TL;DR
- Secure bedroll and shovel immediately for healing and treasure hunting capabilities
- Protect the black cat throughout Fort Joy to gain a teleporting familiar companion
- Complete Gawin’s quest for teleportation gloves with versatile combat and exploration uses
- Explore vendor restocks, animal conversations, and book collections for hidden advantages
- Master arena combat and companion recruitment to build a stronger party foundation
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Divinity: Original Sin II represents a pinnacle of RPG design, overflowing with intricate dialogue systems and meticulously hidden content that can easily consume dozens of hours in just the introductory Fort Joy area. This prison colony serves as your proving ground, where mastering its secrets can dramatically alter your journey through Rivellon. We’ve compiled essential discoveries and strategic insights to ensure you extract maximum value from every moment spent in this complex location. Important: this guide contains significant spoilers for Fort Joy content.
Did we overlook any crucial Fort Joy strategies? Share your discoveries in the comments section. Additionally, don’t miss the video companion to this comprehensive guide.
For deeper analysis of this celebrated role-playing masterpiece, explore our detailed Divinity: Original Sin II review. Available across multiple platforms, this sequel to the 2014 PC Game of the Year delivers unprecedented depth with its fully voiced cast of 1,200+ characters and Kickstarter-funded development.
To enhance your tactical approach further, consult our collection of advanced guides, expert tips, and detailed walkthroughs.

Your arrival on the beach marks the beginning of a challenging ascent from complete vulnerability. Fortunately, two game-changing items await discovery nearby that many newcomers overlook. On a deteriorated stone platform, you’ll find both a bedroll for out-of-combat party healing and a shovel for excavating buried treasures throughout your adventure. While lizard characters possess innate digging capabilities, manually uncovering secrets provides greater satisfaction and control over your exploration pace.
Pro Tip: The bedroll’s healing function operates without consuming action points or resources, making it essential for recovering between encounters. Position your party members closely together before activation to maximize efficiency.
Common Mistake: Many players abandon the shovel after initial use, forgetting that treasure mounds appear throughout the entire game world, not just in Fort Joy.

Before entering Fort Joy’s main compound, you’ll encounter a persistent black feline that forms an immediate attachment to your character. With the Pet Pal talent equipped, you can engage in limited dialogue, but your primary objective should be ensuring its survival through careful navigation. Avoid traversing hazardous terrain like fire patches or poison pools, and maintain distance from guards who view the creature with suspicion.
Successful protection yields extraordinary rewards. Upon departing Fort Joy, the cat transforms into a summonable familiar, providing tactical teleportation abilities both during combat scenarios and environmental navigation.
Advanced Strategy: The familiar’s teleport ability costs zero action points, allowing creative positioning solutions without sacrificing combat effectiveness. Use it to relocate allies to advantageous positions or reposition enemies into hazardous areas.
Critical Warning: The cat cannot be resurrected if killed. Save frequently and scout areas thoroughly before allowing it to follow into potentially dangerous zones.

For players seeking both aesthetic appeal and tactical superiority, the Teleportation Gloves represent an essential acquisition. Initiate this quest by speaking with Gawin inside Fort Joy and expressing interest in his escape scheme. Proceed to the designated beach location, eliminate the crocodile threat, and retrieve the gloves from the fallen adventurer. Accompany Gawin until his predetermined demise concludes the mission sequence.
These extraordinary gloves revolutionize both combat and exploration. During battles, teleport allies behind enemy lines for devastating backstab attacks or reposition foes into environmental hazards. Outside combat, circumvent obstacles, access restricted areas, or creatively manipulate NPC positioning.
Tactical Applications: Beyond obvious positioning advantages, teleportation can solve environmental puzzles, retrieve otherwise inaccessible items, and create tactical advantages in challenging encounters. Understanding the Class Guide principles of positioning can enhance your usage of these gloves.
Optimization Tip: Combine teleportation with surfaces – teleporting enemies into oil patches before igniting them or positioning allies on elevated terrain for accuracy bonuses.

The Teleportation Gloves represent just one exceptional equipment opportunity within Fort Joy. The Healing Ring, obtainable through The Murderous Gheist questline, provides another valuable asset. Magister Yarrow tasks you with locating Migo, a transformed inmate now resembling a monstrous creature. Without a Yarrow Flower in your inventory, combat becomes necessary to claim the ring. Upon retrieval, quest completion requires returning the item, presenting strategic decision points.

Arena Mastery: The combat arena provides invaluable experience and rewards. Approach these challenges after establishing your core abilities and equipment, similar to how you’d prepare for Complete Guide strategies in other tactical games.

Companion Recruitment: Strategically selecting and positioning companions creates synergistic party compositions. Each character brings unique abilities and story perspectives that enrich your narrative experience.

Knowledge Acquisition: Books scattered throughout Fort Joy contain crucial lore, skill recipes, and quest information. Thorough documentation examination often reveals solutions to puzzles and access to hidden content.

Animal Interactions: The Pet Pal talent unlocks extensive dialogue options with various creatures, providing quest hints, secret locations, and alternative solutions to challenges.

Vendor Management: Merchant inventories refresh approximately every thirty minutes (in-game time) and after major story events. Regular checking can reveal rare equipment, skill books, and crafting components, much like monitoring Weapons Unlock opportunities in other games.
Action Checklist
- Immediately collect bedroll and shovel from crumbled platform for essential utilities
- Protect the black cat from environmental hazards and hostile NPCs throughout Fort Joy
- Complete Gawin’s teleportation gloves quest for revolutionary tactical options
- Explore vendor inventories every 30 minutes and after major story progression
- Collect and read all books for lore, recipes, and hidden quest information
No reproduction without permission:SeeYouSoon Game Club » 9 Things You Might’ve Missed In Divinity: Original Sin 2’s Opening Area Essential Fort Joy discoveries and strategic insights to maximize your Divinity: Original Sin II experience
