Baldur's Gate 3 Gortash: Why the Coronation Fight Costs You

Short answer: the first decision in a Gortash fight is not your build, it is when you fight him. There are three moments, and they differ in difficulty and in how much of the game stays open to you afterwards.

One choice is irreversible. If you kill Gortash at his coronation, the Iron Throne becomes unavailable, Save the Gondians can no longer be completed, and the Steel Watch Foundry can no longer be entered. All three close together.

This reflects Patch 8. Patch 8 (15 April 2025) is the last major patch and there is no Patch 9. Everything since has been hotfixes plus unnumbered maintenance and platform updates. The newest build is 4.1.1.7398727 (PC/PS5) from 3 August 2026, which made the game available on Xbox Play Anywhere rather than changing combat.

Statline and the shape of the branches

Read this first: what you lose permanently

• Killing Gortash during the inauguration makes the Iron Throne unavailable, makes Save the Gondians impossible to complete, and locks the Steel Watch Foundry.
• Completing Disable the Steel Watch before infiltrating the Iron Throne closes the Iron Throne quests; they cannot be pursued afterwards.
• (Unverified) bg3.wiki also states that making Gortash hostile for other reasons before the Iron Throne leaves those quests intact, but that sentence carries a "verify" flag on the source. This guide does not treat it as established.

So the order in which you approach the Foundry, the Iron Throne and Gortash decides how much content remains. If you want the Gondians saved, do not fight at the coronation.

Walkthrough

1. Enter Wyrm's Rock Fortress. Gortash speaks through a Steel Watcher and invites you to his coronation in the audience hall.
2. Attend the coronation. He offers a pact: he will not attack as long as you harm neither him nor his Steel Watch, and promises shared rule once you return with Orin's Netherstone.
3. Pass an Insight check. On success you learn that the offer is sincere and he fully intends to share rule with you. Whether that would only be a temporary truce is not revealed.
4. Decide whether to fight here. If you do, read the coronation section below first.
5. Kill Orin and return with her Netherstone. Gortash then demands that you hand over both Netherstones.
6. Do not hand them over. Relenting makes him see you as weak-willed and he turns on you. Refuse twice and he reveals it was a test, and the alliance holds.

Why the coronation fight is one of the hardest in the game

• Nine Steel Watchers, plus Ulder Ravengard, Flaming Fists, and traps along the walls.
• Gortash has +5 Initiative (+10 on Tactician and Honour), and every Steel Watcher has +6. They are very likely to act early, and an unprepared party can be wiped in a single turn.
• He opens with Shell of Resistance from a nearby force curtain, then throws Reflectoguards on himself and Phase Optimizers onto nearby Steel Watchers, giving him immunity or resistance to most damage types and making the Watchers far more dangerous.

Raising your own initiative is close to mandatory: the Alert feat, an Elixir of Vigilance, or initiative gear. You can also bait Steel Watchers into Self-Detonate next to each other.

Some wall traps should be destroyed, others left alone

• Micromodron Force Curtains repeatedly grant Gortash resistances and immunities. Destroy these.
• Deranged Force Curtains are malfunctioning and debuff him with Malfunctioning Shell of Resistance. Leave these intact.
• Grenade Impellers and Incineration Casters fire projectiles that constantly force you to move.

Clearing only the Micromodron curtains while leaving the Deranged ones standing lowers his defences and makes him far easier to kill.

At 75% HP he changes form

Once per fight, at 75% HP or below, Gortash casts Invoke the Black Hand:

• 150 temporary hit points
• Immunity to Thunder, Fire and Force damage (he already resists Thunder normally)
• Advantage on Strength checks and saves, and 1d4 extra damage on unarmed attacks
• Summons several Manifestations of Tyranny. These never enter the initiative order, but each applies a stack of Bane's Brutality to Gortash and nearby Black Gauntlet characters standing close by
• Summons one Bane's Fist, inserted at the end of the turn order, which punches the ground around it for heavy damage at the end of each of its turns

A party built around Thunder, Fire or Force damage stops working halfway through this fight. Bring another damage type.

Conditions that land and conditions that do not

• Immune: Petrified
• Can be applied: Blinded, Paralysed, Prone, Stunned, Mental Fatigue, Shredded Armour, Sluggardly
• He has Legendary Resistance on Tactician, and gains the Legendary Action: Tyrannical Branding on Honour mode

The office fight is much easier

• Completing Disable the Steel Watch removes the Steel Watchers. The four on the roof and the one in the office only appear if the Foundry has not been destroyed.
• His Black Gauntlet allies cast Command and Dominate Person. Remove them first.
• If the Foundry is destroyed the lower floors are already hostile, but you can skip them entirely: use Grant Flight, Feather Fall or Misty Step to jump from Wyrm's Crossing to the rocks at the base, climb the vines on the west side, and hop the platforms on the southwestern rampart.
• Luring the fight out into the foyer avoids every trap. Start combat with one character, dash or Dimension Door back through the door, then hold it with Hunger of Hadar, Insect Plague and Cloudkill and shove pursuers back in.

If you keep the alliance

Gortash meets you at the Morphic Pool for the Netherbrain. When the party fails to dominate the brain, he panics, shoves you aside and tries to wield all three Netherstones alone — and the Netherbrain kills him.

Striking him twice there turns him hostile (you are warned the first time). That version of the fight is the easiest of the three: no traps, no Steel Watchers, no Banite guards.

Notable loot

• Netherstone-Studded Gauntlet, which separates on pick-up into the Gauntlet of the Tyrant and Gortash's Netherstone
• Cloth of Authority, Fabricated Arbalest, Tyrannical Jackboots, Reflectoguard, Phase Optimizer, Gortash's Key
• Gortash's Hand, available only if he is defeated before Orin

What this guide does not cover

• A recommended party level. Gortash himself is level 9, but the sources do not state a recommended party level
• Exact damage values per attack
• Whether the alliance was only ever a temporary truce. Even a successful Insight check does not reveal this

Sources

• bg3.wiki: Enver Gortash — titles, Act 3 branches, the allied ending, loot
• bg3.wiki: Enver Gortash/Combat — AC, HP, initiative, Steel Watcher count, trap types, Invoke the Black Hand, conditions, tactics
• bg3.wiki: Patch notes — used to confirm Patch 8 is the last major patch and to check the current build