Those trying to woo one of the more problematic companions in Baldur’s Gate 3 are getting more content in the latest update. Hotfix #5 is out, updating companion and romantic content for Minthara in Baldur’s Gate 3.
Minthara is one of the evil leaders in the first act of Baldur’s Gate 3, commanding a legion of goblins and monsters to destroy the grove and its denizens for the Absolute. Most players, I’d imagine, side against Minthara and her crew.
But if Baldur’s Gate 3 has taught me anything, it’s that RPG fans do love to walk on the wild side. Hotfix #5 has many bug fixes, but a key number of them are for the Minthara sympathizers and romancers.
If approval is high enough, a Minthara romance will progress in Act 3, unlocking more dialogue to deepen the relationship and learn more about the Drow Paladin. Both lines of interactive dialogue and “non-interactive voiced lines” are available. And of course, the party will comment on your relationship too. Minthara doesn’t seem to take kindly to competition, as it turns out.
At least some of the dialogue was getting blocked out due to a pesky bug, as Larian’s Swen Vincke recently told IGN. And now those hankering for a long-term relationship with the Absolute’s murderess can get their due. I’m allowed to judge, because I’m definitely also romancing Minthara in my next run-through of Baldur’s Gate 3. To judge romantic preferences in BG3 is to lob boulders around a glass prison labelled “Horny Jail,” and there is no one innocent inside.
Alongside the Minthara updates, PlayStation 5 players who recently got early access should see some updates ahead of the full launch tomorrow. Larian Studios has been steadily tuning this massive adventure for a while now, even post-launch, and I’m happy to see that my evil Dark Urge run will have more content waiting down a very blood-soaked Act 1 path. Here’s all the details from today’s Hotfix, with spoilers redacted—if you want to see the full spoiler text, check it out here.
Baldur’s Gate 3 Hotfix #5 patch notes
HIGHLIGHTS
- Fixed a bug that locked players out of many of Minthara’s lines of dialogue.
CRASHES AND BLOCKERS
- Fixed sometimes not being able to talk to NPCs or party members because the game thought you were still in a dialogue.
- Fixed a rare crash that would occur when faraway characters got close to the party.
- Fixed a crash that would occur if a guard responding to a crime created a summon (e.g. an elemental), and you fled the combat or were incapacitated without killing the summon.
- PS5
- Fixed an issue causing the game’s audio to stop working on PS5.
- Fixed graphical issues on HDR TVs when the HDR black level calibration was set to 0.
- Fixed a crash that would occur when opening the onscreen keyboard.
PERFORMANCE
- Fixed a memory leak when creating and destroying many objects.
MULTIPLAYER
- Improved performance when cycling through Character Sheet tabs in splitscreen.
- Fixed splitscreen not working correctly when a client with splitscreen already enabled joins a multiplayer game.
- Fixed dismissed avatars not showing up properly in Withers’ Wardrobe if the host is at camp and is already looking inside the wardrobe.
- Fixed characters sometimes disappearing on splitscreen when the client reconnects after disconnecting while listening in on a dialogue.
- Clients rejoining a multiplayer game where there’s a dismissed avatar in Withers’ Wardrobe will now be able to pick that avatar up again rather than have to create a new avatar. (This bug would happen when the client left the session and another player selected that client’s avatar in the middle of the dismiss-to-camp dialogue.)
FLOW AND GAMEPLAY
- Trader NPCs will now retain their Approval Rating of avatars and companions even after they’re dismissed to Withers’ Wardrobe.
- Fixed [SPOILER] not dying and therefore not triggering the Game Over flow if you bring him to 0 HP outside of combat in [SPOILER].
- Fixed not being able to talk to Minthara at camp if you dismissed her outside of camp.
- Fixed Level Up not working as expected if you level up while the game is saving.
- Fixed Hag’s Bane not having an effect on Auntie Ethel.
UI
- Fixed text being cut off in the title of tutorial pop-ups.
- Fixed button prompts getting cut off on the Multiplayer Settings screen on splitscreen.
- Fixed some UIs not updating when saving, causing, for example, Shadowheart’s inventory to appear empty when you recruit her on the beach.
- Fixed the tadpole count in the Radial Menu on controller.
CONTROLLER
- Fixed characters getting stuck when the Analog Stick Selection setting is set to Left Stick and you rotate the stick in circles as far as it can go.
ART
- Added nipple covers to [SPOILERS] for when the nudity filter is enabled.
LEVEL DESIGN
- Moved Withers’ Wardrobe in the crèche camp to avoid clipping with Shadowheart’s tent.
