Baldur’s Gate 3: How To Change Difficulty

Changing the difficulty setting in Baldur’s Gate 3 is thankfully not too difficult. You’re struggling too much or want a bigger challenge? We’ll show you how to change the difficulty in the game.

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Baldur's Gate 3 difficulty settings explained: Here's how you change the game's difficulty.| © Larian

Baldur’s Gate 3 can be pretty tough at times. That’s why you should quicksave a lot and choose the right difficulty! You get a choice between three different options at the beginning of the game. And if you want to change the difficulty during your playthrough, you can easily do that. We’ll show you how.

Baldur’s Gate 3: Changing Difficulty In One Easy Step

You can change the Baldur’s Gate 3 difficulty setting at any time in the main menu. Just open the menu and you’ll see a tab called “Difficulty”. Here you can switch between the three options the game offers: Explorer, Normal and Tactician.

Difficulty level

Description

ExplorerA narrative experience placing story before combat.
BalancedA balanced adventure full of challenging choices.
Tactician A tough campagin emphasising strategic combat.


The Baldur’s Gate 3 difficulty settings mainly influence combat difficulty. Tactician is the game’s version of a hardcore mode. Enemies have tons of HP and deal a lot more, stealth is harder and dice rolls fail more often. Go for it if you’re really looking for a challenge, but beware that it will really drag out fights and properly test your mettle.

BG3 difficulty settings
Yes, I'm playing on Explorer. Don't judge me... | © Larian

General Tips To Make The Game Easier

If you’re struggling with the game, we have some easy tips for you right here:

Save constantly

You can quicksave with F5 and you should do it! A lot! Everything can go wrong at any moment in Baldur’s Gate 3, so it’s best to be prepared and have a save ready that you can load without losing too much progress.

The quill is mightier than the sword

Combat is hard in Baldur’s Gate 3. However, often you can avoid fights by talking your way out of situations. If you’re struggling with combat, pick a character with high Charisma and Persuasion values and hope you pass the ability checks.

Come back later

If you are stuck on a fight and feel like you’re underleveled, just come back later. But: some quests are locked by story progress, so beware of that and make sure you have a save you can come back to, in case you miss out on something you’d like to do.