One of the greatest things aboutBaldur’s Gate 3is the endless amounts of replayability. With the recent patch includingmod support, many fans are replaying the game for whole new experiences.
Evil playthroughs in particular were given a special treat: new,evil endings.
Baldur’s Gate 3: Best Romances for The Dark Urge, Ranked
From Astarion to Shadowheart, these are the best romance choices for Dark Urge in Baldur’s Gate 3.
One of the best ways to play an evil playthrough, specifically, is throughThe Dark Urge, one of the origin characters with a particularly bloody past. Players can choose to act on the evil urges that their character faces, orreject those impulsesand redeem themselves.
Some choices in The Dark Urge’s playthrough, though, are particularly evil. Most players won’t choose them, unless they want to be a particularly evil character. If that’s the case, these are the best options to become Faerûn’s ultimate villain.
This article contains spoilers for The Dark Urge storyline and evil playthroughs.
10Torture Goblins
Moonrise Towers, Act II
When players first get toMoonrise Towersin Act II, they are instructed to meetKetheric Thormin the throne room. Upon arriving, they would walk in on a small group of goblins facing judgment against Ketheric andDisciple Z’rell.
For their failure to find theAstral Prism, they are sentenced to death. However, before anyone carries out their sentence, Ketheric suggests that the player actually be the one to seal their fate.
Players can have the goblins kill themselves in various gruesome ways (or set them free, but that’s for good playthroughs). For The Dark Urge, though, players have special dialogue, where they can actually have the goblins beg for their lives before being brutally killed anyway.
Sure, it’s just a bunch of goblins, but it’s a fairly cruel thing to do, especially with the terror in their voices.
9Kill Pandirna
Emerald Grove, Act I
Hidden behind locked doors in theEmerald Grove, players are able to run into the tieflingPandirna. Be sure not to be seenlockpicking the doorby the guards before running in.
She’s borderline hostile at first, since she’s in a particularly vulnerable state: she’s paralysed. After taking one ofAuntie Ethel’spotions that was meant to help her strength, she lost the ability to use her legs, which is why she’s guarding treasure in a locked room rather than being out with everyone else.
The Dark Urge, of course, has an all too familiar urge upon finding her: break her legs and kill her. Doing so won’t alert the guards outside, and it allows players to loot the treasure that she’s guarding as well.
8Kick Timber The Squirrel
Of course, with The Dark Urge, animal cruelty isn’t an exception in their long list of sins of atrocities. This is reflected early on in the Emerald Grove in Act I, when players stumble uponTimber the Squirrel.
Timber is incredibly territorial and protective, to where players will be threatened outright if they haveSpeak with Animalscast.
Baldur’s Gate 3: 8 Boss Fights That Can Be Avoided With Charisma Rolls
In Baldur’s Gate 3, players have the ability to simply talk their way out of a fight, including boss fights. These are 8 boss fights.
The Dark Urge’s intrusive thought is specifically to kick Timber as hard as possible.
Acting upon these urges is about as violent as one would expect, with the helpless squirrel being killed immediately upon impact with a tree. Party members will have comments on this depending on who is present, and most of them aren’t too thrilled about this action.
7Cut Off Gale’s Hand
Roadside Cliffs, Act I
One of the first evil choices that players are faced with is one of the most elusive.
Galecan be found on theRoadside Cliffsnear the initialNautaloidcrashsite, trapped inside a purple portal. Upon interacting, he’ll reach his hand through, asking for help, and the intrusive thoughts grow louder. This time, The Dark Urge longs to fantasise about cutting off his hand.
It’s not a fantasy, though — if this option is selected, The Dark Urge will give into those fantasies and actually cut off Gale’s hand. This effectively kills him, and prevents him from being able to join the party.
Funny enough, though, his hand can be used as an offering at theMurderTribunalin Act III.
6Kill Isobel
Last Light Inn, Act II
The urges don’t just long for petty violence or mayhem — it wants death and blood. It wants piles upon piles of bodies, with Isobel’s at the very top.
Most players choose not tokill Isobeldue to the protection that she provides forLast Light Inn. She’s able to keep theShadow Curseat bay, which means that killing her will kill every single person sheltering there — refugees, children, innocents, nobody would be safe.
Killing Isobel will grant Dark Urge players theSlayer form, and an incredibly powerful monster transformation. However, this comes at the expense of everyone else there, and players will have to fight them as well if they plan to continue.
5Kill The Bard
Camp, Act I
For Dark Urge players selecting choices that result in the piles of bodies Bhaal is longing for, one interaction at camp will set the foundation for these corpses. This unfortunate victim is a sweet bard that comes to camp begging to join the party.
Typically, this bard is the tieflingAlfirafrom the Emerald Grove.
Baldur’s Gate 3: 10 Best Voice Performances, Ranked
Baldur’s Gate 3 has a wide range of vocal talent, with everyone providing amazing performances for the game. Here are the 10 best ones.
However, if the grove was slaughtered already, or ifAlfira was miraculously saved, a dragonborn named Quil Grootslang would come to camp instead.
Either way, this bard will be ritually murdered overnight, and players will have to figure outwhat to do with the body. It’s a tone shift that shocks most players the first time they encounter it, the first evil before many more atrocities in the game.
4Instigate Arabella’s Death
For The Dark Urge, the death of a child is a tragedy that never gets old.
Upon entering the Emerald Grove for the first time in Act I, players are expected to go speak withKagha, the new first druid. Instead, they find her threatening a tiefling child,Arabella, with her snake.
Arabella had stolen the sacredIdol of Silvanus, an action that has dire consequences, especially if the player is an evil Dark Urge.
There’s a specific option that involves flicking your eyes away while looking at Arabella, encouraging her to run. Selecting it would prompt Arabella to try an escape, but immediately be bitten by Kagha’s snake as a result.
This kills her instantly, a direct result of the player’s choices.
3Kill Minthara After Raiding The Grove
By now, most players on an evil playthrough are familiar with raiding the Emerald Grove. For a while, this was the only way toromance the drow Minthara, but recent patches created a new method torecruit her on good playthroughs.
However, raiding the grove is one of the earliest, most evil actions players can take on. It’s difficult to muster the strength to do it and to follow through, and the game doesn’t pull any punches about how terrible of an action it is.
After raiding the grove, players are able to complete their spicy romance scene with Minthara, and have an intimate moment of vulnerability afterwards. Minthara confesses deep fears that she’s hiding, and The Dark Urge, having gone an entire fifteen minutes without killing anyone, wants to take another life.
While cuddling, The Dark Urge has a special option to snap her neck, betraying her and the goblins after all the carnage they’ve brought together.
2Become Bhaal’s Chosen (and The Absolute)
Temple of Bhaal, Act III
The biggest mystery surrounding The Dark Urge is one question:where do these urges come from?
Well, they’re fromBhaalhimself, as The Dark Urge is aBhaalspawn, born from a corpse and raised by the desire for ritual slaughter. One of the leading antagonists,Orin, is actually their little sister.
Baldur’s Gate 3: 10 NPCs We Wish We Could Romance
There are a variety of romance options in Baldur’s Gate 3, but there are a few NPCs in the game that we wish we could still romance.
After defeating Orin in theTemple of Bhaal, Bhaal approaches The Dark Urge from a pool of blood, demanding that they become his new chosen and take overThe Absolutefor themselves.
They can reject Bhaal’s influence, but this is an evil playthrough, so instead, players choose to embrace him. By becoming Bhaal’s chosen, they are the disciple of murder, and will claim The Absolute in their father’s name by the end of the game.
This doesn’t save the world — it dooms it.
1Make Minsc Kill Jaheira
If players accept Bhaal withMinscandJaheirain the party, they’re met with a scene where both of them reject their former ally and declare The Dark Urge as an enemy. This leads into a fight, but only if they choose to talk.
Lest we forget, Minsc is tadpoled, andthe tadpolecan be influenced by anyone else who has theMind Flayer’s parasite.
One such influence, Minsc’s final influence, would force him to kill Jaheira by his own hand. The screams he lets out after he realises what has happened are harrowing, and it’s a decision that is hard to manifest, even for players that want evil outcomes.
This choice is without a doubt the most evil one that players can take, and it’s exclusive to The Dark Urge, a cherry on top of the sins and death that they wish to reign.
Baldur’s Gate 3: 10 Best Honour Mode Builds
Honour Mode is a brutal challenge to new and veteran players of Baldur’s Gate 3. These are the best builds to help get through it.
Baldur’s Gate 3
WHERE TO PLAY
23 years on from the release of the seminal RPG, Baldur’s Gate 2, the third game in the series has been developed by Larian Studios (of Divinity: Original Sin fame). Set over 120 years after the events of the last game, Baldur’s Gate 3 tasks you and your party of heroes to fight off a mind flayer invasion of Faerun, while seeking a way to remove the tadpole in your brain that’s slowly turning you into the enemy…
