Recuperating with your squad is a very important part of Dungeons & Dragons (and other CRPGs, really). You only have so much power, energy, and food to keep you and your party alive. Using your Rests properly in Baldur's Gate 3 is vital to surviving and pushing through difficult areas in the game.
The campsite is needed to Rest. Your camp will be an important piece of the puzzle for progressing in some quests and secret scenes. Learning how and when to use your Rests will make taking on areas such as The Underdark less taxing.
This game is currently in Early Access. As such, gameplay mechanics and information are subject to change as the game updates.
Rests Restore Points
As you play through the game and get into fights, you will use different point systems. There are around four points you use for combat. The more fights you have, the fewer points you will have available to survive the next.
- Action
- Bonus Action
- Spell Slots
- Cantrips
Action points, Bonus Actions, and Cantrips replenish each turn within combat. You do not need to rest to gain these points back.
Your hit points are based on your class and abilities in combat. Classes that use magic need Spell Slots, and the amount they have available will increase as they level up. Spell Slots allow them to use their more powerful magic in combat. These get consumed per fight. When you have no more Spell Slots left, you can only use melee attacks or Cantrips.
Class Spesific Abilities
Warlocks specifically use Warlock Spell Slots that can be replenished upon a Short Rest. Clerics and Wizards have regular Spell Slots that can only be replenished by having a Long Rest at camp. Fighters can only restore their use of Action Surge with a short or long rest. There are many class-related abilities that can be performed with an action or bonus action but have their own separate limit. Consult those abilities to find out what it takes for them to replenish.
The Importance Of Camp
Whether you need to use a Rest to restore points or not, you should always return to camp at some point. Some scenes within the game or some quest prompts cannot happen until you have slept.
Travel to Camp by opening up your Map. The very first Fast Travel location will always be your campsite.
For instance, the lover you created during your Character Creation screen time cannot be met unless you have slept at camp after using Ilithid dialogue choices. Even if you use those dialogue options, you will miss that cutscene if you never go to sleep.
All of your companions and found friends will hang around camp. Heading to camp is the perfect time to get one-on-one chats with your companions and spark some romance.
There are over 174 hours of cutscenes in the game. Content is endless and swayed by your choices, so you wouldn't want to miss anything juicy.
You should gather Camp Supplies during your playthrough to prepare you to take a Long Rest when needed. Camp Supplies are any food item you find on your travels.
You can consume an apple on its own to receive small HP benefits, but combining a bunch of apples to use as Camp Supplies will better help your party.
How Short Rests Work
You need Camp Supplies to perform a Long Rest, but not a Short Rest. If you are low on resources, a Short Rest is all you can do. This will replenish only a small amount of points to you and your party. Under normal circumstances, you can only perform two short rests between a long rest. Bards can extend this, however.
To see how many Short Rests you have available, select the fire icon beside the button you use to manually enable Turn-Based Mode.
Two smaller icons will appear above the initial one. A closed eye with two blue dots will indicate you have two Short Rests available.
If you only need a slight boost to make it through the next few in-game days, there is no need to waste Camp Supplies on a Long Rest. You can Rest anywhere, so you should use a Short Rest whenever you can.
How Long Rests Work
You need 40 Camp Supplies to take a Long Rest. Any less, and you will only be able to perform a Short Rest at no cost. A Long Rest will fully replenish all of your health and ability points. Regular Spell Slots need a Long Rest to replenish instead of a Short Rest.
To enable a Long Rest, select the fire icon beside the manual Turn-Based Mode button at the bottom of your screen.
The smaller icon that appears with a crescent moon will be your Long Rest. You can select this to initiate. Hover over it to view how many Camp Supplies you have on you.
You can also press TAB and look at the top right of your screen to view your overall Camp Supplies.
At Camp, you can initiate a Long Rest by interacting with the campfire or one of the bed rolls. It will then turn to nighttime, where you can interact with your companions.
Companions that have an exclamation point above their head during this time have progress to be made in their personal relationship with you. Though, even if there is no mark, you can still progress with them a little bit by speaking with them regularly.
You must interact with the bedrolls a second time to truly initiate Long Rest. You will then be prompted to select enough Camp Supplies for the night.
Be sure to select carefully, as it will allow you to use more than needed and waste supplies.
You will instantly return to your previous adventure location when you wake up.