Guide:Circumventing Honour Mode Save File Restrictions

Circumventing save file restrictions

It's possible to cheat the Honour Mode single save file system by manually backing up the save file between play sessions. If something goes wrong in Honour mode, one can close the game, restore a previous save file, and launch the game again to continue from the backed up save.

Although using this trick to regularly load old game states would defeat the purpose of Honour mode, a legitimate use-case may be to restore a run that went bad due to something outside the player's control, such as a bug in the game, or an accidental button press due a cat walking on your keyboard.

The trick is particularly easy to achieve on MS Windows, GNU/Linux, and MacOS, where save files can be accessed easily with a file manager or shell commands. It may be possible to achieve on gaming consoles as well if the save files can be accessed and overridden.^{[Needs Verification]}

Exact instructions are as follows:

• Make sure cloud saves are turned off.
• Before loading your save, copy the current save file to a different folder.
• Continue your Honour mode run and play as much as you want.
• To reload: Close the game, delete the new Honour mode save file, and put the previous copy in its place.
  • Note: This has to be done before a total party kill.

If cloud saves are turned on, one can still restore a backed up Honour mode save file as follows:

• After launching the game, click the Load Game button.
• While the game is in this menu, override the current Honour mode save file with the one you had backed up.

Save file locations are as follows:

• MS Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Larian Studios\Baldur's Gate 3\PlayerProfiles\Public\Savegames\Story
• MacOS: $HOME/Documents/Larian Studios/Baldur's Gate 3/PlayerProfiles/Public/Savegames/Story

There are also methods involving other kinds of manipulation of game files, such as:

• How to fix a failed Honour Mode save (Reddit)