Larian Studios has announced that the next update is coming soon to Baldur's Gate 3 Early Access, titled Patch 4.
And while this is great news because Larian continues to improve the game, unfortunately, due to the vast amount of changes, this also means that old save files will be incompatible with Patch 4.
For many players in Early Access (and millions have already bought the game) this means that all their time investment and progress will be lost. And although they were well aware of that risk, knowing that they are playing an early access version of the game which is bound to undergo many changes, it still hurts to see your progress invalidated.
(Picture: Larian Studios)
Worry not, we have good news! Thanks to the Betas system that Steam offers, it is possible to continue playing your old save even after Patch 4.
Although you won't be able to play your old save with Patch 4 due to incompatibility, you will be able to continue playing Patch 3 version of the game with your old save.
Baldur's Gate 3: How to continue playing Patch 3 save file
Thanks to the Betas function on Steam, you will be able to continue playing on Patch 3 even after Patch 4 releases.
To continue playing your Patch 3 save files, do as follows:
- Right-click on Baldur's Gate 3 in your Steam library
- Select properties
- Click the BETAS tab
- In the list under "Select the beta you would like to opt in to", select patch3_hf - EA Patch 3
- Close the properties menu
In order to be 100% sure that the game won't update to Patch 4, make sure to disable automatic updates, which you can do by following these steps:
- Right-click on the game in your Steam library
- Select properties
- Click the UPDATES tab
- Select "only update the game when I launch it" in the drop-down menu
And although your old save files won't be deleted even after the update, they will be playable only on the corresponding versions of the game. If you want to be 100% sure that you will not lose old save files, we recommend you backup your local saves from the previous patch.
Baldur's Gate 3 Patch 4 is expected to be released later this month and as a way to introduce everything that's new with the patch and talk about the game in general, Larian will hold another Panel from Hell 2 on Wednesday, 17th February, at 10 am PT / 1 pm ET / 7 pm CET.
The panel will feature Principal Rules Designer of D&D Jeremy Crawford, Creative Director Swen Vincke and guests Nick Pechenin, David Walgrave and many more. You will be able to watch the event live on Larian's YouTube channel or Twitch channel.