Baldur’s Gate 3 Wyrmway Guide | How to Find and Beat Ansur the Wyrm

Baldur’s Gate 3 is full of detours and hidden areas that can completely distract you from the main story (as any good D&D campaign should). Whether it’s a secret prison below the ocean waves or an alien Myconid colony in the Underdark, there’s always something wonderful and fantastical to find. Perhaps the most mystical location in the whole game is the fabled Wyrmway. The Wyrmway is a hidden area below the city of Baldur’s Gate, one which contains a dark secret of the city’s past and some pretty amazing loot for you and your party. There are a few reasons to venture down to the depths of the Wyrmway but the most prominent is a request from Wyll’s father, Duke Ravengard, after you save him from the Iron Throne in Act 3.

Getting into the Wyrmway is way easier said than done, though. Not only do you have to find the hidden entrance, but you also have to beat four difficulty trials set up by the city’s founder, legendary hero Balduran. That isn’t even mentioning what awaits you at the end of this path. If you’re still intent on venturing below and proving yourself a hero, you can find everything you need to conquer the Wyrmway below. 

Here’s how to find the Wyrmway and complete all of its puzzles in Baldur’s Gate 3, as well as a guide on how to take down the formidable Ansur, Heart of the Gate.

Want more Baldur’s Gate 3 guides and content? You can find more here on KeenGamer:

1. Baldur’s Gate 3 Review | Natural 20
2. Baldur’s Gate 3 | How to Change Classes, Multiclass and Respec
3. Baldur’s Gate 3 | Sorcerer Sundries Vault Guide (How to Open the Karsus and Elminster Vaults)
4. Baldur’s Gate 3 | Adamantine Forge Quest Guide (Where to Find the Adamantine Forge)
5. How to Get Permanent See Invisibility Early in Baldur’s Gate 3 (Volo’s Ersatz Eye Guide)

How to Find the Wyrmway in Baldur’s Gate 3

Before you can challenge the mighty Ansur, you first have to, well, find him. This involves locating the Wyrmway, a secret set of tunnels below the city of Baldur’s Gate where the beast is said to slumber. If you get access to the Legend of Ansur book from Duke Ravenguard, you’ll already have a good idea of where to go. 

Getting into the Wyrmway can be a real challenge, though, with only one proper entrance that can be a bit finicky to access. To prepare for this, make sure you either bring a Druid (either your PC, Halsin or Jahira) or a character that can transform into an animal about the size of a cat. They don’t need to be super strong or fully kitted for a fight as you can switch them out for your other, more able party members in due time: you just need them to access the Wyrmway entrance. 

To start the process of getting into the Wyrmway, you’ll first want to head to the area on top of it, Wyrm’s Rock. However, instead of teleporting directly there, head to the Wyrm’s Crossing Waypoint instead, and then walk over the bridge towards Wyrm’s Rock. As you’re crossing the bridge, peer over the edge and you should be able to spy a series of rocky cliffs and sheer edges. 

Cliff’s Below Wyrm’s Rock

Now, you’ll want to split up your party a bit. Whoever’s going to be transforming – so, likely your Druid or Wizard – should separate from the party and begin heading down those cliffs. You’ll need to make a lengthy jump down to reach the cliffs, but after that, it is simply a process of following the path you can see above until you reach a small hidden beach.

Meanwhile, the other three members of your party should make their way into the Wyrm’s Rock Fortress Prison. You can find the entrance to this near the Wyrm’s Rock Waypoint. The guard on duty for watching the prison will be sleeping on the job, allowing you to either pick the lock to the prison door or simply pickpocket the key from their person. Then, they just need to wait inside the prison. 

Once your solo party member has made their way to the hidden cove, it’s time to transform. With a high enough Perception Check, your character should notice a conspicuous pipe jutting out from the rocks. If you’re a Druid Wildshaping into a cat, you can simply wander on into this pipe and a hidden section inside Wyrm’s Rock Prison. 

Secret Wyrmway Entrance

When you make it inside, your next job is to head immediately to the right where you’ll soon find a false wall hidden by magic. This wall will fall away so long as someone is standing on the hidden side: your Druid just needs to get close enough to open the way for the rest of your party to enter safely through. As for where the wall is located, as soon as you enter the Wyrm’s Rock Prison main entrance, head left until you reach a dead end which is where the fake wall is waiting for you.

A word of warning that, once you enter the Wyrmway you cannot leave easily and will have to repeat this entire process to regain entry. You’ll want to come in with your strongest and most ready fighters, which may not include the Druid you used to get into this section. If that’s the case, simply leave two of your party members behind the hidden wall and then exit back to Wyrm’s Rock with the Druid. Then, you can ask them to return to Camp where you can grab your better party member and then make your way back to the magic wall in the prison. 

False Wall in Wyrm Rock Prison

Alternative Method Inside the Wyrmway

Alternatively, if you don’t have a Druid and don’t want to go through this hassle, there is another way to open the door, one which will drain your Spell Slots or Spell Scrolls.

Instead of taking the long winding method with the pipe, make your way to the hidden wall in the Wrym’s Rock Fortress Prison. Then, use any Lightning attack on the two Dragon Torches until they become blue (just like in the Druid method), which should cause the door to fall away. The same rules as before still apply, meaning that if you walk in and then back out, the wall will close back up and you’ll need to use two more Spells on the torches.

While far simpler than the Druid method, it does have more risk involved. If you don’t have any characters you can use a Lightning Spell, you’ll have to rely on Spell Scrolls (which you may not have). On the other hand, if you do have someone who can cast Lightning Spells, they’ll be using up a precious Spell Slot that you’ll need when fighting Ansur. Due to all this, we still recommend the Druid method over this one because, while a tad more tedious, it lets most teams go in fully prepared for whatever Ansur throws at them.

Once all preparations have been made – seriously, make sure you have a bunch of Potions and Scrolls and are full-on Spell Slots – wander around the hidden area a bit more until you find an entrance into the fabled Wyrmway via the Iron Gate. 

Hit the Torches with Lightning

Wyrmway Puzzle Solutions (How to Get to Ansur in BG3)

Once you enter the Wyrmway, you’ll be greeted by a statue of Baldur’s Gate’s founder, Balduran. This statue of Balduran will explain that, before you can face the great Wyrm Ansur who slumbers at the heart of the Wyrmway, you’ll have to go through four of his tests to determine whether you and your party are worthy of meeting the Dragon. 

Balduran’s tests include a Test of Justice, a Test of Insight, a Test of Strategy and a Test of Courage. You must overcome all four if you want any hope of meeting (and beating) Ansur in Baldur’s Gate 3. 

The Wyrm Way Opens for the Worthy

Chamber of Justice Puzzle Solution

The first of Balduran’s four tests is the Chamber of Justice. This test is all about trying a hero’s sense of, well, justice and how finely they walk the line between righteous consequence and cruel punishment. 

Around the room are a handful of different paintings. They all tell the story of a red-haired thief, beginning with him stealing an apple from a market in Baldur’s Gate and ending with his sentence to an unknown fate. Additionally, in the middle of the room, there is a whispy shadow entity called the Judge who watches over three more Shrouded Paintings, although these are completely clad in shadow and cannot be accessed. 

To complete the Chamber of Justice trial, you need to determine the most fitting end for the thief and what just punishment he should receive for his crimes. Before you do anything, though, you must eliminate the shadows trapping the central three paintings. Using a Spell such as Remove Curse or Greater Restoration on the Judge will cause it to vanish in a plume of smoke and shadow, freeing the paintings from their gloomy imprisonment and allowing you to close out the test.

The paintings in the middle of the chamber reflect the possible ending of this thief’s story: Freedom, Execution or a Cell. By Balduran’s own words, you must find a punishment for the thief that befits his crimes and nothing more. Setting the thief free would resolve him of any wrongdoing and be a miscategorisation of justice, whereas sentencing him to death for merely stealing an apple is similarly unjust.

As such, the only logical option left is to sentence the thief to time in prison. Pick up the Cell Painting and take it over to the empty slot behind where the Judge once stood. Then, by interacting with the empty slot, you can select the painting from your inventory. 

Slot the correct painting into the empty area and Balduran’s first trial will be complete: you’ll have conquered the Chamber of Justice and can move on to the other three trials. 

A Justified End

Chamber of Insight Puzzle Solution

Balduran’s second trial takes place in the Chamber of Insight. This trial is supposed to test your ability to find out information by yourself and come to definitive conclusions in Baldur’s Gate’s favour. 

At the end of a winding path through several packed bookshelves and white crystals are three red figures, all with distinct names and with only a single hit point. Your goal, as per Balduran’s instruction, is to sniff out which of these figures – who all helped found Baldur’s Gate in some way shape or form – is against the idea of peace and prosperity and would prefer war to perpetually ebb on for their own favour.

Who Threatens the Peace?

The first thing you’ll likely notice when wandering around the Chamber of Insight is the flying books. There are three of these books dotted around the Chamber and they fly around at very high speeds: Try to interact with the books and your characters will proclaim how they cannot catch them or something to that effect. These books, though, are the key to the puzzle. 

Getting the books actually to stop doesn’t do anything: casting Slow on the flying books doesn’t make them readable, neither does entering Turn-Based Mode, and hitting the books with any sort of attack will instantly destroy them. However, what you can glean from just mousing over the sentient books are their titles and who they are written by, with the most interesting being Suelto’s Ethic of War.

With that information in mind, all you need to do is lay one good smack on the NPC with the same name as written in that book. This will make them disappear and, should you have chosen correctly, the Chamber of Insight trial will be complete. 

Suelto’s Ethic of War

Chamber of Strategy Puzzle Solution

After the Chamber of Insight is the Chamber of Strategy, the most conventional test of intelligence out of the four Chambers. As soon as you enter the room, your character will remark on the giant Lanceboard, fit with massive replicas of traditional chess pieces.

This time, your objective is actually pretty simple: you have 2 moves to take the Black King. The pieces on the board are already in a fixed order when you first arrive in the Chamber and by clicking on a certain piece, you can move it around the board. In only two movements (which includes a turn for your opponent to go in between your turns) you must capture or Check Mate the opposing king. 

Chamber of… Lanceboard?

You only have 3 opportunities to get it right, denoted by three glowing red lights at the back of the arena. If you try to randomly guess what goes where you’ll soon run into trouble. As soon as you make a wrong move – playing a move that will not result in a two-turn victory – the entire board will reset and you will be reprimanded by Balduran’s stoic stone statue. And, because of the attempt limit, you only have 3 goes to get this right or you fail the challenge. 

Here’s the exact set of moves you need to perform to complete the Chamber of Strategy in Baldur’s Gate 3: 

1. Move the White Rook directly above the Black King.
2. This will cause the Black Queen to take the White Rook. 
3. Then, on your second turn, capture the Black King using your White Queen. 

Do it correctly and you’ll have conquered the Chamber of Strategy. 

Chamber of Courage Puzzle Solution

Finally, we have the Chamber of Courage, arguably the easiest trial of them all because it’s a combat test. Once you enter the room, Balduran’s instructions are to pick up a flame from the feet of his statue, imbuing a chosen character with the Sacred Flame debuff. Then, you must survive and keep the character with the Sacred Flame effect alive for 4 rounds while you are beset by Elementals of all shapes and sizes.

The trickiest thing here is that Sacred Flame debuff: while it is active, that character is far more likely to be targeted by enemy attacks and they will take absurd amounts of damage – we’re talking almost 100 points of damage – if they do end up getting hit multiple times. As such, you want your strongest and heartiest character such as a Barbarian to take the Flame instead of your usual PC. 

Honestly, though, with the right tools, this battle can be very easy. If you have anything that can push an enemy backwards like an Arrow of Roaring Thunder or the Repelling Blast Invocation on Eldritch Blast, you can quite easily just knock all of the enemies off the map before they get a turn to act. At that point, you just need to watch enemy spawns and keep your torchbearer safely away from wherever the next opponent is about to appear.

Keep that flame lit for 4 total rounds and the final challenge will complete. Now, you can enter the Dragon’s Sanctum and meet with Ansur the Wyrm.

Don’t Let the Light Die

How to Beat Ansur, Heart of the Gate, in Baldur’s Gate 3

Once you’ve beaten all four tests, you’ll enter Ansur’s Lair, the Dragon’s Sanctum, you’ll quickly realise that this won’t be a friendly meeting with the Wyrm. No, instead you’ll be thrust into combat with an undead version of one of Baldur’s Gate’s heroes: there is no way to change his mind, nor can you pacify him. There is no way out of this fight. 

Get ready because you will have to fight Ansur, Heart of the Gate, the Undead Dragon of the Wyrmway. 

The Dead Wyrm

Ansur, Heart of the Gate, is likely one of the toughest enemies you will fight in the entire game. Ansur has 400 HP, making him one of the highest health units in all of Baldur’s Gate 3, and he’ll be level 17 when you fight him. He has an AC of 19 with ridiculously high Strength and Constitution stats, sitting at 25 and 23, respectively. This gives Ansur a Strength Modifier of +7 and a Constitution Modifier of +6. 

On top of that, Ansur has several different buffs and bonuses that you need to be aware of. Firstly, Ansur completely nullifies (takes no damage from) Lightning and Poison damage, whereas he resists (takes half damage from) Necrotic damage. Additionally, you’ll have to contend with the following effects for the entire duration of the fight:

• Immutable Form: Spells that alter someone’s form (such as Polymorph) have no effect on the affected entity, and it has a +5 bonus to Saving Throws that would remove it from this plane (such as Banishment).
• Magic Resistance: Has Advantage on Saving Throws against spells and other magical effects.
• Turn Resistance: Affected entity has Advantage on Saving Throws against any effect that turns undead. 

Ansur, Heart of the Gate

Ansur’s most basic attack (and the one he’ll use in Opportunity Attacks) is Slam. This is a simple move where Ansur smashes the ground with his front arms, causing wide Bludgeoning damage (6d8+7) to anyone within a 4-meter radius. Additionally, this attack has the chance of knocking anyone nearby Prone for 2 turns, a devastating possibility in a fight as tense as this.

On top of that, Ansur also has access to a classic Dragon attack: the Lightning Breath. This attack deals high Lighting damage (12d6) in a line directly in front of Ansur for 60m, with half damage on a successful DEX Save. Like Slam, characters caught in this attack have a chance to be afflicted has an additional debuff called Shock: while under the influence of Shock, characters cannot use Reactions and have Disadvantage on every kind of Dexterity roll or save. 

The worst and most deadly attack in Ansur’s arsenal is Stormheart Nova. This two-stage attack begins with Ansur using Gather Power, during which time he will fly into the air and become Resistant to all forms of damage. At this point, you and your entire party need to come up with some kind of escape plan or defensive measure because, on Ansur’s next turn, he will instantly cast Stormheart Nova on the entire battlefield. This attack is essentially an almost instant kill on any character (18d10 Lightning damage) with only those in the upper echelons of Consitution having a hope of survival. Following this attack, Ansur will use Bout of Storms to call down a series of Lightning Strikes which remain for the rest of the fight, dealing big Lightning damage if you get caught in them.

Aside from this, Ansur can also Fly at will, allowing him to reach essentially any part of the battlefield in a single turn: This can be really bad if he decides to come for your casters in the backline as you won’t be able to appropriately defend against it. All in all, Ansur is a menace who can not only take tons of damage but deal it back twofold. Without the right gear and preparation, you’ll likely only have a few rounds to deal with Ansur before being slaughtered by the Stormheart Nova. 

Unleashed Energy

Water Myrmidon

If that wasn’t all, Ansur isn’t alone when you go to fight him. Two Water Myrmidons will join Ansur in the fight. While not the strongest foes in their own right – in fact, you’ve already fought a few in the Chamber of Courage – they become a bit more troublesome because of the massive Dragon you need to focus your attention on.

Both Water Myrmidons have 127 HP with an Armour Class of 18. They resist all forms of non-magical Slashing, Bludgeoning and Piercing damage as well as resisting Acid damage, and they completely nullify Poison damage. The other main thing to note about the Myrmidons is that they have the Permenatnly Armed feature, meaning you can never disarm them with spells like Heat Metal or Telekinesis. 

The Water Myrmidons shouldn’t be a priority during your fight with Ansur: they don’t actually deal too much damage, meaning they can be safely ignored most of the time. This is especially true because the Myrmidons will also take damage from Ansur’s Stormheart Nova, which will bring them ridiculously close to death. As such, the best advice we can give for dealing with the Myrmidons is to simply keep an eye on them and try to simply last until the Nova goes off, allowing you to pick them off with ease in the following rounds. 

Water Myrmidons

Best Strategies for Ansur in BG3

The number one thing you need to know going into this fight is how you’re going to deal with the Stormheart Nova. No matter how good a run is going or how much damage you’re dealing with, it will be for nought when your entire party gets wiped out by this move. Generally, there are two main methods for approaching it: either you try and kill Ansur before he can get the attack off, or you find a way to negate the damage. 

Option 1 is far more difficult and risky. Ansur seems to always begin Hoarding Energy at around turn 3, giving you a tiny window to shred his massive 400 HP. This isn’t even mentioning the potential to get knocked Prone by Slam or the Myrmidon’s ice attacks, Ansur’s erratic movement with flight or any number of other issues.

However, it is certainly possible: if you stack up on strong party members like Barbarians or Rogues (especially if you have items that deal bonus damage to Undead or Dragons) there is a slim chance that you can get it done before Stormheart Nova goes off. In a practice session using this method, I got Ansur to 150 HP by the time he unleashed the Nova and that was with some terrible plays and poor rolls.

Undead Dragon

The other option requires more set-up but is far more likely to succeed. Instead of beating Ansur before the Nova, you just need to try and survive it. Without using spells, your best bet is to leg it out of the door you entered through: While it sounds simple, this can be very tricky to pull off unless you have a bunch of Misty Step or Haste effects prepared as you cannot be sure when Ansur will start his attack.

Alternatively, you can use the Globe of Invulnerability spell to create a barrier that makes all creatures inside of it immune, allowing you to stay nice and dry during the Nova. To get your hands on a Scroll of Globe of Invulnerability, check out our guide on how to enter the Sorcerous Sundries Vault. 

Globe of Invulnerability

Outside of the Nova, you need to be aware of your positioning at all times. Grouping up your party can be very risky and result in a lot of lost turns because most of Ansur’s attacks hit multiple opponents, particularly the Slam and Lightning Breath. However, you cannot spread out your party too much, either. Surround Ansur with your team but keep them spaced apart: this will let you continue dealing damage without worry.

Finally, see if you have any special oils, potions or other tools before the battle begins. For example, I had an Arrow of Dragon Slaying sitting in my inventory for the last 2 acts and it dealt a ton of damage to Ansur when used in the opportune moment. There are a lot of different additional resources you can utilise because Ansur is considered both Undead and a Dragon

Survive the Storm(heart)

How to Get the Crash Landing Achievement in BG3

Finally, it’s worth noting that there is a missable achievement tied to fighting Ansur called Crash Landing. To earn this achievement, players need to knock Ansur out of the sky while he is flying.

The easiest way to obtain this achievement is to weaken Ansur as much as you can but not kill him. Instead, you should wait until he begins casting Stormheart Nova, which begins with Ansur using Gather Power. This attack causes him to fly for the next round, giving you ample opportunities to kill him while he is still hoarding energy for his next big attack. Because of Ansur’s large health pool, you’ll likely get this done on the second cast of Stormheart Nova, so make sure you have some way of protecting yourself and then weather the storm until you see him start flying again. 

Aside from that, just play carefully and throw everything you have at him. Eventually, after some trial and error, Ansur, Heart of the Gate, will fall and you will claim victory. Don’t forget to claim the Legendary Balduran’s Giantslayer Greatsword from Ansur’s body – which lets you increase your size and gain Advantage against Large, Huge or Gargantuan creatures – or the Legendary Helm of Balduran from a pedestal on your way out of the Dragon’s Sanctum. 

That was how to find and complete the Wyrmway, as well as how to best Ansur, Heart of the Gate, in Baldur’s Gate 3. This will conclude the Legend of Ansur quest and help you complete the Blade of Frontiers companion quest for Wyll, too.