Baldurs Gate 3 How to Free Shadowheart on the Nautiloid

Baldurs Gate 3 how to free Shadowheart starts before the crash, on the Nautiloid itself. She is not a companion you meet and recruit in the usual sense — she is sealed inside a mind flayer pod, and you have to physically get her out.

The pod on the Nautiloid

During the prologue, you find her enclosed in one of the ship's pods. There are two ways to open it:

• Interact with the nearby console to release her, the option available to every origin and custom character.
• Tear the pod open directly, which requires a Strength check and is only offered as a dialogue option if you are playing a Barbarian.

Either way, once she is out she fights alongside you for the rest of the prologue, then the party is separated when the ship crashes.

After the crash

What happens next depends on whether you freed her on the ship:

• If you freed her, she turns up unconscious on the Ravaged Beach in the Wilderness. Interact with her to wake her up.
• If you did not, she is instead found trying to force her way into the nearby Dank Crypt, and you meet her there for the first time.

Making her a real companion

Either route, once you have spoken to her on the beach, you get the option to invite her to travel with you properly. If you do not take that option immediately, she eventually makes her own way to the Druid Grove, where you can still recruit her later.

Why the pod choice barely matters afterwards

Beyond which location you first properly talk to her in, freeing her on the ship versus meeting her at the Dank Crypt does not change her availability as a companion — both routes lead to the same place.