Making Minthara join you and keeping everyone innocent alive isn't easy.
There’s a new method to recruit the evilest companion in Baldur’s Gate 3 without going evil yourself. Patch 5 added a new — and very difficult — method to recruit the most missed party member in the game. Now we can recruit Minthara and stay good. Normally, the only way to recruit the evil cultist Minthara is by helping her raid the Emerald Grove. This leads to killing the Tiefling refugees and all of the druids, turning most of your companions against you instantly. With the latest patch, there’s a way to get around all of that and it’s surprisingly simple.
Because of Minthara’s evil requirements, she’s the most easy-to-miss party member by far. But now even good players can convince her to join. You’ll need to perform very specific requirements in Act 1, then progress straight to Act 2 and rescue her from a situation I had no idea even existed. This is the kind of content the developers were talking about — that maybe 1% of us would see — but it’s also so fun and potentially useful, we had to go back and try to recruit her ourselves.
Here’s how to rescue Minthara and put her on your team without slaughtering innocents or making half of your party leave permanently. This is what you need to do to recruit Minthara and stay good. And don’t forget to check out our huge collection of Baldur’s Gate 3 guides and walkthroughs here.
How To Recruit Minthara | Good Method
Minthara is a recruitable Dark Elf (and evil) companion found in Act 1. You’ll find her in the Goblin Camp — she is one of three Goblin Camp leaders you’re tasked to destroy for Halsin’s Quest. Halsin is the leader of the Emerald Grove, and working with him allows you to rescue the grove and eventually recruit him as a Druid party member.
Normally, to recruit Minthara, players need to infiltrate the Cult of the Absolute and then reveal the location of the Emerald Grove — then plot to attack. If you join her and wipe out the Tieflings and the grove with her goblin army, she’ll join your party. But, doing this puts you on an evil path and will cause three party members to leave permanently. If you use the alternate Good Method — only added after Patch 5 — you can recruit Minthara and still keep all of your party members.
- How To Recruit Minthara | Act 1 Good Method
- Enter the Goblin Camp -> Shattered Sanctum in Act 1. You’ll find her in the library of the castle ruins. To make sure this method works, enter the Goblin Camp without becoming an instant enemy. You can do this by pretending to be a member of the cult.
- Don’t talk to Minthara. Instead, knock her out immediately with non-lethal attacks. Make sure to knock her out first before killing the other two Goblin Camp leaders. Halsin can NOT be in your party. I recommend waiting to rescue him until AFTER completing this step.
- Switch to Non-Lethal Mode for your weapons. After knocking her out, kill the other goblins in the room. Then you can kill the other two Goblin Camp leaders. This will count toward completing the quest for Halsin.
After Minthara has been knocked out and the Goblin Camp leaders are destroyed, you can leave and progress to the Shadow-Cursed Lands. In Act 2, you’ll be able to fully recruit Minthara.
- How To Recruit Minthara | Act 2 Good Method
- Travel to Moonrise Towers in the Shadow-Cursed Lands — once you’re able to access the deep shadow, you can enter the towers.
- Inside the towers, go to the throne room to encounter Minthara. She is being put on trial for failing the cult. If you pass speech checks, you can convince the cult to spare Minthara and put her in jail.
- Once she’s in jail, players can enter the dungeon. Here, you can either pass speech checks to convince them to let Minthara leave peacefully, or kill everyone in the jail and help her escape. After she escapes, Minthara will join your party as a permanent party member.
Minthara is an Oath of Vengeance Paladin and an evil Dark Elf. Like other party members, she can be romanced — and is especially open to the prospect if you manage to recruit her. Her romantic cutscenes are some of the most explicit in the game.
If you’re sick of being unable to recruit one of the available party members just because she’s incredibly evil — now there’s a solution. She can join you and you can keep everyone in your party. Yes, you can recruit both Minthara and Halsin. Just don’t bring Halsin when you’re trying to recruit her.
