Possibly the hardest optional puzzle in Baldur’s Gate 3 is to save the Gondians from the Iron Throne. This is Gortash’s underwater prison that you reach using a submarine. Things go south when Gortash decides to kill everyone. Since the place is about to come down, you only get 6 turns to save the Duke Ravengard and the Gondian prisoners. Considering there are several NPCs to save including important people like Wyll’s father, things to loot, and fight enemies, these many turns aren’t enough. So here are some tips to help you rescue the Iron Throne prisoners in BG3.
How to Save Prisoners from Iron Throne in Baldur’s Gate 3
The best way to save prisoners, especially in your first playthrough is to lower the difficulty to Explorer. This way you get 8 turns to save them all instead of just 6. If you increase it to Tactician you only get 5 turns. While many may not approve of this method this is just one of the tips, there are other things you can do as well:
- Move Faster: Regardless of what party members you have or which difficulty you are playing on, having more movement means getting to Gondian prisoners faster. So to help you increase your movement you can use some spells or potions. Haste is an excellent spell here because its effects last for 10 turns. It makes you faster and harder to hit. Misty Step is another spell that you can use to teleport yourself. You can also use Potion of Speed to get Haste for 3 turns. Use it after your 3rd or 5th turn depending on your difficulty as the character becomes exhausted after 3 turns.
- Prioritise saving Duke Ravengard: You can find him after descending the ladders and going to the east cells. Additionally, you can also try rescuing Omeluum. Go to the southwest room to look for him. But be aware that this character seems to be bugged for many players. So it might not appear and you may end up wasting some character’s turn trying to get him.
- Split up: For this specific puzzle keeping your characters together means wasting turns. Rather than making them travel and fight together, send them each to a different cell so that you can save as many Gondian prisoners as possible.
- Use Minions & Distract enemies: This puzzle isn’t as simple as going to the prisoners and releasing them. From time to time, enemies will spawn that will attack any character or prisoner in their line of sight. Make sure you take hits on your characters or on your minions. This way the Gondian prisoners get to escape safely.
- You can Revive your Companions: If you have Withers at your camp, you don’t have to worry about your party members dying. Just talk to him and bring back your companions to life.
Hopefully using the above tricks you should be able to save Gondian prisoners from Iron Throne easily in Baldur’s Gate 3. For more such guides be sure to check out our BG3 section.