The next big update to Baldur's Gate 3, officially known as Patch 7, is coming in September, and ahead of that Larian has dropped an in-depth update on what the patch will include. The studio is also now taking applications for a closed beta test for the patch, which is set to go live—the beta test, that is, not the patch—on July 22.

Some of what's coming in the patch is already known: Better endings for evil playthroughs (careful not to step in any) and, more importantly, full-fledged mod support. Today's update goes deeper on the whole thing, and of course there are spoilers. One coming change that is not a spoiler is the addition of a “dynamic split screen” mode that will give co-op players the ability to merge their screens into one when their characters are close enough. It looks pretty cool:

This is where the spoilers start, by the way.

Individual NPCs are being tweaked and improved in various ways, party banter is being expanded to include characters assigned to different players in multiplayer parties, some Dark Urge bugs will be fixed, and Honor Mode is getting various “improvements,” which is to say it's being made even more difficult: More creatures in the game are being given Legendary Actions, and Dror Ragzlin has a new spell called Arachnid Compulsion that promises to make life even more unpleasant for folks who aren't big fans of spiders.

As usual, better smooches are on the list too: “We've made improvements to the facial animations of your character during some kissing cinematics, including with the ascended Astarion.” 

Larian really does know its audience.

There's a lot going on, but the modding toolkit is the centerpiece of the patch: A closed alpha test has been underway for some time now, and Larian offered a glimpse at how that's been progressing with comments from some of the people involved. It sounds like things are coming along well, and testers seem suitably impressed; it also affords me the opportunity post a very cute image of Boo:

“With all these bug fixes, updates to gameplay, and new features, we want to make sure we haven’t broken anything or introduced something that will make your computer explode,” Larian wrote in the update. To that end, it wants to test the patch “at scale,” and so it's now opened applications to the upcoming closed beta test. 

To get in, head around to the Steam page and mash the “request access” button; access will be granted to “randomly selected registered players.” There's no mention of how many testers it's after in this update, but Larian has previously said the closed beta will be limited to roughly 1,000 players.

Also important is that Patch 7 will not be the final update for Baldur's Gate 3. “We still have a few things up our sleeve—including many community-requested features like crossplay and a photo mode to capture and share your unforgettable moments,” Larian wrote. “And we're working on a host of other enhancements, from gameplay tweaks and quality-of-life improvements to bug fixes and performance optimizations.”