Now head to Act Two.
The latest version of this guide can be found at http://quill18.com/bg3