How To Beat Gortash In BG3

The suave chosen of Bane in Baldur’s Gate 3 has talked a big game since your meeting at Wyrm’s Rock Fortress. Under the supervision of his Steel Watch and his loyal Black Fist guard, he’s cozily protected as he takes the city for himself with his cold gauntlet-clad fist.

However, his time over Baldur’s Gate is finally at an end. At last, you’ll be able to put Gortash’s money where his mouth is, and you’ll find that the charismatic Enver Gortash is not really as fearsome as he seems – especially not without his precious automatons. With his guard crippled, it’s time to strike.

Updated March 10, 2025: We’ve updated this guide to reflect changes made in the past few updates!

How To Storm Wyrm’s Rock Fortress

You can storm Wyrm’s Rock Fortress and fight Gortash at any time. But for this guide, we recommend that you do the following before attempting to storm the fortress:

It is possible to fight Gortash when you first meet him at the Audience Hall. His attacks are mostly the same as his official final fight.

However, your consequences for not doing the following will mean:

1. You’ll also have to fight Steel Watchers.
2. You’ll have to fight Duke Ravengard (and he will die, even if knocked unconscious).
3. All citizens inside the Iron Throne and Steel Foundry will die.

Bringing Karlach with you during his first coronation will require you to talk her down. Failing to do so will result in forcibly starting a combat encounter with Gortash. If you don’t want to risk it, we recommend bringing her to fight him after completing the precursor quests.

We also recommend that you speak with Gortash’s parents at Flymm’s Cobblers in the Lower City, near the Central Wall, for added context and furthering Karlach’s quest.

Beginning from the side of Baldur’s Gate’s Lower City (Basilisk Gate), you’ll first be met with numerous Flaming Fist at the front door. We recommend triggering them slowly in groups:

• A group of four at the front door.
• Another group of four in the hallway and barracks in the right door.

Both groups are fairly weak at this level of gameplay, but each has the ability to summon a strong Fire Elemental to aid them during combat.

At this point, you may attempt to go through the Audience Chamber and face Gortash’s defenses head-on. This is not a recommended approach for a few reasons:

1. There are several grenade-launching traps in this room (which may keep you from Gortash’s achievement).
2. There are flaming incinerator traps that breathe fire, explode when they overheat, and can trigger grenades before they are supposed to detonate.
3. There are six Flaming Fist and Black Gauntlet enemies with high-level spell access.

​​​​​To preserve your spells and sanity, you’ll want to go around the back way.

With Patch 5’s fixes on the south drawbridge, you can no longer jump from the bridge. Instead:

1. Go into the room where you may find the Audience Chamber entrance.
2. Instead of entering the Audience Chamber, go left of the doorway and use the lever hidden behind a box.
3. Circle around the fortress, jumping along ledges, under the bridge, and up two sets of vines.
4. Use a ladder up to a locked door.

There is no known way to lower the South Span drawbridge. Even after Gortash’s defeat, the bridge can never again be lowered. The only way to travel to South Span now is through the Waypoints.

After lockpicking (DC 20) or using Knock on the door, you can enter the back of the Audience Chamber.

Inside, you should enter while hiding. However, if you’re discovered, stay in the back room to prevent being struck by any traps.

Your goal is to reach the roof via the second door on your left (when entering this room) and then another door to your left after.

Sometimes, if you did not defeat all the enemies on the first floor, they will glitch out and join your initiative order. You can either time them out or go all the way back around to fight them. It’s a waste of time either way.

Up on the roof, circle around and avoid the doors entering the roof chamber for now. Head over to a small room with a ladder.

Climbing the ladder, you should see a small ledge across. Jump to it and onto the next level of the roof.

There are no enemies on the roof to handle if you have already shut down the Steel Watchers, but beware of the Stun Traps along the center of the walking path.

For the record, activating these traps do not count towards Gortash’s special achievement. If you hit one, don’t worry.

Up here, carefully maneuver to the locked door for the central chamber. Unlocking it, you’ll reach an attic area with a bell.

Cross over to the far side to find a lever in the corner. Flipping it will throw down a ladder into the central hall where Gortash awaits.

Once the ladder has been sent down, you’re going to want the following:

• A scroll or spell of
  Greater Invisibility

• A high Dexterity character (preferably with proficiency in Stealth)
• A method of destroying the traps in Gortash’s room

The traps in Gortash’s room have Sturdy, but they also have a weakness to Bludgeoning and Lightning. But we have two recommendations we feel are the most reliable to use here:

1. Chain Lightning
2. Smokepowder Bombs

The first will allow you to take out all of Gortash’s traps on the back wall (the curtains) in a single swoop. These curtains are your top priority and should be targeted first.

The smokepowder bombs, used in our example, are best used by throwing one at each of the curtain traps on the back wall. They’ll also remove the trap below them with their explosion.

With Greater Invisibility, you should be able to throw at least two of these bombs before your invisibility ends.

Once your Invisibility ends, do not use your character’s turn yet. Likewise, you should try to keep them close to Gortash when throwing your bombs. This is because his Dazzling Ray attack can set off any traps he may hit.

With both of these traps removed, your next goal will be to send in the rest of your party.

Have them Sneak in, crouching along the center of the rooms along the red carpet. Once inside, use what you’ve learned to quickly and efficiently remove the remaining traps.

With the traps in this room removed, it’s now time to focus on the main fight.

Remember that there is a grenade launcher hidden up in the corner just left of the entrance and out of sight. You’ll likely want to remove that first.

How To Defeat Gortash

Lord Enver Gortash, Archduke Nominee
HP			275
AC			20 (base: 16 without traps)
Speed			9m
Size/Weight			Medium/75kg (Humanoid)
Stats
Str	Dex	Con	Int	Wis	Cha
20 (+5)	26 (+8)	16 (+3)	20 (+5)	16 (+3)	18 (+4)
Resistances			Nonmagical weapon attacks, Necrotic, Fire, Lightning, Cold, Poison, Radiant
Immunities			Thunder
Feats And Conditions
Shell of Resistance			Micromodron Force Curtain (the trap) grants Immunity to Thunder damage and Resistance to elemental damage for one turn. It also grants an extra Bonus Action and Movement.
Authority			Gain Advantage on Intimidation and Insight checks.
Crossbow Expert: Point-Blank			Gortash does not have Disadvantage on making melee attacks with a crossbow.
Magic Resistance			Advantage on Saving Throws against spells and magical effects.
Dark Devotion			Advantage on Saving Throws against being Charmed or Frightened.
Dauntless			Gortash cannot be Frightened or afflicted with other conditions that alter emotions.
Enervating Suffusion			When Gortash deals damage with an unarmed strike, he deals an extra 1d4 Force damage.
High Spellcasting			Gortash has a +1 Spell Save DC.
Permanently Armed			Gortash’s weapon cannot be removed by physical or magical means.
Scintillating			Gortash has a +1 bonus to Charisma Checks and Saving Throws.
Invoke the Black Hand (Transition Reaction)			When Gortash reaches half health, he summons several Manifestations of Tyrany around the room (which each grant +1 Strength to nearby allies). He then gives himself 150 temporary HP. He can use Empowered Unarmed Strike, Closed Fist of Bane, and Tyrant’s Bindings after using this.
Attacks
Dazzling Ray			Gortash fires a straight line of Radiant damage 18m, dealing 4d10 or half as much on a successful Dexterity Saving Throw. On a failed save, struck creatures are Blinded.
Empowered Unarmed Strike			Deals 1d4 + 5 Bludgeoning + 1d4 + 4d8 Force damage with an unarmed strike. Gortash can make two of these attacks in a turn.
Closed Fist of Bane			Conjures a giant black hand in the air above a target. Any creature beneath it is dealt 12-120 Bludgeoning damage when it falls at the end of the round.
Tyrant’s Bindings			Creates chains that halves the movement speed of targets and preventing Reactions. If the chains are still present at the beginning of Gortash’s next turn, they break and deal 8d8 Force damage to all targets. Targets that save on a Wisdom saving throw take half damage and can use reactions.
Ranged Crossbow Attack			Deals 1d10 + 7 piercing damage.
Mechanical Throw			Gortash throws a Reflectoguard. Him and nearby allies receive a shield that reflects projectiles.

Gortash is an arguably easier fight than Orin once you disable his Steel Watchers. If you’ve already defeated Raphael at the House of Hope or Ansur the Heart of the Gate, fighting Gortash will probably feel a little too easy.

His primary damage source and danger in this fight is not himself. Rather, you’ll need to beware of allowing his allies to overwhelm you.

This goes double with his Reflectoguard. His allies are his targets for Reflectoguard, throwing back any projectiles you might throw at them. Thrown items and arrows will bounce back. Spells will not. This effect lasts two turns for each Reflectoguard.

There are three Black Fist enemies in this room as well. All enemies here rely heavily on sight, so casting spells like Darkness

, Fog Cloud

, Blindness

, or Hunger of Hadar

can be very useful here.

Beginning the fight, split your party as such:

• Send two characters to fight the Black Fists.
• Make one ranged or spellcasting character sit back to support where necessary.
• Send one character to distract Gortash.

When the Black Fists and any traps you missed are down, you can focus on Gortash.

The defeat of the Black Fists first is important due to their ability to use Aura of Terror.

This will give you a huge debuff to your attacks against Gortash so long as they’re near.

Halfway through his HP, Gortash will use his reaction to use “Invoke the Black Hand.” This reaction will summon aspects of Bane.

Manifestations of Tyranny, as they are called, sit in all corners and give an additional +1 Strength in new patches (or 1d4 Fire damage in older variations). This effect can stack in overlapping areas of effect.

To prevent this from becoming a problem, you’ll want to keep Gortash near the center of the room as much as possible or kill the nearby manifestations with a spare character.

On top of summoning the Manifestations, Gortash’s transition will also give him 150 temporary HP and the ability to use his special attacks:

• Closed Fist of Bane
• Empowered Unarmed Strikes
• Tyrant’s Bindings attacks

This is the point where you should start unleashing everything you have. The longer Gortash lives, the more dangerous this fight becomes.

There is a known and still current bug we’ve encountered with Gortash’s transition as of Patch 7. Though the cause is still unknown, Gortash may continue to use his transition reaction every time he takes damage.

As a result, Gortash becomes immortal with this Honor Mode-ending bug. Putting him to sleep or using Hold Person

does not appear to help. The only solution appears to be a save reset as running and returning is almost certain to end with a near or complete party kill and throwing Gortash off the side of the keep is both near impossible with his stats and sure to end in an End Game with his Netherstone lost.

His base damage was increased in the Patch 3 and Patch 7 updates to Baldur’s Gate, increasing his overall threat but not enough to warrant too much panic.

Just keep your party spread out enough to prevent his multiple-hit spells from working and keep someone out of his range with a method of healing to counteract his damage output. With a good support character, he won’t fare well against your barrage of attacks.

Additionally, a high-level spellcaster with a good DC might be able to use Hold Person

on Gortash, ensuring melee spells do Critical Hits. He is also not immune to Polymorph

.

If you did not follow the guide to shut off his traps or something went wrong, his shield traps will eventually begin malfunctioning.

Any remaining traps will add vulnerabilities to Gortash, so it’s a good idea to keep an eye on his Examination window to keep up with any changes.

As long as you keep aggressive against Gortash and knock out his companions quickly, you should be able to manage Gortash fairly well.

You may need to move a few times to avoid his “Closed Fist of Bane” spell (a spell that takes one full round to activate and can be avoided by running out of its immediate vicinity). Otherwise, you’ll be turning this smooth talker into a smooth puddle in no time.

When he’s defeated, you’ll receive the following items as a reward:

With the Netherstone in your possession, you’ll now be one step closer to putting an end to the Elder Brain and that lie known as the Absolute.