Guide for Baldur's Gate 3 - Act 1 (2024)

Character Creation

For people doing a single playthrough only! Two important things with your initial setup. You'll first need to select "Honor Mode" when choosing your difficulty. There is an achievement tied to this mode and will also unlock the lower Tactitician difficulty. Honor mode is essentially Tactician+ where bosses have an additional special attack/mechanic, you are limited to a single save slot, and a full party wipe means game over. Next you'll want to pick "The Dark Urge" origin as it has specific achievements related to it as well.

People focusing on TWO playthroughs:

• Origin: Custom
• Race: Tiefling
• Subrace: Zariel Tiefling
• Class: Paladin
• Subclass: Vengeance
• Background: Soldier
• Abilities:
  • Strength - 16 (+1 bonus added)
  • Dexterity - 10
  • Constitution - 14
  • Intelligence - 8
  • Wisdom - 10
  • Charisma - 16 (+2 bonus added)
• Skills:
  • Insight
  • Persuasion

People focusing on ONE playthrough:

• Origin: The Dark Urge
• Race: Tiefling
• Subrace: Zariel Tiefling
• Class: Paladin
• Subclass: Vengeance
• Background: Haunted One
• Abilities:
  • Strength - 16 (+1 bonus added)
  • Dexterity - 10
  • Constitution - 14
  • Intelligence - 8
  • Wisdom - 10
  • Charisma - 16 (+2 bonus added)
• Skills:
  • Athletics
  • Persuasion

Prologue

As a general rule of thumb, loot everything that isn't bolted down. After awaking from the chaos around us, make sure to do a looting pass in this room. If you go towards the back of the room, behind where you spawned you'll see a ramp taking you up a level. Here will be some stuff on a table as well as a chest at the end of the pathway. After looting the Cartilaginous Chest, pick it up. You can do this by highlighting it, hitting , and choosing the "Pick up" option. There are three of these that we need to pick up. Make your way back down to where you spawned and loot the Mind Flayer corpse in front of you. Immediately to the left side there is another ramp you can walk up for another Cartilaginous Chest. Pick up this one as well. That's it for this room, so make your way through the door. Off to the immediate right will be a corpse for you to loot. Use the elevator platform in the center of the room to go up a level. Interact with the talking corpse and we may be able to recruit a little friend simply named "Us". It's worth using a quick safety save here. Don't destroy the brain, but try to help it. If you do the [Investigation] check and pass it, it will give you Advantage on the subsequent [Medicine] check option. For any dialogue options that involve a skill check, you can easily tell what gives you the best bonus. Pushing down on will add a pop-up denoting every gain and loss to your skill checks. Choose whatever can give you the highest roll and if you succeed, make sure not to mutilate "Us" as it's going to come in handy. If you don't take "Us", that's not a game ender. There's nothing else of note in this room, so move along until you get a cutscene and meet Lae'zel. Dialogue choices don't matter and you'll be thrown into your first combat encounter. Nothing scary here, especially with "Us" at our side. Loot all of the bodies, recover at the blue healing station if you need to, and progress forward.

In the next room you'll see another companion, Shadowheart, still stuck in the Mind Flayer pod. In order to save her progress into the room to your east. At this point you'll see an Intellect Devourer running around, but I would recommend not attacking it if you have "Us" present. You could risk turning "Us" against the party. In the next room there is a dead thrall body holding a key, and another one at the end of the room with a rune, grab both. At the end of the room is the last Cartilaginous Chest, so make sure to pick that up. With the rune in hand, you can interact with the console next to Shadowheart to set her free. Speak to her on the ground and recruit her to the party. Now do a loot pass around this room. The other key that we got opens the container on the desk. Next to the pod that Shadowheart was in there is a glowing purple tank labelled Nautiloid Tank, pick it up. This is actually an explosive tank and we'll be looting as many explosives containers as possible in this playthrough to simplify certain fights. Before we move on to the last room and a major encounter, take control of Shadowheart and open her Spellbook. To take control of another character you can use to access the party panels on the left side of the screen and select who you want to control. Then to access the Spellbook use to pull up the radial Menu. You'll be using this a lot. Find the "Spellbook" menu option as we'll want to make sure the following spells are prepared:

• Cure Wounds
• Bless
• Command
• Sanctuary

Command will especially be helpful in the upcoming battle. Once you're sorted, move along through the door you haven't opened yet to find one last healing blue console. Avoid the fire on the ground, walk into the next hallway, and enter the final room to start the last fight. Eventually enemy reinforcements will appear from behind us, but we'll block them off in this hallway. Open your inventory with and go into the "Character Sheet" option. Select one of the chests you picked up and place it in the middle of the doorway behind you. We want to stack all three to completely block the passage. Here's a video showing the positioning:

Time for your first missable achievement warning of the playthrough! In this fight, there is a demon commander named Commander Zhalk, who we need to kill. This is your only chance at killing him, so we need to accomplish this before the ship crashes.

Once you're ready, save (or force a cloud save) and move through the door to trigger the final battle of the Prologue. The main strategy here is we're going to have Shadowheart use Command: Drop on Commander Zhalk to get him to drop his weapon with someone swooping in to pick it up. You have two shots at doing this and the chance of success is 55%. With how strong of an early game weapon this is, if you're unlucky and fail both times it might just be best to reload your save (or just reset). Also any spell slots you expend during this fight will be replenished afterwards. During the first turn clear out the enemies right in front of you and have Shadowheart/Laezel push forward. I kept Tav back to handle the body looting and more importantly picking up the three Nautiloid Tanks nearby. If you start to become encumbered you can give them to someone else by going into your inventory, hitting over the item, and giving it to someone else. Personally I gave them to Shadowheart since she's the first Companion we properly recruit. The bodies don't really have anything of note, so I would focus picking up the tanks first.

During round 2 use Command: Drop on Commander Zhalk and if it works have Lae'zel use Dash to run in and pick it up his weapon. Now he's drastically less threatening. You'll then want to give that weapon to Tav to use. Don't move past the demon commander as it will spawn a few lesser demons up ahead. Focus your attacks on him until he gets to around 40 - 50 hp. At this point, turn your attacks towards the allied Mind Flayer. We want to do this because as soon as Commander Zhalk is dead, the Mind Flayer will start attacking you. This could potentially one-shot a character, so don't take this enemy lightly. Once the Mind Flayer is dead, finish off Commander Zhalk for your first achievement.

• Devil's in the Details

  Defeated Commander Zhalk in the Nautiloid.

  

  1 guide

With that, you have until the turn countdown finishes to interact with the console in the back of the room. Failure to do so will result in a full party wipe. There will be a few lesser demons in your way, but if you're pressed for time you can use your Dash ability to gain more movement and run past them. If you managed to recruit "Us" and they survive this fight, you'll run into it again later in Act 2. Make your way to the end of the room and have a character interact with the console to safely end the Prologue, netting you an achievement.

• Descent From Avernus

  Took control of the Nautiloid and escaped the hells.

  

  1 guide

Day 1

Since resource management is a pretty big thing in this game, at the start of each day I'll highlight what the planned combat encounters are and when Short or Long Rests will be used. That way you can use your abilities without worrying about backing yourself into a corner. I highly recommend to follow this pacing as much as possible since we're doing some things in a specific order to minimize the amount of playthroughs.

• Wake up on beach
  
  • Intellect Devourers (x3)
  • Ruin Bandits (x6)
• Short Rest
  • Ruin Undead (x5)
• Short Rest
  • Goblins attacking the Druid Grove (x8)
  • Bugbear Assassin
  • Goblins in the tunnel (x4)

After waking up on the beach, start to move forward. Our top priority will be to assemble a team of four. Soon enough you'll see Shadowheart unconscious. Interact with her to wake her up and have her join you. Move along the coastline and collect all the loot. By holding down the name of most loot will appear over the item. This is very helpful in discerning what loot is near you. Along with that, if you hold down a search radius will appear from you, compiling everything you can interact with in that area into a list. With all of that in mind, during the first few days you want to loot and read as many books as possible. Also grab any plants that you see laying around. Eventually you'll make it to a locked door and glowing purple sigil on a nearby rock. These purple sigils are fast travel points. As you unlock more you can travel freely between them if you aren't in a restricted area. To access the fast travel menu you can use to pull up the map and then to see a list of known waypoints on the right. The one you just discovered is the "Overgrown Ruins" waypoint.

Now would also be a good time to point out you can access your camp, which serves as your "base" of sorts. This is where all your companions will gather and where you end each day. Your camp layout will change depending on where you choose to use your Long Rest. With access to the camp you can also send items to your camp for storage. To do this, select whatever you want to send to storage in your inventory, hit , and choose the "Send to Camp" option.

Back to adventuring. Up the hill you'll see the crashed Nautiloid ship with some Intellect Devourers nearby. If you're on Honor mode, doing this encounter with just two people (even if you're level 2) would be a run ender. They have a ranged attack that could potentially one shot. Fortunately you can traverse the nearby cliffside up to a ridge (end of it has a chest) and you can continue to jump up to the top. Here is a clip on how to get up the cliff without triggering combat:

At this point I recommend saving or forcing a cloud save as there are two back to back moments that impact missable achievements.

Directly up ahead you'll see a purple portal against a cliff. Interact with it to save Gale as he will be crucial to our playthrough. When given dialogue options, choose the Strength option. If you don't save Gale here, you won't be able to recruit him.

Before you roll the dice, hit . You will be doing this often! This is how you apply buffs to your rolls, the most frequent one you'll use is Shadowheart's Guidance ability as it doesn't consume any spell slots. As you progress try to set aside some magical (green quality) gear to eventually feed Gale to help with his affliction. You'll need three of these items in total. Head up the hill to the north and you'll run into two Tieflings that have Lae'zel trapped.

Here we meet our first set of Tieflings that are tied to a specific achievement. We need to "save all the Tiefling refugees" for an achievement, but there is some ongoing conjecture on which Tieflings count and which don't. This guide may end up saving more Tieflings than necessary, but I know for sure this is what I did to get the achievement. Your best chance of getting them to leave peacefully would be the [Paladin][Deception] option. We need to walk away from this with both the Tieflings and Lae'zel as she too is attached to an achievement.

Once the Tieflings are out sight, free Lae'zel by shooting the floor of the trap. We have just one last person to recruit in the area. Fast travel back to where we saved Gale as he was actually stuck in a waypoint portal. We want to go to the "Roadside Cliffs" waypoint. Walk along the road to the west. A bit after the dead goblins there will be a split in the path. Make a slight detour up the steps to the right and remove the fire terrain with Gale's Ray of Frost cantrip. Move up the path ahead of you until you see a shovel in a dirt mound. You can take the shovel and dig up some treasure. We'll need to find four more of these buried treasures for an achievement, but there are much more than that in the game. They can be found by your characters passing a passive skill check when they're close to one, but you can also manually dig in the location by interacting with the shovel in your inventory and that will count just fine. Here is the location of the first noted buried treasure:

Someone in your party will comment on hearing shouting up ahead, but we don't want to investigate that just yet. Make your way back to that fork in the path and traverse into the wreckage. Go through and attack the injured Mind Flayer that is under some rubble. You can never say no to a free kill and experience. Proceed forward to make it outside and you'll come across Astarion.

Handle the interaction nicely and recruit him when you have the chance. Don't swap out someone in the party for him, just send him back to camp. You can recruit him later if you miss this, but this is certainly the easiest way to get him and set up his personal achievement.

You should also be level 2 at this point, so go ahead and level up. You can tell if there's a flashing arrow on a character's portrait. To do this use and on the desired character use . If more than one character is able to level up, they'll just chain together so you don't have to individually level them up.

Now that Tav is level 2, open your character sheet and go to the "Reactions" tab. Here you want to enable Divine Smite on all attack options, but make sure it asks you before use. You can add that function by hitting on each option you want it for. You'll know it's active if there's a chat bubble icon on the ability listing. What this does is the game asks you if you want to expand a Spell Slot to add a Divine Smite attack on top of your successful attack, which can be very handy to finish off an enemy or do some insane burst damage. If you basic attack is a critical hit, then the added smite attack will also be a critical hit! This gives you better control over where and when your Spell Slots are used up compared to the default settings. Now would also be a good time to cast use Gale and cast Mage Armor on himself.

Continue east back into the wreckage and you'll see that you can now ambush those Intellect Devourers that we avoided at the start of the beach. With a full party at level 2, enter Hide Party mode () and launch a surprise attack. This causes your party to crouch, rendering them harder to detect, with the added bonus of you being able to see the detection range of any nearby creature. These enemies do move around, so as you get close enter Turn-Based mode (option in the menu wheel) to prevent a last second movement catching you off guard. One of them may be on a purple substance (which is flammable) next to one of those Nautiloid Tanks. Try to dispatch it without using fire so you can claim that tank. After dealing with the enemies, loot the nearby chest and bodies. Go back to the "Roadside Cliffs" waypoint and make your way east towards the ruins. Go through the chapel entrance to start a conversation. If you use the [Paladin][Intimidation] option you can then add the Thaumaturgy modifier to get two dice being rolled. This is the main reason we picked being Tiefling ourselves. We'll be doing this a lot, so don't forget you have this bonus to add along with Shadowheart's Guidance. You should be able to make it through this conversation with no issues. Be wary of the cracked floor here! Make sure not to run into it as that would spoil the ambush that we could set up. Look above and attack the "Foundation Block" hanging to knock it down, creating a hole you traverse down. Before proceeding, do a quick loot pass of the ruins around you. There are also two buried treasures nearby.

One by the benches right outside the chapel archway:

With another down at the end of the path that runs along the cliffside:

When you're ready to delve into the ruins, I recommend turning on Turn-Based mode. Use to enter cursor mode, hover your camera directly over the hole, and direct Tav to go inside. Your whole party should appear within the ruins where we can ambush some raiders. Here is a clip on how to set this up:

After going down the hole, there is a desk in the corner of the room that you can move to block the door (an option by using the menu command on it). Do that and move your characters to the edge of the room up against the same wall the door is on. Two on each side works best as we want to tuck them in the corner so they don't get detected. End your turn and bandits should open the door and stack in the entryway. Since we blocked it with a desk though, they stop right there. Now you can have Gale or Shadowheart throw a Fire Bolt at the nearby Oil Barrel that they all just happen to be standing next to. They should be surprised and you can let loose the attacks. Stay in the room and use either Lae'zel or Tav to block the doorway. After dispatching the enemies, make sure to loot their bodies. On the off chance something went wrong and you didn't get the surprise attack, I'll budget a Short Rest ( menu) to be used here to heal your party up here. There are two rooms you can investigate and we want to go north first. If they weren't alerted during the previous encounter, there is a lone enemy you can ambush here. Do a loot pass around the room as there's a good portion of camping supplies that'll be handy as well as books to read, the latter being achievement related. Once you're done with this room, make your way to the south. On the southern edge of the room there will be a switch you can discover that will unlock a locked door you walked past. Once you're good to move to the next area, go through the passage leading you west.

After doing a looting pass in the initial room split Tav off from the rest of the group. You'll be venturing into the southern room by yourself. Do not interact with the central sarcophagus until you're done with the room, it is trapped. Do a loop around looting everything but the central sarcophagus. One of these side sarcophaguses holds a Soul Coin that you definitely want to get for future use. Once you're done, go ahead and stand next to the central sarcophagus. Turn on Turn-Based mode and open it without bothering to disarm the traps. Use Dash to run out of the room and watch out for the grease on the floor as you approach the doorway. End your turn and enjoy the fireworks. That central sarcophagus should have given you a key to open the northern room. There will be a handful of skeleton corpses you can loot, but take mind of where they are as they'll soon come to life and attack you. With your group of three, park them in south eastern corner of this room, next to a chest. Make sure they're crouched. With our solo Tav (or Lae'zel if you want), make your way up into the little courtyard and go up the left set of stairs. A button should be revealed. If not, bring the others up to see if they can trigger the reveal before getting back into position. Before clicking it, make sure everyone is crouched and in the appropriate location, then turn Turn-Based mode back on. Interact with the button to trigger the ambush. Here is clip on how to prevent you from getting ambushed here:

If done correctly all of your party should be hidden, allowing you to being able to ambush the enemies instead of them surprise ambushing you. There is one melee undead that has a higher health pool while the others are weaker spellcaster undead. After you loot everything, make your way to a side room on the western side. There's some minor loot here along with a book with some skill checks. If you succeed you get some extra experience. There is another Soul Coin in the sarcophagus that you don't want to miss. Now make your way to the northern room that opened when you hit the switch. Interacting with the sarcophagus here will trigger a cutscene with Withers who we definitely was to recruit to our camp, so answer his question. After that's done, make sure to loot not only the chest but the sarcophagus that Withers came out of as well. This will net you a third Soul Coin and The Amulet of Lost Voices. Equip this necklace on Tav.

Go ahead and use your second Short Rest to top everyone's HP off and fast travel to the "Roadside Cliff" waypoint. Take the road west and then make your way north until you're outside a settlement. There will be a hill you can perch yourself on top that is a very good vantage point for the fight. Once you get to the edge of this hill, the cutscene should trigger. My main strategy for this fight is having Tav/Lae'zel focus on the goblins right next to us, then attacking the main group from behind while Shadowheart/Gale fire off ranged attacks from the hill. You want to focus on the Bugbear first and then whatever is the easiest to kill from there.

Wyll will make his appearance here, who is another companion we need to eventually recruit. He'll function as an allied unit. In all of my playthroughs, I've never seen him get close to dying here, but it technically is possible. Keep an eye on him just to be safe.

Once the dust settles make your way down the hill and make sure you have the fast travel point "Emerald Grove Environs" available. If not it's to the east.

If you hit level 3, hold off on actually leveling up yet, as we're going to take advantage of that with a vendor momentarily. Vendors restock their wares at two points, after a Long Rest and after a character levels up. Specifically after processing and locking in the level up. This is a great way to stock up on potions and other consumables without having to go through multiple rests. You can also take advantage of this with leveling up Hirelings later on if you want.

Loot all the bodies and you'll find that a goblin named Za'krug dropped the Gloves of Power that would work well on Tav. Make your way through the gate and one of the Tieflings will be having a heated discussion with one of the NPCs that came running to the gate. Doesn't matter how this resolves, but make sure to talk to Zevlor before he leaves. We want to learn more about the druids and ask him about needing a healer. To get both quest prompts, follow this dialogue selection:

• What is this place?
• I have no quarrel with the druids.
• The ritual - is there a way to convince the druids to stop it?
• Perhaps if you could help me find a healer.
• I'll find her and speak to Kagha while I'm there.

Turn around and make your way up the hill and over the gate that the goblins were besieging.

There will be a nearby hill further up the path that you can go up. A lone Bugbear will be trying to assassinate a Tiefling that we want to save named Nadira. As you go up the ramp turn on Turn-Based mode and get the jump on the would-be assassin.

After killing this enemy, you should definitely hit level 3. We want to talk to Nadira to get a fourth Soul Coin. Using the [Paladin] option will get you it without having to pass a dice roll. If you go down the path the Bugbear came from, you should discover a buried chest along the pathway:

This side route will lead you back to the main path. Once you get to a fork in the road, you'll meet a vendor called Arron. Consolidate all of your loot get ready to sell a bunch of stuff. You'll want to hang on to any consumables like poisons, weapon coatings, arrows, potions, spell scrolls, explosives, ect. Outside of those, sell everything else that you don't think you'd need. You want to buy the Ring of Flinging and possibly a Potion of Invisibility if one is available. Follow the left path until you see Auntie Ethel off to the right in her hut. When you first visit she should have three Elixirs of Hill Giant Strength. Buy all of those and any other potions that you want. Then lock in the level 3 perks for your characters. At this point the only one that matters is Tav. There's only one combat encounter between now and when we reset Shadowheart/Gale classes with Withers. We'll also be replacing Lae'zel with another companion. For Tav's level 3 spell you'll want to take Shield of Faith.

After leveling you should be able to buy another set of Elixirs of Hill Giant Strength. For a comparison at this point I was sitting on 6 elixers, 1 potion of invisibility, and 800 gold. Go up the stairs and you should see Zorru standing next to a shed or walking around this immediate area. With Lae'zel in the party we can get more information from him about the Githyanki Creche that she wants to find. To the left of the path there should be a wooden door leading to the makeshift prison that is holding a goblin named Sazza, who will be an important character in a bit. But for now, we're going deeper into the grove.

Follow the path up to come across a training area where Wyll can be found. We need to recruit him as well for his achievement. Talk with him, but don't agree to kill the demon he's hunting, take the other positive option. Send him back to camp with the others.

Further up the path towards Arron will be a group of Tieflings that we can talk to and want to make sure we save.

We want to convince Rolan to stay and fight with the Tieflings. There will be a [Paladin] option that automatically convinces him to stay, so no dice rolling needed.

Turn around and you'll notice a stable of animals, one of which is named "Strange Ox". We'll soon get a Potion of Animal speaking to talk to it in order to set up an interaction in Act 2 and Act 3. If you stand next to the haystack in the pen, someone in your party may pass a check to see there's some loot hidden in it. There's nothing else in the area, so continue down the path until you trigger a cutscene between some Tieflings and Druids. Once the crowd disperses, speak with either Komira or Locke and agree to help their daughter. The druids below will stop you, but resolve the conversation amicably as we don't want to pick a fight here. Make your way through the Stone Door to the right.

After that resolves, speak with Kagha and have the conversation end with you agreeing to speak with Zevlor. You may notice that there is an objective here to kill Kagha, we don't want to do that (yet). Behind her is a room called the "Servant's Quarters". Split off Tav from the group and venture in. By holding down you should be able to see "Kagha's Chest" stashed behind a bookcase. To the right is a ledge you can climb up. Sneak over and lockpick the chest to receive some information about Kagha that will later send us into a swamp. Regroup with the party and at this point Gale may want to chat. Speak with him to learn more about his condition. Make your way to the other room here to speak with Nettie and tell her about the parasite afflicting everyone in your party. She will take you into a backroom where you can promise her that you'll take the poison if needed. Once she walks out, you can swipe the Mind Flayer Parasite Specimen from her desk. I would recommend not stealing anything else here.

Once you're back outside, we'll go around this central area in a clockwise fashion. Follow the path to the left and you'll see a stone archway right next to the druids that were blocking the Tieflings. Go under that and follow the path to the right. Have a chat with Alfira who is trying to work out a song. Up against a pillar at the end of the path there is a chest you can lockpick for a green item that is perfect fodder to feed Gale.

Go back to the central area where the druids are performing the ritual and continue to the left to meet Volo.

When you get a dialogue choice with Volo you'll see that you can Trade with him by pressing . Do that and you can purchase from him a very powerful ring that we will give to Shadowheart called The Whispering Promise as well as five Potion of Animal Speaking. Get both the ring and all of the animal speaking potions as after today he will venture off and we won't see him again for a bit.

Tell Volo whatever you want and give The Whispering Promise to Shadowheart as it's a perfect ring for our Cleric. Use a Potion of Animal Speaking on Tav speak to the nearby bear blocking an elevator to ask it to move without any fuss. Otherwise you could throw a fish that you picked up or attempt and Animal Handling roll. Circle back round to the druids that stopped the Tiefling crowd and walk up the path to Arabella's parents. Speak with either of them to get a reward. Continue up the path to that "Strange Ox" from before and speak to it. Use the [Intimidation] option to learn some information and set things up for Act 2.

After that, go ahead and pick the lock on her cage. Make sure to pick the lock and open it with Tav. This will break your Oath, which is what we want as our goal is to ultimately be an Oathbreaker subclass. You'll be confronted by an Oathbreaker Paladin which we'll talk to at our camp tomorrow. Get Sazza added to the group and jump over to the ledge that is behind her cage. Don't go into the tunnel just yet though. There's another ledge that you can jump to and down that path is a pouch with some handy loot. Make your way back and go into the tunnel. This will be the last combat before our Long Rest.

In this cavern there are three defense statues that will attack you if you aren't careful. Split off a member of the party that Sazza isn't attached too. Enter Hide Party mode and move close to the Rune of the Bear (glowing emblem) that is further ahead. Chances are the red sightline of the goblins will cover that when you enter, so wait for them to move and make the coast clear. Interact with the rune to disable a nearby statue and then launch a surprise attack on the goblins. Keep Sazza far away from the combat to make sure she lives. Bring everyone else up and you can quickly dispatch this group of enemies. Loot the bodies, but before delving deeper, there is a rock outcropping in the water that you can jump to. Don't jump too far now as you could trigger another statue to start firing. Enter Hide Party mode and make your way down to the Rune of the Wolf and turn off that pesky turret. Loot the body for a key and go back to the top of this rock outcropping, but don't jump across yet. There is actually a buried chest at the top of this. This should be your fifth treasure chest, which will reward an achievement:

• Dig for Victory

  Dug up five buried chests - treasure!

  

  

There's also an unconscious dwarf that you can save here. Move Sazza a bit away from him so he doesn't notice her and then throw a potion or using a healing spell on him. He'll go back to the grove and will eventually join us for a fight. Climb up the rock steps and interact with the "Rune of the Eagle" to turn off the last turret. Before messing with the chest in the alcove, make sure to pickup the Oil Barrel outside of it and the Oil Barrels inside the alcove. After disarming the trap on the chest you can open it with the key we got earlier. From the chest is a staff called Nature's Blessing that you should give to Gale. Once you're done looting, escort Sazza out of the cave up ahead and send her on her way.

If you pass a passive skill check and notice the ambush:

• I know you're there. Show yourselves.
• They'll be no skewering happening here. Now let me pass.
• [Intimidation] Out of my way, or I'll cut you down first.

If you don't pass it:

• [Intimidation] I'm not running, and their aim's not good enough to save you.

While here make sure to not leave out of the southern exit until expressly told. Moving into that area will move Auntie Ethel into the next stage of her quest and causes her to move out of the Emerald Grove. We want to stock up on more elixirs before that happens!

Walk on in so you're next to the fast travel point. As tempting as it is to go on a looting spree, we can save that for Day 2. Go ahead and Long Rest ( menu) here in the Blighted Village.

When resting at camp you always want to use the appropriate amount of resources to get a full rest (40 or 80 depending on difficulty). Not only will this fully replenish all your resources, but it's related to an achievement as well. At this point you should have partial progress with three other achievements, but results could vary depending on your playstyle. These are all very straightforward and I feel like expressly calling them out in guide form would make this a bit too cumbersome. At the end of each day I'll report in what I was sitting at so you have a baseline:

• Roleplayer - 60%
  • "Complete 10 background goals in a single playthrough."
  • Another way to word this would be to complete 10 actions that earn an Inspiration point. Would be incredibly impressive if you somehow finished the game without unlocking this.
• Action Surge - 60%
  • "Perform five attacks in one turn."
  • Will come in time between attacks that use Action points and Bonus Action points.
• Bookworm - 18%
  • "Read 100 different books in one playthrough."
  • As long as you're looting the areas you go through, you should discover a lot of books. Make sure to read at least one page of each for it to count. There are many duplicates, but to be safe just quickly read any book you pick up.

Day 2

Starting today we'll do a morning routine between applying buffs and elixirs. I'll elaborate more on that once we recruit our last proper party member at the start of the day.

• Morning buffs
  
  • Blighted Village goblins (x9)
  • Sleeping bugbear
  • Ogre and Bugbear couple
• Short Rest
  • Flaming Fist Recruit Ephren
  • Paladins of Tyr (x3)
• Short Rest
  • Harpies on the beach (x4)

At this point we'll leave Lae'zel at camp, but before that you can swap armor pieces between Tav and Lae'zel as that will give you +1 more AC. Fast travel to the "Emerald Grove Environs" waypoint and swing by Auntie Ethel to buy a batch of elixirs. Go out the front gate of the Emerald Grove and follow the road west. Take a pause when you come across the doorway that you parted ways with Sazza at. Across the road is a cliffside you can jump up. Do that and then climb up a ladder to discover some loot. Up here Raphael may appear before you. It doesn't matter what dialogue choices you make whenever he approaches you. There is a chest on some scaffolding, an Oil Barrel tucked behind another barrel that you'll surely want to pick up, and in the southwestern corner is a rocky outcropping that should trigger an Investigation glow. If you're successful you should retrieve a pouch with a Spider Egg Sac. Using this will summon some spiders, which will come in very handy during a fight later in this Act. Once you get back down to the road you'll notice a path going north. Along this path you'll meet duo standing over the corpse of their brother. By making these dialogue choices, we can recruit them to join us in a future fight:

• What happened to your friend?
• Hold his stare.
• You need to find the beast and avenge your brother.

Interact with Edowin's corpse and pick the first option. If you're playing a normal Tav, the first point below will be there, but if you're playing Dark Urge you'll see the second variant:

• Let your curiosity guide you. Free the tadpole.
  
• Embrace the desire to commune with the tadpole. Will it to break free.

This will net you another Mind Flayer Parasite Specimen. Loot his body properly for some goodies. Go northwest from here and across the river. To the north from this point, near the cave entrance, you should see a rock ladder of sorts called a "Cragged Rock", climb up this.

Jump across the river to the north and around here you may noticed Gale hunched over. This is a sign you need to feed him a magical item to alleviate his symptoms. Speak to him and he may want to speak about Raphael first. If so, just speak to him again and mention you may have an artifact to give him. Follow the path east to eventually see Karlach across the river. Before going over to her, pick up the Toll Collector's Key nearby on the ground.

Surprise! Karlach here is another companion that has an achievement. Keep a particular eye on her as we specifically need to romance her for her achievement. Choose all of the friendly/positive options and she'll join your party.

While we're here we'll unlock a fast travel point for use later. Follow the path north, under a bridge, and you'll soon see a waypoint portal against the cliffside named "The Risen Road" waypoint. Now it's time to properly set up everyone's Classes. Go to the camp and here's what to do with everyone:

• Tav: Speak with the Oathbreaker Knight in the camp if you haven't already who is right next to Withers. Tell him that you want to be an Oathbreaker to solidify that as your new subclass. All previous spell selections carry over.
• Karlach: Talk to Withers and make her a Monk. Make sure to unequip her Axe weapon give her the Ring of Flinging.
• Gale: Talk to Withers and make him a Sorcerer.
• Shadowheart: Talk to Withers and keep her a Cleric. We need to do this to change her Subclass.

If you haven't spoken to Withers yet, you'll need to go through some dialogue to discover that he can change classes for 100g per time. In total this will cost us 300g, but will be well worth it! Here is a breakdown for what to pick for everyone's level up.

With everything all set up it is time to do the new daily routine of buffs that we'll do at the start of each day. Fast travel to the "Blighted Village" waypoint so everyone is close together and do the following:

• Karlach - Drink an Elixir of Hill Giant Strength.
• Shadowheart - Cast Aid on the whole party (AoE cast).
• Gale - Cast Mage Armor on himself.

Now to do a whole bunch of looting by taking everything that isn't bolted down here. As you explore, make sure to pick up any explosive barrels (Firewine, Smokepowder, etc.) Near the eastern entrance should be at least one Firewine Barrel (more may be in eyesight). Follow the path north to find a Heavy Key and the path will loop around behind this house. Go through the hole and the wall and take everything in both rooms on this floor. Make your way out the front door and at the front of the building you should find a set of doors you can unlock. In the basem*nt loot your way forward. Once you go through the doorway ahead, there will be a trapped chest next to a ladder. Don't interact with that just yet. Instead, go up the ladder and take the Smokepowder Barrel resting in the alcove.

Loot the chest up here for an Infernal Iron that we'll need later. This is needed to progress Karlach's romance and achievement.

You're now clear to disarm and picklock the chest down below. As you make your rounds, your party may discover a wall that can be broken down. Don't bother going in there as it leads to the Underdark, which we surely don't want to venture to yet. Once you're done with looting this building make your way outside and head for the building directly south of this one. On the first floor there are two rooms to do a pass through. You'll find a book mentioning a basem*nt, which the hatch for is behind the counter with all the herbs/potions. Make your way into the basem*nt and do another full looting pass of this area. Up in the corner of a wall, right next to a small set of stairs will be a stack of three boxes with a lever tucked behind. Interact with this and the nearby bookshelf will move, unveiling a hidden passage. This will lead to a room with a bunch of coffins, only one of which is safe to open. All the others will trigger an Undead ambush. The safe one is the first one on the right, tucked up against the rock wall.

Inside this coffin is a special scroll, Scroll of Summon Quasit. This is the only one in the game, so don't miss it. Use it to summon a familiar that is accompanied by an achievement.

• Rude, Crude, and full of Attitude

  Found and summoned the quasit Shovel. Or was her name... Fork? Maybe Basket?

  

  1 guide

You may also uncover a buried chest between some coffins. Make your way up some stairs to interact with an Ornate Mirror. This will trigger a conversation that will either open another room filled with lots of loot or set off a trap. To safely navigate the conversation, pick these options:

• Tell it your name.
• [Intimidation] Open or I'll smash you to pieces - bad luck be damned.

Succeeding that dialogue will open up a treasure trove with two major things near the entrance. First of which is the Necromancy of Thay that is locked behind a gate with several traps. For our goals, this isn't too relevant, but if you read and put it in your backpack, this should count as an Inspiration point. Going clockwise around the room, the alcove next to this holds a Gilded Chest that contains the Bracers of Defense. Give that to Karlach. Do an entire looting pass of the room and then get ready for a vendor trip. Fast travel to the "Emerald Grove Environs" waypoint and make your way to Auntie Ethel. Once you make it to her, visit your camp and load yourself up with everything that you're ready to sell. Make sure NOT to sell your Spider Egg Sac, we will be utilizing this in Day 3. She should have another batch of Elixirs of Hill Giant Strength for you to add to your arsenal.

Across from Auntie Ethel you will find Dammon at his forge. With the Infernal Iron we have, he can use it to help Karlach with her condition. We need to do this two times in total.

If you have anything left to sell, you can offload it on Dammon or swing over to Arron to peddle your goods. At this point Gale should hunch over again, so feed him a second piece of magical gear.

After this point one of two things will happen with Gale. At some point in the next few days he'll hunker over and you need to feed a final third piece of green equipment or if you speak to him enough and learn about his history with Mystra, your quest log will skip ahead a bit. Either will progress his quest. Just keep an eye on him and all will be fine.

Make your way back to "Blighted Village" waypoint as there's still looting to be had. Follow the path north from the portal to see a chest surrounded by some loot. Pick locking the chest will reward you with the Haste Helm which works great on Karlach. Now is a good time to get another achievement. Shadowheart should have started the game with a Scroll of Detect Thoughts, use that on Tav as there's an achievement for using this in a dialogue choice. Up the stairs to the left is a windmill with a group of goblins. We can talk our way out of this with these choices:

• What the hells are you doing?
• Let me rephrase that - why are you doing this?
• Fun's over - release the gnome at once.
• [Detect Thoughts] Read the goblin's mind.
• You don't have the stomach for a fight.

Since we used the Scroll of Detect Thoughts, that will net the following achievement.

• No Penny Required

  Successfully used Detect Thoughts to pry into someone's thoughts.

  

  

With that, you can freely investigate the windmill. There is a hatch into the basem*nt that has some loot along with a The Speedy Lightfeet boots that I gave to Tav. On the ground floor there are two levers, one will spare the gnome tied to the windmill and the other will fling him to his death. Make sure you use the 'Brake' lever to spare our friend. Go talk to him to let him down. After resolving that, head back to the town center and in the southwestern building there are three Ogres having a meal. Our goal is to recruit them to our cause. Make sure you're controlling Tav before starting this conversation. Be prepared to use some Inspiration if you need to.

• [Paladin][Intimidation] Try to eat me and I'll brand your corpse with the mark of my oath.
• I notice you don't bear a brand of your own.
• Forget Goblins. You should be fighting for me.
• [Paladin][Intimidation] Fight for me and my oath or I'll cut the last meal from your belly.
  • This last one is a 20 DC roll, so worse case you fail you can pay them the 500g fee. Don't worry, we'll be getting that gold back later.

This will net you Lump's War Horn which on use will summon the three Ogres to fight for you. This will come in very handy once we set our sights on the goblin camp. With that sorted, loot this building to get some additional camping supplies. One last thing for this town - time to clear out the Goblins. First off, let's ambush the ones chilling on the rooftops. For this we'll split into three groups. Tav, Karlach, and Gale/Shadowheart together. Perch Gale/Shadowheart on the northern rooftop and Karlach on the southern one. Tav will ambush the lone goblin overlooking an open doorway in the northern building. To help visualize this, here is a game clip to show the layout:

If you save here or trigger a cloud save, this would be a very good place to attempt the achievement on killing a creature with fall damage. Position Gale so he can use Thunderwave to knock off both of the goblins that he's near. Ideally aim them to the side, towards the exit archway. With some luck, one of them will die from the fall damage and not the spell damage, netting you this achievement.

• Shove Off

  Killed a creature with falling damage.

  

  2 guides

If you don't get it here and aren't able to reload, keep your eye out for other opportunities. Next up is the lone goblin patrolling by the western exit, near where we recruited the ogres. Lastly, there is a trio of goblins outside the southern building and the nearby exit. Remember! Do not leave the town via the southern exit! With Karlach being a Monk, you'll likely have killed an enemy with an unarmed attack, netting you this achievement:

• Fists of Fury

  Killed a character with an unarmed strike.

  

  3 guides

If by some chance you haven't gotten that, you'll assuredly get it soon enough. Once you dispatch them turn your attention north to that large wooden gate. Off to the right is a sleeping Bugbear that we can ambush and kill if you didn't get him before. Go through the gate and you'll see a shed nearby where a Bugbear and Ogre are spending some "quality" time together. Unfortunately for them we're going to interrupt them and pick a fight. I recommend trying to knock the ogre prone with Karlach's Flurry of Blows: Topple ability. Once the fight is over go ahead and do your first Short Rest of the day. There isn't much loot to be had, but there is a nearby hill you can climb with a knife jabbed into some meat that you can interact with. Successfully removing it will reward you with an easy green quality item.

Follow the path until you get to a broken bridge that you can jump across. Make sure to hang to the left here as down the right path are Hyenas and Gnolls that we don't want to deal with quite yet. Continue west until you see a settlement that recently came under attack, fire and corpses everywhere. Run up to the main building door that several NPCs are trying to force open. Interact with the door and there should be a [Paladin] option that gives you advantage. Bust through and charge in. Find the staircase in the back and follow the path until you get to a dead-end with a blocked doorway. Break down the rubble to free the Counsellor trapped inside. While here, swap to Turn-Based mode and turn around to see another doorway blocked. Break down that blockage from a distance as once the barrier is gone, a plume of fire will shoot out. There will be two rooms here that you unlocked and you want to make sure to stay in Turn-Based mode otherwise you risk getting taken over by the fire from the adjacent room. Ultimately we just want to save the NPC here. First break the rubble blocking the exit and then have Karlach interact with him to try and remove the rubble. If that fails, you can just attack the debris covering him directly. He'll follow the group to safety out the nearby exit.

In the next building he'll unfortunately find the corpse of his betrothed. He'll mention something about a dowry. You can use the Speak with Dead ability that you get from Tav's amulet to learn where the dowry is from his dead fiancé. Make your way outside and find Counsellor Florrick by some other NPCs. Agree to help her and she'll reward you. You'll have three choices for your reward, but make sure you get the staff called The Spellsparkler. This is a fantastic weapon in Act 1 for Gale. Go ahead and loot all of the bodies, but be mindful of looting the Flaming Fist ones as their friends nearby won't take to kindly to that. If you want, you can dispatch the lone Fist Recruit Ephren as everyone else should leave following your discussion with the Counsellor.

There is a Firewine Barrel in the courtyard you can take that you don't want to miss. Looking at the entrance to the building that we charged into, there is a path to the left that goes under an archway. There will be some fire on the ground, but you can clear that out with your Ray of Frost ability. In the closest barn to you is a haystack that you can interact with. Succeeding the roll will pop out a chest that has the dowry that NPC mentioned. If your first character fails, you can attempt with the others to get it to appear. There is a chance that everyone fails, if so not a big deal. Now make your way to the barn in the far back to find a Startled Ox. It'll take two skill checks, but you can calm it down for some easy experience. Lastly you can turn your attention to the middle building that has a few boxes haphazardly blocking the entrance.

To be safe, just send Tav into the building. There will be a lot of explosive barrels and a man very keen on blowing any intruders to kingdom come.

To safely navigate this situation, here are the dialogue choices:

• [Dexterity] Wait - listen!
• [Intimidation] Careful. You won't kill me, but you will make me mad.

If you safely navigate that, he will give you the go ahead to go to the secret base here. You'll definitely want to loot the 9 explosive barrels sitting next to you. I know we haven't used any of these yet, but we'll be cashing them in later in Act 1 to simplify the Githyanki Creche area. Outside of the barrels, there's nothing really worth looting up here, so make your way to the hatch. Here on the other hand is a treasure trove of camping supplies for long rests, so loot everything. Once you're done, there is a wardrobe in the back that will reveal a passageway to the actual secret base. There will be a new fast travel portal and a set of boxes up ahead. This would be the extent of the looting here as I recommend staying on the good side of the folks down here. Shortly ahead you'll trigger a conversation with an NPC named Zarys. Use the [Intimidation] option to talk your way through. She'll disarm the traps, allowing you to walk on in. Once you get to a bunch of cargo there is a set of stairs leading to a ladder. There will be some cargo in the way, so work your way around it. Up top will be Zarys and she will have a job for you. Accept and make your way back to the courtyard of the settlement.

On paper getting the Dual Wielder feat on Gale may seem an odd choice, but this can be very poignant on a caster with the right weapons. Case in point, by equipping both The Spellsparkler and Nature's Blessing, this makes your Magic Missile for example trigger effects from both staves at the same time.

Now to dispatch the Paladins that Karlach mentioned earlier. In between here and the paladins are same gnolls that we don't want to deal with yet, but this is why we unlocked the fast travel point earlier. Fast travel to "The Risen Road" waypoint. In the nearby building will be the paladins. Before the fight starts, don't bring Karlach into the building as that will start a dialogue. Instead have someone attack them from the inside. This isn't a hard fight at all if you get Anders out of the way fast. Once the fighting has started, you're free to bring Karlach in. Focus your attacks on him and you very well could dispatch him before he can even attack. The other enemies should fall pretty quickly, but be careful as Cyrel uses Hold Person. Following this fight use your second Short Rest. Loot the bodies and everything in the house before making your way down to the basem*nt via the hatch in the main room. Once again there is a treasure trove of loot and there are four rooms to go one by one through. In rooms two and three, your characters will see trap vents on the ground. You can pay those no mind at all. To open up the fourth and final room, you need to sit two characters in Stone Chairs up against a wall. This will open the hidden room, but be careful as there is a pressure plate as soon as you enter that room. Disarm that make it safe to traverse. In this room you'll come across the Gloves of Heroism which pair well with Tav as our Paladin.

Now we just have one fight left for the day that we held off on doing - the harpies on the beach. Attempting this at level 2 and even 3 could be dicey due to their Luring Song, but after being topped up at level 4, this shouldn't pose too much of a risk. Fast travel to the "Emerald Grove Enrvirons" waypoint and make your way down to where Alfira is. Before the path leading up to her you should see a different one going down and to the left. Next to some blue totems you'll see a path to the left, quickly go down here for some buried treasure. There are some pillars that you can jump across to a ledge where you can hopefully discover a dirt mound. If all your party fails the dice roll, you can manually dig to still get it. Jump your way back across and start walking down to the singing. Here we want to split our party into two groups. One with Karlach/Shadowheart and another with Tav/Gale.

Now you'll be ambushed by Harpies and some of your characters may be lured, meaning you won't be able to control them and they'll go running towards whichever harpy is singing. Magic Missile on Gale does a great job of breaking the concentration of the harpy that is singing, freeing anyone it has enthralled. Your top priority will be to break the concentration of any harpy singing and then focusing your attacks to quickly lessen their numbers. After the fight is over the kid will thank you and give the passphrase to their little hideout. Loot the bodies and let's make our way back to where the Tiefling and Druid groups were standing off by the stairs. Continue up the path to a Tiefling child named Doni that is standing near a cart. Tell him that you want to go to the Dragon's Lair and enter the hideout. Go forward and you'll run into Mol, the ringleader of this group. She'll be impressed after saving two of her crew. Ask her if she needs help with anything and she'll want you to steal the Druid Idol, which we'll we agree to do. There's actually a way to go about this and still save the both the Tieflings and Druid Grove as typically stealing this idol would turn all the druids hostile against the Tieflings. Before calling it a day, go ahead and swing by Auntie Ethel once more to sell anything you want and buy another batch of Elixers of Hill Giant Strength. You can go ahead and use your Long Rest now. When you initially load into camp a scene will play with Wyll confronting Karlach, go ahead and resolve this amicably. As with the end of the previous day, here is my noted progress of these three achievements:

• Roleplayer - 70%
  • "Complete 10 background goals in a single playthrough."
  • Another way to word this would be to complete 10 actions that earn an Inspiration point. Would be actually impressive if you somehow finished the game without unlocking this.
• Action Surge - 60%
  • "Perform five attacks in one turn."
  • Will come in time between attacks that use Action points and Bonus Action points.
• Bookworm - 68%
  • "Read 100 different books in one playthrough."
  • As long as you're looting the areas you go through, you should discover a lot of books. Make sure to read at least one page of each for it to count.

Day 3

Here are the combat encounters for the day and where we'll use our rests. Today we'll be focusing on all of the gnolls and venturing into the owlbear den.

• Morning Buffs
  • Gnoll scouting party (x4)
  • Bloated hyenas (x4)
• Short Rest
  • Gnoll war party (x7)
  • Flind
  • Rugan and Olly
• Short Rest
  • Owlbear

You should see that Scratch has joined the camp. Feel free to pet him if you'd like. After you leave camp make sure to do your morning ritual of using Mage Armor on Gale, using an Elixir of Hill Giant Strength on Karlach, and casting Aid on the whole party with Shadowheart. Time to sneak up on some gnolls! The best approach route will be taking the path leaving the "Waukeen's Rest" waypoint going east. You want to take the top east path that leaves out the side of the settlement. You'll know you're on the right path if you see some Gnolls feasting on corpses in the distance. Sneak up on them and launch a surprise attack. You should be able to make quick work of them with an ambush. You'll now see a path going downhill to the south with a Hyena patrolling. Approach this to trigger a cutscene. There are bloated hyena bodies littering the road and you want to take the [Melee Attack] option to have one less target to deal with. You now have one turn to kill all the all bloated corpses until they birth new gnolls. The perk of approaching it from this angle is if you hadn't dealt with the previous group the one walking hyena could have run off and alerted them, making things much more complicated.

Loot the immediate area from those two encounters and start heading up the path north after using a Short Rest. Once you see another group of gnolls, split your party into two groups - Tav/Karlach and Gale/Shadowheart. Have Gale/Shadowheart sneak up the hill to the right to launch a surprise attack on the gnoll perched up here. This is where I used the Spider Egg Sac that we got previously. To use it, drop it on the ground and then attack it. This will spawn five spiders that will fight as allies. This drastically helps to spread out the attacks. Then have the other group start attacking the other gnolls on the ground, but don't attack the leader gnoll - Flind. Instead make sure a character is next to Flind when it becomes their turn. Here is a clip showcasing the setup:

After the surprise effect wears off, a conversation will trigger where we can mind control the Flind to turn on her allies. The proper dialogue choices to make that happen are:

• Search her mind for the source of the voice.
• [Illithid][Wisdom] You are of the same pack - command her to devour the other gnolls.

Chances are Flind will still be alive after the fight resolves and she may turn on you now. If you pass two rolls, you can convince her to eat herself.

• [Wisdom] Dominate her mind, commanding her to feast on herself.
• [Wisdom] Harness your willpower, and order her to devour herself.

Worst case you'll have to fight her 1v4, which isn't too bad. Make sure to loot Flind as she has a Mind Flayer Parasite Specimen. The two survivors from the cave will thank you and they're the people that Zarys was looking for. Since Zarys only cares about retrieving the chest they were transporting... our two friends here will have a little "accident". Spring an ambush on them and loot their entire cave. DO NOT OPEN THE CHEST THEY WERE PROTECTING CALLED "THE CARAVAN STRONGBOX'. Just pick up the chest and ask no questions. For the best rewards we don't want to open it (also trust me - you don't want anything to do with what's in there. Especially if you're on Honor mode. (There's a Spectator trapped inside.) Everything else in the cave is fair game though. Off to the right of the cave are some traps with explosive barrels and a boulder attached to two trip wires. Traverse and disarm this section carefully to lay claim to even more explosive barrels. To be on the safe side, just have one person venture through.

Once you're done in the cave teleport to the "Blighted Village" waypoint and travel out the east exit. Go down to river and you'll see the Owlbear Cave entrance where the NPCs from before will be awaiting you. Use your second Short Rest before going inside.

Go inside the cave and when you get close to the owlbear a conversation will play. I would recommend choosing the [Performance] option as you can get advantage on it with your buffs. Succeeding will allow you to position yourself in an optimal ambush orientation. Once you're good, let loose the attacks. Try to use Shadowheart's or Tav's Command: Halt ability to keep the owlbear in it's tracks. After the fight is over, if either of the allied NPCs are alive, kill them for some extra loot/experience. Next to the nest will be a skeleton holding some armor. There will also be an Owlbear Egg that you want to grab and hang on to for later. Be mindful to not accidentally use it when resting as a camping supply as it can be used as food. Make your way to the back of the cave for to grab some more loot. You'll notice a glowing chest, but don't try to open it yet as you'll take some damage. Jump across the gap and go behind the statue. You should discover a prayer note, pick it up. Go back over next to the chest and read the note to dispel the magical lock. Shadowheart won't like you opening this, but you can convince her with a dialogue roll of your choice. If you fail, you can still loot it with just some disapproval. In it you'll find the Moondrop Pendent, which you can give to Karlach. After successfully looting that chest that was my tenth point of inspiration, unlocking the related achievement. Again, do not worry if you haven't unlocked this yet as it would genuinely be an incredibly impressive feat to finish this playthrough without just stumbling into this achievement.

• Roleplayer

  Completed ten background goals - you became one with your character.

  

  2 guides

Before calling it a day lets return the chest to Zarys, so fast travel to the "Zhentarim Hideout" waypoint and make your way over to her. Tell her that everyone is dead and then give her the chest you recovered. As a reward she will give you a crossbow and a vendor downstairs will sell additional items. This crossbow you can either sell or have Karlach hang on to for a little bit as we'll be getting her true "ranged" weapon in the goblin camp. Go down the ladder and speak to Brem who is walking between all the nearby cargo. Consolidate all of the recent loot you've gotten and get ready to do some offloading. Here he has the Titanstring Bow that does additional damage based on the users Strength, perfect for Tav. Brem also may have some Potions of Invisibility as well, so make sure to grab those if they're available. Once you're done here, go ahead and pay our visit to good old Auntie Ethel. Sell anything else that you want and buy another batch of Elixirs of Hill Giant Strength.

Now could be a good time to get another achievement if you've been diligent with looting/gathering plants that you walk past. Open your menu and go to the Alchemy section. Go to the "Extract" tab and create extracts from all of your ingredients. You should have enough resources to then go to the "Solutions" tab and create three different solutions. They can be form different categories or the same one, as long as it's three different solutions you'll get this achievement.

• Homebrewer

  Created three unique alchemical solutions - bottoms up!

  

  1 guide

Now you can use your Long Rest. Upon arriving a camp a scene will play out between Mizora and Wyll. Following that, talk to whoever you want at camp and go to sleep. Here is where night event scenes will start to deviate for people. While you should get the events listed as I get them, there is a chance another one may appear for you. In that case I recommend scrolling ahead to the end of other days in either this section or the next to make sure you don't mess up something for an achievement. You only need to worry about events that happen within the same Act as you.

People focusing on TWO playthroughs:

Hopefully you should get a scene with Astarion trying to sneak some of your blood. If not, the only other night event that I think is possible at this point would be one with Gale, which you can handle as you see fit, just be nice. If you did get Astarion creeping up on you, it's achievement time.

• Just a Nibble

  Allowed Astarion to bite you at night - ouch.

  

  1 guide

People focusing on ONE playthrough:

You'll meet Sceleritas Fel, who is apparently our butler that has been faithfully searching for us. Upon waking up you will receive The Deathstalker Mantle cloak which will work great on Karlach. Once per turn if the wearer kills a creature, they'll gain invisibility for two turns. This is perfect for our Monk to weave between enemies when needed.

As for the end of day achievement updates, here is where I was at.

• Action Surge - 60%
  • "Perform five attacks in one turn."
  • Will come in time between attacks that use Action points and Bonus Action points.
• Bookworm - 75%
  • "Read 100 different books in one playthrough."
  • As long as you're looting the areas you go through, you should discover a lot of books. Make sure to read at least one page of each for it to count.

Day 4

Here are the plans for today. We'll be focusing the swamp to the south and resolving some things at the Emerald Grove.

• Morning Buffs
  • Goblin guards (x2)
  • Red Caps (x4)
  • Wood Woads (x2) and Mephits (x4)
• Short Rest
  • Auntie Ethel
  • Masked victims (x4)
• Short Rest
  • Shadow Druids (x3)

Before leaving camp we're going to turn Gale into a Wizard for the day as there is one very handy spell that is exclusive to them that we will use against Auntie Ethel. Speak to Withers with him and make the following selections.

Arcane Lock and Darkness are the two crucial spells here. Arcane Lock being the reason why we swapped to Wizard for today. Both of these are tier two spells, so you need to make sure to save two of your three tier 2 spell slots for those. We'll use Arcane Lock when confronting Auntie Ethel and we'll be using Darkness to steal the Druid Idol after all the fighting today.

Since we did this you'll need to re-equip your other staff onto Gale. Make your way over to the "Emerald Grove Environs" waypoint for one last batch of Elixers of Hill Giant Strength as today we'll be progressing Auntie Ethel's questline. After buying those, you should have around 19 stocked up which should cover you for the rest of the playthrough. There will be a higher tier of strength elixirs that you'll start to see around Act 2 or 3. Now do your morning routine of Mage Armor, Aid, and Elixir of Hill Giant Strength. Today we'll also use a Soul Coin on Karlach and an additional elixir on Tav. We'll always be using an elixiron Karlach, but using a bonus one one on Tav will be situational and vary day to day. The Soul Coin adds a buff to Karlach that lasts until your next Long Rest. Unfortunately since only a limited amount exist in the game we can't use one every day, so we need to pick and choose when to use them. On top of that you can also cast Longstrider on all your characters with Gale.

Now fast travel to the "Blighted Village" waypoint and it's finally time to go out the southern exit. There may be two lone goblin guards that survived the purge, so quickly take them out. Continue south and eventually you'll come across Auntie Ethel chatting with two gentlemen. It doesn't matter how this conversation ends, so side with whoever. Before progressing further into the swamp, split Tav off from the group and send them back up the hill towards the Blighted Village. We want to have Gale lead us into the swamp and I've noticed an issue where even if you're controlling Gale, the game will still swap back to Tav for a skillcheck. Lead Gale close to a bridge into the swamp and a scene will play. Gale should have an additional [Wizard][Arcana] option that is an easier check than the other one, which is why we're going about it this way. It would be worth burning an Inspiration or two here as it helps with the upcoming fight.

Take control of Tav and bring the group back together. As you journey through the swamp, try to stick through the path as much as possible as there are nasty traps hidden around the place. If you succeeded on seeing through the illusion you'll see some Red Cap enemies up ahead, if not they'll just look like sheep. If you saw through the illusion, kill them now. If not, you can tackle them later. Attempting to attack them as sheep will get your party surprised and you could be in dire straights between the damage output of the melee Red Caps and the Hold Person ability of the Red Cap Sages. In total there are four red cap enemies. The ideal enemy to launch an ambush on would be the melee enemy roaming in front of the hill that is probably the first one that you see. There will be a sage on top of the hill and both a melee/sage behind the hill.

After taking care of those enemies, move your way forward to discover the "Riverside Teahouse" fast travel point. You don't want to continue ahead into the hut, but instead turn back around. Go back to the bridge where that investigation check happened and follow the path south. You'll soon be on a dock that splits to the left and right. To the left is an abandoned camp with some supplies and to the right is a rock formation that you can jump to. From that island jump to another rock and up ahead will be a set of enemies to content with. A word a warning - things can snowball fast here if you aren't careful. There are two tips to make this fight easier. Focus the Ancient Mud Mephits first as they'll spawn other enemies. Both versions will explode on death. If you kill the Ancient Mud Mephit, any other enemies that it spawned will die as well. The Wood Woads will create a terrain of vines and as long as they stand on them they will heal each turn. To prevent that, hit either them or the terrain with a fire ability. This fight is where I unlocked the following achievement, but if you aren't close don't worry. At higher levels this will be a cake walk because of our party composition.

• Action Surge

  Performed five attacks in one turn. Your enemies won't know what hit them (literally).

  

  2 guides

After the battle is over there are two major things we want to get here, both near the large tree stump. In the chest are some fantastic gloves called The Sparkle Hands which are super destructive on a Monk, so give them to Karlach. You can then pass over the Bracers of Defense to Gale. In the stump itself there is a crevice that is hiding damning evidence of Kagha that we will confront her on. Outside of this, there is a buried chest on the plateau in the northwest of this island that you can climb up. Now let's settle things with Auntie Ethel. Teleport back to the "Riverside Teahouse" waypoint and use your first Short Rest. Make your way up the path and enter the house to confront Auntie Ethel. Depending on your choices you can get out of the conversation without starting combat:

• I'm sorry, I should have stepped in.
• That lady doesn't seem to be enjoying her dinner.
• That's none of your concern.
• Leave.

We are going to simplify things drastically. If you already dealt with the redcaps outside, then you're golden. If not, be prepared to them coming to Auntie Ethel's aid. Typically you would fight Ethel in two places, the second of which having multiple clones all firing off ranged poison attacks. Fortunately with Arcane Lock, we can skip that second fight. The wall behind her fireplace is actually fake and behind it is the entrance to her lair. Have Gale go back there and use Arcane Lock on the stairway to the next area. Then have Tav/Karlach/Shadowheart go attack Ethel. When she tries to escape, she'll be unable to. Here's a video showing the strategy:

Once she's dead, loot her and her cabin. When you're ready, let's take a stroll through her now very safe lair. You'll soon get into a room with several NPCs that have various inflictions that Ethel inflicted.

On the table here will be a set of four Whispering Masks, GRAB THESE AND MAKE SURE NOT TO LOSE THEM. We'll need these to enter a place called the Underdark. While there are other ways to get there, these grant access to the least problematic route. Technically you only need one, but stash these on a character you won't accidentally sell them from.

In the next room with another group of NPCs, some of which are patrolling around. With Ethel being dead, they'll not become hostile on sight. That said, kill them for a little extra loot and experience. Ahead there will be a waterfall that you can jump through to follow the path. Up here will be a bunch of roots to traverse that are littered with traps and poison gas. With Ethel being dead though, all the poison gas is gone, rendering the entire trap segment useless!

Once you get in the next room you can free the hostage Ethel took by interacting with the yellow orb near the cage. Loot the final room and make your way outside with the portal in the back of the room. This will take you to behind the cabin that we initially confronted her at. If you freed Mayrina, she'll be here next to a coffin. You can either give her the the wand to resurrect her "husband" or not, entirely up to you. Now it's time to pay the druids a little visit now where we'll cause a bit of a ruckus. Before we kick things off though, go ahead and use a Short Rest here. Make your way back to the "Emerald Grove Environs" waypoint and down to the inner sanctum area where you first met Kagha. Our goal here is to confront her, convince her to fight on our side, and make sure she dies in the fight. The recommended dialogue choices are:

• I know the truth. You mean to take the grove for the Shadow Druids.
• Take this letter, Rath. It will explain everything.
• [Persuasion] The shadows won't save you - they'll corrupt you. Stop this, while you can.
• [Persuasion] You know I'm right. Don't let the shadows corrupt you.

If successful then we'll only be fighting three enemy druids that aren't too dangerous, especially with our allies. Our primary goal is to kill Kagha and to loot her during combat. For whatever reason, this won't piss off any of the other druids. If you're able to pull that off you'll obtain the Broodmother's Revenge which works well on Tav. After looting the enemy druid bodies, make your way outside to steal the Druid Idol. We'll want to go about this in a specific way. Turn on Turn-Based mode, cast Darkness near the Idol location, have Karlach steal the ideal, and just stroll on out. Here's a clip showcasing how this works:

Some of the druids may go running up, but there will be no negative consequences. If you had stolen the idol before exposing/killing Kagha all of the druids would turn hostile towards the Tieflings, which would not be ideal for us. Going about it this way though, we can have our cake and eat it too. Bring this idol back to Mol and she'll reward us with the Ring of Protection which is really strong ring that we can give to Tav. One last thing for us to do here is to report back in to Zevlor about Kagha's fate. Following the conversation you'll be rewarded Hellrider's Pride, which are good gloves to give Shadowheart.

That's a wrap for today, so go ahead and use your Long Rest. I recommend spending another 100g to turn Gale back into a Sorcerer. While the Wizard has more utility, the firepower from Sorcerer, as well as being able to double cast Haste will be very helpful for later boss fights. To help here's the breakdown for the options to pick:

People focusing on TWO playthroughs:

This could be a bit of a toss-up, but you should get one of the following (or very possibly you won't get a night time event).

• If Astarion, read below.
• If Gale, pick whatever you want, just be nice.
• If Lae'zel, go to next page and read the end of "Mini-day 1".

People focusing on ONE playthrough:

This is your time to get the Astarion achievement! The scene you should get at this point is Astarion trying to sneak some of your blood.

• Just a Nibble

  Allowed Astarion to bite you at night - ouch.

  

  1 guide

Also since this should be your fourth night getting a full rest, you should also get this achievement.

• Bedrolls and Breakfast

  Took four full long rests - adventuring's tiring work.

  

  1 guide

Lastly, here is where I stood with the remaining achievement that we were keeping an eye on.

• Bookworm - 84%
  • "Read 100 different books in one playthrough."
  • As long as you're looting the areas you go through, you should discover a lot of books. Make sure to read at least one page of each for it to count.

Day 5

Here are the plans for today. We'll be focusing entirely on the Goblin Camp.

• Morning Buffs
  • Goblin Camp exterior
    • Goblins (x20)
    • Bugbears (x3)
    • Ogre (x1)
• Short Rest
  • Goblins outside jail (x3)
  • Goblin jail
    • Goblins (x6)
    • Wargs (x2)
  • True Soul Gut
  • Minthara and guards (x3)
• Short Rest
  • Dror Raglin and guards (x7)

When you're good to start the day, go ahead and travel to the "Blighted Village" waypoint. Once you're there do your morning routine of Mage Armor on Gale, Aid, and Elixir of Hill Giant Strength on Karlach. Today we'll also use a Soul Coin on Karlach and an additional Elixir on Tav. Make your way west and you'll soon run into Sazza who will escort you past the initial gate. At this point she'll head inside, but before we join her there we have some things to do. As you enter the main camp there will be a goblin vendor immediately to the right named Grat the Trader. Consolidate anything you'd want to sell and buy both the Returning Pike and the Boots of Aid and Comfort. Give the boots to Shadowheart and the weapon to Karlach. This weapon has a unique function that it returns to the owner when thrown, which will work very well with Karlach as her ranged weapon. So you won't actually equip this on Karlach, but she'll keep it in her inventory and use the "Throw" action. Another reason this works so well is unlike equipping a weapon, unequipping a weapon in combat doesn't consume an action point. Also as a tip - don't immediately end Karlach's turn after throwing it as you could bug out the return effect and your weapon will be left wherever it was thrown.

Towards the center you'll see Volo being held prisoner by the goblins. As we're about to create a warzone out here, let's send him inside. You can do that with the following dialogue after interacting with him:

• Boo! Get off the stage!

Make your way deeper into the camp until you see a bonfire cooking a bunch of meat. Venture to the left where the "chicken-chaser" course is and you should see some vines on a wall that you can climb up. Go up the stairs and you'll stumble upon two sleeping enemies next to a Firewine Barrel. Since they're sleeping you should be able to one-shot them both with Tav. Move further along and you'll see a trio of enemies - one Goblin and two Bugbears. You should pick off the goblin first and then attack one of the bugbears. You may not one-shot a bugbear and will get put into combat, but that is okay. Due to their location, you'll only have to deal with this group and not the entire camp.

After clearing this upper area of enemies, it's time to pick a fight with the entire outer camp. This may seem daunting, especially if you're on Honor mode, but we have a trick up our sleeve - Lump's War Horn. This will summon those three Ogres from before to fight alongside us. You can attack one of the goblins down below and then use the item to summon the ogres. This will cause the goblins to funnel to the upper area where either the ogres will smack them upside the head or you can reign down attacks from above. Make sure to move characters away from ledges before you end their turn, otherwise they'll get pummeled themselves. Here is a video showing this setup:

There will be a group of goblins on a stage to the eastern side of the compound. If you started attacking from the same location I did in the video, they should be within eyesight. I recommend attacking one of them as for some reason they won't join the rest of the camp if not provoked. Once all the fighting is over, Lump will confront you saying that wasn't enough to satiate him. If you successfully persuaded him without offering money during the first conversation, then you can choose this line to get the trio available for another fight:

• If you help me in another battle, I'll pay (500).

If you had to offer 500g when you first met the ogres, then you'll have to offer 1,000g this time around. Now there is a lot of looting to do here! There are two notable corpses to loot - Grat the Trader and Crusher. Since Grat is a vendor, there is some randomness in what wares they drop upon death, which is why we made sure to buy the two specific items that we absolutely wanted. For me Grat dropped the Hide Armor +2, which I gave to Shadowheart. If that didn't drop for you, that's not a big deal, just a minor upgrade. Once you find Crusher's corpse you'll get Crusher's Ring which pairs well with Karlach to give her some extra mobility. As you loot this area of the camp, make sure to pick up all the Firewine Barrels. There's also a decent amount of food in the central area if you want to stock up some more.

Once you're all sorted, make your way through the large wooden doors to go further into the camp. Now would be a good time to use your first Short Rest. Speak to Sazza to get past the guards and once you're in the lobby area, make your way to the right where you'll see two goblins torturing a human. We can try to save him with the [Performance] option, but if it fails just leave the conversation and leave him to the goblins. Right next door to this location you'll find a group of goblins watching a rather peculiar man named Abdirak. If you undergo a sequence with him where he lashes you three times you'll get a permanent buff called Loviatar's Love that gives a +2 bonus to Attack Rolls and Wisdom Saving Throws for 3 turns when you have 30% HP or less. To start things off, talk to Abdirak:

• You mean the one they are torturing?
• I often feel I like raw pain too much. It scares me.
• Clever man. How did you know?
• And how would you do that?
• All right, why not?

He'll then ask you to face the wall where you'll take three damaging hits. In total I took 15 damage, but I'm not sure how much variance there can be. Since you should be at full health, you should be fine no matter what:

• [Intimidation] Come on. A child can hit harder than that.
• [Intimidation] You look tired. Should I take over?
• [Intimidation] Hit me as hard as you can - or I'll return the favor.
• Thank you. I enjoyed myself.

With your buff in hand, feel free to use a Potion of Healing or two to top yourself up. Definitely not worth expending a spell slot over this. Right next to this room is another where Volo is being held. Speak to Gribbo here to set our friend free:

• So I see. Do you have any plans for this pigeon?
• I was admiring him. I would like one of my own.
• [Intimidation] I'm done talking. Open the cage or you'll be sorry.

To the north of this room you should see a wooden path. Follow it to find a group of three goblins that are guarding the prison room. In the corner of this room is a drum that we want to put Karlach, Gale, and Shadowheart near to prevent the goblins from sounding the alarm. Split Tav from the group and go back to the goblin guards that we walked past at the beginning of this fortress. Give Tav's weapon to Karlach and shove one of the goblins. If you do damage, they should confront you. Choose the option to go to jail. With Tav re-equip your weapon (we gave it to Karlach to prevent them from confiscating it) and interact with the corpse in a hole. Pull the body from the collapsed tunnel and then attack it with your weapon. You can then interact with it to escape prison. Quickly kill the goblin guards where you appear with the rest of your party.

• Escapologist

  Broke out of prison after being arrested - aren't you daring?

  

  2 guides

There is a patrolling enemy that could appear behind you, so be mindful of that. If you kill the three guards without issue, go into the corner with the drum and look at Tav's buffs. You should see one labeled "Fugitive" wait here until it expires to avoid getting into other fights by just walking around. Once that buff is gone, head inside the prison with your full party. Here is where Halsin is being kept prisoner and we'll want to split Karlach away from the rest of the group to go for an achievement. After going down the initial stairs into the room you should see two sets of stairs. Put Karlach at the top of the right stairs that are leading down. Have the rest of the group go down to the cells to trigger a cutscene.

• What the hells are you doing?
• Leave him alone!
• Attack the goblins.

There are two goblin kids named "One" and "Three" that will try to escape. If they're successful, they'll alert the entire camp. They'll use both Dash and Disengage to try to run past you, which is why we left Karlach up the stairs. If your party can attack before them, don't kill them and don't move Karlach from her spot. We want to use one of these children as an improvised melee weapon against the other. To pull that off:

• and use the "Improvised Melee Attack" option
• Hit
• Select one goblin and then select the other

If you do it right, it should look something like this clip:

• Kill Two Birds with One Gnome

  Used one enemy as an improvised weapon against another.

  

  2 guides

If you're unable to do this here, try again in another goblin fight as Halsin might kill one of the kids. This can be done on any two enemies, but goblins are the one of the easier ones due to their size. The trick is you have to already be in combat otherwise the achievement won't pop for some reason. Aside from the goblins, there are a couple of Wargs in the other cell that one of the goblins will try to let out. If you can cut them off, then you can make short work of the wargs while they're trapped in the cell. After the fight is over Halsin will speak with you. The only choice that matters is making sure he stays here in the jail area. Do a quick loot pass and grab your equipment that was confiscated from you. Your stuff can be found in the "equipment chest" that is up the stairs and outside the cell you were put into. There are also the three Firewine Barrels in the area. One is in the middle of the lower area and the two others are in two separate side rooms. Make your way down to the central area we walked past before to meet True Soul Gut at the top of the altar. She is one of the three goblin leaders that we need to dispose of, but we won't actually fight her as we can get rid of her by making specific choices. The first conversation will go as follows:

• Why should I let you brand me?
• Hold out your hand.
• Push deeper into her mind.
• Any help would be appreciated. I need a healer.

She'll now escort you to a side room towards the left of this area. She'll want to do this along with you, so split Tav off from the group and go into the room alone.

• Yes. I'm ready.
• Allow her to rummage through your memories.
• Then get it out of me.
• I'm ready.
• I'm not drinking that.
• I'll make you pay for this goblin.
• Set me free. Now.
• Nothing's changed. I'm in control.
• You won't live to see it, trust me.
• Keep quiet.
• Preserve your strength.

Following that last choice a mysterious individual will appear behind Gut and instantly kill her along with her ogre bodyguard before setting you free. Loot Gut's body for a key and Mind Flayer Parasite Specimen. Swap to the rest of your party and go into the room that you were alone with Gut in. In the back there should be a door that leads you to this secluded area, reuniting your party. Loot the area and follow the tunnel leading you east. Eventually you'll reach an open room with four tiles on the ground tied to a puzzle. The goal here is to have all four of the black dots to be on the southern stone disc. The puzzle solution is:

• Spin the south disk three times.
• Spin the west disk once.
• Spin the south disk once.
• Spin the east disk twice.
• Spin the north disk once.
• Spin the west disk three times.

Haste combined with Metamagic: Twinned Spell is a very strong combo from Gale. This would allow you to give additional actions, movement, and AC to two characters of your choice. Always give this to Karlach and then either Tav or Gale depending on the fight. I recommend always using this during any boss fight or major fight.

Make your way back to that room where True Soul Gut had you drink that potion. To the southern part of the room there is some wooden scaffolding up above that you can jump up to with Karlach or Tav. Jump up there and down into the adjacent room. In here there is a whopping thirteen explosive barrels that are a mix of Firewine and Smokepower, send all of these to your camp. The chest here has some gold, but there isn't anything else of note. Jump back up to the scaffolding and leave the room. To the south you'll see Roah Moonglow who is a vendor that you can offload any items you want to sell. She may have some potions that you want to grab, like Potion of Invisibility, so stock up on any supplies that you want. There is also a Smokepowder Barrel in the corner near the vendor that you can pick up. Once you're done with the vendor, time to deal with another goblin leader - Minthara.

Make your way down to the central altar and follow the stairs up. Go to the east side and here you'll see a giant wooden door and a path leading to a library area to the right, go into the library. Here Minthara will be across the bridge where Sazza is waiting. Speak with Sazza to trigger the conversation.

Sazza should then start to walk away. Wait until she leaves the room and then get ready to attack Minthara. Take note of the Scrying Eye that patrols around which we need to be very careful of. It could alert neighboring enemies, making things very complicated. A good way to deal with this is get your party across the bridge, wait for the eye to patrol near it, enter Turn-Based mode, and then have Gale fire off a Thunder imbued Chromatic Orb. Thunder damage usually works really well on the Scrying Eyes, so remember that for future use.

You can turn on non-lethal damage if you want to save Minthara as she's a recruitable companion, but you can also just kill her as she has no related achievement. Choice is entirely yours. The few goblins in this room pose no threat, so all said and done you should be able to clear out this area fairly quickly. Loot Minthara for another Mind Flayer Parasite Specimen. Make sure to open the nearby gilded chest for The Watersparkers boots. Grab these and give them to Gale. Once you're done with this room it's time to take on the last goblin leader. Go ahead and take your second Short Rest here. Make your way back to that large wooden door that we passed and continue going west until you see and open entryway into that room. Here you'll see the last goblin leader Dror Raglin with a group of followers. Also as a warning, after attacking Dror the rest of the goblins in the camp will become hostile. So once you start this fight, make sure not to go back into the main lobby of this fortress (where you first met True Soul Gut) as this is where Sazza is lingering accidentally killing her here would void the achievement we've been working on.

Go up the stairs to the left of the room and split Gale off. Place him in front of the throne on the upper level. In this fight we'll want to summon our ogre friends again. We'll use them as meat shields for the enemies in this room while also attacking them from behind. May seem cruel, but it's a tough world out there and they'll eventually either turn on us or squeeze us for even more gold. After you do a certain amount of damage they'll go hostile to some of your characters, so my advice is to chip away at them and the goblins from a distance while they hopefully attack each other. The rest of the group can be positioned in the upper level. With Gale you want to use a Magic Missile to attack a drum off to the side and Dror at the same time. If a goblin interacts with the drum it somehow takes the ogres out of combat. Once the fight starts use whatever your first character to summon the ogres. If it helps, here is a video clip showing the setup.

Dror isn't a push over (especially if you're playing on Honor mode) so don't take him lightly like True Soul Gut or Minthara. I also advise staying away from the floor openings in the lower level as Dror can knock you down into the spider pit, which is definitely not a fun time. Just focus on ranged attacks between the ogres and goblins, picking off who you see fit. Once everyone is dead, get to looting! Dror Raglin should have a Mind Flayer Parasite Specimen along with a key and Lump should have the money you previously paid him along with the Warped Headband of Intellect that you can give to Gale. Make your way up the stairs to open the treasure room with the key you just got. This will have another Infernal Iron along with 500g and some other goodies.

This is the last Infernal Iron that we need for Karlach's romance. We won't be able to use it until Act 2 though, so hang on to it.

Even though a quest marker says to return to Halsin you can actually teleport to the "Emerald Grove Environs" waypoint and he'll magically appear at the druid grove. Make your way in the gate and Zevlor should congratulate and reward you. Accept the reward from him and you'll get Wapira's Crown, which is great for Shadowheart. He'll mention a celebration party and ask if you want to start it now, decline so we can talk to some more people. Halsin will be nearby, go ahead and talk to him next. Now make your way down to the inner sanctum where we fought Kagha and the shadow druids. In here talk to Kath and he'll mention giving you a reward and give you a Rune of the Wolf. Go to the back of the area to the secret room Nettie opened up when you talked to her. Here you'll see a statue surrounded by four pedestals, three of which have a rune in. Place the rune you just received in the open pedestal and interact with each one, opening up a staircase. There's some miscellaneous supplies and a rare item down here that you can sell for some extra gold. While looting down here is the book related achievement popped for me.

• Bookworm

  Read 100 different books in a single playthrough. Adventuring isn't just daring quests, you know.

  

  1 guide

Don't worry if it hasn't for you, you still have over two Acts to find more books. Don't Long Rest yet, but just go to camp. Since we saved Volo, here's here and we can talk to him to trigger a setup for another permanent buff.

• What do you know about mind flayers?
• And there parasites? Do you know anything about them?
• A mind flayer placed one of their larvae in my brain.
• Ceremorphosis? Tell me more.
• If only your disbelief could alter facts.
• Examine me. Find out for yourself.
• I want rid of this thing by any means necessary.

Now you can use your Long Rest to start the celebration party.

That pretty much wraps up everything we're doing in this section of Act 1. There are some other areas that make up Act 1 that you can find on the next page.

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