The Shadow-Cursed Lands inBaldur’s Gate 3prove to be a constantly dangerous place. From driders to cultists to the constant shadow-curse, simply existing in this place seems nearly impossible, and sentient plants don’t make your journey any easier.

As you trot along, you may find yourself suddenly ambushed by disguised needle blights, or eaten alive by the Shadow-Cursed Shambling Mound. If you seek to defeat these beasts, then look no further; here’s everything you need to know to survive your encounter with these plant monstrosities.

The Shadow-Cursed Shambling Mound’s location as shown on the world map in Baldur’s Gate 3.

Where To Find The Shadow-Cursed Shambling Mound

The Shadow-Cursed Shambling Mound is a mini-boss that shows up in the Shadow-Cursed Lands during Act II, and it can be found in a destroyed tower justnorthwest of the Shadowed Battlefield waypoint (X: 25 Y: 55). Once you reach the stone steps, the shambling mound should be visible.

Preparing For The Fight

Preparing for the shambling mound fight is the most important part of the fight. It can be a relatively easy battle, but only if youdon’t fall prey to the schemes of the needle blights.

Know Your Enemies

There are eleven foes to fight while you deal with the shambling mound;six needle blights, two vine blights, two undead Harpers, and the shambling mound itself,but despite the numbers being in the enemy’s favor, you don’t have to worry about the action economy. The needle blights will go down quickly, sofocus your preparations on the vine blights and shambling mound.

Spells And Potions

The biggest obstacle you will face isthe difficult terrain and the blights and mound’s restraining actions. Because of this,Freedom of Movementwill be your best betwhen deciding what preemptive spells to cast, if you are high enough level or have scrolls.

Other spells to help out with this areHasteandLongstriderto make up for lost movement,Flyto avoid the terrain, or any sort of instant movement spell or effect, such asMisty Step orJump. All of this will help with the difficult terrain slowing you down.

An arrow being prepared to be shot at a hiding vine blight in Baldur’s Gate 3.

Lastly, all of the enemiesdeal necrotic damagealong with their basic attacks, so you candrink anElixir of Necrotic Resistanceif you have one.

Plan Your Attack

The trickiest part about starting this encounter is the fact thatvine blights cannot be surprised and that they will almost always surprise you. Luckily, there are a few ways to overcome this obstacle.

The first is toCrouch when you are nearing the area, just before the stone steps. This will show you thered highlighted areathat markswhat the blights can see, so use this trick to position yourself well before the fight.

Several plant enemies highlighted in red on a shadowy battlefield in Baldur’s Gate 3.

While the vine blights can’t be surprised,you can still make sure they don’t surprise you. Attacking one before they see you willnegate their surprise round, although unlike in other encounters when attacking first gives you a Surprise round, you can at least take theirs away from them.

Lastly, considerusingInvisibilityto position yourselffor a big preemptive attack against the shambling mound and needle blights. You can go invisible to climb up to the scaffolding and drop a powerful AOE spell on the mound, or simplyuse height to your advantage.

Tav surrounded by glowing green vines in Baldur’s Gate 3.

The shambling mound does have an ability that will pull you towards it, meaning you will take fall damage if on the scaffolding. Use this method with caution.

Fighting The Shambling Mound

The shambling mound is not a foe to be taken lightly; withmany damage resistances, high damage output, and several loyal allies, this fight will definitely make you put in the work for the rewards.

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Tav and the party sneaking with an area highlighted in red in front of them in Baldur’s Gate 3.

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Tav’s invisible silhouette on scaffolding above the shambling mound in Baldur’s Gate 3.

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The statistics of the shambling mound in Baldur’s Gate 3.

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Multiattack (action)

Tav and the party covered in acid while fighting the shambling mound in Baldur’s Gate 3.

  • Deals 1d8+4 bludgeoning and 1d4 necrotic per hit

-If both Slam attacks hit, the target becomes Entangled

Shadowheart surrounded by needle blights in Baldur’s Gate 3.

Adhesive Whip (bonus action)

-15m range, pulls target towards shambling mound

Shadowheart with glowing hands, preparing to attack a horde of needle blights in Baldur’s Gate 3.

-Chance to knock target Prone

Digestive Sap (bonus action)

-AOE cone

-Covers targets in Digestive Juices

-Digestive Juices deal 1d6 acid damage per turn and make target

vulnerable to piercing and bludgeoning damage

Devour (action)

-If a target is Restrained and covered in Digestive Juices,

the shambling mound can devour it and instantly kill it

In addition, the Shadow-Cursed Shambling Moundis resistant to:

As well asimmune to:

In Tactician and Honour Mode, the Shambling Mound’s HP increases to 202, has Tanglevine Form, which can Restrain melee attackers, and also has Magical Resistance. In Honour Mode, the Shambling Mound also gains a Legendary Action that allows it to deal 3d10 necrotic damage to any creatures that ended their turn near it, and possibly entangle creatures as well.

The biggest threat that the shambling mound has is its high-damage Slam attacks, soplay to your range if you may.If not, verify youbuff your armor class to make sure it doesn’t hit twice, since two successful hits will Constrict you.

In the long run, though, theDigestive Juices can take a toll on your party, especially squishy melee fighters, since it makes you vulnerable to its Slam attacks. Likewise, thatconstant acid damage every turn is draining.

Luckily, the juices canbe washed off with water, so throw a pitcher of that at your friends to give them a nice scrub-down and negate that acid damage.

The shambling mound can only use its Devour attack on creatures covered in its Digestive Juices, so washing off the juices will ensure combat goes smoothly if you are Restrained or Constricted.

Dealing With The Blights

Here comes the fun part; exploding all of the needle blights. While the amount of blights in this fight may, at first, seem overwhelming, you’ll soon realize thathaving so many needle blights around is a huge advantage,as long as you know what to do with them.

Needle blights have the interesting passive ability where they willerupt into a Needle Burstupon dying, dealingmassive AOE damage to anyone nearby. This includes their allies and the other needle blights!

While letting the needle blights burst upon death and kill each other is a good strategy, you can also avoid their Needle Burst by using non-lethal attacks to finish them off.

Essentially,killing one needle blight leads to a chain reactionthat will causeall the other needle blights to explode as well. The amount of damage they put off is easily enough to kill all the needle blights, the undead Harpers, and even the vine blights if you get them set up correctly.

The more needle blights that are together, the bigger the explosion will be since Needle Burst will do enough damage to kill all of the needle blights. This means that, if all six are together, you could potentially deal upwards of 300 damage throughout their six explosions.

Simply have one party member lure in all of the blights, then have anotheruse a ranged attack to take out one of the needle blights. Be warned; the damage the needle blights will deal ismore than enough to down your own party members, so keep a safe distance(at least 4m away).

When luring the needle blights in, consider using a caster who can Misty Step away, or a Rogue / Monk who can quickly Disengage.

The vine blights don’t have much of a strategy to make them easier; they canConstrict from a distance, so even keeping your range doesn’t have as many benefits. Just keep pummeling them until they go down, andbreak their Constrict concentration when you can.

The Harpers are, likewise, easier foes than the needle blights and shambling mound. They only make main-hand weapon attacks, andtheir reduced hit points and stats make them easy to kill.

Rewards

Unfortunately,the rewards for defeating the Shadow-Cursed Shambling Mound are slightly underwhelminggiven the challenge of the fight. The biggest reward you will receive is thatyour party members will earn 830 XP each if you kill every enemy.

The shambling moundhas the Ironwood Club on its body, which is an uncommon melee weapon.

All of the blights and the shambling mound havevarious rare alchemy components on them, either Wood Bark or Shadowroot Sacs. The undead Harpers have Putrefied Tumors on them, as well as some armor and weapons.

Lastly, you canexplore the tower and the scaffolding abovefor one final reward; on top of the iron ladder there are wooden platforms, where a skeleton can be found. This skeleton has adiary that talks about nearby treasureand explains thatthere is a key nearby, right next to the skeleton’s body (X: 30 Y: 50).

This key can be used toopen the chest just across the wayfrom the skeleton(X: 27 Y: 65).Inside is theRing of Self Immolation, a great item to have if you’reusing a Heat buildon one of your characters!