The Arcane Tower sits in the far southwestern corner of the Underdark, overlooking Ebonlake, and it’s built to look harder than it is. Two automated turrets guard the door, the elevator is dead, and an automaton on the roof only talks in verse. None of that is actually the hard part. The hard part is a choice most walkthroughs never spell out: sparing the guardian on the roof and fighting him don’t hand you the same loot, and the fight itself is a lot rougher than a five-floor dungeon crawl has any right to be. This guide covers all 6 floors, the one-move fix for the turret problem, and exactly what that loot trade-off costs you either way.
Recommended level for the Underdark region generally is 5+, and everything below is verified against Patch 8 (build 4.1.1.7398727, the August 3, 2026 update) — mechanics tied to specific damage numbers or resistances can shift in a future hotfix, so re-check in-game if something here stops matching what you see. If you haven’t reached this part of the region yet, our Underdark guide covers what to expect before you get to Ebonlake, and the full BG3 beginner’s guide has the wider Act 1 roadmap.
Quick Start: What to Bring Before You Walk In
- Don’t bother hauling in a Sussur Bloom from elsewhere — two grow right in the tower’s own garden outside the ground floor door.
- If you do want a spare for later, extras grow near the Sussur Tree in Dread Hollow — just know it wilts and is destroyed the moment you carry it out of the Underdark, unless it’s stashed in a locked container or the camp Traveller’s Chest.
- Pack one ranged attack, a Fog Cloud/Darkness spell, or a Fly/Misty Step/Feather Fall option — any of these lets you deal with (or skip) the two entrance turrets on your terms.
- Read every book you find as you go. Three specific ones (flagged below) are the only way to unlock Bernard’s peaceful dialogue path.
- Decide before you reach the roof whether you want the guaranteed ring or the halberd that comes with a genuinely hard fight — see the trade-off section below before you commit.
Three Ways Into the Arcane Tower (and Which One Skips the Turrets)
The front door isn’t your best option if you’d rather not open your visit with a fight. You’ve got three real choices for getting inside:
- The main door — a DC 15 Sleight of Hand check picks the lock, or you can just break it down (36 HP). Either way, this puts you directly in both turrets’ sightlines the second you’re through.
- The broken window — to the left of the main entrance, no check required, but you’re still arriving at ground level where the turrets can see you.
- The exterior climb — fungal growths and cliff platforms wrap around the tower’s outside, or you can skip the climbing entirely with Fly, Misty Step, or Feather Fall. This route drops you above ground level and lets you reach the generator without the turrets ever getting a shot off.
The turrets fire on sight whether you’re in or out of turn-based mode, so if your party doesn’t have a spare feat’s worth of HP to burn on lightning damage, the exterior route is the one that actually avoids the fight rather than just surviving it — check your party composition if you’re not sure who can handle it.
Turning Off the Turrets: The Sussur Bloom Generator Puzzle
You don’t fight your way past the turrets — you turn them off, and it takes one action once you’re in position. The tower’s power was cut at some point, which is why the turrets are hostile and the elevator won’t move. The fix is sitting in the garden right outside: two Sussur Blooms grow there specifically.
What actually makes this work is the Bloom’s antimagic field, which nullifies nearby magic. That’s not flavor text — it’s the literal reason it disables both the Arcane Turrets at the entrance and the Animated Armours you’ll meet later on the roof. Pick one up, make your way to the generator room on the ground floor, interact with the generator to open its crafting-style combine menu, and slot the Bloom in. The turrets power down, the braziers light up, the elevator comes online, and you get 25 XP plus the Regeneration inspiration if anyone in your party has the Guild Artisan background.
If you’d rather not walk past two live turrets to reach the generator in the first place, a Bloom held near them shuts off their targeting directly, since the same antimagic field that disables the generator lockout also disables the turrets on contact.
All 6 Floors, What’s on Them, and What to Grab
| Floor | What’s there | Key loot | Don’t miss |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ground Floor | Power generator, elevator base | Uncovered Mysteries amulet (gilded chest) | Combine your Bloom here first — everything else depends on power being on |
| First Floor | Greenhouse, quest mushrooms | Threadbare Book | Read the book now — it unlocks one of Bernard’s peaceful rewards later |
| Second Floor | Main entrance balconies, illusory chest | Mystra’s Grace boots (Chest of the Mundane), Dusty Book / Evil’s Ascent | Read Evil’s Ascent for the lore, but don’t recite its line to Bernard — that’s the hostile trigger |
| Third Floor | Lenore’s bedroom, steak-dispenser button | Mage’s Friend ring | Grab The Roads to Darkness and Torn-Out Paper here — both are peaceful-path keys |
| Fourth Floor | Roof, Bernard, Animated Armours | Club of Hill Giant Strength (break the stool) | This is where the loot decision happens — full breakdown below |
| Basement | Lenore’s hidden diary | Staff of Arcane Blessing, The Sparkswall | Four separate ways in, detailed next |
The Secret Basement Almost No Guide Actually Explains
Most walkthroughs mention the basement in passing — a lot of loot, no specifics — without saying how to actually get there. There are four ways in, and which one you use should depend on what you’ve already got:
- Equip the Guiding Light ring and interact with a button that appears near the elevator.
- Use Fly, Misty Step, or Feather Fall through a gap in the structure.
- Cast Mage Hand to pull a lever from a distance.
- Find the hidden lever on the fourth floor directly, behind a bookcase — DC 18 Perception (a high-Perception Assassin Rogue clears this without much trouble).
This is far from the only hidden room in the game worth tracking down — see our hidden secrets guide for the rest. The ring route only works if you already own Guiding Light, which means it’s not a first-visit option unless you’ve already handled Bernard. If you’re exploring the basement before deciding his fate, skip the DC 18 Perception roll and use Mage Hand or a jump/teleport spell instead — same loot, no check to fail. Inside: the Staff of Arcane Blessing, a magical crossbow called The Sparkswall, and more Tongue of Madness alchemy ingredient.
Bernard: The One Decision That Actually Decides Your Loot
Everything else in this tower is optional exploration. Bernard is the one choice that branches what you walk away with, and it’s worth understanding both sides before you climb to the roof.
Bernard is an automaton who communicates only in poetry, and he’s not alone up there — 4 to 6 Animated Armours stand with him, more of them on higher difficulties. Reading The Roads to Darkness on the third floor and then answering, in effect, “yes, I’m a friend” stops him from treating you as an intruder. From there, three more lines — each tied to a specific book you’ll have found on floors one, three, and four — get you the Guiding Light ring, a Potion of Greater Healing, and a scripted dialogue moment where Bernard mistakes you for his old master.
Recite the line from the second-floor book Evil’s Ascent instead, and he and every armor in the room turn hostile immediately. Win that fight and you loot both Guiding Light and the Light of Creation halberd off his body.
Here’s the trade-off, stated plainly: Guiding Light comes either way, dialogue or combat drop it identically, so there’s no reason to skip picking it up. Light of Creation is combat-only. Every source that documents it, independently, describes exactly one way to get it — kill Bernard and loot the corpse. There’s no dialogue branch that hands it over. A workaround claiming you can disarm him mid-conversation with a Command spell and pickpocket the halberd while he’s still friendly circulates in some player discussions, but no wiki or guide checked for this article confirms it actually works — treat that as an unverified community claim, not something to plan a run around.
The fight itself is harder than a fourth-floor dungeon room should be, and this is the part competing guides skip. Bernard resists literally every physical damage type — slashing, piercing, bludgeoning — plus fire, lightning, poison, and psychic. A weapon-swinging Fighter or Rogue is fighting at a real disadvantage before initiative even rolls. Radiant, necrotic, force, thunder, and cold damage aren’t on his resistance list, which makes them your actual win condition — lean on spells and enchanted effects in those schools rather than your main-hand weapon — our Wizard build guide covers which evocation options actually bypass a resistance list this wide.
If your party is melee-only with no elemental damage source, take the free ring and walk away. Light of Creation is a solid halberd, not a build-defining item, and four-to-six damage-resistant automatons is a rough fight to walk into unprepared.
If You’re New, Casual, Hardcore, or a Completionist
| Player type | What to do |
|---|---|
| New player | Take the exterior or window entry to skip the turret fight entirely, then talk your way past Bernard. You still walk out with a magic ring for free. |
| Casual player | Read the three peaceful-path books, take Guiding Light, and skip the basement’s DC 18 lever — Mage Hand or a jump spell gets you the same loot without the risk of failing a check. |
| Hardcore / optimiser | Fight Bernard for the halberd, but bring at least one radiant, necrotic, force, cold, or thunder damage source. Pure physical damage is fighting his resistances, not his HP. |
| Completionist | The peaceful and combat outcomes aren’t both available in a single approach — going hostile ends the dialogue tree for that visit. If you want every reward, that means resolving Bernard peacefully on one visit and returning on a separate save for the fight. |
Every Notable Item in the Tower, Ranked
| Item | Where | Why it’s worth grabbing |
|---|---|---|
| Guiding Light | Bernard, either path | Free regardless of route — no reason to skip it |
| Staff of Arcane Blessing | Basement | Best pick in the tower for a spellcaster |
| The Sparkswall | Basement | Solid ranged option if no one’s carrying a crossbow yet |
| Light of Creation | Bernard, combat only | Only worth the detour if you’re already fighting him |
| Mystra’s Grace | Second floor, Chest of the Mundane | Free Feather Fall casts — useful for the next tower you climb the hard way |
| Mage’s Friend | Third floor wooden chest | Solid early-game ring |
| Uncovered Mysteries | Ground floor gilded chest | Amulet, easy grab on your way to the generator |
| Club of Hill Giant Strength | Break the roof stool | Situational, but free if you’re already up there |
FAQ
Do I need to fight the turrets to get inside?
No. The exterior climb — or Fly, Misty Step, or Feather Fall — drops you past them entirely, and even the front-door route lets you close the distance and shut the generator’s power off in one action rather than trading hits with two lightning-vulnerable machines. Fighting the turrets head-on is the slow way in, not a requirement.
Can I get both Bernard rewards without a second playthrough?
Not on a single approach. The game hands over Guiding Light either way, but Light of Creation is locked to the combat outcome specifically, looted off Bernard’s body. Going hostile ends the peaceful dialogue tree for that visit, so getting both means resolving him peacefully once and returning on a separate save for the fight — not stacking dialogue and combat in the same sitting.
Is the basement worth the extra Perception check?
Only if you don’t already have another way in. The DC 18 lever is the fallback route, not the main one — Mage Hand or any jump or teleport spell reaches the basement gap without rolling anything.
What’s actually in the Chest of the Mundane, and is it safe to loot?
It’s not a trap. It’s a themed magical container that also holds Mystra’s Grace and a few scrolls — the illusory-chest framing some recaps use overstates the risk. Open it.
Sources
- bg3.wiki — Arcane Tower
- bg3.wiki — Bernard (linked above)
- bg3.wiki — Guiding Light (linked above)
- bg3.wiki — Light of Creation (linked above)
- bg3.wiki — Sussur Bloom
- bg3.wiki — Patch Notes
- Fextralife — Arcane Tower
- Game Rant — How to Get Light of Creation
I've been playing video games for over 20 years, spanning everything from early PC titles to modern open-world games. I started Switchblade Gaming to publish the kind of accurate, well-researched guides I always wanted to find — built on primary sources, tested in-game, and kept up to date after patches. I currently focus on Minecraft and Pokémon GO.