Video games are not made like they used to be. Cheats are a big example of a lost art. Long are the days when the Konami Code ran supreme throughout all of that company’s games. Cheats still pop up here and there to be activated with certain codes, though — Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance had them when it launched in 2002 for the PS2, Xbox, and GameCube.

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These included a way to max out levels and to create an ability to warp to any level in the game. Cheats like that are cool but they can also ruin the experience — why play after that? What if there was a hidden exploit in the game’s logic instead to not max out a character but to level the playing field instead? The answer should be obvious, so let’s dive into the process.

The Setup

The character select screen of Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance

Before this exploit can be performed there are some essentials that carry through all versions of the game:

  • First of all, one must have two separate save files. These characters must be different classes. For example, one could have a save file with an archer at level ten and then start the game over with a sorceress at level one.
  • The second thing one needs is a second controller. You can do this trick solo, but having a friend help out will make the process go by quicker.

On that note, thanks to this remaster, the entire process can net players 10,000 gold in a manner of minutes as opposed to the older PS2, Xbox, and GameCube versions, which would take about triple the time, depending.

To make the most use out of this, let’s give a beginning scenario to shoot for. The first quest involves players going down into the cellars to kill rats. Upon completing this quest, the barmaid is worried about one of her partners that went in after the player. She will reward players first, then send them right back into the sewers to rescue her friend.

Get To The Bugbear

The boss battle with the Bugbear in Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance

From the cellar to the first sewer boss, which is a Bugbear, the entire process should take about twenty minutes depending on whether players have a co-op partner with them and how much they get sidetracked. Twenty minutes is a good estimation of the max amount.

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It is important to save outside of the Bugbear boss to utilize this exploit for both experience and gold. As a matter of fact, make two save files for backup. Again, if players have a co-op partner, this will vastly diminish the time it takes to get a good amount of resources. If you're alone, this may take longer.

Completing this quest will net players with a good amount of experience and gold from both NPCs along with items.

Here is the process: 

  1. Go in, fight the Bugbear, and then rescue the tavern patron.
  2. After that, head back up to the tavern via a Recall Potion or the sewer grate, which is nearby the jail cells.
  3. Collect your reward. One of the two NPCs should give players a pendant, or a necklace of some sort that is worth a lot of money. That is the key to this puzzle.
  4. Now, go and save in the tavern. It should be written over one of the two Bugbear saves.
  5. After that, have the co-op partner drop anything of value from their person be it the necklace or any other piece of gear.
  6. Take their stuff, sell it, then have the partner import their character from the tavern save.

This is where the exploit really comes into play. See, importing a character does not reset a save. It only resets the character from that save — this means that, when they come back, they will still have all of their stuff before they dropped it. Players can then repeat this process where one character drops their stuff with the other selling it.

Doing It Alone

The import character menu in Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance

This works out a little differently if you're doing this by yourself. If that is the case, all you need to do is get up to the Bugbear fight and do the exact same thing — save two separate files, fight, then go back to the bar to obtain the quest rewards, followed by another save. That’s step one.

Step two then is to start the game over with another class such as the sorceress as mentioned in the beginning. You don't need to do any battling, though. Simply turn on a second controller, import the character from the latest save after the Bugbear fight in the tavern, and then do the drop and import process.

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It doesn’t matter if you want to be a sorceress or anything else, because the second class chosen doesn’t matter. Here’s an example of what to do: 

  1. Have the first file character drop their stuff to give the sorceress lots of gold.
  2. As the sorceress, buy some epic-level stuff in the store.
  3. Import in the first character to collect the stuff the sorceress has, or save with the sorceress file and then import her into the first file to have her drop the stuff there. The order doesn’t matter but those are the basics of how you can duplicate items to then sell them for good gobs of gold.

Extra Experience Exploit

Alyth Elendara from Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance

There might be one other question on the mind: Why save before the Bugbear? Well, once players are satisfied with their item and gold intake, they should save their file at the tavern. Then, load up the Bugbear boss file and import the latest character there so that they can do the fight over again to get the experience boosts.

This can and should be done at the save point before every boss. The higher-level the boss, the bigger the rewards. Bear in mind, this whole process is just one example. What’s important to remember is the idea of having two characters and a knowledge of how the import process works.

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