Baldur's Gate 3 has an ultra-rare Act 3 scenario where zombie versions of the tiefling refugees show up in their usual spots acting like everything's normal

Ultra-rare "Zombie Danis" from Baldur's Gate 3 — (Image credit: SlimX on YouTube)

In Baldur's Gate 3 YouTuber SlimX's deep dive into the game's out-of-bounds secrets, he revealed a super-niche Act Three world state that beggars belief, one where the tiefling refugees are all zombie versions of themselves, but show up in their usual locations acting like you saved them. This requires indulging in a quite frankly deranged combo of "good" and "evil" playthrough choices:

Save the tieflings in Act One.
Do not save the Moonrise Tower prisoners in Act Two.
Give the Nightsong to Balthazar
Don't kill the hostile zombie tieflings in the Mind Flayer Colony.

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This strikes me as less of a "working as intended" situation, and rather a quirk of Larian's unique way of handling NPCs. Outside very specific circumstances, each character has one consistent "actor" that's used through the entire game, rather than a new instance of the NPC for each appearance.

So killing someone in Act One doesn't set a flag to keep them from appearing in Act Three, the NPC just won't be around to appear in the first place. It's also how a merchant like Dammon will still have items you sold him in the Grove when you find him in the Lower City.

The zombie tieflings are apparently set up in the same way⁠—the zombies are the "same" NPC as their living versions, rather than new actors. If they survive the Colony encounter, they're switched back into a non-hostile "we were saved" mode for Act Three, just with the zombie aesthetics maintained, as the game doesn't recognize them as "dead."

Image of super rare &quot;Zombie Lakrissa&quot; from Baldur's Gate 3 in the Elfsong Tavern. — (Image credit: SlimX on YouTube)

This is far from a desirable world state, as you miss out on great quest rewards like the Potent Robe, but it is very funny. It reminds me of the ending of Shaun of the Dead.

SlimX's investigations have produced all kinds of strange BG3 revelations, like the fact that there's a magical sheep named "Harvard Willoughby" you can summon by murdering the comedian of the same name and jumping through some other hoops.

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Ted has been thinking about PC games and bothering anyone who would listen with his thoughts on them ever since he booted up his sister's copy of Neverwinter Nights on the family computer. He is obsessed with all things CRPG and CRPG-adjacent, but has also covered esports, modding, and rare game collecting. When he's not playing or writing about games, you can find Ted lifting weights on his back porch. You can follow Ted on Bluesky.

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