Baldur's Gate 3: How To Get A Merchant In The Party Camp (Recruiting Volo) (2024)

It’s hard not to be a packrat in Baldur’s Gate 3 with so many tempting collectible items littering every nook, cranny, and random stranger's home. While the player will find a wide variety of useful materials during their adventure, including helpful potions, spell scrolls, and armor, there’s no denying that the vast majority of items that you will regularly discover are generally of no use.

The player will often find themselves burdened with multiple low-quality weapons, various knick-knacks such as dishes, books, and the occasional severed body part. While some of these collectibles do serve a function, the majority of these random lootable goodies are best bartered to vendors in exchange for gold.

There are just a handful of dedicated merchants players can encounter in Baldur’s Gate 3, each in specific locations mostly discovered in the game’s first act, and it's extremely easy for the player to hoard far too many random items well before they encounter a merchant willing to take these goods off their hands. Because these merchants can be few and far between, having a reliable and easy-to-access merchant is a huge benefit to the player and their party. That’s where a snarky bard named Volo comes into play.

Updated on March 11, 2024, by Nahda Nabiilah: Merchants or vendors have a crucial impact on any playthrough as they provide necessary items in Baldur's Gate 3 like healing potions, powerful spells, and better armor. It’s quite a hassle to travel through an entire area to buy a couple of items from merchants, which is why inviting one vendor to the camp doesn’t seem like a bad idea. Volo is first encountered in the Emerald Grove, but you can only send him to camp once he is rescued from the Shattered Sanctum in the Goblin Camp.

Where To Find Volo In Baldur's Gate 3

Volo is an NPC players can first encounter in the Druid Grove, an area in Baldur's Gate 3's Act 1 which features multiple Merchants that may or may not survive the player’s decisions. The player can speak with Volo and learn of his curiosities surrounding the Goblins and their actions to serve The Absolute. He’ll then head off to further explore these matters.

The player will encounter Volo a second time in the Goblin Camp, where he’s being held captive and forced to entertain the Goblins with some rather awful poetry. Luckily for him, the goblins don’t seem to mind. Speak with Volo to start the quest "Rescue Volo" in Baldur's Gate 3, which tasks players with heading to the Shattered Sanctum to find and free the bard from goblin captivity.

How To Rescue Volo In Baldur's Gate 3

Players have to enter the Shattered Sanctum in the northern part of the Goblin Camp. After handling a few goblins inside, the player gains access to a large room where they’ll find the goblin leader True Soul Gut. Instead of proceeding to the staircases just past her, the player and their party should instead head up the first staircase to the right found just after entering the room.

The party will enter a hallway featuring a few open chambers featuring goblins torturing some unfortunate captives, including Volo. Volo can be found in the third chamber, being guarded by an NPC named Gribbo.

The player should speak with Gribbo and, with careful negotiation and successful skill checks, will receive the key and can free the trapped bard. If things get hairy, the party can opt instead to kill Gribbo and loot the key from her corpse.

How To Recruit Volo To Join The Camp In Baldur's Gate 3

Once they have retrieved the Cage Key from Gribbo, via whatever means necessary, the player can interact with the cage and free Volo. When speaking with him, the player should select the dialog option inviting him to their Camp (the last choice before "Leave"). Volo will turn himself invisible and sneak out of the Sanctum.

Once the party returns to their Camp, they will find Volo hanging out nearby. If he’s not there the first time after rescuing him, it may be necessary to Long Rest and check again or revisit the Camp. Once he shows up at the Camp, he thanks the player for their assistance and decides to take up permanent residency.

How To Barter With Volo At The Camp In Baldur's Gate 3

Once he has arrived at the player's Camp, Volo will offer you Merchant services, which means he'll buy loot from you in exchange for gold and sell helpful items, including various scrolls and potions. He also sells an excellent ring for Clerics, The Whispering Promise. The player does not need to press him regarding his research into the mind flayer parasite, nor partake in his "services" in order to barter with him.

To barter with Volo, the player simply needs to speak with him and select the "Trade" button, located in the middle of the button grid found in the bottom left corner of the screen. The button will activate once the player is presented a dialog choice, and clicking it will open the standard merchant interface.

Like other merchants, Volo’s inventory and available gold will reset after every Long Rest or when a character levels up. This makes it easy for the player to unload their characters’ inventories and make a good bit of gold with quick visits to the Camp.

His varied assortment of standard items will restock, but he will not sell The Whispering Promise again if the player has already bought the ring. Players can reduce Volo's prices and earn more gold from their trades by improving their Attitude towards Volo and by increasing their Charisma stat, as with any other merchant.

Baldur's Gate 3

RPG

Platform(s)

PC , macOS , PS5 , Xbox Series X

Developer(s)

Larian Studios

Publisher(s)

Larian Studios