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Hey there, Gamers!
Welcome to Hardcore Gamer’s Dank Crypt guide, the first of our dungeon guide series forBaldur’s Gate 3. The Dank Crypt is the first dungeon you can come across in Baldur’s Gate 3 - the closest of its entrances is just a short walk along the beach from where you spawn after crashing the Nautiloid in Act 1.
There are two ways to get into the Dank Crypt - the locked door on the beach, or through the Ancient Chapel to the north.
If you opt to go through the locked door on the beach, make sure that you at least have a party member or two with you before you go inside. Astarion, Gale, and Shadowheart are all nearby, with other party members not too far away either.you may find all party members with our helpful companion locations guide!
While the encounters themselves are not all that difficult (unless you’re on Honor mode), you will want extra hands along the way for thePerception checks. That said, having the extra firepower is going to be immensely helpful - especially depending on the routes you choose throughout this dungeon. Although some paths may involve less fighting than others, it is recommended that you tackle all the fights within this dungeon for a nice little chunk of experience.
Speaking of experience, it is recommended that you tackle this dungeon at least at level 2. If you aren’t level 2 yet, explore around a little bit! It will not take you long to level.
Part 1a: The Ancient Door
If you choose to go through the beach door, you will begin the dungeon in an exceedingly trapped room with a sarcophagus in the center of the area. You will need a dab hand at Lockpicking - so bring Astarion if your Tav/Durge isn’t proficient, to save on Thieves' Tools. TheDifficulty Classof this Lockpicking skill check alone is a staggering 20, so if you don’t have a lot of Thieves' Tools (and you can’t save scum), then you should consider taking the other path (details below).
Before you touch it - yes, the sarcophagus in the center is also trapped.
This room is the main reason why having multiple party members is nice. Multiple party members means multiple Perception checks, making our lives easier, so we do not have to guess where the traps are. However, if, for some reason, you fail the Perception check 4 times, then you should know that there are traps between every pillar in the room, and vents towards the front and back of the room that will let out poison gas if activated.
To navigate this room, you should move slowly. There’s a bit of a delay between the time it takes for your character to get somewhere and for the skill check to roll and tell you what’s going on, so give the game some time to resolve these things by moving from place to place slowly.
Once you reach the sarcophagus, utilize Astarion or Tav/Durge (whoever has better Lockpicking) to disarm the trap on the Sarcophagus. Once you do so, you can loot the Sarcophagus in the center.
None of the other sarcophagi around the room are trapped, but they are surrounded by traps. Be careful, but make sure to loot them - there’s a Soul Coin in it for your troubles.
Once you’ve finished with this room, you may move on to Part 3 of this guide. Next, we will discuss the second route.
Part 1b: The Chapel
Getting access to the Dank Crypt from this position will require more fighting than the first, as bandits have settled into the Chapel hoping to loot the Nautiloid crash site. When you first get to the Chapel, there will be four bandits in the area - two in the raised areas (a rogue and a mage), and then two in the center, standing atop a cracked floor.
Now, you can choose to talk to these guys. The bandits won’t attack you right from the start, and you can convince these guys to scurry along if you do not want to fight them. If you do, however, it’s easy experience.
Instead of fighting all of them head on, love yourself a little byshooting the rope holding the cement brickdirectly above the two NPCs in the center of the map. This will do 50 damage to both NPCs and break a hole through the floor - which is useful later on.
Deal with the mage and rogue after this, and then head down to the door - or use the floor hole to gain access to the next area.
Part 2: Getting Inside the Chapel
If you head to the door, you will have a fun little dialogue cutscene with the rest of the bandits currently inside the Chapel. One of them will talk to you through the door. You can convince him to let you inside with aDeceptionor aPerformanceskill check - whichever one is better for you. You will be attacked immediately upon entering the Chapel however you decide to enter, but if you convince the doorman to let you in, he will at least beSurprisedand you will be able to quickly dispatch of him before taking on the rest of the bandits beyond.
The first room within the Chapel will be completely safe if you use aDeceptionorPerformanceskill check to get inside. This will give you some time to loot the surrounding area, take a short rest, and prepare to fight the rest of the NPCs just beyond the closed door in the room.
The door is opened only by activating a lever on the wall, and once it is opened the other bandits will be able to attack you through it. So, take this time to position your party around the door so that you can take cover and whittle down the enemy as safely as possible. This is what my positioning looked like before I flipped the lever:
I have Gale, Shadowheart, and Astarion with me. Have Gale and Shadowheart to the sides, and AstarionHidingnear the door so that he can useSneak Attack(Ranged)on one of the enemies inside. This encounter is a bit tougher than the one you had outside, so be careful and don’t forget to move your characters back into cover to lure the NPCs closer to you.
Use Gale’sGreaseto slow the bandits down, if you have him in your party. They may knock themselves Prone by slipping on the Grease. If this happens, take advantage of Grease’s flammability to do some extra fire damage to these enemies.
If you look further behind the bandits, you will also see that there’s an explosiveOil Barrel. You can hit it with fire damage to cause an explosion, but starting the fight with this may not hit as many bandits as you would have liked.
Once you have eliminated all the bandits, you will be free to explore the Library just beyond the encounter hall. At the very back of the Library is a statue, and if you go around that you will find a button you can press (as long as you pass the Perception checks). Press it, and you will unlock the third area of the Dank Crypt. From the hallway you spawn into, you can go either right or left - right will take you to the Sarcophagus room described in Part 1 of this guide. Left will take you to Jergal’s Temple.
Part 3: Jergal’s Temple
Jergal’s Temple is the final area of the dungeon and has a significant encounter, as well as an interesting side room. Immediately upon entering, you will see not only that there is a sunlit statue of Jergal himself towards the back of the room, but also inactive skeletons that you may loot around the room.
The enemies will not attack you just yet, so you can explore this room (without pressing any buttons) and loot the jugs and corpses around the area as you please. This would be a good time to use aShort Rest, if you haven’t already.
As you come into Jergal’s Temple, you will see a door to the left side of the room. you’re able to safely go through it - do so. If you pass aPerceptioncheck, you will notice a strange book in the room. We recommend that you use either Shadowheart, Gale, or a magically-inclined Tav/Durge to interact with the book, as it has a pretty nasty series of skill checks you need to perform just to read the book. We used Gale, who can open the book magically with a moderately difficultIntelligenceskill check (which is no problem for our Wizard).
Once you’ve done your thing with the book, you may come back to the main room and head over to the statue of Jergal. Facing the statue, you will go to the left around it and find a button on the wall that you can press. Doing so will activate a tough encounter, awakening all the skeletons in the room,which we discussed over in our Withers guide. We recommend that you take out the Scribe enemies first.
Once you have completed the encounter, all you have to do now is go into the hidden room behind the statue and collect the true prize of this dungeon - Withers himself.
The direct opposite side of the room from the door with the strange book will have a ladder you may use to leave the dungeon quickly. Doing so will put you on the path to potential treasure - if you pass the Survival check.
