Baldur's Gate 3 will have you and your party facing down all sorts of monsters throughout your journey. Each fight can be quite draining, having you use spells for healing or fighting, along with any bonus abilities you can only use once a day.
Short and Long Rests are the easiest ways for players to regain their hit points, along with recovering any lost spells or abilities used while in combat. While they may seem like a simple button to press to heal up, there is a bit more to them.
What Is A Short Rest
A Short Rest is simply that, your party sitting around and resting for just a couple of minutes. When Short Resting, each character will roll hit dice to heal up, which is different for each class and level. As you level up, you'll have more hit dice to heal your party members further with each short rest.
Short Rests happen quickly, without much change to what players are seeing on-screen. A Short Rest can only be done twice per day, requiring a Long Rest to gain more Short Rests back. Short Rests can be done at any time outside of combat and while not talking to another character. Simply select the button in the bottom right outside of your menu, and hit the top button to complete a Short Rest. The two dots on the Short Rest button will indicate how many more Short Rests you can complete that day.
What Is A Long Rest
A Long Rest is your party making camp and going to sleep for the night. Much like a Short Rest, you'll press the same button in the bottom right of the menu, this time selecting the lower of the two options. Beginning a Long Rest will have your party create a campsite in a new nearby location and open up the camp for the player to complete different things within. Long Rests can be completed at any time and will progress time to the next day.
In camp, players will be able to talk to all of their companions, not just their party members. These special dialogues can bring you closer to your companions and can only be done in camp. Here you can also switch out which companions are traveling in your party. After unlocking the ability to, players can also revive dead allies they weren't able to heal.
To complete a Long Rest and progress to the next day, interact with either the campfire or a sleeping bag in the center of the campsite. Here you'll need to use camping supplies or food to get the full or partial benefits of the Long Rest. Both food and camping supplies are found around the world or can be purchased from merchants. Both supplies and food have different scores, and you'll need a total score of 40 to fully complete a Long Rest. Using the correct amount will fully heal your party and restore all spell slots, so always make sure you have enough supplies before beginning a Long Rest. Not hitting the 40 supply goal will give you partial rest and only restore half of your health and spell slots.