Baldur's Gate 3

Choose the Dark Urge at character creation. A normal custom character cannot earn this trophy.

In Act 3, win Orin's duel without party intervention and accept Bhaal afterwards. Keep that branch through the finale, then claim the Netherbrain in Bhaal's name.

Rejecting Bhaal or losing the duel closes this route. Save before Orin, not just before the final boss. You do not have to kill Isobel in Act 2 to reach this ending.

Start in Act 1. Finish the shared camp scene before leaving Act 2. Recruit Scratch first using Fetch Quest.

Free the cub without disrupting Sazza

1. Visit the Owlbear Nest west of the Grove. Meet the mother, then retreat peacefully. Killing her is unnecessary. Never attack or knock out the cub.
2. After resting, find the cub beside Krolla in the Goblin Camp courtyard. Do this while the camp is friendly, before sending Minthara to the Grove.
3. Speak to the cub and invite it to camp/offer your scent. Speak with Animals makes the exchange easier to follow. Convince Krolla to release it through dialogue. Chicken Chase is optional.
4. Do not poison the courtyard or start a camp-wide fight. This peaceful release fits the Sazza/Grove-defence route.

Complete the camp visits

• On the hungry visit, offer food. A companion frightening it away is part of the sequence.
• On its next visit, help its injured paw and pass the healing check so it stays. Keep a save before resting in case you fail.
• Continue resting until you hear the animals at night. Investigate and choose to pet both Scratch and the cub.

Other camp scenes can take priority. Allow several nights. Finish urgent rescues or active battles before resting repeatedly. You need the shared petting scene to earn the trophy. Having both pets at camp is not enough.

Act 1 · Blighted Village. Enter the abandoned apothecary beside the village entrance and use the wooden hatch behind its counter (X: 32, Y: 379).

1. In the cellar, move the crates hiding the wall lever. Pull it to open the passage behind the bookcase.
2. Enter the coffin cavern. Loot the casket nearest the tunnel entrance for the Scroll of Summon Quasit. Other coffins contain hostile undead.
3. Cast that scroll to summon Shovel. For a reusable summon, give it to Gale or another Wizard, learn it into their spellbook, then cast Find Familiar: Cheeky Quasit.

An ordinary Find Familiar scroll does not summon this character. You do not need to solve the ornate mirror or open the Necromancy of Thay for the trophy. Keep the unique scroll until you have summoned Shovel.

Act 1 · Ancient Forge in Grymforge. Bring one piece of Mithral Ore and one equipment mould. Save before operating the forge.

An easy mould is the Scale Mail Mould, southwest of the Ancient Forge waypoint (X: -616, Y: 264). Continue southwest past the Animated Armours and jump across the lava-side rocks to a Mithral Vein (X: -645, Y: 255). Break the vein with bludgeoning or force damage and pick up the ore it drops.

1. Put the ore in the central Crucible and the mould in the Mould Chamber.
2. Pull the Forge Lever to lower the platform, then open the Lava Valve. The first use summons Grym.
3. Defeat Grym using A Grym Fate. Do not use the forge hammer during the fight. The initial platform-lowering step happens before Grym appears.
4. Once Grym is dead and its trophy has unlocked, ensure lava is flowing and pull the Forge Lever to craft. Take the finished item from the Mould Chamber.

Crafting after the fight lets you earn both trophies without sacrificing Grym’s special condition.

Make all three rescues in one campaign.

1. In the Emerald Grove prison, stop Arka from shooting Sazza. Open Sazza’s cage. Jump to the ledge behind the cells and find the hidden stone door. Clear the Underground Passage of goblins and deactivate the glowing guardian statues before escorting her through it. Meet her outside the Grove and follow her to the goblin camp.
2. Before talking to Minthara, make a separate save. If you are also protecting the refugees, free the bear in the Shattered Sanctum’s Worg Pens and ask Halsin to wait there. At Minthara’s audience, defend Sazza by saying she did not know who you were, then agree to the raid. When Minthara leaves, tell Halsin in the pens what she is planning. Return to the Grove and take one long rest. Speak to Zevlor at the gate and fight for the defenders. Leave Sazza alive in the camp and keep your backup.
3. In Act 2, visit the Moonrise Towers throne room while you can still enter peacefully, before the Shadowfell. When you are given authority over the goblin prisoners, release them. Sazza must be among them for the trophy to unlock.

Finish the Grove first, then visit Rosymorn Monastery in Act 1. Bring trap-disarming tools and a bottle of Grease. Save before the crèche and again before taking the weapon.

Get the Dawnmaster’s Crest

In the upper monastery’s stained-glass room (X: 74, Y: 68), leave the longsword on its existing pedestal. Place a warhammer on Seed’s, a mace on Stockhold’s, and a battleaxe on Vaseid’s pedestal. Ordinary versions work. You do not need to fight for the ceremonial weapons. Take the crest from the newly opened wall compartment.

Reach the relic safely

1. Complete the Inquisitor/Prism encounter with Lae’zel first. Follow The Lich-Queen’s Wrath and spare the Dream Guardian.
2. In the Inquisitor’s chamber, enter the western alcove. Turn the sunrise statue east and the sunset statue west. Use Grease on the jammed statue’s base if it will not turn.
3. Follow the secret stairs and ungroup the party. Lead with your trap specialist. At the first barrier, shoot the Energy Source beside it, to the south, to remove the barrier.
4. Disarm the first Dawnbreaker without walking into its blast cone. It can throw you into the chasm. At the second barrier, climb the rocks on your left and follow the path around the barrier. Destroy the Energy Source on the far side so the rest of the party can follow.
5. Disarm the next Dawnbreaker. The third barrier's Energy Source is below the northern ledge, on your right as you approach the barrier. Look down over the edge and shoot it from solid ground. Do not jump into the chasm after it. Bring the party through only after the traps and barriers are cleared.
6. At the weapon pedestal, insert the Dawnmaster’s Crest into the slot before taking the mace. Collect the Blood of Lathander.

Taking the weapon without the crest starts a four-turn destruction countdown. For this route, reload the chamber save and use the crest. Destroying the monastery is unnecessary.

One continuous campaign, from the Grove to the ending. Use the refugee checkpoints in all three acts. Rescuing the Moonrise prisoners alone is not enough.

Use the recommended custom character other than the Dark Urge for this checklist. Alfira must survive Act 1. The Dark Urge's early camp event normally kills her, so that origin needs a separate workaround before the event. I recommend earning this trophy in the first campaign described in the roadmap. If Alfira has already died, reload a save from before her death and continue from there, or leave this trophy for another campaign.

• Act 1, Emerald Grove. In the Hollow, persuade Rolan to stay with his siblings Cal and Lia. In the druids’ Inner Sanctum, persuade Kagha to release Arabella. Side with the tieflings and keep Zevlor and the defenders alive at the gate.
• Act 2, Last Light Inn. Find Cerys by the hearth downstairs and save before speaking to Isobel upstairs. During Marcus’s attack, keep Isobel conscious and stop the winged horrors from killing refugees in the hall. Before you leave, check that Cerys and the other refugees survived. Reload the pre-fight save if one died. Mol being carried off is scripted.
• Before entering the Shadowfell, rescue Rolan, free both groups at Moonrise, speak to Alfira and check the family reunions at the inn. Spare the Nightsong. Later, open the pods in the mind flayer colony and help Zevlor survive the fight.
• Act 3, Lower City. Speak to Mol in the Guildhall and protect her if fighting breaks out there. Keep Rolan alive if you fight Lorroakan at Sorcerous Sundries. Leave Zevlor’s unit off the battlefield when the finale offers to summon your allies.

Continue through the ending and epilogue. Reloading an earlier save only helps if you then continue that campaign with the required survivors alive.

Recruit Gale from the Roadside Cliffs waypoint in Act 1. Keep him in the party or camp and respond to his requests for magical items. The donation screen identifies suitable items. Set aside expendable ones rather than ignoring his condition.

After his early requests, find the Weary Traveller, Elminster, on your approach to Act 2: on the Rosymorn Monastery Trail near the Shadow-Cursed Lands entrance, or by the ruined temple at the top of the Grymforge elevator route.

Speak to him about Gale and invite him to camp. Complete his conversation with Gale and let him address the orb. The stabilisation scene is the checkpoint for this trophy. Merely feeding Gale items is not the final step.

Do not attack or dismiss the visitor. You do not need to detonate Gale’s orb. Keep Gale alive and continue the normal campaign.

Recruit Lae’zel and bring her to Crèche Y’llek after resolving the Grove. If she and Shadowheart fight at camp, intervene peacefully so both survive.

1. Follow Lae’zel’s crèche investigation to the Captain and Inquisitor. Save before the Inquisitor conversation.
2. When Vlaakith appears, agree to enter the Astral Prism. Do not challenge her to prove her power by killing you.
3. Inside, refuse to attack the Dream Guardian. Listen to their explanation, then leave the Prism. This preserves the later Mind Blown route.
4. Survive the confrontation on returning. Keep Lae’zel with you and discuss the betrayal. You can now collect the Blood of Lathander using its crest route.
5. Leave the crèche region and rest. When Voss visits camp, hear him out, support his account when Lae’zel objects, and agree to help him against Vlaakith rather than attacking him.

Checkpoint: the Voss alliance earns the trophy. You do not need to finish the Orphic Hammer quest first. If another camp scene plays, continue the camp sequence before advancing. Keep the crèche save until the alliance is confirmed.

Set up in Act 1. Give the flower in Act 2. Keep Shadowheart recruited and speak with her as she begins to trust you. After learning about her faith, ask about her interests beyond Shar and tadpoles. Continue until she mentions night orchids.

In the Shadow-Cursed Lands, pick a Night Orchid in the Ruined Battlefield. One grows at X: 54, Y: 175. Carry protection against the shadow curse while exploring. Keep the flower intact instead of extracting it for alchemy.

With the orchid in your inventory, speak to Shadowheart and choose the dialogue offering her the flower. Moving it into her inventory is not the same as giving it through conversation.

This gift does not require committing to a Shadowheart romance. You can earn it while pursuing Karlach. If the option is missing, finish the conversation about Shadowheart’s interests and improve her approval rather than waiting until the finale.

Start before resolving the Grove in Act 1. Recruit Karlach on the Risen Road at X: 111, Y: 503, below the tollhouse. Believe her account and help against her pursuers. Keep Dammon and the refugees alive.

Act 1: repair and celebration

Bring Karlach and one piece of Infernal Iron to Dammon's forge in the Grove's Hollow. An early piece is in the Blighted Village smithy's basement, in the locked chest on its raised wooden platform. The smithy is north of the village's eastern gate. Enter its locked basement doors, or break the web-covered floor above and jump down. Bring lockpicks for the chest.

After Dammon's first repair, show romantic interest. Build approval by helping people and supporting Karlach. Before resolving the Grove, save and aim for at least Medium approval. At the tiefling celebration, speak to Karlach before arranging another romance and choose to spend the night with her. The repair alone does not begin the relationship. If she declines, reload the earlier save and build approval before the celebration.

Act 2: second repair and relationship scene

Bring her and a second piece of Infernal Iron to Dammon at Last Light's forge. If you still need iron, one is in the Mason's Guild in Reithwin at X: -105, Y: 18. Use protection against the stronger shadow curse to reach it.

Choose the romantic response after the repair and take long rests until her relationship scene plays. Stay committed to her. Complete this before entering the Shadowfell pool. Keep the pre-pool save until it has happened.

Act 3: the date

Camp in the Lower City, speak with Karlach and take long rests until she offers the evening out. Accept and complete the date for the trophy. Other queued camp scenes can delay it, so clear those before resting again. Finish before the Morphic Pool.

An Act 3 save cannot repair a missed Act 1 romance start.

Recruit Astarion on the path west of the crashed nautiloid. Once you reach the forest, take long rests in the wilderness until you wake to find him leaning over you. Other visitors can take a night first. Do this while no rescue is underway and before entering the Underdark, where Astarion can reveal his secret in conversation and cancel the bite scene.

Hear him out and let him drink. Once he has fed, use the dialogue to stop him. You can still romance Karlach at the Grove celebration. If Astarion already confessed without biting you, use a save from before the confession. In multiplayer, the player who recruited him should handle the scene.

Recruit Wyll and keep him through Acts 1–3. Save before Mizora's bargains.

Dark Urge origin required. You have an early route and a later route:

• Act 2: obey Sceleritas Fel's order to kill Isobel, then receive the Slayer during a camp visit. This destroys Last Light and its refugee route.
• Act 3: win Orin's duel and accept Bhaal. If you do not already have the Slayer, this grants it without requiring the Act 2 murder.

The later route can also lead to Sins of the Father. Keep a pre-duel save if you want to explore the rejection branch afterwards.

Act 2, before entering the Shadowfell. Visit Moonrise peacefully and go downstairs to the prison. The staircase is beside the audience chamber. Save before starting the escape. Both the tieflings and gnomes must survive. Check the ledge route in step 4 before starting, and prepare Enhance Leap, Misty Step or Fly if anyone needs help reaching it.

1. Speak through the bars to Wulbren and agree to help both groups. The gnome cell is farther along the same corridor as the tieflings.
2. Clear the guards, Warden and Scrying Eyes before giving him a tool. Keep attacks away from the prisoners. Bring a mace or hammer, or recover Wulbren's hammer upstairs in the Warden's central office.
3. Give Wulbren the bludgeoning weapon through dialogue and tell him to begin. Stay with the escape. Resting or travelling away can let it proceed without you.
4. From the cell corridor, go to the rocky ledge west of the cells (X: 545, Y: -650). Climb or jump up, then follow the tunnel behind the cells to the boat. Use your movement aid if a character cannot reach the ledge. This brings the party around the closed cells to join the escaped prisoners. Keep the front cell doors closed so nobody takes the dangerous route through the tower.
5. Let both groups reach the boat before helping break its chains or agreeing to leave.
6. Sail to Last Light with all seven prisoners: Cal, Danis, Lakrissa, Lia, Wulbren, Nickels and Nimble. The safe arrival awards the trophy. Speak to Alfira and the reunited families for Leave No One Behind too.

If somebody dies or a group leaves without the other, reload the prison save. The rescue cannot be repaired after entering the Shadowfell.

Malus must die in combat before performing surgery on a party member. Save before speaking to him in the House of Healing.

Reduce the number of enemies

In dialogue, persuade him that the sisters should practise on each other. This removes his assistants before the fight. Do not continue into the dialogue route where Malus is killed without combat. That does not award this trophy.

Fight

Attack Malus after the sisters are dealt with. If they remain alive, prioritise them: they supply his instruments and can immobilise your characters for surgery.

Malus can revive a sister. Kill the revived assistant promptly, or immobilise him away from her body while you finish him. Keep your strongest attacks ready for this window rather than letting him rebuild his support.

Failure condition: allowing a surgical attack to happen. Surviving or healing through it is insufficient. Reload if the condition is lost.

The simplest trophy route is the dialogue victory. Save before speaking to Gerringothe upstairs in the Reithwin Tollhouse. Use your strongest dialogue character, with Guidance or another available skill bonus.

Dialogue route

Discuss her demand for payment, then persuade her to leave the tollhouse and be free of her obsession. The general Persuasion route has DC 18, followed by DC 21 when you challenge who is supervising her. Class-specific alternatives can differ. Passing the full sequence kills her without a gold attack.

Simply paying the toll and leaving is not the defeat required here.

If combat starts

For a normal trophy attempt, reload rather than gamble on her opening turn. To fight her, store surplus gold at camp, collect loose coin piles beforehand, and destroy the six floating Grim Visages to strip her armour. Removing your gold reduces incoming damage. It does not, by itself, satisfy the trophy condition.

No necromite may be consumed. Save before the final colony encounter and use the nearby restoration facility before committing.

Set up during Ketheric's phase

Do not use the dialogue shortcut that skips straight to the Apostle for this attempt. Keep Ketheric alive while you clear the mind flayer, intellect devourers and existing necromites. Send a mobile character to free Aylin with Help if she is captive.

Finish Ketheric only when the field is clear and your party is positioned for the next phase.

Stop the feeding

Assign a ranged character to destroy Skeletal Involucres before they produce necromites, and kill any necromite approaching the Apostle. The others focus damage on the boss. Save strong attacks and short-duration buffs for this phase.

Move injured melee characters away from its healing-blocking aura before trying to heal them. Preventing the boss from regaining health is not a substitute for preventing consumption.

Reload if Consume the Faithful succeeds, even if you can still win the fight.

Use the non-Dark Urge campaign for this branch. Keep a save before finishing the Netherbrain battle, then choose to control it for yourself instead of destroying it.

Keep a separate destruction branch for Hero of the Forgotten Realms and Ceremorphosis. Claiming it specifically for Bhaal belongs to Sins of the Father.

At the final decision, destroy the Netherbrain and its tadpoles rather than taking control. Complete the ending and epilogue.

Keep a separate save before finishing the battle if you also want Absolute Power Corrupts. This is the full Act 3 ending route. Do not substitute the early Act 2 ending.

Keep a save before the full-transformation decision in the Astral Prism.

Have your character or Karlach become a full mind flayer. Complete the final battle, choose to destroy the Netherbrain and finish the ending and epilogue.

Partial illithid powers do not count. Orpheus transforming, or using the Emperor instead, does not meet this trophy's player/Karlach requirement. Keep a separate final-battle save for the domination ending.

Act 3, Lower City. Save before the Murder Tribunal. Leave Jaheira and Minsc at camp for this branch, because Sarevok can demand their deaths.

Follow Investigate the Murders to the killer Dolor, first at Cora's wine festival and then, if he escapes, at Facemaker's Boutique. Defeat him and take his bag of severed hands and note. Read the note to learn the password Sicarius.

Go to Candulhallow's Tombstones, northeast of the Elfsong Tavern at X: 74, Y: 25. In the back office, remove the Butterfly on Skull painting, press the button behind it and use the password at the hidden door. Follow the brick path to the tribunal rather than the trapped side passage.

Present a severed hand to the guards and convince Sarevok that you belong there. Accept his trial, follow him into the adjoining chamber, kill Valeria and complete the blood-bathing initiation to become an Unholy Assassin. Wait for the trophy before reloading your pre-trial save if you want the rescue outcome in your main campaign.

Killing Sarevok and freeing Valeria takes the alternative route. The Dark Urge origin is not required.

Act 3, with an Act 1 precaution: do not try to kill the Dream Guardian in the crèche’s Astral Prism. Follow The Lich-Queen’s Wrath while sparing them.

1. At the start of Act 3, help the Emperor against the attackers in the Prism. Choose receptive rather than hostile responses in subsequent conversations.
2. In the Lower City, visit the Elfsong Tavern basement. Deal with the rats, then use the wall button in the side room to open the large barrel passage.
3. Pass through the Knights of the Shield hideout and resolve its githyanki encounter. Find the hidden button on the northern wall to enter the Emperor’s old room. Examine its keepsakes and finish Visit the Emperor’s Old Hideout.
4. Save, then take long rests until the Emperor’s intimate dream scene plays. Other queued events may come first. Reciprocate its advances and continue through the scene rather than rejecting it.

You do not need to become half-illithid for this romance. Either offered appearance works. This encounter does not end your companion romance, so Karlach’s Hot Date can remain on the same run. Complete it before committing to the finale. Meeting the Emperor alone does not unlock the trophy.

Save before returning to hostile Wyrm's Rock, not just outside Gortash's office. Avoid the approach traps as well as the devices in his room.

Before the fortress

Attend the coronation peacefully. Finish any intended Iron Throne rescue before destroying the Steel Watch Foundry, then disable the Watch before tackling Gortash. Killing him early can close those rescue routes.

Clear a safe approach

Bring lockpicks, trap-disarming tools, Feather Fall and a way to cross high gaps, such as Fly or Misty Step. Prepare enough movement spells or scrolls for everyone you want in the fight.

1. Start at the north end of Wyrm's Crossing, facing the fortress across its southern drawbridge. Stand to the left of the bridge. With Feather Fall active, jump to the grassy ledge on the fortress side of the ravine. Check the landing preview before committing. Use Fly if a character cannot reach it.
2. Follow the rock ledge left, around the fortress's west side. Climb the knotted vines and the ladder to the outer wall. Pick the locked door and continue south.
3. At the southwest corner, climb the scaffolding. Take the small stairs onto the raised battlement, then use your movement spells to reach the highest roof. Move each party member separately if necessary.
4. Ungroup before advancing across that roof. Send your trap specialist ahead to find and disarm the two proximity mines, then reach the balcony and bell tower. Use the tower's lever to lower the ladder into the rooms on Gortash's floor.
5. Send only the trap specialist down first. Clear the devices in the entry room before bringing companions down or approaching Gortash.

From a safe distance, destroy the wall-mounted Incineration Casters and Grenade Impellers before they fire. Keep companions away from devices being destroyed: some explode. Work through the entry area before advancing into the office.

Fight

Finish disabling threatening devices, then concentrate damage on Gortash. Destroying the Force Curtains weakens his protection.

Do not treat resistance, healing or avoiding damage as permission to trigger a trap. If one activates during the approach or fight, return to the earlier save.

Kill Orin while the ritual continues. Save before entering the confrontation. This tactic uses the normal party encounter. Keep the Dark Urge duel on its separate route.

Preparation

Bring Magic Missile with higher-level spell slots or scrolls, plus characters who can deliver strong damage afterwards. High initiative helps the missile caster act before your heavy hitters. Alert or an Elixir of Vigilance can help.

Fight

1. Examine Orin's current Unstoppable stacks. Each separate hit removes a stack, so use Magic Missile to strip them efficiently.
2. Once the stacks are gone, spend your strongest attacks on Orin before the ritual restores them. Repeat next round if necessary.
3. Leave the chanting cultists alone. Keep area spells, bouncing attacks and summons away from them.

Do not silence, knock down, frighten or kill the chanters. Those are useful ways to win the ordinary fight, but they undermine this trophy attempt. Check the actual stack count rather than assuming one spell is enough on every difficulty.

Kill the Dominated Red Dragon on top of the Netherbrain during the Upper City finale. Ansur is a different dragon and does not count.

Keep a pre-finale save and another before the rooftop battle. Do not choose a finale shortcut that bypasses this encounter.

Fight

Use fire resistance for defence, but avoid fire attacks: the dragon is immune to fire. Spread out to reduce the number of characters caught by its attacks, and focus strong weapon hits or other damage types on it. Arrows of Dragon Slaying are useful here.

Handle the surrounding enemies while keeping enough damage on the dragon to finish it. Do not send the whole party through the portal and leave it alive. Defeat it before moving on to the inner Netherbrain battle.

If you are preserving Leave No One Behind, keep Zevlor out of the fighting rather than risking him as an ally summon.

Finish Ansur while he is airborne charging his nova. Save before the Wyrmway confrontation.

Find Ansur in Act 3

In Wyrm’s Rock Fortress, descend to the prison and follow the western corridor to two dragon-head torches. When the guard is out of sight, hit each torch with lightning damage, such as Shocking Grasp. Both flames turn blue. Walk through the wall between them and speak to the statue beyond.

• Courage. Have your toughest character take the torch at the statue. Keep them standing for four rounds.
• Justice. Cast Remove Curse on the shadowy Judge. Pick up the painting called The Cell and place it on the empty stand behind him.
• Insight. Cross the faint bridge between the left-hand statues. At the back of the library, attack the red figure named Suelto.
• Strategy. Bring Gale and accept his advice at the statue. Select the piece he names and the game highlights its destination. You can also destroy the black king with lightning damage to pass the trial.

With the trials complete, follow the central passage into the Dragon’s Sanctum. Save before interacting with the dragon.

Preparation

Bring lightning resistance and a strong burst of non-lightning damage. Ansur is immune to lightning and poison. Arrows of Dragon Slaying or Undead Slaying are useful. Reserve your strongest attacks for the charge.

Time the finish

1. Spread out, deal with the water myrmidons and reduce Ansur's health without killing him on the ground.
2. Watch for Gather Power / Hoarding Energy: he rises into the air and becomes resistant to damage. This is your finishing window.
3. Commit the reserved damage now. Do not stun him out of the charging state before the killing blow.

The nova arrives on his next turn, even though the status initially shows two turns. If you cannot finish, take cover behind the crystals or use Globe of Invulnerability to survive. A grounded kill afterwards does not meet this route's condition.

Honour Mode: expect an additional survival phase at 1 HP with temporary HP. Do not assume the first apparent killing blow ends the fight.