Warning: Act 3 spoilers forward!
The primary time I heard about an Iron Throne in Baldur’s Gate 3 was by means of a cryptic message hidden inside a fireworks store. “Hah! That intelligent Gortash,” I assumed as I learn by means of the letter. “He is stashed a bunch of explosives below that chair in his throne room, likely in an try and blow me up ought to I ever comply with share energy with him. Nicely irrespective of, I cannot be fooled!” I tucked the word away once more, feeling smug within the information that I had uncovered Gortash’s secret gunpowder plot and would not be tricked by one of many RPG’s three primary villains
Think about my shock, then, when it turned out the Iron Throne was not a chair, however an underwater jail—and by stumbling into it I had unintentionally triggered one of many sport’s most demanding battle sequences. Oops. On balanced issue, you’re given simply six turns to rescue all of the Gondian prisoners inside—every of them serving as hostages to make sure Gortash will get a relentless provide of mechanical guards—and return to the submarine earlier than the entire place floods and explodes. In my playthrough the prisoner listing additionally included some moderately vital characters, resembling Wyll’s father Duke Ravengard, and pleasant neighbourhood thoughts flayer Omeluum. Simply so as to add to the stress.
My first response to all this, naturally, was to panic. It appeared like Gortash’s phrases of warning have been right, and I had already doomed everybody inside to loss of life. The floodwaters have been rising, sirens have been wailing, and the complete compound was shaking. I fell to despair, and dejectedly started to shuffle my characters by means of the map. However as I did so, I began to understand that maybe the scenario wasn’t fairly as hopeless as I first thought. I started to make some psychological calculations, and experimented with my choices. And to my nice shock, an hour or so later, I had completely fallen in love with the Iron Throne.
The unforgiving nature of the mission, although initially daunting, is strictly what makes it one of the crucial outstanding dungeons in the complete sport. It is a degree designed to impress excessive feelings, create moments of heroism, and problem your fight prowess in each approach attainable. It additionally comes on the excellent level within the sport’s wider construction, offering a refreshingly intense expertise in the course of the meandering third act. I’ve since replayed the battle a number of occasions (willingly) simply to see if I can excellent my ways and technique. It truly is that good.
I’ll admit that my first try was a complete catastrophe, and after a few turns, I rapidly determined to reset and begin over. The Iron Throne battle is likely to be one of the best instance of why save scumming is completely acceptable in Baldur’s Gate 3: there’s merely no approach you could possibly anticipate all the extent’s bizarre quirks in your first strive. So except you are really devoted to sticking along with your first try irrespective of the implications—and truthful play in case you are—I would argue it is price giving your self a second probability to get a considerably satisfying outcome.
Making a splash
With some thought of what I used to be now coping with, on the second try I made certain to correctly prep my staff. Up till this level within the sport I had relied on brute-forcing my approach by means of most fights utilizing my characters’ common skills, and had barely touched my scrolls and potions stockpile. As a shameless loot hoarder I had collected dozens of things, telling myself I used to be saving them ‘for once I actually wanted it’. Boy did I want them now. It was because of the distinctive challenges posed by the Iron Throne that I used to be pressured to lastly take into consideration the best way to use these consumables. The dungeon is much less about nuking a giant boss, and extra about mobility. The restrictive time restrict means each single flip counts, so squeezing the utmost attainable quantity of mobility and actions from every character is vital. Velocity potions, haste scrolls and dimension doorways rapidly turn out to be your finest associates.
I additionally took a more in-depth have a look at my social gathering members to see if I may use their skills extra successfully. In earlier battles I had been fairly sloppy with my decision-making, typically ending encounters with at the least one character trying like a bruised plum (sorry Astarion). However the Iron Throne leaves no margin for error. It appears like Larian actually throws down the gauntlet right here, difficult you to place all you’ve got discovered into follow, forcing you to refine your fight abilities till they’re brutally environment friendly. Even one easy misclick can set you on a path to catastrophe. The Iron Throne’s degree design—a cross-shape of lengthy corridors—implies that you need to cut up your social gathering up if you wish to save all of the prisoners, successfully placing every character by means of their very own private fight check. Simply how robust is every social gathering member in isolation? It is time to discover out.
However past offering a critical fight problem, the Iron Throne units the stage for some sensible narrative moments advised by means of gameplay. It supplies the components for hero moments, with every social gathering member put below the highlight, and every of their actions having life or loss of life penalties. These occasions really feel distinctive to your playthrough, too, as every participant will inevitably strategy the encounter in a barely completely different approach.
In my very own playthrough, all appeared misplaced for Astarion as I despatched him on a mission to rescue Omeluum in a distant nook of the map, till I checked the thoughts flayer’s fight skills and noticed… gasp! A two-person teleport to the submarine. I imagined them each doing a high-five and vanishing out of there, forsaking some very offended fish monsters. Lae’zel, in the meantime, grew to become a battering ram, carving by means of total corridors of enemies to clear a protected path for the Gondians.
Unexpectedly, even one in all my summoned ghouls grew to become a hero: single-handedly battling six sahuagin within the darkness because the partitions caved in and the place flooded. Bizarre, however heroic nonetheless. And in case you are of the extra villainous persuasion, Larian has left alternatives for you throughout the encounter too. In a single hall there are not any prisoners, simply a number of rooms full of attractive loot chests. So that you is usually a full bastard and spend your valuable turns grabbing gold as a substitute of rescuing hostages.
Seashore vacation
Arguably probably the most memorable components of the encounter, nonetheless, come when one thing goes catastrophically fallacious—and there are many methods this will occur. Dashing previous the sahuagin, for example, might seem to be an important technique till you be taught that they’ve nets, which might render you (or a prisoner) motionless for a number of turns. The tantalisingly-placed fireplace barrels present in one hall may strike you as an effective way to clear the place of enemies, however igniting them will trigger the doorways to slam shut, providing you with nothing however extra issues.
When issues go fallacious, some gamers might have to make tough choices about which prisoners to avoid wasting. In my case, I miscounted the variety of turns I had left, realising too late that my player-character was nonetheless standing by the ladder because the floodwaters arrived. In my head I imagined this as a ‘captain happening with the ship’ second, with my character saying one thing badass whereas slamming the submarine hatch shut. It seems that Gortash’s risk about watching “the corpses begin to wash up on the shore” was completely right: I found this as a result of it was my physique on the seaside. This led to an amusing scene the place the remainder of my social gathering needed to go to the seaside to gather me. I may nearly sense their eye rolls and tuts of not this once more by means of the display.
Finally, I made a decision to stay with my flawed second try because the ‘canon’ model I might preserve for the remainder of my marketing campaign. It was an imperfect outcome with a number of casualties, however the story advised by means of my messy battle was improbable. That being stated, I did wish to see whether or not I may save everybody, so I loaded the file up once more. After a number of agonisingly shut makes an attempt, I finally managed it, even raiding all of the treasure chests in the identical run. For me, the important thing to this was releasing probably the most distant prisoners first—affording them loads of time to flee—whereas additionally distracting the fish monsters with a bunch of summons.
The method made me realise simply how a lot of the battle rides on a knife edge, with luck enjoying a reasonably important position, with the AI often capable of sabotage every thing. (For causes unknown to me, a Gondian prisoner as soon as determined to punch a hearth barrel and set the entire hall on fireplace, locking themselves contained in the jail within the course of.) However for me, this was all a part of the enjoyable: one thing bizarre and weird appeared to occur on every try, which solely made me extra decided to strive once more.
Regardless of the Iron Throne being one of the crucial stress-inducing ranges within the sport (or maybe due to it), the battle stays one of many true highlights of my marketing campaign. It is uncommon to see a degree provoke so many storytelling moments by means of its gameplay, whereas additionally offering such a problem that gamers are prepared to replay it a number of occasions to excellent their technique. After finishing it, I felt a lot extra educated in regards to the sport’s fight techniques, and the expertise undoubtedly improved my effectivity in all of the fights to comply with. All that is still now, I suppose, is for me to strive once more on tactician mode. Solely 5 turns for that, you say? Carry it on.