Baldur's Gate 3 - How To Romance Karlach

Baldur's Gate 3 has several companions that offer unique romance options. One of these is Karlach, a Tiefling who has battled her way out of the depths of hell. From the fires of Avernus, you might be able to rekindle that fiery passion through your deeds. Our guide discusses how you can romance Karlach in Baldur's Gate 3 by looking for Infernal Iron and related items. Likewise, please be reminded that this guide contains spoilers.

How to Romance Karlach in Baldur's Gate 3

The Baldur's Gate 3 Karlach romance involves finding Infernal Iron so her Infernal Engine can be repaired. It's also related to her companion quest arcs: Our Fiery Friend and The Hellion's Heart. Here's a quick summary:

• Upon reaching the Risen Road in Act 1, make sure you have a spot in your party so Karlach can join in the fight against Anders. You can refer to our companion recruitment guide for more info.
• Continue adventuring with Karlach and increase her approval through good deeds and heroic actions. She might come to blows with Wyll, but you should break up the fight through dialogue.
• You'll learn of her Infernal Engine, her heart, which causes searing pain to people who try to touch her.
• You must save the Tiefling refugees. Do not side with Minthara and the Goblins. If you pick the latter, she'll be disgusted with your actions, and she'll permanently leave the party.
• You might encounter a problem if you sleep with or express your love for other origin characters:
  • We cannot confirm what happens to other companions. However, in our campaign, there was an option to lock-in the Shadowheart romance after the Nightsong encounter in Act 2. Karlach remarked that she's happy for our character and Shadowheart, and that she considered us a good friend.
  • Karlach may dislike it if you're flirting with her (i.e. dialogue options and kissing scene), only to sleep with a different origin companion later on, thus ending the romance arc.
  • We cannot confirm if ending the relationship with a companion that you already slept with would lead to an opportunity to romance Karlach later.
• You might encounter some bugs that prevent the romance dialogue and scene from triggering. We discuss these in the Karlach Love Scene and Potential Problems sections. Big thanks to Reddit users Teonore and CanadianMeiham for the info.

Act 1: Dammon and Your First Infernal Iron

For the Baldur's Gate 3 Karlach romance, you need to find a Tiefling who knows a bit about engineering. Make your way to the Tiefling refugee camp in Druid Grove and look for an NPC named Dammon. He's able to help, but you need to bring Infernal Iron. There are a couple of places where you can find it in Act 1:

• Goblin Camp/Shattered Sanctum: Dror Ragzlin - Defeat Dror Ragzlin to obtain his key, or lockpick the treasure hoard room behind his throne.
• Grymforge: Stonemason Kith - You need to travel to the Underdark and reach Grymforge from there. Look for a Duergar NPC named Stonemason Kith:
  • If you pass all three skill checks for History, Investigation, and Perception, he'll give you the Infernal Alloy for free. If you fail, then you have to buy it from him.
  • If you've already freed True Soul Nere, you can side with the Duergar since Stonemason Kith is with them. You can buy the Infernal Iron after the fight while he's still in the chamber. If you fast travel out of the area, Stonemason Kith might not be there when you return.

Important: You might spot a Strange Oxen in the Druid Grove. Make sure not to kill it, as that may prevent Dammon from appearing in Act 2.

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Karlach First Kiss and How to Cool Her Off

Return to Dammon and give the Infernal Iron. Karlach will be able to touch someone, but only for a short while. You can go ahead and test this by going for a kiss, which causes an abrupt spark.

Back in your camp, talk to Karlach and say that you know of a way to cool her off. She'll simply reply with "I'm waiting" and her dialogue will not change. To fix this, you can either throw water at her, cast a water or ice spell, or shoot an ice arrow. This will advance her dialogue in the meantime. From there, you can continue flirting by telling her about the thing's you'd do (she'll be receptive to the dialogue responses).

Act 2: Other Infernal Iron, Infernal Alloy, and Infernal Metal Sources

Your next objective, as Dammon says, is to visit him in Baldur's Gate. However, before you could even reach the city, you'd have to venture into the Shadow-Cursed Lands in Act 2. There, you'll find Last Light Inn, which is also where you'll meet Jaheira for the first time. Dammon is also there in the stables, which means he'll want additional Infernal stuff.

We were able to find two Infernal Iron sources, both of which were in the Gauntlet of Shar dungeon:

• To the left of the waypoint, you'll reach a chamber which has the necromancer Balthazar. There's a large room with a locked door to the north. You can lockpick that to find three ornate chests, one of which has Infernal Iron.
• To the right of the main area, you'll encounter a demon by the name of Yurgir (who also happens to be a part of Astarion's companion quest). Killing him is tough, since he and his demonic cohorts are on an elevated area. However, you can convince him to off himself by succeeding in several hard dialogue checks. You can then loot Infernal Metal from his ashes.

Other Infernal Iron Sources: Later in Act 3, you can loot materials similar to Infernal Iron by defeating the Steel Watch automatons.

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Karlach Love Scene

Original: Now that you have another Infernal item and it's already the game's second act, you can bring it to Dammon in Last Light Inn. He does give you a warning. For now, though, you can push through with the Baldur's Gate 3 Karlach romance:

• Talk to Karlach and go for a kiss to see if her newly fixed Infernal Engine works.
• Then, return to your camp and talk to Karlach at night.
• Choose the appropriate responses, such as: "Of course, nothing would make me happier."

Important update: There might be bugs and events that can potentially lock you out of the romance dialogue and scene, but Reddit user Teonore outlined a workaround in a post. To summarize:

• Upon reaching Last Light Inn with Karlach in your party, she'll say something about Jaheira. Talk to her about Jaheira only, and don't talk to other NPCs.
• Check the stables to find Dammon, but don't talk to him yet. Just make a backup save for now.
• Go to your camp to trigger the Wyll and Mizora scene, then talk to Karlach about this event.
• Speak with Dammon and give him the second Infernal Iron for Karlach's heart. This will let you kiss her without any issues.
• Go back to your camp and talk to Karlach. Do a long rest to trigger the Karlach romance scene.

We successfully got the Karlach romance scene in Act 2, not aware of the potential bugs (we were probably just lucky that events transpired as they did). Still, with the above steps in mind, you can, hopefully, avoid the hassles.

Other Potential Problems

Your Baldur's Gate 3 Karlach romance might not go off without a hitch due to various factors:

• Keeping Dammon alive - We advise you to keep Dammon alive at all costs. Otherwise, his death could mean losing an opportunity to romance Karlach. This can occur during specific decisions made as the Dark Urge and when you're interacting with the Nightsong.
• The Strange Oxen - As noted earlier, you may need to keep the Strange Oxen in the Druid Grove alive, too.
• Soul Coins can't be used - Originally, we thought that Soul Coins might be able to help with Karlach's condition, due to their description that states how they power up Infernal Engines. Sadly, as of the time of this writing, we haven't been able to use them.
• Romance scenes with other companions - As far as we can tell, the love scenes with origin characters may lock you out of potential romances with other companions. In our experience, we tried to woo Karlach and Shadowheart at the same time. After the Karlach romance scene, Shadowheart simply remarked that she's happy for our character, and that she'd remain a friend.

Romances with Non-Origin Characters and NPCs

Since Shadowheart was our character's main squeeze during the campaign, we're unable to confirm what Karlach's reaction would be if you choose to sleep around with non-origin characters. Here are our findings based on a Shadowheart romance:

• Halsin romance - Shadowheart was okay with "sharing" our character with Halsin. We're uncertain if Karlach would react the same way.
• Emperor romance - Shadowheart, and basically the entire group, didn't even react the morning after.
• Mizora romance - Shadowheart scoffed at the idea, but the romance continued. This may be more impactful in Karlach's case, knowing that Mizora is a cambion, and because of her past torment in the hells.

This is all we know about how to romance Karlach in Baldur's Gate 3. We'll update our guide soon, so stay tuned.