Baldur’s Gate 3 offers players a rich and interactive experience, where character development and strategic item usage are key. One specific interaction that many players seek to understand is how to give Karlach a Soul Coin. This guide provides a comprehensive breakdown of the process, the benefits, and important considerations for using these rare items with the fiery tiefling barbarian.
Understanding Soul Coins and Karlach
Before delving into the mechanics of how to give Karlach a Soul Coin, it’s helpful to understand what Soul Coins are and why they are significant to Karlach.
What are Soul Coins?
Soul Coins are unique magical artifacts found within the world of Baldur’s Gate 3. They are visually distinct, appearing as dark, metallic coins that hum with a faint, unsettling energy. Their lore is deeply tied to the Nine Hells and the infernal contracts that bind souls. While their primary use in combat is specific to Karlach, they also serve as valuable quest items or trade goods in certain situations.
Karlach’s Connection to Soul Coins
Karlach, a companion character, is a Zariel Tiefling who escaped servitude in Avernus, one of the Nine Hells. Her infernal engine, which powers her very being, is constantly overheating and causing her immense pain. Soul Coins, being imbued with infernal energy, have a unique and powerful interaction with this engine. For Karlach, consuming a Soul Coin isn’t merely a buff; it’s a direct engagement with the source of her power and pain, offering a temporary, albeit intense, boost.
Step-by-Step Guide: How to Give Karlach a Soul Coin
The process for how to give Karlach a Soul Coin is straightforward and mirrors the action of consuming any other consumable item in Baldur’s Gate 3.
1. Open Your Inventory
The first step is to access your party’s inventory.
- On PC, the default key to open the inventory is usually “I”.
- On PlayStation 5, it’s typically the Touchpad.
- On Xbox Series X/S, it’s usually the View button.
This action will display all items carried by your active character and accessible items within the party’s shared inventory.
2. Locate the Soul Coin
Within your inventory, you will need to find the Soul Coin. Soul Coins are typically found under the “Consumables” or “Miscellaneous” tab, depending on how your inventory is sorted. They have a distinct icon, making them relatively easy to spot.
3. Select the Soul Coin
Once you have located a Soul Coin, select it. This will bring up a small context menu with various options for the item.
4. Choose the “Use” Option
From the context menu, select the “Use” option. This action prepares the item for consumption or application.
5. Have Karlach Consume It
This is the crucial step for how to give Karlach a Soul Coin. After selecting “Use” on the Soul Coin, the game will prompt you to choose which character will consume it.
- Ensure Karlach is an active party member. If she is not in your current active party, you will need to add her before she can consume the coin.
- Select Karlach’s portrait or name from the list of available characters.
- Confirm the action.
Upon confirmation, Karlach will consume the Soul Coin. There will often be a visual effect and a verbal cue from Karlach, indicating the coin’s consumption and its immediate effect on her.
Benefits of Karlach Consuming a Soul Coin
When Karlach consumes a Soul Coin, she gains a powerful combat buff that significantly enhances her offensive capabilities.
Infernal Fury Condition
The primary benefit of how to give Karlach a Soul Coin is that it grants her the Infernal Fury condition.
- Duration: This condition lasts until the next Long Rest. This means that once activated, the benefits persist through multiple encounters within a single adventuring day.
- Visual Cue: Karlach will often glow with a faint, fiery aura while under the effects of Infernal Fury.
Increased Fire Damage
While under the Infernal Fury condition, Karlach’s attacks deal additional fire damage. This bonus damage applies to both her melee weapon attacks and her unarmed strikes.
- Melee Weapon Attacks and Unarmed Strikes: These attacks gain an additional 1-4 fire damage. This is a consistent damage boost that can add up over the course of a fight.
- Enhanced Unarmed Strikes (Post-Patch 2): Following Patch 2, Karlach’s unarmed strikes receive an even greater benefit. They deal an additional 2-8 fire damage. This makes her unarmed attacks particularly potent, especially if she is built as an unarmed barbarian or relies on her natural attacks. This increased damage applies whether she is raging, not raging, or at low HP.
This damage increase makes Soul Coins incredibly valuable for maximizing Karlach’s combat potential, especially in challenging encounters where every point of damage matters.
Important Considerations When Using Soul Coins
While the benefits are clear, there are several important factors to consider when deciding how to give Karlach a Soul Coin and when to use them.
Dialogue and Role-playing Implications
Karlach’s reaction to consuming Soul Coins is dynamic and adds depth to her character.
- Initial Thrill: Early in the game, she might express a thrill or excitement for the power surge, often accompanied by a sense of relief from her engine’s pain.
- Unsettling Side: If Karlach consumes many Soul Coins throughout the game, her dialogue can shift. She might begin to express a more unsettling attachment to the infernal energy, revealing a darker side of her personality or a growing dependence on the coins to alleviate her suffering. This adds a layer of moral choice and character development to the use of these items. Players who prioritize role-playing may want to consider the long-term implications of over-indulging Karlach with Soul Coins.
Soul Coin Rarity
Soul Coins are not abundant in Baldur’s Gate 3. They are rare items, typically found in specific locations, as quest rewards, or dropped by certain enemies.
- Strategic Use: Due to their rarity, it is beneficial to use Soul Coins strategically. Save them for challenging boss fights, difficult encounters, or when you need Karlach to truly shine in combat. Wasting them on trivial encounters might leave you without a crucial buff when you need it most.
- Exploration: Thorough exploration of the game world, including hidden areas and side quests, can increase your chances of finding more Soul Coins.
Stacking of Infernal Fury
A common question regarding how to give Karlach a Soul Coin is whether the Infernal Fury fire damage stacks if multiple Soul Coins are consumed.
- No Stacking Confirmed: As of current game patches, consuming multiple Soul Coins does not stack the Infernal Fury condition or its associated fire damage bonus. Karlach will still only gain the 1-4 (or 2-8 for unarmed) fire damage bonus, regardless of how many coins she has consumed. This means there is no mechanical benefit to having Karlach consume more than one Soul Coin per Long Rest. Once she has the buff, additional coins consumed before the next Long Rest will not provide further damage increases.
Alternative Uses for Soul Coins
While this guide focuses on how to give Karlach a Soul Coin, it’s worth noting that Soul Coins can sometimes have other uses in the game.
- Quest Items: Some quests or NPCs might require Soul Coins as part of a trade or a specific interaction. Always check quest descriptions or dialogue options carefully before using all your Soul Coins on Karlach.
- Selling: While not recommended given their unique utility for Karlach, Soul Coins can be sold to vendors for a decent amount of gold. This is generally considered a suboptimal use unless you are truly desperate for funds and have no intention of using Karlach’s Infernal Fury.
Maximizing Karlach’s Potential with Soul Coins
To get the most out of how to give Karlach a Soul Coin, consider the following strategies:
- Combat Initiation: Activate Infernal Fury before a major combat encounter. Since it lasts until a long rest, you can use it at the start of an adventuring day if you anticipate several difficult fights.
- Synergy with Rage: Karlach’s Infernal Fury damage bonus stacks with her barbarian Rage damage bonus. This combination makes her an exceptionally potent melee damage dealer.
- Unarmed Builds: If you are building Karlach as an unarmed combatant (e.g., combining barbarian with Monk levels), the enhanced 2-8 fire damage from Infernal Fury on unarmed strikes becomes incredibly powerful.
- Party Composition: Pair Karlach with characters who can provide her with buffs (e.g., Bless, Haste) or debuff enemies (e.g., Bane, Slow) to further amplify the effectiveness of her Infernal Fury.
- Short Rests vs. Long Rests: Remember that Infernal Fury only ends on a Long Rest. This means you can take multiple Short Rests without losing the buff, allowing Karlach to regain her Rage charges and continue benefiting from the Soul Coin.
Conclusion
Understanding how to give Karlach a Soul Coin is a valuable piece of knowledge for any Baldur’s Gate 3 player looking to optimize their party’s performance. By following the simple steps of accessing her inventory and having her consume the coin, you unlock the powerful Infernal Fury condition, significantly boosting her damage output. While Soul Coins are rare and their use has narrative implications, their strategic application can turn the tide of difficult battles and enhance your experience with one of Baldur’s Gate 3’s most beloved companions. Use them wisely, and let Karlach unleash her full infernal power.
Should you give Karlach Soul Coins?
Once the option arises in game, giving Soul Coins to Karlach allows her to get an extra boost of power in combat, which could be the deciding factor in a tight battle with a Baldur’s Gate 3 boss or a last stand against hordes of enemies.
How to get the reward for killing Karlach?
From my experience, You have to kill Karlach (without Wyll AND without interacting with her) and the talk to camp and proc Mizora scene. Then, return to Karlach and use a scroll of Revivify on her. You should be able to get Wyll’s prize and Karlach if they didn’t patch it.
How to make Karlach a new heart?
To repair Karlach’s heart, return to Dammon with Karlach in the party. Karlach must install the upgrades herself, so this only works if Karlach is present.
How to exchange soul stones for soul Coins?
Good point! Get these coins by exchanging extra Soul Stones of your Absolute Star Heroes and spend them at the Soul Shop. You are asked to convert eligible Soul Stones to coins when entering the shop.