Baldur's Gate 3: Complete Alchemy Guide (2025)

Most of today's RPGs have a crafting element that includes a way for characters to make their own weapons, food, or potions. ​​​​​​In Baldur's Gate 3, there's only one such profession available, Alchemy, and it be used to concoct a variety of useful materials beyond just the usual potions and elixirs.

RELATED: Baldur's Gate 3: Best Potions To Make With Alchemy

Alchemy in Baldur's Gate 3 includes the usual potions and elixirs, along with an impressive array of other handy mixtures for explosives, weapon coatings, poisons, and grenades. They can also be purchased from vendors, but for those that have a lower Charisma and need to save their gold, it's better to understand the fine art of Alchemy.

Preparing Materials

Baldur's Gate 3: Complete Alchemy Guide (1)

Just like in real life, it's necessary to gather and prepare the raw materials before the player can make anything. It's easy for the various ingredients to fill up the player's inventory, which is why the game starts by giving everyone an Alchemy Pouch along with a Backpack and Keychain.

Finding Ingredients

The various plants, herbs, and mushrooms of the Sword Coast don't shine, glow, or sparkle like in other games, but they do stand out as colorful or distinctive plants. It's much easier to find ingredients in the wilderness, but they are abundant underground.

The Underdark, for example, has some of the rarest and most valuable plants and mushrooms. on the other hand, if the party is visiting a city, buy them from various vendors in cities and towns.

Unlocking Recipes

There are different ways to unlock Alchemy recipes in Baldur's Gate 3. Sometimes, all a character has to do is pick up a plant to learn any recipes associated with it. Recipes can also be discovered during the Alchemy process when refining raw materials into refined ingredients.

Another way to learn a recipe is to read it on a note, parchment, or book so that the player can interact with the environment. Some of these items are part of side or hidden quests.

There's no Alchemy Pouch equivalent for what the character makes with Alchemy, and those potions, grenades, and other handy items clutter up the bags. It's highly recommended that the player pick up another empty backpack or pouch and use that to store their creations.

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Alchemy Recipes

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There aren't any level requirements for Alchemy in BG3, either for the character or for the skill itself. All the player needs is the right ingredients and the recipe to craft a variety of handy substances. Recipes are listed under types, with the consumables, explosives, and poison coatings listed first, followed by the finer ingredients for more complex potions.

Combining Ingredients

Two substances need to be combined to make a potion, elixir, grenade, or coating. One of these can be a raw material, but at least one other must be a refined ingredient.

Refining Ingredients

Three of any single substance are needed to make sublimates, salts, essences, vitriols, suspensions, or ashes. This is a rule of Alchemy in Faerun, which players can find in the same books that teach recipes or list ingredients.

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The Alchemy Tab

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  • Potions. This section includes the common potions that players often pick up or buy. Healing potions of all strengths are listed here, along with Speak With Animals and Feather Fall.
  • Elixirs. These are the creations that either give characters resistance to damage, restore spell slots, or improve their stats.
  • Grenades. Anything that the character can throw and explode on impact, like Alchemist's Fire. There are a lot of these in the game, but not all of them, though a few can be crafted.
  • Coatings. These are variations on several different kinds of poisons, some of which prevent healing or lower resistance in addition to applying a DoT to the target.
  • Sublimates. Combine three raw materials to make a sublimate, which in turn is used as an ingredient in higher-level potions and elixirs.
  • Salts. Plants, fungi, and rocks are ground down or burnt into Salts, another base ingredient for more complex and stronger potions and elixirs.
  • Essences. These are also often made of rocks or more uncommon substances and are used in potions and elixirs of rare or very rare quality.
  • Ashes. A common ingredient in several potions of both high and low levels.
  • Vitriols. These are derived from fungus, rocks, or human organs, either found on undead bodies. They're more difficult to acquire and are used in higher-level potions.
  • Suspensions. Derived from rare and even dangerous ingredients like Gauth Eyestalk and used in high-level concoctions.

Potions are stored in the Inventory of the character who makes them. One party member can make everything, but that makes distributing them among the companions more time-consuming. Switching characters during this process ensures that every party member has an equal amount.

Baldur's Gate 3 is available for PC and PlayStation 5. A version for Xbox Series X|S is currently in development.

MORE: Baldur's Gate 3: Potions You Should Always Have

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Baldur's Gate 3: Complete Alchemy Guide (2025)

FAQs

How to do Alchemy in Baldurs Gate 3? ›

These mixtures can be as simple as a new healing potion or as powerful as a fire grenade. Alchemy can be done at any time, provided you're not in the middle of combat or a conversation. When playing on PC, press the H key to bring up the Alchemy screen or open the Inventory and click the potion icon.

Can you farm Alchemy ingredients in BG3? ›

As far as I'm aware you cannot farm these ingredients infinitely. Pickpocketing. Most vendors anyway. When you do a Long Rest most vendors should restock basic items.

Do Alchemy ingredients respawn in BG3? ›

Ingredients can be found out in the wild while exploring, or bought from some traders. Once an ingredient is harvested from the overworld, it will not regenerate.

Should I destroy the brain Baldur's Gate 3? ›

Since the talking brain can be used to aid you, you should help the talking brain unless you don't want to for roleplay purposes. Either way, you can continue the story by receiving the quest from someone else if you don't help the brain and receive the quest there.

How do you level up Alchemy easily? ›

Level up by crafting potions from Giant's Toes & Wheat

Giant's Toes and Wheat are the unlikely keys to Alchemy leveling. Combining these two easily-obtainable ingredients yields one of the highest value potions and is quite possibly the quickest and easiest way to level up your Alchemy skill.

Do elixirs last forever in BG3? ›

Unlike Potions, the effects of an Elixir last until either taking a long rest or drinking another Elixir.

Does eating ingredients increase Alchemy? ›

First, eating one ingredient "successfully" raises your Alchemy skill just as much as successfully creating a potion. All of that saltrice suddenly has a new purpose! Also, at higher Alchemy levels, the effects of single ingredients last longer/are more potent.

What does the tadpole elixir do? ›

9 Tadpole Elixir

You will gain two statuses; psionic empowerment and psionic weakening. Psionic weakening will give you disadvantage on all Constitution, Intelligence, and Wisdom saving throws. In return, the psionic empowerment will grant advantage to all your attacks for three turns.

How do you duplicate potions in Baldur's Gate 3? ›

  1. Place item in their respective case (potion case, scroll case, or gem bag).
  2. Move the items you want to duplicate to your backpack with the button in the bottom left.
  3. Now instead of clicking the done button, just click the button on the top left to go back to your main screen. ...
  4. Profit.
Jan 1, 2016

Can Astarion turn you? ›

As a non-vampire himself, Astarion doesn't have the ability to turn people completely, either, but that all changes in one very specific path in the game. During "The Pale Elf" quest, upon killing his former master, Cazador Szarr, Astarion will be granted the choice to finally ascend to full vampire status.

Will you turn into a mind flayer in BG3? ›

At one point, you will be offered an Astral-Touched Tadpole, but taking it will turn you into a half-Mind Flayer. This is not an irreversible process, but in the lead-up to the game's finale, you will then be offered a Supreme Tadpole which completes the transformation.

What is the permanent potion in Baldur's Gate 3? ›

Potion of Everlasting Vigor

Araj Oblodra is a Drow who can be found in Moonrise Towers. You'll be able to give her some of your blood, and — if you have Astarion with you—force him to drink some of her blood in exchange for a potion that will increase your Strength score permanently by +2.

Is US bad in BG3? ›

The intellect devourer named Us is a highly useful summon in Baldur's Gate 3, offering assistance in combat with unique abilities. Us can be easily missed if players fail to engage with it early in the game.

Do you need to mutilate us in BG3? ›

If you are successful in removing the brain, there is another option: mutilate it to cripple it should it become hostile. Honestly, this is not worth doing, because Us sprouts some legs and claws and joins your party once freed, and having a debuffed party member is not good.

Should you weaken us in BG3? ›

For that reason, we suggest freeing and not mutilating this new lifeform. Us is basically a small, temporary advantage in the earliest chapter of the game - a controllable, and pretty powerful (if limited) ally who has a lot of health and some good melee attacks that match many of the standard Baldur's Gate 3 weapons.

How to brew potions in Baldurs Gate 3? ›

If you have ingredients ready to use in your inventory, all you have to do is go to your Alchemy menu and select any highlighted ingredient or potion. All items in the Alchemy menu will be grayed out. When you have enough ingredients to make something, the title of the item will light up white.

How to use Alchemy pouch in BG3? ›

Move your Alchemy Pouch or Camp Supply Sack into another character's inventory then move it back into your own afterwards. The game will automatically put any items that would usually go into that container into that container instantly.

How do you unlock the beginning of Alchemy? ›

The Beginning of Alchemy

To unlock alchemy you must talk to Clotho who is found in the center of The Swamp during the Day.

How do you use the forge in Baldur's Gate 3? ›

In order to activate it, you need to insert a mould, then add the Mithral ore to the crucible in the center, and finally use the forge lever that activates the massive hammer. This will lower the forge, where you can then activate the valve by the large grate to fill the forge with lava.

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