The Honour Mode Speedrun to 1,000,000 Gold
Proxy Gate Tactician's Honour Mode speedrun to becoming a Baldur's Gate 3 millionaire without mods or exploits, from a fast Act One route through a bombing run on Ketheric Thorm to recruiting Minsc as an instant level twelve rogue. The payoff is a pickpocket build that stacks enough Sleight of Hand bonuses to make failure mathematically impossible, followed by a repeatable Act Three vendor circuit worth roughly 6,400 gold per loop. The creator reached 1,000,000 gold in about six and a half hours played across 156 long rests.
Before you start
- Jaheira alive and recruitable, since Minsc cannot be recruited if she has already died
- Enough gold banked from Acts One and Two to buy roughly 38 Smokepowder Bombs from Talli before the Ketheric Thorm fight
- The sorcerer Metamagic: Subtle Spell feature, needed to slip out of the Mind Flayer Colony without a fight
Items / Buffs
Act One: Fast Track to the Mountain Pass
Build a Fast, Fragile Sorcerer
The run uses a high Strength, low Health sorcerer built for covering ground rather than surviving hits, since Strength governs jump distance in this game and most of Act One's threats matter less than getting through it quickly.
Clear the Nautiloid Quickly
The opening imps go down in a few seconds with this build, and jumping over enemies instead of fighting them clears the nautiloid faster than most players take just picking a face.
Loot the Speed Potions, Silver Pendant, and Smuggler's Ring
Act One's checklist is short. Loot a couple of Potions of Speed off the dead or dying miners, bypass the Grove entirely to grab the Silver Pendant from the top of the nearby cliff, pause to pet the dog on the way down, then pull the Smuggler's Ring off the skeleton by the river.
Bypass the Goblin Camp and Recruit Shadowheart
Navigate undetected past the Goblin Camp rather than engaging it. Shadowheart catches you mid-jump on the way out and joins the party, seemingly unbothered by leaving the refugees to their fate. At the mountain pass, Lae'zel spots the party next and asks to travel together to the creche, which is worth agreeing to even without any intention of following through.
Use the Fog Trick to Skip the Road's Undead
A cloud of fog lets the party slip past the undead blocking the road into the mountain pass without a fight, reaching Act Two at level two in under ten minutes played.
Act Two: Bomb Ketheric and Reach Baldur's Gate
Send Shadowheart Solo to Loot the Moonlantern
In the Shadow-Cursed Lands, Shadowheart goes it alone: she approaches the Absolute's convoy, summons a drider with an elemental power, disarms it with Command, and loots the Moonlantern before releasing the pixie trapped inside it. Exploration experience picked up along the way brings the party to level three, plus a bit of starter cash from talking down an NPC made entirely of gold.
Free Wulbren Bongle Without Alerting the Tower
Wulbren is the only prisoner in Moonrise Towers worth the detour, since he becomes necessary for the money-making plan later. Once the coast is clear, Misty Step directly into his cell, smash down the back wall, and break the chains off the boat hidden behind it. Sail off into the dark rather than sticking around.
Reach Last Light Inn and Grab the Waypoint
The boat leads straight to Last Light Inn. Greet Jaheira there and grab the waypoint, the only side quest in this region actually worth completing before pushing on.
Buy 38 Smokepowder Bombs from Talli
The known speedrunner route parkours over the shadow-cursed buildings and through a Displaced Devil's head to reach the Thorn Mausoleum, then descends into Shar's Temple, where a Knock spell opens the door to the sacred kitchen. Skirt around Balthazar's room to grab three chests of gold on the way through, then use the fog trick again to skip more undead before a Tempest sorcerer's Storm's Flight ability reaches the lower platform and a knocked-down door opens onto the Verge of Shadows. Being only level three, a straight fight with any Honour Mode boss is out of the question, so every bit of gold gathered so far goes toward Smokepowder Bombs from the quartermaster, Talli. Leveling a hireling repeatedly refreshes her stock, which was enough to buy 38 bombs in total.
Let Balthazar Take the Nightsong to Skip His Fight
Inside the Shadowfell, agreeing to let Balthazar take the Nightsong avoids a fight the party would likely lose at this level. It is not an in-character choice for a would-be hero, but it clears the way. A quick trip up to Myrkul's shrine to pray to the Absolute lands the party at level four just before the prompt to enter the Mind Flayer Colony.
Escape the Mind Flayer Colony with Subtle Spell
As thanks for helping secure the Nightsong, Ketheric traps the party in the Mind Flayer Colony so Balthazar can turn them into zombies. Characters are silenced inside the zombie pods, but a sorcerer's Subtle Spell metamagic lets Misty Step bypass the silence entirely, making it possible to sneak away from Balthazar without using any glitches.
Bomb Ketheric Thorm and Myrkul from Range
Facing Ketheric at level four is a losing fight head-on, so bombs do the work instead. An invisible Lae'zel sneaks in to free the Nightsong, then carefully places 16 Smokepowder Bombs before the party triggers the blast from a safe distance, one-tapping Ketheric's first phase. When Myrkul rises up, a mistake with Lae'zel's positioning leaves her unable to retreat, but she has already done her job. Drinking a Potion of Speed for the extra action and triggering the remaining bombs is enough to one-shot the Lord of Bones before he gets a turn. Looting Ketheric's Netherstone from the aftermath is unavoidable, since it drives the story forward regardless.
Recruit Jaheira at Level 8 and Revive Lae'zel
The portal from Ketheric's fight leads back to Moonrise's main floor, where Jaheira is waiting to join. Despite the party being only level four, she joins at level eight, which is a significant jump. Wulbren is also up here, rewarding the party with enough gold to revive Lae'zel and reclass Jaheira into a fighter.
Push the Road to Baldur's Gate
The road to Baldur's Gate throws an ambush at the party, who make short work of it. Once inside, surviving the entrance fight against the monks guarding it means buffing the party with Guidance and Enlarge and finishing off the last Potion of Speed before the fight starts. A ten-hit-point party member is all that survives the encounter. In the rush to skip through the following dialogue, the character accidentally swallows a tadpole, which is a cosmetic setback rather than a real one. Act Two wraps up in just over an hour played.
Act Three: Recruit Minsc and Build the Pickpocket
Trigger the Counting House Heist
The Counting House is the next stop. Lockpicking the entrance is a waste of time even after failing the roll to enter normally, since unlimited hirelings cover the mistake. Typing the password instead triggers the robbery cutscene directly. The resulting fight is not winnable at this point and not worth attempting, so leave immediately once Minsc runs off with the gold.
Track Minsc to Felogyr's Fireworks and Rig the Basement
Going after Minsc and the stolen gold means finding a way to beat the group defending him while still underleveled. Felogyr's Fireworks is the answer. Gear collected earlier gives enough bonuses to make lockpicking into the shop's basement reasonably viable, and the basement holds enough explosives to kill almost anything in the game, including your own party if you are not careful.
Detonate the Bombs and Knock Minsc Out Non-Lethally
Carry the boxes of fireworks through the sewer while invisible and hasted to avoid drawing attention, and stack them on top of the enemies once the fight starts. Triggering the blast from a distance should one-shot nearly everything caught in it, though Roah Moonglow survived it entirely unscathed in this run and escaped with 10,000 gold. Even without catching her, the blast swings the rest of the fight far enough in your favor to knock down the remaining enemies after a short struggle. Minsc must go down to non-lethal attacks specifically, since killing him outright ends any chance of recruiting him.
Recruit Minsc at Level 12
The real goal of the fight was always recruiting Minsc, since he joins at level twelve regardless of what level the rest of the party is. Not even two hours into the playthrough, this gives the party a max-level character in the endgame region, which matters because the quality of items a vendor's inventory offers is tied to the level of whoever is checking it. A level one character sees garbage. A level twelve character sees the good stuff.
Buy Nimblefinger Gloves and Leather Armor
Wulbren's prison rescue back in Act Two unlocks Bumpnagel as a vendor, who carries the Nimblefinger Gloves. When a shapeshifted gnome equips them, they raise Dexterity to 22 for a plus six modifier and add another plus one to Sleight of Hand. The city's armorer also sells standard leather armor, which passively adds a plus one bonus to Dexterity checks. These are the final two pieces needed for the pickpocket build.
Reclass Minsc to Rogue for Reliable Talent
Pickpocketing is the fastest glitch-free way to earn gold in the entire game, but a failed attempt on Honour Mode can end the run, so the build needs to remove the risk entirely rather than manage it. Since Minsc joined at max level, he can be reclassed into a Rogue immediately to pick up the level eleven Reliable Talent passive, an overpowered ability that sets the lowest possible roll on relevant checks to a 10.
Stack the Sleight of Hand Modifiers to an Unfailable Roll
As a Rogue with the Thief subclass, Minsc gets a plus eight proficiency bonus to Sleight of Hand checks by default. The Mark of the Shifter condition adds another plus one whenever shapeshifted, and the Silver Pendant supplies Guidance for an additional 1d4 bonus. Shapeshifting into a gnome lets the Nimblefinger Gloves raise Dexterity to 22 for a plus six modifier. Leather Armour adds another plus one to Dexterity checks, while the gloves' plus one to Sleight of Hand combines with the Smuggler's Ring's plus two for another plus three. Stacked together, the lowest possible Sleight of Hand roll comes out to 30, matching the highest difficulty class for a pickpocket check. Short of being physically spotted by the target, failure is not mathematically possible.
The Farm Loop: Figaro, Omotola, and Thomas
Scout Act Three Vendors for Gold and Guard Risk
Before committing to a route, check the level twelve inventories of every vendor worth considering in Act Three, noting how much gold each carries by default, how reliably they can be pickpocketed, and how close they sit to other wealthy vendors in case a mistake happens. The Guild has plenty of riches, but staying hidden there is a nightmare with how many guards patrol it. Other vendors bolt at high speed when they notice you, and some go straight to violence.
Run the Figaro, Omotola, and Thomas Circuit
Two locations came out roughly tied as the best options. The Town Square has three vendors in close proximity but far too many guards and loading issues to be reliable. The better route starts in Figaro Pennygood's shop, moves next door to Omotola at the Glitter Gala, then goes upstairs to Thomas's shop. Two of the three are tied for the highest gold a vendor can carry in the city, all three have fairly empty shops that can be swept within a single cast of Guidance, and the nearby waypoint makes for a quick shortcut between visits or an escape route if a guard notices.
Long Rest to Reset Inventories and Repeat
After each loop through the three shops, long rest without spending any supplies. This resets every trader's inventory, so the next day the same circuit can be run again after rebuffing. An average round trip earns about 6,400 gold and carries very little risk. Getting caught standing in front of a target just triggers an easily passable Charisma roll rather than a fight. It took 156 long rests running this loop to reach 1,000,000 gold.