Reaching Level 8 in Act 1: A Guide. No Raphael, No Exploits!

[@ayashinightcore8282]

remember, if you need a reason to justify it irp 1. My hand slipped 2. I'm literally the dark urge

[@Melth]

2 is a tempting option... but it's hard to explain the party members (at least the ones who aren't just prettier goblins) going along with it more than once!

[@MoonsongReverb]

Remember to explain irp. That’s what my character would do. I’m a psychopath murder hobo.

[@socalminstrel]

@@Melth Between Shadowheart (prior to later growth), Astarion, La'zael and Minthara, you can assemble a group that's pretty sanguine with doing whatever you want to do, even in character!

[@jakobandersen3210]

Because of your tips. I have drastically reduced the amount of long rests i take. I only play on taction for now. But still feels great to long rest less.

[@Melth]

Nicely done!

[@adamskeans2515]

why?

[@Melth]

@@adamskeans2515 for challenge, I assume. The game is very easy when one can rest all the time and that can make it less satisfying

[@jakobandersen3210]

@adamskeans2515 personally, I like the challenge of planning. Where I am like, okay, I can do these things using these resources. Also it is a fun way to test my game knowledge and my party.

[@adamskeans2515]

@@Melth the game is designed for resting often, as evidenced by all the companion interactions that only happen if you rest

[@ДмитрийБотух]

Undeads in coffins before "Necromancy of Thay" are easily missable, you usually only get 1-2 unless you break every coffin on purpose. That's only 20 xp per kill, but that's free extra XP with no RP consequences.

[@Melth]

They're certainly free easy XP, but I would assume anyone who does that quest at all already kills them all since they're so easy and that room can't be skipped if you're doing the quest.

[@ДмитрийБотух]

@@Melth I had no idea you could spawn them manually by smashing caskets. I thought only 1 or 2 spawned randomly when opening caskets.

[@Melth]

@@ДмитрийБотух as far as I can tell, there's no randomness about it. Every single casket except Shovel's has a skeleton in it, and they'll come out if you either smash them or open them. (If you open them, your characters get surprised... even if this just happened to them the same way with the 5 previous coffins)

[@Henbot]

Yeah I attack the coffins in my second play so they wouldn’t have surprise advantage and kinda saw it as my party having solid perception. I didn’t realise though in the fight with the spectator in the under dark that you could use sacred flame to free the drow from the control of it but due to that they ain’t all hostile though the Dhourn got killed by it because they all became allies.

[@Melth]

@@Henbot dealing any damage to the Drow in the Spectator fight will turn them into your allies. A good way to do it is Magic Missile since that is guaranteed to hit and can hit multiple Drow if needed. Throwing a Void Bulb is another good idea since that is guaranteed to deal 1 damage in a big area

[@onlyashadow1121]

One of my favorite moments was accidentally hitting the flaming fist while hurrying to save florick then taking them to suplex city, finally breaking the door with one of them as an improvised weapon AND STILL getting the cutscene with florick as she yells "fist move out" and everyone is piled up in the corner

[@Melth]

That sounds awesome!

[@Chipcob66]

An excellent video, thank you Melth! FYI, I've done this twice now, you can kill all the goblins, save the Teiflings and then still steal the idol for the ring. The cutoff is not speaking to Mol up the left hand road when you return to the Grove. Go straight ahead, do the deed and return to Mol near the entrance, and all is good.

[@Melth]

Good to know! Since you still need to do the Shadow Druid resolution first to get the idol without any tieflings getting hurt, I do think it's more efficient to do the order I suggested though. Walking out of the Kagha room, grabbing the idol that's right there, walking directly to Mol to hand it in immediately is an extremely easy and natural route.

[@dficwriter]

@@Melth actually, I did a run where I stole the idol before Shadow Druid questline. I put a fog cloud around the idol and a minor illusion (not sure if it helped), then got the idol, went out of turn-based mode and IMMEDIATELY tp-d away. It can require a few reloads tho, sometimes the fight triggers very fast. It also helped to move the idol from the stone it's on bc the cloud positioning there is weird due to uneven terrain and chars really love to go to the right to get the idol, leaving the cloud.

[@dficwriter]

might I add, it's hilarious when the theft is never reported and they just do the ritual around nothing :D

[@MonkeyMind69]

Missed an option early in the game! When you reach the 1st ruins, the one's where you'll find Withers, the adventuring party that's looting them can be intimidated to run away. You'll get XP for this. However, when they start running away, enter turn based mode and attack them. Combat will ensue, and you'll then gain additional XP for defeating them.

[@Melth]

@@MonkeyMind69 yeah, I've been doing a new run to try to test and find every way one can get extra XP for conversation followed by combat. That's one of the most profitable at +50 XP. Not a ton, but helpful.

[@MonkeyMind69]

@@Melth Love that. Thank you for posting this video, and when you're done finding them I'd love to see a video on all the one's you find!

[@eddymetal]

Are you aware of the mechanics for this? I've tested this out on a few encounters in which the enemies run away from you and it seems random. In both the Withers ruin and the goblins harassing Barcus, sometimes it lets me double dip exp, sometimes it doesn't.

[@Melth]

@@eddymetal it's completely arbitrary. Certain encounters are scripted so that you can get a set amount XP from resolving them peacefully, but it doesn't count as 'defeating' the targets or something, so killing them later still gives credit. You don't necessarily get *double* XP, you get normal XP + whatever arbitrary amount the peaceful resolution is worth

[@shrevog]

You can get an extra 160XP from the Mages Tower Arcane Turrets. Throw a Sussur Flower beside them and use any character with Shocking Grasp as a cantrip/spell to kill them easily. You will be rewarded 40xp per turret and there are 4 turrets within the Mage Tower area, so 160XP. Weirdly enough, the turrets are actually unkillable and will revive within 3 turns, but do not reward any additional XP for killing them again.

[@Melth]

Yeah, the way the turrets behave if you kill them with sussur blooms is weird! They can resurrect instantly if you take the bloom away and then return it I was already counting the 160 XP for the turrets in my baseline and just assuming everyone would fight those as part of thorough exploring, but it might indeed be worth mentioning because a few people have brought it up now

[@Regarded69]

I don't see how the turrets are ''extra'' xp. Is it normal to just run past them or something? I've destroyed them in every run using ray of frost.

[@MSlocum669]

It has been a while since I have visited. I have something to add. Make sure you collect all the clues then solve the puzzle. In example, There is a dark journal and a magical mirror under the alchemist shop in the blighted village. If you read the journal before bypassing the mirror you get 15 additional xp. There a loads of instances like this in the game. Many of them are in dialog options and books or even environmental. Stick to the order of operations to milk the most xp out of each area. Also worth mentioning. You can knock out most NPCs for full XP, then bribe them if you want to enter dialog with them later. Zevlore was not cooperating with me pick pocketing him near the grove entrance so I knocked him out for 75xp. Thank you for the guides. I look forward to more.

[@Melth]

That's a good reminder about the order of clues in quests mattering. Each one is very small, but you do seem to get slightly more XP overall for following every single breadcrumb rather than skipping to the end of the quest. Knocking out NPCs CAN work, but I don't trust it and wouldn't rely on it. Very often the game treats them as if they were dead in dialogue and quest logic and the like

[@surr3ald3sign]

I LOVE that you dont just consider the game mechanics themselves but also the roleplaying aspect of every decision, because yeah some times its great to just brutally minmax for maximum possible efficiency at the cost of having very little true roleplaying come into play but the game really is so much... ✨️more✨️ if you take the roleplaying aspect seriously and actually follow cohesive morals and a consistent alignment, your channel (subbing after i finish typing this 😊) has awakened me to the value and enjoyment of roleplaying, i did somewhat roleplay my first playthrough all the way to act 3, took me 250 hours in total the very first time just finishing act 2 and seeing act 3s intro. But after that i had many short playthroughs where i burnt out 20-50 hours into act 1-2 bc i was trying to minmax everything possible and was just not having fun. You helped me find that same attitude i had in ths first playthrough i did, thank you

[@Melth]

I'm glad you enjoyed the video! I agree, roleplaying adds a lot of fun to the game. No matter what kind of challenge I'm doing, I always try to RP too.

[@setsunadawn]

Great video! This channel is quickly becoming one of my favorite BG3 channels. I actually hit lv8 on my Dark Urge playthrough in Act 1 and didn't know the Giant Eagle summoned additional enemies! I had already done most things on the list except for things that locked me out of later content (Voss, Elminster, Oathbreaker, etc) and killing the first two Cambions that join Zhalk. I was able to make up the difference to lv8 in a couple of different ways: -Did a lot of experimenting on this, but I dragged away and knocked out friendly or non-hostile NPCs whenever I could. You get the same XP for knocking them out as you do for killing them and they get back up after a long rest as if nothing happened, so long as you were able to knock them out in a single attack (upcasted Smites are generally preferred) or if you Hold Person them and wail on them that way. Even dragged away Flaming Fist and knocked them out, apart from Councillor Florrick. Myconids don't restore their HP after a Long Rest and will continue walking around with 1 HP. A few NPCs you can't do this on for one reason or another if you care about preserving them: -Zevlor -Rolan (Cal and Lia too?) -Skickpit -Sovereign Spaw Skickpit runs away permanently after being knocked out, Sovereign Spaw is counted as dead even after knocked out and Zevlor, Rolan, Cal and Lia disappear. I didn't risk knocking out Dammon, because I wasn't sure if it would break the Strange Ox since they have a weird bug to the best of my recollection. I didn't try Baelen and Derryth either but did knock out their rothe. -In the Underdark during the Spectator encounter, I allowed the Spectator to take each turn freeing charmed Drow from petrification to join the battle. I would use a low damage ability like Vicious Mockery or Pommel Strike to break their charmed status, until all of them were free. (Let Dhourn die though to the Spectator so I wouldn't aggro the Drow afterwards). Then knocked them all out after saving them anyway for additional XP. -Knocked out Nymessa and Damays during Free Lae'zel. -Knocked out the Tiefling that is overlooking the Githyanki Patrol encounter, though this removes her corpse for Speak with Dead at the Creche. -Knocked out the warthog that spawns during Astarion's encounter, but only after I had recruited Wyll and Karlach in order to farm Approval in the conversation with it. -In the Githyanki Creche, instead of attacking during the cutscene, I let the cutscene play out and as the patrol squad runs out, entered Turn Based Mode, cast Create Water as they are all bunched up and zapped them all with Lightning Bolt in one go. I did this in multiplayer as well and it was more consistent. -In the Grymforge, Elder Brithvar, the duergar that is with him when you first meet him and Thudd do not provide any XP if knocked out or killed after defeating Nere, but can provide it before Nere is freed from trial and error. I knocked out the latter two, and only knocked out Brithvar after defeating Nere in order to get his unique Deep Delver; this was a tradeoff. Knocked out all the Rothe as well. -Switched party members in and out of my party constantly before appropriate interactions and events in order to farm Inspiration XP; this one made up a big difference in so far as I could see. The Haunted One background provides a lot of this especially. This one is probably going to be tedious for some people, but this also has heavy overlap with farming companion approval. I was able to leave Act 1 with all companions at 100 Approval with the exception of Astarion in this way, and he was at around 80 Approval in this way. -I did the Raphael exploit of course as well, which needs no introduction. -I did not do this, and if someone else can verify that would be great. But the Duergar at the lake before you depart to the Grymforge can apparently raise the corpses as dead minions? I've typically Counterspelled them, but if the raised dead provide XP, it might be more optimal to let it happen. It's not particularly RP friendly (unless you're a Dark Urge knocking people out as a way to resist killing urges) and does not mesh with a limited rest playstyle, but wanted to share these things. Hope this helps somebody.

[@Melth]

Good to know which NPCs can be interacted with after knocking them out! I've generally avoiding doing a lot of knock-outs since it causes bugs with some NPCs and treats a lot of NPCs as if they were dead. For inspiration- doesn't that only give XP to the particular character who got inspired? Meaning it doesn't help the party overall? Regarding Gekh Coal, the duergar who can raise 6 corpses as zombies: the zombies are only worth 3 XP apiece. So basically worthless. However, if one is willing to do an exploit, it's apparently possible to repeatedly begin and leave the fight and have him summon more and more zombies. Extremely slow and tedious and definitely an exploit, but it could eventually generate massive XP.

[@setsunadawn]

@@Melth For inspirations, I've checked the character screens after gaining inspirations, and it does appear to be the case initially that only the inspired characters gain the XP. But every so often, I would check the character screens again to find that everyone's total XP flattened to the same number. I am not sure what causes this; perhaps it flattens after Long Resting? Not running any mods that affect XP gain or anything like that either. Either way, optimizing inspirations really helps, even on an individual basis. As for knockouts, it seems mostly only the NPCs I mentioned, which are tied to specific important quests are really affected. For most of the tieflings, Zhentarim, duergar and myconids that aren't tied to specific quests, or once their quests have been resolved, it's safe to knock them out, with the exception of Skickpit. It seems like mostly NPCs that have multi-act questlines and faction leaders have the most issues when knocked out. Although Kagha technically is an exception. Knocking her out to steal her Broodmother's Revenge doesn't make her disappear unlike Zevlor and Sovereign Spaw. There are a few more edge cases that I discovered through more play: -Youth Varrl if knocked out, disappears from the game after a long rest, similar to Sovereign Spaw. I did that in the hopes he'd still be around since he disappears anyway when the creche becomes hostile. But after I came back to check if his body was where I left it, he was dead IIRC. He gives about the same XP as the rest of the inhabitants of the creche, so kill/knock out before triggering hostilities would be ideal. -All the unnamed Myconids do not restore health after being knocked out as opposed to every other NPC for some reason. -Omeluum and Blurg disappear from the Myconid Colony if knocked out. Same as the other NPCs listed in my original post; don't knock out if pursuing their questline is important.

[@MrBlitzballer]

@@setsunadawnwhen you add a companion to your party their xp gets set to whatever your character has. Doing inspiration events for characters that aren’t your own or another player character are mostly just for keeping your inspiration pool filled up. Also I’d say sage is by far the best background to min max xp as practically every single goal they have is something you would want to do anyway and rarely if ever do they have goals that conflict with any choices you might make in your roleplaying.

[@ChalkyMonkey6]

So your a psycho who goes around kidnapping people 🥶😱scary

[@lucasbarros822]

Seeing this on the start of my first solo honour mode run helped quite a lot

[@Melth]

Glad to hear it was helpful!

[@scully4life]

Wow, I would be afraid to solo some of these encounters in HM. Very impressive.

[@DiabeticNecromancer]

A very thorough and comprehensive guide much like all of your content.

[@Melth]

Thank you very much, it's nice to know the work making these is appreciated 🙂

[@skellybro2290]

My brain watching your content for the first time: "Ah yes, Melth's Acid Arrow"

[@Melth]

Apparently Melf's name was one of the earliest D&D players being too lazy to come up with a name for his male elf character. So M Elf became Melf. My name though comes from an interesting mod for Warcraft 3 called Soulchess. Melth was my favorite of the 8 kings in it, the conniving warrior who was stronger the more strategically he kept his troops alive.

[@skellybro2290]

@@Melth Wait this is so cool, thank you for sharing! I thought there was some powerful acid wizard in D&D lore named Melf or something and didn't ever make the Male Elf connection

[@thefrisianviking28]

There are many references to old dnd players hidden in the lore or spells. Didn't know the Melf reference yet. Thanks.

[@JeremyAndersonBoise]

Same 😂⚔️

[@demiurge_n_dragons]

I've only reached level 8 once in act 1. This happened on a 3-player playthrough where we did as much as we could in the entirety of that act without being murder-hobos. It was mostly a good-aligned run. Got to 8 towards the end of the Creche. Edit: Just want to add that it wasn't planned. We just happened to pick up a lot of extra exp from inspiration and unintentionally reached level 8.

[@Melth]

Hm. Inspiration is usually a pretty small thing and *most* backgrounds get roughly equal amounts of inspiration (Outlander usually seems to get more than most others). Did you do something special that generated lots of inspiration in some way?

[@simeonb.3612]

Spoilers: Most missions it is: be good and betry later, e.g. Neres Rescue. It is a rollercoaster of emotions, if you get the Durgars to side with you against him, then turn on them. Fight with Nere together. Then loot everyone. Then turn on Nere. But don't throw him into lava. Loot again. Now there shouldn't be anyone still allive. @13:35 Optimum for Zhentarien Quest would be: - let Flind eat his group, then himself for Exp for Astatrion for example - save Olly and Rugan, suggest they should give you money for saving them - the roam around. Steal their chest unseen. - get the reward from the Zhentarien, because you rescued Olly and Rugan, get the bow. - give Zarys the unopend chest. - now you could buy from Brem's special stock (Titan String Bow). Get the artist too. - Steal from them, loot them. Kill them all.

[@gregtrump8905]

Can’t wait for our next play through video…just got to act 3 in my own

[@Melth]

Nicely done!

[@knowlen]

super valuable reference video. Hope we see one for act 2 eventually

[@Melth]

Hopefully! I'm still in the process of learning more about what XP is missable in act 2. I've been able to confirm that level 11 in act 2 is *possible* but it might only be possible by massacring Last Light Inn and also doing exploits in act 1 like killing Raphael. I'm going to see if it's possible to get to level 11 without doing those things.

[@chibao202]

@Melth regarding the The Secret Githyanki Battle, you can put 3 barrels outside of the door - use summon to open the door and trigger conversation ( pretty hilarious to see the bitter divorce zombie open the door in the clip ) - try to put the barrels as a barrier to partially block the way so those 5 giths gather and then 1 ignis for 375 exp. You can progress normally with the gith captain in the room as well

[@Melth]

That should work if you're fast. However, the gith patrol can eventually clip through walls, clip through obstacles, or even just vanish from the world entirely a few seconds after being told to go.

[@chibao202]

@@Melth I got what you meant but do not worry. So the process is to open the door triggering the convo, wait until they gather around the barrel and hit the turn-based mode and they will stand still for 1 hit ( hence the 3 barrels to make sure 1 hit is good enough ). If you have any save game with barrel please do try it, very straight forward for 375 exp w/o much work. In case someone is not a fan of barrelmancy then firewall + hadar is enough to take them out before they vanish

[@solohonour]

This is sick! My friend and I always took exp as much as we could. But here now we got little more exp. Thanks again fella.

[@Melth]

Glad to help!

[@fabioferreiragomesdias6090]

​@@Melth do you really need to kill the charcters? Cant you just knockout them then long rest and try to catch up buyig their affection?

[@Melth]

@@fabioferreiragomesdias6090 it depends. Several of these targets in fact cannot be knocked out at all. For that matter, I often find KOing targets to be buggy even when it is allowed. Sometimes the game has treated them as dead anyway

[@sweetphoenix5386]

11:03 You can actually get Gekh to summon infinite corpses by reapeatedly fleeing from battle, a slow but sure way to grind as much as you want

[@Melth]

True! Very slow, and definitely an exploit, but you could technically get to level 12 that way I suppose

[@ChalkyMonkey6]

@@Melththeoretically yes but the corpses stay so it would be a very laggy experience

[@sesimie]

This is gonna be a pinned video in my discord. I'm sharing this with all my BG3 friends! i subbed!

[@Melth]

@@sesimie thank you, I hope it's helpful to you and your friends!

[@finisheseverythi]

This is no doubt an awesome video. As much as I'd like to do this, i also become paralysed by choices and trying to ensure i dont lose out on xp or items. I think il just take it easy until im more experienced!

[@vessel4825]

you get 315xp for passing a DC 2 check to turn flind on the other gnolls. flind gets wrecked so it shouldn't cost anything.

[@Melth]

To make sure it's clear to everyone: that gives you equal XP compared to killing her + all the other gnolls. You don't gain OR lose any XP for getting her to turn against the others, because once she turns to your side neither she nor any of the gnolls are worth any XP anymore.

[@vessel4825]

@@Melth yeah apparently this removes the xp from the other knolls so it's just a really convenient way to speed things up

[@AxleDoomrod]

In my run I had her kill everyone then kill herself. Do you still get all her exp if she does this?

[@Melth]

@@AxleDoomrod yes, that's my understanding. When you tell her to turn against the other gnolls, I believe the amount of XP you instantly get is the amount that she and all surviving gnolls would provide Then I think having her eat herself afterward doesn't give anything additional, though I could be wrong about that

[@ИванИванов-и2ц3ц]

@@Melth 20XP

[@travishartzler9155]

Good tips. My preference is to be level 10 before fighting Ketheric. Makes that fight so much easier.

[@Melth]

As I recall, on my first run I was level 9 battling him on the roof but got to level 10 in the mindflayer colony before battling him the second time

[@ranmashiah1999]

For your convenience, i have calculated the EXP that each background receives during Act 1 (list from most EXP to least EXP): Haunted one - 665 Outlander - 390 Guild artisan - 390 Charlatan - 385 Sage - 380 Criminal - 355 Acolyte - 335 Noble - 335 Urchin - 315 Ententainer - 305 Soldier - 280 Folk hero - 275

[@Melth]

@@ranmashiah1999 neat! I had thought outlander might be better than that since my Karlach always seems to end up ahead on XP compared to everyone else

[@jphoenix3242]

I'm making a zone lock challenge run in HM to see how much you can do in each zone before moving to the next and which also got me interested in how much exp and levels I could get. This Is helpful and kind of wish I knew some of this stuff earlier.

[@Melth]

I'm glad this helps! Would you tell me a bit more about what you mean by a 'zone lock'? What constitutes a zone for that purpose? Like is all of the wilderness + shattered sanctum +risen road + auntie Ethel and her swamp + zhentarim hideout + owlbear cave one single zone? And then all of the underdark + festering cove + Grymforge a second zone?

[@Gameman5252-e2r]

Was going to mention this: In the underdark when fighting nere, most people side with the one dwarves for gold to make the fight easier. DON"T do that that, you miss out on a lot of xp that way. Imo the best thing to do is to fight all of them and throw the flask in the middle of this fight to get the spectator xp as well.

[@Melth]

True! I always battle the maximum number of duergar and just assumed other people would too I think that falls under my advice though that one must generally choose the path of maximum violence to get maximum XP

[@thanhcongnguyen2623]

Maybe you could still side with that one dwarf to make the fight easier. After that, you can still take them down in a separate battle. This way, you'd get easy fights and a maximum amount of exp.

[@scorchdelta6241]

This actually does help, not because I’m going for level 8, but because my friend and I are playing an honor mode run and bugged the game so we didn’t get the XP from the first grove goblin fight (my fault). For some reason only 2/5 (I think is the total) bandits spawned at withers church. And we accidentally sequence broke a bit and locked ourselves out of XP from the grove, the paladins, and the town that’s on fire just because we went to the mountain pass WAY to early to grab gear we needed for our builds before we were confident enough to fight tougher battles. We’re about level 5 right now maybe 6😬

[@Melth]

Oof, I'm glad this guide helps claw back some XP. Luckily the grove goblins aren't worth very much and neither are the bandits in Withers tomb, but losing all the major content by going to the mountain pass too soon is pretty devastating

[@scorchdelta6241]

@@Melth yeah dude that was pretty disheartening, HOWEVER, we are still going strong and are just a bit behind the curve now but still VERY manageable

[@christopherjohnson2171]

I saw a lot of people saying level 8 before finishing a1 was normal, i felt behind because I left at level 7 and 40% of the way to 8. I did all quests and fully cleared the goblin camp. I didn't kill the myoconids or teiflings because I'm a good guy, but I did intimidate the goblins the first village to score points with shadowheart. I attacked them afterwards but they awarded no xp so I left the ruined village alive.

[@Melth]

Level 8 in act 1 is definitely not normal. 6 is probably 'normal', 7 means you were thorough and did every quest and went to every zone. 8 is not achievable without playing unusually and battling lots of things people usually overlook

[@augustolenzuen800]

Hello, Melth! Great video! Thanks for sharing these tips! As for my contributions, I don't know if this is already part of your regular M.O., but there are several encounters throughout the game where you can get double XP by resolving them peacefully, then quickly entering turn-based mode and force-attacking the same enemies. As a couple of examples that come to mind, there's the goblins guarding the Goblin Camp, the Githyanki in the Mountain Pass, and IIRC you can also do it with the brigands outside of the Temple Ruins, where you get Withers. Mind you, I haven't played since Patch 5, so this might no longer work. Cheers!

[@Melth]

I've heard that that was patched out. Maybe there's still some way to get it to work, but I haven't really tried it since it wouldn't be my usual style

[@edielungreen]

One thing I came across on Reddit is that you will also lose Karlach as a companion if you enter the Mountain Pass before defeating the so-called Paladins of Tyr. I think best advice is to finish all the Wilderness area quests you want to do before going through the Mountain Pass. The one exception I know is okay is the Auntie Ethel/Mayrina quest. That one you can come back and do after going into the Mountain Pass area 😸

[@Melth]

Nah, taking Karlach to the Mountain Pass without killing the paladins is fine, I've tested it myself. You can even go into the Shadow-Cursed Lands without killing them. You should definitely take care of her heart with Dammon before going to the Mountain Pass though! Going to the Mountain Pass pretty early is not only fine, it's a smart idea because there are tons of great items and powerups there. The only things you definitely want to take care of first are Waukeen's Rest and the Goblins/Refugees (Which means also the Shadow Druids and Steal the Idol and the Harpies)

[@edielungreen]

Ah, cool. Not sure why that person had Karlach leave their party, then, unless they sided with the goblins 😜

[@Melth]

@@edielungreen Maybe he didn't fix Karlach's heart? Or maybe it changed in a patch? Both Laezel and Karlach demand that you go do things like talk to the githyanki or kill the paladins and threaten to leave if you don't, but neither actually makes a fuss if you completely ignore them.

[@edielungreen]

Yes, maybe it was the heart, and the poster was getting bad advice from the other redditors

[@darthimperious1594]

Earned a sub here, easily. You're voice is soothing, easy to understand, but most importantly, you get to the point with no rambling. You highlighted everything necessary, but didn't linger, and you also kept roleplaying as a significant thing to consider in the game. I watched your guide to the final Nautiloid encounter, then came to this, and now I'm off to watch your Nine Hells Challenge run, because hot damn, that seems insane, but, well... you actually seem good enough to do it! A far better player than I, but you don't seem to lord it over us peasants :)

[@Melth]

I'm glad you liked the video so much, and welcome to the channel!

[@Dorumin]

That's crazy, I always mostly get to level 6 after doing the creche. Maybe nearing 7. Zeroing elminster is always fun if I made the mistake of picking gale up too. Fun fun fun!

[@Melth]

Level 6 sounds like a fairly normal outcome I think. Level 7 is what one gets by being really thorough and going pretty much everywhere, but not doing hidden/unusual battles like the ones in this video

[@lucasbarros822]

Another perspective of what is stated at 6:40. You can slaughter most of the goblins, the ones outside 100%, not sure if all the ones inside as well, but at least a few, and still side with them for an evil playthrough. Rading the grove and getting exp from killing goblins, thiflings and druids a like. Not sure how it would all compare in exp from the good playthough, but not so sure if it's that much far between. Could be even better, needs test verification. Thanks for the great content.

[@Melth]

I mean thats true but you can also slaughter the tieflings in a 'good' run. But both of those things are hard to justify from a roleplay perspective. It does seem that the good run gets more XP regardless since there are more good quests completed by killing every last goblin than by every tiefling. Plus on an evil run a lot of the good people just kind of die off screen without you getting any credit unless you went out of your way to slaughter them BEFORE the attack begins

[@DMoneys36]

For the windmill fight, make sure you kill all the goblins EXCEPT fezzerk first, to prevent them from asking for mercy and running away, get fezzerk to low enough health and then execute him for some inspiration

[@Melth]

@@DMoneys36 yep! The Fezzerk fight is really annoying that way. You lose XP with no recourse if you can't kill every single other goblin before he tries to surrender :/ I've read you can get even more XP by talking your way past him as a Drow and THEN killing him but haven't tested it yet

[@DMoneys36]

@@Melth I'll have that to try that, playing a drow in my next campaign

[@jennahinckley8216]

didn't know about the extra destroyed necromancy of thay xp, will definitely be doing that. i usually kill the injured minotaur while still inside the selunite outpost, just by taking out the moonstone and waiting for the minotaur to gore its way through the portcullis.

[@Melth]

I've been finding that the Necromancy of Thay is only sometimes destroyable after reading it. Not sure why! It usually works for me, but not every time

[@Mordring]

Just got this video via the grace of the almighty algorithm. Really nice guide to boost that XP early on. I think I managed to hit level 8 in act 1 (or VERY early in act 2) on my Dark Urge run, but it was mainly due to killing pretty much everyone, including those bonus spawns. Otherwise, I was leaving around 7.5-ish so supporting your data. Level 8 is an important level as many of the great multiclass builds go live then, considering how it's typically 5 levels in one class for that extra attack/3rd level spells and then a 3-level dip for the second subclass perks. As for Act 2, you're probably aware of this, but just in case... You can farm some extra XP in the Gauntlet of Shar's Dark Justiciar fights with enemy-summoning Umbral Tremors (at the main crossroad and Balthazar's Outpost). I did the counting once and I think you can get roughly 30 enemies worth 60 XP each (except the big one who's worth 280 IIRC) in the fight outside of Balthazar's room alone. As they only have about 40-50 HP on Tactician, they're killed easily by a party that should be around level 9 at least at that point. Easy 2K XP that feels almost free.

[@Melth]

Thanks for the suggestion about umbral tremors in BG3. I do remember one umbral tremor fight outside Balthazar's area where one could farm XP, but I don't remember a separate one at the main crossroads? Anyway, I'm glad you enjoyed the video

[@nepereta3]

Apparently, you can use knock on necromancy of thay and get 1 shadow. Haven't tried it myself.

[@Melth]

Yes, I've heard that too and that seems like a good way to get 75 more XP

[@leivaslt666]

I need this patch 7 done to get back on BG3! Im actually trying to forget a bit to have a kinda fresh run (done 5 already!). After BG3 I moved to Divinity 2 (+120h) and now on Pathfinder WotR (16h only so far)...Man, I wish BG3 had half of their mechanics, loving every detail!

[@shury4260]

Wotr is my favorite crpg, the customizability is something you really don't get in any other game even if all that freedom does lead to some ridiculous op builds Builds you need to do if you want any chance of beating unfair, where the first dungeon has a regular enemy with a 27 ac that has 2 attacks per round and deals 40 damage per attack, enough to murder a level 2 character since it just drops him from 20 to -20 so he's not even knocked out he just dies

[@cHaMp630]

According to the wiki exploration exp is tied to character level when you trigger them and are tiered in small, medium, and big. These triggers are 5 for small, 10 for medium, and 15exp for big at level 1 IE; at level say 6 this goes to 95 / 180 / and 280 respectively. Places like the underdark and creche have a few separate discovery exp triggers that you can grab later when you're a higher level thus worth more exp. Bit min-maxy but noteworthy on multiple repeat playthroughs.

[@Melth]

Yes, that's true. You can get hundreds of free bonus XP basically by not doing any exploration until you are level 5 (when the increased XP for exploration stops increasing very fast). Which makes for kinda weird and boring gameplay, but is definitely optimal

[@strunkshade]

WOW I’ve been waiting for a video like this!

[@Melth]

I hope it helps!

[@ninjaspambot]

It's pretty minor, but outside the Withers tomb, if you pass the dialogue check, enter turn based, and kill the enemies, you get the xp from the dialogue and the combat. Maybe 50 extra xp. Same can be said for windmill/drow disguise cheese.

[@Melth]

I've just checked today and you're right, you can get 50 more XP from the adventuring party outside Withers' crypt if you talk them into leaving but then attack before they get away. What's the windmill drow disguise thing?

[@ninjaspambot]

@@Melth It's using a drow disguise to get xp through bypassing combat with goblins by using dialogue there, and then going turn based and killing the main goblin of that interaction before act 2. He will be the only one to give xp, and the other goblins will surrender or run off once he's dead.

[@Melth]

@@ninjaspambot oh, how much is that worth?

[@ninjaspambot]

@@Melth maybe 50 or 55, I think.

[@Melth]

@@ninjaspambot and it sounds like you get full XP equivalent to killing the group if you play as a Drow and talk your way past them? That sounds useful on its own since otherwise it can be hard to kill them before the boss dies/surrenders and they run away

[@scully4life]

Thanks! I'm doing an evil playthrough, so I'm going to be losing a lot of XP (sided with the goblins), probably won't get to level 8 in act 1, but I should be able to get close with all this stuff.

[@Melth]

Yeah, without slaughtering the goblins and their leaders, it'll be tough because the tieflings are worth almost 0 XP and most of the druids die offscreen during the goblin siege rather than with a fight. Let me know how it goes though!

[@edielungreen]

I ran across another sort of auto-resolve. I was doing a run where I wasn’t resting often enough (either full or partial), went down into the Underdark from the Shattered Sanctum to grab Phalar Aluve, and suddenly Astarion is telling Tav he’s a vampire without having the bite encounter, etc. This seems to have skipped over an opportunity to have him feed on Tav, which not only makes getting Happy on him more complicated, but also probably messes with a romance path (I’m doing a Shadowheart romance on this run, but would still like the easier Happy path for Astarion). Anyway, just putting it out there if it helps anyone, and a reminder to all of us that you can use Partial Rests to advance the story without sacrificing camp goods 😸

[@Melth]

I've seen that dialogue where Astarion suddenly tells you he's a vampire too. For me it happened really early one time. I'd barely done anything and suddenly Astarion said "Look this hasn't come up, but I'm a vampire."

[@edielungreen]

I just had something unexpected happen. Possibly by activating the Waukeen’s Rest Waypoint and then barely straying into the still Region 1 area labeled Mountain Pass (so not the actual Mountain Pass that has the warning), I had Waukeen’s Rest automatically resolve with Florick dead. Note I did not go far enough to get the dragon reaction or even see the waiting Tiefling, and I also didn’t go into Waukeen’s Rest proper or approach the Fists, etc. I had to reload a save from before I went over that way and everything was fine after that, but I wanted to relay my experience, because players might need to do Waukeen’s Rest first before going any further west, even if they are still on the Wilderness side of the Mountain Pass transition.

[@Melth]

Did you rest by any chance? waukeen's Rest definitely burns down if you get close to it and then rest, and I THINK I've had it burn down if I got close to it and then fast traveled but I'm not sure about that one. These days I never go near it unless I plan to handle it immediately

[@edielungreen]

@@Melth The first time I did rest, but then I reloaded a save from before the resting, and yes then went to camp to pick up Wyll, and it had still auto resolved, so I went to an even further back save (I had to fight Flind again because I’d forgotten to save after the fight lol), went to camp before approaching Waukeen’s Rest, got Wyll, and the rest went fine after that. That is one tricky quest!

[@ondest5059]

One more tip it's sharing inspiration exp from tav to companions. Just dismiss all party members and then put it back together, they get the same amount xp as your tav after that. Unfortunately this works only in one direction from tav to companions. Funny thing there the game will reduce companions xp if they have more xp then tav. I think most beneficial background here is the dark urge, but i'm not sure.

[@Melth]

Dark Urge is definitely one of the most useful! I think Sage and Outlander sometimes get a little more XP in my act 1 runs, but it's close. I wonder: losing XP from being swapped out of the party probably can't de-level you. Does that mean if you cross a level up threshhold, you are then free to be swapped out of the party and not losing any XP?

[@ondest5059]

​@@Melth I honestly haven't tried it, I was just notice it in the log when you join someone to the party. However i'm certain that the game will not reduce companion lvl while swapping, but what happens with their xp in this case i have no idea, tav definitely can't reach the next level(i tried it via respec, longrest, death etc, nothing works), companions can. I think if you keep this tip in mind it's possible to summarize 2 origins, at least partially for companions. Tav xp it's just like anchor(just number, source doesn't count) for entire party, who below or on the same lvl, but who further that's the question, this case uncommon. P.S Dark urge best here just cuz it's unique, others you can get from hirelings, this one you can't. This origin also provide more rewarding inspiration like unfriendly fire(100 xp) this one is tricky (isn't working on neutral NPC's) but still it's 100 xp that's a lot for 3 or 4 lvl characters.

[@vampireprincess4620]

minor thing I found in a recent run, if you allow Nettie to poison you with the branch and then kill her and use her elixer of sylvanus to heal yourself you get 75 extra exp

[@Melth]

Yep, killing Nettie is free XP

[@vampireprincess4620]

@@Melth I think the 75 exp is for specifically curing the poisoning

[@strunkshade]

Also, I had a question: do you plan on being this thorough with fights in act 3? I would love to see how you wipe out ever combat encounter purely because that would mean more of this awesome series! (Even if xp doesn’t matter)

[@Melth]

Yes, I plan to complete act 3 thoroughly and with the maximum number of combats possible, per my usual challenge run rules

[@PsychedelicSlayer88]

So, this is an exploit, and a grindy one at that, but technically lets you get infinite XP in Act 1. Step 1, aggro Gekh Coal, but don't kill him Step 2, let him reanimate the corpses Step 3, end the encounter by escaping aggro. You can do this by going invisible, or just outrunning the enemy. I recommend having only 1 party member for this so it goes by quicker. Step 4, repeat steps 1-3 ad nauseum. Gekh Coal will continuous reanimate corpses on his first turn, even if there are already animated corpses around. Step 5, kill the animated corpses. They are only worth 1xp each, and there's a lot of them, so I recommend AoE spells like Fireball and Spirit Guardians.

[@Melth]

That's interesting! I'll bet Shovel could do that cycle pretty well with at-will invisibility. But yeah, definitely an exploit

[@Henbot]

It’s interesting how much you can do in act 1 and how much XP you can get. It is useful to know for an honour mode when I try it. In my first play the time I got to Myrkel in my first play was already level 9 and far into level 10 and reached level 12 and still had a chunk of encounters to do. House of Grief was utter annihilation of my enemies 😂

[@Melth]

On my first run I think I was level 10 and a half or so fighting Myrkul. I wonder if it's possible to be level 11 fighting him?

[@job5861]

Of note: some of the exploration xp is level dependent. Meaning that if you wait until you're a higher level, you get more xp. An example of this is the chest overlooking the beach by the dank crypt. Opening that chest at level two gives less experience than opening it at, say, level five. Little things like that can add up.

[@Melth]

@@job5861 that's true, though a lot of the high XP creatures that help people level up are gated behind exploration XP boundaries, so it wouldn't be easy to reach a high level without exploring much

[@timothyjacksondrake4454]

I just tested this and that initial beach cliff chest gives 80xp at level 5 vs the normal 5xp at lvl1 (lvl1=5, lvl2=10, lvl3=10, lvl4=40)

[@Melth]

@@timothyjacksondrake4454 Fascinating! So I guess the ideal strategy is to explore as little as possible and instead battle everything until you level up, and THEN go back and explore. That doesn't actually sound like a fun way to play of course, but it's good to know in general

[@job5861]

@@timothyjacksondrake4454 The equivalent of taking out a minotaur.

[@job5861]

@@Melth I find the trick is being judicious about what you explore. Some things you have to, but others can always wait, like that chest. Holding off until Act II on the chest can get you the equivalent of an extra minotaur, for example.

[@PalleRasmussen]

I like your choices. You forgot the petrified Drow and Beholder in the Underdark though.

[@Melth]

@@PalleRasmussen I kind of assumed everyone would fight the beholder, but you're right that I should have mentioned the drow

[@PalleRasmussen]

@@Melth I usually fight both.

[@Alirion144-jx4uj]

Wow! Great Guide! Did Not know about some possibilities and extra possible enemies (especially the 4 extra eagles and the oath breaker pala in camp- Never played a pal…) Did get to lvl 8 without any story cutting it seems :), but I found one more enemy in grymforge. Cant wait for your Act 2 revelations! Keep up your good stuff!

[@Melth]

Glad you liked it! And yeah, this game is full of all sorts of hidden characters and encounters one can easily miss, like the Oathbreaker Knight

[@Alirion144-jx4uj]

@@Melth as you requested at the end of the video - these are some more xp sources I found: - grymforge huge battle: if you side with the duergar to split Nere's gold you will found them as allies against Nere (green circle); you can still aggro them by hitting them though and get the xp for killing them (as long as no "enemy" kills them); after the encounter another duergar shows up in conversation (dont recall his name) that was not there before. He gives you half of Neres gold and talks about the gnome slaves. You can fight him with the fight button in the conversation and also as an answer to talking about the gnomes I think... 75 xp for killing him - monestry entrance: you can fight the githyanki and talk to the halfling cultists (also fight) when disguised as halfling AND coming out of the window from the kobolds. I dont recall the xp of the halflings (I think it was 40 each) but the giths are worth 75 xp each (so at least 150) - Glut: you can kill him after crowning him too :) 40 xp I think - Boooaal: You can get another 80 xp (830 xp in total) for gaining Boooaal Blessing and if you steal the sickle of Boooaal before becoming his "Avatar" you get the sacrifise blessing without sacrifising anyone and also for all of your 4 party members Alltogether about 400 xp!😄 MSlocum669 also stated the "right" exploring order. First such example is the ancient book lying on the desk near Arron - get extra xp for learing about the Jergal temple ruins before exploring them. These are often small amounts of xp but I think they add up for all act 1 to a considerable amount.

[@Alirion144-jx4uj]

One addon: Killing Aradin and his Party gets you another 50 xp

[@Melth]

@@Alirion144-jx4uj they certainly have it coming! That's a small amount of XP with a fair amount of later story effects though

[@Alirion144-jx4uj]

Thats right but the other 400 xp have no big story consequences I think… except Im missing something?

[@V1lkas]

my first playthrough in act 1 ended with 7 lvl and maybe 20% to 8 lvl so im kind of proud of myself that i almost hit max exp doing it blind

[@Melth]

@@V1lkas nicely done, that's very good for a first playthrough. But there's a looooot of XP required to get from 7 to 8, so being only 20% of the way there suggests missing at least one pretty big area even besides the rarer things I talk about in this video

[@putis3012]

My dad click everything, he is lv 7 or 8 in underdark, and he bas 180 hours, and he just killed bernard LILE WHAT THE HELL

[@jobbathehutt109]

In the underdark, you can let the spectator un-petrify all the drow. Each one is worth 40(?) Xp.

[@Melth]

You can get the same XP for just killing all the Drow in statue form afterwards, oddly enough

[@jobbathehutt109]

Interesting. In the room that leads to the necromancy of thay, I let the agile guardian release all his friends.

[@ВладиславБулаев-л3э]

You had my curiosity... Now you have my attention 😁😄

[@Melth]

Glad to hear it

[@Uhdksurvhunter]

When i met Bernard, i did the typical stuff to get his ring (and i assume, although ill be honest i didnt check thoroughly, i got the same xp i would have if i killed him), then i chose the voice line that starts the fight, and i got XP for all his guardians. I assume most people that resolve this encounter peacefully never kill the guardians, but there are 4 - 6 of them (depending on difficulty) and they each awarded 40 xp.

[@Melth]

Yeah, choosing violence is necessary to get that XP- and indeed to get XP for most encounters.

[@notaustine31]

Takes me back to playing dos2 with my friends who’ve played the game before and maxes the xp you can get on the island by killing everyone non-essential

[@Melth]

It's definitely a very different experience playing Act 1 now, knowing who matters and who doesn't, vs my first run!

[@temperspace]

I like how you mention rp. Im actually trying to roleplay more and be less of a completionist

[@Melth]

I try to strike a balance. I don't feel satisfied if I know I didn't face every challenge, but I also have more fun if I at least come up with a plausible narrative reason to be going to every place and fighting any battles. I try to do that in my 9 Hells challenge run for instance.

[@Fxnarji]

Ayyy a fellow Kingkiller chronicle enjoyer ^^

[@JMagG23]

I was trying to steal Voss's silver sword by having Shadowheart use command drop on Voss as he stands with Lae'zel the first time you meet him, obviously it failed with something like 12% chance but it switched to the cut scene for the conversation choices that I passed and I think I got 150 exp, then when Voss leaves the other Githyanki will fight you, for their standard exp. I'm sure there are some other scenarios that might work too but that was an odd one I found. I guess that could be an exploit for 150 exp.

[@Melth]

I THINK that 150 XP doesn't relate to the command drop, but just to advancing that quest in general

[@JMagG23]

@@Melth I wish I would have done a pre save so I could go back and do some testing, all this was from memory. I thought at the time the exp was for successfully completing the conversation that would normally not trigger the fight with the Githyanki so you got some exp for talking you way out of the encounter and the exp for killing the Githyanki warriors after Voss leaves.

[@RoryDavidWatts]

Happy 5k subscribers Melth! Very well deserved.

[@Melth]

Thank you! I'm glad so many people enjoy my videos

[@nachschub4836]

Great Video sadly my first honor Mode just ended in the grim forge would have loved to meet the kua-toa will definitly do it once I'm in the underdark again, never found them before.

[@Melth]

Have fun on your next honour run! I think the Kuo-Toa are a good encounter to do pretty early because they're worth a massive chunk of XP, but are quite easy.

[@TheLolrider]

I'm sure I'm late to the discussion, but based on my solo tactician experience, I was 99% sure that if you did absolutely everything in the game, including double dipping on combat encounters, you could reach level 11 by the end of Act 2.

[@Melth]

Hm. With the double dip exploit I'm certain it's possible, if that hasn't been patched out by now. But I'm aiming to see how high level one can get with no exploits

[@PrincessBouncyBall1714]

10:16 hiding is a strong word to describe what they are doing in those barrels I think

[@gilbertgloria1188]

When they say you reach lvl 7 at max for act 1 because when you go to the monastery you can ruin some of your quest which technically makes that more like act 2

[@Melth]

Eh, by that logic Lower City is actually act 4 because going there proceeds some quests in rivington or wyrm's crossing and gives you the same message asking if you want to continue. Act 2 is the shadow cursed lands, and nothing before it

[@xfccgvbhcxcccvbggcd1216]

Be a maniac: the guide.

[@Melth]

Astarion and Lae'Zel have been a bad influence on me apparently

[@brokenmeats5928]

I love ALL Melth videos!

[@Melth]

Thanks!

[@kudzukid12]

I agree with you on like 99% of your points but the 1% I don’t is that the Titan String Bow is overrated!!! That thing slaps so hard! I finished my solo Honour run because of that thing! I just wanted to thank you for your time and effort putting out this 9 Hells series as I have learned a ton of facts and little nuances about the game I still didn’t know after multiple play throughs and about 700 hours of gameplay. I think this series is super valuable to new comers and veterans alike! Keep up the excellent work sir and I will eagerly look forward to any content you put out. Have a great day. P.S. I would also love to see a series similar to this for Divinity Origin Sin 2. I ended up buying it along with the DOS 1 after falling in love with Larian Studios after the full release of BG3. I’ve also started to dabble is PathFinder WotR and was wondering if you have any experience with this gem?

[@Melth]

I'm glad you like the series so much. I'm always happy to hear that it helps people and that my work on these videos is appreciated! Let me emphasize that 'somewhat overhyped' does not mean 'not good'. Something can be great but still be overhyped if people exaggerate how great it is. The Titanstring Bow is great. But a lot of people seem to talk about it like it's the best item in the game, like it should be your top priority to go and grab it ASAP, or like it's the only good way to deal ranged damage. And those claims go too far. That's overhyping it. Double hand crossbows is competitive with or better than Titanstring on most builds for one thing, especially in Act 1. And there are many more useful items or advantages to collect in the early game, like recruiting Withers so you can re-spec people's terrible stats, getting the gloves of archery, getting the caustic band, getting bliss spores before a big adventuring day, etc.. I think acquiring the Titanstring bow should be a fairly low priority. It only becomes good once you can make a lot of attacks and also have something like the Club of Hill Giant Strength to boost your Str. I haven't played Divinity Original Sin or Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous (Though some of my friends were just talking about the latter this weekend). I'll think about them, but in general I tend to play only a small number of games.

[@ДмитрийБотух]

@@Melth Wrath of the righteous is basically a more nerdy BG3.

[@davidguerra1699]

You can use non lethal attacks on all fights to win and get xp but not kill them. After, you can save-reload and kill all unconcious enemies "again" and you get xp again, so double xp each fight

[@Melth]

I believe that exploit was patched out a while ago. At the very least, it doesn't work for me

[@edgarassimkus3731]

Great video ,you put a lot of effort in to ,will use all that jucy information on my second playtrough

[@Melth]

@@edgarassimkus3731 thank you, I hope it helps with your new run!

[@roaringthunder8069]

Danse macabre is a free summon that summons four (five if youre high enough in necromancy wizard) that costs no spell slot. That isnt less than worthless.

[@Melth]

Unless they changed it in a patch, it's not even close to free. It costs a high level spell slot. It summons ghouls, but you can already summon your own pack of only one fewer ghoul with a spell slots of that level (or get one or more flying ghouls). That already makes it of questionable value, but with the superficial benefit that you CAN have both animate dead and danse macabre. But it's horrible because you can't control the damn ghouls. The AI has no tactics at all, the ghouls can easily block party members, they love to blunder into traps, and if they die they deal a large amount of AOE damage... which is at least as likely to hurt you as the enemy because again you can't control them. And this can even set off a chain reaction that devastates the party and wipes out your actually useful summons. Absolutely never worth the spell slot compared to summoning ghouls you can actually control and use tactics with.

[@roaringthunder8069]

@@Melth it's never once costed a spell slot for me ever. I play on PS5 though so if that's not intentional I have no clue.

[@Melth]

@@roaringthunder8069 interesting, Ill see if I can find any information about that. I agree that if it doesn't cost a 5th level spell slot in some versions, then it's not less than worthless in that version. I would still rate it very low because the uncontrolled ghouls won't focus fire, will often block more important units, will set off traps, and can explode to damage your own team. But at least you aren't paying a spell slot, so that could be worth something on a party that CAN'T just summon its own hordes of undead and elementals

[@insomniac0095]

This might have been said already but the hidden gith fight is definitely an exploit. Game makers did not intend you to fight those characters which is why you can glitch your game doing that. That’s the only part of this list I wouldn’t do. Everything else is great!

[@Melth]

Hm, yeah you might be right about that. On the other hand I love battling them just because it's one of the toughest fights in act 1 to go up against 10 or so gith on multiple sides, plus the wolves and whatnot all at once!

[@insomniac0095]

@@Melth Yeah especially if you’re trying to save resources for inquisitor right after. For my solo runs I’m getting in the habit of saving the blood of lathander buff for the Merkyl fight at end of act 2 (hardest in the game for me trying to solo it), so I’m glad your guide has plenty of other xp to grab so it doesn’t hurt to skip that xp for a while

[@sofaking4779]

The Magma Mephits that are summoned during the Grym fight seem to appear again after 2 turns once killed. They are are worth 75xp each. I don't know if intentionally prolonging the fight continues to summon them, but even two waves is 600+ xp.

[@Melth]

@@sofaking4779 oh really? I've never seen more than one wave of them even when the fight went long.

[@sofaking4779]

@@Melth The Mephits spawn whenever you use the hammer on Grym. At least in tactician. So in Theory you would wait until he is no longer Superheated then get him under the hammer and use it just to spawn the Mephits. You would never see the mephits if you did not use the hammer to kill him or killed him in one shot on lower difficulty or using the Owlbear Bomb.

[@YGBM168]

Melth!! I dig the name. I have a pair of Duergar brothers named "Stelf and Gelth Melbro" that I think should be professional characters somewhere, like maybe a Magic: The Gathering card Planeswalker duo or minor card group. I've been playing them in BG3 as an Urchin Monk Tavern Brawler and Soldier Warpriest Sharpshooter. Ramshorn and Neverwinter Scarf respectively with full beards. Your channel name struck the chord with me. You're only a letter away from Gelth. Great video by the way. I'm on the slow boat to an Honour Mode victory and your XP suggestions sound right on. I'm guessing that they boost my rate to level 5 (I can do it in 7 to 9 hours depending on the caution factor). Getting to level 8 before Act 2 sounds like "The Long & Winding Road": thorough, safer, and more sure-footed for those seeking to beat Honour Mode confidently instead of just "wingin' it". Thanks again for the tips. BTW: You look like Richard Garriott. Here's a digital toast to Critical Role!! I went to high school with a bunch of them. Take care of yourself. Stay safe and be well...

[@YGBM168]

I fired this off without thinking too much about it until I awoke a moment ago. As with most DnD stuff, it's "Do what thou wilst", but two things came up that I thought were worth mentioning. I never cared about the armaments so much as I did with the look of Stelf Melbro. Early on, I would find Astarion and steal his underwear before I dyed them bright red. Imagine: bright red banana hammock (no Monk outfit) and the Cap of Curing (for the Cowboy look). After all was said and done, he looked like Hulk Hogan, some kind of naked hayseed with a beer gut doing bellyflops at the lake on the weekend (or just a really badass wrestler). Multiclass him as a weekend Bard or not (I never did), I ended up conceding the knife throwing angle to the Returning Pike and Nyrulna, but the wrestler look I've just described was all I needed to love my character long enough to score a cheap victory. With Gelth, the Poisoner's Robe and Virulent Venom are it for me, and maybe multiclass him as a Wizard at some point for Poison Spray and Ray of Sickness. Beyond that, he spends his life dipping his wick into crusty brews and leaving behind a lot of crusty dead dudes. Here's one to the Melbro brothers. Cheers!!...

[@YGBM168]

Before this gets old, I worked through it again, and there was one more minor constant worth mentioning: "White 10 Squidilection" Body Art for both of them. I'm sure someone will disagree somewhere. Ciao...

[@YGBM168]

And oh yeah, the beards were "Judicious". And maybe give Stelf the Purple 3 eyes over his brother's Red 3, but that was about it. I guess it depends on their history (for those who care). Oy!!...

[@Melth]

Have fun with your Honour Mode run! I hope these tips about getting to level 8 help

[@YGBM168]

@@Melth I found this Honour Mode run about an hour ago on the Morgana Evelyn channel. kzbin.infooTcjDiGir80?si=JkJUUG9ulBhiNTvO. She must play a lot, because she's got her golden dice for an Honour Mode win. But here's the kicker: She made level 5 in 4 hours flat. Her character goes over the line at 4:02:58. What's more, no tricks, just driving around doing whatever she feels like. Even further, level 6 in just under 6 1/2 with the ticker up at 6:20:33. I'm a little flabbergasted to tell you the truth, but I also get sick of the thing (the game) really fast. It's funny, because I learned a trick to get to level 4 in under an hour (even under a half hour if you push), but level 5 turned into this terrible slog by comparison every time from there, taking upwards of 6 to 8 more hours after level 4. I've been pecking around for tips on how to up my rate, but I haven't worked at it enough to know what to do just yet. It's funny, because I'm willing to learn how to work that quickly, I've just got to get clear on what to do (and what not to do). I could go deeper, but I'll leave it here for the time being. Cheers!!...

[@shadow15kryans23]

Bassically... Do quest, Kill Quest giver when you finish all quests you can, Rinse and Repeat until you pretty much kill everything.

[@Melth]

Eh, that only gets you a small amount. Much more of the XP I found is about spotting fights you can't usually do (Like the 5 githyanki patrol), or not overlooking any enemies in existing fights (Get ALL the myconids when overthrowing Spaw, find the kobolds hidden in barrels), or making sure the environment doesn't steal your kills

[@saiyanremix]

Complete main quest. Complete side quest, read, explore every single thing. Then kill every single living creature you see. Level 8 easy

[@Melth]

Wellll, half the video is spent talking about how you don't need to kill everything and presenting options so you can pick the ones that make sense to kill. But yeah, you've got to do everything and kill a lot of things!

[@smashhit1992]

Shout out Danny hall sounds like a great guy

[@Melth]

Sure does!

[@etherealceleste]

In case anyone is wondering what OCD is like. I never thought about trying to get level 8 in Act 1, but I just went and looked at my save from my first play-through right before entering Act 2 and I had 8,291 XP, 709 XP short of level 8 from playing how I always play.

[@harlequin5664]

ive saved oskar a couple of times and every time i get so annoyed that all you get is a freaking painting... he's been staying with the zhentarim the last couple of runs 😅

[@Melth]

I might add that we already have a statue by that point!

[@ranmashiah1999]

Hey, im probably a bit late on this, but it should be mentioned that every new location exp you get will change based on your level. For example discovering Créche Y'ilek at level 4 provide 120 exp, while doing so at level 5 provides 240 exp, quite a big difference. It is a little complicated but for the full list explaning it you can go to the Bg3 wiki. So basically you should do everything you can in each location before going to the next, unless you want to do so for RP purposes. Hope you see this even though im a few months late haha.

[@Melth]

Yeah that's a very good tip I learned only after doing this video. So in theory one should do all combats before all exploration and then come back and explore all areas of the map in a single run through of vast empty spaces. (That sounds really weird and boring to me to actually play, but it WOULD be most efficient!)

[@jordansebert11]

Thanks Meth!

[@Melth]

@@jordansebert11 I'm glad it helps!

[@corrtan]

If you come back in to mage tower in underdark and 1-shot 4 turrets with Shocking grasp let’s say - 40exp each, that’s quick 120exp

[@Melth]

@@corrtan I think it's 160 since there are 4. And yes, that's true. I think that was one of the things I just assumed everyone battled already and thus lumped into my baseline, but upon reconsideration many people probably skip them.

[@corrtan]

@@MelthI mean yeah, my math is not mathin today, it’s 160, but yeah, I just ran past mine till I activated tower and never came back to those turrets

[@GabrielBarbosa-np4xp]

Lvl8 in act 1 is suuuuuper possible aaaand act 11 by the end of act 2

[@Melth]

Possible, but tricky. Since making this video I've found a few more XP sources, but they require very unnatural play

[@maestroko8642]

Titanstring overhyped? It add your str modifier to attacks and also that modifier to damage rolls from ice arrows or other special arrows (Edited for better wording)

[@Melth]

Yep, and that's a very strong effect on the right build. But it's not necessarily stronger than using double hand crossbows. It's a tradeoff of more attacks vs a smaller number of stronger attacks.

[@maestroko8642]

@@Melth fair enough. I’m assuming you’re going thief subclass for the extra bonus attack. I haven’t done a play through of that build so idk what the plan is out the gate. But you can get titanstring super early and combo it with the club of hill giant strength to get that +4 with 0 points invested into strength. At lv 3 you go rogue assassins to get an extra attack off when you initiate fights plus guaranteed crits vs surprised enemies. Combod with elixir of bloodlust you’re getting 3 attacks at the start of combat with 2 of them being guaranteed crits. Get kaghas necklace for an extra 1-6 on those attacks and 2-12 on the crits and you’re cruising. If you have invisibility potions you can go invisible and get out of combat to just rinse, wash and repeat 💯

[@posthumous_me]

3:42 I've been trying to get a save file where I beat Zhalk & the cambions, but it's been a really tough challenge. I've easily played 50 hrs worth of saves trying to get that XP 😭

[@Melth]

@@posthumous_me I do have two videos on the topic with some tips that might help a lot

[@Anton-GameLifeCoaching]

I always wondered how to expose Kagga, I missed out on this in my playthrough! Found her note in the bog but couldn't do anything with it

[@Melth]

It's all about the order you do things! For some reason it's impossible to expose her once you defeat the goblins. No idea why

[@ZERO-bp1to]

Does Alfira have new quest, for more xp? Because as of patch 7 she can be ally.

[@alexg3911]

4:50 you also get 20 temporary hp after each long rest from the necromancy of thay, which imo is a way better buff than the ghoul spell :) Also, you can allow Gekh to summon zombies over and over by fleeing from combat, it might be patched but last time I checked this was technically an unlimited XP exploit since they're worth 3 xp per zombie and he summons them again at the start of combat every time. Just keep in mind that it takes an extremely long time to get a meaningful amount and the game gets VERY laggy after a while with all the corpses lying on the ground

[@Melth]

That's true about Gekh theoretically allowing an infinite XP exploit, but it takes such a huge amount of time to get 1 goblin worth of XP (especially as it starts to slow down) that I don't think one could practically get much out of it. As for 20 temp HP- I would argue that that's fun but really not that good per long rest. A spore druid can be getting 40 temp HP twice per short rest. Wearing the potent robe can get you 8 temp HP per *turn*, and so on. By that point in the game massive amounts of renewable temporary HP is available from various sources

[@alexg3911]

@@Melth yeah tbh the temp hp isn’t nearly as useful in act 3 as it would’ve been earlier in the game. The necromancy of thay in general was a bit underwhelming since the ghouls aren’t really anything to write home about either, especially since you can’t control them

[@Melth]

@@alexg3911 back when they were controllable it would have been a fun quest reward!

[@absorbed_soul]

The buff is indeed valuable, plus it stays on you even if you give up the knowledge of Thay at the mirror in Shar's temple in Act3 for a +2 increase to a chosen stat. You actually only lose the availability of casting Danse Macabre. So overall destroying the book is almost never worth it.

[@DMoneys36]

Another one is to always let the spectator unpetrify one of the drow. Having the main drow guy become hostile and then you can kill all his petrified friends for 40 XP each

[@Melth]

@@DMoneys36 people keep saying that, but it's not actually needed. Just kill the Drow as helpless statues after the battle. They're still worth 40 XP each that way

[@DMoneys36]

@@Melth I thought if they were still yellow/not hostile you won't get XP

[@Melth]

@@DMoneys36 it always gives me XP to kill them

[@Chrollostasis]

I forgot how much EXP it gives but there's also the spectator in the Underdark, its a pretty fun fight unless you're solo tactician then it gets to be a bucket of misery without cheesy methods, its a decently rewarding fight and it + the drows it unpetrifies probably give good EXP I just don't remember the amount.

[@Melth]

@@Chrollostasis yeah, I assumed everyone would fight that as part of adventuring through all the main areas. Each Drow is worth 40 XP I think, whether unpetrified or killed effortless as a statue

[@Chrollostasis]

@@Melth Good to know, I didn't fight it on my first playthrough, unintentionally missed a lot in my first playthrough, especially through the underdark.

[@johnwalker1322]

great video!

[@Melth]

Thank you!

[@plaguedoctor6107]

Why not throw the iron flash in the shadow lands? Kill the specter twice?

[@kuzidas4213]

Melth! I was waiting until I got more finished with the game before watching your Nine Hells run, and I’m waist deep in the meat and potatoes of Act 3 (just rescued Minsc) and just one day I load up the game and it’s stuttering almost as bad as yours was! Like every 4-5 seconds there is a consistent three-quarter second freeze! Was truly the only way to fix yours to get upgrades to your PC? I find it hard to believe this is just a graphics/performance issue because even at camp (where I’ve been able to play the game smoothly, at the same camp, days before) it stutters too. Trying to fix this problem myself has made me realize how difficult it is to solve and how glad I am for the sake of your enjoyment of the game and my enjoyment of your KZbin series that you were able to get it fixed

[@ephemispriest8069]

Murder hobo powers, activate!

[@Melth]

Form of a Bhaalspawn with a Bloodlust Elixir! In seriousness though, a sizable chunk of this guide is about how one *doesn't* need to murderhobo to achieve this goal. I pointed out sources of XP that are either hard to justify or affect the story and put those on a separate list at the end. It's mostly about being thorough in battling all monsters, rather than murdering NPCs.

[@Idle_Timer]

The chest the iron flask is in gets turned into the people under the burning town. Gives a cross bow that causes bane and unlocks the rare goods at the vendor there... not sure how much xp the quest is worth.

[@Melth]

I talked about that in the very next section. You can also take the chest to its ultimate destination yourself in act 3 but there's no reward and no interesting dialogue or anything there

[@natetruehart7562]

Does the order that you defend the Emerald Grove then Kill the Goblin Leaders matter? Do any goblins in the camp despawn if I defend the Grove first? I feel like those down in the prison might. Should I just wait till Minthara leaves the camp, kill all the goblins, Dror Ragzlin, and those guarding Halsin, and then go and defend the grove?

[@Melth]

I don't *think* I've seen any goblin groups despawn after defending the Emerald Grove. Some goblins go with Minthara to the siege of course, but at least from what I could test, no goblins vanished into thin air. Still, just for the sake of convenience, I usually kill all the goblins once Minthara has left the room

[@cfa44acepilot]

@@Melth I told minthara THEN defended the grove. Halsin broke free on his own. All the goblins were alive except the ones in the prison area. You can still loot their corpses.

[@Melth]

@@cfa44acepilot ah, good to know. Sounds a bit weird in-character on Halsin's part because we see that Halsin could just escape in rat form, which would probably be the smart way to get out quickly to protect the grove. If he *wants* to try heroically fighting everything as a bear, why does he battle that one entire room but then apparently turn into a rat and leave?

[@cuspofexposure8242]

What about the devas or djinn that come out once you steal from the box. Can you farm them?

[@Melth]

Do you mean in act 3? I don't think those are farmable. Not that it would matter much since that's mid-act 3 if that's what you mean

[@maestroko8642]

Aren’t dance macabre immune to the bad effects of the gloves? Pair that with lv 6 aid spell and feast you get some chunky summons with dmg resistance.

[@Melth]

Yes, but- so are flying ghouls you can summon for yourself. And THOSE are under your control! The biggest problem with danse macabre is simply that you can't control the ghouls. They'll blunder into traps, block more important people, wake up sleeping foes, waste their time attacking the wrong people instead of focus firing, etc. Uncontrolled summons are rarely helpful, and can be less than worthless a lot of the time. A comparatively minor problem is that your other summons aren't immune to the abyss beckoners, so now this summoner has to either NOT summon anything good and just do the ghouls, or risk trouble with useful summons going mad. And if you DON'T use the abyss beckoners and anything kills a danse macabre ghoul, it explodes for a bunch of AoE damage that can potentially chain reaction kill all your ghouls and massively damage the party.

[@maestroko8642]

@@Melth why not both 😂😂😂

[@Melth]

@@maestroko8642 If anything, that makes the clutter and blockage problem worse. I had like 40 assorted summons and pets in my first no rest run of act 3, including danse macabre ghouls. And fight after fight, the danse ghouls were worthless- or an outright liability. Eventually I killed them myself to get rid of them after one time too many they had charged onto a trap and damaged the rest of the party