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Published Sep 23, 2026, 8:00 AM EDT
One modder, two years, one new region
Image: Larian StudiosAsk any Baldur’s Gate 3 player about the game’s Act 2, and you’ll get one of two reactions. Some call it their favorite stretch of the game, since it’s moodier, tighter, and more focused than Act 1. Others call it the most linear and devoid of branching pathways: You clear the Shadow Curse, you walk to Rivington, done. Regardless of which camp is correct, it is true that Act 2 lacks Act 1’s room to wander, or Act 3’s sprawl to get lost in. Now, with a new mod that was nearly two years in the making, Baldur’s Gate 3’s second act is getting a lot bigger.
Act Two Expansion, a mod by SquallyDaBeanz, drops an entirely new region, the Chionthar Wilds, into the gap between the Shadow-Cursed Lands and the city of Baldur’s Gate proper, giving that stretch of the map an open space to explore instead of the current warp to a new region. The scale of this expansion is striking for a solo project: on its Nexus Mods page, the modder describes the new zone as “similar in scope to the Act 1 wilderness.” For reference, that’s the act and region famous for swallowing 30-plus hours of a typical playthrough before you touch the Underdark or Mountain Pass detours. That’s an ambitious comparison — but this mod backs up the claim with new quests, dungeons, NPCs, cutscenes, custom creatures with their own stat blocks, more than 70 new items, and over 30 combat encounters… all built for parties between levels eight and ten.
Image: Larian StudiosIn the Forgotten Realms, the Chionthar is a waterway running through the Sword Coast toward Baldur’s Gate. Why does a river crossing and its surrounding forest merit a whole new region? For centuries, the river has been the region's main trade artery, carrying barges loaded with casked wine, salted pork, and spices between Baldur's Gate and inland cities. Control over its mouth has been a point of tension going back generations. With the Absolute's army on the march, Tav and the crew do plausibly need a way to cross the river en route to Rivington instead of simply strolling there. What do you think they’ll find along the river’s banks?
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Getting into the Chionthar Wilds is simple, both in-game and out of it. Dropping the .pak file from Nexus Mods into your mod folder, then enabling it through the in-game Mod Manager only takes a few minutes. After you’ve booted up the game, guide your party to walk out of the Shadow-Cursed Lands across the bridge toward Baldur’s Gate. Now you’ll find that the road doesn’t lead where it used to. Instead of the usual jump directly into Act 3, the path now opens into unfamiliar wilderness with new NPCs, a new war camp, and an entirely new stretch of Faerûn to explore. Players who’d rather skip to the new Wilds region from a new save have options, too: A Quickstart option that starts a fresh party inside the Wilds with gear, XP, and hirelings ready to go, or a spell scroll tucked inside the tutorial chest on the Nautiloid that unlocks a waypoint straight there from the very beginning of a new game.
Image: Larian StudiosAct Two Expansion is still in beta and may exhibit the rough edges that implies, and its choices and content do stay contained to their zone, instead of rippling forward into Act 3. It’s an insulated add-on, and easily skippable (much like the technically optional Underdark route). But Baldur’s Gate 3 has always rewarded players getting lost somewhere the story didn’t strictly require you to go. The Chionthar Wilds leans into that feeling: Here, you’ll find less of the polished, fully-voiced spectacle of the game’s own Act 2 and more the sense of stumbling into a stretch of Faerûn that both time and the main quest forgot to touch.
English (US) ·