Baldur's Gate 3: Disable The Steel Watch Quest Walkthrough (2024)

The Steel Watch in Baldur's Gate 3 presents a sizable challenge to your progress in taking the Netherstone from Enver Gortash. Rather than storming Wyrm's Rock and facing a legion of his steel soldiers, why not take the alternate route and shut down Gortash's prized constructions?

This large quest is absolutely crucial to your victory against the chosen of Bane, and you'll want to make sure you've stopped at all the right places before you take it on. If you're feeling ready and you're itching to bash some metal behinds in, then follow us into the city's prized Steel Watch Foundry.

Updated March 12, 2024 by Alexis Campbell: We've updated the article to reflect Patch 5 and 6 bug fixes, including Thula's or Philomeen's spontaneously appearing vat of acid in Act Three. We've also included necessary requisites for involving Barcus in the questline, Tactician-difficulty specific changes to the Steel Watcher Titan, and changes to Bumpnagel's trade inventory.

Disable The Steel Watch: Affected Quests To Consider Before You Start

There are several prerequisites to this questline as well as many related questlines that are deeply affected by finishing this quest. In essence, this is a point of no return. Some of the affected questlines and their ties include but are not limited to:

To begin this quest without breaking sequences of events or encountering several bugs, it is recommended to follow this path of quest progression:

1. Find the Ironhands in Rivington to begin the Avenge the Ironhands questline.
2. Attend Gortash's Ordination and consider his bargain.
3. Finish the Avenge The Drowned quest (or possibly make a deal with Mizora).
4. Take on the Disable the Steel Watch quest.

How To Begin Avenge The Ironhands

The first step to disabling the Steel Watch is an optional one and requires that you have done the bare minimum of two things:

• Preventing Philomeen from using the Runepowder during Free Nere's questline in Grymforge.
• Saving Wulbren from Moonrise Towers.

With the Ironhand Gnome's leader as your friend and the Runepowder secured, you can discover the Ironhand gnomes at Wyrm's Crossing if crossing the checkpoint doesn't go your way or simply wander into their hideout under the crossing.

The Ironhand's hideout is in the cliffside just southeast of the South Span Crossing.

You can reach it through methods of climbing over a vine wall near the crossing or by jumping down several wooden platforms heading south on the east side of Wyrm's Crossing. It is a cave nestled in a narrow crevice.

As you enter, the Ironhands should welcome you in if Wulbren has been saved. Barcus may also appear here if you finished his questline in Act Two and received the Brilliant Retort.

Go to the back of the Ironhand hideout and into the room left of the ladder. Wulbren will be in here. Speak with him. After you have spoken to Wulbren, speak to Barcus if he is present; you can find him in the same room as Wulbren if you've completed his questline.

To disable the Steel Watch, you can agree to use the Runepowder to blow up the Steel Watch Foundry. There is an alternative method, however, if you wish to avoid sacrificing the Gondians (at the risk of losing the Ironhand's support).

How To Break Into The Steel Watch Foundry

To enter the foundry, the best method is to take a hidden side path from the Wave Queen's Temple. To safely traverse this area, you will need:

1. Feather Fall
2. Enhance Jump (for low-Strength characters)

From the corner of the temple nearest the foundry, rotate your camera to see a hidden shore path along the outer foundry fence. You can jump down from this corner to reach it.

Follow the path forward to a wooden docks area where you can jump up to reach the foundry.

As you enter the foundry, there are two possible outcomes depending on the decisions you've made leading up to your entry.

If you have not completed the Iron Throne, the Gondians will be working. You need to speak to Zanner Toobin in the Security Office on the east side of the foundry. ​​​​​​

You'll need to either kill everyone in the foundry, including the Gondians (not recommended), or agree to save the Gondian's families in the Iron Throne.

If you have completed the Iron Throne, you'll walk into the foundry to see an interaction between the Gondians and the overseers of the foundry. As you get close enough, dialogue will automatically trigger before leading into a combat scenario.

In this scenario, the Gondians will be your allies as you fight against the overseers in the upstairs section. Speak with Toobin to receive the Security Office Key and temporarily recruit him.

Fighting the overseers, there will be detonation devices that spawn when each one is killed. They detonate after one round. To turn them off, you must pass a DC5 Arcana check for the first time and none after.

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How To Reach The Neurocitor

To reach the Neurocitor, the central part of the Steel Foundry crucial to its destruction, you need to reach the Lab area first. You can do this easily from the Security Office via a doorway at the bottom of the stairs within the office or by operating the elevator lift through the lever on the Security Office's second floor.

We recommend you take the stairs as it will position you better for the fight to come.

In the Laboratory, you'll find three groups of Gondians surrounded by Black Gauntlets, Flaming Fists, and Hellfire Watchers (upgraded Steel Watch enemies).

If you sided with the Gondians and saved their families, the Gondians in the laboratory will fight with you. You get nothing for saving them all, but they are a big help in this fight.

For the Hellfire Watchers, it's recommended to use Lightning attacks. The Gondians in this area have plenty of them, making them extremely valuable to keep alive.

We recommend defeating the humanoid enemies first. Although the Hellfire Watchers are concerning, the humanoid enemies can cast spells like Silence, Aura of Terror, and Blight.

When all enemies in this room are defeated, you can check the corpses. The corpse of Hahns Rives has the Control Level Key you need to progress.

After looting the key, the only other thing of note in this room is a zombie and details about the Steel Watchers' creation on the east side of the room. When you're ready, enter the door on the north side to the Control Centre Antechamber.

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How To Defeat The Steel Watcher Titan

If you've brought Toobin along so far, he'll wait for you in the Control Centre Antechamber and temporarily leave your party. Both him and the corpse of Lu La Forza in the antechamber will grant you the hint you need:

When it raises its shields, strike it with every scrap of magic and might you possess...

The boss in the following area is a Construct with a large health pool and immense defensive capabilities. When the titan reaches approximately one half of its healthpool, it will reach its second stage.

There are also three Hellfire Watchers in this room. One is an archer with the ability to use Debilitating Shot.

We highly recommend using strong Lightning magic on these constructs and focusing on them first before the Steel Watcher Titan. Using spells like Chain Lightning or Lightning Bolt are best for defeating them quickly.

When the Hellfire Watchers are dealt with, you can focus on the Titan.

At half health, when the second phase is reached, the Titan will take its Bulwark Form. All attacks under 15 damage will be null and void, and it will regain 3-24 HP at the start of each of its turns.

More concerningly, it will begin firing Hellfire Missiles at your party members. Since it typically targets ranged units far away, it is easily avoided so long as you move away from the Titan.

Continue laying into the Titan until it is defeated, prioritizing Lightning damage. With its low Dexterity and limited movement, you'll make work of it in decent time.

After its defeat, make sure you loot its remains before speaking to Toobin or interacting with the Neurocitor's control panel. The Titan carries an Infernal Iron and the Legendary bow: Gontr Mael.

How To Destroy The Steel Watcher Foundry And Quest Endings

You can destroy the Steel Watcher Foundry in any of three ways:

1. Escort and speak with Toobin at the Neurocitor.
2. Use Speak With Dead or read the book on Toobin (and in the Security Office), The Many Faces of Gond, to receive the password and use the control panel next to Neurocitor.
3. Interact with the control panel next to the Neurocitor and place the Runepowder Bomb in the centre of the device.

When any of these three options are completed, you'll automatically be placed outside the foundry where Wulbren and the Ironhands will greet you.

Depending on your choices, there are three possible endings to this questline:

1. If you saved the Gondians, you may side with them. Doing so gives you only the Gondians' aid during the final battle.
2. If you saved and aided Barcus Wroot and the Gondians, you can elect Barcus Wroot as the new Ironhands leader (Persuasion DC15) and gain both the aid of the Ironhands and the Gondians in the final battle.
3. You can elect to side with the Ironhands in any ending. If the Gondians are still alive, this ending will kill them.

If you side with the Gondians and do not successfully Persuade (DC18) the Ironhands to leave them alone or fail your Persuasion with Barcus, you will have to fight Wulbren and the Ironhands outside the Steel Foundry.

No matter which ending you choose, you'll have at least one faction on your side during the final battle against the Elder Brain. With the Steel Watch out of commission, all that's left now is to turn your sights on Enver Gortash.