Baldur's Gate 3: Solve Silent Library & Beat Balthazar

Table of Contents[Hide][Show]

Unlocking The Spear of Night | The Silent Library
Balthazar & The Nightsong

Gauntlet Of Shar Dungeon Continued: First Puzzles & Yurgir | The Three Trials

We’ve made it to the final stage of the Gauntlet of Shar in Baldur’s Gate 3. We’ve completed the three trials and collected all four Umbral Gems — technically, that’s everything required to complete the dungeon. But, if you want to complete Shadowheart‘s Companion Quest, we’ll also need to collect the Spear of Night. Getting this item is a challenge in of itself, with a tricky puzzle and another Umbral Tremor encounter.

After collecting the Spear of Night, you’ll be able to use the Umbral Gems to access the Shadowfell and delve into the heart of the temple where the Nightsong is waiting. This also leads to a very difficult boss fight that’s been buffed since the initial release. We’ll provide some tricks — and some incredibly useful spells — that can counter the mad Necromancer and his army of the undead.

More Baldur’s Gate 3 guides:

Unlocking The Spear of Night | The Silent Library

Past the third trial, you’ll reach a magical field at a set of stairs. The stairs lead into the Silent Library. This area is magically blocked — any magic user will be Silenced here.

Librarian Encounter: The Umbral Tremor in the center of the library is called The Librarian. It has 32 HP. Defeat it first to stop the summoning of more Justiciar enemies.
Destroying it will lift the field of silence. Use Astarion or any Rogue, Ranger, or ranged character to target the Librarian first. Destroying it early makes dealing with the rest of the enemies much easier.

Press this button to open the locked gate.

In the Silent Library, there’s a large locked gate. To open it without lockpicking or breaking it with a bomb, use the button in the back-right of the room. The button is pictured above.

NOTE: Inside the library, if you pass a Sleight of Hand [DC:14] check, you can interact with the trapped bookshelves. Each one contains a book detailing how to solve each of the three trials. We can ignore those now — if you’ve been following this guide, we’ve already solved the trials.

Enter the locked gate room and you’ll find a plaque with the ‘Riddle of the Night‘ — it asks, ‘What Can Silence The Night Song?‘ — to solve the puzzle, follow these steps.

Riddle of the Night Puzzle Solution: Collect the book Teachings of Loss: The Nightsinger.
This book is in the trapped bookshelf to the right as you enter. Check the picture above for the location.
Disarm [DC:14] or set off the trap, then collect the book.
Place the book on the altar and select [Insert].

The Relief of Shar will lower and reveal the Treasure Room. Collect the Spear of Night — this is an important item for Shadowheart’s ‘Chosen of Shar‘ companion quest. Shadowheart will demand to take it. Let her. You don’t need to actually equip it though. This will happen automatically later in her story.

Spear of Night: Rare Spear. 4~11 Damage. Shar’s Blessing: If Shar allows it, use this spear to kill Nightsong. Weapon Enchantment +1

This weapon can be used to kill Nightsong at the heart of the Gauntlet of Shar.

Balthazar & The Nightsong

With all three Umbral Gems, return to the Ancient Altar in the center of the dungeon. Use the lift platform to ride down to the lower level.

NOTE: Don’t forget to collect the Spear of Night from the Silent Library before progressing. This is important if you want to complete Shadowheart’s Companion quest ‘The Chosen of Shar‘.

Place and insert all three Umbral Gems from the three trials. Ahead, activate the waypoint outside the Shadowfell pool. Before entering the Shadowfell portal, if you have Shadowheart in your party, you can listen in to her prayers to Shar. Listening in will reveal that she plans on sacrificing a Selunite to Shar.

Make a backup SAVE before entering the Shadowfell.

When you’re ready, enter the pool. The portal to the Shadowfell leads to a maelstrom of divinity. Balthazar will appear and fly ahead. This is the Nightsong’s Prison — you can’t rest here, so make sure to save and Long Rest before entering. A difficult encounter is ahead.

Gravity is low and you won’t take fall damage when making the long jumps across the abyss. Jump down to each rock platform until you reach the center of the realm. At the center, you’ll find Balthazar and the trapped Nightsong.

How To Make Balthazar Much Easier: In the Nightsong Prison, when you reach Balthazar at the center, you’ll enter an arena littered with piles of skeletons.
-o make this fight significantly easier, bring Shadowheart and equip her with the Blood of Lathander Legendary. This powerful weapon blinds undead. Learn how to get this weapon here.
In addition, equip the spell Spirit Guardians. This Level 3 Spell can be powered up to Level 4 and Level 5. While concentrating, Shadowheart will deal 40 Radiant Damage (Lvl. 5) to anything in her AOE range.

This single magic spell will kill most undead instantly. Bless Shadowheart and buff her to avoid damage, use Spirit Guardians, and then focus on Concentrate. Unfortunately, you can no longer DESTROY or THROW skeleton piles off the arena. You CAN move them around slightly. If you gather some of them up in one spot, you can quickly wipe them all out with Shadowheart’s powerful AOE magical ability.

When you’re ready for the fight, approach Balthazar. If you want to defeat Ketheric Thorm, you must not allow him to leave with the Nightsong. Choose to fight.

Balthazar Encounter: When you confront Balthazar, he summons a small army of undead. There are at least 19 skeletons. Three are stronger than the rest. Most have between 12-16 HP.
This is where Shadowheart can really shine. Equip the Blood of Lathander and the Spirit Guardians spell. Buff her with protection spells like Bless and use Haste on her before she unleashes Spirit Guardians. At Level 4, she’ll be able to kill every undead simply by walking near them.
Defeat the rest with large AOE magic. Fireball works very well. Ice Storm is also great for slowing the horde and dealing small amount of damage, making them easier to wipe out.
Use Push on the Apostate skeletons near the ledge to instantly kill them. One appears near your ledge right at the start of the battle. Make sure to use a strong party member like Karlach, or it will do the same to you.
Target the Librarians. They have low health and will use annoying spells like Sleep. They’re easy targets for Fireball.

After the battle is over, create a new SAVE. What you do next can drastically change Shadowheart’s story. You can change Shadowheart’s fate and turn her to the light by selecting the right dialogue options.

How To Turn Nightsong To The Light:
Allow Shadowheart to speak for herself.
After this, tell her to not kill the Nightsong.

If you do this and have a good relationship with Shadowheart, she’ll throw away the Spear of Night and instead help free the woman trapped in the Soul Cage.

By turning Shadowheart to the the light, you will free the maiden. She will join your fight against Ketheric Thorm and immediately approach his tower. After the conversation, you’ll be rewarded with the Moonlight Glaive if you followed the path to spare the Nightsong.

After this quest, you’re now prepared to storm the Moonrise Towers and defeat Ketheric Thorm for good. The final battle of Act 2 awaits. Meet Jaheira outside Moonrise Towers and lay siege to the citadel.