Baldur’s Gate 3: Balthazar’s Protruding Book Puzzle Solution

Check out our guide for the solution of Balthazar's Protruding Book Puzzle in Baldur's Gate 3.

Balthazar’s Protruding Book Puzzle is one of the many difficult puzzles to solve in Baldur’s Gate 3. You will encounter this puzzle on the first floor of Moonrise Towers in Balthazar’s room. Players can get access to this room by convincing Commander Z’rell to hand over the key.

Once inside, you will see Balthazar’s huge bookcase with several protruding books. The secret room that you need to find is right behind this very bookshelf. But solving this puzzle is risky as you will encounter several hidden traps as well. Our guide below will show you how to safely complete the Protruding Book puzzle.

How to Solve Balthazar’s Protruding Book Puzzle in Baldur’s Gate 3

bg3 balthazars bookshelf hidden room

The trick to solving Balthazar’s Protruding Book puzzle is to interact with the correct book in BG3. After entering Balthazar’s bedroom, you will see several corpses lying around and a bookshelf with some protruding books. However, don’t go ahead and interact with any of the four books yet as it will trigger a trap.

Beside the doorway, you will find a note meant for the acolytes. Here, Balthazar will mention that he doesn’t want anyone touching his books. Interacting with the wrong book will lead to three different traps – a lightning bolt, poison gas, or summon the undead creatures. That leaves you with just one genuine protruding book. Here are the steps on how to solve Balthazar’s Protruding Book puzzle in Baldur’s Gate 3:

  1. The first part of solving the puzzle is to interact with the protruding book on the top-right of the shelf.
  2. Doing so will help you interact with a stone plinth on the right of the bookshelf.
  3. Now, loot a Heart from any corpse lying nearby.
  4. Once done, head to the stone plinth and insert the Heart.
  5. Doing so will split the bookshelf into two halves and reveal a secret room inside.

Now, move to the hidden room and loot the treasure chests inside. You will find an Elixir of Necrotic Resistance and a Coldbrim Hat.

With that, we have shown you everything you need to know on how to solve Balthazar’s Protruding Book Puzzle in Baldur’s Gate 3. We hope that this guide helped you out. If you are interested, you can also check out how to solve the Thorm Mausoleum Puzzle & the Silent Library Puzzle in Baldur’s Gate 3.