Baldur’s Gate 3: House Of Hope Walkthrough

The House Of Hope in Baldur’s Gate 3 is home to the devil Raphael, who offers you deals throughout the game. Whether you take Raphael’s deals or not, his home in the Hells is worth a visit. You may feel drawn to the House Of Hope if you’re trying to get your hands on the Orphic Hammer in Act 3.

Navigating the home of a devil is about as easy as it sounds. The House Of Hope is full of danger, but you’ll walk out with plenty of rewards if you play your cards right.

How To Enter The House Of Hope

Walking into Raphael’s home isn’t as simple as finding his mailing address. The House Of Hope is on another plane of existence in the Hells, so you’ll need to find a way to hop into Avernus. In Act 3 of Baldur’s Gate 3 you’ll find yourself in the Lower City of Baldur’s Gate. Head to the shop The Devil’s Fee, just north of the Lower City Central Wall Waypoint. Inside, talk to the diabolist Helsik who you’ll have to convince to help you sneak your way into Raphael’s home. Helsik will help you for a very steep price: 20,000 gold. You might have that kind of cash laying around by now, but if you don’t want to spend your life savings, pass an Intimidation check to get her to lower her price to 10,000 gold. If you promise to bring back an artifact – the Gauntlets Of Frost Giant Strength – she’ll help you for ‘free’ as long as you pass a Persuasion check. Alternatively you can pickpocket Helsik and take the Grimoire Bound In Imp Skin from her pockets, and the items for the ritual itself can be found upstairs if you poke around.

For the ritual, you will need a skull, a Coin Of Mammon, a diamond, incense, and a piece of Infernal Marble. All of these can be found in The Devil’s Fee if you don’t want Helsik’s help. You’ll need to use her ritual circle, however, so head upstairs and watch out for a fireball trap. Give a bottle of water to the golden mask at the top of the stairs called the Thirsty Ward or Misty Step up to a balcony from outside.

To open the portal to the House Of Hope you’ll need to place the ritual items in appropriate places on the bloody circle on the floor. Items in the correct spots will light up, so if an item isn’t glowing, try again in a different spot. Place the items in the following locations:

• Skull: On the arrow pointing to the desk (West)
• Coin Of Mammon: In the circle closest to the large chest on the northwest wall
• Diamond: In the circle closest to the shelves of books; leave a space between the Coin Of Mammon and the Diamond
• Incense: In the circle closest to the metal door to the outside
• Infernal Marble: In the center of the ritual circle

If you completed the ritual correctly, the ritual circle will glow and you’ll be able to proceed to the House Of Hope.

This is a dangerous location and you will not be able to rest in the region, so plan carefully and prepare before heading through the portal.

Inside The House Of Hope

Hope is the charming dwarven entity that Raphael has been tormenting and she’ll happily help you get around if you’re nice to her. Hope will be the first person you meet in Raphael’s domain and will introduce herself once you try to leave the first room you come to. She can offer useful advice and guide you where to go as you proceed, so it’s in your best interest to help her out. You’ll need to pass an Intelligence, Charisma, or Wisdom check to get her help before she can be yanked away. Hope will explain that you need to find a key, take the contract or the Orphic Hammer (depending on whether you made a deal with Raphael), and break her free. Do some exploring once Hope has changed your clothes to make you blend in. If you don’t get Hope’s help and ignore her or are mean to her, you can proceed into the House Of Hope but the NPC’s inside will be immediately hostile.

The Archive

Proceed into the House Of Hope proper and you’ll find the banquet room you saw when Raphael first introduced himself, all the way back in Act 1. Feel free to talk to the NPC’s here, as they aren’t hostile and can share plenty of interesting lore. You can also freely pick the locks of chests you find, so help yourself to scrolls, gold, and magic arrows as you proceed through the door on the left. The door to the right of the banquet room is locked, but you don’t need to lock pick it as the hall will circle around anyway. You’ll find the circular hall around the banquet room leads to the Outer Portals, a few balconies, the Boudoir, and the Archives.

On your way around the hall, interact with an Inert Infernal Gem and pass a Wisdom and Intelligence check to reveal a secret door. Inside you can find the Helldusk Helmet and the Staff of Spellpower.

Head all the way around until you see Hope outside the Archive door. Pull the lever on the wall to open the locked door to the banquet room and then go talk to Hope. You need to pass another check (either Charisma, Wisdom, or Intelligence) to get Hope to focus enough to help you. She’ll share that the Archivist will be able to give you what you need to get into the Boudoir. Pass a Persuasion check and you’ll learn the Archivist is deathly afraid of the shape shifting High Inquisitor of Zariel. Once you head inside, you can pretend to be the High Inquisitor when talking to the Archivist and pass a Deception check. If you didn’t get Hope’s help you can use Detect Thoughts on the Archivist to learn who he’s afraid of. The Archivist will help you to an extent and will ask you to wait in the Boudoir. He’ll give you an invitation. You can also pick the Archivist’s pockets or Intimidate him to get the invitation.

If you fail to get the invitation, you can also go to the Portal Room and talk to Nubaldin. Tell him you killed Gortash and he’ll tell you how to hop across the stones from a balcony outside to sneak into the Boudoir.

The Boudoir

The Boudoir has two extremely useful faucets of Restoration, which can be used to imitate a rest and restore some health and spell slots to your party. Proceed to the back room of the Boudoir to meet Haarlep, an incubus, who reveals some information about Raphael and sees through your disguise. Haarlep will ask if you want to play a game:

• Accept: If you accept Haarlep’s game, you’ll experience Haarlep’s attempts to seduce your character. Convince him to only take your body and you’ll come out alive with some minor side effects. If you fail, you’ll lose your body and your mind and get a game over. Succeeding the Constitution check in the game will make Haarlep hostile.
• Refuse: Refusing the game makes Haarlep hostile. Defeat Haarlep to get the Helldusk Gloves and the location of Raphael’s safe, which has the phrase needed to take the contract or the Orphic Hammer.

You don’t have to interact with Haarlep to get the magic phrase or into Raphael’s safe if you’re prepared. Use a high-level spell or skill like Supreme Sneak or Greater Invisibility to move to the giant painting west of the bed. Pass a perception check to spot the trap on the painting and disarm it. The button below the painting will reveal the safe, which can be lock picked. Do all of this without Haarlep noticing and you’ll avoid the game and the fight, but you won’t be able to get the Helldusk Gloves.

The Hammer And The Contract

If you made a deal with Raphael to get the Orphic Hammer, you can rip up your contract by heading back to the Archive and letting yourself into the impervious sphere around it. If you didn’t make a deal, the Orphic Hammer you need will be in its place. No matter how sneaky you are, the Archivist will instantly know if the sphere has been breached, so before you head back to the archive stop at the Restoration faucet in the Boudoir, bulk up your items, and prepare your party.

The occupants of the House Of Hope will be hostile as soon as you take the contract or the hammer. Use this chance to help yourself to the Amulet Of Greater Health and the Gauntlets Of Frost Giant Strength. Be warned that the house’s occupants will try to run up to your party and explode, dealing fire damage and becoming vengeful monsters. There are also two Hell Spheres: elementals that deal massive fire damage to characters that stand too close. The Hell Spheres are resistant to damage from weapons, Acid, Radiant, and Lightning damage. They are immune to damage from Fire, Psychic, Poison, and Necrotic sources. They’re quite slow, though, and can be out-maneuvered. Empty the Archive of anything useful and don’t get blown up on your way to save Hope.

The Prison

The prison is relatively easy to find and there are two ways to enter: use the Prison Hatch near the Portal Room, or head onto the balcony next to the Portal Room and jump down to the glowing green entrance between the rocks. Inside you’ll have to fight a few Spectators and Vengeful Imps. But setting Hope free isn’t as tough as the fights: equip the Orphic Hammer and use it to break her chains to get Hope added to your party as a companion temporarily. Use the Restoration Faucet in the Boudoir one more time and get ready for one hell of a boss fight.

Defeating Raphael

Raphael, Yurgir the Orthon, and Korilla will appear to stop your escape. Yurgir can be convinced to switch sides, but the DC for this is very high if you killed him as part of Act 2’s quest to Kill Raphael’s Old Enemy. Raphael is a very difficult boss to fight.

Raphael’s Stats

Defeating Raphael is not easy. You will need a great degree of strategic thinking for this fight, especially at higher difficulties. Now is a good time to make use of your Elixirs of Universal Resistance and your poisons. All your party members should have a magic weapon equipped and you should make liberal use of crowd control spells and grenades, like Hold Person and Confusion.

When fighting Raphael avoid using Radiant damage. Because he is a Fiend, Raphael will take double damage from Radiant sources, but he’ll take that doubled damage and return it to you as Fire damage. If he kills or downs one of your party members he’ll also Sever their soul and make them effectively useless until you get it back with Restore Soul. Raphael has resistance to magic but a pretty low Wisdom score you can exploit. Control the many enemies in the fight with Confusion or Ice Storm, then destroy the Soul Pillars to keep Raphael from hitting you with powerful spells. Deal with Raphael’s henchmen before focusing on him.

Leaving The House Of Hope

Make sure you stop at Raphael’s corpse and pick it over to get the extremely powerful Helldusk Armor. If Hope stayed alive during the fight you can also get the Gloves of Soul Catching. If you convinced Yurgir to fight with you he’ll appear for the final battle at the end of the game as part of Gather Your Allies. If you stole Mol’s contract and return it to her, she will also come to help for the final battle as part of Gather Your Allies.

Loot from the House Of Hope

You’ll have freed your soul and/or gained the extremely important Orphic Hammer, so now it’s time to wrap up the finale of your adventure.