Baldur’s Gate 3 players have an opportunity to recruit an Owlbear Cub to their party pretty early on in the game. Doing so, however, isn’t necessarily easy and requires you to follow a few steps before you may welcome the cub to your team.
An Owlbear Cub is a tiny creature that can be found fairly early in Baldur’s Gate 3, though it’s protected by its mother, the Owlbear. Seemingly harmless at first, the Owlbear Cub is also dangerous in battle, but, first and foremost, it’s incredibly cute, and we couldn’t help but look for ways to have it by our side.
Here’s how you can get the Owlbear Cub in Baldur’s Gate 3.
How to find Owlbear Nest in Baldur’s Gate 3
First, you will need to find the Owlbear Nest, where the mother and Owlbear Cub can be found. Luckily, the nest can be found in the first open-world location in the game, and it doesn’t require you to progress in the story beforehand to enter.
The nest can be found northeast of Blighted Village and southwest of Emerald Grove. It’s near the right square on the map above. The entrance is pretty huge, so you shouldn’t miss it.
Should you fight Owlbear or leave it alive with the cub in Baldur’s Gate 3?
Once you enter the nest, you will have plenty of choices to coerce your way out of the sudden interaction with Owlbear. You can still fight it, but that will leave the cub an orphan and will make it eat its mom since it’s hungry.
Whether you kill the Owlbear or not doesn’t actually matter story-wise; just make sure to leave the cub unharmed.
Killing the Owlbear will allow you to explore deeper, where you actually can find some sweet loot, especially if you’re traveling with Gale. Besides, the mother Owlbear actually has an item tied to another quest, so we personally had to put our own good first and slay her. Though seeing the cub eat its mom afterward was pretty heartbreaking.
If you don’t kill it, the Owlbear will be found dead a few days later as a result of goblin raids either way, so it’s better to fight her immediately and grab some loot as a reward.
How to get the Owlbear Cub in Baldur’s Gate 3
After you’ve encountered the Owlbear and her cub in their nest, you will need to wait a bit (we had to go through a few long rests). Once you do, head to the Goblin’s Camp on the western side of the map. At first, it looked like a tough task, especially since our first encounter with the goblins ends up in us killing them. You don’t have to worry, however, since you can talk your way into the camp.
There, you need to find Krolla, who should have the Owlbear Cub near her side after a couple of long rests after encountering them in the nest.
To claim the Owlbear Cub, you need to speak to Krolla, who will invite you to her game of Chicken-Chasing. Though you may need to interact with Volo the Bard first if Krolla doesn’t want to speak with you.
Participating in Chicken-Chasing or not is pointless in terms of the cub, and quite annoying if you ask us, but it’s the first part of the dialogue. Then, you can intimidate or persuade her, or buy the cub for 500 gold—the choice is yours. You can also take the second route and play the Chicken-Chasing, where you can interact with the cub via Animal Handling, but you will still need to talk to Krolla about obtaining it afterward.
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When all that is done, the cub should smell your scent and travel to your camp, where you should find it immediately or after a few nights.
