Highlights
- A player discovered a clever method of opening locked chests in Baldur's Gate 3 by dropping them from a high altitude, bypassing the need for lockpicking or damaging the container.
- This discovery showcases the attention to detail and consistent mechanics in the game, as physics and fall damage are intentionally designed to interact with gameplay elements.
- Unlike in other CRPGs, destroying containers in Baldur's Gate 3 does not seem to degrade their contents, making this method a valuable trick without drawbacks.
One Baldur's Gate 3 player found a reliable method for opening locked chests without lockpicking or conjuring up convoluted high-damage combos capable of destroying sturdy containers. Their discovery is just the latest in a long string of examples illustrating the incredible attention to detail that went into the making of Baldur's Gate 3.
As is the case with many CRPGs, having a reliable locksmith in the party is one of the quickest ways to get rich in Baldur's Gate 3, as the game features many locked chests hiding valuable loot. And though all containers and barriers also have a health pool, plenty of them are rugged, which is how the game explains the player's inability to chip away at them until they fall apart. Due to that mechanic, the only way to crack open a particularly sturdy chest without lockpicking is to one-shot it, which makes many containers virtually impossible to destroy with conventional weaponry.
Thinking outside the box, Reddit user rotating_tusk recently realized that simply dropping chests from a high altitude is enough to reach that damage threshold, allowing the player to reliably open chests without lockpicking or wasting some of the best Baldur's Gate 3 spells on such containers. Since many chests are found in relatively flat locations, utilizing this trick will require at least one strong character who will be able to carry locked containers around until an opportunity to drop them presents itself. Alternatively, players can simply keep sending locked chests to camp until they're ready to transport them to an opportune dropping spot.
While it is unclear whether the developers specifically intended for players to be able to open chests by dropping them or if this technique is merely a happy accident of the game's many systems interacting with one another, the possibility of it being a deliberate design choice is not out of the question. After all, Larian seemingly committed significant resources to ensuring that physics and related Baldur's Gate 3 mechanics such as jumping and fall damage work consistently across the board.
That is not only evident in the fact that throwing environmental objects and even characters is a legitimate combat strategy, but also reflected in the game's list of achievements. Namely, the latter includes a trophy called Shove Off which requires Baldur's Gate 3 players to kill an enemy with fall damage, thus confirming that Larian very much intended for the fandom to experiment with utilizing gravity.
Though many CRPGs allow players to destroy containers, doing so usually comes at the cost of degrading their contents. However, that doesn't seem to be the case in Baldur's Gate 3, which adds to the utility value of this newly discovered trick. And though the method certainly makes someone like Astarion less useful, lockpicking is just one of many reasons to play a Rogue in Baldur's Gate 3.
Baldur's Gate 3 is available now on PC and launches September 6 on PS5, with an Xbox Series X/S port also in development.
