Good news, everyone! It’s January. The world has finished another lazy rotation around the Sun, and as you’re gazing into the murky horizon of 2025 like a groundhog in search of Spring, we’re hard at work to bring you your next excuse to return to Faerûn.

Patch 8 is still moving along nicely, but before we let you in on the upcoming stress test to try your hand at breaking things, we’re adding some finishing touches and working with our partners to ensure you can fully test cross-play. We hope to let you into the Patch 8 stress test towards the end of this month.

Today’s community update is here to remind you of what’s arriving in our final major patch and uses the upcoming photo mode to celebrate some of the creations you’ve shared with us during our journey together. Someone grab the tissue, it can’t really be the end, can it?

Register Now
If you’ve not yet signed up to take part in the Patch 8 stress test to help test things out, you can still register your interest by clicking on the banner with the handsome feller below!

Want to join the stress test from an Xbox? You’ll need to download the Xbox Insider Hub App to become an Xbox Insider and join the playtest from the app once the stress test begins to go live.

Arriving With Patch 8
The final major patch for Baldur’s Gate 3 is right around the corner and will deliver several hotly anticipated features, including cross-play, photo mode, and 12 new subclasses, which you can read more about in Community Update #30.

In-Game Mod Manager Improvements

• Removed the third-party mods warning and replaced it with clearer messaging.
• The Mod Verification window will now trigger regardless of where the request to connect to a multiplayer game is coming from.

With plenty more fixes to be included! And don’t worry, this isn’t the end of our bug fixing.

New Subclasses
Soon there will be 12 new ways to experience Baldur’s Gate 3 - a new subclass is being added for each of the 12 classes in the game, complete with new VFX and animations that we teased in Community Update #31.

You’ve got to try out all of them, right?

Photo Mode
Patch 8 also introduces photo mode, so get ready to smile for the camera, or if you’re like Karlach, stare into the middle-distance as you contemplate all your past mistakes.

While you’re adventuring around the Sword Coast, you’ll be able to toggle photo mode on or off and play around with a multitude of options for the party you’ve brought along with you, including during combat encounters. Position them to your liking, change facial expressions to fit the scene, and play around with the camera, lens, and scene settings.

During dialogues and cinematic scenes, you won’t be able to alter the camera or position your party, but you will have access to a whole bunch of post-processing effects, such as colour-grading settings, frames, and stickers, that can be used whether you’re tottering around Baldur’s Gate, or kissing your beloved.

We’re looking forward to seeing the creativity you’ll bring once you get your hands on Patch 8!​