In Baldur’s Gate 3, a critical interaction involving your companion Karlach allows players to significantly enhance her combat capabilities. This involves the unique item known as a Soul Coin. When you give Karlach Soul Coin, you are providing her with a temporary yet potent boost to her Infernal Engine, directly translating into increased damage output during combat encounters. This article details the process, effects, and strategic implications of utilizing Soul Coins with Karlach.
Understanding Soul Coins and Karlach’s Infernal Engine
Before discussing the practical steps to give Karlach Soul Coin, it’s important to grasp the core concepts.
What are Soul Coins?
Soul Coins are peculiar, often glowing, metallic discs found throughout Baldur’s Gate 3. Their lore suggests a connection to Avernus, the first layer of the Nine Hells, and the souls of the damned. Mechanically, they serve as a consumable item with a specific utility for Karlach. While they might appear to be mere trinkets or currency at first glance, their true value lies in their interaction with Karlach’s unique physiology.
Karlach’s Infernal Engine
Karlach is a Tiefling Barbarian with an Infernal Engine for a heart, a device that keeps her alive but also causes her immense pain and limits her ability to make physical contact. This engine is a central part of her personal questline. From a gameplay perspective, the Infernal Engine is also the mechanism through which Soul Coins can be processed to grant her temporary buffs. The engine is constantly active, but its true potential, in terms of combat augmentation, is unlocked through external stimuli like Soul Coins.
The Process to Give Karlach Soul Coin
The act of providing Karlach with a Soul Coin is straightforward, involving inventory management and dialogue choices.
Step-by-Step Guide
To successfully give Karlach Soul Coin and trigger its benefits, follow these steps:
- Access Inventory: Open your inventory screen. This can be done by pressing the “Tab” key to view the inventories of all party members simultaneously, or by pressing “I” to open your personal inventory and then selecting the “Group” tab if you wish to manage items for the entire party.
- Locate Soul Coins: Browse your inventory or the group inventory to find any Soul Coins you possess. They are typically categorized under “Miscellaneous” or “Consumables.”
- Transfer to Karlach: Once located, transfer the Soul Coin(s) to Karlach’s inventory.
- Drag and Drop: The simplest method is to click and drag the Soul Coin icon directly onto Karlach’s character portrait within the group inventory display.
- Right-Click Menu: Alternatively, right-click on the Soul Coin. From the context menu that appears, select “Send to” and then choose “Karlach” from the list of party members.
- Verification: Confirm that the Soul Coin now appears in Karlach’s personal inventory.
- Initiate Dialogue with Karlach: Once Karlach has a Soul Coin in her possession, initiate a conversation with her. Approach her and interact to begin dialogue.
- Select Consumption Option: During the conversation, a specific dialogue option will appear, allowing Karlach to consume the Soul Coin. The exact wording may vary slightly but will generally refer to her engine or the coin’s power. Choose this option.
Upon selecting the option, a brief animation or dialogue sequence may play, indicating Karlach’s interaction with the Soul Coin.
Important Considerations for Transfer
- Party Proximity: While not strictly necessary for inventory transfer, ensuring Karlach is in your active party and relatively close can make the process feel more intuitive.
- Multiple Coins: You can transfer multiple Soul Coins to Karlach at once. However, she can only consume one at a time for the buff.
- Coin Stack: Soul Coins often stack in your inventory. When dragging and dropping, you might transfer the entire stack. If you only wish to transfer one, you may need to split the stack first (usually by holding “Shift” while dragging, or using a right-click option).
The Effect: Infernal Fury Condition
When Karlach consumes a Soul Coin, she gains a powerful temporary buff known as Infernal Fury.
Benefits of Infernal Fury
The Infernal Fury condition provides the following significant combat advantages:
- Bonus Fire Damage: Karlach’s weapon attacks gain an additional 1d4 Fire damage. This damage is added to each successful hit, making her a more potent damage dealer, especially against enemies vulnerable to fire.
- Duration: The Infernal Fury condition lasts until Karlach takes her next Long Rest. This means that if you consume a Soul Coin at the beginning of a challenging area or before a major fight, the buff will persist through multiple encounters within that adventuring day.
- Stacking: The Infernal Fury condition itself does not stack. Consuming multiple Soul Coins will refresh the duration to the next Long Rest, but it will not increase the 1d4 Fire damage bonus.
Strategic Use of Infernal Fury
Knowing when to give Karlach Soul Coin is key to maximizing its impact:
- Before Major Boss Fights: The most obvious use is before engaging a difficult boss or a large group of powerful enemies. The extra damage per hit can significantly shorten combat encounters.
- Challenging Areas: If you are entering an area known for its tough encounters or high enemy density, consider activating Infernal Fury to maintain combat efficiency.
- Resource Management: Since the buff lasts until a Long Rest, it’s efficient to activate it early in an adventuring day if you anticipate several combat encounters. This saves you from consuming a coin before every minor skirmish.
- Targeting Vulnerabilities: If you encounter enemies with a specific vulnerability to fire damage, activating Infernal Fury will make Karlach even more effective against them.
- Low-Level Encounters: While not always necessary, using a Soul Coin for minor encounters at lower levels can help conserve other resources like spell slots or health potions by ending fights quicker.
Sourcing Soul Coins
To give Karlach Soul Coin, you first need to find them. Soul Coins are not endlessly abundant, but they are discoverable throughout the game world.
Common Locations and Acquisition Methods
- Loot: Soul Coins are frequently found as loot from containers, chests, and fallen enemies, especially those with infernal connections.
- Specific Quests: Certain quests, particularly those related to the Hells or infernal contracts, may reward Soul Coins.
- Vendor Stock: Occasionally, specific vendors might have Soul Coins for sale, though this is less common than finding them as loot. Keep an eye out when browsing merchant inventories.
- Act 1 Discoveries: Several Soul Coins can be found relatively early in Act 1, often in areas like the Dank Crypt, the Blighted Village, or within areas tied to infernal activity.
- Act 2 and 3: More Soul Coins become available as you progress through the game’s acts, often in locations that have strong ties to the game’s overarching narrative of devils and infernal machinations.
Managing Your Supply
Given their finite nature, it’s wise to manage your Soul Coin supply. While the game provides enough for significant use, they are not infinite. Prioritize using them for critical encounters where Karlach’s increased damage output will make a noticeable difference. Avoid wasting them on trivial fights where the extra damage is not impactful.
Karlach’s Personal Quest and Soul Coins
The act of consuming Soul Coins is also tied to Karlach’s personal narrative. Without spoiling specific plot points, know that providing her with Soul Coins and seeing her interact with her engine is part of her character development. While the combat buff is the primary mechanical benefit, it also serves as a thematic element, reinforcing her connection to Avernus and her infernal heart.
Dialogue and Role-Playing
When you give Karlach Soul Coin and she consumes it, pay attention to her dialogue. She often expresses relief, a surge of power, or a momentary respite from her constant pain. This adds a layer of depth to the mechanical interaction, enhancing the player’s connection with the character. For players who enjoy role-playing, this interaction provides an opportunity to engage with Karlach’s struggles and aspirations.
Alternative Buffs and Synergies
While the Infernal Fury from a Soul Coin is a potent buff, it’s important to remember that it synergizes with other buffs and combat strategies.
- Bless: The Bless spell, a common cleric spell, provides a 1d4 bonus to attack rolls and saving throws, which pairs well with Karlach’s increased damage output from Infernal Fury by making her more likely to hit.
- Haste: The Haste spell or potions that grant Haste provide an extra action, additional AC, and increased movement. Combined with Infernal Fury, Karlach can unleash a flurry of attacks, each benefiting from the bonus fire damage.
- Elixirs: Various elixirs, such as the Elixir of Heroism (temporary hit points and Bless) or Elixir of Battlemage’s Power (extra attack), can further amplify Karlach’s combat prowess when combined with Infernal Fury.
- Barbarian Rage: Karlach’s core class feature, Rage, already provides her with bonus damage and damage resistance. Infernal Fury stacks directly with the damage bonus from Rage, making her an even more formidable melee combatant.
By combining Infernal Fury with other buffs, you can transform Karlach into a devastating force on the battlefield, capable of turning the tide of difficult engagements.
Conclusion
The ability to give Karlach Soul Coin in Baldur’s Gate 3 is a valuable gameplay mechanic that offers a direct and powerful boost to one of your most engaging companions. By understanding how to acquire, transfer, and activate these unique items, players can strategically enhance Karlach’s performance in combat, making her an even more essential member of the adventuring party. The Infernal Fury condition provides a significant damage increase that lasts for an entire adventuring day, making it an efficient and impactful buff for challenging encounters. Proper management of Soul Coins and their strategic deployment will undoubtedly contribute to your success in the intricate world of Baldur’s Gate 3.
Should you give Karlach a soul coin?
From my experience, 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?
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 use infernal coins on Karlach?
Thanks for asking. Soul Coins do have a more immediate purpose, though. Once you recruit Karlach near the Risen Road, she can consume a Soul Coin to power up the infernal machine inside her, granting the Infernal Fury condition until Long Rest. This adds 1-4 fire damage to her melee attacks when she’s Raging or her HP is below 25%.