The Gauntlet of Shar is a sweeping dungeon near the end of Act 2 in Baldur’s Gate 3, filled with trap and puzzle rooms that hold plenty of loot. It’s also central to Shadowheart’s plotline and can drastically change her as a character. The biggest challenges of the gauntlet are the various Trial rooms that all revolve around a different gimmick. One is the Soft-Step Trial, where you’ll need to sneak your way through a maze without getting caught by patrolling specters. It might seem intimidating at first, but there’s actually an easy way to beat the Soft-Step Trial in Baldur’s Gate 3.
How to Complete the Soft-Step Trial in Baldur’s Gate 3
Make sure you have a Rogue in your party before attempting the Soft-Step Trial, as your life will be so much easier. Astarion is the obvious choice, but anyone else can work as well, you’ll just need to pass a few d10 rolls.
In the Trial room, you’ll see two doors on either side of a sacrificial bowl. Before you interact with it, unlink your party to have your Rogue go solo, unlock a door, and head into the maze.
You can actually disarm all of the traps in the maze before even starting. There are also two switches down either hallway that you can use to shift walls and open up pathways. Head through every part of the maze and disarm everything, open every door, and pull both switches to make sure the walls near the entrance are pulled back.
Now, head back to the start and interact with the sacrificial bowl. This will make the roaming specters you need to avoid visible, but here’s the quickest path through the maze.
- Head in through the door to the left of the bowl
- Head straight to the wall and take a left, watch out for the specter here
- At the end of the path, take a right and look for the window straight ahead
- Jump through the window, then take the door on the left to the end of the trial
From here, you can simply interact with the statue at the end to get the Umbral gem you need, and you’ll be instantly transported back to the entrance of the trial.
There are four Umbral Gems in total that you’ll have to collect to continue the story. These are used in the Inner Sanctum of Shar’s Gauntlet, unlocking the way to the Shadowfell and the point of no return for Act 2. In addition to the Soft-Step Trial, you’ll find the other three gems scattered around Shar’s Gauntlet at the Self-Same Trial, Faith Step Trial, and Yurgir the Orthon’s Lair on the East side of the map.
