the real solution there is to never bring your full party ANYWHERE together. One stays at camp at all times when it can be helped. Sure, it couldn't have been predicted in this specific case, but if that principle was always followed it could have been recovered
Yeah the harpies on honor are pretty savages i usually hold onto level 4 before even thinking fighting them. One thing i like about honor mode is that it kinda forces you to inspect your ennemies a lot more than any other difficulties, you must take very considerate steps at every corner of a dungeon and fights.
That slide on at the Gauntle of Shar happpened to me too in honor mode. But only my custom char slid off and died. I was shook for a milisecond and cussed out a bit, but was ultimately fine. When all four of you slid off, I just said outloud, "dam I'm sorry bro"
Happened to me too, first honour mode playthrough, 3/4 characters fell into the pit, Lae'zel fell onto some tiny piece of ledge right beside the pit, leaving her with like 4 health. Hooooo boy
My dude fell but then made death saving throws inside the wall and I could only get him back up by short resting, because it wouldn't let me travel, revive him, or long rest 😂
The game doesn't count honor mode completed if you end in act 2 either. You don't get the achievement. You can blow gale up in act 3 before the brain stem and that works but not in act 2.
it’s also kinda dumb bc the logic for act 2 not counting is that just killing the brain doesn’t resolve the issue of illithids freely roaming the sword coast uncontrolled blowing up the brain in act 3 is no different lol
@@AngelJimenez-cs4yqit’s moreso because you didn’t actually *complete* the game. Sure, you got an ending, but it defeats the purpose of the achievement.
@@AngelJimenez-cs4yqI mean most of the party is still alive by then, because Gale remembers how to cast teleportation circle or sth. Also the vast majority of tadpoles have already been given the order to transform making it obvious where the Illithids are. And lastly the Githyanki kill squads are already on site ready to exterminate the extremely vulnerable (stunned) new born mindflayers. So the situation is much more manageble.
Oh my god! 20:35 made me literally burst out in giggles. I can just see Tav and Shadowheart in an intense argument and then out of nowhere Lasel just walks over, grabs the spear out of Shadowhearts hands and yeets it into the endless abyss, everyone stands for a few seconds not believing what just happened and then Shadowheart is just like "Well, guess I'm a heretic now" XD
Thats so in character it sounds canon. Like if you pick the right options when talking to each and both of them Laezel starts growing found of Shadowheart (in a gith way, still) but Shart is still too deep in to see reason. And it unlocks this as a potencial dialogue branch
@@luciferamigodobairro6169 Laezel knows what it's like to serve a false idol. So, she takes the rather Gith route of simply tossing the evil god's weapon into the void 😂
My first honor mode run I became an oathbreaker paladin, then wanted to respec so I pickpocketed withers to get my gold back. But for whatever reason the oathbreaker knight agro’d onto my ENTIRE VERY LOW LEVEL CAMP because they “CaUgHt mE cOmMiTinG a cRiMe.” I got tpk’d.
It can also happen without the oathbreaker, for me my entire camp attacked, scratch, owlbear youngling and every companion not in my party for that withers gold
That happened to me too, but it was Scratch and the Owlbear that aggroed me! I was lucky because only half the characters in my camp aggroed, so I was able to rez everyone who died. Withers can keep his darn 100 gps when I'm in Honor Mode now!
what shart does in the nightsong scene when you say "do what you think" actually can end with her killing the nightsong. it depends on the player's relationship with her.
@@Bilndmann You don't need any Nightsong points at all, I don't think. You just need high approval. My first playthrough I went blind and ended up just getting 1 Nightsong point, and she still spared the Nightsong. Just have to choose not to interfere.
@@Zafire063 In one of my latest runs I had 99% approval with Shadowheart, but carelessly always encouraged her to be a Dark Justiciar and follow Shar's Dogma and she actually ended up killing the Nightsong when I left her to her own. It was wild, but possibly a tiny bug also
The gauntlet elevator glitch happens when youve been running the game too long in a session, for some reason. If you go to the main menu and refresh it it fixes it. Just send 1 person on it alone to grab the fast travel behind it or just use misty step to avoid it entirely
18:59 Alas, no amount of skill can overcome the elevator boss. In this case, there is something you can do: hold 1 party member back, regroup at the portal next to the entrance to the Shadowfell. Same with the cable car at the Monastery. You just have to take your chances with the one before Myrkul.
It also helps to save, quit and reload right before the elevator. I have lost 2 runs to the elevator, and do this every time now. And I send my squad down in pairs
I love honor mode. Actually makes the encounters feel like they have stakes. Completed like 4 of them so far, but it does tend to encourage playing to win instead of roleplaying.
@@lycantabrisYeah, I'd love to experience more of the legendary actions properly without the risk of permadeath. As I missed out on seeing some of them by either skipping or cheesing the fight (Barrelmancy my beloved, saving me from a game over against Ketheric after losing Karlach to the platform glitch).
Yep totally agree, improvisation doesn't work well. But after 500h playing this game I'm still amazed that I get surprises eventhoug I feel I play safe and try the same thing over and over. I guess if you completed honor once you don't care as much and can roleplay while attempting new runs?
@@lycantabris Um, by definition, no. No it is not best of both worlds. The dude you're replying to said honor mode "actually makes the encounters feel like they have stakes" and that was his only praise of honor mode. If you have multiple save files and it's not game over on death then the fights don't have stakes. You can't have the best of honor mode's world without a single save file that insta-deletes on party wipe.
That Ketheric Fight sounds so much like how actual really difficult fights end up being on the tabletop. It blows my mind how this game manages to capture that feeling so well at times.
On the Nautiloid, if you prepare the Command: Spell on Shadowheart (or on yourself, if you are a Cleric as well for another 2 chances) you can use it on Zhalk to make him drop his weapon, and then you can pick up that weapon and put it in Lae'zel or whoever's hands to kill first Zhalk and then the Mindflayer :)
My first honour run, I died due to thinking I could jump on a rock which my cursor did NOT show me as "Death", but it was indeed death. Love this game.
Ending the game via task manager is how you can save an honor mode you lost, though I'd specifically save that for cases like that horrible glitch, 'cause that's just so unfair-
So some tips for honor mode: Use camp casting, play as a sword bard paladin, and try to pet his majesty l. The last part is crucial because I did and on that run I beat it. Also if you check the numbers the same amount of people who heat honor also tried to pet his majesty
@@RosaNomNom yes get hirelings, spec 2 of them as clerics and one as a bard wizard multiclass. They can use their spell slots to cast spells like, longstrider, aid, freedom of movement, deathward, warding bond, and heroes feast. The bard wizard multclass can cast some buffs but also make potions if they are a transmutation wizard. Make them a bard for expertise in medicine so they have a higher chance of making 2 potions instead of one.
Im guess those spells work even if theyre not in your party? Or do you just leave them detached from your party and run the game with 1 or 2 in the party@@elib6465
it took me a few attempts to get my honour mode campaign done... and one of those was lost at the final fight with the brain itself ☠ that one broke my soul a bit i will say.
That glitch messed me up, holy crap, that was a true tragedy. I probably would have CRIED if that had happened to me. In my HM run, I recently reached Act 3. After watching your attempts at beating HM and through my own experiences, I’ve found it helpful to never be overly confident and to freely cheese the shit out of the game, especially considering how many hours I’ve invested in this run. For every encounter, I make sure I’m over prepared and as a result, I haven’t had *too many* close calls. Side note: monks are super fun. Way of the Shadow Monk + Durge = so much invisibility, especially if you’re slightly or completely obscured.
I luckily read about all the possible glitches beforehand (which never happened to me outside honour due to frequent reloading I suppose 😂), otherwise I would've plunged to my death as well or could've gotten stuck in eternal dialogue loops 😬 but since I came prepared it only happened to one character and I survived the ordeal that is bg3 elevators and dialogue glitches on honour. Some close calls 🫠 (also cheesed the shit out of my only unmodded honour run for the achievement. Like no thanks, I'm not redoing this several times, I had to ignore any kind of realism or roleplaying and that hurt enough 😂 Spent like 20 ingame days just robbing Araj until she didn't even have any guards to call anymore lmfao)
Beat honor mode on my first try myself, thought that's partly because I already had multiple playthroughs under my belt when it was added and had a lot of my strategies figured out, minus accounting for legendary actions. I did almost lose at the final hurdle- the aegis of the absolute took me off-guard, but I realized what was happening just in time to course-correct. I definitely agree with your conclusion, honor mode is one of the best ways to play the game, I don't play any other difficulty anymore. Currently in the middle of my honor mode perma-death run- actually inspired by your ChatGPT playthrough, funnily enough! It's a great time. Stressful, but in a fun way.
Same for me! Beat it first try, but I had already completed Balanced and Tactician and by the time I started my Honor Mode run, I got to learn from everyone else's mistakes (i.e. Gauntlet of Shar lift). While I did beat every boss and completed a "good" run, not all the NPCs made it... RIP Minsc, Oathbreaker Knight, and Duke Ravengard. Went back to Tactician for my evil Durge run, but it's definitely not as challenging. Despite the stress, Honor Mode really grew on me! Might do a perma-death run soon myself!
@@tbeth I recommend it, it's a lot of fun, in its own way. I was mostly just looking for ways to kill time until Patch 7, and I figured a run where death had stakes and I had no idea what my ending might look like would be novel. I pre-plan my playthroughs a lot, normally. XD Just about finished act 1, and so far Gale's the only casualty (though he's not actually dead cause I did allow myself the one exception of resurrecting him only with the True Res scroll from In Case of Death. Partially to avoid a premature nuking and partially because... well, it's a whole mini-quest about reviving him, I figured I could let that slide.)
same! proudest moment was managing to save everyone in the iron throne. The rest of act 3 didn't go too good for me, but I did win! My party wasn't strong enough to kill Ansur and at half health or so I think it starts to rain forever which meant when I had to retreat he got to heal and start off any future fights with basically double damage the whole time. Had to just give up on that one... And unfortunately a lost duel with Orin as durge meant I wasn't gonna get a good ending no matter what, so I decided to skip the rest of my companion quests and dominate the brain (and yeah that Aegis was brutal)
@@colbyzimmermann7920 I definitely feel you about Ansur, I always bring someone with Divine Intervention to that fight just in case, and even then I've lost more than one run to that guy. Sorry to hear about your durge! If it makes you feel any better, when I did my Durge honor mode run, I uh... failed the saving throws after refusing to kill Isobel. That quickly became a tragic run. XD
I haven't actually Finished act II on my blind playthrough, so I can't keep watching after you've beaten Myrkhul, but holy FUCK that fight!!! 8D You did a FANTASTIC job portraying the anxiety and grit and success of finally beating it 8D WONDERFUL Editing!! 8D also, hilarious it took you that long to realize the bone-chill aura XD
18:50 That same exact bug killed my Honour Run too! I had the perfect Honour Mode run going for me.... took 1 elevator ride down in the Shar temple and my characters all fell to their death as the elevator slid out from under me
I find it truly ironic that honour mode lead to my least honourable playthrough. Also I almost lost in act three but thank god for the half-orc “I didn’t hear no bell” trait.
That fight against the Apostle of Myrkul was an emotional rollercoaster! So glad Aylin could actually be useful and push Shadowheart into a safe zone. On my playthrough she just spent the whole battle smiting Intellect Devourers haha
I LOVE your baldurs gate 3 vids! I’ve been obsessed with this game all summer and I’m learning so much I didn’t even know was there my first play through. It’s so so fun to see these challenges
The gauntlet of shar glitch happened to me, too, in honor mode. Thankfully I’d seen a video of it before and thank GOD I remembered to send them one at a time-but I couldn’t get it to work no matter what, so I just had to feather fall my way down instead of using the elevator.
I have dumped more than 800 hours into baldurs gate 3 and I still love playing it, as a console player I haven’t experience the game as other players have (I’ve never had the platform bug out on me or other bugs) I guessed it would take you 4 attempts and turns out I was pretty close, enjoy the golden dice my friend you’ve earned them (literally)
That was the hypest Myrkul fight I think I ever saw, very well done And the elevator... I still have not gotten that glitch in my many times through, such an odd and tragic thing to happen to many a person's Honour mode run
Through sheer strategic prowess and clever plays my best friend and I completed HM on our first attempt (completed it on December 30th 2023). Many fights were trivial because we were so prepared (Myrkul and Raphael got absolutely dunked on especially). The only threat to the run was Ansur and that was the closest we got to a TPK but due to a clutch casting of Death Ward from me onto my friend's barbarian and me being a Half-Orc we absolutely clutched up. It was the most epic moment ever and I will never forget how my pal leaped into the dragon at 1hp and landed the killing blow. We have since only ever played on HM and believe anything else isn't as fun.
(sorry if my English is slightly all over the place, still learning how to write in it without using translator) I think I'm one of fewer people who beaten honour mode without dying on my first try. It was my fourth play through tho but I almost died twice because of my stupidity. It was surprisingly not hard, except Kethric, oh boy he was hard. It was fun tho. So fun in fact that I played on honour second time and once again no death here. Maybe I'm lucky, maybe I'm decent, but definitely I'm not good at this game xD Also, please make more videos! I love watching you and listening to your narration!
I also did this - I think as long as you’re very careful, prepare for EVERY fight, and escape when things go badly, it’s quite easy. People just need to take their time and use all their resources and they will have no problem clearing Honor Mode
@@audiocattt Yeah I'm almost done with my first attempt at honor mode and after preparing for each fight, the only one i got close to dying in was Myrkul because i got horrible rng
I managed to beat Honour Mode on my first attempt as well. Early on, I was super careful and a little slow in taking on certain fights, but as soon as my builds started going online, I basically went about it the same speed as in regular playthroughs, but with more specialized preperations for bigger encounters. I don't think this mode is as difficult as many describe it to be. If even I, someone who was completely new to this type of game, beats it first try, anyone can.
How were you guys handling Orin? That seems like one where you really need to know her gimmick going in to prepare for it. I brought in Gale to deal with unstoppable, but she frightened half my party turn 1 and then eviscerated the other half
I had played the game 3 times with different builds, so I felt confident to try honour mode, only to die very early in the game (damn teleporting spiders). Turns out I ended up beating it on my second attempt, but that was because I was doing as much meta playing as possible. On one hand, the game was going very easy, but on the other, I wasn't having a lot of fun because I was constantly checking where the next piece of my gear was or what to do when I leveled up. I decided to then take a break from the game, but I think I will do a second honour mode run, but this time more relaxed and free because I have an idea of its difficulty. I am happy for you to join our 141,660 honour mode clan, m8. That Myrkul fight was just perfect!
28:02 you EARNED that win after everything Also me and the boys are in act 2 on an honor mode run. This video might have saved us because now i know about the glitch with the elevator. You earned a sub from me for this video
My favorite Myrkul Strategy is using spells like wall of fire and moonbeam on him. He cant move, so it adds massive tick damage that helps you take him out faster.
@@Cactus00011 I've actually found that (at least on PS5) if you shut down the game from the console menu instead of quitting it brings you back to your last save without making a new one. I used it today to cheese the hag at lvl 4. Not sure if it works on PC, but it's worth a shot eh ^^
@@GeekandGlory You need to kill the process directly via task manager, not close task, in that way you do not order game to close, you command computer to turn off program immediately.
my most memorable honor mode wipe was when my dumass told Vlakiith during dialogue in the Gith Creche that Shart was the one who stole the gobbledigook. no epic battle, no valiant last stand. just picked a dialogue option and the next thing I know is a team wipe.
Entertaining stuff mate but the Myrkul fight was a pain to watch, take the adds down before popping Ketheric bro that mindblast stun on a couple party members while Myrkul's looking at you was scary, and send only one guy up on that platform so Myrkul doesn't do that huge vortex AoE, a cleric with spirit guardians running around clearing the cocoons is great stuff too.
It took me nearly 700 hours and 5-6 restarts but I got my golden dice! 3 Buffing Hirelings came in clutch. (Cleric/Wizard max out their CON, Toughness Feat; Warding bond, Aid, Longstrider and Light) ...I used them after every long rest. And always leave one guy back at camp fully ready to go.
Not sure if it ever came up, but I believe Shadowheart can cast Command while on the Tutorial Nautiloid, and that can force Commander Zhalk to drop his sword. I do this consistently now if I can afford it, and it's literally the best weapon for Lae'zel until she gets Gith specific stuff later on. So yeah, worth doing that if people are planning to do runs too. ALSO, Shovel the Quasit can go invisible, and if you have Shovel start a fight from invisible I believe it guarantees the enemy is surprised in almost every scenario. Unsure about some particulars but that's what I've seen read.
My solo honor mode attempts: 1. Darkpoopinbutts, Halfling 7 Ranger/Rogue (Hold person, Githyanki Creche) 2. Peon, Half-Orc 7 Cleric/Paladin (Did not wear concentration boots while disarming lathandars knockback trap) 3. Dudeman, Human 4 Assassin (Suicide, accidentally threw Crusher too deep into the river, losing his ring) 4. Kronk, Duergar 4 Barbarian (Hold person (again), Minthara) 5. Todd Howard, Deep Gnome 12 Paladin/Warlock (Beat Honor Mode) In the wise words of DougDoug, "This is the way Skyrim was meant to be played."
I guessed 10, then pared it back to 3, so I was wrong twice. The one thing I learned about honor mode was to avoid anything you feel might even be slightly risky. I beat it in 1 try, but I nearly lost to the dang phase spider like 5 times. Also, I anticipated Kethric would be the hardest fight - you gotta kill that mind flayer ASAP, and I'm shocked you went into that fight without Gale.
After watching your video I was inspired to do an Honor mode run myself. After 2 attempts and over 100 hours....I did it! Thank you for always putting out such great content and a huge congratulations on achieving this incredibly difficult/challenging feat!
@@dumpykong Aww thanks so much!! I was a Tiefling Life Domain Cleric, Gale, Karlach (Fighter/Barbarian), and Astarion (Gloomstalker/Thief/Fighter) :) I was romancing Gale so I didn't want to blow him up so we headed to the top, but things got hairy SO fast I blew him up lol :(( but at least we died together lol :((((
I got to the camp celebration and the tieflings were pissed that I yelled at Mol, so they wanted to attack me. I couldn't get out of it. This was it, I would have to fight Halsim and all of the tieflings if I chose to fight. A fight I may not win. So I decided, I needed to die. I swap to Shadowheart and had her kill my Tav. Killed him dead. This caused the angry tiefling my Tav was talking to forget about the conversation. I then went to withers, rezzed my Tav, kissed shadowheart and continued on. I love this game.
i finished my honor run as a duo with a friend back in february, it was a very fun experience with lots of close calls. I recommend it to anyone that finishes the game at least once (to avoid BS game over's). It changes the way you approach the game completely
Recently, I died on my first honor mode attempt at the very end of the game, got all three netherstones, only thing left was the brain. I was overconfident. I wanted to get two last achievements, buskar (the get 100gp form playing instruments), and hire a hireling. I disbanded my party at camp and went to the Baldur’s gate waypoint to get instruments. I DID NOT KNOW at the time, that there is a Mindflayer gank, where five of them jump you and the Fist. I was by myself, a Sorcerer and a drow (I should’ve went with gnome). I got ganked, stunned five times, mind devoured a lot, tried to flay away, but I was surrounded, and I lost… at the very end of the game. I had prepped everything and practiced the invisibility stuff for the brain, besides, my party was stacked to the brim, and I was going to become a mindflayer. Maybe I will do it again, but damn did it hurt
I saw someone say that honour mode bg3 is the most true to life and experience. Which is very true. If your whole party dies or you fail a dice roll, there's no save scumming in either honour mode or real life. It makes me appreciate honour mode even more. Add into it all the enemy differences, moves and more and honour mode is a blast
I have like 1500 hours on this game, and that elevator glitch never happened to me. Guess i'm just lucky, also on my honour mode runs knowing it could happen I always left at least a character outside of it. As you said beating honor mode really changed my perception on the game, living with the consequences it feels like the right way to play. I Love it.
You shouldn't need to worry, act 3 is by far the easiest part of Honour Mode with all the insurance you can get against TPKs and the overall freedom to tackle it any way you want. Trust in the words of an experienced HM runner, the hardest parts of that gamemode are act 1 where you're at your most vulnerable, and Myrkul at the end of act 2. The only real challenge of act 3 is Ansur with his bazillion lightning damage... and Cazador without 6th level counterspell.
Did it on my first attempt: The most important tip I can give is to ALWAYS keep 1 party member in the camp. If the rest of the party dies he can just revive them and steal the gold back from Withers (failing gives no repercussions). This makes you effectivly invulnerable and is especially useful for encountering bugs (failed my run almost twice because of them). Though there are two battles which force the entire party in: The last battle of act 2 (Big boney guy) And of course the final battle.
25:57 I clutched the myrkul battle just like that on my first playthrough, though it was the one that grants you a short rest (and mine wasn't interrupted lol). I was a warlock however, and with that I busted out a HoH around myrkul to do damage over time and avoid his ranged attacks while I closed in and defeated him once and for all.
Double tavern brawler monk with 2 in fighter for action surge. A huge supply of Giant strength elixirs from Ethel in the grove, along with a Cleric and fighter. Everyone uses tadpole in act 3 for flight and focus two characters for tadpoles for boosted cull the weak. After level 5 everything was a joke. Can stunlock everything or just flat out destroy it all. Raphael had 0 actions, stunned 100% to 0.
The Shar disk is how my 1st honor run ended, but I learned how to edit the code in my saves to restore my honor status because it would be super unfair to lose a run to smth that's not even my fault
Yeah that disc is the one instance where I allow myself to use cheat engine in case things go south. Thankfully it only happened twice and not on my first victorious HM run but getting your party killed or worse, softlocked on death's door through the cliff's texture, does suck a lot.
I actually think that Myrkul fight got bugged when you had Laezel run far away as the last team member up. Normally, Myrkul will keep spawning a few cacoons of the dead each turn. It's justice for the elevator tho...
Something they don't tell you about honor mode is that if you have a light cleric in your party, you simply just win 98% of fights in the game for free
This was so painful to watch. "I learn from my mistakes" chooses literally the worst act 1 pathing possible 4 times in a row. Gratz on finally doing it, at least it makes for entertaining content.
@@Tryingcounts Off the top of my head (it's been a while)... 1. Long jump + feather fall + disguise self (easiest is to start as wiz/sorc, alternatively use Gale or the shapeshifting helm from the stash if you have the pre-purchase edition) are a must for everything I'm about to describe. 2. From the beach, jump up the cliff to avoid the brains, pick up hidden chests (first on the cliff where you climbed up, other is below Astarion, needs a survival check). Pick up Astarion and Gale, rescue Frogface. Whack the dying squid for xp. 3. Do the gates fight. Go left of the gate to the Harper outpost to get the guidance amulet. Talk to the dying chosen for some xp and tadpole. 4. Enter the grove. If you side with the asshole and knock out Zev, you can steal his gloves (you get them later if you don't). Stop the bugbear ambush. Pick up Wyll. "Buy" stuff from the merchants (use the rat+bag trick, obviously) - str elixirs, fire+ice arrows, cloud of daggers scrolls, animal talking potions, flinging ring, Vollo's ring, some armor if you need it and as many hand xbows you can find. Drink elixir for more jumping. 5. Hide around the gate area, summon mage hand. Send the hand to punch the cow (one that says strange ox), let it die without fighting back. Talk to the cow, ask to make amends and trade for the shapeshifter's boon. 6. Do the random side-quests (except rescuing the goblin) and inspirations. Talk to Nettie to learn about the tadpoles. Separate your party, go towards the harpies (while there, knock out Alfira if you are Durge) just to trigger Raphael. Switch characters and attack Raphael so you can steal his armor later. 7. From the lookout to the north (above Zev's room), you can longjump to Karlach. Get the waypoint and pick up the +2 lockpicking ring on a skeleton by the river. 8. Back to the grove waypoint. (this is optional, you can just rest after hitting lvl 3 to get Withers) Clear out the ruins. Conversation check the fist two groups, ambush or ignore the second group. Loot skeletons before pushing the button. Don't forget the coins for Karlach and inspiration for Gale and Shart (book in a side room after the skeleton fight). 9. Shapeshift into drow. Get to blighted village (talk to the dog along the way), talk to goblins and ogres for xp. Rescue the gnome and get Shovel (respec into warlock, wizard or non-storm sorc). 10. Quick detour south to Ethel's house for some exploration xp. Wait for her to go upstairs, then just poke through the fireplace. Also dispel the illusion (sorc gets a check, otherwise talk to the sheep). 11. Continue to goblin fortress (don't forget to shift back into Drow if you changed it). "Buy" throwing pike from the merchant and do the foot fetish thing on Crusher for his ring. Poison the beer, then go inside. Get everyone branded by Gut, then ask her for help. Do a bunch of side quests here - Loviathar, Vollo, rescue Halsin (let him tank for you, use generous amounts of grease bottles and ice arrows, should be very easy). Go back to Gut, let her poison you. 12. From Gut's room, go down to Underdark. Don't forget to pick up the best cleric armor in the game (hidden room above the waypoint, you can just jump up if you miss the perception check). Last hit the minotaur at the gates. 13. From the gate go left to Phalar Aluve (hit yourself to bleed on it if you fail the checks). From the altar, jump down (feather fall) to reach the myconid colony without getting ambushed by more minotaurs. 14. Do the side quests in the colony. "Buy" any haste potions or cloud of daggers scrolls you can find. 15. Go to arcane tower (jump around to avoid Bulette). Inviz to avoid the turrets and use the back door (feather fall jump on the mushrooms behind the tower). After activating the elevator, you can whack the turrets for some xp. Don't forget to read all of the books before going to the top floor. At the top floor, sit on the chair and then break it for the 19 str club. Get the ring from Bernard to clear out the hidden basement, then we are done. 16. Report the quest to the squid, clear out his inventory for some useful stuff. We are done with Underdark for now. You could use Glut's resurrection to clear out everything by getting bulette and hook horrors to fight each other, then resurrecting bulette, but that's too risky for HM. 17. Back to risen road (where you found Karlach), stick to the mountain until you get to the back entrance to the mine. Jump on the scaffolding to avoid traps, sneak behind the Zentharim and steal the chest without fighting. 18. Got to blighted village waypoint, then cross the bridge to Waukeen's rest. If you are feeling lucky and have a ton of lightning bolt scrolls, you can clear out the fists here for xp, but it's risky. Rescue the people in the burning house and do the engagement ring quest, then go to the hideout. Because you stole the chest, you need to pass the checks, so prepare with guidance, inspiration, shapeshifter's boon etc. The goal is the Titanstring bow. Rescue the artist, then you can push the Zentharim boss from the cliff and throw some fire arrows after her to get some easy xp. The ones in the back should not be hostile yet, so use minor illusion to lure them on the wooden terrace and hit the supports to drop them down, a fireball scroll or some fire arrows + cloud of daggers should finish the job. Clear out their vaults and we are done. 19. At this point, you should be lvl 4.5 and have items for two very strong chars (TB thrower with returning pike + ring + gloves and archer with titanstring + str club/elixir + fire/ice arrows). If you are not feeling safe enough, buy a bunch of scrolls/grenades for the rest (grease + cloud of daggers for fighters, lightning bolt + water bottle for casters), it's time to take some fights. In order from easier to harder: swamp mephits (fire arrows on treeants, cloud of daggers on mephits), harpies (leave your ranged chars on the cliffs above before triggering them), owlbears (use the devotees as meat shields, pass the check and move onto high ground), "paladins" (throw the merchant off the cliff, then minor illusion the other two under the chandelier and drop it on them), hyenas (ice arrows and grease bottles ruin them, cloud of daggers after they fall down), and Kagha (water bottles + lightning bolt scroll should clear Kagha and the rats, rest are easy). 20. You should be lvl 5 by now. If not, beat up a minotaur in the Underdark or something (you can do Grymforge, but avoid the area with the cave-in to not trigger the Nere quest). Respec into beastmaster, summon a bear, make him inviz and use sticky paws to disarm the inquisitor near the mountain pass entrance (make sure to dismiss Frogface first or she will fuck it up). Now you have a +3 sword for your third overgeared char (disguise into Gith for the bonuses without having to drag Frogface around with you). Talk to Minthara to trigger the goblin siege (blow up the barrels with fire arrows, focus the spiders, and the rest of the fight is easy). 21. After dealing with the goblins, go to Grymforge and whack Nere and his dwarf friends. When you free him, switch to your rogue and reverse pickpocket sussur flower into his inventory, it will make the fight very easy. For the robot, just stay on top of the stairs and either throw shit at him or activate the the hammer by shooting the lever. 22. This concludes all of the timed quests, you can go to mountain pass now. Raphael should spawn, so respec into a druid, shapeshift and non-lethal attack him. Now you have your 4th overgeared char, as you can give Raph's armor to your caster and make him completely immortal (lvl 5 also means ice storm scrolls, so that's your offense). 23. Losing your run at this point takes serious effort. But just in case, from the mountain pass, inviz past the undead straight into act2. Ignore the drider and use Shart with long jump to reach the tower to get the other lantern. The goal in act2 is the shops (scrolls, arrows, angelic reprieve potions, cloak of protection, risky ring etc.) and free xp you get by making the Thorn kids Minecraft themselves and by prison breaking the tieflings. Afterwards, you can backtrack to genocide the rest of act1.
20:30 if your relationship is high enough you don't need to do any rolls, if you just let Shart do what she thinks is right she will throw the spear away herself.
I risked it all on not getting the elevator glitch on my run and was very lucky haha. Cazador and Ansur both nearly took my honor mode out. Cazador simply because I was playing an astarion origin and he had locked me in a death and revive into the ritual loop, divine intervention+ lvl 6 counter spell saved me. Ansur nearly full party wiped me but Karlach, being the tank that she is, BARELY survived and was able to run back to camp and revive us all. All the other close calls were by stupidity haha
24:53 in hindsight, you could have used Lizzy to throw your downed character out of no-heal aura and then revive. I often see ppl forget that high STR open a whole other dimension to a "default" fighter playstyle. It's not just "hit things with a heavy iron stick untill they die" in BG3.
I'm writing this for anyone who would be scared or intimidated about honour mode, because it's one of (if not the) best experience you can have in the game, it's absolutely worth trying even if you get destroyed, so I write this to hopefully help someone out there. And you don't need to be a good player to beat honour mode, so even if you don't consider yourself a god gamer it's no problem. Here are some guidelines to easily beat the game in the highest difficulty (Some spoilers ahead) - The most important thing : be aware that some tactician and below builds DO NOT WORK IN HONOUR, like stacking two extra attack source like the one from Pact of the Blade Warlock with the one from Paladin - Respec all your companions ASAP with relevant Ability Scores and at least a half-decent build, keep it RP if you want (even Shadowheart can have a decent build if you try hard enough) - Multi classing is your friend - Have at least 1 Archer and 1 Sorcerer/Warlock in your party, they both complete themselves perfectly and can pretty much duo any encounter. Archers are especially good when you stockpile arrows of many target and arrows of "X" slaying (Monstrosity, humanoid, aberration, fiend, undead, dragon, construct) and a Sorcerer can just blow up an entire fight by itself (especially Draconic fire Sorcerer and Storm Sorcerer paired with the Wet condition) - Abuse the living shit out of the Examine button that allows you to read almost every single relevant buff/action that a boss can have, reading legendary actions is vital to the success of the run - Abuse the surprise effect, it's broken, especially if your archer is a Gloomstalker Assassin, triggering a fight by attacking from stealth/hiding wins almost every encounter solo - Any subclass works in honour but make sure you have at least 1 very strong and reliable character that can shine when you need him the most - Consumables like weapon dips are very underrated, they help a lot, especially the Oil of Accuracy and the Arsonist's Oil (if you have some kind of Fire Mage) - You can group your characters to throw potions of healing or invisibility for exemple, letting you place your characters even in fights where a dialogue would trigger instantly (like the 2nd Ketheric fight) - Place your characters before the fight, your Archer and your Mage don't need to walk up to the bad guy and talk to him, your Paladin/Berserker/Cleric/Fighter can do that - Try to not overlap your gear too much, if you have 4 Greatswords users or 4 Medium Armour users, some characters are going to be on the weak side gear-wise until Act 3 - Do not be shy on respecing ! It's actually more canon to the game to respec some characters after big story events (like the Gauntlet of Shar for Shadowheart, Lae'Zel can become a Paladin after swearing to beat Vlaakith under the guidance of Orpheus etc...), or if you just feel like your build is falling too far behind or is not functioning with the rest of your group - Speed potions can be thrown on the ground before a fight for in-fight use, it's extremely powerful, especially on your mage since they get the full potential of the potion whereas martial characters don't trigger extra attacks on the speed potion action - As for the route, you can do pretty much anything in any order you want ASIDE from the Mountain pass and the Gith Patrol that should be avoided at all cost until you are at least lvl 5 for the Gith Patrol and lvl 6 for the Gith Creche, just go in the Underdark for a stress-free run in act 1 - Please please please, kill every enemy BEFORE killing Ketheric and transforming him into Myrkul's Avatar, letting the Mindflayer alive is asking to lose the run on a bad stun ! And the Necromites can deny you healing even if you're not on the plateform I beat honour mode on my second pull doing this (because I died in the House of Hope after trying to exit without breaking my contract like an absolute moron in my first pull) and it's been a blast, I don't think I'll ever play solo in a lesser difficulty just because of how much spice and adrenaline this mode brings to the game
Ways to combat the the elevator glitch, only send a couple party members at a time, play as a half orc, they have a passive that picks you back up from 0 once a day, have a camp cleric and cast death ward before the elevator
Fun fact, you can skip the fight at the last light inn if you just go for Karniss and get the lantern. Sure, you need a light in the shadow cursed lands and stuff but you're not absolutely required to have Isobel's charm.
The glitch was an actual tragedy
Omfg. I would have uninstall
i had this twice in my honor runs and that just sucks a lot
the real solution there is to never bring your full party ANYWHERE together. One stays at camp at all times when it can be helped. Sure, it couldn't have been predicted in this specific case, but if that principle was always followed it could have been recovered
This was legit how my first honor run ended. I was livid
Happened to me before too.
I died in my first honor run the other night and it was when I realized:
“Holy shit… this is no joke.”
(I died to the harpies)
In all fairness they’re entirely rng. Use calm emotions on shadowheart and their song can’t touch you.
@@Zach90888
I also died to the harpies and then did this and it was easy after that
@@Zach90888 oh bet bet
I’ll do that next for sure 💪🏽
Yeah the harpies on honor are pretty savages i usually hold onto level 4 before even thinking fighting them. One thing i like about honor mode is that it kinda forces you to inspect your ennemies a lot more than any other difficulties, you must take very considerate steps at every corner of a dungeon and fights.
Yeah silence is your best friend here.
Holy shit that Myrkul fight was fucking clutch. I cannot imagine how fuckin on edge you would have been the whole time. That's the real achievement
Damn right I was tense watching it unfold what a god damn rollercoaster
That slide on at the Gauntle of Shar happpened to me too in honor mode. But only my custom char slid off and died. I was shook for a milisecond and cussed out a bit, but was ultimately fine. When all four of you slid off, I just said outloud, "dam I'm sorry bro"
I saw somewhere that that can happen just after we entered the gauntlet in our honour run. I was deathly afraid of that disk but luckily we were fine.
Happened to me too, first honour mode playthrough, 3/4 characters fell into the pit, Lae'zel fell onto some tiny piece of ledge right beside the pit, leaving her with like 4 health. Hooooo boy
Strange they haven't fixed that yet, it's been a known issue for quite a while now.
@@SaHaRaSquad yeah I beat honor mode back in march and read about this before hand so I sent players in 1 by 1 every elevator
My dude fell but then made death saving throws inside the wall and I could only get him back up by short resting, because it wouldn't let me travel, revive him, or long rest 😂
The game doesn't count honor mode completed if you end in act 2 either. You don't get the achievement. You can blow gale up in act 3 before the brain stem and that works but not in act 2.
Technically it shouldn't. That doesn't count as an ending in act 2, it acts as a death.
it’s also kinda dumb bc the logic for act 2 not counting is that just killing the brain doesn’t resolve the issue of illithids freely roaming the sword coast uncontrolled
blowing up the brain in act 3 is no different lol
@@AngelJimenez-cs4yqit’s moreso because you didn’t actually *complete* the game. Sure, you got an ending, but it defeats the purpose of the achievement.
@@AngelJimenez-cs4yqI mean most of the party is still alive by then, because Gale remembers how to cast teleportation circle or sth. Also the vast majority of tadpoles have already been given the order to transform making it obvious where the Illithids are. And lastly the Githyanki kill squads are already on site ready to exterminate the extremely vulnerable (stunned) new born mindflayers.
So the situation is much more manageble.
@@AngelJimenez-cs4yqit’s very different because only gale dies and everyone else is there to help cleanup afterwards
Oh my god! 20:35 made me literally burst out in giggles. I can just see Tav and Shadowheart in an intense argument and then out of nowhere Lasel just walks over, grabs the spear out of Shadowhearts hands and yeets it into the endless abyss, everyone stands for a few seconds not believing what just happened and then Shadowheart is just like "Well, guess I'm a heretic now" XD
Thats so in character it sounds canon. Like if you pick the right options when talking to each and both of them Laezel starts growing found of Shadowheart (in a gith way, still) but Shart is still too deep in to see reason. And it unlocks this as a potencial dialogue branch
@@luciferamigodobairro6169 Laezel knows what it's like to serve a false idol. So, she takes the rather Gith route of simply tossing the evil god's weapon into the void 😂
My first honor mode run I became an oathbreaker paladin, then wanted to respec so I pickpocketed withers to get my gold back. But for whatever reason the oathbreaker knight agro’d onto my ENTIRE VERY LOW LEVEL CAMP because they “CaUgHt mE cOmMiTinG a cRiMe.”
I got tpk’d.
Wait, so you can't steal from Withers as Paladin on Honor mode???? Wtf???
@@ВладиславБулаев-л3эyou can, so long as the oathbreaker knight isn’t in your camp to see you.
It can also happen without the oathbreaker, for me my entire camp attacked, scratch, owlbear youngling and every companion not in my party for that withers gold
That happened to me too, but it was Scratch and the Owlbear that aggroed me! I was lucky because only half the characters in my camp aggroed, so I was able to rez everyone who died. Withers can keep his darn 100 gps when I'm in Honor Mode now!
Not only this knoght can out you for stealuing! The owlbear cub of evil, the ruin of nerves too! An your dog.
I love that Dame threw Shart out of the no-heal zone. That is insanely intuitive behavior for an NPC!
what shart does in the nightsong scene when you say "do what you think" actually can end with her killing the nightsong. it depends on the player's relationship with her.
She needs 4/6 nightsong points and
@@Bilndmann do you mean >
@@cd36_ greater than 60? eh i'll check later
@@Bilndmann You don't need any Nightsong points at all, I don't think. You just need high approval. My first playthrough I went blind and ended up just getting 1 Nightsong point, and she still spared the Nightsong. Just have to choose not to interfere.
@@Zafire063 In one of my latest runs I had 99% approval with Shadowheart, but carelessly always encouraged her to be a Dark Justiciar and follow Shar's Dogma and she actually ended up killing the Nightsong when I left her to her own. It was wild, but possibly a tiny bug also
The gauntlet elevator glitch happens when youve been running the game too long in a session, for some reason. If you go to the main menu and refresh it it fixes it. Just send 1 person on it alone to grab the fast travel behind it or just use misty step to avoid it entirely
Or jump on the elevator instead of walking on it normally. Worked for me.
Or do the gauntlet skip.
I've played it 5 playthroughs and never got that glitch thankfully, but now I'm going to be taking your advice just in case lmao
18:59 Alas, no amount of skill can overcome the elevator boss. In this case, there is something you can do: hold 1 party member back, regroup at the portal next to the entrance to the Shadowfell. Same with the cable car at the Monastery. You just have to take your chances with the one before Myrkul.
The Myrkul elevator isn't an instant death, you just get stuck in mid-air and can jump or misty step down. Still annoying though
It also helps to save, quit and reload right before the elevator. I have lost 2 runs to the elevator, and do this every time now. And I send my squad down in pairs
I love honor mode. Actually makes the encounters feel like they have stakes. Completed like 4 of them so far, but it does tend to encourage playing to win instead of roleplaying.
I feel like after 1700hrs, I’m ok not role playing for a little while.
I can't wait for the update to the Custom Rules so we can have the Honor difficulty with more than one save. Best of both worlds!
@@lycantabrisYeah, I'd love to experience more of the legendary actions properly without the risk of permadeath. As I missed out on seeing some of them by either skipping or cheesing the fight (Barrelmancy my beloved, saving me from a game over against Ketheric after losing Karlach to the platform glitch).
Yep totally agree, improvisation doesn't work well. But after 500h playing this game I'm still amazed that I get surprises eventhoug I feel I play safe and try the same thing over and over. I guess if you completed honor once you don't care as much and can roleplay while attempting new runs?
@@lycantabris Um, by definition, no. No it is not best of both worlds. The dude you're replying to said honor mode "actually makes the encounters feel like they have stakes" and that was his only praise of honor mode.
If you have multiple save files and it's not game over on death then the fights don't have stakes. You can't have the best of honor mode's world without a single save file that insta-deletes on party wipe.
That Ketheric Fight sounds so much like how actual really difficult fights end up being on the tabletop. It blows my mind how this game manages to capture that feeling so well at times.
The best fight is probably dueling Orin as the dark urge. Orin isn't the boss fight. You are!
On the Nautiloid, if you prepare the Command: Spell on Shadowheart (or on yourself, if you are a Cleric as well for another 2 chances) you can use it on Zhalk to make him drop his weapon, and then you can pick up that weapon and put it in Lae'zel or whoever's hands to kill first Zhalk and then the Mindflayer :)
I like that smart brain of yours
My first honour run, I died due to thinking I could jump on a rock which my cursor did NOT show me as "Death", but it was indeed death. Love this game.
Lae'Zel yoinking the spear out of Shadowheart's inventory and throwing it into the abyss is such a Lae'Zel thing to do lmao. Annoying sister energy.
Ending the game via task manager is how you can save an honor mode you lost, though I'd specifically save that for cases like that horrible glitch, 'cause that's just so unfair-
rip
So some tips for honor mode:
Use camp casting, play as a sword bard paladin, and try to pet his majesty l. The last part is crucial because I did and on that run I beat it. Also if you check the numbers the same amount of people who heat honor also tried to pet his majesty
Camp casting?
@@RosaNomNom yes get hirelings, spec 2 of them as clerics and one as a bard wizard multiclass. They can use their spell slots to cast spells like, longstrider, aid, freedom of movement, deathward, warding bond, and heroes feast.
The bard wizard multclass can cast some buffs but also make potions if they are a transmutation wizard. Make them a bard for expertise in medicine so they have a higher chance of making 2 potions instead of one.
Im guess those spells work even if theyre not in your party? Or do you just leave them detached from your party and run the game with 1 or 2 in the party@@elib6465
it took me a few attempts to get my honour mode campaign done... and one of those was lost at the final fight with the brain itself ☠ that one broke my soul a bit i will say.
At that point I'm making gale blow it up. That sucks though fr
80% of baldur's gate economy was spent on reviving your team
you can pickpocket withers for no penalty/repercussions so likely only 200 gold was spent
Great job with the myrkyl fight. I've always been lucky or better prepared, but your shear perseverance and creativity was amazing
Woah, the astarian scene in Act 3 was great. I need to figure our how to do that
That glitch messed me up, holy crap, that was a true tragedy. I probably would have CRIED if that had happened to me. In my HM run, I recently reached Act 3. After watching your attempts at beating HM and through my own experiences, I’ve found it helpful to never be overly confident and to freely cheese the shit out of the game, especially considering how many hours I’ve invested in this run. For every encounter, I make sure I’m over prepared and as a result, I haven’t had *too many* close calls.
Side note: monks are super fun. Way of the Shadow Monk + Durge = so much invisibility, especially if you’re slightly or completely obscured.
I luckily read about all the possible glitches beforehand (which never happened to me outside honour due to frequent reloading I suppose 😂), otherwise I would've plunged to my death as well or could've gotten stuck in eternal dialogue loops 😬 but since I came prepared it only happened to one character and I survived the ordeal that is bg3 elevators and dialogue glitches on honour. Some close calls 🫠 (also cheesed the shit out of my only unmodded honour run for the achievement. Like no thanks, I'm not redoing this several times, I had to ignore any kind of realism or roleplaying and that hurt enough 😂 Spent like 20 ingame days just robbing Araj until she didn't even have any guards to call anymore lmfao)
Beat honor mode on my first try myself, thought that's partly because I already had multiple playthroughs under my belt when it was added and had a lot of my strategies figured out, minus accounting for legendary actions. I did almost lose at the final hurdle- the aegis of the absolute took me off-guard, but I realized what was happening just in time to course-correct.
I definitely agree with your conclusion, honor mode is one of the best ways to play the game, I don't play any other difficulty anymore. Currently in the middle of my honor mode perma-death run- actually inspired by your ChatGPT playthrough, funnily enough! It's a great time. Stressful, but in a fun way.
Same for me! Beat it first try, but I had already completed Balanced and Tactician and by the time I started my Honor Mode run, I got to learn from everyone else's mistakes (i.e. Gauntlet of Shar lift). While I did beat every boss and completed a "good" run, not all the NPCs made it... RIP Minsc, Oathbreaker Knight, and Duke Ravengard.
Went back to Tactician for my evil Durge run, but it's definitely not as challenging. Despite the stress, Honor Mode really grew on me! Might do a perma-death run soon myself!
@@tbeth I recommend it, it's a lot of fun, in its own way. I was mostly just looking for ways to kill time until Patch 7, and I figured a run where death had stakes and I had no idea what my ending might look like would be novel. I pre-plan my playthroughs a lot, normally. XD
Just about finished act 1, and so far Gale's the only casualty (though he's not actually dead cause I did allow myself the one exception of resurrecting him only with the True Res scroll from In Case of Death. Partially to avoid a premature nuking and partially because... well, it's a whole mini-quest about reviving him, I figured I could let that slide.)
same! proudest moment was managing to save everyone in the iron throne. The rest of act 3 didn't go too good for me, but I did win! My party wasn't strong enough to kill Ansur and at half health or so I think it starts to rain forever which meant when I had to retreat he got to heal and start off any future fights with basically double damage the whole time. Had to just give up on that one... And unfortunately a lost duel with Orin as durge meant I wasn't gonna get a good ending no matter what, so I decided to skip the rest of my companion quests and dominate the brain
(and yeah that Aegis was brutal)
@@colbyzimmermann7920 I definitely feel you about Ansur, I always bring someone with Divine Intervention to that fight just in case, and even then I've lost more than one run to that guy.
Sorry to hear about your durge! If it makes you feel any better, when I did my Durge honor mode run, I uh... failed the saving throws after refusing to kill Isobel. That quickly became a tragic run. XD
I haven't actually Finished act II on my blind playthrough, so I can't keep watching after you've beaten Myrkhul, but holy FUCK that fight!!! 8D You did a FANTASTIC job portraying the anxiety and grit and success of finally beating it 8D WONDERFUL Editing!! 8D also, hilarious it took you that long to realize the bone-chill aura XD
It was funny watching Gale run away like he forget to turn off magic stove.
18:50
That same exact bug killed my Honour Run too!
I had the perfect Honour Mode run going for me.... took 1 elevator ride down in the Shar temple and my characters all fell to their death as the elevator slid out from under me
I find it truly ironic that honour mode lead to my least honourable playthrough. Also I almost lost in act three but thank god for the half-orc “I didn’t hear no bell” trait.
That fight against the Apostle of Myrkul was an emotional rollercoaster! So glad Aylin could actually be useful and push Shadowheart into a safe zone. On my playthrough she just spent the whole battle smiting Intellect Devourers haha
I LOVE your baldurs gate 3 vids! I’ve been obsessed with this game all summer and I’m learning so much I didn’t even know was there my first play through. It’s so so fun to see these challenges
The gauntlet of shar glitch happened to me, too, in honor mode. Thankfully I’d seen a video of it before and thank GOD I remembered to send them one at a time-but I couldn’t get it to work no matter what, so I just had to feather fall my way down instead of using the elevator.
I have dumped more than 800 hours into baldurs gate 3 and I still love playing it, as a console player I haven’t experience the game as other players have (I’ve never had the platform bug out on me or other bugs) I guessed it would take you 4 attempts and turns out I was pretty close, enjoy the golden dice my friend you’ve earned them (literally)
I remember my Golden Dice run. It kept me on my toes the whole time
DAMN that Myrkul fight was so incredibly chaotic, but that made it all the more epic.
That was the hypest Myrkul fight I think I ever saw, very well done
And the elevator... I still have not gotten that glitch in my many times through, such an odd and tragic thing to happen to many a person's Honour mode run
@27:56 Never give up! Never surrender!
20:40 i love the mental image of what's happening, sence you have astorian im imagining him just taking the spear and handing it to lae'zel
Through sheer strategic prowess and clever plays my best friend and I completed HM on our first attempt (completed it on December 30th 2023). Many fights were trivial because we were so prepared (Myrkul and Raphael got absolutely dunked on especially). The only threat to the run was Ansur and that was the closest we got to a TPK but due to a clutch casting of Death Ward from me onto my friend's barbarian and me being a Half-Orc we absolutely clutched up. It was the most epic moment ever and I will never forget how my pal leaped into the dragon at 1hp and landed the killing blow.
We have since only ever played on HM and believe anything else isn't as fun.
(sorry if my English is slightly all over the place, still learning how to write in it without using translator)
I think I'm one of fewer people who beaten honour mode without dying on my first try. It was my fourth play through tho but I almost died twice because of my stupidity. It was surprisingly not hard, except Kethric, oh boy he was hard.
It was fun tho. So fun in fact that I played on honour second time and once again no death here.
Maybe I'm lucky, maybe I'm decent, but definitely I'm not good at this game xD
Also, please make more videos! I love watching you and listening to your narration!
I also did this - I think as long as you’re very careful, prepare for EVERY fight, and escape when things go badly, it’s quite easy.
People just need to take their time and use all their resources and they will have no problem clearing Honor Mode
@@audiocattt Yeah I'm almost done with my first attempt at honor mode and after preparing for each fight, the only one i got close to dying in was Myrkul because i got horrible rng
I managed to beat Honour Mode on my first attempt as well. Early on, I was super careful and a little slow in taking on certain fights, but as soon as my builds started going online, I basically went about it the same speed as in regular playthroughs, but with more specialized preperations for bigger encounters.
I don't think this mode is as difficult as many describe it to be. If even I, someone who was completely new to this type of game, beats it first try, anyone can.
@@Teldaringame offers so many opportunities to get XP, you can basically outlevel almost every enemy.
How were you guys handling Orin? That seems like one where you really need to know her gimmick going in to prepare for it. I brought in Gale to deal with unstoppable, but she frightened half my party turn 1 and then eviscerated the other half
I’ve had bg3 since release and never finished it. Going back just because this video. New subscriber too. Awesome video.
2:08 "white Githyanki aren't real, they can't hurt you" the Gith-Yankie:
I had played the game 3 times with different builds, so I felt confident to try honour mode, only to die very early in the game (damn teleporting spiders). Turns out I ended up beating it on my second attempt, but that was because I was doing as much meta playing as possible. On one hand, the game was going very easy, but on the other, I wasn't having a lot of fun because I was constantly checking where the next piece of my gear was or what to do when I leveled up. I decided to then take a break from the game, but I think I will do a second honour mode run, but this time more relaxed and free because I have an idea of its difficulty.
I am happy for you to join our 141,660 honour mode clan, m8. That Myrkul fight was just perfect!
28:02 you EARNED that win after everything
Also me and the boys are in act 2 on an honor mode run. This video might have saved us because now i know about the glitch with the elevator. You earned a sub from me for this video
Oh man, that gauntlet tpk was heart-breaking. Crap like that is why I refuse to do honor mode...
You can fly down and knock on the door to skip the trials, if that helps
My favorite Myrkul Strategy is using spells like wall of fire and moonbeam on him. He cant move, so it adds massive tick damage that helps you take him out faster.
Task manager: I would like to introduce myself...
doesnt work tho the moment you clos bg3 on honor mode in any way, wheter its alt f4 task manager or some other way it saves the game
@@Cactus00011 I've actually found that (at least on PS5) if you shut down the game from the console menu instead of quitting it brings you back to your last save without making a new one. I used it today to cheese the hag at lvl 4.
Not sure if it works on PC, but it's worth a shot eh ^^
If you actually do control alt delete and close via task manager "end task" it does work, at least for me.
@@GeekandGlory You need to kill the process directly via task manager, not close task, in that way you do not order game to close, you command computer to turn off program immediately.
Dishonor Mode
my most memorable honor mode wipe was when my dumass told Vlakiith during dialogue in the Gith Creche that Shart was the one who stole the gobbledigook.
no epic battle, no valiant last stand. just picked a dialogue option and the next thing I know is a team wipe.
im glad that you're the one who broke the Honor mode at the end, Dumpy.
Entertaining stuff mate but the Myrkul fight was a pain to watch, take the adds down before popping Ketheric bro that mindblast stun on a couple party members while Myrkul's looking at you was scary, and send only one guy up on that platform so Myrkul doesn't do that huge vortex AoE, a cleric with spirit guardians running around clearing the cocoons is great stuff too.
Huge clutch on Myrkul loved it. Congrats on your journey
Clawing it back against the Apostle of Myrkul fight was super impressive.
Had to subscribe for that 'never say die' moment!
Who would win?
Heros destined to save the world
vs
the funny platform
the moving platform glitch is my biggest fear.
18:37 im uninstalling the game and demanding a refund LMAO if thats how my honour mode ends XD
It took me nearly 700 hours and 5-6 restarts but I got my golden dice!
3 Buffing Hirelings came in clutch. (Cleric/Wizard max out their CON, Toughness Feat; Warding bond, Aid, Longstrider and Light) ...I used them after every long rest.
And always leave one guy back at camp fully ready to go.
Not sure if it ever came up, but I believe Shadowheart can cast Command while on the Tutorial Nautiloid, and that can force Commander Zhalk to drop his sword. I do this consistently now if I can afford it, and it's literally the best weapon for Lae'zel until she gets Gith specific stuff later on. So yeah, worth doing that if people are planning to do runs too.
ALSO, Shovel the Quasit can go invisible, and if you have Shovel start a fight from invisible I believe it guarantees the enemy is surprised in almost every scenario. Unsure about some particulars but that's what I've seen read.
Before watching 6 Tries. Will edit it after i watch :D. 5 ATTEMPTS WELL DONE DUDE! Great video and the Raphael thing at the end jumpscared me lmao.
My solo honor mode attempts:
1. Darkpoopinbutts, Halfling 7 Ranger/Rogue (Hold person, Githyanki Creche)
2. Peon, Half-Orc 7 Cleric/Paladin (Did not wear concentration boots while disarming lathandars knockback trap)
3. Dudeman, Human 4 Assassin (Suicide, accidentally threw Crusher too deep into the river, losing his ring)
4. Kronk, Duergar 4 Barbarian (Hold person (again), Minthara)
5. Todd Howard, Deep Gnome 12 Paladin/Warlock (Beat Honor Mode)
In the wise words of DougDoug, "This is the way Skyrim was meant to be played."
Not Todd Howard oh my god
🤣🤣
I guessed 10, then pared it back to 3, so I was wrong twice.
The one thing I learned about honor mode was to avoid anything you feel might even be slightly risky. I beat it in 1 try, but I nearly lost to the dang phase spider like 5 times. Also, I anticipated Kethric would be the hardest fight - you gotta kill that mind flayer ASAP, and I'm shocked you went into that fight without Gale.
I also used a monk to best bg3 honor mode the first time! Mind flayer monks are just too good
I really admire y’all’s patience to do honor mode. Idk if I could accept dying and starting over
im actually impressed they still didnt fix the gauntlet of shar elevator bug. Im glad i knew it on my honor mode run
After watching your video I was inspired to do an Honor mode run myself. After 2 attempts and over 100 hours....I did it! Thank you for always putting out such great content and a huge congratulations on achieving this incredibly difficult/challenging feat!
Yo congrats! I commend the dedication, that’s awesome. What did your final team look like?
@@dumpykong Aww thanks so much!! I was a Tiefling Life Domain Cleric, Gale, Karlach (Fighter/Barbarian), and Astarion (Gloomstalker/Thief/Fighter) :) I was romancing Gale so I didn't want to blow him up so we headed to the top, but things got hairy SO fast I blew him up lol :(( but at least we died together lol :((((
I got to the camp celebration and the tieflings were pissed that I yelled at Mol, so they wanted to attack me.
I couldn't get out of it. This was it, I would have to fight Halsim and all of the tieflings if I chose to fight. A fight I may not win.
So I decided, I needed to die. I swap to Shadowheart and had her kill my Tav. Killed him dead.
This caused the angry tiefling my Tav was talking to forget about the conversation.
I then went to withers, rezzed my Tav, kissed shadowheart and continued on.
I love this game.
Dude I am really enjoying your videos dude. Great script, great edditing, and key gameplay moments to pull it all together. Well done!
i finished my honor run as a duo with a friend back in february, it was a very fun experience with lots of close calls. I recommend it to anyone that finishes the game at least once (to avoid BS game over's). It changes the way you approach the game completely
Baldur's Gate 3 personally worked its way into my heart like a Mindflayer Tadpole infects a person, its irreversibly turned me into a fiend for DnD...
Recently, I died on my first honor mode attempt at the very end of the game, got all three netherstones, only thing left was the brain. I was overconfident.
I wanted to get two last achievements, buskar (the get 100gp form playing instruments), and hire a hireling. I disbanded my party at camp and went to the Baldur’s gate waypoint to get instruments. I DID NOT KNOW at the time, that there is a Mindflayer gank, where five of them jump you and the Fist. I was by myself, a Sorcerer and a drow (I should’ve went with gnome). I got ganked, stunned five times, mind devoured a lot, tried to flay away, but I was surrounded, and I lost… at the very end of the game.
I had prepped everything and practiced the invisibility stuff for the brain, besides, my party was stacked to the brim, and I was going to become a mindflayer. Maybe I will do it again, but damn did it hurt
I've lost an honor run to that same damn elevator glitch. Glad to see I wasn't the only one, Sorry it happened man, take a sub
my heart stopped for you at that glitch. omfg...
I saw someone say that honour mode bg3 is the most true to life and experience. Which is very true. If your whole party dies or you fail a dice roll, there's no save scumming in either honour mode or real life.
It makes me appreciate honour mode even more. Add into it all the enemy differences, moves and more and honour mode is a blast
Didn't respect the lifts, always leave 1 person behind. Always. 🤣🤣
I have like 1500 hours on this game, and that elevator glitch never happened to me. Guess i'm just lucky, also on my honour mode runs knowing it could happen I always left at least a character outside of it. As you said beating honor mode really changed my perception on the game, living with the consequences it feels like the right way to play. I Love it.
I got to act 3 of honor mode on my first attempt and I have not touched it since January. I am scared to go back and lose it haha
You shouldn't need to worry, act 3 is by far the easiest part of Honour Mode with all the insurance you can get against TPKs and the overall freedom to tackle it any way you want.
Trust in the words of an experienced HM runner, the hardest parts of that gamemode are act 1 where you're at your most vulnerable, and Myrkul at the end of act 2. The only real challenge of act 3 is Ansur with his bazillion lightning damage... and Cazador without 6th level counterspell.
The final dialogue choice i made for my first ever honor mode run was "piss yourself". Game of the Century.
Did it on my first attempt: The most important tip I can give is to ALWAYS keep 1 party member in the camp. If the rest of the party dies he can just revive them and steal the gold back from Withers (failing gives no repercussions). This makes you effectivly invulnerable and is especially useful for encountering bugs (failed my run almost twice because of them). Though there are two battles which force the entire party in: The last battle of act 2 (Big boney guy) And of course the final battle.
25:57 I clutched the myrkul battle just like that on my first playthrough, though it was the one that grants you a short rest (and mine wasn't interrupted lol). I was a warlock however, and with that I busted out a HoH around myrkul to do damage over time and avoid his ranged attacks while I closed in and defeated him once and for all.
Honestly I am surprised everyone does not just do tavern brawler monk for honor mode
Double tavern brawler monk with 2 in fighter for action surge. A huge supply of Giant strength elixirs from Ethel in the grove, along with a Cleric and fighter. Everyone uses tadpole in act 3 for flight and focus two characters for tadpoles for boosted cull the weak. After level 5 everything was a joke. Can stunlock everything or just flat out destroy it all. Raphael had 0 actions, stunned 100% to 0.
Holy dude that Myrkul fight!!😬Good stuff dude!! That’s was insane the craziest fight I’ve seen!!
The Shar disk is how my 1st honor run ended, but I learned how to edit the code in my saves to restore my honor status because it would be super unfair to lose a run to smth that's not even my fault
Yeah that disc is the one instance where I allow myself to use cheat engine in case things go south. Thankfully it only happened twice and not on my first victorious HM run but getting your party killed or worse, softlocked on death's door through the cliff's texture, does suck a lot.
I actually think that Myrkul fight got bugged when you had Laezel run far away as the last team member up. Normally, Myrkul will keep spawning a few cacoons of the dead each turn. It's justice for the elevator tho...
Something they don't tell you about honor mode is that if you have a light cleric in your party, you simply just win 98% of fights in the game for free
Damn I’ve always used life domain should I give light cleric a try??
Respect for puzzling your way through the Myrkul fight, I have had some real tough ones with him, but I have his number now.
Did anyone else notice is 9:17
seen it and your comment at the sometime😂
AYE YO?
That disk glitch happened in my first and only honor mode run! Luckily Gale survived and saved it!
This was so painful to watch.
"I learn from my mistakes"
chooses literally the worst act 1 pathing possible 4 times in a row.
Gratz on finally doing it, at least it makes for entertaining content.
What is the right way? One day I might try it.
@@Tryingcounts Off the top of my head (it's been a while)...
1. Long jump + feather fall + disguise self (easiest is to start as wiz/sorc, alternatively use Gale or the shapeshifting helm from the stash if you have the pre-purchase edition) are a must for everything I'm about to describe.
2. From the beach, jump up the cliff to avoid the brains, pick up hidden chests (first on the cliff where you climbed up, other is below Astarion, needs a survival check). Pick up Astarion and Gale, rescue Frogface. Whack the dying squid for xp.
3. Do the gates fight. Go left of the gate to the Harper outpost to get the guidance amulet. Talk to the dying chosen for some xp and tadpole.
4. Enter the grove. If you side with the asshole and knock out Zev, you can steal his gloves (you get them later if you don't). Stop the bugbear ambush. Pick up Wyll. "Buy" stuff from the merchants (use the rat+bag trick, obviously) - str elixirs, fire+ice arrows, cloud of daggers scrolls, animal talking potions, flinging ring, Vollo's ring, some armor if you need it and as many hand xbows you can find. Drink elixir for more jumping.
5. Hide around the gate area, summon mage hand. Send the hand to punch the cow (one that says strange ox), let it die without fighting back. Talk to the cow, ask to make amends and trade for the shapeshifter's boon.
6. Do the random side-quests (except rescuing the goblin) and inspirations. Talk to Nettie to learn about the tadpoles. Separate your party, go towards the harpies (while there, knock out Alfira if you are Durge) just to trigger Raphael. Switch characters and attack Raphael so you can steal his armor later.
7. From the lookout to the north (above Zev's room), you can longjump to Karlach. Get the waypoint and pick up the +2 lockpicking ring on a skeleton by the river.
8. Back to the grove waypoint. (this is optional, you can just rest after hitting lvl 3 to get Withers) Clear out the ruins. Conversation check the fist two groups, ambush or ignore the second group. Loot skeletons before pushing the button. Don't forget the coins for Karlach and inspiration for Gale and Shart (book in a side room after the skeleton fight).
9. Shapeshift into drow. Get to blighted village (talk to the dog along the way), talk to goblins and ogres for xp. Rescue the gnome and get Shovel (respec into warlock, wizard or non-storm sorc).
10. Quick detour south to Ethel's house for some exploration xp. Wait for her to go upstairs, then just poke through the fireplace. Also dispel the illusion (sorc gets a check, otherwise talk to the sheep).
11. Continue to goblin fortress (don't forget to shift back into Drow if you changed it). "Buy" throwing pike from the merchant and do the foot fetish thing on Crusher for his ring. Poison the beer, then go inside. Get everyone branded by Gut, then ask her for help. Do a bunch of side quests here - Loviathar, Vollo, rescue Halsin (let him tank for you, use generous amounts of grease bottles and ice arrows, should be very easy). Go back to Gut, let her poison you.
12. From Gut's room, go down to Underdark. Don't forget to pick up the best cleric armor in the game (hidden room above the waypoint, you can just jump up if you miss the perception check). Last hit the minotaur at the gates.
13. From the gate go left to Phalar Aluve (hit yourself to bleed on it if you fail the checks). From the altar, jump down (feather fall) to reach the myconid colony without getting ambushed by more minotaurs.
14. Do the side quests in the colony. "Buy" any haste potions or cloud of daggers scrolls you can find.
15. Go to arcane tower (jump around to avoid Bulette). Inviz to avoid the turrets and use the back door (feather fall jump on the mushrooms behind the tower). After activating the elevator, you can whack the turrets for some xp. Don't forget to read all of the books before going to the top floor. At the top floor, sit on the chair and then break it for the 19 str club. Get the ring from Bernard to clear out the hidden basement, then we are done.
16. Report the quest to the squid, clear out his inventory for some useful stuff. We are done with Underdark for now. You could use Glut's resurrection to clear out everything by getting bulette and hook horrors to fight each other, then resurrecting bulette, but that's too risky for HM.
17. Back to risen road (where you found Karlach), stick to the mountain until you get to the back entrance to the mine. Jump on the scaffolding to avoid traps, sneak behind the Zentharim and steal the chest without fighting.
18. Got to blighted village waypoint, then cross the bridge to Waukeen's rest. If you are feeling lucky and have a ton of lightning bolt scrolls, you can clear out the fists here for xp, but it's risky. Rescue the people in the burning house and do the engagement ring quest, then go to the hideout. Because you stole the chest, you need to pass the checks, so prepare with guidance, inspiration, shapeshifter's boon etc. The goal is the Titanstring bow. Rescue the artist, then you can push the Zentharim boss from the cliff and throw some fire arrows after her to get some easy xp. The ones in the back should not be hostile yet, so use minor illusion to lure them on the wooden terrace and hit the supports to drop them down, a fireball scroll or some fire arrows + cloud of daggers should finish the job. Clear out their vaults and we are done.
19. At this point, you should be lvl 4.5 and have items for two very strong chars (TB thrower with returning pike + ring + gloves and archer with titanstring + str club/elixir + fire/ice arrows). If you are not feeling safe enough, buy a bunch of scrolls/grenades for the rest (grease + cloud of daggers for fighters, lightning bolt + water bottle for casters), it's time to take some fights. In order from easier to harder: swamp mephits (fire arrows on treeants, cloud of daggers on mephits), harpies (leave your ranged chars on the cliffs above before triggering them), owlbears (use the devotees as meat shields, pass the check and move onto high ground), "paladins" (throw the merchant off the cliff, then minor illusion the other two under the chandelier and drop it on them), hyenas (ice arrows and grease bottles ruin them, cloud of daggers after they fall down), and Kagha (water bottles + lightning bolt scroll should clear Kagha and the rats, rest are easy).
20. You should be lvl 5 by now. If not, beat up a minotaur in the Underdark or something (you can do Grymforge, but avoid the area with the cave-in to not trigger the Nere quest). Respec into beastmaster, summon a bear, make him inviz and use sticky paws to disarm the inquisitor near the mountain pass entrance (make sure to dismiss Frogface first or she will fuck it up). Now you have a +3 sword for your third overgeared char (disguise into Gith for the bonuses without having to drag Frogface around with you). Talk to Minthara to trigger the goblin siege (blow up the barrels with fire arrows, focus the spiders, and the rest of the fight is easy).
21. After dealing with the goblins, go to Grymforge and whack Nere and his dwarf friends. When you free him, switch to your rogue and reverse pickpocket sussur flower into his inventory, it will make the fight very easy. For the robot, just stay on top of the stairs and either throw shit at him or activate the the hammer by shooting the lever.
22. This concludes all of the timed quests, you can go to mountain pass now. Raphael should spawn, so respec into a druid, shapeshift and non-lethal attack him. Now you have your 4th overgeared char, as you can give Raph's armor to your caster and make him completely immortal (lvl 5 also means ice storm scrolls, so that's your offense).
23. Losing your run at this point takes serious effort. But just in case, from the mountain pass, inviz past the undead straight into act2. Ignore the drider and use Shart with long jump to reach the tower to get the other lantern. The goal in act2 is the shops (scrolls, arrows, angelic reprieve potions, cloak of protection, risky ring etc.) and free xp you get by making the Thorn kids Minecraft themselves and by prison breaking the tieflings. Afterwards, you can backtrack to genocide the rest of act1.
I'm 700 hours in and still haven't had a successful Honor Mode run. The next one is the one, I can feel it. lol
16 seconds ago and 2 views… bro fell off
20:30 if your relationship is high enough you don't need to do any rolls, if you just let Shart do what she thinks is right she will throw the spear away herself.
That myrkul fight was absolutely bonkers and it gives me so much knowledge on how to survive fights better. Its not over till its over.
I risked it all on not getting the elevator glitch on my run and was very lucky haha. Cazador and Ansur both nearly took my honor mode out. Cazador simply because I was playing an astarion origin and he had locked me in a death and revive into the ritual loop, divine intervention+ lvl 6 counter spell saved me. Ansur nearly full party wiped me but Karlach, being the tank that she is, BARELY survived and was able to run back to camp and revive us all. All the other close calls were by stupidity haha
18:45 iit is for this exact reason that on my honor mode co-op with my husband, no more than 3 people are allowed on any type of elevator at a time.
24:53 in hindsight, you could have used Lizzy to throw your downed character out of no-heal aura and then revive. I often see ppl forget that high STR open a whole other dimension to a "default" fighter playstyle. It's not just "hit things with a heavy iron stick untill they die" in BG3.
The real diffilculty of Honor mode is surviving the glitches 😐
I'm writing this for anyone who would be scared or intimidated about honour mode, because it's one of (if not the) best experience you can have in the game, it's absolutely worth trying even if you get destroyed, so I write this to hopefully help someone out there. And you don't need to be a good player to beat honour mode, so even if you don't consider yourself a god gamer it's no problem.
Here are some guidelines to easily beat the game in the highest difficulty (Some spoilers ahead)
- The most important thing : be aware that some tactician and below builds DO NOT WORK IN HONOUR, like stacking two extra attack source like the one from Pact of the Blade Warlock with the one from Paladin
- Respec all your companions ASAP with relevant Ability Scores and at least a half-decent build, keep it RP if you want (even Shadowheart can have a decent build if you try hard enough)
- Multi classing is your friend
- Have at least 1 Archer and 1 Sorcerer/Warlock in your party, they both complete themselves perfectly and can pretty much duo any encounter. Archers are especially good when you stockpile arrows of many target and arrows of "X" slaying (Monstrosity, humanoid, aberration, fiend, undead, dragon, construct) and a Sorcerer can just blow up an entire fight by itself (especially Draconic fire Sorcerer and Storm Sorcerer paired with the Wet condition)
- Abuse the living shit out of the Examine button that allows you to read almost every single relevant buff/action that a boss can have, reading legendary actions is vital to the success of the run
- Abuse the surprise effect, it's broken, especially if your archer is a Gloomstalker Assassin, triggering a fight by attacking from stealth/hiding wins almost every encounter solo
- Any subclass works in honour but make sure you have at least 1 very strong and reliable character that can shine when you need him the most
- Consumables like weapon dips are very underrated, they help a lot, especially the Oil of Accuracy and the Arsonist's Oil (if you have some kind of Fire Mage)
- You can group your characters to throw potions of healing or invisibility for exemple, letting you place your characters even in fights where a dialogue would trigger instantly (like the 2nd Ketheric fight)
- Place your characters before the fight, your Archer and your Mage don't need to walk up to the bad guy and talk to him, your Paladin/Berserker/Cleric/Fighter can do that
- Try to not overlap your gear too much, if you have 4 Greatswords users or 4 Medium Armour users, some characters are going to be on the weak side gear-wise until Act 3
- Do not be shy on respecing ! It's actually more canon to the game to respec some characters after big story events (like the Gauntlet of Shar for Shadowheart, Lae'Zel can become a Paladin after swearing to beat Vlaakith under the guidance of Orpheus etc...), or if you just feel like your build is falling too far behind or is not functioning with the rest of your group
- Speed potions can be thrown on the ground before a fight for in-fight use, it's extremely powerful, especially on your mage since they get the full potential of the potion whereas martial characters don't trigger extra attacks on the speed potion action
- As for the route, you can do pretty much anything in any order you want ASIDE from the Mountain pass and the Gith Patrol that should be avoided at all cost until you are at least lvl 5 for the Gith Patrol and lvl 6 for the Gith Creche, just go in the Underdark for a stress-free run in act 1
- Please please please, kill every enemy BEFORE killing Ketheric and transforming him into Myrkul's Avatar, letting the Mindflayer alive is asking to lose the run on a bad stun ! And the Necromites can deny you healing even if you're not on the plateform
I beat honour mode on my second pull doing this (because I died in the House of Hope after trying to exit without breaking my contract like an absolute moron in my first pull) and it's been a blast, I don't think I'll ever play solo in a lesser difficulty just because of how much spice and adrenaline this mode brings to the game
Really appreciate an honor mode run on YT where the run is also role played. Kudos and congrats!
Subscribed over that glitch - you have my sincere condolences brother.
15:44 Damn La'zeal really had a last second tantrum while being pushed down the abyss
Holy hell, that Myrkul fight was insane. Very nice video!
Ways to combat the the elevator glitch, only send a couple party members at a time, play as a half orc, they have a passive that picks you back up from 0 once a day, have a camp cleric and cast death ward before the elevator
Fun fact, you can skip the fight at the last light inn if you just go for Karniss and get the lantern. Sure, you need a light in the shadow cursed lands and stuff but you're not absolutely required to have Isobel's charm.