“There are 17,412 boxes in Baldur’s Gate 3,” reports Newbie Indie Game Dev, a dedicated RPG fan who dug through Larian’s code to find and tabulate every crate, chest, and barrel.
Yes, that is a lot of boxes. But how did Newbie arrive at that number with any degree of confidence?
Well, it all started with a seemingly genuine fascination with just how many boxes are in Baldur’s Gate 3. It’s one of those things you might subconsciously notice but never take a moment to consider—the realization that, yeah, there really is a weirdly large amount of boxes.
“I couldn’t stop thinking about it,” says Newbie. “From a technical perspective, it’s kind of wild. Who placed all those boxes? How did they fill them with loot? And more importantly, for some reason, exactly how many are there?”
### Defining What Counts as a Box
First, Newbie had to decide what qualifies as a box. They settled on this definition: *“A container for objects, usually rectangular, possibly with a lid, and typically made from materials like wood, cardboard, or metal.”*
Next came the challenge of the game’s many playthrough variations. Because there are so many ways to play Baldur’s Gate 3—and these affect the map and player routes—some boxes may never be seen or interacted with by every player.
For their research, Newbie considered **every possible version of the game world**. If a player could encounter a box under some set of conditions, it was counted.
### Navigating Gray Areas
There were a few tricky situations to decide on.
For example, boxes found in companions’ campsites often look identical. Newbie counted these as different boxes, reasoning that the campsites contain each companion’s personal belongings—so, to them, these are separate objects.
Conversely, some map locations are visually identical to one another. When it came to boxes in those duplicate locations, Newbie decided to exclude them from the count to avoid double counting.
### The Methodology: Diving Into the Code
With the rules set in stone, the real work began.
There was no way Newbie could just walk through the map and hand-count every box. Instead, it was all about “unpacking the game’s archives and converting the binary files inside into something I could inspect,” according to Newbie.
At first, you might think this would be easy—just search the code for “box.” But no, it’s not that simple. The game uses many different names for boxes, though most share a few common keywords.
By sorting through everything that could possibly be construed as a crate, chest, or barrel, Newbie eventually found **438 distinct box templates** making up the more than 17,000 individual boxes in the game.
“I reviewed dozens of 3D models to fine-tune how the script assigns each keyword,” Newbie explains, “and eventually narrowed down the field to 438 distinct box templates.”
Not all these templates are visually distinct, but when they look identical, they have different names.
### Crunching the Numbers
Once all filters were in place, Newbie combined the data to get the final tally. They asked:
– Which templates qualify as boxes?
– How many instances of each appear in the world?
– How many visual boxes does each template represent?
– Which levels are actually playable?
– How many times should each level and its boxes be counted?
All this analysis led to the grand total: **17,412 boxes in Baldur’s Gate 3.**
### Box Breakdown by Type
Newbie also broke down the percentages of how common each type of box is:
– Classic crate-like boxes represent **72%** of all boxes.
– Chests make up just **7%**.
– Barrels comprise the remaining **21%**.
### Is This Information Useful?
Honestly, is there any practical application for this information? I can’t think of a single one. But you have to respect Newbie’s dedication—not just to uncovering the data, but also to documenting the entire methodology and process.
One thing’s for sure: I’ll never again play Baldur’s Gate 3 without appreciating just how many damn boxes there really are.
https://www.gamesradar.com/games/baldur-s-gate/i-counted-every-box-in-baldurs-gate-3-the-real-baldurs-gate-3-completionist-is-the-person-who-dug-through-the-rpgs-code-to-find-every-last-crate-chest-and-barrel/
