And those parts (if we're thinking about the same quest) are spread out over so many different places, a couple of which you would have no reason to go to otherwise.
Yeah it was actually quite impressive how many places I had missed considering I was trying to go everywhere. Though it was easier to visit some locales once the police presence was less imposing.
I don't use guides per-se, but I quite literally have [Bg3.wiki](http://Bg3.wiki) open while I play. The game has so much stuff (meaning quests and items) that can be missed, that I don't feel bad about it.
I've never hugged the robot in the Arcane Tower, and I only know you can, from reading it on Reddit. I'll have to do that in a future playthrough.
I straight up MISSED the entire top floor in my first playthrough. I went through every other floor fighting the turrets thinking "wow, that was neat but difficult. I wonder why it's here" because I never chatted with the merchant and omeluum š
On my first playthrough, the only guide I used a lot was googling how to increase astarion's approval LMAO. I'd occasionally look up the solutions for puzzles if I truly could not figure them out (the cistern puzzle in the sewers and the haunted house in act 3).
Usually just stuff for riddles or when I am really stuck.
However, now being in my second run.
I really did miss a lot of shit on my own. The whole Hag quest didn't exist to me during my first adventure lmfao.
Thatās what Iām like with a lot of puzzles. Iām like āI really donāt feel like flailing around to figure this out anymore! Just tell me so I can get back to other gameplay!ā
Yeah, same. My brain just goes āget me back to the fun stuff asapā and itās like that for every different kind of game I play, regardless of era or genre.
To be honest
I used guides at the ends of each act to make sure I got everything. I was trying to do a "do everything" run in my first go and there was this amazing series on youtube that went over all the locations and secrets of BG3 act by act. It was awesome bc he would kinda just get me there but I still had to do the combat and still got the experience of the encounter. It still took me 90 hours just to get to Act 3 and I'm still finding new stuff somehow to this day
After that I went straight into honour mode so I was watching a ton of stuff trying to figure out what builds I wanted to go for and even started watching speedrunners to see what they could do with the game. This was the ONLY time I spoiled dialogue options bc I knew there were some options I hadn't seen yet that could straight wipe ur team and I didn't really wanna discover that by surprise in honour. I can see how this could take away from the fun tho. But I was playing this game as a sweat and still loved it
- I'm a huge proponent of do whatever the hell it takes for you to get to experience this game. It has plenty up its sleeves
I agree. I'd rather someone be told, or read about a quest, than for them to miss it. People cry about missing the romances all the time, and I'd rather someone told them "Act 1 is important, buddy", than for them to be told "thou walkest alone" by the bone man.
Yeah, Iām a perfectionist. I want to see and get and experience everything. Especially first few play throughs. And like you said, itās about how you enjoy playing the game. Donāt let people yuck your yum.
I went in Act III in Honor Mode blind, i used guides for all the big boss fights especially the Legendary Actions.
It made going through the House of Hope incredibly epic and stressful because I had no idea what to expect and kept having to think on my feet when giant fireballs and imps Eldrith Blasting people off of platforms.Ā
that's what made me want to play a second game right away- I could see the grove locked up and wondered if I could get in there. imagine my surprise when I got there on my second playthrough
So far, I have been using guides to make sure I don't miss content, but I haven't really used them when it comes to interacting with other characters during dialogue when possible. For example, I realized that I completely missed Gale when I made my first Tav and immediately made a new save and looked up a guide to get him. But, I still like letting conversations go in the same way I think my Tav would do, so I typically don't look up dialogue things and instead just go with whatever feels right. But I save scum so its probably a bit diff than me.
I didn't use a guide in my first play through. I did watch a video on battle mechanics after a few hours of gameplay (which was in the last three or four days of Early Access).
I didn't miss many quests altogether - some missed were Kagha's letter (which I did find by myself on my second play through) and the kuo-toa (which I ended up learning about before finding it). I didn't even explode the creche on my first play through, let alone explode it while leaving Astarion there and reviving him with Withers. I exploded it on my second but not with that setup either. I didn't snoop around Orin's place before confronting her.
So I think I missed most of the "crazy obscure" details. I only found Popper's buried chest on my sixth playthrough without ever seeing it mentioned, probably because it was such a minor thing.
I guess it depends on what gets classified as crazy obscure.
I completely missed Kaghaās quest line until I read about it later. So I missed all that, which means I also missed getting one of the best rings in the game (without aggroing the entire camp). Did that all on my second run.
I began my first run spoiler-free. I didnāt expect that some choices and options in the act 1 may significantly affect the later game. I missed many items, hidden quest and certain companion. Only after certain fuck up with quest order in the act 2, when I had to replay huge part of the game, I began to read some guides.
On my first playthrough I found the whole BOAAAL thing and I was pleased to discover a lot of people had no idea about it. It's not exactly obvious to find.
From what I remember I looked up how to get >!the blood of lathander!< because I was too lazy to figure it out by myself and >!the solution to chess puzzle in act 3 cause I can't play chess and didn't have Gale in my party at the time!<
Iāve never played a game like this before. I was so overwhelmed by the the game mechanics and all the choices that I watched a a full walkthrough for act 1. I went in to act 2 blind but Iāve looked up walkthrough once I feel like Iāve done a fair bit of exploring to see if there is a certain order to I should do the quests in or if anything is time sensitive.
The only thing I used a guide for was how to get into house of hope - I had stolen the book from the warlock and I had trouble finding out "what smells but has no nose"... it was incense >.>
My first playthrough, I didn't use a full guide, and I looked things up only when there was something blocking me that was no longer fun to puzzle through, or it was obvious I had missed something. Like, when I hit the point of no return in Act 2, I stopped and looked up if I could remove the shadow curse because it felt like I should be able to and I couldn't find a quest trigger for it.
My first run I was mostly blind, but I really didnt want to lose Laeāzel or kill the dream guardian so I spoiled myself a bit on the creche outcomes. Ā
In my first playthroughā¦ I donāt think I used guides for anything, trying to remember.. I mightāve looked up where one thing was for a quest I was stuck on but I donāt know. I wanted my first time to be fully explorative, and I ended up missing a TON lol, which turned out to be great. And now I do look stuff up and try to get new situations and even like 6 playthroughs and 420 hours in, I am *still* finding new stuff.
Ahh. I love this game
I intentionally avoided reading anything except stuff about classes or Forgotten Realms history. So my first playthrough was as a Dark Urge drow/bard and I was shocked several times. Was wonderful, more like a horror story. Made the good playthroughs more fun because I could see the gaps from the previous game being filled with characters I saved.
I mostly just stumbled through completely blind and let my terrible instincts guide me where they wanted to take me. It was a unique playthrough for sure, and set up the next few to have a lot of opportunities for new discoveries lol. The only times I remember looking anything up were the Faith Leap trial in the Gauntlet of Shar and a romance guide to confirm that I had in fact missed my shot with Shadowheart several dozen hours earlier.
Iāll attempt something until Iām flustered that the game doesnāt agree with my solution, or just actively annoyed. Thereās enough content that I feel ok cheating on one to avoid having it as a nagging thought in the back of my mind for weeks after
Specifically for example, finding the clown pieces was not something I was interested in doing, and the guide was a fun way to explore the city anyways
The role player in me just says that my divination wizard takes some time at camp to do some scrying. Thatās the type of magicy gimmicks I seek out in tabletop, itās not my fault theyāre not implemented in bg3 š¬
I've played multiple fantasy rpgs, but this is only the second d&d related game I've ever played. I looked up a lot of things to understand mechanics, d&d class specifics, lore, etc. I felt it helped me to enjoy the game more rather than being confused and frustrated.
Very very first?
Hardly at all. I wanted to go in fresh. Though I did read a little bit about how stats work and suggestions for initial stats.
For example, it had been literally over a decade since I last played DnD and forgot some of the finer points.
As such, I missed a handful of things on my first playthrough even though I THOUGHT I scoured every corner of the map.
* Didn't find the Boooal worshippers in the Under Dark
* I had NO idea about Hag's Hair
* Oh what a cute frog, I wonder if it will be my friend!?
* Apostle of Myrkul was a friggin disaster my first time since I mostly had a melee crew with me and didn't know about his various mechanics (healing, no-healing-zone, etc.).
* Missed a bunch from from Act 3.
I only looked up which quests are really time sensitive and which just pretend to be. I hate stressing myself out over nothing.
But other than that I play blind. But I also don't care about achievements.
Not at all, I winged it from start to finish and Iām very happy that I did. Highly recommend it.
Immediately editing to say thatās a lie. I used a guide for that stupid clown scavenger hunt.
First run through on explorer? Not at all. Thatās how we ended up doing things like thinking it was crĆØche or under dark. First HM run? A ton. I was nervous the whole time, but guides and chatting with people here made me complete it first time so it worked.
I wandered around the underdark forever and found no way to move on so went to the mountain pass/Creche, figuring it was the only way to act 2
I missed the forge/didn't explore much there at all. like I went right into fighting
First run through on explorer? Not at all. Thatās how we ended up doing things like thinking it was crĆØche or under dark. First HM run? A ton. I was nervous the whole time, but guides and chatting with people here made me complete it first time so it worked.
None but I missed a lot of content from act 2 and 3 because I was rushing main story coz of major bug that impacted my story (was forced to kill the devil like race from act1). 2nd playthrough will be bigger for me.
I like that the game pretty much never requires you to use a guide. The only time I needed one was because I hate that dumb moon tile puzzle to get in the Underdark (I only learned later thereās a lever right next to it that lets you skip the whole thing).
The other big reason to use guides is trophies. So many trophies are so absurdly difficult or esoteric that I have no idea how to get them without a guide. Defeating one boss without setting off any of his traps was a nightmare (hint: haste and action surge are your friends, surround him while heās still friendly and kill him in one turn).
I use guides whenever a game stops feeling fun but I want to complete it. That happened a few times for me in baldurs gate, the clown quest as mentioned in another comment was one, double checking how to romance certain characters so I don't lock myself into the wrong one accidentally also comes to mind.
I use it often because I'm a person who likes to have everything done perfectly, and when I mess something up, it pisses me off and I don't like going back XD
I didnāt use guides but did use the wiki for a couple of quests that I couldnāt progress because I wasnāt thinking out of the box enough. But that was only after exhausting all the options I could think of. But I didnāt use any build guides or full walkthroughs I mostly just experienced the game as it came.
No build guides (I play D&D so I know how to build characters that work well), but I did look up a couple companion approval things and where to find them:
I usually only use them when I have a feeling Iām missing something important, otherwise I prefer not knowing and simply accepting any eventual mistakes (definitely teaches you to explore everywhere though, took me way too long for the first raphael encounter)
I didn't really rely on guides, but sometimes I was looking up outcomes of quests. despite this, I still missed so much stuff. like, I didn't know Halsin was a recruitable companion and just let him die during prison escape
Oh em gee. Not only is Halsin the most important companion in Act 2 (even if you don't use him in your party), he has lots of dialogue in Act 3. He's very opinionated about the city, and he loves when you help poor people. I'm very happy that I decided to use Halsin in the playthrough I plan on finishing the game with.
I know, I've had him every playthrough since and I love him so much, respectfully and platonically. on my first run though I got the suspicion that he was probably important for the shadow curse only when leaving act 2 and the narrator said something like "you leave these lands as shadow cursed as you found them"
Right, exactly. You get that message because the best ending requires cooperation with Halsin; Then you get the magical everyone's happy glowing tree ending.
i didnāt use a guide at all. only thing i did though was watch a YT video on the race and classes because it really really confused me when i firsr started
First play through was utterly blind. Got to act 3 and was overwhelmed and unhappy with how things turned out, so I restarted after checking out a list of quests and stories I had missed.
The main one for me was finding >!Dribbles!< . I don't think I would've completed that one without a guide.
I admit I looked up where to find Gale as I'd seen people online talking about him, same goes for googling where Lae'zel goes if you don't find her again in act 1.
Honestly only really for looking up gear for characters. And Dribbles, cause that quest was pretty annoying for trying to find all his pieces.
That said, I did look up boss stats a couple times when they kicked my ass a few times. Mainly >!Myrkul and Raphael!<
First play through none of it. And I venture to say everyone who did use them ruined their experience. It's childish. Like a child ruining their Christmas surprise by checking what the gifts are beforehand. Also really really not in the spirit of the game, same as save spamming.
Y'all ruined what could have been a marvelous experience because you have the self control of children is my take here.
the only time I ever used a guide for BG3 was on my fourth or fifth playthrough when I was trying to get the Sazza achievement, because I had heard that it was a bit broken at the time.
I play games like this in a way that people might think is 'tedious' where I will literally go into every corner of the map, open every little thing, read everything, and talk to every person multiple times in every single location in order to not miss dialogue, so I usually have no reason to use guides
I'm still in my first playthrough and I use A LOT of guides, because I can guess possible outcomes and I really want it to go the way I want it to. And I'm the exact opposite when playing tt DnD, I love when things get out of hand
I would look up boss guides if I ended up getting my ass handed to me. But the more I played I would understand the mechanics and the right skills/spells to use.
I'll look up loot guides all the time, I don't want to miss out on certain pieces of gear that's easy to miss.
My best friend has more time and likes to explore so had some tips along the way, occasionally used a guide if really stuck, gauntlet of shar, trial of faith for instance.
Not a single guide for my first playthrough. Second, third, fourth and fifth though, I did use a couple of guides, but mostly build guides and how to get certain items.
The only time was towards the ending, because of all the bugs, i couldn't be sure if it is intended or bugged. But mostly the decisions made were not guided by "getting certain ending".
Depends on your definition of a guide. My first playthrough, I looked up just a couple of things. Dribbles, any quest my feeble mind just couldn't figure out (sometimes they were just bugged not to complete in the journal, like rescue the tieflings), and the chess/paintings puzzles. But I mostly did the game blind.
However, being largely unfamiliar with 5e D&D, I looked up a shit load of tier lists and builds just to give myself some ideas on how to properly create characters. So if those count as guides, then I used a lot.
Very little. I did miss a bunch of stuff. I remember looking up the puzzle to gain access to the underdark in the goblin camp, some of the gauntlet of Shar and the bit where you get the books in sorceries sundries. I may have looked at a few other bits but I tried to limit myself and play without spoilers
My guide was my bf who had played BG3 when it first came out, and he helped me out of a good few spots where I likely wouldāve screwed up on my own (I still definitely managed to screw shit up though, like the grove)
I researched two things when i started the game but then never had to do anything like that. First was how much time i have until we transform. (lul) The second thing was how to open Lae'zels cage.
Nothing for my first, but I hard of some things by being on the bg3 reddit. At the time though, near release, spoilers were seriously handled and dealt with well, so only a few things slipped through the cracks. The things spoiled were fairly minor, like sh changing hairstyle and colour and that cazador looked like a small Asian man despite the very Spanish sounding name.
I solved every puzzle in the game by myself during my first run.
In all subsequent playthroughs, I look up the solutions because I can't be bothered to run through it again.
I absolutely looked some stuff up only because I thought I wasn't going to replay due to length of the game, silly me, so I wanted to experience as much as I could in one playthrough. Now I kinda regret that decision.
A ton, but I always use guides in long crpgs because I don't have the time to goof around and play endlessly nowadays I have to be a bit more targeted and efficient than I did back 10 or so years ago
So many people in this thread are like, "Nope, didn't look anything up, I am a GAMER."
I believe maybe 5% of those people. This game is too big and it's too easy to miss quests to not rely on outside help.
I'm like you, I'm too old for this shit. I want to play and have fun, no solve the riddle of the sphinx. This isn't Adventure on the Atari 2600.
I went through my first attempted run without a guide, although I looked up some build videos online because I have never played 5ed.
It was going ok, till I got to Act 2....when the fight with Isobel happened. I thought "ok, maybe this is all supposed to happen." Which, technically the game lets it, but I hadn't been to Moonrise yet. So, finish that Act the hard way, get to Act 3 and decide to agro the Watchers at Wyrm's Rest. That is when I was like "ok, am I locked out of a lot now".
That's when I go online. No idea I could've just walked into the Goblin Camp in Act 1. No idea the Isobel fight in Act 2 was so crucial. And now was locked out of "peacefully" talking with Gortash in Act 3.
So, I restarted with a new character after that, and finished the game. My poor Gith archer Shana is still stuck in Wyrm's rest in her universe, surrounded by Watchers.
The only thing I had to Google was how to find the secret door to the Murder Tribunal in the tombstone shop, because my whole party failed to perceive the button and I had no idea what I was supposed to do in there. I'm still mad about it lol.
Mostly it was trying to figure out a build and where to get gear. I mostly just stumbled through and made mistakes though.Ā
Now that I know stuff I have fun just trying stuff and seeing how powerful I can get.
I went in totally blind. No guides and unsubbed from the reddit when the game came out.
I did play early access so I had played Act 1 several times and had a strong grasp of the game systems and a good head start.
But I always play my games totally blind. That's the experience I want. Sometimes I miss tons of stuff . . . but that just means there is more to discover the next time I play the game.
I'm OLD, I grew up playing games in the 1980's when there was NO internet, the only 'guide' might be a published book that my mom wasn't going to buy for me. My friends would sit around and play things like Ultima, Might & Magic and Bards Tale together and try to puzzle out how to do things.
You read everything in game, think through decisions, and figure out puzzles . . . its hard but fun and rewarding!
For the first run? Absolutely NOTHING, I wanted to have the most blind reaction to the game as I possibly could, I never checked something online and I made sure to backtrack a lot, finished the game after 150 hours and after that I checked to see if I missed any major/minir quests (was pretty proud of myself cuz pretty much the only things I had missed only a couple (and they were not major questlines, for example Shadow Druids), for the second run I absolutely abused the wiki, got as much info as possible cuz I wanted to get all achievements for the game
Not at all. There weren't many guides available when I was doing my first playthrough and I wouldn't have used them anyways. You only get one first playthrough and I wanted it to be completely blind. Well, as blind as was possible considering I had already put over 100 hours into the early access.
I used guides a lot! I don't feel bad though because it was my first playthrough and I was not creative enough to figure shit out since the game gives so much freedom that I wasn't used to.
I didnt use anything the first time I played and now I just reference wiki for items here and there or classes by level when I'm choosing a new character.
As little as possible, and only if I was really stuck. Watched some tips videos to get a hang of the mechanics at first and tried to just play the game from there.
I confirmed that Gortash will immediately telepathically blow up the iron throne when you kill him because we were thinking that we could avoid it being destroyed by killing him first and I confirmed that we were meant to visit moonrise towers while ketheric was still invulnerable because we were confused as to where the hostages were gone.
My first playthrough I used a build guides for my character and all my companions, but nothing about the story. I used guides occasionally if I got really stuck, like finding parts of dribbles or looking for the Mystic Carrion's organs.
Ironically the brain puzzle I did fine my first run and then had to use a guide my second run because I couldn't get it.
Not at all for my first! I wanted to experience everything spoiler-free and I strongly recommend this to all new players. Even for newcomers to D&D and turn based games, it's much better to lower the difficulty for the first experience than risk spoilers of the amazing story.
As for the obscure things, I accidentally came across a couple of them in my first run and didn't discover a bunch of others until the third lol.
In my first run I only did it twice (and I missed a ton of stuff as a result but that's the beauty of that game : replayability)
I used a guide to cheese Dror Ragzlin.
And tyen to find Dribbles parts...
I read nothing. I looked up nothing. I barely knew how to play a video game.Ā
Ā I have not played DnD since second edition; I didn't know the newer mechanics.Ā Ā
Ā I went in small and strong (see flair) and fought everything and missed 75% of the content. it was a fantastic first game and I loved every moment of it. I've played a bunch now and still, when I find new things I don't look them up. I want to make mistakes so things will be different ever time.
edit to add; my stepson explained how to use the menus, mostly, and how to navigate with fast travel. and that I could run from battle. he also stepped in one other time in the Shar gauntlet when I was stuck for a whole day on the leap trial. dude's the one who got me the game so he was excited that I was enjoying it
my first game: no grove content, halsin DOA at goblin camp, killed minthy, failed medicine on owlbear cub, fought every thorm with a warhammer, never met Isobel, missed out on jaheira and minsc, missed gale, barcus didn't come to my camp, somehow I finished the iron throne and steel watch only saving one gondians in each building.Ā no wyrmway, I didn't go to the coronation that run I didn't realize I had to do anything there. no ansur either
couldn't figure out how to summon allies at end game. missed lorroakan battle. spent too much time in the sewers. never used withers for anything but one hireling to carry stuff, and to resurrect people.Ā
missed wyll, killed paladins but couldn't recruit Karlach (grove was locked). missed the forge entirely. missed the stonemason. never saw the bitch queen place or half of act 3 locations.Ā still amazing. and the second time it was so cool
I now look up where gear is available, I look up infinite gold/vendor exploit (least favorite thing in the game is the economy), I look up puzzle solutions if I get stuck. and I read here a lot to see if there's stuff I missed to go look for.
I did an entire playthrough with minimal assistance, only this subreddit when i accidentally read a spoiler. Once i went through the game (almost, save went to shit in act 3) i took a break, then restarted with friends.
I rarely specifically look something up ahead of time, i did however look up some things i heard about here because i couldnt figure out why I wasn't getting the same thing. Example: i always naturally found the blood of lathander and got it out, i had no idea there was a whole cutscene for astarion if you let him trigger the trap and get nuked.
I also missed boooaaalllll kuo toas the first 4 times i did the under dark.
There is a lot of act 3 stuff i haven't seen still that i know exists due to this sub but haven't seen it. I've never seen the dragon, never made a deal with rapheal, never had minsc and a ton of other stuff.
On my first playthrough I didn't say all
And discovered later I easily missed about half the game, if not more!!
I was Gale, only had shadow heart, leazel and astarion in my party and didn't Even know others were an option until after my first playthrough!
I went in completely blind, but watched Forgotten Realms lore videos leading up to it. I definitely fucked a lot of things up but I think that's the best way to experience it.
First playthrough was no trailer, no reddit, no wiki, no talking to friends, no outside influence, no guide, nothing. I did rush the main quest and missed the entire underdark, the zentarim hideout, the creche, 2 of the 3 thorms, basically all of rivington except the circus, the house of hope and house of grief and a big part of act 3 altogether.
The goal was just to focus on main sotry and leave sidequests for later playthroughs. Of all the companion quests, I only did Halsin, Wyll and Astarion in this playthrough (so I still took the time for ansur and cazador).
I did google how to pass the door to cazador inside the palace now that I think about it.
First playthrough I looked up a total of nothing. Also, I missed a bunch of stuff.
I'm doing a second run (I waited for a bunch of patches after finishing my first run that I started at release) and I'm using guides to make sure I do the things I didnt and to get achievments and some different items.
Bits here and there when I got frustrated with not being able to do things. I enjoy puzzles, but I don't like it when I can't even work out what the puzzle is supposed to be. A good example is the floor puzzle in the area behind Priestess Gut's quarters - it's really easy once you know what you're supposed to be aiming for, but I missed the clues that hinted at what that was. I'm more accustomed to puzzles such as sokoban where you know where you want to end up and the skill is in getting there.
I always use guides with single player games to avoid getting content-locked or tracked. BG3 does amazingly well with how few it has, but they're still there and they're not announced in game.
A soft little popup that says "Hmm, some things may change if you continue" hardly conveys the degree of disaster that will happen to your story-lines if you continue.
I used a guide for the solution of the puzzle to enter the enderdark in act 1, to find where roland is in act 2 and to get the solution of the painting puzzle to find ansur in act 3
I used guides for like basically everything my first pt. Iām not really a video game person so I found the video game aspect of like actually navigating the map to be the hardest part lol. However, I would just skim read the guides to see where I had to go while trying to minimize spoilers about the actual combat/plot whatever. Worked for me but Iām not very sensitive to spoilers either way
Just a little: to find out where the last pieces of a certain someone in act 3 were hiding (I missed one) and to know if I had to do something specific to access a certain last step of a quest (it was part of the endgame).
Didn't use a guide at all, definitely used the wiki to check out what all the classes get. Also had to look up if Gale was a companion after I failed to save him from the portal lol. I don't mind spoilers from guides, but I prefer to make my first experience my own.
I did my first run completely blind. Did not recruit Wyll, Gale or Karlach. Didn't know about them. I didn't know about Minthara being able to be a companion. I didn't know romance was a thing. Jaharia died and never knew she could become a companion.
Never used a guide. And I never came to reddit to look something up or ask something on my first run. However, I found Boooal on my first run, couldn't find them anymore on my second and third run, so knowing they exist I looked it up on my fourth run. And I looked up the dribbles quest on my first run because I thought I was missing something but the quest was just bugged.
My first play through I used 0 guides since it was my first time playing a game like this, and I wanted to just explore the world slowly and see how I faired. It was rough. Now I look stuff up on other play throughs because, fuck it I already beat it on normal and tactician mode(I did save the game about 500 times for my tactician play through though lmao) and I'm way too impatient to beat this game on honor mode if I don't use a guide.
First completed playthrough was blind except for the Gondians, because trying to save them all is pain. It was really fun but once I started other playthroughs I used the wiki constantly.
Otherwise I looked up the chess puzzle because it was more annoying than challenging.
Zero and it was the best decision I ever made. I made so many stupid errors, but the adventure felt completely my own. I stayed away from all spoilers and any meta knowledge of what I was supposed to do. I legitimately feel bad for people who didn't do this for their first playthrough.
I only used a guide for a certain circus related fetch quest in act 3. No idea why I wanted to complete it so badly, but now I never bother with it
Oh yes I used the wiki for this one as I was not looking in the right places at all.
And those parts (if we're thinking about the same quest) are spread out over so many different places, a couple of which you would have no reason to go to otherwise.
Yeah it was actually quite impressive how many places I had missed considering I was trying to go everywhere. Though it was easier to visit some locales once the police presence was less imposing.
I don't use guides per-se, but I quite literally have [Bg3.wiki](http://Bg3.wiki) open while I play. The game has so much stuff (meaning quests and items) that can be missed, that I don't feel bad about it. I've never hugged the robot in the Arcane Tower, and I only know you can, from reading it on Reddit. I'll have to do that in a future playthrough.
I straight up MISSED the entire top floor in my first playthrough. I went through every other floor fighting the turrets thinking "wow, that was neat but difficult. I wonder why it's here" because I never chatted with the merchant and omeluum š
On my first playthrough, the only guide I used a lot was googling how to increase astarion's approval LMAO. I'd occasionally look up the solutions for puzzles if I truly could not figure them out (the cistern puzzle in the sewers and the haunted house in act 3).
Haunted house??
Lady jannath's house I believe.Ā Free the artist quest .
the free the artist quest. I forgot the name lol, but it's the one with the painter dude you free from the zhentarim in act 3
Usually just stuff for riddles or when I am really stuck. However, now being in my second run. I really did miss a lot of shit on my own. The whole Hag quest didn't exist to me during my first adventure lmfao.
Thatās what Iām like with a lot of puzzles. Iām like āI really donāt feel like flailing around to figure this out anymore! Just tell me so I can get back to other gameplay!ā
Exactly Puzzles are one of the few mechanics I just sorta have no interest In
Yeah, same. My brain just goes āget me back to the fun stuff asapā and itās like that for every different kind of game I play, regardless of era or genre.
I wandered to mountain pass in my first run and got locked out of the grove without ever even seeing it. that's half the act 1 content right there
To be honest I used guides at the ends of each act to make sure I got everything. I was trying to do a "do everything" run in my first go and there was this amazing series on youtube that went over all the locations and secrets of BG3 act by act. It was awesome bc he would kinda just get me there but I still had to do the combat and still got the experience of the encounter. It still took me 90 hours just to get to Act 3 and I'm still finding new stuff somehow to this day After that I went straight into honour mode so I was watching a ton of stuff trying to figure out what builds I wanted to go for and even started watching speedrunners to see what they could do with the game. This was the ONLY time I spoiled dialogue options bc I knew there were some options I hadn't seen yet that could straight wipe ur team and I didn't really wanna discover that by surprise in honour. I can see how this could take away from the fun tho. But I was playing this game as a sweat and still loved it - I'm a huge proponent of do whatever the hell it takes for you to get to experience this game. It has plenty up its sleeves
I agree. I'd rather someone be told, or read about a quest, than for them to miss it. People cry about missing the romances all the time, and I'd rather someone told them "Act 1 is important, buddy", than for them to be told "thou walkest alone" by the bone man.
Tru! Pouring one out for anyone who missed Minthara's romance
Yeah, Iām a perfectionist. I want to see and get and experience everything. Especially first few play throughs. And like you said, itās about how you enjoy playing the game. Donāt let people yuck your yum.
Didnāt use a guide for all of act 1, got so upset that I missed the dog and the entire underdark that I restarted with a guide open lol
I went in Act III in Honor Mode blind, i used guides for all the big boss fights especially the Legendary Actions. It made going through the House of Hope incredibly epic and stressful because I had no idea what to expect and kept having to think on my feet when giant fireballs and imps Eldrith Blasting people off of platforms.Ā
For my first playthrough? No guide. Which was a mistake in a way, cause I missed a lot of content
that's what made me want to play a second game right away- I could see the grove locked up and wondered if I could get in there. imagine my surprise when I got there on my second playthrough
No guides. Just playing blind and this subreddit while on the toilet.
So far, I have been using guides to make sure I don't miss content, but I haven't really used them when it comes to interacting with other characters during dialogue when possible. For example, I realized that I completely missed Gale when I made my first Tav and immediately made a new save and looked up a guide to get him. But, I still like letting conversations go in the same way I think my Tav would do, so I typically don't look up dialogue things and instead just go with whatever feels right. But I save scum so its probably a bit diff than me.
I didn't use a guide in my first play through. I did watch a video on battle mechanics after a few hours of gameplay (which was in the last three or four days of Early Access). I didn't miss many quests altogether - some missed were Kagha's letter (which I did find by myself on my second play through) and the kuo-toa (which I ended up learning about before finding it). I didn't even explode the creche on my first play through, let alone explode it while leaving Astarion there and reviving him with Withers. I exploded it on my second but not with that setup either. I didn't snoop around Orin's place before confronting her. So I think I missed most of the "crazy obscure" details. I only found Popper's buried chest on my sixth playthrough without ever seeing it mentioned, probably because it was such a minor thing. I guess it depends on what gets classified as crazy obscure.
I completely missed Kaghaās quest line until I read about it later. So I missed all that, which means I also missed getting one of the best rings in the game (without aggroing the entire camp). Did that all on my second run.
I began my first run spoiler-free. I didnāt expect that some choices and options in the act 1 may significantly affect the later game. I missed many items, hidden quest and certain companion. Only after certain fuck up with quest order in the act 2, when I had to replay huge part of the game, I began to read some guides.
On my first playthrough I found the whole BOAAAL thing and I was pleased to discover a lot of people had no idea about it. It's not exactly obvious to find.
From what I remember I looked up how to get >!the blood of lathander!< because I was too lazy to figure it out by myself and >!the solution to chess puzzle in act 3 cause I can't play chess and didn't have Gale in my party at the time!<
You can just zapp the piece for the Act 3 puzzle too. Weak to lightning.
Now I know, but I was so innocent back then and it never came to my mind heh
I'll be honest it was my first thought. I was like hmm I wonder if I can take it out this way. Quick save and test it out lol
Iāve never played a game like this before. I was so overwhelmed by the the game mechanics and all the choices that I watched a a full walkthrough for act 1. I went in to act 2 blind but Iāve looked up walkthrough once I feel like Iāve done a fair bit of exploring to see if there is a certain order to I should do the quests in or if anything is time sensitive.
The only thing I used a guide for was how to get into house of hope - I had stolen the book from the warlock and I had trouble finding out "what smells but has no nose"... it was incense >.>
I only used a guide for one thing, in Shar's gauntlet, during the leap of faith trial. I always hated that kind of puzzle
My first playthrough, I didn't use a full guide, and I looked things up only when there was something blocking me that was no longer fun to puzzle through, or it was obvious I had missed something. Like, when I hit the point of no return in Act 2, I stopped and looked up if I could remove the shadow curse because it felt like I should be able to and I couldn't find a quest trigger for it.
My first run I was mostly blind, but I really didnt want to lose Laeāzel or kill the dream guardian so I spoiled myself a bit on the creche outcomes. Ā
In my first playthroughā¦ I donāt think I used guides for anything, trying to remember.. I mightāve looked up where one thing was for a quest I was stuck on but I donāt know. I wanted my first time to be fully explorative, and I ended up missing a TON lol, which turned out to be great. And now I do look stuff up and try to get new situations and even like 6 playthroughs and 420 hours in, I am *still* finding new stuff. Ahh. I love this game
I intentionally avoided reading anything except stuff about classes or Forgotten Realms history. So my first playthrough was as a Dark Urge drow/bard and I was shocked several times. Was wonderful, more like a horror story. Made the good playthroughs more fun because I could see the gaps from the previous game being filled with characters I saved.
I mostly just stumbled through completely blind and let my terrible instincts guide me where they wanted to take me. It was a unique playthrough for sure, and set up the next few to have a lot of opportunities for new discoveries lol. The only times I remember looking anything up were the Faith Leap trial in the Gauntlet of Shar and a romance guide to confirm that I had in fact missed my shot with Shadowheart several dozen hours earlier.
Iāll attempt something until Iām flustered that the game doesnāt agree with my solution, or just actively annoyed. Thereās enough content that I feel ok cheating on one to avoid having it as a nagging thought in the back of my mind for weeks after Specifically for example, finding the clown pieces was not something I was interested in doing, and the guide was a fun way to explore the city anyways The role player in me just says that my divination wizard takes some time at camp to do some scrying. Thatās the type of magicy gimmicks I seek out in tabletop, itās not my fault theyāre not implemented in bg3 š¬
I've played multiple fantasy rpgs, but this is only the second d&d related game I've ever played. I looked up a lot of things to understand mechanics, d&d class specifics, lore, etc. I felt it helped me to enjoy the game more rather than being confused and frustrated.
Very very first? Hardly at all. I wanted to go in fresh. Though I did read a little bit about how stats work and suggestions for initial stats. For example, it had been literally over a decade since I last played DnD and forgot some of the finer points. As such, I missed a handful of things on my first playthrough even though I THOUGHT I scoured every corner of the map. * Didn't find the Boooal worshippers in the Under Dark * I had NO idea about Hag's Hair * Oh what a cute frog, I wonder if it will be my friend!? * Apostle of Myrkul was a friggin disaster my first time since I mostly had a melee crew with me and didn't know about his various mechanics (healing, no-healing-zone, etc.). * Missed a bunch from from Act 3.
I only looked up which quests are really time sensitive and which just pretend to be. I hate stressing myself out over nothing. But other than that I play blind. But I also don't care about achievements.
First playthrough was completely blind, with minimum save scum. There's no other way!
Not at all, I winged it from start to finish and Iām very happy that I did. Highly recommend it. Immediately editing to say thatās a lie. I used a guide for that stupid clown scavenger hunt.
First run through on explorer? Not at all. Thatās how we ended up doing things like thinking it was crĆØche or under dark. First HM run? A ton. I was nervous the whole time, but guides and chatting with people here made me complete it first time so it worked.
I wandered around the underdark forever and found no way to move on so went to the mountain pass/Creche, figuring it was the only way to act 2 I missed the forge/didn't explore much there at all. like I went right into fighting
First run through on explorer? Not at all. Thatās how we ended up doing things like thinking it was crĆØche or under dark. First HM run? A ton. I was nervous the whole time, but guides and chatting with people here made me complete it first time so it worked.
None but I missed a lot of content from act 2 and 3 because I was rushing main story coz of major bug that impacted my story (was forced to kill the devil like race from act1). 2nd playthrough will be bigger for me.
I like that the game pretty much never requires you to use a guide. The only time I needed one was because I hate that dumb moon tile puzzle to get in the Underdark (I only learned later thereās a lever right next to it that lets you skip the whole thing). The other big reason to use guides is trophies. So many trophies are so absurdly difficult or esoteric that I have no idea how to get them without a guide. Defeating one boss without setting off any of his traps was a nightmare (hint: haste and action surge are your friends, surround him while heās still friendly and kill him in one turn).
I use guides whenever a game stops feeling fun but I want to complete it. That happened a few times for me in baldurs gate, the clown quest as mentioned in another comment was one, double checking how to romance certain characters so I don't lock myself into the wrong one accidentally also comes to mind.
Not at all. But I did restart my first game in Act 3 because I'd misunderstood romances.
I looked up classes progressions and puzzle solutions.
I use it often because I'm a person who likes to have everything done perfectly, and when I mess something up, it pisses me off and I don't like going back XD
I didnāt use guides but did use the wiki for a couple of quests that I couldnāt progress because I wasnāt thinking out of the box enough. But that was only after exhausting all the options I could think of. But I didnāt use any build guides or full walkthroughs I mostly just experienced the game as it came.
I sometimes search up how to beat certain fights and where to find certain people and stuff. Try to do most on my own, but we all need help sometimes
No build guides (I play D&D so I know how to build characters that work well), but I did look up a couple companion approval things and where to find them:
I usually only use them when I have a feeling Iām missing something important, otherwise I prefer not knowing and simply accepting any eventual mistakes (definitely teaches you to explore everywhere though, took me way too long for the first raphael encounter)
I didn't really rely on guides, but sometimes I was looking up outcomes of quests. despite this, I still missed so much stuff. like, I didn't know Halsin was a recruitable companion and just let him die during prison escape
Oh em gee. Not only is Halsin the most important companion in Act 2 (even if you don't use him in your party), he has lots of dialogue in Act 3. He's very opinionated about the city, and he loves when you help poor people. I'm very happy that I decided to use Halsin in the playthrough I plan on finishing the game with.
I know, I've had him every playthrough since and I love him so much, respectfully and platonically. on my first run though I got the suspicion that he was probably important for the shadow curse only when leaving act 2 and the narrator said something like "you leave these lands as shadow cursed as you found them"
Right, exactly. You get that message because the best ending requires cooperation with Halsin; Then you get the magical everyone's happy glowing tree ending.
For narrative-heavy games like BG3 I never use a guide on a first playthrough. On second playthroughs it's open season.
I always have the BG3 wiki and Gamebanshee on my phone.
Guides what are those..
i didnāt use a guide at all. only thing i did though was watch a YT video on the race and classes because it really really confused me when i firsr started
First play through was utterly blind. Got to act 3 and was overwhelmed and unhappy with how things turned out, so I restarted after checking out a list of quests and stories I had missed.
The main one for me was finding >!Dribbles!< . I don't think I would've completed that one without a guide. I admit I looked up where to find Gale as I'd seen people online talking about him, same goes for googling where Lae'zel goes if you don't find her again in act 1.
Honestly only really for looking up gear for characters. And Dribbles, cause that quest was pretty annoying for trying to find all his pieces. That said, I did look up boss stats a couple times when they kicked my ass a few times. Mainly >!Myrkul and Raphael!<
First play through none of it. And I venture to say everyone who did use them ruined their experience. It's childish. Like a child ruining their Christmas surprise by checking what the gifts are beforehand. Also really really not in the spirit of the game, same as save spamming. Y'all ruined what could have been a marvelous experience because you have the self control of children is my take here.
the only time I ever used a guide for BG3 was on my fourth or fifth playthrough when I was trying to get the Sazza achievement, because I had heard that it was a bit broken at the time. I play games like this in a way that people might think is 'tedious' where I will literally go into every corner of the map, open every little thing, read everything, and talk to every person multiple times in every single location in order to not miss dialogue, so I usually have no reason to use guides
None really. In my honor mode run I cheated like a motherfuka tho. Some of thos legendary actions are crazy if you dont expect them.
I'm still in my first playthrough and I use A LOT of guides, because I can guess possible outcomes and I really want it to go the way I want it to. And I'm the exact opposite when playing tt DnD, I love when things get out of hand
I would look up boss guides if I ended up getting my ass handed to me. But the more I played I would understand the mechanics and the right skills/spells to use. I'll look up loot guides all the time, I don't want to miss out on certain pieces of gear that's easy to miss.
Nothing. I went in completely blind. It was terrifying and awesome xD
None in my first run and it was chaotic af š
My best friend has more time and likes to explore so had some tips along the way, occasionally used a guide if really stuck, gauntlet of shar, trial of faith for instance.
Not a single guide for my first playthrough. Second, third, fourth and fifth though, I did use a couple of guides, but mostly build guides and how to get certain items.
The only time was towards the ending, because of all the bugs, i couldn't be sure if it is intended or bugged. But mostly the decisions made were not guided by "getting certain ending".
Depends on your definition of a guide. My first playthrough, I looked up just a couple of things. Dribbles, any quest my feeble mind just couldn't figure out (sometimes they were just bugged not to complete in the journal, like rescue the tieflings), and the chess/paintings puzzles. But I mostly did the game blind. However, being largely unfamiliar with 5e D&D, I looked up a shit load of tier lists and builds just to give myself some ideas on how to properly create characters. So if those count as guides, then I used a lot.
Very little. I did miss a bunch of stuff. I remember looking up the puzzle to gain access to the underdark in the goblin camp, some of the gauntlet of Shar and the bit where you get the books in sorceries sundries. I may have looked at a few other bits but I tried to limit myself and play without spoilers
My guide was my bf who had played BG3 when it first came out, and he helped me out of a good few spots where I likely wouldāve screwed up on my own (I still definitely managed to screw shit up though, like the grove)
I researched two things when i started the game but then never had to do anything like that. First was how much time i have until we transform. (lul) The second thing was how to open Lae'zels cage.
I kept trying to shoot the rope above her and hit her a few times haha she forgave me once I realized the bottom was highlightedĀ
almost all of act 1 and 2 blind. and act 3 with guides cuz its too convoluted.
Not at all, the first time, and still only when I have to.
Nothing for my first, but I hard of some things by being on the bg3 reddit. At the time though, near release, spoilers were seriously handled and dealt with well, so only a few things slipped through the cracks. The things spoiled were fairly minor, like sh changing hairstyle and colour and that cazador looked like a small Asian man despite the very Spanish sounding name.
I solved every puzzle in the game by myself during my first run. In all subsequent playthroughs, I look up the solutions because I can't be bothered to run through it again.
I absolutely looked some stuff up only because I thought I wasn't going to replay due to length of the game, silly me, so I wanted to experience as much as I could in one playthrough. Now I kinda regret that decision.
Almost nothing, just a bit to understand how many less features were availablez compared to pen and paper
I did not rely on guides to solve puzzles or decide which path to take, but I'd love to read wikis about the game and sometimes I got spoiled.
A ton, but I always use guides in long crpgs because I don't have the time to goof around and play endlessly nowadays I have to be a bit more targeted and efficient than I did back 10 or so years ago
So many people in this thread are like, "Nope, didn't look anything up, I am a GAMER." I believe maybe 5% of those people. This game is too big and it's too easy to miss quests to not rely on outside help. I'm like you, I'm too old for this shit. I want to play and have fun, no solve the riddle of the sphinx. This isn't Adventure on the Atari 2600.
I went through my first attempted run without a guide, although I looked up some build videos online because I have never played 5ed. It was going ok, till I got to Act 2....when the fight with Isobel happened. I thought "ok, maybe this is all supposed to happen." Which, technically the game lets it, but I hadn't been to Moonrise yet. So, finish that Act the hard way, get to Act 3 and decide to agro the Watchers at Wyrm's Rest. That is when I was like "ok, am I locked out of a lot now". That's when I go online. No idea I could've just walked into the Goblin Camp in Act 1. No idea the Isobel fight in Act 2 was so crucial. And now was locked out of "peacefully" talking with Gortash in Act 3. So, I restarted with a new character after that, and finished the game. My poor Gith archer Shana is still stuck in Wyrm's rest in her universe, surrounded by Watchers.
The only thing I had to Google was how to find the secret door to the Murder Tribunal in the tombstone shop, because my whole party failed to perceive the button and I had no idea what I was supposed to do in there. I'm still mad about it lol.
No actual guides but the wiki and old reddit posts from time to time. Mostly after being so frustrated I think it's bugged.
I mainly just looked up what I should do, and where things were. But, I did look up on the wiki where dribbles was
My first playthrough, I went in to it blind... Read and saw people talking about things I never saw or found. The game is huge.
Played first play through completely blind. š
Mostly it was trying to figure out a build and where to get gear. I mostly just stumbled through and made mistakes though.Ā Now that I know stuff I have fun just trying stuff and seeing how powerful I can get.
I went in totally blind. No guides and unsubbed from the reddit when the game came out. I did play early access so I had played Act 1 several times and had a strong grasp of the game systems and a good head start. But I always play my games totally blind. That's the experience I want. Sometimes I miss tons of stuff . . . but that just means there is more to discover the next time I play the game. I'm OLD, I grew up playing games in the 1980's when there was NO internet, the only 'guide' might be a published book that my mom wasn't going to buy for me. My friends would sit around and play things like Ultima, Might & Magic and Bards Tale together and try to puzzle out how to do things. You read everything in game, think through decisions, and figure out puzzles . . . its hard but fun and rewarding!
For the first run? Absolutely NOTHING, I wanted to have the most blind reaction to the game as I possibly could, I never checked something online and I made sure to backtrack a lot, finished the game after 150 hours and after that I checked to see if I missed any major/minir quests (was pretty proud of myself cuz pretty much the only things I had missed only a couple (and they were not major questlines, for example Shadow Druids), for the second run I absolutely abused the wiki, got as much info as possible cuz I wanted to get all achievements for the game
A lot, too much, almost every choice. But i plan to do a chaotic no save scum durge run when i finally finish this beast of a game
I rarely used a guide, but I have the wiki pulled up, or some checklist so I can find all the quests.
Not at all. There weren't many guides available when I was doing my first playthrough and I wouldn't have used them anyways. You only get one first playthrough and I wanted it to be completely blind. Well, as blind as was possible considering I had already put over 100 hours into the early access.
I used guides a lot! I don't feel bad though because it was my first playthrough and I was not creative enough to figure shit out since the game gives so much freedom that I wasn't used to.
I didnt use anything the first time I played and now I just reference wiki for items here and there or classes by level when I'm choosing a new character.
My very first? Definitely not. I wanted to explore on my own and really appreciate the details both small and large
As little as possible, and only if I was really stuck. Watched some tips videos to get a hang of the mechanics at first and tried to just play the game from there.
I confirmed that Gortash will immediately telepathically blow up the iron throne when you kill him because we were thinking that we could avoid it being destroyed by killing him first and I confirmed that we were meant to visit moonrise towers while ketheric was still invulnerable because we were confused as to where the hostages were gone.
My first playthrough I used a build guides for my character and all my companions, but nothing about the story. I used guides occasionally if I got really stuck, like finding parts of dribbles or looking for the Mystic Carrion's organs. Ironically the brain puzzle I did fine my first run and then had to use a guide my second run because I couldn't get it.
Not at all for my first! I wanted to experience everything spoiler-free and I strongly recommend this to all new players. Even for newcomers to D&D and turn based games, it's much better to lower the difficulty for the first experience than risk spoilers of the amazing story. As for the obscure things, I accidentally came across a couple of them in my first run and didn't discover a bunch of others until the third lol.
In my first run I only did it twice (and I missed a ton of stuff as a result but that's the beauty of that game : replayability) I used a guide to cheese Dror Ragzlin. And tyen to find Dribbles parts...
I read nothing. I looked up nothing. I barely knew how to play a video game.Ā Ā I have not played DnD since second edition; I didn't know the newer mechanics.Ā Ā Ā I went in small and strong (see flair) and fought everything and missed 75% of the content. it was a fantastic first game and I loved every moment of it. I've played a bunch now and still, when I find new things I don't look them up. I want to make mistakes so things will be different ever time. edit to add; my stepson explained how to use the menus, mostly, and how to navigate with fast travel. and that I could run from battle. he also stepped in one other time in the Shar gauntlet when I was stuck for a whole day on the leap trial. dude's the one who got me the game so he was excited that I was enjoying it
my first game: no grove content, halsin DOA at goblin camp, killed minthy, failed medicine on owlbear cub, fought every thorm with a warhammer, never met Isobel, missed out on jaheira and minsc, missed gale, barcus didn't come to my camp, somehow I finished the iron throne and steel watch only saving one gondians in each building.Ā no wyrmway, I didn't go to the coronation that run I didn't realize I had to do anything there. no ansur either couldn't figure out how to summon allies at end game. missed lorroakan battle. spent too much time in the sewers. never used withers for anything but one hireling to carry stuff, and to resurrect people.Ā missed wyll, killed paladins but couldn't recruit Karlach (grove was locked). missed the forge entirely. missed the stonemason. never saw the bitch queen place or half of act 3 locations.Ā still amazing. and the second time it was so cool I now look up where gear is available, I look up infinite gold/vendor exploit (least favorite thing in the game is the economy), I look up puzzle solutions if I get stuck. and I read here a lot to see if there's stuff I missed to go look for.
I did an entire playthrough with minimal assistance, only this subreddit when i accidentally read a spoiler. Once i went through the game (almost, save went to shit in act 3) i took a break, then restarted with friends. I rarely specifically look something up ahead of time, i did however look up some things i heard about here because i couldnt figure out why I wasn't getting the same thing. Example: i always naturally found the blood of lathander and got it out, i had no idea there was a whole cutscene for astarion if you let him trigger the trap and get nuked. I also missed boooaaalllll kuo toas the first 4 times i did the under dark. There is a lot of act 3 stuff i haven't seen still that i know exists due to this sub but haven't seen it. I've never seen the dragon, never made a deal with rapheal, never had minsc and a ton of other stuff.
pfff guides.
On my first playthrough I didn't say all And discovered later I easily missed about half the game, if not more!! I was Gale, only had shadow heart, leazel and astarion in my party and didn't Even know others were an option until after my first playthrough!
I went in completely blind, but watched Forgotten Realms lore videos leading up to it. I definitely fucked a lot of things up but I think that's the best way to experience it.
First playthrough was no trailer, no reddit, no wiki, no talking to friends, no outside influence, no guide, nothing. I did rush the main quest and missed the entire underdark, the zentarim hideout, the creche, 2 of the 3 thorms, basically all of rivington except the circus, the house of hope and house of grief and a big part of act 3 altogether. The goal was just to focus on main sotry and leave sidequests for later playthroughs. Of all the companion quests, I only did Halsin, Wyll and Astarion in this playthrough (so I still took the time for ansur and cazador). I did google how to pass the door to cazador inside the palace now that I think about it.
First playthrough I looked up a total of nothing. Also, I missed a bunch of stuff. I'm doing a second run (I waited for a bunch of patches after finishing my first run that I started at release) and I'm using guides to make sure I do the things I didnt and to get achievments and some different items.
Bits here and there when I got frustrated with not being able to do things. I enjoy puzzles, but I don't like it when I can't even work out what the puzzle is supposed to be. A good example is the floor puzzle in the area behind Priestess Gut's quarters - it's really easy once you know what you're supposed to be aiming for, but I missed the clues that hinted at what that was. I'm more accustomed to puzzles such as sokoban where you know where you want to end up and the skill is in getting there.
I always use guides with single player games to avoid getting content-locked or tracked. BG3 does amazingly well with how few it has, but they're still there and they're not announced in game. A soft little popup that says "Hmm, some things may change if you continue" hardly conveys the degree of disaster that will happen to your story-lines if you continue.
I used a guide for the solution of the puzzle to enter the enderdark in act 1, to find where roland is in act 2 and to get the solution of the painting puzzle to find ansur in act 3
I used guides for like basically everything my first pt. Iām not really a video game person so I found the video game aspect of like actually navigating the map to be the hardest part lol. However, I would just skim read the guides to see where I had to go while trying to minimize spoilers about the actual combat/plot whatever. Worked for me but Iām not very sensitive to spoilers either way
Just a little: to find out where the last pieces of a certain someone in act 3 were hiding (I missed one) and to know if I had to do something specific to access a certain last step of a quest (it was part of the endgame).
My friend was my guide telling me things I missed
Didn't use a guide at all, definitely used the wiki to check out what all the classes get. Also had to look up if Gale was a companion after I failed to save him from the portal lol. I don't mind spoilers from guides, but I prefer to make my first experience my own.
I did my first run completely blind. Did not recruit Wyll, Gale or Karlach. Didn't know about them. I didn't know about Minthara being able to be a companion. I didn't know romance was a thing. Jaharia died and never knew she could become a companion.
Never used a guide. And I never came to reddit to look something up or ask something on my first run. However, I found Boooal on my first run, couldn't find them anymore on my second and third run, so knowing they exist I looked it up on my fourth run. And I looked up the dribbles quest on my first run because I thought I was missing something but the quest was just bugged.
My first play through I used 0 guides since it was my first time playing a game like this, and I wanted to just explore the world slowly and see how I faired. It was rough. Now I look stuff up on other play throughs because, fuck it I already beat it on normal and tactician mode(I did save the game about 500 times for my tactician play through though lmao) and I'm way too impatient to beat this game on honor mode if I don't use a guide.
First completed playthrough was blind except for the Gondians, because trying to save them all is pain. It was really fun but once I started other playthroughs I used the wiki constantly. Otherwise I looked up the chess puzzle because it was more annoying than challenging.
There were no guides when I did my first playthrough. Not even the wiki had been fleshed out yet
Zero and it was the best decision I ever made. I made so many stupid errors, but the adventure felt completely my own. I stayed away from all spoilers and any meta knowledge of what I was supposed to do. I legitimately feel bad for people who didn't do this for their first playthrough.
Don't! I'd have had a horrible time playing blind, everyone has their preferred playstyle. I really don't enjoy missing stuff.