Act 1: Underdark Revisited
Step-by-Step Walkthrough
- Head towards where you went to find Baelen, but take a left instead
- Start killing hook horrors, try to move forward slowly to get 1 or 2 at a time. The Bulette pops up here sometimes, but usually attacks hook horrors then disappears
- Head to the beach now to deal with the Duergar
- You can talk your way through and avoid the fight if you want. I'm not entirely sure whose side they take during the Nere fight since I usually kill them, or maybe they don't even go over to Grymforge so it might be safe. We convince half the dwarves to take our side during Nere anyway. I would suggest doing this fight when you have a level 3 spell slot on Shadowheart for spirit guardians. The guy spawns like 6 zombies and it really helps. If you still have rests and no spell slots (like me), I would suggest going to kill Minthara first then come back after a rest. Remember to go up to the goblin camp via Selunite outpost ladder, so you don't aggro every goblin outside.
- For Minthara, this is a strategy you should get used to. Get near where she is but don't start a conversation or fight yet. Put the game in turn based mode, cast twinned haste with Lae'zel on Astarion and MC. Then switch to MC and start the fight. In a bigger fight, you can also cast spirit guardians during this, but since we don't need it this fight, just cast haste and start the fight. Dealing with those eyeballs on HM is a pain. I think booming blade damages it, but you can also just have Astarion throw it into the pit. Sometimes the aiming is a bit weird, but just move around the cursor until you see a skull with the word death, then throw it. Either way is good, whatever opportunity pops up first lol. Once we kill Minthara, we can do the Tiefling party. This lets us go through the mountain pass and back without worrying that the goblins will kill the tieflings. It's also a free full heal (not long rest, but you get your health back). So you can go back and forth to get your health back after every fight if you want. Mountain pass also opens up a bunch of small fights so that we can easily get to level 6 before we go after Ethel/Grymforge/etc.
- After Minthara is dead, go talk to Halsin to send him home. Then go trigger the Tiefling party at the grove. Equip the MC with Minthara's armour. I gave him the Water sparklers from the chest behind her as well, but that's just because he was wearing plain boots, they aren't used for the build or anything.
- Grab the Sussur bark from the tree near the hook horrors. Go to blighted village, head into the door across from the waypoint (there's a key in the house above)Make the sussur bark weapon in the forge for some quick xp
- Head back into the village and go down the well. We can take down the spider queen. Make sure to get the spiderstep boots from the left path. I would sneak and try to take out all the eggs since it's HM, less to deal with during the fight is always better.I would start the fight by shooting out the web beneath him, he will fall and take a decent amount of damage. If he crawls onto another web during the fight, do the same thing. Otherwise mostly straightforward fight. He killed my Lae'zel in 1 hit so unless you want to cast haste and keep her way back, probably not worth it.Make sure to grab the dark amethyst at the bottom when the fight is over. Use this on the necromancy of thay. Since it needs wisdom checks and the spells you get, I would just have Shadowheart do it. Astarion is another option, but since he's monk, his actions are better spent punching.
- We could do some of those other fights now, but it's HM so the strategy is to always do the easier stuff first. So head to the beach and fight the Duergar.I start this fight twinned haste, spirit guardians, and Astarion using Flurry of Blows on Gekh. In HM I'm not usually strong enough to kill him before he summons the zombies, but spirit guardians makes them much more manageable. With haste and initiative rolls, you can still kill him before the summons, just depends on luck. Turn in the quest to Sovereign.
- After killing the Duergar, you can bring Glut here and kill him as well.
- We can kill the Zentarim in their hideout as well for some xp. I know we made friends with them, but not really gonna do anything with them the rest of the game, so might as well get some xp. General strategy, go into turn based mode, have Astarion push Zarys to the bottom and then ignite the oil with fire bolt. That should kill them all, if not they'll be very weak. There's another fight if you keep going to the back, it's pretty basic though, no strat needed. A couple of humans a 2 wolves.
- At this point, the rest of the stuff in the first area's will be easier at 6. There is a lot we can do in Grymforge and creche that is easier and will get us to 6. So make sure you're healed a bit and use the boat to Grymforge.
- For the dwarves that meet on the water, you can either fight them or not. Because of the Nere fight, I usually kill them here. I think these one's join Nere's side, but I don't remember. One of them is a merchant, but he doesn't sell anything we need so it's fine to kill him here. Make sure to loot everything before you sail on.
- At this point in the wilderness and underdark we have:
- Goblin camp fight - will come back at level 6
- Ethel - will come back at level 6
- Owl bear - will come back at level 6
- Nere - will come back at level 6
- Grym - will come back at level 7