How to Gain Illithid Powers in Baldur’s Gate 3

The Mindflayer creepy crawlies chilling in your brains in Baldur’s Gate 3 have some pretty interesting and awesome powers attached to them. You develop and unlock more of these powers as you progress through the game too. At first, it seems like they’re going to turn you into a Mindflayer at some point, but as you progress you get the option to chuck more of the little brain worms up your nose and become even more powerful. So, where do you find more of these little critters to snort in Baldur’s Gate 3 and what kind of Illithid powers can you gain from more of them?

How to Gain More Illithid Powers in BG3

As you progress through the story, you’ll come up against some pretty tough enemies that you’ll have to take down to proceed. Some of these boss-like enemies include the Goblin leaders that you have to kill if you want the Druid Halsin join you and if you want to save the Emerald Grove and the refugees holed up in there.

It was a nice surprise that after taking down some of these enemies, I found another Mindflayer parasite on one of the Goblin leaders. I decided to use it to power up, much to the disgust of some of my companions, but after shoving it up my nose I realized that this unlocks a whole new skill system to play around with.

The Illithid powers system in Baldur’s Gate 3 is pretty cool. You’ll see an icon in the top-right corner of the screen just next to your minimap that you can open after getting your first extra Illithid. This will open up a skill tree of powers spread out across your brain.

Each Illithid you consume will net you a point to spend on a new power. And, these Illithid powers are pretty sweet. From gaining a powerful Psionic blast skill to being able to cull enemies with your brain when they reach a certain hit point threshold, you can get some very nice abilities and passives. Consuming the wriggly little bad boys whenever you find them (usually from defeating particularly tough enemies) will grant you more Illithid points to assign, making you stronger and stronger as you unlock more nodes.

That covers it for gaining Illithid powers in Baldur’s Gate 3. When you’re given the choice to add a Mindflayer’s little buddy to your brain, it’s worth putting up with some of your companions telling you doing it was nasty as hell in exchange for the sweet powers on offer! And if you’re looking for more tips on the game, make sure to check out our comprehensive collection of guides.