You'd think the hardest part of beating Honor Mode in Baldur's Gate 3 would be all the big, ugly boss battles. Well, yes, you'd be right to think that, but as anyone with a few game moves under their belt knows, you can actually avoid a few of them if you're smart about it.
Yet you can just as easily talk yourself into a fight you're also woefully unprepared for. Gortash is a particularly bad offender at this, and as one unfortunate player found out, choosing the wrong dialogue option with him can cause you to end the game. right before the final stretch.
If you want to beat Honor Mode, don't let Gortash think you're weak
“I just lost my Honor Run because of the dialogue,” says a Reddit user. “I sided with Gortash and just defeated Orin. I set up Gale's story so he could shoot himself on the stop. I went back to Gortash and gave him the stone, but apparently it was too easy for him and he doesn't want to be my partner anymore, so he attacked.”
As they go on to explain, they weren't expecting a boss battle, so they didn't rest or bring any supplies to help them. The ensuing fight means 70 hours of gameplay has been flushed down the drain.
So what went wrong? You can absolutely form an alliance with Gortash that will allow you to skip his boss fight, you just have to play your cards right. Basically do what they do and get Orin's netherstone. Bring it to Gortash, but refuse to hand it over and keep it for yourself as insurance. It turns out that asking you to hand over the rock was a test to see if you were a smart enough ally. When you hand him over, you'll tell him you're not, and that starts the boss fight.
Honestly, the player did well to navigate Gortash to this point, as he is incredibly easy to agitate. If you don't show proper respect as an Archduke during your coronation, the entire room will be hostile to you, and at that point in the game you'll have trouble taking out one of the Steel Sentinels, let alone the entire room – plus Gortash, Flaming Fist, Ulder Ravengard, and all the various traps around the place.
As many have pointed out in the responses to the Reddit post, you really shouldn't experiment while running Honor Mode. Think of a path and stick to it. You never know how someone will react when you say the wrong thing…
- Released
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August 3, 2023
- ESRB
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M for Mature: Blood and gore, partial nudity, sexual content, strong language, violence
- Engine
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Divinity 4.0
- Multiplayer
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Online Co-Op, Local Co-Op
- Cross-platform play
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Full cross platform game.
