Baldur’s Gate 3 – How To Romance Karlach

Romancing Karlach in Baldur’s Gate 3 presents a unique challenge that combines emotional connection with mechanical progression. As a Tiefling warrior who escaped the infernal depths of Avernus, her romance arc is deeply intertwined with her personal quests: Our Fiery Friend and The Hellion’s Heart. Understanding her background as a former soldier in Zariel’s army provides crucial context for making appropriate dialogue choices.

The core mechanic driving Karlach’s romance involves locating Infernal Iron to stabilize her Infernal Engine. This mechanical heart replacement causes intense heat that prevents physical contact until properly repaired through multiple upgrades.

• Strategic Party Management: Ensure you have available slots before encountering Karlach on the Risen Road, particularly during the confrontation with Anders. For comprehensive companion strategies, consult our Class Guide to optimize your team composition.
• Approval Optimization: Karlach responds positively to heroic actions, protecting the innocent, and standing against tyranny. She strongly disapproves of cruel or manipulative behavior.
• Critical Narrative Crossroads: You must prioritize saving the Tiefling refugees at Druid Grove. Allying with Minthara and the goblins will cause Karlach to permanently abandon your party.

Dammon can be found in The Hollow section of the Druid Grove.

Successfully initiating Karlach’s romance demands locating specific Infernal materials and the right NPC expertise. Your primary objective involves finding Dammon, the Tiefling blacksmith located in The Hollow area of Druid Grove. He possesses the technical knowledge to work with Infernal technology but requires the raw materials to begin repairs.

Key Infernal Iron Locations in Act 1:

• Goblin Camp/Shattered Sanctum: Defeating Dror Ragzlin provides access to his key, enabling you to unlock the treasure room behind his throne where Infernal Iron can be found.
• Grymforge Engineering: Travel through the Underdark to reach Grymforge and locate Stonemason Kith:
  • Successfully passing History, Investigation, and Perception checks earns you the Infernal Alloy without cost.
  • Failure on these skill checks requires purchasing the material, though prices can be steep for early-game budgets.
  • Timing Considerations: If you’ve already liberated True Soul Nere, aligning with the Duergar faction allows acquisition of Infernal Iron while Stonemason Kith remains accessible in the chamber.

Critical Preservation Note: The Strange Ox encountered in Druid Grove must remain alive, as its demise may prevent Dammon from appearing in Act 2, effectively blocking romance progression.

Gallery

Left: Shattered Sanctum location; Right: Grymforge location.

After delivering the initial Infernal Iron to Dammon, Karlach gains temporary physical stability, allowing cautious contact. The initial kiss scene creates dramatic sparks, representing both the emotional connection and remaining mechanical instability.

Dialogue Progression Strategy: When returning to camp, discussing cooling methods with Karlach may trigger a dialogue stall where she simply responds “I’m waiting.” This requires proactive intervention through environmental manipulation.

• Water Application Methods: Throwing water directly onto Karlach provides immediate temperature reduction.
• Magical Solutions: Casting water-based spells like Create Water or ice spells temporarily lowers her core temperature.
• Combat Utility: Shooting ice arrows achieves similar cooling effects while demonstrating creative problem-solving she appreciates.

Advanced Cooling Tactics: Beyond the basic methods, positioning Karlach near bodies of water during camp scenes or using cold damage spells in controlled environments can advance romantic dialogue trees more reliably.

Sparks will fly when you attempt to kiss Karlach for the first time.

Progressing Karlach’s romance into the game’s second act requires venturing into the Shadow-Cursed Lands and locating Last Light Inn. This sanctuary serves as your base of operations and houses critical NPCs including Jaheira and Dammon, who has relocated to the stables area.

Gauntlet of Shar Material Sources:

• Balthazar’s Treasure Chamber: Northwest of the waypoint lies a locked door requiring successful lockpicking. Behind it, three ornate chests contain valuable resources including additional Infernal Iron.
• Yurgir’s Demonic Hoard: The right-side area contains the demon Yurgir, who presents both combat and diplomatic challenges.
  • Combat Approach: Defeating Yurgir and his minions on elevated terrain demands tactical positioning and area-of-effect capabilities.
  • Diplomatic Solution: Convincing Yurgir to self-terminate through successive difficult persuasion checks yields Infernal Metal from his remains.

Future Material Availability: During Act 3, defeating Steel Watch automatons provides materials functionally equivalent to Infernal Iron for ongoing maintenance.

Gallery

Left: Balthazar treasure room location; Right: Yurgir drop.

With the second Infernal material acquired and delivered to Dammon at Last Light Inn, Karlach’s mechanical heart achieves sufficient stability for intimate contact. However, multiple bugs can prevent scene triggering without proper sequence management.

Bug Prevention Workflow (Credit: Reddit user Teonore):

• Initial Arrival Protocol: Upon reaching Last Light Inn with Karlach in your active party, immediately engage her dialogue about Jaheira exclusively before interacting with other NPCs.
• Strategic Save Management: Before approaching Dammon in the stables, create a backup save to enable recovery from potential triggering failures.
• Event Sequencing: Return to camp to trigger the Wyll and Mizora narrative scene, then discuss this development with Karlach before proceeding to Dammon.
• Final Progression Steps: After the second heart repair enables safe kissing, return to camp and initiate dialogue with Karlach, followed by a long rest to activate the romance scene.

Advanced Timing Considerations: The sequence between major story events and companion interactions appears to have delicate dependencies. Testing indicates that completing Karlach’s second upgrade before progressing major Shadowheart or Nightsong narrative beats improves success rates significantly.

The second time Karlach’s heart gets fixed is also when you can proceed with the love scene.

Several systemic issues can derail Karlach’s romance progression, requiring careful navigation and contingency planning throughout your campaign.

• Dammon Survival Priority: This NPC’s continued existence remains critical through Acts 1 and 2. Specific narrative choices as the Dark Urge origin or during Nightsong interactions can result in his permanent demise.
• Companion Conflict Management: Simultaneously pursuing multiple romance arcs with origin characters typically results in forced choices that may terminate Karlach’s progression prematurely.
• Soul Coin Functionality: Despite item descriptions suggesting utility for Infernal Engines, current game implementation prevents their use for Karlach’s condition improvement.
• Strategic Decision Impact: Karlach maintains strong moral boundaries regarding certain alliances and actions. Betraying her trust through morally questionable decisions often proves irrecoverable.
• Game Version Considerations: Various patches have addressed romance progression bugs, but some persistent issues require community-developed workarounds for reliable completion.

For comprehensive weapon strategies that complement your romance progression, explore our Weapons Unlock guide for tactical advantages.

Understanding how Karlach interacts with other romance options provides crucial strategic planning for players pursuing complex relationship webs.

Origin Character Romance Conflicts:

• Shadowheart Example: Successfully triggering Karlach’s romance scene then speaking with Shadowheart resulted in amicable acceptance rather than romantic termination in testing scenarios.
• Non-Origin Character Compatibility: Based on Shadowheart romance testing:
  • Halsin Romance: Demonstrated tolerance for polyamorous arrangements with certain companions.
  • Emperor Interactions: No observable companion reactions occurred following dream visitor romantic encounters.
  • Mizora Complications: Given Karlach’s traumatic history with infernal beings, romantic involvement with Mizora may trigger stronger negative reactions compared to other companions.

Strategic Romance Planning: Karlach appears to maintain different boundaries than some companions regarding shared romantic interests. Careful testing suggests that establishing her as primary romantic interest before exploring secondary options yields more stable outcomes.

For complete campaign guidance that integrates romance strategies with overall progression, consult our Complete Guide for optimal results.

No reproduction without permission：SeeYouSoon Game Club » Baldur’s Gate 3 – How To Romance Karlach Master Karlach's romance arc with strategic approval gains, Infernal Iron locations, and bug-free progression tips