Despite its renowned name, Baldur's Gate 3, players only reach the eponymous Baldur's Gate city in act three. Baldur's Gate doesn't disappoint. The city itself is so expansive, with countless shops and NPCs going about their busy lives, that the game's performance at launch was challenged at this point in the story.

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Long since patched, there's no reason not to explore every nook and cranny in Act Three. But even the most curious players may miss some of these well-hidden locations. With this list, parties get an itinerary of places to explore off the beaten path.

Updated February 13, 2024, by Nyah Payne: The beloved RPG, Baldur's Gate 3, planted itself firmly in the video game hall of fame in December 2023 when it won Game of the Year, alongside a number of other accolades. But Larian hasn't stopped there, adding new epilogue content, bringing the game to Xbox Series X/S, and adding a new hardest difficulty, among regular patches. Whether a new player looking for all the cool places to explore or an Honour Mode player looking for a new advantage, these areas remain worth checking out.

11 Upper City Sewers

Hidden Tactical Option For Approaching The Final Battles

• Location: Upper City Sewers
• Quests: Confront The Elder Brain
• Loot: N/A
• NPCs: Stalker Svignee

As a location, the purpose of the upper city sewers is to provide perceptive players with a tactical advantage in the pivotal final battles. En route to confronting the netherbrain, players usually have to progress through a courtyard battle with a spectator, ogre, several mindflayers, and some powerful cultists.

However, this can be bypassed entirely by taking a secret route through the upper city sewers. Players will still need to do battle with a small group of enemies, including a powerful Death Knight, but it is nowhere near as challenging as the courtyard fight, allowing players to better conserve their strength for the final battle.

10 Abandoned Windmill

Unassuming Locked Windmill

• Location: Rivington
• Quests: Feed The Mind Flayer
• Loot: Ring Of Truthfulness
• NPCs: Newborn Mind Flayer

The location of this building isn't hard to miss, acting as a bit of a landmark in Rivington. However, it can fall under a player's radar since it doesn't seem important. Players also need to go to the effort of picking the lock on its door, or at least breaking it down.

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It can also be hard to find quests leading players towards the windmill, although there is an interesting one to be found inside. Down the trapdoor, players encounter a newborn mindflayer who wants its food. Players can either give it the food or kill it, and receive a lovely ring for the latter.

9 Old Garlow's Place

Players Are Told Not To Enter

• Location: Lower City
• Quests: Avenge The Hag Survivors; Help The Hag Survivors
• Loot: Fey Semblance Amulet
• NPCs: Mayrina

This dilapidated building can also fly under the radar. The crumbling building has been deemed unsafe for habitation by city bylaw, and players are told not to enter.

Of course, that and the hushed voices inside are likely to spur on curious players, but law-abiding heroes may not want to force their way in. That would be a shame, as the inhabitants could use a hero. Inside, players will find a group of hag survivors, potentially including Act One's Mayrina. They need help dealing with the resurgence of the green hag, Auntie Ethel.

8 The Iron Throne

Accessed By Talking To a Specific Character

• Location: Lower City, Flymm Cargo Basement
• Quests: The Grand Duke, Rescue The Grand Duke, Save The Gondians, Retrieve Omeluum
• Loot: Mace +1
• NPCs: Duke Ulder Ravenguard (Determinant); Omeluum (Determinant)

This unique area is quite difficult to access, as there is only one specific way for players to get there. The Iron Throne (not the Game of Thrones version) is an underwater prison run by Enver Gortash to keep the families of his workers hostage, ensuring their servitude.

Players can break into the Flymm Cargo warehouse. In the basement, they will find a dwarf called Redhammer, who can use his submersible to take players to the underwater prison. This activates arguably the most challenging limited turn challenge in the game, as players attempt to save prisoners from the sinking Iron Throne.

7 The Blushing Mermaid Basement

Hidden Secret Entrance

• Location: Lower City, The Blushing Mermaid
• Quests: Save Vanra; Avenge The Hag Survivors
• Loot: Ring Of Feywild Sparks
• NPCs: Auntie Ethel, Vanra

Speaking of Auntie Ethel, players delving into her case (or that of the missing child, Vanra) will likely find their clues leading back to The Blushing Mermaid. Auntie Ethel can even reveal herself here, having been disguised as the patron of Captain Grisly. When looking for her hideout, the tiny basement appears suspicious.

However, the entrance to her lair is well hidden. Players must climb onto the barrels to discover an inconspicuous ledge. As is expected with Auntie Ethel's trickery, there's also an invisible wall that players will have to approach to reveal and walk through.

6 Szarr Palace

Hard To Find Without A Specific Party Member's Assistance

• Location: Lower City
• Quests: The Pale Elf, Investigate Cazador's Palace
• Loot: Szarr Family Ring, Kozakuran Dictionary, Helmet Of Grit
• NPCs: Cazador Szarr

The Szarr Palace is the hidden hideout of Astarion's old vampire master, Cazador. Players can uncover its location by talking to a pair of vampire spawn in Fraygo's Flophouse. However, they can also stumble upon it if they ascend the watchtower on Baldur's Gate's central wall, right by the Lower City Central Wall waypoint.

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Progressing to the inner sanctum of the palace can be challenging, especially if players don't have Astarion in their party. Getting through the door requires the Szarr Family Ring, obtained by fighting a skeleton called Godey; and a Kozakuran Dictionary, found in the guest room tainted by a cursed corpse.

5 Sorcerous Vault

Jump Through Magical Hoops and Trickery

• Location: Sorcerous Sundries
• Quests: Unlock The Ancient Tome, The Wizard Of Waterdeep
• Loot: Hellfire Greataxe, Pyroquickness Hat, The Annals Of Karsus, Foebreaker
• NPCs: Yafeu

The Sorcerous Vault, in the Sorcerous Sundries arcane tower, is a magical rabbit warren of hidden rooms and secrets. The vault can be accessed by pressing the vault weave button at the top of the tower, usually after battling Lorroakan. Alternatively, players can get in by interacting with the clasped book in the locked room on the second floor of Sorcerous Sundries. Players will want to unlock the Elminster and Karsus vaults, but that can require a lot of trial and error.

For the Elminster vault, go through the 'silverhand,' 'evocation,' then 'wish' doors. For the Karsus vault, go through 'silverhand,' 'abjuration,' then 'silver.' Alternatively, players can skip the ordeal by casting 'Knock'. Players can also head through the 'silverhand' door and destroy the 'illusion' door to find the powerful Hellfire Greataxe. Finally, there are secret walls in both parts of the transitional hallways, where players can find a library and a peculiar djinni's lamp.

4 The Jungle Of Chult

Cheat At a Rigged Game To Find This Place

• Location: Circus Of The Last Days
• Loot: Nyrulna, Band Of The Mystic Scoundrel
• Enemies: Chult Alioramus

The Jungle of Chult is another unusual location that requires a specific interaction. But this one is even harder to find, as the interaction has no connection to any quest. In the Circus of the Last Days in Rivington, players can encounter a djinni called Akabi, who runs a rigged 'spin the wheel' game thanks to his magic ring.

Should players fix the game, either by stealing his ring or distracting him and fudging the wheel, the enraged djinni will banish players to this hostile jungle. It may not be as bad as it sounds, though. Players can find notable loot like the trident Nyrulna, or the Band of the Mystic Scoundrel before they escape.

3 Guildhall

Hidden Location Guarded By NPCs

• Location: Lower City Sewers
• Quests: Aid The Underduke; The High Harper; Find Mol; Free Orpheus
• Loot: Drunken Cloth, Shade-Slayer Cloak
• NPCs: Nine-Fingers Keene; Mol

The underground Guildhall that harbors the Guild presence in Baldur's Gate is, naturally, well hidden. Players can access it from above ground via an alleyway guarded by guild members. However, unless players have already aided the Guild in the 'Aid The Underduke' quest, they will have to talk their way through or risk a tough fight.

There is also a sewer hole near the Basilisk Gate waypoint, which can provide access. Smash through the eastern wall and follow it to a locked door, picking the lock in order to gain entry to the Guildhall bar.

2 Angleiron's Cellar

Inaccessible Without Completing an Obscure Act Two Quest

• Location: Rivington
• Quests: Avenge The Ironhands; Deal With The Gnomes; Disable The Steel Watch
• Loot: Thunderpalm Strikers, Martial Exertion Gloves, Nimblefinger Gloves
• NPCs: Barcus Wroot, Wulbren Bungle

Angleiron's Cellar is completely inaccessible if players neglect to rescue the Ironhand Gnomes from the Moonrise Towers basement prison in Act Two. This quest involves a tough fight to reach the prisons and free the prisoners, and players are likely to prioritize a frontal attack on the Towers to kill Ketheric.

As a result, many players may be unaware that this location exists. For those who did rescue the gnomes, their cellar hideout can be accessed via a cave at X:30 Y:30 in Rivington. It leads under the Rivington General, and there is a trapdoor in the hideout that can be opened for easy access between the store and the cellar.

1 The Wyrmway

Requires Specific Interaction with Otherwise Ordinary Statues

• Location: Wyrm's Rock Prison
• Quests: The Blade Of Frontiers
• Loot: Balduran's Giantslayer, Helm Of Balduran
• NPCs: Ansur

The Wyrmway is renowned in the Baldur's Gate community for being almost impossible to find. There is one way to get some idea about its location in the game itself: by completing Wyll's quest to save his father, Duke Ravenguard, with the Grand Duke alive and well.

For those who may not have managed to save the Duke, The Wyrmway can only be accessed by shooting the two innocuous dragon statues in the Wyrm's Rock Prison with lightning damage. This opens up the cavernous Wyrmway, the many trials within, and its awe-inspiring inhabitant.

Baldur's Gate 3

Released

August 3, 2023

Developer(s)

Larian Studios

Genre(s)

RPG

Platform(s)

PC , macOS , PS5 , Xbox Series X