Baldur’s Gate 3’s nuclear corpse explosion is ending playthroughs
Larian StudiosBaldur’s Gate 3’s Wizard companion Gale can royally screw up your playthrough if you aren’t careful. His penchant for consuming magical knick-knacks has apocalyptic results. Spoilers ahead.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is a wild ride and if this headline didn’t make that clear, other anecdotes from players should. It’s a metagaming gaming masterclass that allows players to break combat with ridiculous builds.
This comes in large part thanks to its faithful recreation of the tabletop experience that is D&D. Baldur’s Gate 3’s rules and choice have allowed creative players to craft Owlbear nukes and genocidal chain reactions.
Now the game has managed to recreate another classic D&D experience, the shockingly cruel Dungeon Master. Players who fail to heed the warnings of the Wizard Gale upon his death are having their playthroughs nuked in a literal judgment day event. It’s the dreaded TPK on steroids according to one Reddit user.
In Gale’s very first discussion with players, he’ll let them know of a peculiar need to chow down on magical items, lest there be dire consequences. If you decide to unalive him instead, his spirit will appear telling you to resurrect him in two days to avoid a terrible fate. Guys, he’s not playing.
Reddit user NameNotFound12 and their wife found that out the hard way in their split-screen playthrough. Explaining that their wife was not an avid gamer and so they decided she should “take the lead”. She eventually leads them to kill poor Gale and disregard his ominous prophecy.
“After 8 hours of playtime together, we get a cut scene of Gale back where we killed him, lighting up like a Christmas tree, and then proceeding to nuke our entire play through,” NameNotFound12 revealed. “Boom! Game over.”
They explained in the comments that they thought Gale was just being sneaky and didn’t want to die and they aren’t the only ones. Streamer Skeeziksdt cut together a TikTok of them “calling Gale’s bluff” and the explosive results.
Fortunately, the apocalyptic engine of destruction encased in Gale doesn’t actually end the game. You will however be prompted to load an earlier save on account of everyone in the world (your party included) dying.
Gale is one of many potential companions in Baldur’s Gate 3 but he’s not a necessary party inclusion. The best way to avoid his interference with your playthrough is simply to leave him stuck in that portal where you found him.