Baldurs Gate 3: Escape the Nautiloid walkthrough Baldurs Gate 3 guide, walkthrough
In the first story mission in BG, you will have to escape from the burning Nautiloid ship. During this quest, you can recruit two characters to your team - Laezel and Shadowheart.
Last update: 14 August 2024
After starting a new game in Baldur's Gate 3 and creating a character, you will find yourself aboard the nautiloid, the mind flayers' ship. Due to the clash between the illithids and the githyanki, the ship was transported to hell - you must find a way back. On this page of the guide, we have described how to escape from the nautiloid, recruit the Intellect Devourer Us, the warrior Lae'zel, the cleric Shadowheart and survive the battle on the ship's bridge.
Awakening
You'll wake up in an open mind flayer pod, infected with an illithid tadpole - something you shouldn't worry about until later. First you need to find a way out of the Nautiloid. In the starting room, you will find the corpse of a mind flayer (search it to find a gem you can later sell) and a hatchery. You can investigate the hatchery - a Investigation ability check (DC 10) will reveal that it is unstable and about to explode. If you decide to reach inside, the hatchery will explode, dealing you 1-4 force damage. Fortunately, when you leave the chamber, you will find a regenerating device that will fully heal you. These devices work an infinite number of times on low, medium and high difficulty levels, and only once on the highest, honour mode.
Us - Intellect Devourer
In the next room, notice the elevator in the middle of it. Interact with the mechanism and go up, where you will encounter an individual with a cracked skull and a talkative brain. Talk to it - it's Us, an Intellect Devourer and one of the minor companions available in the game. After a short conversation, you will have two options to choose from:
- Freeing the brain - you must pass an Investigation skill check (DC 10), Strength (DC 10), or Dexterity (DC 10). You only have one try. If you succeed, Us will join your party as a minor companion and will stay with you for the duration of the prologue. Much later, in the last dungeon of act two, you will be able to recruit the brain again, this time permanently. After freeing Us, you will receive another choice, namely a Dexterity skill check (DC 15) - you can perform a lobotomy on the brain to make it more docile. Don't do this - if you fail, the brain will run away and leave you. If you succeed, you will receive no benefits and Us will be permanently weakened.
- Destroying or leaving the brain - you will not be able to recruit the Intellect Devourer, neither during the prologue nor later.
If you have recruited Us, wait about thirty seconds before moving to the next room - the first fight in the game will take place there. The newborn Us suffers from a unique status for half a minute, which weakens it significantly. When the status of the newborn disappears, move on.
Meeting with Lae'zel
In the next room, you'll meet Lae'zel, a githyanki warrior. What initially seems like an unpleasant meeting will quickly turn into an alliance. Lae'zel will join your party, and you will automatically face three imps.
Imps are very weak opponents and with a bit of luck you can eliminate them with one hit. They have no resistances or skills, and can use melee and ranged attacks. Eliminate them - don't use any special skills or spells, catnips and regular attacks will be enough.
Search the corpses in the room (you should find some potions and weapons - axes will come in handy for Strength-based characters like Lae'zel, as throwing them is Strength-based, not Dexterity-based like most other ranged weapons) and head north, climbing along the fleshy nets.
Release Shadowheart
In this room you will find several unconscious cultists connected to a console with three buttons. The left button has no effect, the middle one will make them attack, the right one will instantly kill them. You can also ignore them - they don't give you much experience and they don't have anything valuable on them, just a few pieces of gold.
Shadowheart is trapped in one of the pods in this room. She asks you for help - despite Lae'zel's reservations, it's definitely worth fulfilling her request. To free Shadowheart, you need to find the rune that controls the console nearby. Go to the room to the east. You will find a key next to the body near the entrance (it will open the golden box in the room where Shadowheart is locked - you will get some gold and a gem you can sell). In the open chest at the back of the room you will find several healing potions, and on the corpse next to it you will find the required rune. You can also use the console with another prisoner - interaction will turn the imprisoned into a mind flayer. You don't have to do this - you won't gain anything.
After obtaining the rune, return to Shadowheart and insert the rune into the console next to her pod. An Arcane check (DC 10) will reveal that the console will open the capsule. Touch the console - you must now use the tadpole's power to free Shadowheart. A Wisdom check (DC 2) will open the pod - you can now talk to her and allow the cleric to join your party. Then go to the room to the south - it's time to finish the prologue.
If you ignore Shadowheart, you can still recruit her at the beginning of Act 1, right after getting off the ship. However, she will be furious with you, which will negatively affect her attitude. If you tried to help her but failed the Wisdom skill check, Shadowheart will not be angry, knowing that you tried to help her.
Battle on the bridge
Before entering the bridge, exchange the spells that Shadowheart has access to - if you allow her to prepare the Command spell, you will have the opportunity to acquire an excellent weapon. The default keyboard shortcut for displaying your spells is the K key.
Entering the bridge will start the last fight of the prologue. You have fifteen full turns to reach the console at the other end of the room - interacting with it with any character immediately ends the fight. In practice, however, you have a little less time - Commander Zhalk and the mind flayer are fighting each other inside the room. They are focused only on themselves, but as soon as one of them dies, the other one will attack you - you have no chance against them at the moment. After about five rounds, cambions will also join the fight, appearing at the entrance to the room - don't try to fight them.
If Shadowheart has prepared a Command spell before the fight, you can make the fight much easier by casting Command on Commander Zhalk. Tell him to drop the weapon - if the spell is successful (55% chance, Shadowheart can cast two spells, so you have two attempts), move one of your characters closer and pick up the weapon from the floor. This is the Everburn Blade - a two-handed sword that deals an additional 1-4 fire damage with each attack. Unarmed Zhalk will distract the mind flayer for much longer, and you will obtain an extremely powerful weapon at this point in the game (it is also worth mentioning that although changing weapons in the middle of a fight costs a main action point, transferring items to other party members is completely free).
Press forward, fighting imps. If one of your characters cannot attack in a given turn, use the dash action. You can also search the corpses along the way - most of them have nothing of interest, but the dead mind flayers have gems you can sell. There are also acid tubers scattered around the room, which you can throw at enemies.
Remember that to win, you must interact with the console, not defeat all the enemies. When one of your characters reaches the console and spends an action to interact with it, the fight will end in your victory. The nautiloid crashes, and you will find yourselves on the beach, alive, but with a deadly parasite in your heads. This will end the quest and the prologue - you now need to find the remaining party members scattered on the beach.