Contradictory to its name, House of Hope in Baldur’s Gate 3 is a prison for the souls of people who failed to pay their debt to the devil. Rotting here for eternity, these people have no respite in sight. It is the same home where the devil, Raphael, took you when you first encountered him halfway through Act 1.
When you reach Act 3, you will meet Raphael again at the Sharess’ Caress Inn. He will offer you a deal, Orphic Hammer for the Crown of Karsus. If you take that deal, bad things will happen to you later in the game. You need to steal your contract from his home to cancel the deal. If you refuse, you must still steal the Orphic Hammer from his house to Free Prince Orpheus.
How to reach House of Hope in Baldur’s Gate 3
House of Hope can be accessed by opening a portal inside the Devil’s Fee shop. This shop is in the Lower City, west of the Basilisk Gate waypoint. Talk to the shopkeeper, Helsik, at the counter and bring up the topic of Devil’s house.
As a follower of the god of avarice, she will ask for 20,000 gold to open the portal for you. You can pass an Intimidation check to lower the price to 10,000 gold. It is still very steep. You can offer her something in exchange: Gauntlets of Giant Hill Strength, which you can steal from the House of Hope. She will agree and hand over a Grimoire Bound in Imp’s Skin and a Ritual pouch.
Complete Helsik’s Ritual to enter the House of Hope
After obtaining both items, go to the upper floor and enter Helsik’s room. Beware of the trap if you steal both items. Read the Grimoire for the clues and open the Ritual pouch. You will obtain 5 items from it: a Skull, a Coin of Mammon, Incense, an Infernal Marble, and a diamond.
To complete Helsik’s Ritual, you must place these items on the different sides of the pentagram drawn on the floor. The best way to complete the Helsik Ritual is by following the method listed below:
- Place a Skull on the point towards the altar with the book.
- Put a Coin of Mammon on the circle next to where you placed the skull.
- Skip the next circle and instead place a Diamond on the circle after it.
- Place Incense on the circle next to the diamond.
- Lastly, place the Infernal Marble at the central part of the pentagram.
This will open a portal to the House of Hope. Before you proceed, make sure you stock up on supplies, healing potions, radiant magic spells, and scrolls, and grind until all members of your party reach level 12. Anything below, and you are in a world of pain.
Baldur’s Gate 3: House of Hope Walkthrough
Upon reaching the House of Hope in Avernus, you will land in the Foyer section of the map. If you try to interact with the door, Hope’s apparition will appear in front of you. She will tell you of the situation in this place and request you to free her body from the prison. This will start the Save Hope side quest.
Hope will give the whole party Debtor’s Attire, which serves as a disguise. It stops the hostile creatures from attacking you, and you keep all the stats of your previous armor/clothes.
Meet the Archivist and obtain the invitation letter
House of Hope is a very straightforward dungeon with a circular map. Instead of going around in circles, enter the next area, known as Feast Hall. From there, turn east to enter a corridor. You will notice a portal chamber that you can’t use. There is a locked hatch that leads to Hope’s Prison. Leave it for the moment if you don’t have the Orphic Hammer.
You will notice another door with a mystical green force curtain that you can’t pass yet. Opposite this door, you can find an inert Infernal gem. Interacting with it will present you with two checks to pass. Wisdom check of 10DC and Intelligence check of 20DC. Upon passing both checks, a hidden room will appear.
Enter the room to find Helldusk Helmet, Staff of Spellpower, Mol’s contract, and your contract with the devil. Your contract will only be present if you made a deal with Raphael at Sharess’ Caress to obtain the Orphic Hammer. You can find Mol and return her contract after leaving this hellish place.
Keep going straight until you reach the end of the corridor. This will take you to the archives. Before talking to the Archivist, either cast Detect Thoughts on yourself or drink a potion of Detect Thoughts. This will allow you to read the mind of the Archivist. Apparently, he is mortified by Zariel’s Inquisitor, Verillius Receptor. Pretend to be Verillius, and the Archivist will hand over the invitation letter to you.
The archives are also home to the Orphic Hammer, Gauntlets of Giant Hill Strength, and Amulet of Greater Health. You can’t steal the Orphic Hammer, as it is protected with an energy field that can only be dispelled with a password. Stealing anything else will remove your disguise and turn everyone inside the house hostile. Wait for now.
Enter the Boudoir and deal with Harleep
The door with the green force curtain is now open. This leads to Raphael’s chamber. Once you enter it, you will notice a succubus Harleep. He is there to satisfy Raphael’s carnal needs. Show him your invitation, and he will offer to take you to bed. Here, you will get three options.
- Join Harleep in the bed with your body, but keep your mind. This will allow you to extract the information about the location of the password, and Harleep will hand over the key to the safe.
- Fight and kill Harleep to obtain the key.
- Give your heart and soul to Harleep. This is the worst option to choose.
The first option results in a steamy sex scene, which a lot of your party members disapprove of. Harleep will tell you that the safe is behind Raphael’s portrait. Use the key to open the safe and obtain the letter containing the password. You can also loot the Boudoir for some unique clothes and potions. Another option is to kill Harleep after the scene to obtain Helldusk Gloves.
Steal Orphic Hammer
Return to the archives and steal the Orphic Hammer by selecting the following dialogue option.
- Give me my heart’s desire.
This will remove your disguise and turn everyone inside the House of Hope hostile. You can safely pick up the remaining items, including the Gauntlets Helsik desires.
Fight the enemies and run towards Hope’s Prison. Make sure to cast the Greater Invisibility spell on your party to avoid confrontations. Hope’s prison is to the east of the map. To open the hatch, you need to pass a DC10 check.
Free Hope from her prison
Two red crystals in the area are holding Hope as a prisoner. They are protected by a Beholder enemy and some imps. The enemies here are tough; you must look out for the Eldritch Blast cast by the imps. One shot is enough to throw you off the platforms and kill you.
Equip the Orphic Hammer and destroy both crystals. This will free Hope, and she will join your party. Now run to the Feast Hall and to the Foyer from where you entered the House of Hope in Baldur’s Gate 3.
Meet the devil, Raphael, and kill him
Raphael will be waiting for you near the porta, furious. He will be accompanied by Yurgir, the Orthon, who has once again fallen into the devil’s clutches. Talk to Yurgir and pass a DC30 charisma check to make him change the party. Yurgir will now fight for you.
Raphael is the hardest boss in Baldur’s Gate 3. He has 666HP, and there is only a 10% chance of an attack landing on him. This is due to the four soul pillars in the room buffing him constantly. If Yurgir is on your side, use him to fend off Raphael’s minions and spread your party across the room. Focus on attacking the pillars with radiant magic spells.
Wyll has access to the Hunger of Hadar spell. It puts a massive debuff on the enemies caught in its range. Shadowheart and Hope can heal the party when needed. Once you finish pillars, start attacking Raphael with everything you have. With 60% of his health left, Raphael will change into his demonic form. He will get additional attack power and longer melee sweep attacks.
Keep your distance and keep attacking him with radiant spells. Make Wyll cast Hunger of Hadar repeatedly. Once Raphael is killed, you can loot his body to obtain Helldusk Armor from it. Hope will give you Gloves of Soul Catching as a reward for saving her. Yurgir is now available to call during the Gather Your Allies quest. With all the items you looted before, this is a massive haul from the House of Hope.
Bugs with the House of Hope
If you use any mod to raise your party level beyond 4 or artificially raise the character level beyond 12, the portal leading to the House will not work. These mods bug the quest, and we strongly recommend that you get rid of them beforehand.
