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Baldur's Gate 3 has a variety of different creatures and enemies that can be encountered, befriended, or fought in combat. Among them are the notorious Harpies, beings known to lure unsuspecting souls towards their demise through angelic-sounding songs.
The Harpies are one of the trickier first encounters that can be stumbled upon in Act 1 of Baldur's Gate 3, so knowing how to best approach the combat is important. During this encounter, you'll also meet a young Tiefling boy named Mirkon, who can be saved from certain doom depending on the actions of your party and your approach in battle.
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How to Find the Harpies in Baldur's Gate 3
To encounter the Harpies in Baldur's Gate 3, you will need to initiate a quest in Act 1 titled Investigate the Beach. This quest can be triggered as soon as you make your way towards Emerald Grove, where the Druids and Tieflings are initially being housed. Once you've reached Emerald Grove, work your way down to the area in which the Druids are participating in the Idol RItual. To the left of this area, there is a gate with a trail that leads up to the cliff overlooking this location.
Follow this path through the gate, and you will notice a trail that splits two ways. Follow the left route down the hill towards the beach. As you move down this path, you will begin to hear a beautiful song, which grows louder as you approach the beach. Finally, at the end of the path, you will notice a young Tiefling boy standing in the water, captivated by this song. Upon noticing him, the Investigate the Beach quest will automatically be triggered and added to your journal. In case you need the direct map location of the beach to help you find your way, feel free to refer to the screenshot below.
At this point, you can leave and come back to the beach later if you need to heal up before combat or purchase some extra items to give yourself an upper hand. However, Investigate the Beach is a time-sensitive quest, so if you take too many long rests, you'll miss out on the opportunity to see it through completely. Once you are ready to take on the Harpies, you will need to make your way back down to the Secluded Cove beach and speak with Mirkon. Upon doing so, you will begin to understand that he is under some sort of mind-altering trance, inflicted by the mysteriously beautiful song. A moment later, a group of Harpies will reveal themselves, and combat will begin.
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How to Defeat the Harpies & Save Mirkon in Baldur's Gate 3, Explained
As combat begins, Mirkon is lured by the song to move closer to the Harpies, who will eventually kill him. This same effect will also take place on any of your party members who fail to succeed in a Wisdom Saving Throw. While under the effects of the Harpy Song, your characters will be unable to take Actions, Bonus Actions, or Reactions, and will be forced to expend their maximum movement hearing towards the Harpies. Party members will have another chance at succeeding or failing the WIS Saving Throw every time their turn occurs in combat, in which if they succeed, they will be snapped out of the trance and able to operate fully. Mirkon also makes these rolls and will use the Disengage Action, beginning to flee to safety with his maximum movement speed per turn in the scenario that he succeeds in his check.
Because this combat involves trying to save both your party members and Mirkon from the song at once, it's important to know the best approach to take. The best option is to play to protect Mirkon at all costs, as he is much squishier and easier to kill than any of your party members who may be affected. In addition to this, you can attempt to break the concentration of any singing Harpies by hitting them with attacks, which when successful, will snap all affected parties out of the trance. Because of this, you should attempt to focus on fire harpies that are singing unless one has swooped into the melee range of Mirkon and become a threat. Remember, worst-case scenario if one of your party members dies, you can use a Scroll of Revivify or Withers to bring them back to life. However, if Mirkon dies, you won't be able to do so.
The second thing to consider in the fight against the Harpies is that much of the terrain is water, which will slow your movement speed. This means that melee-oriented characters may take much longer than usual to close that distance and start dishing out blows, so if you have strong ranged weapons users or Spellcasters, this is the perfect opportunity for them to utilize the high ground available and shine.
You can complete this combat most efficiently by first targeting the initial singing Harpy and continuing to do so until you've killed it off. After doing so, one or more of the other Harpies may also begin to sing, so you should prioritize these next, as to break concentration and stop chances of being lured. For any squishy characters, casters in particular, you will want to keep them away from the melee range of these Harpies as much as possible, as they can be downed relatively easily.
However, the Harpies have a flying speed, which makes it easy for them to swoop down into the range of your party members. For this reason, you'll need to consider the Disengage Action when possible, as this will enable your more delicate party members to reposition themselves away from the Harpies without triggering devastating Opportunity Attacks.
Once you've finally cleared the Harpies, a shaken Mirkon will thank you very much, and insist that you come to speak to Mol at his Tiefling hideout 'the Dragon's Lair', as she will want to thank you for your efforts. However, this hideout is hidden among the layout of Emerald Grove, so to reveal its location, you'll need to speak to another young Tiefling boy by the name of Doni.
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How to Find the Tiefling Hideout & Speak to Mol in Baldur's Gate 3
To find the Tiefling Hideout known as the Dragon's Lair in Baldur's Gate 3, you will need to locate Doni at Emerald Grove. Doni can be found not too far from the entrance of this secret lair, near where Mattis and Silfy can usually be seen running their shop scam.
Click on Doni to speak to him, and when you are given dialogue options, tell him that you would like to see the Dragon's Lair. He will now reveal the secret hatch to you, which you can use to enter the hideout. This hatch will show up on the map and is the small pile of rocks behind Doni, so you shouldn't have any problems finding it now, or later on.
Next, you'll need to enter the hatch and descend the ladder into the Dragon's Lair. In this little makeshift hideout, you'll find a few different orphaned Tiefling kids, who are led by a girl known as Mol. Locate Mol and speak to her, and she will thank you for going out of your way to aid Mirkon, as well as thank you for saving Arabella, and going easy on Silfy when discovering the scam if you have also taken those approaches earlier. Upon chatting to Mol, you will learn that the group of Tiefling kids are gearing up to head into Baldur's Gate, and running these risky scams and theft as a way to make ends meet and eventually reach safety. Here you can choose to donate to their cause if you wish, which Mol will remember later on in the game when you have the opportunity to encounter her again.
Now, there's only one last thing to do. Go ahead and find Mirkon hanging out in the Dragon's Lair, and speak to him. Upon doing so, he will show excitement that you came to visit and explain that Mol told him he should thank you properly. To do so, he has written you a heartwarming little story, which is perhaps one of the best notes you will read during your entire playthrough.
Baldur's Gate 3
- Released
- August 3, 2023
- Developer(s)
- Larian Studios
- Genre(s)
- RPG
- Platform(s)
- PC , macOS , PS5 , Xbox Series X
