Baldur’s Gate 3: How to Defeat Yurgir the Orthon

Raphael wants you to kill Yurgir the Orthon for him in Act 2, and in return he’ll provide information about Astarion’s scars. Yurgir isn’t the easiest fight, but you can choose to work with him to break his contract with Raphael instead. However, if you have chosen violence, here’s how to defeat Yurgir the Orthon in Baldur’s Gate 3.

How to Defeat Yurgir the Orthon in Baldur’s Gate 3

Choosing to fight right after meeting Yurgir gives him the High Ground advantage and makes for a difficult battle. However, you can strategize in a way to give yourself the High Ground.

In Act 2, the main questline requires you to head into the Gauntlet of Shar, which is tucked inside a mausoleum. Before you enter, Raphael appears and requests that you kill Yurgir for him, and agrees to Astarion’s request for information in exchange. You’ll find him by heading to the Gauntlet of Shar Waypoint and turning east to head up the stairs.

Agree to Work with Yurgir

As you head towards the stairs in the room, you’ll enter a cutscene with Yurgir threatening you. While you can go straight into battle from here by being hostile, I recommend playing along with him and saying that you’ll try to help him break his contract. Astarion won’t approve of this move, but it gets Yurgir and all his minions to come down from the upper level. This means they won’t have the High Ground advantage when you fight them.

Prepare the Battleground

This next step isn’t necessary, but I put a bunch of Firewine Barrels and Smokepowder around Yurgir on his platform. You can go back and forth to Camp and keep hauling them in, and he stays in the same location. It can be tempting to put some near his minions, but they’re immune to Fire Damage, so it’d be a waste.

Get the High Ground

To start the battle, go up the ramp to get the High Ground and hit one of the barrels for an explosion. If you put enough around him or got lucky with the damage amounts, you can kill Yurgir in one hit.  If you don’t use barrels, then start the fight with a strong ability on Yurgir.

Control the Ramp with Difficult Terrain

From here, you’ll want to turn the ramp into difficult terrain with abilities like Grease or Ray of Frost to slow the enemies from reaching your party. Burn Yurgir first, then the Displacer Beast if you can get Line of Sight on it. If not, you’ll have to deal with its copies appearing in the middle of your group while you chip away at the minions.

It can turn into a long battle, but it’s easier to have the enemies on the ground level and your party higher up. This way you can have a measure of control over the enemy movement towards you, and you get Advantage on your rolls, so it’s the best situation you can be in with the layout of the room.

You don’t have to fight him, but that’s how to defeat Yurgir the Orthon in Baldur’s Gate 3. You have to deal with him to progress in Act 2, and I just found it easier in my playthrough to kill him instead of breaking his contract. If you want to dive into more content, check out our BG3 guide hub for topics like how to get to the other side of the Oubliette or how to find Zevlor in Act 2.