Matt Mercer’s ‘Very Smart’ Crate

Jun 25, 2023

If you’re playing Baldur’s Gate 3 right now (and going by the game’s popularity on Steam right now, you probably are), you’ll be enjoying the freedom it affords players not just in terms of the story and dialogue, but how you get about the world.

Perhaps inspired by this freedom, voice actor Matt Mercer came up with a surprising method of getting to the top of a castle using over 40 wooden crates and an Arrow of Transposition.

During a livestream alongside developer Larian’s Swen Vincke, Mercer stacked crates to form a tower his character was able to climb by using the jump ability. At the top of this makeshift tower, Mercer used an Arrow of Transposition to teleport across to the top of Baldur’s Gate’s Counting House.

Vincke, clearly surprised and impressed, declared Mercer “very smart” for not just coming up with the out-of-the-box strategy, but executing it perfectly. I do wonder about Mercer’s companions, though! Watch the clip in the X video below, from user @AndreSargeant:

For a seasoned dnd professional stacking 45 crates to vault over a castles ramparts is an obvious solution#BaldursGate3 pic.twitter.com/6dJcvcF03k

Not only is Mercer’s crate-stacking technique an especially silly but effective strategy, it’s in keeping with Baldur’s Gate 3’s Dungeons & Dragons roots. Every now and then you’ll get someone who tries to do something silly, like declaring they spend the next several hours gathering crates from around town and stacking them tall enough to shoot their way across to the top of a tower. In Baldur’s Gate 3, perhaps the best video game representation of Dungeons & Dragons ever made, trying stuff like this and seeing if it works is all part of the fun.

IGN’s Baldur’s Gate 3 review in-progress is full of praise: "I’ve been waiting 14 years for another alignment of the planets like Dragon Age: Origins, when an old-school CRPG got a big enough budget to look like a high quality animated movie – but the design hadn't been completely steered in the wrong direction in a misguided attempt to reach a different market like the later two Dragon Ages," reviewer Leana Hafer wrote. "This is the closest anyone has ever come to recapturing that magic."

Baldur's Gate 3 is now available on PC, with a console release set for a later date. For more info, check out how our guide to building a character in Baldur's Gate 3 as well as our guide to Baldur's Gate 3's races and subraces.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].