Baldur's Gate 3 hotfix 4 is live again, Larian explains what went wrong and promises it won't happen again

(Image credit: Larian Studios)

Nearly a full day after launching and then quickly rolling back because of an unexpected bug, the fourth Baldur's Gate 3 hotfix is once again live on Steam.

"Hotfix 4 went through a rigorous QA pipeline and was confirmed as a candidate for release yesterday," Larian explained. "However, we triggered a rebuild of the version relatively last minute to change the version number. The version that was cooked was unfortunately plagued by compiler corruption, which was causing certain exceptions that normally wouldn’t cause crashes to—you guessed it—cause crashes.

"Since compiler issues like that are extremely rare, we weren’t prepared for it. We should’ve been. We messed up."

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Larian said that to ensure this doesn't happen again, all future updates, no matter how small, will go through a "full and comprehensive QA pipeline, which include a global in-house QA team, automated testing, unit tests, and save-game compatibility testing," before being released.

The full Baldur's Gate 3 hotfix 4 patch notes are below.

We're redeploying Hotfix #4, and changing the way we deploy future patches. Read more: https://larian.club/HotfixFour — (Image credit: Larian Studios (Twitter))

Original story:

The fourth Baldur's Gate 3 hotfix went live on Steam earlier today, a smaller update than the previous three but one that still promised to fix a number of problems with "crashes, bugs, flow issues, and companions who keep trying to sleep in."

Unfortunately, it apparently caused new crashes, too, so Larian has rolled it back. If you saved your game during the brief period when Hotfix 4 was live, you won't be able to load those save files until the hotfix is re-published, which Larian says it'll do as soon as it fixes the crashes.

Due to a build error causing new crashes, we’ve rolled back Hotfix 4 for the time being. We'll re-release it as soon as we’ve fixed the cause. If you’ve saved since updating, you won’t be able to load those saves until we’ve re-published Hotfix 4. Sorry about the inconvenience. To clarify, we’ve rolled back to hotfix 3, so you can keep playing! You just won't be able to load saves from today’s hotfix 4 until it’s pushed live again. Apologies. — (Image credit: Larian Studios (Twitter))

There's no word yet on when the fourth hotfix will be made live again, but we'll let you know when it happens.

Aside from the rollback, the fourth hotfix is also noteworthy because, assuming there are no surprise changes to the roadmap, it will be the last one before the release of the first full patch for Baldur's Gate 3, which will contain more than 1,000 fixes and tweaks. After that will be a second patch that Larian said "will incorporate some of the biggest requests we’ve received from the community since launch."

Two weeks after its release, Baldur's Gate 3 remains an absolute phenom: It remains at the top of Steam's Top Sellers charts and in second place on the Most Played chart, well ahead of perennial second-place holder Dota 2. It would be an impressive accomplishment for any game, but for a complex, niche party-based fantasy RPG from a developer that had to use Kickstarter to fund its previous games, it's nothing short of remarkable.

And don't forget, all of this is before the release of the PlayStation 5 version of the game, which is coming on September 6, and a presumed Xbox release sometime next year.

We're all very enthused by your feedback. It's very rewarding. Our focus now is fixing any issues you report, but we are listening to suggestions. Current roadmap: a) Hotfix 4, b) Patch 1 (+1000 fixes and tweaks), c) Patch 2. The latter will already incorporate some requests. — (Image credit: Swen Vincke (Twitter))

As always, the hotfix patch notes contain numerous spoilers. In the past I've left them out but this time around just about every line (except for the multiplayer section) in the patch notes contains a spoiler tag, so I've left them in—consider yourself warned and proceed with caution.

CRASHES AND BLOCKERS

Fixed players getting stuck mid-Long-Rest due to companions not waking up.
Fixed being able to Long Rest in the Astral Prism, potentially causing the portal to disappear.
Fixed Orin getting pulled from her location in the Temple of Bhaal if the door was opened before killing Gortash in Wyrm's Crossing.
Fixed a script issue preventing some players from loading save games.

MULTIPLAYER

Fixed characters disappearing when disconnecting and reconnecting in split-screen.
Added a warning for hosts in multiplayer when clients join through drop-in during Character Creation. Hosts must now grant approval before new players join.
Fixed the visibility of multiplayer servers on GOG.

COMBAT

Slightly increased Isobel's HP so she doesn't die as easily.
Fixed a bug that would make Gortash join the combat taking place in Wyrm’s Rock Audience Hall while he was in his office upstairs.
Fixed Cruel Sting adding infinite additional Psychic damage to attacks.

FLOW AND SCRIPTING

Fixed the ‘Enemy of the Absolute’ crime not clearing from player characters, resulting in a soft block when speaking to the Steel Watch.
Fixed the game thinking the Emperor had died in the Astral Prism when you healed a downed ally.
Player resources are now correctly restored at the end of Act II.
Having dead party members no longer prevents you from entering the Astral Prism.
Fixed a bug preventing you from talking to Ravengard if he gets moved to the camp in a certain case.
Hostages in the Iron Throne will no longer be stuck if you turn back and return again.
Players with modded or cheated savegames with characters at Level 13 or above can now travel to the House of Hope.
Killing Anders will no longer make the other paladins leave the Tollhouse.

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.