A little extra brainpower is always handy to have. And while you’re busy exploring the Mind Flayer Colony in the twilight hours of Baldur’s Gate 3 Act 2, a little brain puzzle can lead to a helpful boon if you look for it. Here’s how to solve the brain puzzle in BG3.
Baldur’s Gate 3 brain puzzle solution
It seems like there’s no one exact solution, but probably a few ways you could route this out. You ultimately have more nodes than you need to work with, as you link from one side to the other. My main tip is to keep an eye on nodes that only have one input. My strategy was to look for nodes that only had those and create paths for them, then work around with the others.
Here’s my finished puzzle, if you’re really stumped. It’s not too difficult, but a fun little logic game.
The key to making this puzzle easier to navigate, especially with a controller, is to press L3 on PlayStation or LS on Xbox to enable camera controls. Without these, you won’t be able to move the brain puzzle nodes. Doing this on PC is easier, as you can freely use WASD to move your camera, QE to rotate, and your mouse to drag the puzzle nodes around their paths.
Once you’ve linked it all together, a door in the back will open up, and you’ll receive part one of your prize: the Blade of Oppressed Souls sword, a wall carving you can interact with for lore, and a brain in a box known as the Waking Mind. Don’t leave that brain behind, though.
The Blade of Oppressed Souls sword is also useful for your longsword-wielding party members. While it doesn’t have any major perks, it does boast some helpful stats:
- Versatile Longsword
- 1d10 (1d8) Slashing + 1d4 Psychic Damage
- Weapon Enchantment +1
It’s worth picking up if you need a new sword or want to take advantage of bonus psychic damage. However, the Waking Mind is where things truly get interesting.
How to use Waking Mind in BG3
Head across the far part of the lab towards the other corner, and you’ll see an alcove with a machine in it. This construction lets you plant brains in it and talk to them, through the disembodied head. Larian Studios really leaned into the body horror for this bit.
The Waking Mind, which you get from the room that opens after beating the brain puzzle in Baldur’s Gate 3, holds a Githzerai consciousness. You can inquire about how they wound up here, and I recommend you do, as it’s an intriguing story. Ultimately, they will ask you to purge their brain and put them out of their misery using your brainworms—err, tadpole powers.
Though Lae’zel will disapprove of this, you should probably do it. Not only does it feel like a nice thing to do, you also get a boon from the Githzerai before they fade: a buff that gives you Advantage on Intelligence Saving Throws. Pretty useful if you’re about to go fight some Mind Flayers or something. Much like Gale’s benefit, you can get from the puzzle in Balthazar’s room at Moonrise, any little bit extra is nice to have.
Where to find the brain puzzle in BG3
The brain puzzle is located in the Mind Flayer Colony map, in the Necrotic Laboratory area (X: 741, Y:-120). You might want to use one of your limited short rests of the area before heading in, however. Things get a little spicy when you open the fleshy doors of this lab.
How to find the brain puzzle in Baldur’s Gate 3
A horde of zombies, a few winged horrors, and the world’s most annoying enemy—a Death Shepherd—are all ready to rumble when you walk in. And when I say a horde, I mean it. It’s a pretty massive wall of flesh and bone between you and the Death Shepherd, who’s going to keep resurrecting what you kill until you get to him.
My suggestion is to either try to nuke him down from a distance while some powerful AoE spells, like Ice Storm or Guardian of Faith, hold back the zombies; or just have someone like Lae’zel leap into the backline and try to instantly wipe him out. You can also try to use Shadowheart’s Turn Undead class skill, or anything else that can specifically affect undead enemies.
After you’ve survived the onslaught, head to the back, and on the left-hand side, you’ll see a console. Interact with it, and the brain puzzle will emerge. The voice tells you that you’ll need to connect the four different pieces of its brain—Emotion, Reason, Speech, and Memory—to their receptors in order to move ahead.
