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The Moon Puzzle in Baldur's Gate 3 in the Defiled Temple of Selune is about spinning discs to open a door to the Underdark, all far easier said than done. It's not easy to work out what the pattern you're trying to find is for this Baldur's Gate 3 puzzle and even then, it's incredibly hard to work out a solution to get to that point. Fortunately I scouted ahead and solved it, and can lay out everything you need to know about how to solve the Moon Puzzle in Baldur's Gate 3's Defiled Temple - or how to skip it and open the door anyway!
Recent updates
This guide was updated on 14 November. The information is all still accurate, but the solution to the puzzle has been swapped out for an easier version that requires fewer steps, for the player's ease of use.
How to solve the Baldur's Gate 3 moon puzzle
The Baldur's Gate 3 moon puzzle is solved by arranging the images of the moon into a specific order - namely, the full moons at the top, the half-moons in the middle and no moons at the bottom. The exact arrangement you're aiming for is the one shown in the image above.
In this case, we're considering the "top" disc as the one with the seven white stars on its center (Selune's symbol), at the Northernmost side and away from the door you entered. Assuming you haven't touched any discs yet, one solution we found worked was to spin the disks in this order:
- Spin the bottom disk three times
- Spin the left disk
- Spin the bottom disk
- Spin the top disk
- Spin the left disk three times
- Spin the right disk two times
A lot of effort, but at this point you should have the solution set up and the door will open. Wondering how we got the answer? It's actually written in the room full of explosives next to Priestess Gut's ritual room, where you can see it inscribed on the wall (though you'll have to find a way inside past the guards if you want to see it yourself), but you can solve the puzzle whether your character saw it or not. You're also not far away from Halsin's location in Baldur's Gate 3 if you're in the explosive room, assuming you haven't found him already.
How to get through the Defiled Temple without doing the Moon Puzzle
More Baldur's Gate 3 guides
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Is Baldur's Gate 3 on PS5, Xbox and Switch?
If you want to get through without bothering with the moon puzzle, there is a potential alternative. Walk up to the fallen statue past the top moon disc, and your characters will be prompted to do a little passive perception check. If any of them pass, it'll reveal a lever on the right hand wall, as shown above.
The lever is locked, but if you have a lockpick you can attempt to unlock it (maybe have Astarion with you for this). Succeed, and the lever will open the secret door to the Baldur's Gate 3 Underdark region without you needing to do the moon puzzle at all!
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Joel Franey
Guides Writer
Joel Franey is a writer, journalist, podcaster and raconteur with a Masters from Sussex University, none of which has actually equipped him for anything in real life. As a result he chooses to spend most of his time playing video games, reading old books and ingesting chemically-risky levels of caffeine. He is a firm believer that the vast majority of games would be improved by adding a grappling hook, and if they already have one, they should probably add another just to be safe. You can find old work of his at USgamer, Gfinity, Eurogamer and more besides.
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