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Baldur’s Gate 3is full of secrets and puzzles for players to explore. However, few places in the game have as many in one place as the Gauntlet of Shar. This location is not only key to Shadowheart’s backstory and character growth, but you’ll also need to complete it to further the story in Act 2.
Related:Baldur’s Gate 3: Find The Nightsong Walkthrough
If you’ve found yourself stuck on any of its many trials, however, you aren’t alone. The directions for each are vague, and the puzzles themselves take cunning and good dice rolls. Keep reading to learn how to solve every puzzle in the Gauntlet of Shar from beginning to end.
How To Enter The Gauntlet Of Shar & Solve The Thorm Mausoleum Puzzle
Thefirst puzzle you encounter happens before you’ve even entered the Gauntlet of Shar. In Ketheric Thorm’s family Mausoleum, you must solve a puzzle to uncover a hidden door to Shar’s Temple. This puzzle is located in the rear of the Mausoleum and crawls with traps. You will need to succeed on a series of relatively easy Perception checks to see them all, then either disarm or avoid them. If you set one off, the room will temporarily be filled with darkness, blinding your party.
After the room is safe, you will seethree paintings (called Moonrise Tower, Grief, and General). The buttons underneath each painting need to be pressed in a specific order, following the chronological events of Ketheric Thorm’s life. This information can be found in a book on the West side of the Mausoleum.
General Thorm’s Orders were clear: to find what lies beyond this mausoleum, one must walk in his own footsteps, deed by deed, from Splendor to Tragedy, to Infamy, as he put it.
Following this clue, or the information you’ve gathered about Ketheric Thorm in other parts of the game, you can surmise the solution is:
Pressing the buttons in an incorrect sequence will lead to the chamber filling with poisonous gas, even if all the traps have been disarmed.
How To Solve The Umbral Gem Puzzle
The first area you enter after taking the Traversal gem and opening the circular door will be a room brightly lit with arcane braziers. In the center of the area lies a statue of Shar, surrounded by arcane energy. Attempting to cross the circle will throw your character back violently without allowing you to reach the center. However, you will need to reach the statue to open the door to the next area.
The clue to the puzzle’s solution comes in the form of words from the goddess herself. “The answer lies in darkness.” You will need todisable the room’s lightsto open a path to the central statue. They are too high up to reach, however, which is where the trick to the puzzle lies.
The lights can be lowered usinglevers in the four alcovesaround the central room, butbe careful of the numerous plates and vents.If triggered, the traps will blind your party and deal cold damage continuously until disarmed. Once all the lights are lowered, turn them off and remove any light sources from your party (sheath any weapons that give off light, cancel active light cantrips, unequip your torches, etc.). This should reveal two circles of purple magic with gaps in them. Navigate through each circle at the gap to reach the statue andcollect the gem you needto proceed.
This gem fits into the Traversal platform in the next area, which will trigger the trials and a dialogue with Shadowheart if she is at your party.
Related:Baldur’s Gate 3: How To Get & Use The Mirror Of Loss
How To Complete The Soft-Step Trial
The Soft-Step Trialis all about stealth. To complete it, at least one of your party will need to traverse a maze filled with patrolling shadows undetected. Then, they will need to lockpick the gate on thefar side to enter a final room with an Umbral Gem to collect and an Umbral Transporter to return.
Being noticed by a shadow will teleport you back to the starting area, where you’ll need to start again. The area is also littered with traps, buttons, and levers. The traps will cover the floor in grease or shoot fireballs if triggered. The buttons and levers will cause walls in the maze to move and shift. It is suggested that you ungroup your party and have only the most dexterous complete this trial.
How To Complete The Self-Same Trial
This trial is one of the most straightforward. To complete it, you will need to defeat mirrors of your party in combat. However, there is one caveat.Each enemy must be killed by its counterpart- otherwise, your party members will receive strong debuff and may fail the trial. It appears that only direct damage triggers the debuff, such as a melee attack. Incidental damage such as that caused by the spellSpirit Guardiansdoes not.
Because this group of enemies will have all of your same abilities (including items), you can prepare by using resistance potions very effectively. It is also helpful to try and surprise the group, as the extra round of attacks gives you a clear advantage in what would otherwise be an even fight. Once all enemies have been defeated, one will drop an Umbral Gem. Collect this for later use.
Related:Baldur’s Gate 3: Should You Save Isobel?
How To Solve The Faith-Leap Trial
The Faith-Leap Trialinitially seems very difficult - after all, how are you supposed to traverse a void with an invisible path? This trepidation may even grow if you fail and notice that each wrong step results in heavy damage and possible character death. There are two ways to complete this trial.
In either case, it is beneficial to ungroup your party and have three of them stay on the starting platform - this prevents a TPK and allows you to reference the path on the floor if needed.
To give you flexibility in paths and limit the amount of walking you need to do, choose a high-strength character to complete this trial. Not only will they have more health in the case of a mistake, but they can jump large distances across gaps between the platforms, eliminating the need to rely on the invisible path as much.
How To Solve The Silent Library & Get The Spear Of Night
The final challenge of the Gauntlet of Shar isthe Silent Library. Here is where you will findthe Spear of Nightthat Shadowheart wants before proceeding. To complete this room, you will first need to win a fight against a group of undead librarians. This room is under the effect of aSilencespell, making it a difficult fight for casters. To end the Silence, you will need to kill the Umbral vortex in the center of the room.
After the fight, there is a puzzle to unlock the gate at the back of the room. There are four buttons in the depressed area at the center of the room - three are trapped, and one opens the door. Good perception checks can detect which ones are traps, or you can simply face tank the damage.
Once inside the rear room, you will be met with a pedestal. Upon close examination, you receive the following clue from the pedestal: “What can silence the Night?” and a combination menu will appear - something must be inserted here. To solve the Riddle of Night, you will need to retrieve a book calledTeaching of Loss: The Nightsingerfrom a shelf in the library. This shelf does not highlight using the Alt key, which causes many players to miss it. Place the book on the pedestal to enter a rear room containingthe Spear of Night, a Gilded Chest, and several pieces of magical Dark Justiciar Armor.
How To Enter Shar’s Inner Sanctum
Finally, when you’ve completed each trial, collected the Umbral Gems, and found the Spear of Night, it is time to enter Shar’s Inner Sanctum. The Pedestal of Reckoning, used to enter the Sanctum, is locatedEast of the Gauntlet of Shar Waypoint.It faces out toward the Traversal Platform, where you placed the first Umbral Gem. Place three Umbral Gems into this Pedestal to activate the way forward, then take the platform down.
