Baldur's Gate 3: How to Save the Doomed Prisoners
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In Baldur's Gate 3 Act 2, the Moonrise Towers prisoners look doomed — but you can save them. Here's how to free them before the final battle.
In Baldur’s Gate 3, the Moonrise Towers prisoners in Act 2 are considered doomed by most players — but you can save them: just rescue them BEFORE the region’s final confrontation. Anyone who ignores the prison while exploring finds the characters dead in the next sequence, and the rescue window closes forever.
Who are the “doomed” of Act 2?
The Moonrise Towers prison holds the gnome Wulbren and other prisoners — including the tieflings you met in Act 1. The narrative works against you: everything suggests they will be executed, and most players only learn about the rescue after advancing too far into the story. The belief that “there’s no way to save them” is the most common misconception of the second act.
The good news is that the rescue is possible at any time before the battle that ends the act. You can enter Moonrise as soon as you reach the region, explore the prison calmly, and free everyone. After the final confrontation, the window closes and the prisoners disappear from the region — for good.
Why so many players think saving them is impossible
The game gives the prison no prominence at all: the main marker points toward the confrontation path, and the fortress entrance looks like a road to war. What’s more, the imprisoned characters won’t talk to you from a distance — you have to get close to the cells to understand what is going on. As a result, most players walk right past and learn the prisoners’ fate too late.
Step by step: saving the prisoners
- Go to Moonrise Towers before the final confrontation of Act 2 — the main entrance is guarded, but there are side routes that avoid direct combat.
- Explore the prison area: the fortress’s lower corridors house the prisoners’ cells. The path demands attention to patrols, but it is short.
- Use stealth or talk your way past the guards: dialogue with the deception or intimidation tag opens the way without combat — and avoids the alarm that draws reinforcements.
- Free the cells and guide the prisoners out — they follow the escape route on their own once released, but they stay vulnerable to ambushes along the way.
- Check the camp in Act 3: rescued characters reappear in the story if they survive the escape — and some unlock new quests in the final act.
Items and skills that make the rescue easier
- Stealth: a character with high stealth slips through the corridors without alerting patrols.
- Dialogue: high charisma or the deception tag avoids combat with the prison guards.
- Keys and levers: the cells open with the right interaction — look for levers and keys on the guards’ bodies.
- Invisibility potions: in a tight spot, a potion solves the trickiest stretch of the path.
What happens if you rescue no one
If you push on to the final confrontation without visiting the prison, the prisoners never appear in the story again. Characters who were a living part of the world — with quests, dialogue, and reactions — simply vanish, and you lose third-act content. It is the difference between finishing the game with a “hollow” world and finishing it with complete stories.
Other rescues that go unnoticed
The Moonrise rescue is not the only case where Baldur’s Gate 3 hides a saving window: the game is full of situations where a quick detour changes the fate of entire characters. The rule holds for the whole game: exploring before big confrontations almost always yields complete stories most players never see.
Those playing Honor Mode need extra care: the single save won’t let you go back to test the rescue route. The strategy is to make the prison detour BEFORE any major confrontation in the region — with the rescue done, the rest of the act flows without the pressure of the closing window.
Why the rescue is worth the detour
Beyond the third-act content, rescuing the prisoners changes how the world feels: Moonrise stops being just an enemy castle and becomes a place with people — people you chose to save. It is that kind of choice that sets one campaign apart from another and gives you a reason for a second playthrough.
And the best part of the rescue: it requires no combat at all. With a sneaky or charismatic character in front, the entire prison can be crossed without firing a single arrow — which makes the detour accessible even to the most peaceful builds in the game. Whether to save or abandon the prisoners rests, then, in the player’s heart — and that is exactly what Baldur’s Gate 3 does best: turning choice into story.
Frequently asked questions
- Can you save the prisoners after the Act 2 final battle? No. The rescue window closes when the region’s final confrontation begins.
- Can Wulbren die during the escape? Yes, the prisoners are fragile on the escape route — protecting them along the way is part of the rescue.
- Does saving the prisoners change Act 3? Yes, rescued characters reappear in the story and in final-act quests.
- Do I need stealth, or can I attack the guards? Both paths work; direct combat is riskier because the alarm calls reinforcements.
Want more guides and fun facts? Explore the Revista Pixel games category. For more official details, check the official Baldur’s Gate 3 site.
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