Baldur's Gate 3: How to Get the Everburn Blade Without Killing Commander Zhalk

The Everburn Blade is a trusty weapon that any melee player in Baldur's Gate 3 can rely on. Here's how to get it in the opening Nautiloid sequence.

Weapons come in various shapes and sizes in Baldur's Gate 3, and some are simply much shinier than others. Such is the case with the Everburn Blade — a greatsword that, as its name suggests, is coated in everlasting fire. It's an extremely potent weapon in the early game, but getting it can be quite the problem.

The Everburn Blade is a guaranteed drop from Zhalk, the commander of the Tiefling forces attacking the Mind Flayer Nautiloid at the very beginning of Baldur's Gate 3. He is of a much higher level than the party, and there's only so much time to work with before the ship crashes and burns in Avernus. However, beating him with Level 1 characters is completely possible, and with the right party members on board, fighting him won't even be necessary at all.

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There's no way to sugar coat this — killing Commander Zhalk with a crew of relatively-new adventurers isn't easy. His attention may always be on the Mind Flayer, but the real problem here is time. If players don't reach the transponder within a certain amount of turns, the Nautiloid will crash and kill everyone aboard. To make this more complicated, two more Tieflings will come to reinforce Zhalk once there are only 8–9 turns left on the counter.

To maximize the odds of brute-forcing this enemy down, players should free the Intellect Devourer from near the beginning of the map. An extra pair of hands will go a long way when fighting Zhalk, especially since hit rates will be at around 30 or 40% for the most part across all party members. After defeating the first set of monsters near the helm's entrance, gang-up on Zhalk and start attacking.

Use skills and spells to buff and heal the Mind Flayer as it will be the party's main source of damage. Once cooldowns are used and spell slots are exhausted, pepper Zhalk with melee and ranged attacks until he dies.

Once the enemy reinforcements arrive, they will take about three turns to reach Zhalk's position. Try to wrap the fight up here if possible. If not, then have two party members hold the aggro of the two incoming Tieflings while the rest focus on the commander. Once Zhalk is dead, grab the Everburn Blade with a player-made or controlled character and make a mad dash toward the transponder, ignoring every other monster along the way.

For solo players, make sure the sword is in the inventory of whoever touches the transponder. Otherwise, it may disappear once the party reaches the beach.

A surefire way to beat Commander Zhalk early is to constantly save the game after every successful turn. If a round goes by where the Mind Flayer lands a critical hit or when any member of the party lands a strong attack, save the game immediately. If things go south later, reload and try again.

This is a much faster and easier way to get the Everburn Blade, but it's only possible if the party has a Cleric or Warlock with the Command spell. Move through the early parts of the Nautiloid as per usual and once the party reaches the helm, clear the initial group of monsters and cast Command: Drop on Zhalk.

Command: Drop is not guaranteed to hit, so players may need to save and reload their game in case their first cast fails to connect. If it does, simply walk up to Zhalk and pick the blade up. He'll continue the rest of the fight with his fists and at this point, it's better for players to just head straight for the transponder unless they want to unlock the achievement for killing Commander Zhalk.

Players can swap one of Shadowheart's equipped Spells with Command in the Spellbook menu. This allows any player to get the Everburn Blade early without having to make a Cleric or Warlock of their own.

Baldur's Gate 3 is available now on PC and PS5.

Marc is a seasoned writer and enjoyer of all things difficult in gaming. If he's not knee-deep in Destiny 2, then he's probably drowning in indie or early access titles in search of the next big hit. Some of his most-played genres are FPS, MMO, RPG, horror, and sandbox survival. He enjoys the frantic firefights of Apex Legends and dark corridors of Resident Evil as much as he loves the peace and quiet of Stardew Valley.Marc has been writing about video games for over three years with a particular specialization in creating guides and walkthroughs. Occasionally, he also covers gaming-related news about upcoming releases, major updates, and things that shake up the industry as a whole.Outside of gaming, Marc enjoys watching anime, dissecting films, and reading all sorts of drawn and written fiction. Some of his all-time favorites include Back to the Future, Fullmetal Alchemist, and Kentaro Miura's Berserk.