Baldur’s Gate 3 Finally Lets You Recruit Alfira Permanently, But There Are Too Many Downsides

Players can finally recruit Alfira as a permanent companion in Baldur’s Gate 3, if only unofficially – but it’s hardly worth the effort or the sacrifices necessary. Despite earlier speculation that Alfira would become fully recruitable, Larian clarified in its notes for Baldur’s Gate 3 Patch 7 that this was a misinterpretation; Alfira was always intended to be temporary, only recruitable for a brief span of time during Dark Urge playthroughs.

[Warning: This article contains minor spoilers for the Dark Urge storyline in Baldur’s Gate 3.]

However, always wont to find new ways to break Baldur’s Gate 3, enterprising players have found a way to recruit Alfira (kind of, technically) permanently – but there are so many catches that it’s scarcely worth trying. For those interested, it’s detailed below, along with a laundry list of disclaimers for anyone bold enough to try.

How To Recruit Alfira Permanently In Baldur’s Gate 3 As Of Patch 7

If You Dare

The long and winding road to recruiting Alfira was helpfully detailed in a YouTube video posted by xpertgamer. First and foremost, players must select the Dark Urge Origin character in order to recruit Alfira, since she’s only recruitable, even temporarily, when playing as the Dark Urge. After arriving at the Emerald Grove and meeting all the tieflings, the player will need to return to camp. Alfira will appear at night and officially join the party – however, she will only join if there’s sufficient room. That’s where things start to get complicated.

Immediately afterward, the player will need to select any other party member – preferably Alfira, just for the irony of it all – and use them to kill the Dark Urge player character. They’ll then need to remove all the Dark Urge’s gear, making them as light as possible, and then use an Elixir of Hill Giant Strengthon Alfira. Have her pick up the Durge and put them in her inventory, and the game will immediately cut to the Mountain Pass. From there on out, Alfira will function, for the most part, as a regular member of the party.

This is where xpertgamer’s guide ends, but a few further steps provided by Dot Esports give some additional advice. Players will have to progress through the main quest – without ever long resting or leaving the Mountain Pass – until well after they arrive at the Last Light Inn. They’ll need to put Alfira on her usual chair in the inn, then speak to her using another player character to gain the “Rescue the tieflings” quest. Alfira can then stand up, and the party can continue on until they complete that quest.

Next, players will have to do the unthinkable and kill Alfira, at which point they can begin using long rests as normal. Alfira’s backup NPC, Quill Grootslang, will arrive, and the party will need to kill her, too. They’ll need to continue long resting until Sceleritas Fel arrives to present them with the Deathstalker Mantle, signifying their success.

Quill Grootslang exists to be the Dark Urge’s first victim if the player has already killed Alfira prior to her arrival at camp.

If the player has done everything right, Alfira should have become a permanent party member, and they should now be able to resurrect her by speaking to Withers. Experienced players have probably already noticed several holes in this process, though, that make recruiting Alfira a waste of time.

Everything Recruiting Alfira Permanently Breaks In Baldur’s Gate 3

Why The Exploit Isn’t Worth It

Unfortunately, there are so many catches to abusing this exploit that it’s not even worth trying for most players. First and foremost, note that recruiting Alfira requires the player to kill their Dark Urge character permanently. That means they’ll never have a player character throughout the entire game, and can only ever use the prefabricated Origin characters. They’ll also always have an empty slot in their party, taken up by the dead Durge, meaning that their party limit is three characters instead of four.

Recruiting Alfira also requires skipping the grand majority of Act One. Anything that comes after her arrival at camp will become unavailable, as if the player progresses past this point without beginning the exploit, Alfira will be automatically killed by the Dark Urge.

Of course, it’s possible to delay Alfira’s debut with a little clever navigation. Simply explore as much of the Act One map as possible without entering the Grove, and Alfira won’t show up until much later. Even so, players likely won’t be able to complete much of the content that takes place within the tiefling camp and the Grove itself, since the next time they rest after meeting Alfira, she’ll pop up at camp, ready to join.

Then, once players use the exploit and are teleported to the Mountain Pass, they’ll be unable to leave or long rest again until well into Act Two. This, of course, means skipping out on the entirety of the Underdark, not to mention the slog that is completing the remainder of Act One without a single long rest.

This is probably the single most difficult part of recruiting Alfira. It is theoretically possible: the party will need tons of consumables, like health potions and food, to keep their HP up. They’ll also want to avoid any unnecessary side quests, and rely as much as possible on characters who use raw Strength or Dexterity to attack, rather than those who rely on resources that only refresh during long or short rests, like spell slots or Ki Points. The bard’s Song of Rest skill can help prolong the time between long rests, but will only work once during this period.

By the time the player completes all this, they’ll be almost finished with Act Two, probably severely underleveled, and having missed some of the best parts of the story, but they will indeed have Alfira in their party as a permanent member. And perhaps the biggest catch is that this recruitment strategy relies entirely on a series of glitches that will likely be patched out.

Mods Provide An Easier Way To Recruit Alfira In Baldur’s Gate 3

How To Mod Alfira In As A Companion

As an alternative, players can install any number of mods to bring Alfira into their Baldur’s Gate 3 parties. “Alfira Joins the Party,” uploaded to NexusMods by adriant1978, is a reliable way to recruit Alfira without breaking the entire game. Equivalent mods downloaded through BG3‘s built-in mod manager will also do the trick.

Alfira is a well-loved companion, and many would move heaven or Toril in order to recruit her. But with all the issues recruiting her can cause, they’re probably better off installing a simple recruitable Alfira mod for Baldur’s Gate 3.

Sources: xpertgamer/YouTube, Dot Esports, adriant1978/NexusMods