Larian Studios has released a patch for the Baldur’s Gate 3 Patch 8 stress test, signalling progress is being made towards a full release of the final major update to the beloved Dungeons & Dragons based role-playing game.
Stress Test Update 1 is now available across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and PC, and includes mostly bug fixes focusing on things like Gale getting greedy for magical items again and radial menus showing their descriptions as intended.
Larian has also made “some fixes” for crossplay but is still investigating how to get it working properly. Photo mode has also been updated to include additional features and quality-of-life changes, alongside regular big fixes too. The full patch notes are available below.
Baldur’s Gate 3 Patch 8 marks the end of an era for what’s arguably the most beloved role-playing game of all time, though given its grandeur Larian released it in a closed beta form to iron out kinks ahead of a proper launch.
It originally went live a touch early but everything is in order now, with Larian seemingly planning to release a few patches for the patch before it’s deemed ready for public release. No release window has been given for when this might be.
In our 10/10 review of the base Baldur’s Gate 3, IGN said: “With crunchy, tactical RPG combat, a memorable story with complex characters, highly polished cinematic presentation, and a world that always rewards exploration and creativity, Baldur’s Gate 3 is the new high-water mark for CRPGs.”
Baldur’s Gate 3 Patch 8 – Stress Test Update 1 Patch Notes
Gameplay
- Fixed containers inside inventories not scattering their contents when they get destroyed, which could potentially lead to key quest items getting lost for good.
- Fixed a bug causing Oath of the Crown paladins to lose spell slots instead of gaining them when levelling up.
- Fixed an issue where picking up items from the ground in multiplayer could then block movement via the controller stick.
- Fixed the Wild Shape: Panther’s Prowl action and Prowling condition not working correctly.
- Fixed a bug where items getting added to the inventory would lose their conditions. This could cause, for example, the Elemental Cleaver buff to disappear when the imbued weapon is thrown.
- Shadow Blade will now retain the behaviour of being locked to the caster when upcast.
Photo Mode
- Added an in-game pop-up for Photo Mode that triggers at the beach at the start of the game and can be found in the Journal.
- Updated Photo Mode’s screenshot function on Steam Deck so that it uses Steam’s proprietary screenshot function, so you can access your photos more readily from the Steam Screenshots page.
- Prevented characters from being able to pop into private cutscenes while activating Photo Mode when playing in multiplayer.
- Hid the ‘Toggle Photo Preview’ legend while taking screenshots via Steam’s screenshot function.
- Fixed Photo Mode making the screen go blurry when opened on split screen.
- Added camera shutter SFX when taking a photo in Photo Mode.
- Fixed the Attacking and Jumping poses for wolves.
- Fixed a cross appearing in the middle of the screen when the Vignette is at its thickest setting.
- Fixed some creatures not listening when you select the ‘Look At Camera’ option.
- Fixed the game sometimes freezing when switching quickly between tabs in Photo Mode.
- Improved the Depth of Field sliders so the strength and distance scale in proportion to the slider itself.
- Fixed an issue causing dragonborn tails to appear detached from the body.
- The Grasping Vine’s poses now work correctly.
Cross-Play
- Fixed an issue that could get the client stuck in a loading screen if the client unfriends the host and then clicks ‘Join Party’ after re-adding the host.
- Fixed some of the PS5 splashscreens not showing up when they should.
- Fixed a crash at the start of combat.
Subclasses
- The Booming Blade tooltip now updates its values when upcast.
- Fixed an inaccurate bonus value in the Rakish Audacity tooltip.
- Updated Toll the Dead and Bursting Sinew to work with Potent Cantrip and deal half damage on saves.
- Fixed Pact of the Blade’s Extra Attack being added to Deepened Pact even if you didn’t choose Pact of the Blade.
Art
- Fixed an issue causing the Flaming Fist armour to clip and generally freak out a bit.
UI
- Fixed a bug with Gale’s donation UI preventing you from feeding him magical items.
- All of the Hexblade’s class actions and subclass features are now shown correctly in Character Creation.
- Fixed button or keyboard shortcut inputs in the UI sometimes not working.
- Fixed some Reaction tooltips like Divine Allegiance not showing some values correctly in the description.
- Fixed a bug causing the UI to lock up when rapidly switching between keyboard and mouse input and controller input.
- Fixed a bug where opening the Main Menu on controller wouldn’t automatically select the ‘Resume’ option at the top of the menu.
- Fixed the condition icons on the party line getting duplicated when transitioning between acts during cross-play.
- Fixed some settings that were missing their wrap-around navigation functionality on controller, preventing you from looping from the last option back to the first option with the same button input.
- Fixed a bug where you’d have to deselect your current passive when respeccing a character before selecting a new one. Now, you can just click the new one.
- Fixed a bug that caused the toggleable Illithid Powers to disappear from the Character Sheet and be uninteractable in the Illithid Powers UI.
- Fixed player avatars not showing up in the multiplayer/cross-play lobby.
Scripting
- With 12 new subclasses arriving in Patch 8, we’ve rechecked some achievements, including ensuring the armed version of Stunning Strike no longer counts as an unarmed attack for the Fists of Fury achievement, and its unarmed variant now does.
- Monks’ Unarmed Strike bonus action now also correctly counts toward the Action Surge achievement.
Crashes
- Fixed a crash when trying to start a game from a lobby multiple times.
- Fixed several crashes and freezes related to the UI.
- Fixed a crash on Vulkan when taking a photo in Photo Mode.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
