[ACT III Spoilers] Cannot enter the Lower CIty

[Lucon]

I am stuck trying to enter the Lower City if Baldur's Gate. Approaching the 'gate' behind Wyrm's Rock Fortress does nothing. With nothing I mean that literally nothing happens. My character stops a few steps in front of the gate/arc and that's it, no message pops up or anything.

Looking online the few posts I have seen relate this problem to Karlach and a bug with her personal quest. However, people who have this problem report getting the message "A member of your party is not ready to proceed." when trying to enter the lower city, a message I do NOT get.

Nonetheless I have tried all solutions that have been posted under these problems and more to try and resolve the issue. I have already tried the following things:
- Get Karlach arrested and free her again.
- Kill Karlach to resurrect her later.
- Attend the coronation ceremony both with and without Karlach and both stop her and
do not stop her from attacking Gortash.
- Kill your personal character to revive them later.
- Enter Wyrm's Rock with the pass from the investigator, the invitation from the toy maker
and through persuasion check.
- Go back to a save where the Karlach quest is still at the stage where Gortash's location is
unknown and sneak past the Steel Guard in the castle to prevent detection and
progression of Karlach's personal quest.

Due to the fact I am not getting the message of "A member of your party is not ready to proceed." I doubt the issue is related to the Karlach quest. Two people comenting on a Reddit post related to the Karlach bug did mention having the exact same issue as me with the solution being the disabling of mods. I did have a mod active for a short moment to change my character's appearance during this playthrough (installed via Vortex) but these mods have been disabled for a long time, even deleted. I just tried reinstalling the game in the hope to remove any remaining mod files but the bug remains.

Has anyone encountered the same bug (NOT the "A member of your party is not ready to proceed.", I have tried all solutions related to that I think) and have you found a solution or an idea what might be causing it.

[GrayJayhawk]

I'm having the same issue. After crossing the bridge to the lower city, it's like hitting an invisible wall. There is no message that "A member of your party is not ready to proceed".

I've done just about every possible quest that you can do in the upper city without needing to go to the lower city and I've had no luck triggering it.

I don't have Karlach in my party as I finished Act 1 without finding her and when I went back she wasn't where she was supposed to be so my thought is this might be the issue.

[Lani]

The only thing that comes to mind is that the entrance isn't something you walk through but click on. Do either of you guys have Minora spawn at the bridge?

Definitely report the issue to Larian Studios Tech support using the link at the top of this forum.

[Lucon]

Originally posted by Lani:

The only thing that comes to mind is that the entrance isn't something you walk through but click on. Do either of you guys have Minora spawn at the bridge?

Definitely report the issue to Larian Studios Tech support using the link at the top of this forum.

Yes Mizora is present at the bridge and the interaction with her triggers automatically (as I suppose it should). Nothing else except this and the following new issue I found seems to be bugged.

One more thing I have found while testing different options is trying to spend a long rest after the coronation to trigger the Orin reveals having abducted Lae'zel cutscene in camp. However, after trying to go to sleep to advance to the next day afterwards causes the game to crash. This happens on different savefiles.

(Going back to my original post: seeing as I haven't posted it as the solution, reinstalling the game does not solve the issue)

[GrayJayhawk]

Originally posted by Lani:

The only thing that comes to mind is that the entrance isn't something you walk through but click on. Do either of you guys have Minora spawn at the bridge?

Definitely report the issue to Larian Studios Tech support using the link at the top of this forum.

I've been using an Xbox controller for the game and your comment made me think that there may be an issue because the controller sometimes has issues with some interactions. Once I switched to using the mouse, I was able to click on the area and it allowed me to enter the lower city. Thanks for the assist.

[lilbeaublue]

Not using a controller solved this problem! I was able to click on the Lower City - the section that feels like an invisible wall - and enter with ease.

[Gewinnste]

I have the same bug (NO message "A member of your party is not ready to proceed"), but I can't even get to the coronation or inside any of the doors on the sides! There's no Mizora, no guard talking to me, I just pass the FIRST LINE of guards (the ones I show my permit to) but my companions stay behind the guards, and when I select them, they talk (say their standard stuff like "I crave blood" etc.), but the camera doesn't pan to them and when I left click to walk them somewhere, it's still the character I walked passed the guards with, who walks where I clicked.
If I just walk on into the lower city with the character I passed the first line of guards with, EVERYTHING IS BUGGED, NPSs walk in place, I can't interact with ANYTHING. I can't even LOAD A SAVEGAME or return to the MAIN MENU!!! The loading progress is stuck at 0% and I have to kill the process from the task manager.
Edit: Actually, I found that after walking past the bridge just a few meters, selecting another companion and then WAITING ~1-2 min, it works and the other character is selected and can walk past the guards, but then it's stuck with this character. But waiting again, I slowly inched all characters past the bridge (just ~10 meters) and suddenly one of the Steelguard dudes appears out of thin air and talks to me. After the dialogue I could open the first door on the left and found the Waypoint and people talking and I can interact with them. Let's see how this continues - my horror is that it's gonna be the same for the next instance loading >:(

[straightener]

Came here to see if others had the same bug. This is my second playthrough and did not have this issue the first time (obviously). I tried re-loading progressively older saves and have the same issue. They've patched this game a few times lately and I wonder if this bug was introduced.

[Alias]

Originally posted by Gewinnste:

I have the same bug (NO message "A member of your party is not ready to proceed"), but I can't even get to the coronation or inside any of the doors on the sides! There's no Mizora, no guard talking to me, I just pass the FIRST LINE of guards (the ones I show my permit to) but my companions stay behind the guards, and when I select them, they talk (say their standard stuff like "I crave blood" etc.), but the camera doesn't pan to them and when I left click to walk them somewhere, it's still the character I walked passed the guards with, who walks where I clicked.
If I just walk on into the lower city with the character I passed the first line of guards with, EVERYTHING IS BUGGED, NPSs walk in place, I can't interact with ANYTHING. I can't even LOAD A SAVEGAME or return to the MAIN MENU!!! The loading progress is stuck at 0% and I have to kill the process from the task manager.
Edit: Actually, I found that after walking past the bridge just a few meters, selecting another companion and then WAITING ~1-2 min, it works and the other character is selected and can walk past the guards, but then it's stuck with this character. But waiting again, I slowly inched all characters past the bridge (just ~10 meters) and suddenly one of the Steelguard dudes appears out of thin air and talks to me. After the dialogue I could open the first door on the left and found the Waypoint and people talking and I can interact with them. Let's see how this continues - my horror is that it's gonna be the same for the next instance loading >:(

Can attest that your solution fixed the issue for me and I was able to access the left door (this was on PS5 however)

[Gewinnste]

I'm glad it worked for you. Some more thoughts: At first my "horror" (see end of my post above) came true and the game was stuck again and again, as soon as a new instance was loading (it seems to me). But to my relief this got a lot better as soon as I progressed. And once I entered the Lower City, everything is now (almost) back to normal.
The worst part was the one I described in my above post, where I actually had to wait a bit more than 4 minutes (!) - timed it - until I could interact with the game again! And it was the same every time I went to camp and back (I tried whether going to camp helps - it did not!). I played online chess blitz games during these waiting periods ha ha. And it was about 1 minute waiting when I entered the coronation ceremony.
Everything in the Lower City is (so far) only a couple of seconds waiting every now and then. It's still less than fun, but I already thought I couldn't finish the game or at least had to reinstall / do hours or days of online research and testing. So I'm moderately happy :)
So my tip:
IF YOU ENCOUNTER THE ABOVE DESCRIBED BUG, JUST DO NOTHING FOR A FEW MINUTES (e.g. get a coffee lol) AND WAIT UNTIL YOUR COMPANIONS ARE SELECTABLE AND "OPERABLE" AGAIN.
Hope this helps.

[AresNB]

Originally posted by Gewinnste:

I'm glad it worked for you. Some more thoughts: At first my "horror" (see end of my post above) came true and the game was stuck again and again, as soon as a new instance was loading (it seems to me). But to my relief this got a lot better as soon as I progressed. And once I entered the Lower City, everything is now (almost) back to normal.
The worst part was the one I described in my above post, where I actually had to wait a bit more than 4 minutes (!) - timed it - until I could interact with the game again! And it was the same every time I went to camp and back (I tried whether going to camp helps - it did not!). I played online chess blitz games during these waiting periods ha ha. And it was about 1 minute waiting when I entered the coronation ceremony.
Everything in the Lower City is (so far) only a couple of seconds waiting every now and then. It's still less than fun, but I already thought I couldn't finish the game or at least had to reinstall / do hours or days of online research and testing. So I'm moderately happy :)
So my tip:
IF YOU ENCOUNTER THE ABOVE DESCRIBED BUG, JUST DO NOTHING FOR A FEW MINUTES (e.g. get a coffee lol) AND WAIT UNTIL YOUR COMPANIONS ARE SELECTABLE AND "OPERABLE" AGAIN.
Hope this helps.

i have your same issue in a coop run that frustrated me and my friend we even stopped early in our only long run of the week . i guess i will just try your method solo and see how it goes

Edit : IT WORKED !
but seriously i cant believe such janky method is the only way to do it

i did do it a little faster . i took some distance and lowerd the camera and told them all to get inside 3 of them made it inside in 1 go , the 4rth stayed stuck and i had to order him twice before he reached the end and thats how i got the cinematic running .
i guess i hope the later part wont be thing buggy . i heard the inauguration is buggy too and prevent peoples from getting to the lower city .
such a shame for a perfect game to have such very bad bug that is near game breaking

[DuhVillageIdiot]

It's a bug. I'm playing Xbox console with the same issue. If I turn around from the "invisible wall"; under the stone arches and toogle my selection cursor and hover that entrance way, it'll give me the option to 'use'...that allowed me to enter the next region