Gather your party! A classic saying for the Baldur’s Gate series that still holds true in the third installment. Larian Studios took their time making some interesting characters to accompany you on your journey through the Sword Coast. They even sprinkled in a couple hidden companions for you to pick up, which brings us to today’s topic – how to recruit Minthara in Baldur’s Gate 3.
In this guide, we’ll be going over everything you need to know about recruiting Minthara, the Drow antagonist you meet early on during the battle for the Emerald Grove. Let’s get into it.
Foreword & Warnings
Before we get started, there are a couple of things we need to go over regarding Minthara and this guide. The first thing is that this guide will have spoilers for Act 1 and the beginning of Act 2. The second thing is that Minthara has a lot of bugs surrounding her interactions.
When the game first came out, many people were reporting that Minthara was bugged. A majority of her interactions, story flags, and romance simply didn’t work. While there has been an update that supposedly fixes Minthara, there are still some reports that she’s still a bit bugged.
Not as much as before, but still. It’s just something to keep in mind when deciding to recruit her, as having her join your party doesn’t come without some sacrifices. With that, let’s move on to the actual guide.
Who is Minthara?
Let’s quickly go over who it is exactly that we’re going to be recruiting. Our secret companion is Minthara, a Loth-Sworn Drow classed as an Oath of Vengeance Paladin. If you know anything about Paladins in 5th Edition then you know how effective Minthara is going to be on your team.
The only caveat is that she is currently allied with the Absolute, the god-like people trying to take you out. That and her existence is incompatible with certain party members (we’ll cover that in a bit).
Recruiting Minthara in Baldur’s Gate 3
Act 1
Lucky for those of us with a penchant for evil, Minthara is pretty easy to recruit if you don’t mind ending a couple of innocent lives. The first thing you need to do is find her, which will happen naturally if you’re following the main story.
You’ll find Minthara in the Shattered Sanctum inside the Goblin Camp. Chances are you’ll find yourself coming here to rescue Halsin for the Druid’s Grove or following clues on the Nightsong.
Amusingly, you can kill all the goblins outside the Shattered Sanctum in the Goblin Camp if you want a little extra experience points. Honestly, you can kill some goblins inside the Shattered Sanctum itself as long as you’re careful. The main thing is keeping Minthara herself from going hostile because of your actions.
Do that, and you can get a fair bit of XP for cleansing the Sanctum a bit. No one in the later acts will care that much, and Minthara (given how she feels about goblins) would probably thank you if she weren’t coded to defend them.
Once you finish all your business in the Sanctum and the Emerald Grove, make your way to Minthara and talk to her. Essentially, you need to get Minthara to trust you. This means revealing the location of the Grove to her and letting her read your mind.
After that, simply agree to attack the Grove with her, go there, and Long Rest. Once you wake up you should be met with a cutscene as the two forces get ready to fight. Choose to betray the Tieflings and prepare for some bloody business.
The Price
If you haven’t already realized, recruiting Minthara exacts a heavy price. Not only does it cost the lives of all the inhabitants of the Grove, but it also costs Halsin, another potential companion.
Additionally, Wyll will not tolerate this choice and will actually turn against your party if you side with the goblins. Karlach will also storm off in disgust or refuse to join your party later if you haven’t recruited her yet. You’ll also need to convince Gale not to leave as well (as the slaughter doesn’t sit right with him), but you can keep him as a party member if you pass the necessary checks.
In summary, you’re guaranteed to lose 3 companions (possibly 4) in exchange for recruiting Minthara. If you’re still set on your path, then do what you need to do and enjoy the goblin party waiting for you back at camp.
You can talk to Minthara again at camp for a potential intimate encounter with Minthara, but it’s not necessary to recruit her. It does make it easier, however, as you’ll see in a little bit. Once you decide to go to bed, you’ll be woken up to Minthara trying to kill you in the name of the Absolute. You must convince her to not kill you and reveal her mission, or it will be a fight to the death.
Once you succeed those conditions, you’re off to Act 2 and Moonrise Towers. Do any exploring and questing you need to do and head to the Shadow-Cursed Lands through any method you desire. You should have a couple of options at this point.
Act 2
Once you make it to the Shadow-Cursed Lands, your next objective is to make it to Moonrise Towers to recruit Minthara. If you took her advice and took the Mountain Pass, then it should be straightforward with a single fight stopping you from getting there.
Once you get there, you’ll be met by one of the big baddies of the game Ketheric Thorm. Unfortunately, he’ll be passing judgment on Minthara for failing her primary objective in the forest. Roleplay this any way you want, as Minthara’s fate will always be the same: “re-education” in the prisons.
Once the scene ends, head down the stairs leading to the prisons and save her. You can do this peacefully if you play your cards right. If not, you can kill the two cultists trying to wipe her mind. As long as you keep the door closed and no one sees you, you should be able to maintain your cover in Moonrise with no issues.
After that, you need to get Minthara out of the tower and to safety. The easiest way to do this I found is to cast invisibility on Minthara and walk out the front door. If not, you’ll have to sneak and talk your way out of a couple of situations.
Once you make it far enough, Minthara will initiate a dialogue and tell you she’ll be at your camp. Once you go back to camp, talk to her and she will officially join your team.
Be aware that some people at Moonrise Towers will react to having Minthara in your party since she’s supposed to be in prison. If you want to keep things peaceful, I recommend keeping her at camp while you explore the tower.
Can You Recruit Minthara and Keep Halsin/Wyll/Karlach?
We know that we already mentioned having to sacrifice at least 3 of your companions to recruit Minthara, but there are technically some ways (though convoluted and probably unintended) to recruit Minthara and keep some of your usually lost party members.
That being said, even with these methods, there is no way to have both Halsin and Minthara as party members. It’s exclusively one or the other, which makes sense given the story. While some players have reported having both at the same time, it was only doable by exploiting a bug that has since been patched out.
WARNING: Do not be surprised if these methods lead to some buggy interactions or are rendered obsolete by future patches.
Method 1: Skip the Grove
This method requires you to basically ignore the conflict between the goblins and the grove entirely. As long as you don’t reveal the location of the grove to Minthara (or massacre the grove yourself), Wyll and Karlach will remain with your party.
However, you also can’t wipe out the goblin camp, as doing so will inevitably aggro Minthara. At the moment, knocking her out has the game flag her as being dead, so you need to avoid hostilities with her entirely.
Assuming Minthara is still alive, she should show up in Moonrise Towers in Act 2. At which point, you can go through the same process of saving and recruiting her as mentioned above. However, expect interactions with Minthara to be even more buggy than usual.
Naturally, this method comes with the downside of basically skipping one of the major plots in Act 1. It also effectively condemns the Tiefling refugees to death, as they’re expelled from the grove. This in turn renders it impossible to complete Karlach’s personal quest-line.
Method 2: Temporarily Kill Karlach
Interestingly, you can actually keep Karlach around even if you massacre the grove. However, it involves taking advantage of the game’s programming.
Normally, both Wyll and Karlach will voice their disgust after you attack the grove and leave the party. In the case for Wyll, this is unavoidable and is a scripted event. However, Karlach leaves because her approval score drops too much.
But if Karlach is dead at the time, her conversation to leave the party will be delayed until she’s revived. More importantly, this gives you a chance to raise her approval back to the point where she doesn’t immediately leave.
So this method involves recruiting Karlach first, getting her killed (falling from heights, taking too much damage in battle, etc.), and then siding with the goblins and massacring the grove while Karlach is still dead.
Once you’re done with your evil act, you can then go about raising Karlach’s approval again before reviving her. The easiest way to do this is to hold off on petting Scratch at camp until this point, but there are also a couple of other camp conversations that can raise Karlach’s approval even while she’s dead.
Conclusion & Possible Changes
Minthara is a cool companion that brings a unique perspective to your adventuring crew. Filling the role of your resident “evil” companion, Minthara has a lot more shades of gray than you might expect. She’s pretty bloodthirsty, but anyone who knows how Drow society works will see that a romanced Minthara is unusually caring given what her placement in Drow society would be.
It’s honestly a shame recruiting Minthara asks for such a heavy price, as most players will likely pass on adding her to their party because of how much they need to sacrifice. There is a mod in the works that supposedly changes plot flags for Minthara to allow her to be recruited by “good” players, but with Minthara herself still being slightly bugged, it might be a while before that mod is finished.
Additionally, it’s not impossible that Larian Studios adds a patch later on fleshing out more options to recruit Minthara without resulting to evil (or convoluted) methods. They have already shown an extreme commitment to improving the game still based upon player feedback, as demonstrated with the new expanded ending for Karlach. Just make sure your voice is heard on official channels, such as their forums.
Join the High Ground!
And that’s how you recruit Minthara in Baldur’s Gate 3. Have you recruited her in any of your playthroughs of the game? Is she worth the loss of your other companions?
Let us know in the comments below and don’t forget to subscribe for more content like this in the future. Happy adventuring!
Baldur's Gate 3 Navigation
- Baldur’s Gate 3: Way Of The Open Hand Monk Guide
- Baldur’s Gate 3: Assassin Rogue Build Guide
- Baldur’s Gate 3: Evocation Wizard Build Guide
- Baldur’s Gate 3: Storm Sorcerer Build Guide
- Baldur’s Gate 3: Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer Build
- Baldur’s Gate 3: College of Valour Bard Build Guide
- Baldur’s Gate 3: College of Lore Bard Build Guide
- Baldur’s Gate 3: Tempest Domain Cleric Build Guide
- Baldur’s Gate 3: The 5 Best Multiclass Builds
- Baldur’s Gate 3: The Best Starting Build for Bards
- Baldur’s Gate 3: Life Domain Cleric Build Guide
- Baldur’s Gate 3: Light Domain Cleric Build Guide
- The 3 Best Weapons for Paladins in Baldur’s Gate 3
- 6 Best Weapons for Barbarians in Baldur’s Gate 3
- Adamantine Forge Tier List For Baldur’s Gate 3
- 5 Best Gloves for Monks in Baldur’s Gate 3
- The Best Shields in Baldur’s Gate 3
- The 8 Best Heavy Armor Sets in Baldur’s Gate 3, Ranked
- The 5 Best Light Armor Sets in Baldur’s Gate 3, Ranked
- The 7 Best Medium Armor Sets in Baldur’s Gate 3, Ranked
- Best Weapons For Fighters in Baldur’s Gate 3, Ranked
- Baldur’s Gate 3: The 4 Best Feats for Paladins
- Baldur’s Gate 3: The 10 Best Feats for Warlocks
- Baldur’s Gate 3: The 10 Best Feats for Monk
- Baldur’s Gate 3: The 10 Best Feats for Rogue
- Baldur’s Gate 3: The 10 Best Feats for Druid
- Baldur’s Gate 3: The 10 Best Feats for Wizard
- Baldur’s Gate 3: The 10 Best Feats for Barbarian
- Baldur’s Gate 3: The 10 Best Feats for Sorcerer
- Baldur’s Gate 3 – Best Feats for Ranger
- Baldur’s Gate 3: The 10 Best Feats for Fighters
- Baldur’s Gate 3: The 10 Best Feats for Bards
- Baldur’s Gate 3: The 10 Best Feats for Clerics
- In Search of Romance? Here Are the Best Ones in Baldur’s Gate 3
- How to Access the Underdark in Baldur’s Gate 3
- Baldur’s Gate 3: How to Beat the Goblin Camp
- Baldur’s Gate 3: How to Save & Recruit Halsin
- Baldur’s Gate 3 – How to Cool Down Karlach
- Baldur’s Gate 3: How to Beat Marcus & Save Isobel
- Baldur’s Gate 3: How to Recruit Minthara
- Baldur’s Gate 3: The Best Companions
- Baldur’s Gate 3: Strongest Classes and Subclasses, Ranked
- Baldur’s Gate 3 – The Best Beginner Classes
- Baldur’s Gate 3 – Top 10 Beginner Tips
- 6 Best Paladin Spells in Baldur’s Gate 3
- Baldur’s Gate 3: The 10 Best Spells for Druid
- Baldur’s Gate 3: The 10 Best Spells for Wizard
- Baldur’s Gate 3: The 10 Best Spells for Sorcerer
- Baldur’s Gate 3 – Best Spells for Ranger
- 10 Best Bard Spells in Baldur’s Gate 3
- Baldur’s Gate 3: The 10 Best Cleric Spells
- The 10 Best Starting Spells in Baldur’s Gate 3
- The 10 Best Cantrips in Baldur’s Gate 3, Ranked
You must sign in to comment.
Don't have an account? Sign up here!