Noxious Fumes in Baldur’s Gate 3 is one of the trickiest traps in the game. Presented as clouds of poisonous gases, these fumes are released through a number of vents. These vents house a strange flower that get triggered by movement or missed spells and catch fire, damaging your characters with harmful gases.
When can you expect to encounter the Noxious Fumes in Baldur’s Gate 3?

You will encounter Auntie Ethel, a powerful Hag in the first act of Baldur’s Gate 3, while trying to rescue Mayrina. You will lock horns with this iconic boss in the Overgrown Tunnel.
Once you have engaged in the boss battle and weakened her to a certain point, the hag will retreat into her lair. You will be left with an option to finish the job or leave her be. If, however, you choose to follow her into her lair to kill her, you will face a number of deadly traps, including the Noxious Fumes trap.
How to pass through Noxious Fumes in Baldur’s Gate 3?
While the Noxious Fumes trap can be simply overcome by running blindly through the clouds of toxic gas, it isn’t the best solution. This method will result in you and your party taking significant damage. It will lead you to use up all the good resources, spells, and potions you have on you, leaving you completely vulnerable to what comes next.
Taking a calculated approach to Baldur’s Gate 3 Noxious Fumes trap is advisable, because as soon as you pass the trap, Auntie Ethel will show up and the second phase of this boss battle will immediately begin.

In order to safely pass the trap, you can use the following directions:
- Approach the cloud of gas, however, do not enter into it.
- Keep the character in your party that has the highest perception in the front.
- Cast a perception spell to reveal the location of vents spouting these fumes as well as to reveal the flowers that ignite the fumes.
- Keep a safe distance between you and the fumes and use ranged attacks to explode the flowers.
- Once the chain reaction of explosions is done, wait for the fire to extinguish.
- Once the fire is put out, the clouds of toxic gas will return slowly. However, the flowers that cause the explosion won’t respawn.
- Use any extra or junk items, such as old gear pieces or small rocks, you have and throw them in front of the vents to block them.
- After every vent is successfully covered, the clouds of gas will slowly start dissipating. Wait for the gas to completely disappear and then move onto next area.
- Repeat these steps until you reach the Hag’s Lair and all the Noxious Fumes traps are disabled.
- Defeat Auntie Ethel and proceed to rescue Mayrina, who’s locked in a cage at the back of Hag’s Lair.

Crucial tips:
- If you do not possess any extra or unwanted items or rocks to block the vents, you can find some small rocks near the waterfall next to the trap. You can pick up these rocks and throw them onto the opening of vents to block them.
- Furthermore, if you end up throwing something essential just to block the vents, you can quickly collect these items and run towards the lair before the fumes start reappearing.
- Moreover, this blocking-the-vents trick can be used in all situations where flames or gas is being emitted from exposed vents.
- If you ever encounter toxic gases that aren’t coming from a vent, you will need to use fire-based ranged attacks to burn the cloud of gas away. Since there’s no vent, it’s highly likely that the gas will not reappear once burned off.
Were you able to escape the Noxious Fumes in Baldur’s Gate 3? Let us know in the comments below.