Nere Fight (Brithvar Bugged?)

[RhodosGuard]

So. I am playing a character trying to talk himself into advantages for fights.
Supposedly by starting the "Find Explosives" Quest, I am supposed to be able to talk to Brithvar and find out that his men are not being payed.

But I think by finding the Sapper Gnome I Sequence Broke the quest and now he is constantly in a "private conversation" which leaves me with only 2 options for the nere fight:
With or without Thrinn. But no matter what I try, the fight seems impossible.

One of my Party members always dies before I get first turn, unless I roll extremely well on initiative (either by being shoved into the lava, or by, you know, enemies getting like 2-3 attack actions) or they are extremely low and one of them is mind controlled.

Should I at this point just quit the character? I have done almost everything else there is to do. I have to get back to the grove to get the healing helmet but there isnt much else I can do.

I could try getting the adamantite items but I think that sequence breaks the entire fight?

Anyway, is there a way for me to get Brithvar to side with me, even if I already have explosives?

[dulany67]

Originally posted by RhodosGuard:

Originally posted by brendan_in_china:

Have the party climb up to where the platform control levels are and equip them for ranged combat. Have your talker with a potion of invisibility and/or misty step item to get back to the party.

Start the dialogue-fight. Escape. Bombard, pelt and shoot your way to a grinding win. Focus on missilers and mind-controllers.

I love having to resort to cheese because making it so you can do things out of-order is too hard. Isn't it fun that quests outright dont work properly because you chose to explore.

Sometimes I feel like people at Larian were drunk when they designed these encounters. Then again, they limit us to four level 4 party members against an army of 5th level enemies. Also, no reason not to be lvl 5 at this point.

I just did Grym and he was way easier than this garbage.

His rp is the only limiting factor here. Ambushing the deurger is a valid tactic and not cheesy at all.

[RhodosGuard]

Originally posted by dulany67:

Originally posted by RhodosGuard:

I love having to resort to cheese because making it so you can do things out of-order is too hard. Isn't it fun that quests outright dont work properly because you chose to explore.

Sometimes I feel like people at Larian were drunk when they designed these encounters. Then again, they limit us to four level 4 party members against an army of 5th level enemies. Also, no reason not to be lvl 5 at this point.

I just did Grym and he was way easier than this garbage.

His rp is the only limiting factor here. Ambushing the deurger is a valid tactic and not cheesy at all.

It is because it relies on the meta knowledge that you will have to fight everyone there, which is also only conditional on Brithvar having been bugged.

Also this is a post from EA where you could only do this fight at level 4 and with brithvar bugged had to fight everyone there.

back then "prepositioning and barrelmancy" was the modus operandi for every fight, and it was annoying to have to resort to that, simply because doing things out of order locked you out on the best chance to win the fight with the meta-knowledge of the fight happening at all.

[Nomadd]

I can confirm I had to go back to my arrival in the forge and talk to Brithvar before anything else to get this to work properly.

[Dubbs]

Well, I suppose it's nice to see I'm not the only one with this issue. This fight is absolutely busted - Level 5 with a fairly competent party, but a dozen level 5 duergar and I'm barely able to get through a round or two without a party member going down.

I didn't realize Brithvar was bugged at first, but that private conversation line kept me curious. I was just looking for tips, and getting his help is literally the sort of thing we need.

I was finally able to get past Brithvar's Bug by reloading to before I even went into the main room where the cave-in is. I talked to him and finally got the full conversation - lied to him about wanting revenge on the cult, and then persuaded him to give me half of the gold from killing Nere.

What a headache.

[ziplock9000]

Originally posted by RhodosGuard:

Originally posted by brendan_in_china:

Oh there's plenty of quests that haven't had their sequencing either tightened or loosened enough. It's sprinkled all over the place throughout Act 1.

Auntie Ethel alone has like an hour of dialogues recorded but not implemented yet. There's a ton of Act 1 not yet released.

Btw, that full complement duergar + Nere fight is easily the hardest in Act 1. Harder than Grym or Githyanki patrol. Pre-positioning lessens it, but first time through I got wrecked.

Well good thing that the EA is only *checks time* 2 years old.
And that they plan to release it *checks notes* next year.

Love how THIS is the way I am prepared for the game. By a game with constant freezes, prone to crash, with countless bugs in 1 Act and only 4 levels of class content.

The more I play the more I doubt it when defenders come and say "Oh but there definitely is a completely finished, flawless version of the game that they will release. Trust me bro"

Avoid EA next time, you're clearly not able to read what it means.

[RhodosGuard]

Originally posted by ziplock9000:

Originally posted by RhodosGuard:

Well good thing that the EA is only *checks time* 2 years old.
And that they plan to release it *checks notes* next year.

Love how THIS is the way I am prepared for the game. By a game with constant freezes, prone to crash, with countless bugs in 1 Act and only 4 levels of class content.

The more I play the more I doubt it when defenders come and say "Oh but there definitely is a completely finished, flawless version of the game that they will release. Trust me bro"

Avoid EA next time, you're clearly not able to read what it means.

How much did they pay you?
I mean, a lot of the things people said would happen with that modell happened.
Like weird damage stacking because it wasnt fixed in EA, or Act 2 and 3 being way less polished.

But I am sure you are the one who is actually correct, looking at how much the game, at least on forums, is critized for some of the bugs.

[RhodosGuard]

This still isn't working consistently as it should
I didnt identify myself as a true soul when I first got there, the only thing I did was help Philomeen get out, and even after talking to Thrinn and Barcus I still cant talk with him about teaming up against Nere.
It worked for me on one character the first time I did it, so it must have broken in Hotfix 1 or 2, because it hasnt worked since.

I dont get it. I really dont.

[FireBall405]

Originally posted by RhodosGuard:

So. I am playing a character trying to talk himself into advantages for fights.
Supposedly by starting the "Find Explosives" Quest, I am supposed to be able to talk to Brithvar and find out that his men are not being payed.

But I think by finding the Sapper Gnome I Sequence Broke the quest and now he is constantly in a "private conversation" which leaves me with only 2 options for the nere fight:
With or without Thrinn. But no matter what I try, the fight seems impossible.

One of my Party members always dies before I get first turn, unless I roll extremely well on initiative (either by being shoved into the lava, or by, you know, enemies getting like 2-3 attack actions) or they are extremely low and one of them is mind controlled.

Should I at this point just quit the character? I have done almost everything else there is to do. I have to get back to the grove to get the healing helmet but there isnt much else I can do.

I could try getting the adamantite items but I think that sequence breaks the entire fight?

Anyway, is there a way for me to get Brithvar to side with me, even if I already have explosives?

The only way Ive found to resolve it so far is to go back to an old save before ever getting to the grymforge area. You can't tell any of the drugar that you are a true soul or else Brithvar won't trust you in on the conversation. I lost a few hours of progress that way, but its pretty much the only route.

[ragga]

I was stuck on this for a long time as well.. I forgot I had the horn to call 3 massive trolls/orks and they really helped me at the end of the fight

[RhodosGuard]

Originally posted by ragga:

I was stuck on this for a long time as well.. I forgot I had the horn to call 3 massive trolls/orks and they really helped me at the end of the fight

I thought Lumps Horn didnt work in the Underdark. At least multiple threads here said so.

[Xystus]

Originally posted by Open Mike Night:

I dont know if anyone needs to know this anymore, but the way you prevent it from being bugged is by NOT speaking to the gnome on the far right who clues you in that their friend has the explosives and is hidden. If you do this prior to speaking with Brithvar it prevents him from offering you the information and also the task of helping them kill Neer. Hope that helps!

This seems to be more accurate. I already have both the runepowder vial and a bunch of smokepowder bombs before talking to him and it still triggered the dialogue..

[Empukris]

You are talking about Nere battle in underdark right?

This battle can be cheese very easily, on top where Nere is, there is plenty of platform where they cant reach you. It is very easy to bombard them from a far where they cant target you. Very cheesy.

If you are stuck with this battle just remember that you also can set up barrel in from of where Nere is and blow him up. Also will kill him along with every single innocent gnome beside him.

You can always use throwing weapon to damage those stones to trigger the cutscene.

If you want to fight this without cheese, you still need to trigger it with char with high ini like Astarion or Karlach, probably need a few savescum as they kill my Astarion in 1 turn. Put the rest of your party on somewhere else with choke point, the higher platform is good or the corner area further away. The rest is just typical DoS strategy, setup burning ground with grenade or fireball and spam AoE. It is winnable on level 5 even if I trigger the whole camp without any of the Duergar help.

[arklucas]

Little late for the party but I found the answer! You must first drop any for of gunpowder items (granades and sachels) that you carry (because you need them to advance the quest AFTER you talk to Brithvar). Then you must talk to Stone Guard Kur not Brithvar himself.

[RhodosGuard]

Originally posted by arklucas:

Little late for the party but I found the answer! You must first drop any for of gunpowder items (granades and sachels) that you carry (because you need them to advance the quest AFTER you talk to Brithvar). Then you must talk to Stone Guard Kur not Brithvar himself.

I have recently come to a different conclusion.
I always enter with some Smokepowder items, but the only times the dialogue does not seem to work as intended, is when I encounter Philomeen before talking to him.
If I land there and go straight to him the dialogue works consistently.
I also think you have to pay the Gold they ask for when you land.