After countless hours, you’ve finally reached the epic final boss in Baldur’s Gate 3, and Larian Studios has quite the fight for you. Even with all party members at level 12, optimal armor and weapons, and a handful of allies, I still found myself at the mercy of the Netherbrain several times. One wasted move, and I was done for.
Taking all that I’ve learned, here are some pointers on how to optimize your battle against the Netherbrain. (Note: Because of the sheer variety of how things can play out, there is no blanket step by step walkthrough, so please take what is useful to your playthrough).
Phase One:
In phase one, you will start on a platform, facing enemies including Mind Flayers, tentacles, and a dragon!
GOAL: Reach the other side of the Netherbrain where the Crown of Karsus is. Fight enemies as necessary, but pour your focus on getting all your party members to the Crown of Karsus ASAP.
TIPS:
- Equip movement spells like Misty Step, Haste, and/or Dimension Door to as many party members as possible, if not all.
- It is best to travel up the side ramps.
- Bring and utilize Potion of Speed. You gain an additional action, but more importantly, more distance you can cover. In more direct terms, this potion granted you the Hastened condition. You can also use Arrow of Transposition to close the distance gap if you don’t have the spells.
- Call upon your allies early on. If anything, it is so the enemies are distracted while you reach the Crown of Karsus. The Hellriders and Dame Aylin proved reliable and are pretty resilient. This requires an action, so I tend to drink a Potion of Speed where I may move, attack, and call on an ally.
- Rely on ranged attacks. Any time I got close for melee, it ended poorly for me (and I was a Fighter class, too). Save up on Arrows of Dragon Slaying and Arrows of Many Targets to use for this phase. For example, when the fight kicked off, my Fighter used the Arrow of Dragon Slaying on the Red Dragon, followed by all my Arrow of Many Targets. With my Action Surge, I shot six arrows in his one turn! Spell wise, utilize AOE ones such as Insect Plague, Cone of Cold, Shatter, Fireball, and Wall of Fire…
- …but reserve your highest spell slots for phase 2!
- Take out the Mind Flayers. They can interfere with whomever is performing Karsus’ Compulsion on the Crown of Karsus.
- The Emperor. In my playthrough, the Emperor was on my side. His abilities are sadly limited, and he gets knocked out/dies pretty easily, so protect him when you can. I read that if you don’t side with the Emperor, he will be an enemy here, and it is important to take care of him early in the fight.
- If you don’t reach the Crown of Karsus in five turns, a Nautiloid will shoot missiles at you. This should be fine–just avoid the highlighted target area (something the NPC allies somehow don’t understand).
- Make sure all your players stay relatively close together by the time you reach the Crown of Karsus. This is where the character with the Nether Stones open a portal to initiate Phase 2 via Karsus’ Compulsion. Now, the battle continues outside the portal, which is why allies are important.
Phase Two:
GOAL: Kill the Netherbrain without killing off the party member with the Netherstones!
TIPS:
- Unleash the most powerful attacks as soon as possible. You only have five turns.
- Stay away from the Orbs of Negation. The bright glowing orbs that highlight various platforms in red, and after a turn, they will explode and destroy those platforms. I have lost many characters this way. One time, a character was simply near the marked platform and fell to their death.
- As long as all your party members join asap, utilize every possible action/bonus action, and don’t get blown into oblivion by an Orb of Negation, you should be successful.
Congratulations! Now you can rest easy as some pretty epic cutscenes play before credits roll.
How was your fight against the Netherbrain? What fate did you choose for it? Please share your thoughts with us on our Boss Rush Facebook Group or our Boss Rush Discord.
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