Baldur’s Gate 3 brings with it a staggering number of quests and puzzles. The Silent Library Puzzle in the Gauntlet of Shar is one of them. It rewards a unique item of major importance to both the Shadowheart and the Nightsong quests. In this guide, we’re going to discuss how to solve this puzzle using some bit of thinking rather than brute-forcing our way in.
Baldur’s Gate 3 The Silent Library Puzzle: Heading into the area
The Silent Library is located on the deepest level of the Gauntlet of Shar, which you can access along the corridors from the third Faith-Leap trial room. Before heading right into it, remember to prioritize the booby traps before the enemies as this place is full of them. Furthermore, the enemies in this area have a poor detection range, it is best to have a rogue character in your party to use stealth and disarm the nearby traps before taking your enemies out.
How to solve Baldur’s Gate 3 Silent Library Puzzle (& Riddle of the Night)
Once you’ve entered the Silent Library, disarmed every trap, and defeated all the Justiciar Soulhunters, it’s time to find the puzzle and solve it. To access the puzzle, you need to open the big gate at the far-middle end of the room. The lock of this door has a medium toughness, which can be opened by using Thieves’ Tools or with any rogue character. After opening the door, interact with the plinth in the middle of the room. However, remember to watch out for traps in front of the plinth and disarm that before interacting.
Interacting with the plinth will bring up a Riddle of the Night, asking “What can silence the Nightsong?”. To answer this riddle, you’ll need to slot a book named “Teachings of Loss” into the box that came up while interacting with the plinth.
As you’re in the Silent Library Puzzle, you’ll find four bookshelves outside that room. While only one of them has the answer to the Riddle of the Night, each of them has booby traps. Go to the bookshelf on the north side of the room, disarm the trap, and collect the “Teachings of Loss” book. In this book, you’ll find the answer to the Riddle “What can silence the Nightsong?”, which is “Only the Nightsinger herself- Shar. Mistress of the Night.”
After collecting the piece of the puzzle, head back to the plinth and slot the book into the box. This will unlock a secret chamber to the west, allowing you to move forward into the chamber and collect your reward, the “Spear of Night.”
Rewards from Baldur’s Gate 3 Silent Library Puzzle
Once you’ve solved the puzzle, move forward to the plinth and collect the “Spear of Night” and the Dark Justiciar Half-Plate. In the back of the room, you’ll also find a gilded chest containing a Dark Justiciar Helmet. Both of these items come with some unique and powerful perks including:
- Spear of Night: 3-10 damage; +1 weapon enchantment. Allows you to kill Nightsong.
- Dark Justiciar Helmet: Wielder has a +1 bonus to Saving Throws against spells. While obscured, the number need to roll a Critical Hit while attacking is reduced by 1. Constitution Saving Throws +1.
Although the Spear of Night isn’t a great weapon, this item has a crucial place in the upcoming encounters of the game. Depending on the choices, this spear will be transformed into the Legendary Shar’s Spear of Evening, increasing its worth by a lot. Ensure you’ve thoroughly explored the Shadow-Cursed Lands before going into the depths as you can’t go back for Act 2.
That’s it for the Silent Library puzzle. Since we are on the topic of puzzle solutions, make sure to check out our guides to the Stone Disc Moon Door puzzle, Chamber of Justice puzzle, and Soft Step Trial puzzle for breezing through BG3.