The next major update for Baldur's Gate 3, officially named Patch 7, will be implemented in September, but in advance of that, Larian gave a detailed update on the patch's contents. The company is also currently accepting applications for a closed beta test, and the beta test, not the patch, will take place on July 22.

Some of what will be implemented in the patch is already known. The evil playthrough ending will be improved (be careful not to step in it) and, more importantly, full-fledged mod support. Today's update delves more deeply into that whole picture, and of course there are spoilers. One change that is not a spoiler is the addition of a “dynamic split screen” mode. Looks pretty cool:

By the way, spoilers start here.

Individual NPCs have been tweaked and improved in various ways, party conversations have been expanded to include characters assigned to another player in a multiplayer party, several Dark Urge bugs have been fixed, and Honor mode has been improved in various “improvements”, namely more difficult: more creatures in the game are given Legendary Actions, and Droll Ragzlin has a new spell called Arachnid Compulsion, which promises to make life more unpleasant for those who are not big on spiders.

As usual, better smooching is also on the list: “Improved facial animation of characters during some kiss cinematics, including a kiss with an ascended asterion.

Larian really knows his audience.

There's a lot going on, but the centerpiece of the patch is the modding toolkit: closed alpha testing has been underway for a while, and Larian gave us a glimpse of its progress in the comments from those involved. It seems to be going well, and testers are suitably impressed:

“With all these bug fixes, gameplay updates, and new features, we want to make sure we're not breaking anything or introducing something that will make your computer explode. We want to,” Larian wrote in the update. To that end, the company wants to test the patch “on a large scale” and is now accepting applications for closed beta testing.

To participate, go to the Steam page and hit the “Request Access” button. The update does not mention how many testers they are looking for, but Larian has previously stated that the closed beta will be limited to approximately 1,000 people.

It is also important to note that patch 7 is not the final update for Baldur's Gate 3. We still have a few things in the works, including many features requested by the community, such as cross-play and a photo mode for capturing and sharing unforgettable moments. We're also working on many other enhancements, including gameplay tweaks, quality-of-life improvements, bug fixes and performance optimizations.”