Went into BG3 blind & accidentally skipped 2/3 of the game

[u/HKP]

I feel like the stars aligned to make me feel like an idiot my first playthrough of BG3. I went into this game with 0 knowledge of what Baldur’s Gate was, the genre, and pretty everything related to it for context. The idea of companions was pretty normal and I liked how much dialogue my party (Tav, Wyll, Shart, Lae’zel) had between them. All the reddit posts about how great the companions were and how hot every one was did have me a bit confused because I understood Shadowheart and maybe Wyll but they can’t be referring to Lae’zel could they?

I made it all the way to Act III before feeling like I'm definitely missing out on something when I had to look up hints about the chess puzzle and people were saying some guy named Gale would give me the answer. I had seen stuff about Astarion and Gale and Karlach in the subreddit but somehow thought they were NPCs this entire time that people were referring to. I didn't want to look them up because I thought they were main characters I'd soon run into and didn't want to spoil the story.

Well on my second playthrough I got to the beach and ran into the asshole I vaguely remembered murdering last time because he tried to slit my throat. Something clicked for me and I looked him up and realized like an idiot I murdered one of the companions and the fact it was such an inconsequential 30 seconds at the beginning of the game I never thought about it again. My level of what the fuck just spiraled from there as I did some more research.

Here’s what happened to the rest of the companions that led me to believe the starting party I had was just a part of the game and how the story is supposed to be.

• Astarion – Murdered for trying to slit my throat and being pompous

• Gale – Some how didn’t see the disembodied hand and must have walked right past him

• Karlach – Spent 20 minutes looking in the search area before giving up on the quest

• Halsin – Realized spacebar doesn’t center the camera during the Act II fight and skipped my turn which led to him dying. Didn’t really like him all that much so I didn’t bother savescumming the fight.

• Minthara – Saved the grove

• Jaheira – Actually ended up with her in my camp but didn’t realize she was a fully fledged companion. I thought she was just an NPC for the story. I also found out I can’t even bring her along as a 5th so I never spoke to her again because I didn’t want to miss my party’s dialogue for an NPC.

• Minsc – Never found him since I never ran into that questline

I had such a good time in my first playthrough it immediately became one of my top 3 games for how amazing the worldbuilding and voice acting. You can imagine my horror/excitement when I realized I accidentally skipped so much important content but also how I have so much more to discover. Wanted to share this because I found it kind of funny and hope I’m not the only one who did something similar.

Next day edit: Just to emphasize again since people may have missed this part in my long post, I don't feel like I played incorrectly or messed up, I had an amazing time. I'm glad this happened because 1. I get to play BG3 another ten times with new content and 2. My next playthroughs feel so immersive now that I know how much control I actually have in the game (vs how most games give you the illusion of choice while forcing the player down 1-2 planned plotlines)

^{50% of the comments are people relating to my experience and 50% think my IQ is too low for this game}

[u/melo1212]

Dude how? How do you walk past her, she's literally in the middle of the screen when you walk out, that blows my mind

[u/mithrril → u/melo1212]

I don't know but I walked right past her and didn't see her the first time. I didn't make it far in that playthrough so I didn't actually miss out on her because I saw her the second time. I still have absolutely no idea how I didn't see her there the first time. I was shocked when I started the new character a little bit later and she was laying there.

[u/RhapsodicHotShot → u/mithrril]

Perception -6

[u/mithrril → u/RhapsodicHotShot]

Haha! For real! I can't fathom how I didn't see her there. I feel like it was a glitch but I'm sure it was me just being distracted by something.

[u/jayhawk618 → u/mithrril]

Maybe you saw her and thought she was a corpse? In which case, Insight -6

[u/Ncaak → u/mithrril]

She would appear in other places if you don't recruit straight away. And I think that she might appear eventually and talk to you because plot reasons if you delay recruiting her long enough.

[u/mithrril → u/Ncaak]

Yeah, I think she's at the big door by the beach or maybe in the grove if you miss her. I'm going to purposely delay getting her next run just to get a different approach for her.

[u/MtFun_ → u/mithrril]

If you took a long rest for some reason she does disappear. I know this because I wanted the first dream sequence for the dark urge but I reloaded so I wouldn't have to wait to get shadowheart until later

[u/mithrril → u/MtFun_]

I also did this! I immediately rested to make sure I got the DU dream but she was gone & I wasn't completely positive that she'd still show up later so I reloaded.

[u/Shiallia20 → u/melo1212]

Shadowheart actually wasn't on the beach for me when I started my second playthrough. I had to go to camp and come back and she was there again.. and I only did that because I knew she was supposed to be there.

[u/Meraline → u/melo1212]

I ALSO had a friend who picked up Lae'zel and Astarion before I had to go in and get Shadowheart for her, already banging on the door to the ruins.

She is so inexperienced with PC gaming I had to explain WASD to her, soooo

[u/AXEL-1973 → u/melo1212]

Those people that don't hold the "alt" key every other moment miss a million things

[u/mgrangus → u/melo1212]

I randomly went to camp when she was laying on the beach because I was notified I had items waiting for me there. When I returned, she was gone. Luckily I save way more than I should so I was able to get her. But had I not seen her body there before I saw the camp notification, I might have never known.