Perfect Karlach Cosplay Puts The BG3 Tiefling's Strength On Full Display

Summary Karlach's cosplay impressively captures her intricate outfit and axe.

Karlach's mechanical heart poses challenges in Baldur's Gate 3, allowing players to aid or exploit it.

Players' choices impacts Karlach's fate in the game, though they can't cure her of her mechanical heart.

Few can make it through the fiery pits of Avernus serving the archdevil Zariel and come out alive – but that’s exactly what Karlach did before the events of Baldur’s Gate 3. The tiefling is a well-loved companion, and the cosplay done by one Reddit user perfectly captures her intricate default clothing option and two-handed axe.

Reddit user paindepeche showed off the cosplay at Insomnia Gaming Festival, and though all of the photos were taken on stage at the festival, paindepeche said in the comments they wanted to do a full photoshoot with the look soon. Instead of using red bodypaint in all of the exposed areas to achieve Karlach’s coloring, the user created the costume with a red bodysuit, utilizing the paint only on their face and neck.

In the text of their post, paindepeche noted they hoped to add “her glowing heart,” aka Karlach’s infernal engine, to the cosplay before they do an official photoshoot with it. “You look like you could carry me over your shoulder into safety. Should the need arise, of course,” user Roy_cat_enjoyer commented on the costume in a nod to Shadowheart’s impression of the barbarian.

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Karlach’s Heart Is Her Biggest Roadblock In Baldur’s Gate 3

Players Can Abuse It Or Help Her Find A Cure

When players first encounter Karlach, she’s happy to be free of the hells, and her only goal is to get the mindflayer tadpole out of her head. But it’s not long into the player’s journey they find out her heart was replaced with an infernal engine, making her burn so hot others in the party can’t touch her. She’s far from worried about it, though. In fact, she even offers to let the player use it to their advantage in battle.

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Throughout Faerun, players will find Soul Coins in various places. Each one holds the soul of a person, though they can be consumed by Karlach’s mechanical heart to give her a boost in battle. By letting Karlach use one of the coins, she gets the Infernal Fury condition, which deals an additional 1d4 of fire damage when she’s raging or if her hit points drop below 25 percent.

It’s insinuated that the Soul Coins will eventually force her heart to burn too hot if she consumes too many, but as the buff isn’t particularly powerful, most players haven’t taken advantage of this option. It’s not clear if there are actually any serious consequences to using the Soul Coins in a playthrough. The item was also rumored to be a form of currency used in the hells, though that part was ultimately scrapped before the game left early access.

[Warning: The following contains spoilers for Karlach's endgame in Baldur's Gate 3.]

Assuming the player doesn’t choose to turn Karlach into a mind flayer at the climax of Act 3, players can help her find a cure by agreeing to go to Avernus with her before the epilogue. There, Karlach can find the blueprints to a mechanism that may repair her mechanical heart. Unfortunately, players don’t get a full resolution to this storyline before the end of Baldur’s Gate 3, but the tiefling is still one of the more popular companions in the game.

Source: paindepeche/Reddit