Keen to avoid softlocks in Baldur's Gate 3's honour mode? Don't accidentally leave your hammer in camp
You know forgetting to pick up your keys when you leave the house? Think that, but with The Orphic Hammer.
It seems that there are some rather bizarre ways you can inadvertently get stuck during an uber-tough honour mode playthrough of Baldur's Gate 3, with one player having reported stumbling across one that’s caused by forgetting to pick up your hammer at the right time.
BG3’s honour mode is deliberately designed to offer a tougher challenge than even the fearsome tactician difficulty setting, with the likes of permadeath and the inability to reload previous saves adding to the genuinely terrifying vibes. That said, having your run end because you’ve had a bit of a memory lapse seems a bit harsh for even the most masochistic of adventurers.
Yet, according to one Reddit user, that’s exactly what can happen if you go about things in a certain way. Towards the end of their run, this poor player detailed in a post on the BG3 subreddit, this poor player went to take on the Netherbrain after accepting Raphael’s deal for the Orphic Hammer, with plans to side with Orpheus.
However, once they’d reached the point of no return, they realised that they’d left the hammer in the inventory of a companion they’d left behind at their camp.
“Nobody in my party has it in their inventory, and now I'm stuck in the Astral Prism with no way to leave it or free Orpheus to progress with the ending,” they lamented. “I can't reload my save. I could jump off the edge and kill my party, but that would end my run. The scene with Raphael when you 'misplace' the Orphic Hammer didn't trigger, and if I approach Orpheus there is only one dialogue option: 1. (end).”
They capped off their harrowing account by declaring: “So, now all that's left to do is to pray that Larian somehow fixes this interaction…”
It turns out they're the only one who’s managed to run into this either, with another player replying: “This is exactly how I messed up my honour run. I was dominating every fight, it felt like a formality that I’d be finishing the run that night, but I can’t escape the astral prism because I sent the Orphic Hammer to camp before going to the Netherbrain.”
Thankfully, if you encounter this issue while playing on PC, it is seemingly possible to get around it by adding the hammer to your character’s inventory using console commands.
If the thread is anything to go by, there’s a fairly lengthy list of other points at which it’s possible to have your honour mode run become stuck if something goes wrong, with some players arguing in favour of allowing yourself to kill the game in order to reload a non-softlocked save in instances when the game’s limitations are causing trouble.
Those who’re more interested in getting to know BG3 companions quite intimately than challenging themselves to an honour mode run will be glad to know that Larian is investigating some bans on Xbox that’ve apparently been caused by recording steamy scenes.