How to Rest in Baldur’s Gate 3: Short & Long Rest Explained

Rest is an essential system in Dungeons & Dragons and, by extension, in Baldur’s Gate 3. It ensures you can perform any skills or actions during combat encounters without being exhausted quickly. Even outside of combat, resting replenishes your chances to perform actions. However, how do you rest in BG3? In this guide, learn how to take rest in Baldur’s Gate 3, ensuring that your companions are well-rested next time before involving in any encounter.

Every action in Baldur’s Gate 3 has something called an action point. With each encounter or unique action, these action points deplete. Hence, taking rest is a must in the game, ensuring your action points are replenished. There are two ways to replenish yourself and your team in Baldur’s Gate 3 — long rest and short rest.

How to Take Short Rest in Baldur’s Gate 3

Short rest is one of the two ways to recuperate in Baldur’s Gate 3. Players can do it a fixed number of times, i.e. twice a day and anytime after a fight or encounter. It replenishes 50% of your own as well as your party’s hit points. It also replenishes the Warlock’s spell slots. To take a short rest, follow the steps below:

1. First, click on the small campfire icon on the bottom-right of the screen.
2. Once there, select the eye symbol from the radial menu to take a short rest.
3. Alternatively, if you are playing on a controller, press R2 and select the short rest option.

Remember that there are two green dots right below the eye symbol. This denotes the amount of times you can take a short rest. If these dots are greyed out, it means you cannot take a rest anymore.

How to Take Long Rest in Baldur’s Gate 3

The most natural way to rest in BG3 is taking a long rest. Unlike short rest, you can take it only once a day, and it ends the day. Long rest replenishes 50% or more of your own and your team’s ability points and restores spell slots and short rests. Moreover, selecting the option brings you and your party to the camp.

Here, interact with the bedroll to select items to take a long rest. You require 40 food items or one whole camping pack to take a long rest. If you control the characters on a controller, press R2 to bring up the radial menu and select the long rest option.

What are Action Points in Baldur’s Gate 3

One question that you might have is — what are the ability points, and where do I check them? Baldur’s Gate 3 follows the Dungeons and Dragon 5E ruleset. Performing every action, be it casting spells or attacking, requires an action point. These action points determine each turn, what attacks you can perform, and how many times you can perform them. Sometimes, you will also receive bonus actions and spell slots that allow you to perform magic.

The action points are denoted right above your skill bar at the bottom of the screen. Hovering over them or clicking on them will show the corresponding action tied to that particular point. At each short or long rest, a portion of the action point will replenish.