Baldur’s Gate 3 Busker Achievement Guide

Failing all your Peformance Checks? Here’s a simple step-by-step guide on how to get the Busker Achievement quickly and easily and never disappoint a crowd ever again.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Busker Achievement Guide

This guide will show you a quick and easy way of earning the Busker Achievement in under an hour: it will walk you through the steps of recruiting and levelling up a Hireling that will succeed every Performance check and earn the 100 gold necessary, mostly guaranteed.

Note that this achievement is best attempted once you reach Baldur’s Gate in Act 3, where there are lots of crowds for you to perform for and where your party is likely at a decent enough level.

For this guide, you will need:

• To Reach the city of Baldur’s Gate (in Act 3)
• To Have Withers at your camp
• 100 gold
• To have your party at level 8+

Step 1: Hire Brinna Brightsong

Head to your camp and talk to Withers. Select the ‘I would like to talk about hirelings option, then the ‘recruit a hireling (100)’ option. Recruiting a Hireling costs 100 gold and requires a free space in your party, so dismiss a companion beforehand.

You will be taken to a menu with a bunch of Hirelings to choose from-select Brinna Brightsong, the Halfling Bard’s portrait in the top left corner. Brinna Brightsong’s name and appearance don’t matter, so feel free to give her a makeover if you so wish. Then select the ‘Venture Forth’ to add her to the party.

Step 2: Level Brinna Up

Brinna will join your party at level 1, but will immediately receive all the experience your party has earned over the course of the game so that you can catch her up to the rest of your party – click the ‘Level Up’ button below her portrait (or glowing arrow in her party portrait.)

Assuming you won’t use Brinna ever again outside earning this achievement, level her up as follows:

Level	Description
2	Pick any spell you like; it doesn’t matter for this achievement.
3	On the Level Up section, click on the green ‘Change’ button below Skills and select Performance and one other skill to receive Expertise in. Everything else at this level does not matter for the purpose of this achievement: select any Subclass, Skills or Spells you like.
4	In the Feat section, select the Ability Improvement feat and put +2 into Charisma – this should leave Brinna at 19 Charisma. Everything else at this level doesn’t matter for this achievement, so pick any Cantrip and Spell you like.
5-7	Pick any spells and Magical Secrets you like; it doesn’t matter for this achievement.
8	In the Feat section, select the Magic Initiate: Cleric feat, then select the Thaumaturgy and Guidance cantrips. Everything else at this level doesn’t matter for this achievement, so pick any Cantrip and Spells you like. Note that you can stop the build here and move on to the next step if you haven’t reached level 12 yet – the difference between the build at level 8 vs level 12 is negligible.
9-11	Pick any spells, cantrips, skills and Magical Secrets you like; it doesn’t matter for this achievement.
12	In the Feat section, select the Ability Improvement feat and put +1 into Charisma – this should max Brinna at 20 Charisma. Drop the remaining point into any other stat. Everything else at this level doesn’t matter for this achievement, so pick any Spell you like.

Step 3: Perform!

Now, find some crowds to perform to. Some areas with lots of NPCs include:

• In front of Stormshore Tabernacle, right next to Basilisk Gate waypoint [X:109 Y:-46]
• In front of the Baldur’s Mouth Gazette [X:69 Y:52]
• Inside Elfsong Tavern [X:60 Y:-11]
• At the Wine Festival [X:20 Y:-41]
• The fountain right next to the South Side wall waypoint [X:-25 Y:-54]
• On the street east of Beehive General Goods, next to the Honest Vendor [X:-54 Y:-107]
• The square south of the Baldur’s Gate waypoint with the Balduran statue [X:-196 Y:-58]
• In the small park South of Lady Jannath’s Estate [X:-250 Y:-94]
• On the pier right next to the Grey Harbour Docks waypoint [X:-215 Y:-168]

Take control of Brinna and center her in the middle of the crowd, then:

• cast Thaumaturgy on yourself to gain Advantage on Performance Checks
• cast Guidance on yourself to gain a +1d4 bonus to Ability Checks
• use the Perform class action and pick your favourite song to perform for the crowd!

Watch as the citizens of the city flocks around you and don’t touch your keyboard/controller until you see the ‘Performance: Succeeded/Failed’ check appear above Brinna’s head. Thanks to the combination of Thaumaturgy and Guidance, 19/20 Charisma, and Expertise in Performance, you should have Advantage and a sweet +10-14 bonus to your Performance check!

Once the check appears, use an action or move anywhere to stop performing – if you succeeded the Performance check, you’ll receive some applause and members of the audience will toss you some gold! Pick up the gold if you wish, then move on to the next populated area and repeat the above steps until the achievement pops.

Things to Note

Some important things to note:

• if you’re no longer earning gold for your performances or failed all your checks, take a Long Rest to reset the crowd and try again.
• you cannot earn gold from am NPC that has already seen you perform the same ‘day’, regardless of if you succeeded or failed the Performance check or if they have/have not tossed you gold.
• you do not have to pick up all the gold that is tossed to receive the achievement, so don’t worry about picking it all up – the achievement will pop the moment the game registers NPCs have tossed enough gold on the ground.
• the Difficulty Class of the Performance check seems to increase based on the size of the crowd: the larger the crowd, the higher the DC, to a maximum of 20. Controlling the size of the crowd is difficult, however, so don’t worry about failing – if you fail your Performance, move on to another area or take a Long Rest.

If you want to absolutely ensure you succeed every Performance check, there are also a variety of items you can give Brinna to increase her chances of success even further (though they are not necessary)

Name	Effect	Obtained
Absolute Confidence Amulet	Grants a +1 bonus to Performance checks	Speak to Naaber in Carm’s Garm at Wyrm’s Crossing until he’s out of questions, or pickpocket it off him
Duke Ravengard’s Longsword	Grants +2 to Charisma	Can be looted off a dead Duke Ravenguard
Phalar Aluve	Grants a +1 bonus to Performance checks	Found lodged in a rock in the Underdark
Tyrannical Jackboots	Grants a +1 bonus to Charisma Ability checks	Can be looted off Gortash after defeating him in Wyrm’s Rock
Birthright	Grants +2 to Charisma	Sold at Sorcerous Sundries by Lorrokan/Rolan