As soon as you start yourBaldur’s Gate 3journey, you have three options to pick from. Difficulty options are present in nearly every video game, and Larian Studios’ latest title is no different. You can either choose from Explorer, Balanced, or Tactician, but which of the difficulty settings should you go for inBaldur’s Gate 3? We’ll answer this question and explain each one below.
Baldur’s Gate 3: Explorer, Balanced, or Tactician difficulty settings?
There are three different difficulty options to choose from:Explorer, Balanced, and Tactician. Like most games, you’ll probably know what they each translate to, but there’s more to them than meets the eye. Remember, you’re allowed to change your difficulty anytime you like, so you aren’t stuck to one option for the entire game.
If you’re new toBaldur’s Gate, or RPGs in general, perhaps consider starting your campaign on Explorer. This is the beginner setting, or as some games call it, the story mode. Want to just sit back and playBaldur’s Gate 3like it’s a long-running television series? This may be the best option for you. Of course, there’s still combat, but itmakes enemies easier to kill and Trader prices better.
One other interesting aspect is the change in your Proficiency bonus. Typically, it’s at a +2 at the start, but that’ll be doubled for a+4 Proficiency bonusto anything you’re Proficient in. This makes dice rolling a lot easier, no matter if it’s in or out of combat.
The typicalBaldur’s Gate 3experience will be its middle mode called Balanced. This is a medium difficulty, not too hard, but not too easy. It makescombat still quite tactical, but you also won’t down enemies in one round.
Balanced is a good mix of both easy and hard modes, and will probably be most players’ choice of difficulty. If you enjoyed the difficulty you played on during the Early Access period, stick with Balanced. Explorer and Tactician are two new difficulty settings introduced in the full version.
If you want to have a tough challenge, try out this mode. Tactician is basically your hard difficulty, and I’d recommend it for any player who knows D&D extremely well or has played aBaldur’s Gategame before. This challenging mode is going to make you scratch your head during combat and reload your save files often.
Not only arethe enemies’ health and AC set higher, but enemies play smarter. Larian Studios designed the enemy AI to know how to react to certain situations and adapt. Even playing with the environment is important. Just remember that your enemy will also know how to make the environment work to their advantage.
Baldur’s Gate 3is available onSteam.
Anyka Pettigrew
Anyka Pettigrew has been a Staff Writer for PC Invasion since November 2023 and a Contributing Writer since February 2023. She is a Canadian graduate of a Bachelor of Arts degree who has been writing in games journalism for four years. Anyka is an avid guides writer but also enjoys writing anything from news pieces, to reviews, and even opinion pieces. Having a never-ending passion for video games for as long as she can remember got her into a plethora of genres like action adventure, RPGs, horror, survival etc. Some of her favorite franchises are God of War, Persona, The Last of Us, Zelda, and Resident Evil. She also enjoys reading fantasy and sci-fi books, as well as drawing digital art. Anyka also regularly listens to podcasts on gaming news from ‘Kinda Funny Games’, and ‘Play, Watch, Listen’.
