Looking at Baldur’s Gate 3 size, it’s no surprise players are missing a few parts of the game, especially on their first playthroughs. But, when it comes to overlooking one key feature in its first half, players think it’s actually the developers’ fault.
To be more specific, players think Mountain Pass, one of the first locations players may stumble upon in their playthrough, is easy to miss. They believe Larian Studios often advises you to take the other route to Moonrise Towers, they claim under a Nov. 15 Reddit post. But, there are actually a lot of valuable features in Mountain Pass that should be discovered.
“It is discouraged by all the characters, psychologically it is discouraged by the standing githyanki along with the dragon, and finally by the game itself when you want to go to this area. You don’t fight a lot there,” the post reads. But, it also points out how you learn more about the artifact held by Shadowheart there, and adds a lot to the story overall, without diving into spoilers.
Many others agree with the sentiment. They think that besides Lae’Zel, most of the companions and in-game events will suggest you take the Underdark route to Moonrise Towers. More importantly, the game makes it sound like you should choose either Underdark or Mountain Pass when in reality, both locations should be visited and explored for a full experience.
But, they do have a point. In my first playthrough, I completely missed Mountain Pass. But, that was mostly because of the Githyanki standing at its entrance, and because I didn’t really like Lae’Zel’s company originally, so I decided to skip her storyline, which is heavily tied to the area.
Nevertheless, I went into the Mountain Pass on my second playthrough and found myself really excited about this yet unexplored location and questline. So, while Larian Studios devs might suggest you go through the Underdark, maybe they just wanted to create an illusion of choice, so that your second playthrough is different. It definitely worked for me.
