The rarest achievement in Baldur’s Gate 3 has only been earned by roughly 2% of players, but it’s a very odd one to be so elusive: Busker. To put it in perspective, more players have earned the achievement Foehammer, for beating the game in Honour Mode, BG3‘s toughest challenge. Busker is a rather innocuous achievement, only requiring players to earn coin from performing on the street.
According to Steam‘s global gameplay stats for Baldur’s Gate 3, only 2.3% of the PC playerbase has earned Busker. The numbers are even lower on PlayStation (1.5%) and Xbox (1.16%). On the former, only the platinum trophy is rarer, and on the latter, there are actually two rarer achievements, Foehammer and Punch Drunk, for defeating 20 enemies while inebriated.
Why Is The Busker Achievement So Tough?
Maybe It’s Just Not Worth The Effort
To unlock Busker, you simply have to earn 100 gold from performing, which is easiest to do as a bard. When you play an instrument, you’ll attract a crowd, and once they’ve gathered, you roll a Performance check. If you succeed, the crowd will give you a small sum of gold – each character gathered will throw out a single coin. It can be time-consuming, and potentially frustrating if you repeatedly fail checks, but it’s not especially difficult.
One possible explanation for Busker’s rarity is that it’s simply not worth the effort. It’s very easy to get gold in Baldur’s Gate 3, and 100 is a paltry sum, even early on. Achievement hunters make up a very small percentage of players, so even those who scroll through BG3‘s achievements looking for easy ones to nab may be uninterested in Busker’s required time commitment.
Is This Baldur’s Gate 3’s Toughest Achievement?
Not Really
Busker’s rarity on each individual platform is a bit misleading. It’s not really a difficult achievement, even if it will take some time. You’re really only beholden to dice rolls, so it’s not going to stand up to achievements that require actual skill. Foehammer is a great example; Honour Mode is incredibly difficult, likely making it BG3‘s toughest achievement.
The aforementioned Punch Drunk is another achievement that illustrates a similar issue. It interfaces with game mechanics that don’t come up regularly outside specific circumstances. Most players will pick up alcohol and send it to camp to use as supplies when resting. It’s an easy achievement for anyone playing a Way of the Drunken Master monk, one of the new subclasses in Patch 8, but there isn’t really a reason for any other character to consistently be getting drunk before a fight unless the player is achievement hunting.
There are other rare Baldur’s Gate 3 achievements that require much more dedication. She Cannot be Caged! requires you to save Sazza from three separate locations throughout Acts One and Two; Leave No One Behind asks you to save every single Tiefling refugee that can be encountered throughout the entire game; and Sins of the Father is awarded for achieving the most evil ending to BG3 by taking control of the Netherbrain in the service of Bhaal.
100% In Baldur’s Gate 3 Is A Difficult Ask
Achievement Hunters Beware
Baldur’s Gate 3 is already an incredibly long game. My own playthrough, doing most of the side content, lasted for about 120 hours, which is pretty consistent with the data on HowLongToBeat. Notably, the completionist category extends to 174 hours, but that doesn’t necessarily require the player to get every achievement. The tricky thing about BG3 is that it’s not possible to see 100% of its content in a single playthrough; certain choices lock you out of specific quests.
It’s really not surprising to see Busker as such a rare achievement, and even to see playthroughs considered completionist to not technically be so. Baldur’s Gate 3 is a very thorough RPG with a lot of branching content, and many longtime players have come to love it because of its sandbox nature, where you can choose what goals to pursue. Busker may be the rarest achievement in Baldur’s Gate 3, but that’s only because about 98% of players don’t want to spend their time with the game slowly performing for a measly 100 gold.
Sources: Steam, HowLongToBeat
Baldur’s Gate 3
- Released
-
August 3, 2023
- ESRB
-
M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Partial Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Violence
- Developer(s)
-
Larian Studios
- Publisher(s)
-
Larian Studios
- Engine
-
Divinity 4.0
- Multiplayer
-
Online Co-Op, Local Co-Op
- Cross-Platform Play
-
Full cross-platform play.
