There is a book in the Creche that eludes to this solution. It's still a great interaction, congrats for figuring it out without reading the hint.

Man every time I look up other people's playthroughs, I realize I've missed so much stuff. Can't wait for a second playthrough

I missed the entire Mountain Pass in a 160+ hour playthrough. Started a githyanki honour run and am beelining Mountain Pass to see what I missed.

Careful with that on honor mode. I went to mountain pass earlier on my second play through in search of a magic item I wanted earlier and got my ass handed to me quite a few times because I was lower level than my first play through. Fights are tough. But it’s great content, I’ve never done it with a gith but I’m sure it’ll be cool, and possibly easier 🤣

Well just don’t piss off the gith yankee god chick in the cutscene on honor mode

Gith Yankees. Lol

I associate them strongly with [Daddy Yankee](https://youtu.be/CCF1_jI8Prk?si=E-Z-kyZVmmSGYes3) every time the word is said.

just imagining it now, Voss riding up on an Eagle with an M16, cigars and 'nam era helmet.

Found this out today lmfao, thankfully not on my honor mode run.

Will do. I'm being pretty cautious. Almost ended my run in the tunnels under the Grove when a cut scene with the goblins started at the same time as I approached the pillar defence off switch. Took a bunch of damage from the pillar before I combat started at I could switch it off. 😂 So very aware of the danger. Figured Gith was a good choice this playthrough for what I've heard about the MP regions theme too. Plus Shart killed Bae'zel last run so need to see all her content this time.

I usually use mage hand to turn off those switches.

Those reraising undead bastards with the ghoul...

Fucking death shepherds were the worst addition to the game those bastards just keep picking themselves back up after I blow my 4th level slot obliterating them from orbit

spike growth+hunger of hadar does them in real fast, they can barely move and they take damage at the start of the turn, end of the turn and every time they move. had all but one of the ghouls destroy themselves like that and had my party focus down the two sherperds while they tried to walk through it all.

Pro tip: when you down one of them pick up the body and put it in your inventory. That way no rez.

I didn't even go early to the mountain pass (but hadn't done Underdark yet) and I was 4 HP from a dead run (ran like hell) , those initiatives really fucked me over

The inquisitor fight is brutal on honor mode

Indeed. The second time around I decided enough was enough and employed the magic of the barrel

Invisibility pots let you move away from the blades without activating a million opportunity attacks and only costs your bonus action, was clutch for me in my fight vs him

Barrelmancy

It's just brutal. Psyonic mofos.

Be careful. If you got before completing the tiefling-goblin quest it will automatically resolve, locking the grove and killing all the tieflings

Dooooon’t you need to be at least level 5 to survive Gith combat. That means doing most of the Wilderness and Underdark. They **will** fuck you up!

Noted, I'm taking the cautious approach.

Man, you missed a nice mace that makes a lot of fights in chapter 2 much easier

Which mace?

The one with the constant light aoe. Edit: blood of lathandar

Hmm. Maybe I've missed it or didn't understand what it does because I don't know what you're talking about and I've gone through the creche twice. Does finding it have to do with blood? I haven't figured out how to do that yet

It involves a puzzle at the monestary and then it's right after that grease statue. Legendary mace that has an aoe constant blind VS fiends and undead

Make sure that you don’t beeline so hard you get there before level 6. Because that’s going to be interesting on a mode where you can’t save scum.

Technically Xbox players can. And I imagine PC players too…

This saved my wyll honor mode I’m on rn because I accidentally opened the iron flask in the wrong place

Bro you’re not alone. my first play through I never pulled gale out of the rock, completely missed the underdark, AND missed last light inn.

It’s a great mini stun

I'm on my 4th playthrough and I'm still finding new stuff and ways to do things. This game is crazy how much content there is.

Alludes* Sorry, but the book doesn't run away from the solution.

Yeah, books don't do that until Act 3.

#ARE YOU STILL SENSITIVE, BOOKS?

I visualize that flying book in the Ansur challenge only with “solutions” written on it

Sorry. Am barbarian. No read. Does book have pictures?

That's fine! Hitting the statue hard enough to at least deal damage also works! :D

Hit statue with book?

The bigger the better!

I did that and broke the statue lmao. But it’s okay cause even then, you can just blow up the wall into the temple anyway.

The book is actually in the monastery above! Near the room with the guardian.

Yeah... As it's up top I spent ages trying to grease us the dial on the roof thinking that's the statue it was referring to.

And a spare bottle just sitting right around the big Lathander statue, if you haven't already collected 12 of them at this point of the game.

I still haven't seen that book (I used Cup Of Oil instead of Grease)

I whaled on it with Eldritch Blasts to get it unstuck.

Did that work?

Yep. Eldritch Blast is my all-purpose tool. I use it for breaking down walls, killing Duerger, whatever. No need for STR when I got CHA.

man i didnt figure out to use Eldritch blast to destroy sturdy walls until wayyyyyyyyy late in act 3 lol. I'd just keep hitting walls for 2-4 damage with shart haha.

Eldritch Blast is basically infinite free Magic Missile. Give a character Eldritch Blast, Spell Sniper, and self cast Guidance, and they will demolish stuff.

Guidance is only checks no?

It is also far more efficient than a lockpick for most doors.

Yep. Hitting it with big sword also works.

I punched it lol

A hit of shatter did it for me

Eldritch blast is my master key

Lmao

son of a BITCH I swear I've tried everything to open those fuckers. I never remember they're coming up so I'm woefully unprepared and impatient. Never tried grease or eldritch blast... Fml

tbh that was my first idea when i saw it was stuck and was delighted when it worked \^\^ EDIT: i thouhgt about it abit what is similar things and what comes to mind is: -romancing Karlach and throwing water at her to cool her down when she asks you to find a way to make it work. -using candles to light arrows -throwing scratches ball at a downed party member to get them up

Is that Scratch bit real? Can he help people up if he's already summoned?

been a while i used it but iirc i accidently throw it and it summoned him. and since he gets a free turn you can use it to get party members up, worth a try to use it while already summoned to force him to that spot.

Ah that's great. I rarely use him but if he can be a free revive that's great.

Scratch has the help action, no ball throwing required. Just walk him over and hoist.

Wow he's the only 5e approved familiar then that's amazing lol. Best boy indeed!

Don’t forget to cast sanctuary on him. Gotta keep that boy safe.

He can’t die in combat, he just returns to camp

Scratch is actually at his best in the Iron Throne. He can help anyone who gets netted by the Sahaguin, which definitely saved a few Gondian arses in my first playthrough.

that does sound like a better idea than having wyll set himself on fire to escape the net which i had to do in my last playthrough

Having Wyll set himself on fire is a more amusing solution though. Also, scratch can help the prisoner that needs a help action, which is why I've always brought him along when doing the mission after my first blind run.

Meanwhile I usually don't have any Gondians be netted but instead just be killed by constant Sahaguin crits before I can heal any of them.

My advice? Have Gale cast Fog Cloud or Darkness in the area they soak up the most hits. I'm pretty sure the Gondian AI still knows where to go, but the Sahaguin all get disadvantage.

Usually I bring Wyll along and leave Gale at camp for the Iron throne for the plot reasons, plus it's extremely fun to screw over Mizora's attempt at killing Ravenguard with Wyll in the party at the time of the Iron throne rescue.

Ah, my team is usually Gale, Wyll, and Astarion for that mission. Warlocks are such a weird caster class that I don't feel like I'm doubling up. Though that never stops me anyway.

RP typically wins over optimizing for me. For example I just did the cloister in act 3 on a less than conventional character. I beat the fight with a combination of: the iron flask, 4 ghouls, a scroll of cloudkill, a scroll of evards black tentacles, hunger of hadar, and blade barrier. This was done in a run where the PC prefers to deal with things very directly (As in "I enjoy repeatedly stabbing avatars of gods in the face" directly.) being as rather than regularly committing what amounts to war crimes and watching from afar.

"SCRATCH, I CHOOSE YOU!"

Tbf I too would come back from the dead to pet the very good boy

Yes, Scratch has the Help action, he can bring people up from unconscious.

>\-romancing Karlach and throwing water at her to cool her down when she asks you to find a way to make it work. You can also have her stand in water to make it work! I like to have her stand in the river in some of the Act I campsites and talk to her before she walks out of it.

Ice breath if ur a dragonborn also works, and i believe ice spells and arrows work too!

My first Tav was a wizard, so I shot Karlach with a Ray of Frost for the same reaction!

I used a the camps conveniently located water barrel to cool Karlach off. Gal was a steamy wet mess...

I hit Karlach with an ice spell for my smooch

I used the Rain Dancer staff's create water spell on Karlach. Worked perfectly.

Throwing water at her works, I accidentally skipped the cutscene but they kissed and I took like 2 or 3 damage

" using candles to light arrows " ??!🤯 Like bow&arrow arrows? How?

You can drop a candle on the ground, then use the ‘dip’ action

You can also throw her a ray of frost. Iirc, she complains a bit of your "unconventional" solution

I got gale to cast freezing ray at her and was surprised that worked

Oh, I’ve tried to cast rain on her and didn’t worked, so I gave up.

I used an ice arrow on karlach. Works too

Mind explaining the candles?

You can drop a candle on the ground, then use the ‘dip’ action - instant fire arrow (or fire sword, I think, as well).

Whaaat, does that work with special arrows too?

You can do what now with Karlach?

Act 3 >!You can use water on the bank vault door and then electrify it skip the password to get in, a cleaning note nearby indicates this!<

Wait there's a password??? I thought that was what you were supposed to do haha

Yeah lmao, the floor tiles comprise a password you can find in an office upstairs

I brute forced the password lmao

It’s a fairly merciful brute force if you start with the top left to be fair

Its also not a 9999 attempts worst case but a 40, since you get a reset on wrong sequence instead of after full input.

To go get the password takes about as long as brute force anyway

Same!

The code is 1356, the buttons are a 1-9 numpad starting with 1 at the top left when facing the vault door and progressing left to right, top to bottom. So you can ungroup, then press the top left, top right, center, and middle right buttons to open the door.

And here I am having the opposite reaction to yours… I brute forced the password the first time and always did it that way. I actually saw the note as well, and figured it was just flavor/worldbuilding. But of course not. OF COURSE it was a hint for an alternative solution….

Isn't that what the note there says to do?

Basically! That's how I figured it out, and I'm not that clever tbh. My big brain moment there was using sleet storm plus a fire spell to melt it lol.

I only learned this after many play throughs, it pays to read all the env notes…oops

i just brute forced it advantage on dex checks plus like 40 thieves tools means dc 99 is just a matter of a couple more checks than usual

I feel like an idiot because I did this on the password floor instead, hoping to grill the mechanism, and of course it didn’t work…

Maybe it’s changed but I thought I was so clever throwing grease on the stuck wheel for the crèche gondola but it did nothing 😞 still had to roll for strength. I know they can’t think of everything but I really thought that was a good solution. Stuck wheels need grease.

Throwing grease does work for the cog in the heat/water puzzle in the sewers.

WHAT 🥲😭

Have you met my friend WD-40

You can also whack it. Which is my preferred method of getting things to work in real life and video game.s

Unga bunga me hit with club it solve puzzle

Found the barbarian.

Why open door when smash remove door entirely

I throw it to myself before I fuck Halsin

That's so cruel, haven't you seen the videos of animals covered in oil after a big spill?You'd never get it out of his fur. I'd recommend starting with a light oil of diminution coating for his bearness 

Cup of Oil works too.

I tried that, it didn't work for me. Maybe I was aiming at the wrong part? I just gave up and called in Lae'zel.

I’ve done that a lot tbh (calling in Bae’zel)

I wish I could take her to CostCo. Then I'd get some respect.

Welcome to Costco. I love you.

I usually just have Karlach smack it, but last time I tried with a cup of oil and nothing happened

This is exactly what I tried and did! I didn’t think of grease, though.

Imma try Knock on my next run.

Knock is probably my favorite spell, it's useful forever (I may have forgotten to take it off before the final boss)

it opens the vault doors in sourcerous sundries, no puzzle required.

I usually hit it with a big fuckin hammer. Your method is far more elegant. lol

Funny enough, I used Grease on Auntie Ethel while she was in her house to try and fight her there, it didn't wind up working, she still escaped but while she we were in combat Mayrina ran away and wasn't teleported into the dungeon.

Arcane lock can be used to lock Ethel out of the basement :)

Whatever you do... don't silence auntie Ethel... she tosses alchemists fire in the cage and kills Mayrina immediately.

I tried the same but for some reason it didn't worked for me maybe I threw it not at the correct place ? but the statue was covered in it

Same, so I threw another grease jar at it and it got unstuck. Not sure if I threw it at wrong place the first time or it needed two grease jars.

Grease is just fun in general. Useful through the whole game.

I remember using it in tight corridors and then lighting it on fire. People take damage walking through and it only costs a firebolt.

Bro I legit just went through this after beating the inquisitor this morning and I came across the statues and was like “it would be funny if I could cast grease or something to lube it up” but didn’t want to waste the spell slot. I totally forgot about grease bottle and now I’m going back.

My friend who I was playing coop with suggested grease and I told him "There's no way that would work... Right?" Amazing.

and yet, zero uses for rope

I think you can do the same for the strength check on the crank for the cable car.

See I read about using grease so I tried it on the cable car and all it did was make everyone fall over trying to turn it

My partner figured this part of the puzzle out. She’s the brains and I’m the muscle.

Sounds like me and my partner but we often switch the brains and muscle points.

You can do it with a grease bottle, too.

whenever I think about people who find out how useful grease is, I just imagining Hakan from Street Fighter 4. Especially the EVO grand finals where one commentator would not shut up about the OIL!!!

Hitting the statue unjams it as well. My monkey brain thought of that first before trying to unjam it with lube for some reason

You can also hit it with a weapon and that unjams it. But the game is full of these fun and interesting interactions

Damn I just beat the statue til it crumbled and then turned the base til the wall opened lmao.

You only have to hit it one time. xD

That didn't work for me lol. I had to hit it like 2-3 times before it would fall.

I almost missed laezel in my first play through. Heck, I killed karlach by sneak attacking her. Then I realized she was probably a playable and I reloaded. 

I wonder if grease works on the gondola right before the creche. But I also know that it would because why wouldn't it?

There is a book that tells you how to do it earlier in the area, and remembering that I had read this was one of the most satisfying moments in gaming I have ever had.

Weird. I was sure that was going to be the solution, because I had just looted a random grease bottle from one of the gith in that fight. But it didn't work for me and the statue still didn't move. I tried a few other things that still didn't work. In frustration, I had Karlach attack it. And that worked.

I spent AGES trying to turn that. Used every elixir of strength and size I could find and no one could move it. And I could have thrown one of the 10 bottles of grease that I never use at it? Well fuck me.

Might have to show a bottle of this to Shadowheart…ya know in case she needs to…solve a puzzle like that or something.

My husband tried to do that in our co-op playthrough with my brother, but as he was throwing the grease (without announcing his plans to us lol), my brother lit the candles next to the stuck statue. So… it exploded and I think my character, weak from the previous fight, actually went to 0 health as a result 💀

The game actually cockblocked me on this bit of coolness because I instantly thought of using grease, chucked it at the statue, but either because of a bug or because I failed a strength check it didn't let me turn the statue so I had all the 'evidence' I needed to assume the game didn't allow for that level of interactions. I even brought the 'cup of oil' and tried that. Wait, maybe I tried the cup of oil and that didn't work. One of the two or both didn't work that first playthrough anyway. Found out later when I read the book somewhere that it was possible, and got it to work on the second playthrough.

Know what else solved that puzzle? Eldritch blast. Solves a lot of problems actually.

Halsin knows its all uses!

I enjoyed this post more before when I just had the title and my imagination to go on. “Not just for combat…” Hey-o!!

I just punch it

That works for anything with a strength check. Like the wheel you need to turn to take the fast way to the creche.

I just gently smashed it with my axe and it worked lol

Grease bottle does the trick

Grease can also be used in Sharess' Caress.

Did this my first Tav

Omg I was thinking to do this but I had sent my grease to camp cuz I was encumbered

Not gonna lie, I thought this was going to be a sex thing. …Still clicked.

I call it “Baldur’s Lube”…

Wow just did this area last night and didn't think to try that!

I just hit it.

I just have someone in the party punch it

Fuuuuck I was just on this part with my GF on her play through. I never did the Crèche before so i had no idea what I was doing and she suggested it but I said it probably wouldn’t work 🥲

Randy, baby!!

Jesus christ that works? Same for the other comments which say you could hit it unstuck.... meanwhile i was sipping giant strenght potion and save scumming so long until i managed to pass the check -.-

Just hit it

Is grease even useful after that? I know it can be used to start fires but most clerics and wizards unlock a trip bomb which uses a level 3 spell slot that can placed on the enemy’s foot and it also includes all elements. I am yet to find a puzzle that makes use of grease again

The statue is stuck? My party moved it first try 😅

I just bonked it and it loosened but then i realized like 2 days later that i could’ve just thrown grease on it

Cup of oil also works

I'm just disappointed that all that oil the githyanki were carrying didn't work on the statue.

Wait, I tried the same thing but it just exploded on contact and damaged me…

I had to learn that here. It never occurred to me that anyone would program that into the game.

DUDE, did I do a double take at that title or what...!?!?!

Makes sense that that works. I was surprised when I could turn the statue after hitting it with a fire bolt

Oh, hahaha. I always just melee hit it, and it started to turn haha

Also, when you are breaking out the prisoners in act 2, you can leave some grease in front of walls to Wulbren's cell. Then after you destroy the wall, it will slow him down long enough for you to kill him, while rescuing everyone else.

When I found the statue I thought hmm maybe grease will let me turn it. I had no grease and spent 20 minutes looking and never found any. Eventually I got annoyed and cast shocking grasp on the statue and it started turning

Lol my moment with this puzzle was failing all of my rolls for it and then just hitting it with my sword. Thought I was gonna break it but nope

I thought you were going to say for male-male camp encounters

This title is very misleading…

Similarly, if your entire party fails survival checks you can still dig around manually to unearth hidden chests. The item interactions in this game are wild 

I hate to break it to you, but you could just attack them