One week after the launch of Baldur’s Gate 3 in Early Access, developer Larian Studios is sharing stats on where players are dying, and which NPCs they’re killing, the most. Despite being in its first week of Early Access, Baldur’s Gate 3 is already an incredibly popular game, with players flocking to download the game crashing Steam on the first day of its release.

As players eagerly get on board to play Baldur’s Gate 3 as early as possible, they’re also finding that it’s not as stable of an experience as many would have hoped. The game is currently full of bugs, including several that can bar progress or even scrap save files. That shouldn’t be a surprise for a game that’s far from finished, but the multitude of Early Access titles that have released in fairly polished states in recent years may be inflating players’ expectations. Larian has been clear that that’s not what the Baldur’s Gate 3 Early Access is, though, warning players that they’re signing up for an incomplete and rough version of the game.

Now, Larian is sharing where those players willing to take the plunge are meeting their ends, and which NPCs they’re taking down with them. In a post on the Baldur’s Gate 3 website, Larian shared a heatmap of where player deaths are occurring. According to Larian, this so-called “map of death” gives the developer an idea of where things might get too tough, or where players are dying from unexpected causes. Larian is also tracking NPC deaths, leading to the revelation that the wizard Gale has been killed four times more than other any NPC in the game. Player characters themselves are also dying around Gale’s introduction, suggesting that lots of players turn their initial conversation with the potential companion into a combat encounter - one that often doesn’t go their way.


Larian’s post is an example of Early Access done right, with the developer being clear about exactly how players are helping it finish the game. Larian isn’t above using its all-seeing perspective on player behavior to poke fun at its players, either, as it recently called out its fans for using Baldur’s Gate 3’s robust character creator to make the most generic main character possible.

It’s clear that Larian has a long road ahead of it before Baldur’s Gate 3 is ready for its full release, but if the developer stays willing to share interesting insights into its progress, it could make that time go a lot faster for players. Like Divinity: Original Sin before it, Baldur’s Gate 3 is already proving itself to be a flexible and reactive game, meaning there’s almost sure to be plenty more bizarre player behavior to analyze before long.

Baldur's Gate 3 is available now in Early Access on Steam and Stadia.