Volo is an important NPC in Baldur’s Gate 3 who performs eye surgery on the players, leaving them with a unique gift. He is available near Druid Grove during Act 1 of Baldur’s Gate 3. Talking to him and letting him know about the goblin’s camp will make him go there to investigate.
Volo is a writer, a bard, and, most importantly, a big talker with zero results. Once you find him, he will try to lure you with his sweet talks and fake grandeur. In Baldur’s Gate 3, Valo will try to convince you he can extract the mind-flayer parasite from your eye by performing surgery. Honestly, this is the only good thing he can do in the game.
How to Find and Free Volo?
After your first encounter with Volo at Druid Camp, he will disappear. The next time you see Volo, he will be at Goblin Camp. He is held captive there and performs to please his goblin captors. He is then taken inside the deepest parts of the goblin camp, known as the Shattered Sanctum. This will start the Free Volo side quest.
Proceed to Shattered Sanctum to find Volo. To enter this area, you must pass some persuasion checks. Once inside, you will see True Soul Gut preaching to her followers. Don’t go near her, as it will trigger a cutscene.
Climb the stairs immediately to the right to reach the prison cells. Volo is in the third prison to the right. He is on the upper floor and is guarded by a goblin named Gribbo. You can intimidate or deceive Gribbo into giving you the key to Volo’s cell. You can also kill the goblin guard to loot the key from her body.
FYI
If Volo doesn’t appear in your camp immediately, check again after a couple more long rests. He will not leave until you talk to him.
Once you free Volo, talk to him once more. He will gladly decide to leave goblin camp and join yours. Next time you rest, he will be in the camp.
What happens if you let Volo remove the parasite in BG3?
If you talk to him multiple times at the camp, things take a strange turn with Volo. A writer by trade and a liar by nature, Volo will offer you his surgical skills to extract the mind-flayer parasite inside your skull by surgery.
During this conversation, you have two options: back out because of fear or let him proceed with the operation. The first option doesn’t result in a penalty, and the game typically continues with Volo in your camp. You will get multiple chances to back out of the operation, even during the procedure.
However, if you let Volo perform the eye surgery in BG3, he fails miserably and stabs your eye. Players lose one of their eyes permanently, and Volo runs away from the camp. The parasite remains, so you might think there was no point in letting Volo perform surgery.
Surprisingly, there is a great upside to losing one of your eyes at the hands of Volo in Baldur’s Gate 3.
Is Volo Eye Surgery worth it in Baldur’s Gate 3?
Now, here is the big twist. Before escaping the camp, Volo will feel extreme guilt for taking out your eye. After failing the surgery, Volo will replace your missing eye with a fake eyeball called Volo’s Ersatz Eye. It is the only way to get this unique item in Baldur’s Gate 3. Volo’s Ersatz Eye allows you to see invisible enemies and other creatures within a 9m range. This is a permanent passive buff.
There is no downside to Volo taking your eye in terms of gameplay. However, cosmetically, you will be permanently stuck with a colored eye that is different from those you selected for your character during character creation.
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Even stopping Volo from performing eye surgery on you will make him leave the camp.
Losing an eye for such a fantastic ability, we would say letting Volo perform the surgery is worth it. We strongly recommend letting Volo perform eye surgery on your character in BG3. However, some of your party members will disapprove of your actions, and Volo will leave your camp, only to be met later during Act 3.
