Baldur’s Gate 3: Gauntlet of Shar Guide

Anyone who’s reached the second chapter of Baldur’s Gate 3 will encounter one of the game’s most prominent and challenging locations. If you’ve been searching for the Nightsong or looking to progress through Shadowheart’s quest, odds are your next stop is the Gauntlet of Shar. This place is a hidden temple full of dangers and trials for those brave enough to look for the blessing of Shar. If you’ve encountered this place, we’ve prepared a guide to help you reach the Gauntlet of Shar in Baldur’s Gate 3 and complete all its trials before moving to a pivotal moment of the story. Without further ado, let’s begin.

Where is the Gauntlet of Shar in Baldur’s Gate 3?

To enter the Gauntlet of Shar in Baldur’s Gate 3, you must progress through the main story until you reach the Underdark. In our case, we entered the Shadow-cursed Lands through the Underdark, as you can see above, and the fastest way to find the entrance to the Gauntlet of Shar is by following the above path. However, before entering the Gauntlet, you must finish a puzzle inside the Grand Mausoleum, a place with some interesting lore and a familiar character.

Grand Mausoleum Puzzle

Inside the Grand Mausoleum, you’ll be able to spot several journeys that belong to Ketheric Thorm. These journals give background information about this antagonist and paint the bigger picture of what’s happening. We won’t spoil anything related to the story, but to finish the puzzle, you must do the following:

1. Head to the back of the Mausoleum to spot the three paintings. One says General, another says Grief, and the last says Moonrise Towers.
   
2. Deactivate all traps around the paintings before attempting to solve the puzzle.
3. Head to the Moonrise Towers Painting and press the button.

   

4. Move to the Grief Painting and press the button.

   

5. Finally, press the button of the General Painting.
   

   

6. A secret wall will open behind the General Painting.

If you’ve followed the abovementioned steps, all you must do is ride the elevator down to enter the Gauntlet of Shar and prepare for more puzzles and trials.

Lamp Puzzle

The first and only optional puzzle is the Lamp Puzzle inside the Gauntlet of Shar in Baldur’s Gate 3. In this puzzle, you must head to the rooms around the statue, deactivate the traps at the entrances, and pull the levers to lower the lamps. Doing so will let you open the Arcane door to the trial room. However, you can also head to the left double door, pick the lock, and take the long path to meet Balthazar, a new NPC that’ll give you a quest to help or harm Ketheric Thorm.

How To Pass All the Trials Inside the Gauntlet of Shar

To progress to the end of the Gauntlet of Shar, you must pass 3 trials and collect 4 Umbral Gems. The first 3 Umbral Gems are inside the trial rooms. However, the last gem is inside a camp on the right side of the Gauntlet. We’ll cover the trials first, which are what you’ll face first.

Soft-Step Trial (Sneak)

The first trial of the Gauntlet of Shar in Baldur’s Gate 3 is the Soft-Step Trial. This trial is easy as you only need to sneak through a small labyrinth and reach the end. There are shadows patrolling the area, but a character with high sneaking and an invisibility potion can make it. To pass the trial, enter through the rightmost corridor and hug the wall; turn left when you see a lever and pull it. Head to the leftmost wall and turn right until you see a big gate. Pick the gate’s lock and grab the Umbral gem to finish the trial.

Self-Same Trial (Combat)

If you follow the order of the doors, the second trial is the Self-Same Trial. In this trial, each character will fight against a shadow clone of themselves. You must fight each character’s shadow lest you want to get a debuff. For example, if you have Karlach in your party, a clone of Karlach will appear, and she must only attack that clone and no one else’s. 

Faith-Leap Trial (Platforms)

The last trial, and the hardest of the bunch, is the Faith-Leap Trial. This trial will task players with crossing a chasm with invisible platforms. While it sounds complicated, we’ve included a few images to guide you. To reach the other side, this is what you have to do:

1. Enter the chasm through the leftmost side.

   

2. Walk across the chasm until you reach the left statue.
3. Hug the left wall and drop to an invisible platform.
4. Turn right, follow the route below, and climb the middle platform with the statue.

   

5. Go to the rightmost side of the middle platform with the statue and drop down.
6. Turn left and walk slowly toward the area with the Umbral Gem.
7. Once you have a good jumping space, jump toward the platform with the Umbral Gem.

   

Silent Library (Spear of Night)

Once you exit the Faith-Leap Trial, you’ll encounter a door that silences your characters when you enter. This room isn’t necessary to tackle and doesn’t have a gem, but it holds a weapon that will impact Shadowheart’s story and specific interactions when you find the Nightsong. To get the Spear of Night weapon, you must defeat The Librarian in the middle of the Library and open the gate by placing the Nightsinger book in the mechanism. You’ll find this book on the east side of the Library.

Finding the Last Umbral Gem

To find the last Umbral Gem inside the Gauntlet of Shar in Baldur’s Gate 3, you must head right from the Gauntlet of Shar Waypoint and follow a Displacer Beast. This creature will lead you to a camp ruled by a powerful enemy (we won’t spoil who it is), but this Devil holds the last Umbral Gem. To get this Umbral Gem, there are two ways you can go about it, and we’ll discuss them here:

• You can fight the Devil and take the Umbral Gem, but it is difficult.
• The easiest way is to have one character steal it and escape through the broken stairs on the right side of the camp.
  • We did this with Shadowheart and used the Dimension Door step and Misty Step spells.

Related:

How To Enter the Arcane Tower in Baldurs Gate 3

And that’s a wrap on how to find the Gauntlet of Shar in Baldur’s Gate 3 and pass its trials. After you use the Gems, you’ll encounter a pivotal point in the story, so save your game just in case and prepare for some substantial lore discoveries.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is available now on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S.