How to open locked doors and chests in Baldur’s Gate 3

The world of Baldur’s Gate 3 is as deep as it is wide. You’ve got a huge amount of places to find throughout your time with the game. But a lot of these areas may not be quite so easy to access. In fact, right this very second you’re probably faced with something that’s locked. Not to worry, we’ll rundown how to open these locked doors and chests in Baldur’s Gate 3.

Baldur’s Gate 3: How to open locked doors and chests

For starters, you’ll be able to know that a door or container is locked by hovering the cursor over the object. If a padlock appears, then the container is indeed locked. From that point on, our solutions depend on if we’re dealing with a door or chest.

Locked Doors

Let’s start with how to deal with locked doors in Baldur’s Gate 3. There are usually three options when it comes to unlocking doors. First, a simple solution, and it’s finding the key. Search the environment carefully anywhere you can. For example, look for chests, or attempt to pickpocket anyone nearby the door to see if they have a key.

Screenshot by PC Invasion

If no key is in sight, we can try lockpicking the door. Right-click on the door and you’ll see an option for Lockpick appear. You’ll need a set of Thieves’ Tools to do this. Just bear in mind that these are one-use items, so you’ll need another set to try again. So be sure to try it with a character that has a high Dexterity rating for the bonus to the roll. Check out our quick guide to all of the classes in Baldur’s Gate 3. The difficulty class will depend on the kind of door you’re trying to unlock. A rickety shack will likely have a DC of around 10, while the door to a vault could be as high as 20.

Screenshot by PC Invasion

The final option we have is to simply break the door down. You’ll be able to destroy most types of doors as long as they have a health bar. You’ll see this appear at the top of the screen when the door is selected. Be warned that this is definitely not the stealthy option and everyone around you will be alerted. Some doors may also have a rating like Medium Toughness, which means you’ll need something heavy like a sledgehammer to destroy it.

Locked Chests

Opening a locked chest in Baldur’s Gate 3 works pretty much the same as doors. You can find the key or attempt to lockpick it in the exact same ways. However, you need to be careful as some chests are booby-trapped. And if your party fails all perception checks, you won’t be able to see a trap if one is there. If there is a trap, you’ll need to disarm it first with a Trap Disarm Toolkit.

Screenshot by PC Invasion

You can choose to destroy chests like you would a door. But it’s really recommended that you don’t do this. Destroying a chest has the chance to break some of the items inside, and it’s just not worth the risk. If you’ve found a chest you can’t open, make a note of it and come back to it later.

You’ve got a lot of options when it comes to handling locked doors and chests in Baldur’s Gate 3. But we wouldn’t expect anything less. Just remember to keep a Rogue in the party for situations that need a deft hand.