In Baldur’s Gate 3, your recruited companions can react to your actions throughout the game. Sometimes, they like how you handle a problem; others may express their displeasure. This affects your relationship with a character and can even affect your romance with them. You can check their approval easily in the game to know where you stand.
Your party members are complex characters with varying beliefs. You cannot satisfy them all since one companion may approve of an action while the other may not. So, it becomes important to know where each companion stands regarding approval.
What is Companion Approval in Baldur’s Gate 3
Companion Approval is an essential game mechanic in Baldur’s Gate 3. It determines how much a character likes or dislikes you. A companion’s romance is also dependent on their approval rating. If you have a high enough approval of a certain character, then you can romance them.
You gain or lose approval by performing certain acts in the game. However, it is not that simple. Each companion has a unique personality, and their preferences vary. For an archaic character like Wyll, pacts and values are more important than the violent Astarion, who relishes anarchy.
This makes the approval meter much more complex and a nightmare for completionists. There is no way to please every companion in a single run. We recommend that you choose characters with similar likings and try to earn their approval collectively.
Every time you earn approval or disapproval from a character, you will get a prompt on the top left of the screen.
How to check Companion Approval in Baldur’s Gate 3
Keeping track of your companion’s approval status is easy in Baldur’s Gate 3 and essential if you want to keep a companion in your party and romance them.
- Go to the character sheet tab in your inventory.
- Look for the companion whose approval status you want to find out.
- You will see the Approval meter right in the middle of the companion info page.
The approval rating starts from a neutral status and then progresses to higher or lower levels. If you make decisions a character approves of, then their approval meter will move to the right towards the green section. Otherwise, it will move to the left in the red. You need a high approval level (dark green) to romance a character. Moving into the Dark Red region will make that character leave your party and break up with you (if you were previously engaged).
Kudos to Larian Studios for listening to feedback and adding a numeric value to the Approval system.
- Press R2/RT on PS5/XSX controllers or the Tab button on the PC.
- Go to the Character Sheet tab, the third one to the right.
- Select the detailed view option on the character’s sheet tab.
- Move to the Approval section to see the numeric value of your approval.
If you can’t see the approval bar of any of your active companions, make sure to create a new save and reload. This is a minor bug in BG3 that prevents the companion approval from showing.
Why does Companion Approval matter?
Every companion in BG3 is unique, not just in terms of abilities but also personality and traditions. There is a mix of philosophies in the same party, and you must be mindful of them when making decisions. This way, you can create a sense of satisfaction among your companions.
However, not everyone will be on board with your decisions and may disapprove of your actions.
Companion Approval Mods and Cheats
Not satisfied enough with how your approval is with a specific character? Or too slow progression with romance? You can download and use the Approval cheat from NexusMods. This cheat engine requires certain prerequisites, so make sure you read the description and installation process thoroughly.
You can also use another mod, “Show Approval Ratings in Dialogue Choices,” which will append the amount of approval or disapproval at the end of each dialogue. If Gale, Shadowheart, and Halsin approve of something, the dialogue will be like.
- This is a generic example. [Halsin 1], [Gale 2], [Shadowheart 1]
Where 1,2,1 are the numeric gains in approval. For disapproval, you will get a – sign.
