After waking up on the Nautiloid with a Mindflayer tadpole squirming around your skull in Baldur’s Gate 3, you quickly come across the opportunity for some impromptu brain surgery—just not on your own.
In the second room from the start point you come across a poor soul whose skull has been removed and you have the option to poke around inside his head. Literally.
The brain starts talking to you and asks you to “release it.” But what should you do? Will it attack if you let it out? Will it use its superior intellect to help you do today’s crossword puzzle? Let’s find out.
What happens if you destroy the brain in BG3?
This requires no skill check and your character will simply put the poor guy’s brain out of its misery. This, however, is the wrong move. Though you could be forgiven for thinking this is a trap, it’s actually in your best interest to free their mind in a very literal sense.
What happens if you remove the brain in BG3?
To remove the brain you’re going to need to pass a skill check. Your options are Strength (smash the skull), Dexterity (remove the brain), or investigation. If your character boasts high enough of the Intelligence stat, the investigation check will yield helpful insights on the patient and allow for a medical check. A medical check will give you the option to carefully remove the brain; healing or Intelligence-based characters like Druids, Clerics, or Wizards should have no problem here.
But if you’re a Rogue, you can use your Dexterity, or if you’re a Warrior or Barbarian, your strength will allow you to free the brain from its meat prison.
Related: Baldur’s Gate 3: Best Races and Ability Scores for Barbarian Class
What happens if you mutilate the brain in BG3?
You have the option to mutilate the brain, but it doesn’t cause any noticeable changes. The rest of your time with your new pet brain goes exactly the same if you choose to mutilate it or not. There’s no difference in its health, fighting ability, or dialogue options.
How do you use the brain on the Nautiloid in BG3?
After freeing the talking brain, which asks you to call it “us,” what’s next? The brain will now follow you, you can talk to it and gain some insights on your situation, but outside of combat it can’t be used to solve any puzzles.
Us is a great temporary addition to your party as they comes with a ton of HP and can deal significant amounts of damage with their claws. It also has a dash ability and can cover massive amounts of space on the battlefield, allowing you to quickly close the distance with foes.
Related: Baldur’s Gate 3: All BG3 companion locations – where to find all party members
Us joins your party until the end of the Nautaloid section of the game, but after the ship crashes they disappear. We played a decent bit of the post-crash section of the game and looked around to see if Us had survived the crash. But it appears they perished when the literal flying squid went down in flames.
