Baldur’s Gate 3 has a talent for making players feel clever, brave, and occasionally like they have brought a spoon to a dragon fight. In Honour Mode, that feeling is magnified because one death ends the run. So when the Act 2 finale against Ketheric Thorm decides to spawn a second, full-health Ketheric after the Apostle of Myrkul takes a turn, the result is less a boss fight and more a stage magician sawing the same volunteer in half twice. It is unfair, it is bizarre, and in 2026 it remains one of the cruellest community legends for permadeath players.
🐛 The Two Ketherics Glitch, Explained
Known around the campfire as the two Ketherics glitch, the problem shows up during the climax of Act 2. Players defeat Ketheric, the Apostle of Myrkul enters the fray, and then another version of Ketheric appears at full health. This is not a secret phase, a hidden Honour Mode twist, or a reward for players who accidentally memorised every line of villain dialogue. It is a bug, and it has been reported for months without a clear cause.
Some players have speculated that Tactician difficulty or above is the trigger. Others have reported the same duplicate villain on lower difficulties, which makes that theory about as sturdy as a paper shield. Mods also do not appear to be the culprit, since the glitch has appeared in games without them. The community has done the usual detective work, but no one has produced a definitive explanation. The bug simply arrives, like a second appendix, at the least convenient possible moment.
💀 Honour Mode Makes Every Bug Personal
Honour Mode is already a test of patience, planning, and the ability to resist the urge to throw a controller across the room. Death is permanent, and players get one shot. A normal bug can be annoying. A bug that creates an extra boss in a permadeath run is a gremlin wearing a boss health bar. Ketheric is a chapter-ending villain for a reason, so the duplicate tends to appear exactly when players are emotionally invested and tactically exhausted.
Players have shared stories of victory and disaster. One player managed to win after the second Ketheric was revived by Myrkul’s Avatar during Call of the Damned. The fight became a chaotic scramble, but Guardian of Faith and Silence were used to distract the duplicate while the party focused on finishing the Apostle. That is the tabletop equivalent of juggling flaming torches while a dragon criticises one’s footwork. It can be done, but it should not be necessary.
Other players were less fortunate. Some saw hours of progress vanish and deleted the save rather than continue a run marked as dishonourable. That reaction is understandable. Honour Mode is supposed to punish bad decisions, not punish players for the game making a bad decision on their behalf.
🔧 The Workaround Is Ugly but Sometimes Effective
Fortunately, the community has found a workaround. It is not elegant, and it is not guaranteed, but it has saved some runs. When the second Ketheric appears, players can force quit the game and reload. In some cases, the duplicate is gone when the fight resumes. A hard reset or even unplugging the device has been mentioned as part of the same emergency ritual.
This solution is far from seamless. Some players report that the hard reset did not let them continue their Honour Mode playthrough cleanly. Others worry about the save being labelled dishonourable. The workaround is therefore best treated as a fire extinguisher: useful in an emergency, not a replacement for a working smoke alarm.
| Symptom | What players report | Practical response |
|---|---|---|
| A second Ketheric appears | The clone arrives at full health after the Apostle of Myrkul acts | Force quit before the fight resolves, then reload |
| The clone joins the Apostle | The battle becomes a two-front nightmare | Use Guardian of Faith and Silence as distractions if committed |
| Reload fails to help | Some hard resets do not restore the run cleanly | Accept that the workaround is imperfect |
🧙 No Permanent Fix in Sight
As of 2026, Honour Mode veterans still trade this workaround like a battered emergency ration. The glitch has been around for months, and there has been no official announcement of a fix or acknowledgment of the bug in the source material. That leaves players in an awkward position: they can prepare perfectly, play carefully, and still meet a duplicate villain who was never supposed to be there.
For now, the best advice is simple. If two Ketherics appear, do not panic. Try the force quit and reload. If the run survives, continue with caution. If the party is forced into the fight, use crowd control and distractions rather than trying to out-damage two bosses at once. And if the save is lost, remember that the community has been there too. Honour Mode is supposed to be hard, not haunted. Until a proper fix arrives, the two Ketherics glitch remains a cruel magic trick that every Baldur’s Gate 3 permadeath player hopes will not be performed on their save file.