Baldur’s Gate 3 provides multiple ways to progress through the game and, tasked with reaching the Moonrise Towers, you’ll have two routes to choose from—one of which is the Underdark.
This dark landscape features a wealth of new NPCs to meet, align with, or kill, as well as several quests to complete. Even if you don’t choose the Underdark route to the Moonrise Towers, you will end up down there eventually.
Navigating through the Underdark, however, is not an easy task, particularly on your first visit, and the game does not make it clear how and where you can exit to reach the Moonrise Towers.
Thankfully, there’s an easy solution and there is some crossover with a side quest you can undertake on your travels, so we recommend doing both at the same time.
How to save Nere
Nere can be found at the end of the Grymforge, having been trapped by a cave-in. You need to find Sergeant Thrimm and speak to them, which results in you being asked to help clear the rubble and save those trapped.
There are two options to advance the quest, with the first being to persuade the Deep Gnome slaves to clear the rubble, and the other to speak to Elder Brithvar, who tells you about a recent explosion.
Whichever choice you make leads to the same step, requiring you to find Philomeen the Deep Gnome. She can be found by returning to the docks area, following the waterfront to the left until you find an area with dead Gnomes—if you’re struggling, the coordinates are X: -611, Y:407.
You’ll find two Duergar pushing bodies into the water and you must persuade them to leave, then unlock the big doors. Inside, a secret passage can be found by activating a button on the left side, which is located with a successful Perception check.
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A fight with some Oozes follows and, once defeated, you must climb up the flight of stairs to find a large gap, then jump across it. Go through the double doors and find Philomeen inside.
She is holding a bucket of Runepowder and you need to persuade her to calm down, rather than blowing everyone up. You have the choice of accepting her offer of the Runepowder or stopping her from taking it all.
With the Runepowder in hand, return to the area where Nere is trapped. Throw the Runepowder vial at the rocks, which leads the gnomes to scatter, and then use a fire attack to ignite the rubble and clear it.
After Nere emerges, you have a decision to make on whether to fight Brithvar’s rebellion, side with Brithvar, or side with no one and fight them all.
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What if you don’t save Nere?
You only have a limited amount of time to save Nere and, if you don’t complete the task in time, the Duergar will clear the rubble without your help and you can then find Nere’s body
This is the route I initially went down, although not intentionally, though it worked out well as the Myconid colony had tasked me with killing him, so I just found the corpse, casually removed his head, and returned to their leader.
How to leave the Underdark
While the game may make it seem like the above quest involving Nere needs to be completed to progress, it actually doesn’t. Instead, you can take the elevator opposite the fast travel point at the Grymforge.
Upon accessing the elevator, you will be warned that doing so progresses your quest and, as a result, some questlines will be ended if you did not complete them—so I advise rounding off all the Act One quests you can before advancing.
Several of these take place within the Underdark, which is worth exploring, particularly as it can provide some gear which is extremely valuable for the fights ahead.
