Baldur's Gate 3 – House Of Hope Guide

The Baldur’s Gate 3 House of Hope is a major dungeon in the game’s third act. Oddly enough, you could miss out on it completely if you don’t explore enough. Our guide discusses what you can expect from this domain, as well as the people you can ally with along the way. Likewise, please be aware that this article contains spoilers.

How to Complete the House of Hope in Baldur’s Gate 3

The Baldur’s Gate 3 House of Hope is Raphael’s domain in Avernus. To reach it, you must complete the Helsik Ritual in the Devil’s Fee in the Lower City. Take note that you can’t fast travel back to your camp. You’ll have to use the portal again so you can return to the shop. As such, make sure you’re well prepared. As early as now, we suggest bringing spellcasters (or scrolls) that can cast Greater Invisibility, Hunger of Hadar, and a lot of radiant magic.

Meeting Hope

Okay, technically, the Baldur’s Gate 3 House of Hope is the abode of, well, Hope. She’s been trapped here due to Raphael’s schemes, and you can free her later once you have the Orphic Hammer. For now, you must pass dialogue checks to ask her a few questions.

She’ll also magically change your clothes to match those worn by debtors, the damned who’ve been led to the hells through their pacts with the devil. While you’re disguised as debtors, the NPCs here won’t attack you.

Exploring the House of Hope

The House of Hope is both eerie and wondrous to behold. You’ll find the following as you explore:

• To your right, there’s a portal chamber that leads to several realms. No, you’re not going to travel to Neverwinter, but it’s a nice reference pertaining to how devils are able to travel.
• The hatch near the entrance to the portal chamber leads to Hope’s prison. Again, you need the Orphic Hammer to free her, so there’s nothing you can do for now.
• You can’t pass through the Mystic Force Curtain just yet. Don’t worry about it for now.
• There’s an Inert Infernal Gem on a wall. Pass the DC10 Wisdom and DC20 Intelligence checks to reveal a hidden room. Inside, you’ll find the Helldusk Helmet (very rare), and Staff of Spellpower (very rare). You’ll also spot Mol’s Contract.
• Note: For those who accepted Raphel’s offer in Deal With the Devil, we’ve yet to confirm if this is the same hidden room where you’ll discover Tav’s Contract. We did not continue the arc that stemmed from that decision.

The Archive and the Orphic Hammer

Upon reaching the western portion of the Baldur’s Gate 3 House of Hope dungeon, Hope will tell you about the Archivist. Pass the skill checks here to learn that the Archivist is afraid of Zariel’s inquisitor, Verillius Receptor. This gives you a dialogue option to pretend as the inquisitor, which means the Archivist won’t bother you.

You’ll also see three items here:

• Orphic Hammer (legendary) – 4-13 damage; advantage on saving throws against spells; +3 weapon enchantment; Unshackling Strike action. Settle down because you won’t be able to grab this just yet. We discuss how you can pull off the heist in a bit.
• Amulet of Greater Health (very rare) – Constitution is raised to 23; advantage on Constitution saving throws.
• Gauntlets of Hill Giant Strength (very rare) – Strength is raised to 23; +1 Strength saving throws. For those who agreed to a bargain with Helsik, this is the item that she wants.

Do not grab anything here just yet. We need to plan ahead due to all the wacky stuff that will happen once hostilities commence.

Haarlep and the Boudoir

The Archivist will give you an invitation to enter the Boudoir. You can now pass through the Mystic Force Curtain. There’s a pool that lets you restore all HP, spell slots, and charges, as though you did a long rest. You’ll also meet Haarlep, and incubus. Think of this as the game’s pseudo Raphael romance.

The guide we just linked has all the details regarding the different outcomes, including a potential death. Here’s a quick summary:

• You can let Haarlep take your body as a disguise, but not your mind. The safe’s location is revealed (i.e. it’s hidden behind a painting to the left of the bed). Haarlep also gives you the key that opens it.
• Alternatively, you can fight back against Haarlep, which leads to a battle where they’re joined by imps. You can then pick up the key to the safe.
• However, if you give Haarlep your heart and soul, well, you’ll get boned… in more ways than one.

The Escape

Open the safe and read the note. It gives you the words that you need to recite when interacting with the Baldur’s Gate 3 Orphic Hammer. Here’s what you need to do next:

• Before you pick up the Orphic Hammer, cast Greater Invisibility on one character and steal the Gauntlets of Hill Giant Strength and Amulet of Greater Health.
• Interact with the Orphic Hammer and reply with: “Give me my heart’s desire.”

Now, before heading back outside the corridor, have your party members use/cast Greater Invisibility on themselves. Then, run like hell to the eastern side, the one with the hatch that leads to the prison. This should help you avoid the enemies, including a flaming boulder that’s rolling around Raiders of the Lost Ark-style.

How to Rescue Hope

To save Hope in Baldur’s Gate 3, you need to go down the hatch to the prison. You’ll want to control your party members individually, so make sure to ungroup and have them stay hidden. Here’s the gist:

• To free Hope from her shackles, you need to destroy the two crystals by hitting them with the Orphic Hammer.
• Both crystals are guarded by Observers (i.e. Beholder monsters). Surprisingly enough, the imps flanking them are more dangerous since they have Eldritch Blast. The spell can push units away, causing them to fall to their doom.
• High mobility characters or those with top-tier Illithid Powers can use Fly/Misty Step to reach one crystal. Our Way of the Four Elements Monk happily stunned one Beholder, while summons and spellcasters picked off the imps.
• You should be able to mop up the remaining hostiles, and then destroy the crystals.

Boss Fight: How to Beat Raphael

After rescuing Hope, return to the main area and dash past all the hostiles. Your goal is to reach the entrance chamber. Make sure everyone is there before you interact with the portal, because Raphael will emerge.

He’s also flanked by Yurgir, the Orthon from the Gauntlet of Shar. If you pass a DC30 Persuasion check, you can convince the Orthon to betray Raphael outta nowhere.

Now, for the Baldur’s Gate 3 Raphael boss fight, make sure you keep a couple of backup saves. By default, Raphael has 666 HP. He’s also extremely hard to hit (i.e. 10% hit chance or lower). That’s because he’s empowered by the four Soul Pillars in the corners of the room. The devil is also surrounded by his cohorts, Korilla and several cambions.

Here’s what we did during our playthrough:

• The Soul Pillars need to be destroyed, and radiant magic is the most effective means of doing that.
• Our suggestion is to group up most enemies via the Black Hole Illithid spell (at least two casts from different characters).
• If Yurgir joined you, he’ll do a frontal blast akin to Thunderwave, pushing them further to the wall. He’s also quite tough, and he has poison/life drain attacks.
• If you have Wyll, have him cast Hunger of Hadar to debuff and damage your foes. Your other spellcasters should continue demolishing them with AoE magic.
• Hope has Cleric spells, so keep her around for healing. Likewise, you can cast Divine Intervention: Sunder the Heretical.
• At 60% HP, Raphael will switch to his devil form, granting him more melee swipes. From this point onwards, it’s just a battle of attrition. Keep Raphael debuffed via Hunger of Hadar, and pelt him with spells, radiant damage, and ranged attacks.

Legendary Rewards

Once you’ve defeated Raphael in Baldur’s Gate 3, you’ll earn the following rewards:

• Helldusk Armor – This is looted from Raphael’s corpse. It has 21 AC; the wearer is considered proficient in this armor automatically; when you succeed in a saving throw, the attacker is afflicted with burning for three turns; resistance to fire damage/cannot be burned; take 3 less damage from all sources; Fly spell.
• Gloves of Soul Catching – This is your reward if you rescued Hope from her prison. It grants 1-10 force damage to your unarmed attacks; restores 10 HP on an unarmed hit once per turn; you can forego this healing to gain an advantage to your next attack roll or saving throw; +2 Constitution (up to 20).
• Gather Your Allies: Yurgir – The Orthon gives you the edge in the final battle; truly a Rated RKO experience.

That does it for the Baldur’s Gate 3 House of Hope dungeon. Once you leave, don’t forget to hand over the Gauntlets of Hill Giant Strength to Helsik (assuming you made a deal with her beforehand).