How to make camp in Baldur’s Gate 3

Do some of your spells require a recharge before you can use them? Are you out of healing potions and need to restore your party’s hitpoints? Or perhaps you just want to unwind and talk to your party members about their stories or what’s going on. In any of these cases, you want to head to camp and take a short or a long rest in Baldur’s Gate 3.

Resting is a mechanic that isn’t explained too well in-game, which has left many new players confused about exactly how the system works. There are two types of rest, short and long, and they do similar things for you and your party. Some of your spells are only recharged after taking one of the rests while certain story and character moments can only occur when you take a long rest.

If you want to find out the benefits of short and long rests and how to do each one in Baldur’s Gate 3, here’s my experience.

Taking a short and long rest in Baldur’s Gate 3

For starters, I’ll go over how to take each kind of rest. Luckily, the process for both is pretty much the same. If you look on the far right hand side of your hotbar, you will see a campfire icon. Click on it, and a few options will pop up. The first option is to take a short rest, which keeps you and your party in the same spot, but restores half of your maximum hitpoints and recharges any spells that require a short rest. You can take two rests before having to take a long rest to replenish them.

The next option is to take a long rest. This will usually keep you in the exact area you are currently in, but it will be transformed into a campsite. This is where you can go to bed (which starts a new day), talk to your party members at their tents, and speak with other NPCs who have joined your camp.

In order to take a long rest and reset the day, you need to interact with a bedroll next to the fire and use 40 Camp Supplies. These are either named items or food that you have picked up along your travels in Baldur’s Gate 3. Once you have 40 Camp Supplies set, you and your party can rest. During your resting, you might be visited by your guardian or the day might simply turn into a new one.

Related: Is Baldur’s Gate 3 coming to Xbox Game Pass?

At this point, you can leave camp and return to the area you left with full hitpoints and recharged spells.