How to recruit Halsin in Baldur’s Gate 3

Halsin is one of the coolest characters in Baldur’s Gate 3, and is one of the most desirable party members to adventure alongside. Is that because he’s a Druid who can turn into a bear? Yes. And does the fact you can have sex with him in his bear form have anything to do with his popularity? ...maybe. (Okay, yes, definitely.)

But Halsin is a bit of a tease. Even once he joins you in camp, you’ll need to work for hours before he’ll officially join your party for combat and quests. And no, you can’t romance him until he’s in your party either.

In this Baldur’s Gate 3 guide, we’ll teach you how to recruit Halsin to your party so you can get to know him a little better on the battlefield and in the bedroom.

How to recruit Halsin in Baldur’s Gate 3

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Halsin is an act 2 party member, and you won’t be able to officially recruit him until after you’ve reached the Last Light Inn in the Shadow-cursed Lands. However, if you’re reading this well before that, you’ll probably want to know where to find Halsin in act 1.

You’ll first hear about Halsin, the First Druid, at the Emerald Grove. The Druids will ask you to find their leader as you’re attempting to resolve the Goblin v. Druid v. Tiefling conflict at the start of the game.

Make your way into the Goblin Camp and into the Shattered Sanctum — the main area of the camp. From the entrance, go to the room near the back right. Load in and you’ll find yourself in a small prison where some Goblins are tormenting a captive bear. Talk to the Goblins to initiate combat. The bear will break out of the prison and help you. Clean out the room with the bear’s help and it’ll reveal itself to be Halsin.

Halsin then wants you to kill the three True Soul leaders of the Goblin Camp. Finish up this quest and head back to the Emerald Grove. With his people safe, Halsin will agree to accompany you on your journey to Moonrise Tower, the evil lair you’ll face down in act 2.

But Halsin will only hang out in your camp and occasionally talk to you as an advisor. Proceed through the main campaign — taking The Underdark or The Mountain Pass — until you reach The Last Light Inn.

Wake up Art Cullagh

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Once you reach the Last Light Inn in the Shadow-cursed Lands, head back to your camp and talk to Halsin. He’ll tell you the tale of a young man named Thaniel, a Tiefling who is the root of the curse that’s taking over the Shadow-cursed Land.

Now head back to the Last Light Inn and visit the bunks on the first floor, just to the right of the entrance. There’ll be a man named Art Cullagh lying in bed with a swirly animation above him. Talk to him and he’ll mutter something about Thaniel. Walk through the dialogue and you’ll learn that he needs some kind of personal item to wake him.

Return to Halsin in camp, and the Druid will decide he needs to see the sleeping man himself. Jump back to the Last Light Inn and talk to Art again, this time with Halsin’s help. Read Art’s last orders letter and a quest marker near Moonrise Towers will appear. Make your way there.

Image: Larian Studios via Polygon

In the town, near the Road to Baldur’s Gate Waypoint, you’ll find the House of Healing and the cemetery it’s connected to — not exactly a good pairing if you want people to have faith in your hospital. Inside you’ll be directed to the operating theater and the “doctor” on staff.

Make your way into the large room at the back of the hospital and you’ll meet Malus Thorm and his crew of assistants. Thorm is an undead boss who is also a “surgeon” torturing a patient. Talk to him enough and you’ll end up in some combat. Kill Thorm and his cronies and then loot his body once combat is over. He’ll have a Battered Lute on his person. Take it and return to Art back in Last Light.

Rescue Thaniel

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With the Battered Lute in hand, walk up to Art and accept the prompt to play him a song. Don’t worry if you’re not proficient in an instrument, your character will just dopily pluck away at the strings until Art wakes up.

After Halsin talks to Art, he’ll decide that he needs to peer into another dimension to rescue the kid. Follow him to the shore and get ready for a fight. Let Halsin go into the portal on his own and prepare to defend it. A massive army of undead creatures will appear on the shore and start trying to reach the portal.

You’ll need to hold them off for multiple rounds of combat in order to progress the quest. We recommend Shadowheart here, as she’s able to use Turn Undead against all of the creatures there. Gale is also an excellent choice, as his large AoE abilities like Fireball can take out many of the low health critters at once.

Once you’ve successfully defended the portal for the required time, all of the undead will burn up and Halsin will return from the portal carrying Thaniel’s body. The Druid will ask you to come back to camp and talk. Meet him there and he’ll finally offer to join your crew to finish rescuing Thaniel.

Finish Thaniel’s quest to lift the curse

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Just because you have Halsin in your crew doesn’t mean you can relax, or that the Druid doesn’t have more work for you to do.

In order to remove the curse, you’ll need to find Thaniel’s other half: Oliver, an obnoxious boy who likes playing hide and seek in the middle of the cursed lands. You can find his little house to the east of Last Light. When you find him, Oliver will ask to play hide-and-seek. Oblige him and look around until you perceive his location. He’ll get mad and try another game where he hides again and summons some wraiths to chase you.

Now you can either sneak around and carefully try to catch him again, or you yourself can get caught and just kill the shades. Either way, talk to Oliver again and he won’t want to play with you, because he’s a jerk. Assuming you’ve already rescued Thaniel, you can tell Oliver that he needs to rejoin his other half. This will eventually lead to another minor combat encounter.

Oliver will teleport you to the Moonrise Towers town square, alongside resurrected versions of his Mommy and Daddy Shades. Oliver will encase himself in a shield and sic his undead minions on you. Each time you kill one of his enemies, Oliver’s shield will also take damage. You can also directly target the shield with attacks. Break the shield one way or the other to talk to Oliver again. Persuade or threaten him and he’ll decide to rejoin with Thaniel.

Head back to camp again and talk to the now-complete boy. Unfortunately, Thaniel alone won’t be able to end the curse on the lands. Instead you’ll need to finish the mainline quest in Moonrise Towers. But at least Thaniel is whole again — and, more importantly, you have a brand new Druid friend to keep your company on your adventures.