A huge Baldur’s Gate 3 mod is coming to the game this year – promising to expand Act 2 with a new region, quests, puzzles and more. The Act 2 Expansion mod, developed by SquallyDaBeanz, joins a list of ambitious mods coming to Larian’s brilliant RPG.

Originally unveiled over a year ago, the modder recently posted an update on Patreon (where you can support and follow the project) detailing some of the changes and progress they’ve made during their “hundreds of hours” of testing, creating and balancing.

The straightforwardly-titled Act 2 Expanded promises to bring a region similar in scope to Act 1’s Wilderness, focusing on exploration and combat and “designed for mid-to-high level parties.” It’s fully integrated into the base game, which means you’ll be able to transfer smoothly from Act 2 into the mod, and then onwards to Act 3 once you’re done.

“I’ve overhauled large sections of the mod to introduce features I originally didn’t plan for, such as new NPCs and quests,” the modder wrote. “I previously stated there wouldn’t be new NPCs but I’ve since gone back on that stance. While the mod is still focused heavily on exploration and combat, it felt very lacking without character interactions and conversations.”

While there will be “a few” player choices in the mod, Squally decided to ensure they did not alter the rest of the game to “cut down on scope creep and not further complicate the narrative of Act 3. The few choices players can make do not affect the rest of the game and are self-contained to the new area so as to not make the expansion too complicated to create. “New NPCs you meet won’t make an appearance in Act 3, for example,” they said.

In the mod, players can expect to find more than 70 items, though “that number could change” as development continues. “I’ve poured over a hundred hours alone into creating, testing, and balancing new items for players to discover!” they wrote. “Items can be found exactly where you’d expect: in chests, buried underground, on enemies, from traders, and in other hidden areas.”

Now for the bad news. The modder confirmed that while they are targeting a 2026 release date, but there is “still has a long way to go until a playable version” is ready. With that in mind, we likely won’t see the BG3 mod until near the end of the year, and that’s if it isn’t pushed into 2027.

The Act 2 Expansion mod isn’t the only highly ambitious fan project being worked on for Larian’s game. Alongside the massive expansion, there are fans working on entire custom campaigns with their own parties and storylines, such as Path to Menzoberranzan, which has seen hundreds of volunteers team up to create a whole new adventure.