Baldur’s Gate 3: House of Hope – Solve Ritual, Find Orphic Hammer or Contract, Defeat Boss

In the House of Hope in Baldur’s Gate 3, you have to overcome some challenges, but you will be richly rewarded. MeinMMO will tell you how to enter the house, grab the Orphic Hammer, and defeat the boss.

What is the House of Hope all about? The goal is to get the Orphic Hammer from the House of Hope to free Orpheus from his chains in the Astral Prism (if you want to). Raphael has the hammer and is located in his estate – the House of Hope. Besides that, a cool battle and legendary items await you.

Alternatively, you can also make a pact with the devil Raphael in the brothel Sharess’ Caress to directly obtain the Orphic Hammer. However, at a price: In exchange for the promise to hand him the Crown of Karsus once you have defeated the Elder Brain.

Note: It is also possible to enter the House of Hope if you have already made a pact with Raphael. In this case, you can destroy your contract on-site to free yourself from the pact. However, Raphael will be anything but pleased about it.

How to get into the House of Hope – Use the Ritual Circle

First, you need to get into the House of Hope. To do this, go to the occult shop Devil’s Price in Baldur’s Gate – about northwest of the Lower City, west of the smithy. This shop has many curious items, including items from hell. Examine the items to find out that there is more behind Helsik. Then speak with Helsik.

Either convince her with the right price, promise to bring her Gauntlets of Hill Giant Strength, or use skilled pickpocketing to obtain the necessary information. The Diabolist Helsik will reveal the secret ritual that will give you access to the House of Hope.

Solve the Ritual and Open the Portal to the House of Hope

From Helsik, you will receive a Spellbook Bound in Devil Skin with instructions on how the ritual to open the portal works and a ritual pouch with five materials. You will also receive a key to the upper floor of her shop, where the blood circle of the ritual is located.

What is in the portal’s instructions:

This is how you implement the instructions at the ritual circle: Treat the table in the room as south. From there, lay out the following items correctly:

• The skull on the star tip in the south (by the table)
• The coin of Mammon (looking from the table) left on the tip
• The diamond on the left tip in the north
• The incense on the right tip in the north
• The infernal marble in the middle of the star

After you have taken the necessary steps, you can interact with the portal to get to the House of Hope.

Tip: It’s better to rest again and stock up on supplies – such as potions, elixirs, or certain scrolls. Once you are in the House of Hope, you can no longer use fast travel.

House of Hope – All Tasks and Solutions

Once you have arrived in the House of Hope, various tasks await you.

Encounter with Hope

Upon arriving at the House of Hope, you will first encounter a dwarf named Hope – more precisely, a projection. She gives you clothing so that you can move inconspicuously in the House of Hope. You should keep this clothing on, as otherwise, several opponents will appear, all of whom are hostile towards you.

There are still several skill checks to obtain information. She will explain to you that you need a key, the Orphic Hammer, or the contract (if you have made a pact with him) with Raphael and need to find them. In the end, you are also supposed to free her. The first step, however, is the archive.

House of Hope – Secret Hideaway

Explore the House of Hope and make your way to the archive. At a wall (X: – 6482, Y: 2944), you will encounter an inactive infernal gemstone with which you can interact. Pass the Wisdom and Intelligence checks to reveal a hidden chamber and loot the items. Here you will also find the contract of Mol.

This item can be looted:

• Helllight Helm

Go to the Archive to Obtain the Boudoir Invitation

Before the archive, it’s best to talk to Hope again. She will give you information that you can use to deceive the Archivist in order to obtain the invitation to the boudoir. For this, you must again pass skill checks. After that, you go into the archive.

This is how you obtain the invitation:

• Go into the archive and talk to the Archivist, try to deceive him; this will immediately get you the boudoir invitation
• Alternatively, you can try other skill rolls to get the invitation
• If all fails, you can attack the Archivist or steal the invitation from him

After you have successfully received the invitation, make your way to Raphael’s boudoir.

The Boudoir – Meeting Haarlep in the House of Hope

In Raphael’s bedroom, you do not meet the devil himself, but an incubus named Haarlep. He lies there on a magnificent bed wearing alluring lingerie. A player deciphered the mysterious inscription on Haarlep’s underwear and revealed what the message actually means.

The incubus challenges you to a game of seduction. He can change his appearance at will, which is why you see him in the form of Raphael.

Tip: There is a fountain in the room that allows you to effectively take a long rest.

What options do you now have with Haarlep? Haarlep has the key to the vault, where the password for the Orphic Hammer is located.

• Allow Haarlep to use your body as a disguise (disguise) to obtain the key. But do not sell your soul, because that leads to a Game Over.
• Or: Fight Haarlep to obtain the key

Tip: If you want the Helllight Gloves, you need to fight Haarlep to loot them.

This is what the gloves can do:

Once you have the key, look for a painting of Raphael – it is located to the left of the magnificent bed. Pass the perception check to notice the trap and disarm it. Under the painting is a button you can press, and behind the painting, the vault will reveal itself.

In the vault, there is also a note with the sought-after password. You need this password to deactivate the dome in the archive that protects the Orphic Hammer (or your contract).

Tip: Use the fountain in the boudoir to regain your spell slots and HP, and prepare for a fight.

Back to the Archive to Retrieve the Orphic Hammer or Contract from the House of Hope

Make your way back to the archive. Now you can go to the Orphic Hammer (or contract) and remove the dome using the password to grab the hammer or tear up the contract.

The Archivist will notice, and everyone will be hostile towards you as soon as you leave the room. Fight your way through after you have collected the items.

In addition to the Orphic Hammer (or the contract), you can collect other powerful items found in the archive, including:

• Amulet of Greater Healing
• Gauntlets of Hill Giant Strength (which Helsik desperately wants)

Here’s a closer look at the items:

Save Hope

After fighting your way through, head east to rescue Hope from the prison. To do this, climb down through a hatch into the prison. In the prison, Hope is chained, and another fight awaits you – so get ready.

After that, you can destroy Hope’s chains and free her by equipping the Orphic Hammer and smashing the crystals. She will assist you in the fight against Raphael.

Tip: Afterward, go back to the boudoir to heal yourself using the fountain and refresh your spell slots.

Defeat Raphael in Battle – 666 Hit Points

After that, you will encounter Raphael when you go back to the portal. The battle against Raphael is a very difficult one. If you have the option (depending on the decision in the Shar Temple), Yurgir will appear alongside Raphael. With a Charisma roll, you can try to convince Yurgir to fight on your side.

Raphael has 666 hit points, which is a symbol for the devil, and an armor class (AC) of 21. Additionally, he has his own boss room and song. In the room, there are four soul pillars, which grant him additional fire damage and a bonus on Dexterity and saving throws. He uses the pillars to restore HP and cast powerful spells.

Tips:

• Destroy the soul pillars before focusing on Raphael and the adds and ideally take blinding damage with you. With blinding damage, you can also disable the pillar for one round. Because if more pillars are active, it is harder to hit Raphael – as he gains more AC.
• You can also try spells like Hold Monster or Tasha’s Hideous Laughter by casting spells on Raphael.
• Hold Monster or Tasha’s Hideous Laughter work well because the saving throws are based on Wisdom – and Raphael has 13 Wisdom, which is not very much against his Charisma score of 19.

After you have defeated Raphael, you can loot the legendary Helllight Armor. If Hope has survived, you will also receive the Legendary Gloves of Soul Catching as a quest reward from her.

This is what the two items can do:

There are many ways to effectively defeat Raphael. And that is a good thing, as the devil can cause you serious problems with his minions. However, the boss in the House of Hope can also be dealt with rather quickly – a player even defeated Raphael in just 2 moves: Baldur’s Gate 3: Lonely fighter defeats boss with 666 HP and his army in 2 moves – This is how she did it