• Guide

How to stop the windmill - Baldur's Gate 3

We're assuming you want to stop it safely. Right?

Lucas White

August 17, 2023 6:30 PM

5

As you make your way to the Goblin Camp in Baldur’s Gate 3, you’ll inevitably pass through the Blighted Village and make contact with some goblins stinking up the joint. There are a few conversations you can have that let you avoid violence, or you can just rip and tear on sight like a middle school D&D group. Another event in this location involves a gnome, a windmill, and your (real life) perception. Or you can just read this guide to learn how to stop the windmill.

How to save the gnome in Blighted Village

To save the gnome in the Blighted Village, you'll need to stop the windmill. When you first approach this foolishness, you have a couple options. You can cheer the goblins on as they torture this dude, attack the group, or convince them to walk away. Presumably, based on stats Larian Studios has shared, your first instinct is to try to help the little guy. It’s actually pretty easy to do so, but there’s a bit of a trap meant to trip up the more impatient gamers out there.

Circle around the windmill to find a way in, being mindful of the grease on the ground. You might need to swivel the camera around a little, but the contraption powering the windmill has two switches on it. Odds are good, based on the placement, the first one you’ll see is the ‘Release Brake” lever. If you want to save the gnome and don’t like to reload, do not pull the Release Brake lever. It’s pretty funny if you do though, so maybe come back on a different run.

Right next to that is the ‘Brake’ lever. That’s the one you actually want to pull to safely stop the windmill without launching Mr. Gnome like a lacrosse ball. So, pull the Brake lever to stop the windmill, freeing the gnome.

With the windmill stopped, talk to him afterwards and he’ll give you a small reward, then do some expository foreshadowing. Maybe you’ll see him later down the road.

Check out our Baldur’s Gate 3 strategy guide page for more hints and help on this sprawling adventure.

Lucas White

Contributing Editor

Lucas plays a lot of videogames. Sometimes he enjoys one. His favorites include Dragon Quest, SaGa, and Mystery Dungeon. He's far too rattled with ADHD to care about world-building lore but will get lost for days in essays about themes and characters. Holds a journalism degree, which makes conversations about Oxford Commas awkward to say the least. Not a trophy hunter but platinumed Sifu out of sheer spite and got 100 percent in Rondo of Blood because it rules. You can find him on Twitter @HokutoNoLucas being curmudgeonly about Square Enix discourse and occasionally saying positive things about Konami.