Baldur’s Gate 3added a new difficulty post-launch called Honour Mode. You get one save file, meaning you’re able to’t reload when you mess up a dice roll and death is permanent. But that’s notchallenging enoughfor YouTuber Fracture who beat the game with nothing but True Strike and reactions.
True Strike is a cantrip that gives you an advantage on your next attack role, but Fracture didn’t attack. Instead, they made a B-line for the Boots of Stormy Clamour which allows them to stack two Reverberation when they inflict a condition on a hostile creature. Afterwards, they completed Omelum’s quest in the Underdark to get the Ring of Absolute Force, which combined with Priestess Gut’s branding, means they deal one extra point of thunder damage per attack. What this means is that, when casting True Strike, Fracture stacks Reverberation and deals thunder damage.
This is a very brief rundown of the incredibly chaotic run that Fracture put together. You can watch the entire thing below and hear more in-depth details on how not attacking was made viable.
With the basics of the build put together, they ventured tothe Adamantine Forgeto fight Grym since it doesn’t require anything other than pulling levers and baiting the boss. This gave them enough XP to level up. They then visited the creche for the Holy Lance Helm which deals 1-4 damage to anyone who misses an attack (while giving two more stacks of Reverberation) and the Gloves of Belligerent Skies (which adds two extra stacks of Reverberation when dealing Radiant damage).
It’s not an easy run whatsoever, but with the Ring of Protection, Adamantine armour, Arcane Ward, Warding Bond, and goodberries, Fracture was practically invincible to lower-level attacks.
After they stole the idol and left the Grove in ruins, they snuck out and ventured to Act 2, immediately picking a fight with Kar’niss that took 75 turns. Then they accidentally got Balthazar killed by Justiciars, talked the three Thorms and Yurgir into killing themselves, and started the fight at Moonrise Towers. It took 52 rounds to kill Z’rell, but Ketheric ended his first phase with his own necromite.
The actual final fight of Act 2, the Apostle of Mrykul, took 189 rounds since they fully healed after just 75. Luckily, they stopped summoning necromites (meaning they could no longer heal) and never cast Finger of Death.
In Act 3, Fracture sided with Gortash since he has high Thunder resistance, but fought Viconia and Raphael to make up for it. And since they picked the Dark Urge as their Origin Character, they were able to even the score with Orin and fight them one-on-one.
As for the Netherbrain at the very end of the game, theydidn’tmake Gale nuke himself. Instead, they used invisibility to skip all of the fights leading up to it and then employed an incredibly inventive tactic to take them down in the limited five turns - much less wiggle room than the 180 it took to beat the Apostle of Myrkul.
They gained 1,000 movement speed and walked back and forth while talking to a sentient amulet to deal damage. But to keep things fair, they ended their turn when the Netherbain had just two health points left and cast True Strike to finish it off. That’s one way to beat Honour Mode, eh?
