How to Open the Gilded Chest – Baldur’s Gate 3

When exploring the immediate surroundings of the Emerald Grove in Baldur’s Gate 3, you might find yourself inside an Owlbear Nest. There, you’ll stumble upon a Gilded Chest protected by Selûne’s Seal that will zap everyone trying to touch it. This guide will tell you how to open the Gilded Chest.

Finding the Chest

First things first, you’ll need to find the Owlbear Nest. You first learn about it from a dying dwarf named Edowin located to the West of the main entrance to the Emerald Grove.

Continue along the path from the dwarf, cross a stream and you’ll happen upon a cave. That’s the Owlbear Nest you’re looking for.

Should you decide to explore the cave, you’ll have to deal with an irate Owlbear and her cub. And once you dispatch them and continue exploring, you will soon reach an open area with some candles, a statue of Selûne and her Gilded Chest. Alternatively, if you’re not quite ready or unwilling to deal with the Owlbear, you can go left upon entering the cave where you’ll find a Cragged Rock you can climb down to bypass the Owlbear encounter.

Now, it’s time to deal with the chest itself. We found two ways to get it open.

Praying to Selûne

This is the preferred way, as you’ll learn some lore along the way, get an Inspiration point for your characters with an Acolyte background, and get a unique interaction with Shadowheart if you have her with you.

Orient yourself towards the statue of Selûne and jump the gap to get behind it. There, you’ll find a book and a note. The note will prompt a skill check to recognize it as the Selûnite Prayer Sheet, but as far as we know, passing it is not required to complete the task.

Things get a bit tricky here, as reading the note on the ground does nothing. So, you’ll have to right click the Prayer Sheet on the ground and choose to pick it up. Then, you should jump back to the chest, find the Prayer Sheet in your Inventory and read it from there. This will remove the seal and kick off a conversation with Shadowheart.

Inside the chest, you’ll find an assortment of Selûne-themed trinkets and the Moondrop Pendant that allows you to avoid Opportunity Attacks when at or below 50% hit points.

Bashing the Chest

If you prefer a more blunt approach, you can just bash the chest open. Two things to keep in mind here is that the chest will deal damage to you every time you try to hit it, and that it has the Medium Toughness property, meaning only hits that deal at least 22 damage can crack it, which can be quite tough at this stage of the game. Luckily, the chest is also vulnerable to Bludgeoning damage, so you’ll only have to deal 11 damage to it with a Bludgeoning weapon, and that’s a bit more realistic.

Opening the chest this way will grant you less experience, no Inspiration points, and won’t prompt the Shadowheart interaction.