Baldur's Gate 3: Dark Urge Explained

WARNING: THIS ARTICLE WILL FEATURE SPOILERS FOR THE DARK URGE PLAYTHROUGH OF BALDUR'S GATE 3

Have you ever wanted to give in to your base urges, your darkest desires? Have you ever wondered what would happen if you took the renegade option in a Mass Effect to the logical extreme? Baldur's Gate 3 allows you to indulge those desires, and do some truly heinous stuff. But what exactly is The Dark Urge, when you boil it down?

What even is The Dark Urge?

The Dark Urge is a custom origin that you can choose in Baldur's Gate 3. You can choose any class or race to go with it, with a fully customized character, but it acts as a background that gives your character new options. Unlike the other backgrounds, though, this is a background that can GREATLY shift your entire experience.

As The Dark Urge, you'll have desires to kill and main people at random intervals. One of the earlier examples of this comes when you would normally first meet Gale, the Wizard of your group, and you're asked to pull him out of an unstable sigil. Instead of doing this as The Dark Urge, you can fantasize about cutting off his hand. You'll black out and when you come to, you have indeed taken his hand off and you won't see Gale again in your entire playthrough. There are multiple moments like this with your companions, so if you want to fight the urge you better be prepared.

The Dark Urge's Unique Possibilities

As The Dark Urge, you're given the ability to do some things that you normally couldn't do in your regular playthroughs. Sure, you can still cause the Last Light Inn to fall during your regular playthroughs, but by doing this in your Dark Urge playthrough you get access to a new form known as the Slayer Form that can absolutely mow through your enemies.

You also get access to a screwed-up little Goblin man who purports to be your butler and just wants to get you to open up to your true form, or what he calls your true form. He wants you to give in to the Dark Urge and promises to reveal your hidden past if you do so, but rest assured that you can still find out your past if you don't give in to what he wants.