How to Solve the Silent Library Puzzle in Baldur’s Gate 3 (BG3)

Baldur’s Gate 3’s Gauntlet of Shar has numerous hidden secrets, puzzles, and other areas to gain powerful loot for your future battles. It’s one of your last chances to venture through Act One before moving forward in the story, so you’ll want to pick up as many treasures as possible. One place where you can get major gear upgrades for Shadowheart is the Silent Library’s reward room. Let’s solve Baldur’s Gate 3’s Silent Library puzzle.

Baldur’s Gate 3: Silent Library Puzzle Walkthrough

Below are the steps you must take to progress through the Silent Library in Baldur’s Gate 3:

• Defeat The Librarian and surrounding enemies
• Locate the Teachings of Loss book
• Open the Iron Portcullis
• Interact with the Riddle of the Night pedestal
• Claim your reward

Defeating the Silent Library Librarian

Upon entering the Silent Library at coordinates (X: -743, Y: -751), you’ll enter a glowing, magical entranceway that immediately silences your party. The cause of this silence is The Librarian, a portal in the room’s center that periodically spawns additional enemies. Eliminating The Librarian is your top priority.

There are two ways to tackle this battle:

1. Fight head-on, prioritizing The Librarian
2. Slowly enter the room without alerting enemies, whittling down The Librarian before engaging in combat

Since there are no massive boss enemies to tackle, you can swiftly eliminate the smaller undead monsters without much trouble. However, if your party carefully enters the room without alerting them of your presence, you can use ranged attacks to damage The Librarian until it vanishes. Doing this, you’ll gain a considerable advantage against the rest of the crowd.

As a bonus, long-range mages can use spells outside the door to attack The Librarian, allowing you to take it out with one or two powerful abilities.

Once you defeat the room of enemies, you’re free to explore the rest of the Silent Library.

Finding the Teachings of Loss: The Nightsinger Book

In the Silent Library, you’ll find a large Iron Portcullis, various bookshelves, and several traps that can severely damage your party. You must perform successful perception checks to find and disarm the traps; otherwise, they’ll release lightning and acid attacks, which can easily down you and your companions.

Once you’re ready to venture forward, go to the second bookshelf at coordinates (X: -771, Y: -745) and disarm its acid attack before picking up the Teachings of Loss: The Nightsinger book. With this book, you’re now ready to open the Iron Portcullis and venture forward.

Opening the Iron Portcullis

There are two ways to open the large metal door in the room’s center:

• Lockpick the door (DC 21)
• Disarm and press four buttons

If you lockpick the door, you must pass a DC 21 sleight of hand dexterity check. Characters like Astarion are useful here, as he has sleight-of-hand expertise. Otherwise, if you have some thieves’ tools and a dexterous party member, you can attempt to open the door without risking activating some traps.

Alternatively, you can press four buttons around the Silent Library to open the door. However, each button is armed with a trap, and you must succeed an initial perception check and a following DC 10 sleight of hand dexterity check to disarm them. Fortunately, this dexterity check is easier than the lockpicking one. However, if you fail to disarm any of the four buttons, a lightning attack will activate, severely damaging your party.

What Can Silence the Nightsong?

Once you enter the next part of the Silent Library, you’ll find the Riddle of the Night and the passage “What can silence the Nightsong?” Here, you’ll insert the Teachings of Loss: The Nightsinger book, opening the hidden treasure room and revealing your prizes.

You’ll find the following items in the treasure room:

• Spear of Night
• Dark Justiciar Half-Plate
• Dark Justiciar Helmet

Baldur’s Gate 3 is available on PC, Mac, PlayStation 5, and soon on Xbox Series X|S. If you want to bring the spear to the next level, check out how to get the Spear of Evening in Baldur’s Gate 3.