Baldur's Gate 3: How To Disable The Steel Watch

The mechanical Steel Watch are dangeroud automatons that stand between you and defeating Gortash. Here is how to disable them in Baldur's Gate 3.

The Steel Watch is a new part of the city guard in Baldur's Gate 3. Once you reach the titular city, you will notice hulking automatons patrolling the city under the command of Enver Gortash. As Gortash is one of the main antagonists of act three, you'll need to deal with him eventually, but the Steel Watch makes that a huge problem.

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Each member of this metal guard has more than 200 hit points, deals massive physical damage while applying debuffs, and explodes violently when it drops to roughly a quarter of their hitpoints. Their only weakness is lightning damage. Gortash has a whole squad of them patrolling his fortress, and even at maximum level, they’re difficult to put down. You can disable them all, however.

The quest can be issued by the Ironhand deep gnomes if you've kept up with that quest line. Wulbren, the deep gnomes' leader, will give you a powerful tool capable of destroying the foundry: a runepowder bomb. To get it, find the Ironhands' hideout in the Rivington portion of Baldur's Gate. After meeting your first Steel Watchman, it will be marked on your map. They will request you use the bomb for its intended purpose, but there are other ways to defeat the Steel Watch.

When you're inside Baldur's Gate proper, follow the southern edge of the map. You will travel along the docks and eventually reach the Gondian foundry where the watch is built. Before you can get inside there is a commotion outside where a group of Absolutist cultists are attempting to lynch Volo. You can stop them by engaging in combat; just be sure to kill the tadpoled cultists shown by the cutscene first, or he will kill Volo. After he's down, have someone rush to Volo and unbind him. Once the combat ends, you can infiltrate the steel works.

The factory grounds are patrolled by a pair of Steel Watchmen. Destroy or stealth past them and enter the factory through a cargo lift on the south side — or through the main doors. Inside, you will see the Gondian gnomes being forced to construct the Steel Watch by cultists of Bane, God of Tyranny.

The cultists are coercing the Gondians under threat of death and the deaths of their loved ones. During the initial encounter, you can persuade the Gondians to aid you, but further in, they have no choice but to fight you.

When fighting the Bane cultists, the overseers will drop an object upon death that will kill the Gondians if not deactivated at the end of the round. Never have your last-initiative party member kill one of these overseers because you need another teammate with an action left to disarm the device. If the device goes off, the Gondians will die.

After defeating the first group of Bane cultists, you can speak to a blinded gnome named Zanner Toobin. He will give you the quest to save the Gondian's families. If you move deeper into the steel works, you can find a book detailing maintenance to a submarine. This is your clue to search the docks.

When you've found a dock warehouse filled with Wargs, you've found the right place. Descend a hatch just to the entrance, and you will find both the submarine and its pilot. With some persuasion, he will tell you of an underwater prison, and take you there.

During your trip, Gortash will call you on the submarine and threaten to destroy the prison unless you turn back. Ignore him and proceed. He will damage the prison with explosives and put you on the clock to save the hostages.

The prison itself is a moderately large area, patrolled by Sahuagin. There are multiple cells you'll need to open to release the hostages, so your efficiency will be put to the test. To face this challenge, use everything that boosts movement, grants extra actions, or summons additional allies. If you have spell casters with their sixth-level spells, Summon Planar Ally for Clerics and Summon Elemental for Wizards are fantastic. Brew and drink speed potions, but be careful of their lethargy side effect. If you have a Wizard or Sorcerer, have them use Haste.

Only attack enemies if they threaten prisoners, and focus on getting the cells open. You can even find the friendly mindflayer Omeluum imprisoned. He will aid you when released and has the ability to teleport himself and one other back to the submarine.

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With the hostages rescued, you may return to Toobin. He will join you to disable the Steel Watch from their control room. There are some minor fights before you reach the core, but you can fight them earlier.

Once there, Toobin will warn you about his most dangerous creation: the Steel Watch Titan. This huge construct is the last obstacle before the end, and it's a tough enemy. It's supported by regular Steel Watchmen and hits like a giant. When damaged, it can raise a shield and only be damaged by attacks dealing 15 or more damage.

The best way to defeat it is to exploit its lightning damage vulnerability with weapons and spellcasters. When it reaches low health, it will impose a damage check, or cause a party-killing explosion.

You must destroy it before it completes its countdown.

With the Titan dead, you are free to destroy the steel works. If you have the runepowder bomb, you can plant it and leave. If you would rather hold onto that powerful artifact for tougher bosses, Toobin will set the foundry to explode if he is alive.

Destroying the steel works disables all Steel Watch in act three. Without his automaton, Gortash is vulnerable. You can and should go after him next.

Next: Baldur's Gate 3: Every Companion, Ranked

Mitchell Reid is a Canadian born writer hailing from Ontario. He graduated from Durham College's journalism program in 2022. There he work on projects to publish news at the Durham College chronicle, and acted as a familiar voice on the biweekly radio show "The chronicle on Riot Radio." With years of training in both journalistic and creative writing,Currently Mitchell is operating as a freelance writer for DualShockers, while also writing a personal web novel.Mitchell has played games since childhood, starting with the old pokemon crystal on the Gameboy. Through the years, he has played on all sides of consoles, and now operates mostly on a PC platform. RPGs are his favorite genre, with roguelites and survival shooters following behind. The mass effect series are his favorite games of all time. The journey of those characters inspired him to write his own tales, and take up writing as his craft.