Baldur's Gate 3 After 1 Week; Players Take Their Time With Achievements

A week ago the full version of the new Baldur's Gate finally made its way to players, who eagerly took to exploring the Forgotten Realms. Since the game only came out on PC, we can easily check, what progress fans have made since the release of Baldur's Gate 3.

DISCLAIMER: We will start the discussion with achievements unrelated to the story. This will enable you to avoid spoilers regarding events if you are only interested in "perks" for various actions in the game. Nevertheless, even here you may find information that can spoil your surprise, for example, regarding hidden mechanics. Read at your own risk.

It should also be noted that in the case of new games, stats on achievements are often not updated for some time. Hence numerous reports about the allegedly small number of people who completed the prologue in the first days after the release of BG 3.

Sleeping players are experimenting

Although - following the example of other games - Baldur's Gate 3 has achievements for progress in the main storyline or for side quests, there's also no shortage of trophies for - let's call it - interesting achievements. Other than "Ascension from Avernus" (i.e. completing the prologue), most people earned achievements on Steam for performing five attacks in a single turn (58.9%), falling into a long sleep four times during the game (42.6%) and peeking into another character's mind (39.5%).

Some players probably didn't get much sleep through Baldur's Gate 3, but at least some of them rested in the game. Source: Larian Studios.

Quite a few players also got into role-playing.

1. 27.6% of game buyers completed all side quests and - according to the description of the "Full Commitment" achievement - "became their character." Many daredevils also failed to resist unholy temptations, be it the one related to the secret (in a way) mechanic of Baldur's Gate 3 or the "scientific" desire to test the effects of gravity on enemies.
2. Speaking of desires - I guess players liked the party's vampire, because almost 30% of them earned the achievement associated with Astarion. Heck, fewer people played with Scratch (quote: "the kindest dog in all the realms") or got drunk to unconsciousness like the dwarves.
3. Probably for the same reason almost no one defeated 20 opponents with a character under the influence of alcohol in the party. Few were also tempted to pursue a career as a musician (or were unsuccessful) and earned 100 gold in the process.
4. A considerable challenge (or affliction) proved to be the achievement "Great footwork" - the reward for defeating Gortash without triggering any trap.

It could also be noted that players neglected some companions... but you'll read about that later in the text.

Journal Log from The Forgotten Realms

When Larian discussed the size of Baldur's Gate III, the game promised to be one of the longest RPGs in history. At first glance, data from HowLongToBeat do not support this thesis, but there is one problem: the website currently shows times from early access.

If anyone doubts this, the achievements confirm that not even 5% of players on Steam have already completed Baldur's Gate 3.

1. None of the achievements for reaching the end of the adventure have been earned by more than 1% of purchasers of the game. Most of them have been earned by less than a promille of players. For a week after release, this is surprisingly low, even by the standards of sandbox games, let alone a relatively closed RPG.
2. Excluding speedrunners, it was expected to take 75-100 hours to play through the game freely (i.e., to complete the game's main storyline). So it wouldn't be surprising if few people saw the ending after a de facto six days (BG 3 debuted at 5 p.m. CET), or 144 hours.
3. Nevertheless, the fact that so few players made it to the end of the game is puzzling. Moreover, less than 3.5% of players on Steam reached the final of the second act, and only more than 14% made it through the first. Then again, some people are apparently so busy snooping around that just reaching the second chapter of Baldur's Gate 3 will take them as long as it should to see the end credits ( via Reddit).

Gamers were not tempted by murderous and diabolical lusts

Dark lusts didn't take over players (we don't count pushing enemies into the abyss and using them as weapons). Source: Larian Studios.

Leaving aside the main storyline, not many people chose to test the tactical mode - and in any case, it didn't draw the players in. What's more, "Critical hit" seems to be the rarest achievement unclocked in Baldur's Gate 3 on Steam. At least judging by the order on the game's card, but this seems to be confirmed also by Exophase.

Fewer players succumbed to the temptations of Bhaal: less than 0.1% of players reached the bad ending, and only 0.3% succumbed to his will as Dark Urge. Fewer players were also tempted to have a fiery date with Karlach or the Emperor (yes, THAT Emperor): only a perilous percent of players struck up a romance with a Thifling or an Illithid.

No more dragon slayers

It may come as some surprise that players are not flocking to slay dragons. Hardly anyone has shot down a reptile appearing on the Dragon Road (0%; 0.07% according to Exophase), and not many more heroes have defeated a red dragon.

It's true that these achievements are not easy to get, but players' aversion to fantastic creatures may also be confirmed by the achievement called "You Have Two Hands for a Reason," which was earned by less than 3% of players. This despite the fact that it's enough to pet Scratch and the owlbear cub at the same time.

At least in theory, because players report a bug (?) that prevents you from getting the achievement if you are under the influence of the "Talk to Animals" spell before the cutscene (via Reddit). What's more bizarre is that it will result in an alternate version of this cutscene, in which we actually stroke both pets at the same time.

Baldur's Gate 3

August 3, 2023

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