Offscreen secrets in Baldur's Gate 3 include an 'asylum for plot-critical NPCs' and a "magical teleporting Death Journal" to help murderous players locate Act 2.

SlimX, a Baldur's gate 3 YouTuber, has released a video of 25 minutes that explains all the tricks and shortcuts Larian employed to make Baldur Gate 3's First Act work. There's a holding pen where plot-critical NPCs can hang out, and a "magical death journal" that will point you to Act 2 if you kill all of the NPCs that would otherwise direct you to it.

Baldur's Gate 3's ability to adapt and respond to player choices is a constant source of amazement. This is partly due to the fact that I've never played a RPG with more consistent rules. Items and characters don't appear or disappear in the air. If you sell Dammon a +1 Dagger during Act 1, he will still have it in Act 3 because BG3 uses a single NPC database for the entire game, rather than multiple copies or instances as you may see elsewhere. To support all of this, BG3 uses some unique and strange digital machines whirring behind the scenes.

SlimX's video focuses on something called "the asylum" in BG3 files. This is the place where characters that can't be located anywhere in the overworld are stored when not in use. This digital green room is where everyone from Mizora and Sceleritas Fel, the goblin butler, hangs out when it's their turn. Quil Grootslag, a pantsless bard who plays the role of a murder victim, is also present. "The Absolute" or an NPC stand-in that delivers the voice lines of a deity from offscreen is also there. There's also the full-power, Act 3 boss fight ready vampire lord Cazador who's on call for a dream scene experienced by player origin Astarion.

Halsin's journal Vol. You can also find out about Halsin's Journal Vol. This book is meant to give you a hint about the Shadow Curse or Moonrise if you kill Halsin and Minthara first before they can explain them to you. The book will teleport to the inventory of whichever of the two has died last, giving it its name "magical teleporting Death Journal" in BG3 script files.

There are also many other oddities. The "realm of naked men" appears, as well as the backgrounds for character creation, leveling up, and key cutscenes without corresponding locations on a map. The version of House of Hope in Act 1 is just a small part of the dungeon. Some early access NPCs and other cut NPCs are still around, such as the Oscar-winning Tiefling scammer Nerela.

I think one of the most surprising secrets is the field of portrait backgrounds that are out in the void. These are the backgrounds for our character's little in-game icon. It's not clear to me how they work. But I wonder if Larian’s unique system of producing portraits can explain some of those persistent little bugs, like the weird copies Oscar Fevras would make.

I find it gratifying that I can see the process of getting one of my favorite Baldur's gate 3 games to run. Videos like this could be useful for modders who want to create their own adventures using BG3's cracked tools. SlimX has indicated that he may do a similar treatment to the other acts of the game. You can view his entire body of work on his YouTube channel.