With Baldur’s Gate III being in early access, it’s no surprise that developer Larian Studios is going to be forced to make changes that might halt your progress through the RPG. That first fork in the road is approaching with the game’s next patch, which will make your save game incompatible going forward.
In preparation for the patch, Larian Studios explained in a post on Steam that players will have to choose between updating and restarting or sticking with the version of the game they have now. Larian has made separate branches on Steam for those not ready yet for a re-roll, letting you skip Patch 3, which will introduce some big story changes.
“Each patch will come alongside a secondary branch which will allow you to continue playing the previous version with your existing save games, until you decide you’re ready to play on the latest version,” the post reads. “Maybe you’d like to wait for a few patches to pass, for example, before you re-roll. Totally up to you!”
Branches will be available on Steam, but not the Stadia version of the game. You’ll be forced to restart on Google’s streaming platform. If you want to avoid the new patch on Steam before it arrives, here’s what you need to do:
- Right click on the game in your Steam library
- Select properties
- Click the BETAS tab
- In the list under “Select the beta you would like to opt in to”, select patch2
- Close the properties menu
You should also ensure that you disable automatic updates for Baldur’s Gate III, so that the game isn’t accidentally updated as soon as you log on. Larian does, however, state that saves are stored locally so you can always rollback your game and have your saves preserved.
The response to Baldur’s Gate III has been incredibly positive since its early access launch, which only includes the game’s first act. The studio is now hard at work incorporating all the player feedback it has received, while developing the rest of the game’s content before the official release.
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