Short Rest and Long Rest in Baldur’s Gate 3 Explained (BG3)

Between dealing with mind flayers, goblins and all the other enemies and challenges Baldur’s Gate 3 throws at you, you’ll need to give your characters plenty of rest throughout your journey in Faerun. Resting is a core Dungeons & Dragons mechanic that features in Baldur’s Gate 3, and is one you’ll need to think about often. Resting has a variety of benefits and is especially useful in replenishing your characters back up to full fighting strength. There are two types of rest so we’ll be covering what each type of rest results in and when you’d want to choose one type over the other.

Short Rest and Long Rest in Baldur’s Gate 3 (BG3) Explained

How to Rest in Baldur’s Gate 3

It’s very simple: to rest in Baldur’s Gate 3, all you need to do is be in a safe area and then click the little campfire icon in the bottom right corner of your screen. This will pop up a little menu that gives you the options to go to your camp, have a Short Rest, or a Long Rest.

Short Rest

Twice per day, you can have a Short Rest which will restore 50% of your party’s hit points or spell slots for Warlocks. These are very useful to use to top your party back up before or after a battle to keep you in good shape while you’re still adventuring. Plus, you won’t have to go back to camp like you would with a Long Rest. This means if you’re not near a Waypoint, you won’t have to worry as you can Short Rest at your current location.

Long Rest

A Long Rest is a much more restorative rest allowing you to regain hit points, spell slots, and Short Rest stacks. To Long Rest, you’ll need to return to your camp and end the day, so it’s best to initiate these when you’re near a Waypoint you can return to after your rest to easily continue on with your journey. In order to get the full benefits of a Long Rest, you’ll also need camp supplies, which are a resource you can gain from looting various things, purchasing them from vendors, or converting food and ingredients into.

You’ll need 40 camp supplies for a Long Rest, and this will net you the full benefits. If you don’t have enough camp supplies, you can still Long Rest, but you’ll get a similar restoration to a Short Rest instead. Ideally you’ll want to wait to Long Rest until after you’ve used up both of your Short Rests and once you have enough camp supplies for the full effect to get the most out of it.

So that’s Short Rests and Long Rests in Baldur’s Gate 3 (BG3) explained. Now you know the benefits of each and when you should be trying to take them so make sure you’re getting plenty of rest in for your characters to keep them nice and healthy throughout your journey.

For more info on the game, check out our guide to getting BG3 up and running on Steam Deck, as well as a list of all of the voice actors and the characters they play.