Baldur’s Gate 3 Fan Somehow Killed Orin Before Bhaal’s Temple

Orin the Red in her Slayer form is one of the most powerful opponents in Baldur’s Gate 3, with some suggesting that she’s more difficult to defeat than the Netherbrain in Honour Mode. The combination of her Unstoppable stacks and powerful boons and abilities like Power Word: Kill and Bhaal’s Edict make navigating this fight a tricky endeavour for all but the most overpowered of parties.

However, a new “cheese” strategy has been discovered courtesy of Reasonable_Run3567 on Reddit. This exploit allows you to kill Orin without ever having to witness her terrifying Slayer form. First, you’ll need to one-shot Orin at Rivington while she’s disguised as Lens the Journalist with non-lethal attacks toggled. The original poster believes a one-shot is necessary, presumably to prevent dialogue with Orin from triggering. Orin’s undisguised form will then appear, and you’ll be able to reduce her hit points to 1 without triggering a response.

Never Trust a Journalist

Later, Orin will appear at the party camp disguised as the orphan Yenna. This will only occur if none of Lae’zel, Halsin, Minthara or Gale are at camp when the player finds out that they have been infiltrated by Orin. This exploit presumably works on any of the characters that Orin has replaced, but you’ll need to find out which one beforehand or else you risk slaying one of your beloved party members. The Illithid Power, Ability Drain, will display a red misty shimmer over the camp member that Orin has replaced.

You’ll need to one-shot Orin so consider setting up explosives or using a very powerful attack. Once you one-shot the imposter, you’ll receive a notification that Orin has been defeated, but her corpse won’t be present at the camp. Once you travel to Bhaal’s Temple, you’ll discover a pile of gore where Orin is usually standing, containing her Netherstone. You’ll still have to defeat her followers, but this is a much easier task without a 400kg monstrosity instantly killing your companions.

Orin’s shapeshifting shenanigans have made her ripe for in-game exploits and loopholes. There’s been reports of several other related means of “cheesing” Orin, including knocking out Yenna before Bhaal’s Temple so Orin appears as Yenna (with her minuscule health bar) during the fight. You can also defeat Orin with splash damage by continuously targeting the restrained party member (who is actually invulnerable) without ever initiating dialogue, and consequently combat, with Orin.

It should be noted that if you’re playing as Dark Urge and want Bhaal’s approval then you’ll need to defeat Orin in a duel. This method won’t satisfy Bhaal’s requirements. However, if you don’t care about all that then this is a perfect way of defeating Orin without having to win a harrowing boss fight.

Released

August 3, 2023

ESRB

M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Partial Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Violence