Baldur's Gate 3: First Umbral Gem | Gauntlet of Shar [1/3]

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Finding The Gauntlet of Shar
Gauntlet of Shar Statue Entrance
The Pedestal of Reckoning | First Umbral Gem
Yurgir’s Ambush | Optional Umbral Gem

Gauntlet Of Shar Dungeon Continued: The Three Trials | Spear of Night & Balthazar

The Gauntlet of Shar is a massive, puzzle-filled dungeon that’s required if you want to complete Act 2 of Baldur’s Gate 3. Before you can take on Ketheric Thorm, you’ll have to fight through this gauntlet of tough enemy encounters and trials. Before you can even reach the area, you’ll need to unlock special protection against the Shadow Curse. After that, getting there is a breeze — but the tough enemies protecting this lair are going to be a challenge if you’re not prepared.

You’ll want to be Level 7-8 before entering the Gauntlet of Shar. For this first part, we’ll talk about entering the gauntlet, meeting with Balthazar the Necromancer and finally unlocking our first Umbral Gem. You’ll need 4 Umbral Gems total to access the innermost chambers of the temple. The first gem is easily the hardest to acquire — the rest are a breeze when you know what to do.

More Baldur’s Gate 3 guides:

Finding The Gauntlet of Shar

To reach the Gauntlet of Shar and find the Nightsong, play until Act 2 and the Shadow-Cursed Lands. In the deep darkness of the village north of Moonrise Towers, you’ll find the entrance to the Grand Mausoleum. This area is north of the House of Healing.

Press the buttons under the paintings in this order: left, right, center-back.

Solve The Mausoleum Button Puzzle: Enter the Grand Mausoleum and progress to the large chamber with the open sarcophagus. This room is heavily trapped. There are three buttons you must press here. There is a button to the left, to the right, and at the center back of the room.
Press the buttons in this order: Left (Moonrise Tower), Right (Funeral), Center Back (Ketheric’s Throne).

Press these three buttons and the doors in the back of the chamber will unlock. This leads to an elevator that takes you to the Gauntlet of Shar.

Gauntlet of Shar Statue Entrance

Lower and put out all the lit fires in the room to reveal this hidden path.

At the center of the Gauntlet of Shar, you’ll first encounter a statue in the center of a large chamber. It is surrounded by energy fields. You’ll need to reach the ‘Umbral Gem’ in the center and activate it.

To reach the Umbral Gem, we need to access the tombs on the four corners of this room. There is an alcove with a sarcophagus on all four corners. Avoid the traps and reach the level in all four rooms.
Flip all four levels to lower eight ‘Mystic Thuribles‘ — when lowered, you’ll be able to put out the fires on all eight.
Put out all eight thuribles and a hidden path in the forcefields will be visible. Walk through the openings to reach the Umbral Gem and the door ahead will unlock.

The Pedestal of Reckoning | First Umbral Gem

Progress into the room ahead and you’ll encounter Balthazar’s minions — a group of skeletons. Talk to them, and you’ll be ambushed by the protectors of the shrine.

Umbral Tremor Encounter: Justiciars will spawn from Umbral Tremors. Destroy the Tremors to stop the spawning Justiciars.
Balthazar’s Skeletons will aid you in this battle.
Target the Umbral Tremors first. Use ranged spells like Magic Missile to quickly destroy them. Otherwise, they’ll spawn more Justiciars every turn.

Defeat the Justiciars then examine the altar in the center of the chamber. Inspect the ‘Pedestal of Reckoning‘ to learn more about the trials of Shar. You must place an item on the Ancient Altar. We don’t have anything yet. To get what we need, we’ll need to further explore.

Meeting Balthazar: Before progressing to the first trial, go left and unlock the Gauntlet of Shar waypoint. Further left and up the stairs, enter a ruined altar. Talk to the skeletons here to initiate another battle.
Like the previous encounter, destroy the Umbral Tremors first. They are relatively weak and you can’t miss attacks on them. Each turn they’ll spawn new enemies. Destroy them first.
This battle spawns many, many more Umbral Tremors. After the initial two, eight more will appear. Start destroying them immediately! The Umbral Tremors also become more powerful. Use spells that damage multiple enemies at once before you’re overwhelmed.

This is a tough fight. Bring fully rested party members so you have everything at your disposal. Once you’re clear, the door to Balthazar’s room will unlock. Talk to him. If you pass skill checks, you can acquire the [Summon Golem Bell]. This allows you to summon Balthazar’s massive guardian Flesh into battle.

Yurgir’s Ambush | Optional Umbral Gem

At the entrance to the Grand Mausoleum, Raphael will return and request you to kill his old enemy. To find this old enemy, enter the Gauntlet of Shar. From the room where you meet Balthazar’s skeletons for the first time, go right instead of left. This leads to a ruined section of the temple.

Yurgir Encounter: If you follow the Displacer Beast down into the ruins, you’ll be ambushed by a powerful demon and his retinue of Merregons. This is a very difficult encounter if you get caught in the ambush.
To make this fight easier, attack the Displacer Beast immediately on the stairs near the entrance. Swap to Turn-Based Mode and attack it. This will also alert the entire group of demons, but they’ll be so far away, we can fight them on our terms on the stairs.
Wait for the demons to arrive, placing Grease or Ice on the stairs so they trip as they jump down. Hide around to corner to force them to come to you. Using this method, you can pick them off before Yurgir can even reach you.

Yurgir drops Infernal Metal and a Hellfire Hand Crossbow. Progress into his lair and you can collect an Umbral Gem on the stairs beneath the throne, next to the pile of corpses called Orthon’s Bed.

Umbral Gem: From the start of Shar’s Gauntlet, go right and enter the ruined section. Defeat the Displacer Beast ambush and kill Yurgir. The Umbral Gem is on the stairs near the ‘Orthon’s Bed’ pile of corpses.

Place the Umbral Gem (from Yurgir or the entrance) on the Ancient Altar in the central chamber. This will activate the floating platforms leading to the heart of the temple. Activating the platform will unlock another step in Shadowheart’s Companion quest ‘The Chosen of Shar‘ — she’ll request you find the Spear of Night. This special spear is located in the Silent Library. This location is much deeper in the dungeon.

Using the flying platform, fly down to the center of the Gauntlet of Shar. There’s another Ancient Altar here. This one requires three more Umbral Gems to activate. That’s our goal. We need to find three Umbral Gems and the Night Song Spear. Return to the central chamber and prepare to complete three puzzles.