How to Use the Map – Baldur’s Gate 3

Baldur’s Gate 3 is a big game, and you’ll need to make use of your map in order to find your way around. This guide will help you navigate the map’s menus and features and hopefully give you some pointers you may otherwise miss.

How to Open the Map

Before you can use the map, you’ll need to open it! How you do this depends on whether you’re using a keyboard or a controller.

Keyboard users can open the map via hotkey (the default is M) or by clicking the Map button on the minimap (it looks like a compass). Controller users can open the map with the menu button (Xbox) or touchpad (PlayStation). You only need to tap the button; holding it down will open the journal instead.

Map Symbols

A legend will appear in the lower left-hand corner of the map. (If you’re using a controller, you may need to tap the left joystick to bring it up). It includes labels for all of the symbols you may see.

You can hover over a symbol on the map to view a tooltip with additional information, such as the name of the character or the label you gave to a custom marker.

Your own character is not included in the legend but can be found on the map as a white circle, similar to the other character symbols. The portraits of party members who are off the map will appear along the edge in the direction they are located.

Quests are marked on the map, sometimes with a circle around them to show the radius within which they can be triggered. When viewing a quest in the journal, you can click Show on Map to zoom in to its location.

Waypoints are covered in the next section.

How to Fast Travel

Scattered across the map are Ancient Sigil Circles, glowing purple runes that function as waypoints. Once you have visited one, you will be able to return to it by selecting it on the map (click on it with the mouse or tap the right joystick on a controller).

If you’re using a keyboard, you’ll also see your available waypoints as a list in the upper right-hand corner of the map. These can be clicked just like the map symbols.

Note that selecting a waypoint will immediately teleport you there – there is no confirmation box or anything like that.

How to Use the Minimap

The minimap is the round map in the upper right corner of the game screen. If you select North-Facing Minimap in the Interface section of the Options menu, then the minimap will always be oriented so that north is straight up. Otherwise it will rotate to orient according to the direction you’re facing.

There are several buttons on the minimap if you’re using a mouse and keyboard (controller players don’t appear to have any way to interact with the minimap). Buttons include Journal, Map, Ping, Centre Camera on Character, and buttons to zoom in and out. You can also zoom by using the scroll wheel on the mouse.

To ping the map, press the Ping button or hotkey (alt + right mouse button by default) and click on the point on the map that you want to mark. A sound will play and a chat message will appear, and the point you chose will be highlighted on the map. This is mainly useful for multiplayer games so you can direct other players to locations on the map.