How to Get the Everburn Blade in Baldur’s Gate 3

This fantastic sword can be an early drop in the game, here’s How to Get the Everburn Blade in Baldur’s Gate 3!

Baldur's Gate 3 Everburn Blade Guide

The Everburn Blade is a powerful and sought-after weapon in the world of Baldur’s Gate 3. With its flames that never extinguish, it’s a weapon that can turn the tide of battle in your favor. This guide will walk you through the steps to obtain the Everburn Blade in the full release of Baldur’s Gate 3.

How to Get the Everburn Blade in Baldur’s Gate 3

Here are the basic steps to get the Everburn Blade in Baldur’s Gate 3:

  1. Free the trapped brain creature from the body in the second room. It can join you as a familiar
  2. Have Lae’zel join your party (you will automatically meet her as you move forward)
  3. Have a character pick up the Nautiloid Tank that is just to the left of the pod Shadowheart is trapped in
  4. Release Shadowheart and have her join your group
  5. When you reach the final area where Commander Zhalk and the Mind Flayer are fighting, grab the two Nautiloid Tanks on the left and one on the right
  6. Set all the tanks around where Zhalk and the Mind Flayer are fighting
  7. The brain familiar and Lae’zel do melee damage to Zhalk
  8. Rest of the party does range attacks from the stairs
  9. When Zhalk has between 30-40 HP left hit the tanks with a range attack
  10. Loot the sword and hurry to the transponder
Baldur's Gate Everburn Blade tooltip

As many early access players discovered, the Everburn Blade is a powerful early game weapon that can drop right in the tutorial section of the game. It’s not easy to acquire, however, as it it held by the the formidable NPC enemy Commander Zhalk. This Fiend is a level 8 and his hit point bar is typically over 100 points depending on the difficulty level you are facing him at. In fact, he’s technically an entirely optional foe, and you can just ignore him in order to progress the story and escape the Nautiloid ship.

But the only way you can get that awesome sword is by killing him and looting it from his body. Not an easy task, given the additional enemies blocking your way and reinforcements which come in later. This fight has a lot of moving parts so you’ll be preparing for the encounter as you make your way to the control center of the ship.

Making Your Way Through the Nautiloid

You can do a lot to prepare for the encounter with Zhalk as you make your way through the Nautiloid ship. Here are all of the steps you need to take as you move from one area to another:

Befriend the Brain

Baldur's Gate 3 Everburn Guide spare the brain

This little creature won’t be doing a lot of damage, but every little bit counts in this fight. It’s easy to acquire, is a simple familiar follower, and it doesn’t matter at all when it is killed off.

  • Move forward into the second room from where you have escaped your pod
  • In this second room, stand in the center and interact with the nearby Neural Apparatus. This activates an elevator
  • At the top, interact with the body
  • A Psionic Presence will speak to you. Don’t destroy it, but free it from the skull using Strength or Dexterity
  • Spare the creature and it will follow you

Speak with Lae’zel

Keeping moving forward and shortly after you will be in conversation with Lae’zel. Once she’s certain you’re not a threat she will join forces with you as you make your way to the helm. This happens automatically, there is no way to miss her. Don’t even think about killing her at this point, you’re going to need her if you want that sword.

Immediately after, you’ll enter a fight with some imps. Once you’ve defeated them, loot their bodies. Additionally, take a moment to check your inventories and equipment. Make sure to give Lae’zel some kind of bow or crossbow if she doesn’t have one.

Shadowheart and the first Nautiloid Tank

Head up some mesh lattices that make good ladders and into the next room. This will contain the first Nautilod tank and the pod with your potential Cleric companion Shadowheart. They are both on the left side of the room as you approach.

Baldur's Gate 3 Everburn Blade find Shadowheart and nautiloid tank

Follow these steps to free Shadowheart:

  1. Approach the pod and speak with her
  2. Investigate the console, discover the empty rune space
  3. Head East into a third room and all the way to the back, up the stairs. Loot the body to find the Eldritch Rune
  4. Return and place it into the console. Will the pod to open.

To collect the Nautiloid Tank:

  • Have the character you want to carry the tank approach it
  • Right click and choose ‘Pick Up’ from the drop down box
  • The tank will now be in the character’s inventory

Fight with Commander Zhalk

Baldur's Gate 3 Everburn Blade start of fight, nautiloid tanks

Once you have Shadowheart, head to the doorway to the South. You’ll find a restoration spot where you can heal up and the game should autosave before you move through the next doorway shortly after. This will lead into a short cut scene and then the fight with Commander Zhalk. Here are the steps you should follow for this fight:

  • There are two Nautiloid Tanks on the left – use the Dash action to send one character over to pick them up.
  • There is one Nautiloid Tank on the right. Before moving forward to grab it, you and other party members should prioritize taking out the Imps and Hellsboar.
  • Once they’re down, have another player pick up the Tank on the right
  • The characters with the tanks should move over near the fight with Commander Zhalk and the Mind Flayer and drop all four Nautiloid Tanks around them.
  • Send in the brain familiar to attack Zhalk in melee
  • All other characters move forward past the pair fighting. Each turn, be sure to take the opportunity to hit Zhalk with a ranged weapon, spell or cantrip.
    • If a character has access to an ice spell, it will give you a chance to knock Zhalk prone.
Baldur's Gate 3 Everburn Blade tanks in place, head to stairs
  • As you move forward, behind Zhalk and the Mind Flayer you’ll see stairs. You’ll want to position most of your characters here for high ground advantage on ranged attacks.
  • Before going up the stairs, step just far enough forward to trigger a small cut scene, which will also reveal a few small Imps and Hellsboar enemies again. Defeat them quickly, then get back to attacking Zhalk.
  • Keep a close eye on Zhalk’s HP bar. If characters are having horrible RNG on ranged attacks (looking at you, Shadowheart) you can send them in to do melee damage. However, it will put them in the blast range and if you don’t get them away soon enough they will die when you hit the tanks.
  • When Zhalk has 30-40 HP left, hit the tanks with a ranged attack.
  • The explosion will kill your brain familiar, any nearby party member, the Mind Flayer and hopefully Zhalk. If he lives, he should only have a few hit points remaining. Finish him off.

Get The Sword and Get Out

After you blow the tanks there is going to be fire everywhere and Zhalk’s body will likely be in the middle of it. Whichever character is nearest should loot the sword, but depending on their HP you may need to have a character cast a healing spell or throw a healing potion at them.

Time is of the essence. Depending on how many turns you’ve used, you’re likely going to see a couple more Cambions rush in to reinforce the dead Commander. They’ll take any party member out if they catch you. The goal here is to loot the sword with one character and have another dash to the console. Remember to make sure you’ve looted the sword before the other character interacts with the console because that will trigger a cut scene and the sword will be lost otherwise.

Important Tips

Baldur's Gate 3 Commander Zhalk
Commander Zhalk on ‘Examine’. Note the 150 HP on Balanced Difficulty

The success of this encounter can be greatly dependent upon the level of difficulty you have set the game at. Explorer and Balanced levels are obviously doable with decent hits, but Tactician will require not only good strategy but also a lot of good RNG on your attack rolls. At this level Zhalk will have a whopping 195 HP and getting him down to the 30-40 range is tough.

On our first playthrough on the Tactician level it was a complete mess with terrible attack rolls all around and ended in failure. The second time through the Mind Flayer hit big, providing at least a 30HP dent a couple of times. We came very close, but still wiped. So remember to save, save, save – because to be successful at this level is going to take multiple tries.

If you’re looking for additional help and have some friends who play Baldur’s Gate 3 as well, you can have them all jump into a new multiplayer game with custom characters. If you can get a full party, you’ll have four player characters plus Lae’zel, Shadowheart, and the brain familiar. Those kind of odds still aren’t a guarantee on Tactician, but they will greatly improve your chances!


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