Baldur’s Gate 3: Should you give the Artifact to Vlaakith or not in BG3?

Venturing into the Githyanki Creche in the Mountain Pass of Baldur’s Gate 3 offers several impactful storylines. You get to potentially see if the creche has a cure for your tadpole, you can steal an egg, and you are able to meet with the Githyanki generals for Lae’zel’s questline. However, at the end of all of this, you are also able to surprisingly meet Vlaakith, the current queen of the githyanki. Vlaakith knows you have the Artifact, which they call the Astral Prism, and she wants you to give it to her.

This choice comes with a couple of different caveats, especially if you have Lae’zel in your party. Lae’zel is loyal to Vlaakith and wants to serve her in any way that she can. There’s also the matter of your Dream Guardian, as it’s revealed that they have been living inside the Astral Prism this whole time in BG3.

Below, you can see what happens if you give or don’t give the Artifact to Vlaakith in BG3. There will also be some spoilers for how your choice affects the rest of the game. 

Giving the Artifact to Vlaakith in BG3

First up, we’ll go over what happens if you decide to appease both Vlaakith and Lae’zel and hand the Artifact over. In this scenario, Lae’zel is thoroughly pleased with you while Shadowheart is woefully disappointed. However, this means you need to kill your Dream Guardian inside the Astral Prism. Although, the Guardian can’t be killed, even if you stab them with a sword. They will simply return and never trust you again.

The Guardian does reveal that Vlaakith is lying to her people about the Astral Prism and the Absolute, though. When you learn of this, you can tell Lae’zel, and she will want some answers. Since the Guardian can’t die, you can’t really hand the Astral Prism over to Vlaakith, as she will know you did not kill the Guardian.

Related: Baldur’s Gate 3: Are there any consequences to using Illithid Powers?

This leads to a combat sequence with the entire githyanki army. Lae’zel will join forces with you in this scenario, even if it means killing her own people. Later on in BG3, Vlaakith will return to you once again to try and persuade you to take her side. When this happens, you are able to take her side, which leads to Vlaakith becoming the true queen of the githyanki and absorbing the power of Prince Orpheus inside the Astral Prism.

Disobeying Vlaakith and not killing your Guardian in BG3

On the flip side, if you choose to not kill your Guardian in the Astral Prism, you will still learn of Vlaakith’s lies and deceit. In this scenario, your Guardian fully trusts you, which can lead to a better ending down the line.

You can still manage to convince Lae’zel that Vlaakith is lying to her and the githyanki. However, if Lae’zel isn’t in your party and you don’t tell her what happened quickly, she will actually find and attack you and she’ll be out of your party for good. I recommend telling Lae’zel what happened right after you exit the Astral Prism. Of course, before you can do that, you will need to fight all of the githyanki that Vlaakith sends after you.

Which choice should you pick?

My recommendation is to get to the point where you can visit your Guardian in the Astral Prism. This means you need to not attack Vlaakith immediately. Inside the prism, you don’t want to try killing your Guardian, as we have established that does nothing. Instead, choose to not kill them, learn of Vlaakith’s lies, explain to Lae’zel why you didn’t kill the Guardian, and then fight the githyanki in the creche.

Either way you split it, Vlaakith will still turn on you and send her army after your party. The difference is that in one scenario, your Guardian won’t trust you for the rest of the game, and in the other, they will.