Summary

• Luality conquered Baldur's Gate 3's Honor Mode with strict restrictions, completing the campaign without companions, resting, trading, using NPCs, or talking to Withers.
• Despite the intense challenge, Luality plans to design an even tougher campaign for Baldur's Gate 3, showcasing intricate character-building skills and luck in dice rolls.
• While Larian Studios has begun work on new original games, Baldur's Gate 3 players continue to push the boundaries of difficulty in the RPG world.

Given the flexibility afforded to players in the most punishing way to play through Larian Studios' RPG is Honor Mode, a setting that's designed to eliminate most of the exploits players often use to work around some of the difficult encounters. Still, even with only a single save and permadeath, that just wasn't enough for some.

What may be Baldur's Gate 3's most punishing self-imposed challenge has just been completed by streamer Luality, who shared a video of their success on X (formerly Twitter).

They managed to complete the entire campaign without any Companions, Long or Short Rests, Trading or Stealing from NPCS, using Tadpoles, and talking to Withers to respec their build or recruit hirelings. Luality's excitement for completing the run is certainly warranted given the number of restrictions in place, especially when the challenge was completed within Honor Mode, meaning they weren't allowed to die once.

What New Challenges Await In Baldur's Gate 3?

You Can't Keep A Talented Fan Down

Despite their incredible success, Luality isn't yet ready to call it a day on Baldur's Gate 3, suggesting that they already have some ideas on how to design an even more punishing campaign. What they are remains to be seen but it's difficult to imagine making the experience even more challenging. In explaining how they completed the most recent run, Luality notes that their character was never able to regain Spell Slots, due to their inability to Rest, and all healing had to be done with potions found naturally in the world.

Without taking into consideration the lack of resources and assistance that can generally be found in a normal game of Baldur's Gate 3, what further adds to the complexity of Luality's Honor run is the element of luck. Considering success and failure are so often determined by the roll of the dice, it's essential that players build characters optimized to succeed on as many checks as possible. Luality's success not only demonstrates their knowledge of the game at large but also their intricate sense of character building to survive the many dice rolls thrown their way.

Baldur's Gate 3 may have largely wrapped up development but players hoping for it's just started work on two original games set within their own universe. When these will be released remains to be seen but given the studio's reputation for quality, it might be a while yet.

Source: Luality/X