Baldur's Gate 3 Honour Mode explained

Dec. 1, 2023

Honour Mode is the Baldur’s Gate 3 answer to hardcore mode with permadeath and one save slot

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The new Baldur’s Gate 3 Honour Mode difficulty option provides a serious challenge for those who breezed through Tactician. Permadeath, a single save slot, and tougher bosses are the most notable features, turning what is an already challenging game in places to a brutally tough turn-based RPG, where every decision counts both in and out of combat. If you want to know more about this mode before getting into it, I’ve laid out everything you need to know about Honour Mode in Baldur’s Gate 3.

How Honour Mode works in Baldur’s Gate 3

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Honour Mode is a new difficulty option forBaldur’s Gate 3that adds tougher bosses, stricter rules, a single save slot, and permadeath if you suffer a Total Party Kill. It builds on the game’s Tactician difficulty, which already makes things plenty harder, so it’s an unrelenting experience for seasoned players. If you persevere and complete the whole game on Honour Mode, you’ll be rewarded with an opulent Golden D20 to use in-game. Not a real D20, sadly.

Honour Mode is available to all players from the start of the game. You don’t need to complete the whole of Baldur’s Gate 3 to unlock it or anything like that, though I strongly advise against it for first-time players. To activate it on theBaldur’s Gate 3 difficultyselection screen, scroll to the right, as Honour Mode is next to Tactician. Do note that you also can’t activate Honour Mode on a game that you’ve already started – it’s for new campaigns only.

Here’s what to expect when you start a new campaign with Honour Mode active:

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