The world certainly isn’t short of ambitious Baldur’s Gate 3 custom campaign mods to keep track of, and one looking to substantially expand the base game’s second act has shared another progress update. Having been delayed from 2025 into 2026, its creator’s still aiming to release a playable version by the end of this year, but has now admitted that’s unlikely to happen in the first half of the calendar, as they’d originally hoped. Despite that, they’ve released a fresh trailer and said development’s “progressing very nicely”.
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The trailer above went up exactly a year on from the initial teaser trailer wonderfully-named modder SquallyDaBeanz released for Baldur’s Gate 3: Act Two Expansion, their effort to make the game’s second act just as sprawling as its first via the addition of a new area you explore after your trip to the Shadow-Cursed Lands. “With the Army of the Absolute on the march, Tav and the gang must find a way to cross the Chionthar River before taking part in an epic battle against the Absolute’s army at Rivington,” is the mod’s elevator pitch. At that point last year, as I reported at the time for my previous home VG247, the modder was hoping to get a playable version out there in 2025.
They announced last September that wouldn’t be possible, pushing the mod’s initial version to 2026. Now, in a Reddit progress update, they’ve made clear they’re still hopeful their work will be out in some playable form by the end of 2026, but admitted this is unlikely to be in the first half of the year.
“I’ve overhauled large sections of the mod to introduce features I originally didn’t plan for, such as new NPCs and quests,” SquallyDaBeanz 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. My original vision for the mod fell short as things began to ‘wrap up’ so I’ve delayed the mod further while I work on these features. This has added a massive amount of work onto the project as you can imagine, but I wouldn’t have been happy with the original direction.”
“Overall, it’s really coming together, but still has a long way to go until a playable version is ready,” they added. That said, in a short FAQ section as part of the post, they indicated they’re still planning to release that playable version in 2026, but nothing’s concretely locked in as “the exact timing depends on how much there is to do after extensive playtesting”.
Mods are of course only ever ready when their creators reckon they are, but I’m glad to hear this seems to be a case of a modder starting off small and deciding they’d like to expand on their original plans once they’re in the thick of things. It’d likely be a lot more of a headache if things were the other way around, as often happens with ambitious projects like this.
Also, if you’re wondering how much this extra area being added to BG3 will mess with the game’s established plot, SquallyDaBeanz notes that the choices you can make in it won’t affect act three, in an effort not to overcomplicate things.
For now, act two expansion’s another to add to the list of big BG3 mods to keep an eye on. Alongside ones in the works, such as the Deathbringer’s Reign team’s attempt to remake the first Baldur’s Gate, and ones which are already out, such as Dinner With Strahd.
