Baldur’s Gate 3 gets enormous new region packed with quests in free fan expansion

Larian Studios has moved on from Baldur’s Gate 3, shifting its focus to its upcoming reboot of the Divinity franchise.

There are, however, thousands of players still enjoying their time in Faerûn - and it’s to those players I say, how do you like the sound of an entirely new region to explore?

After a hefty 18-months in development, mod project ‘Baldur’s Gate 3: Act Two Expansion’ has dropped its beta version.

Available to download for free on PC via NexusMods, the project is the work of user SquallyDaBeanz who’s been attracting attention ever since first dropping a teaser for the mod.

As the name suggests, ‘Baldur’s Gate 3: Act Two Expansion’ expands the base game’s second act, but it does so with a new region and new quests.

That region is called The Chionthar Wilds - and it’s also home to new dungeons, new NPCs, specially-made cutscenes, new items, and more.

“With the Army of the Absolute on the march, Tav and the gang must find a way to cross the Chionthar River and reach Rivington,” reads a synopsis.

The mod expansion features its own lore, custom creatures, and over 30 new combat encounters too, so it’s going to keep you busy for a good long while.

“The Act Two Expansion adds a new region to the game that takes place after the events of the Shadow-Cursed Lands,” writes creator SquallyDaBeanz.

“The main goal of the project is to give players a whole new region to experience that is similar in scope to the Act One Wilderness. This mod focuses mainly on exploration and combat designed for mid-to-high level (8-10) parties.”

You can drop directly into the mod, or insert it into a full Baldur's Gate 3 playthrough

The expansion comes as two different versions; there’s the main download and Quick Start.

The main download version will naturally integrate the mod’s content between acts two and three of the base game.

To access the new region within your playthrough, you have a couple of options.

The bridge out of Reithwin by the ‘Road to Baldur’s Gate’ waypoint will now take you into the mod; this is the best and intended method. Act Three will then trigger after completing the mod.

Alternatively, you can use the spell scroll found in the Tutorial Chest to unlock the Absolute War Camp waypoint, or use the following console command:

• TeleportPartiesToLevelWithMovie("CHI_Main_A","","")

The Quick Start version, however, will place you into the game immediately at the point in which the mod expansion begins, skipping over Act One and the Shadow-Cursed Lands.

Again, this project is still in beta so you should expect it to continue to improve over the coming weeks. It is fully playable from start to finish though.

It’s perhaps important to mention that the mod supports both single and multiplayer. If you want to enjoy the latter, just make sure that everybody in your party has the mod installed.

In the build-up to the mod’s 1.0 version, SquallyDaBeanz hopes to improve the writing and dialogue, finish certain cutscenes, add additional character, class, and race dialogue options, expand in-game text and notes, balance combat, rework boss mechanics, and more.

Already though, after just a few days of availability, players are having an incredible time.

“This is beyond beautiful: the design, the scenery, the lighting are all mind-bogglingly beautiful,” said one player.

“This entire thing is AMAZING! I am blown away!” added another.

One comment read, “I just finished playing through the whole thing and I loved it!! I'm so impressed at what you managed to pull off here. The map reminded me of Dragon Age Origins with that colour palette and the countryside places and it also felt like a nice little comeback to the vibes of Act One. “

It goes without saying that the mod is available on PC only, so console users will have to make do with the excellent base game.