Near the end of The Blade of Frontier’s quest in BG3, one way or another, you’ll need to find Ansur the dragon. You can find this on your own, but if you save Duke Ravengard first, he’ll tell Wyll that you can borrow its power to protect the city and that it can be found underneath Baldur’s Gate. Ansur is a powerful undead dragon who doesn’t take any prisoners, so make sure you’re prepared before you talk to it. Read below to find out where you can find the Dragon Ansur, how you can defeat it, and how to earn the achievement/trophy “Crash Landing’’.

Dragon Ansur Location¶

Ansur can be found in the aptly named Dragon’s Sanctum which is situated past The Wyrmway, below Wyrm’s Rock. Be aware that if you save Duke Ravengard first, Gortash will not be happy, and the entire fortress will be hostile. If that is the case, you’ll want to enter Wyrm’s Rock from the south (the gate will be up) and jump across onto the grassy cliff edge. From there, you can jump across the ledges, and climb down the vines to reach a beach. Here, you can find a pipe that will transport you to The Wyrmway which leads to Dragon’s Sanctum, but you’ll need Gaseous Form to use it.

This is the safest way to find Ansur, especially if you saved Ravengard first. The other way to reach The Wyrmway is to head into Wyrm’s Rock prison and enter the Iron Gates in the northwest of the area, but this is nearly impossible if you save the Duke first. Whatever way you choose to get there, the outcome of Ansur will be the same, so you may want to save the Duke after the Ansur fight.

Dragon Ansur Boss Guide Strategy¶

Before you get to Ansur, you’ll have four Chambers to complete which are: Insight, Justice, Courage, and Strategy. Follow our Chamber guides below to find out how to reach them:

• Chamber of Courage Walkthrough in Baldur’s Gate 3
• Chamber of Strategy Puzzle Walkthrough in BG3
• Chamber of Insight Puzzle Walkthrough in BG3
• Chamber of Justice Puzzle Walkthrough in BG3

When the Iron Gates are unlocked, head toward the corpse of Ansur for an interesting scene. The choices you get here won’t impact anything, but you can find out who the Emperor really is, and its relationship to Ansur. After the scene, the battle with Ansur will begin. This is a difficult battle due to the large health pool that Ansur has which ranges from 400 (Explorer) to 600+ (Tactician) as well as its propensity to use a lot of area-of-effect attacks that deal significant damage to everyone it hits. To make things more difficult, it can use Draconic Wrath which retaliates a lightning breath attack on the first person who attacks it during the turn phase. As it’s a breath attack, this can hit nearby party members too. Throw in a powerful arena-wide attack every few turns, and high crowd-control and undead turn resistance, and you can understand why this may be a difficult battle.

When you start the battle, you’ll have to deal with two Water Myrmidons too. Although these don’t hurt too much alone, they are of the water element while Ansur is lightning; mix the two, and it becomes dangerous. Also, Ansur will use its !Lightning Breath attack on the Myrmidons which can spread the effect of the attack while also creating a pool of water that gives you the “Shocked” status effect. So, you want to bring the two Myrmidons as soon as possible while not ignoring Ansur’s special attack, Stormheart Nova. Another thing that the Myrmidons can do is Healing Vapors which will heal Ansur.

This attack happens approximately when Ansur reaches half health, and you’ll see the dragon “Gather Power”. This will cause Ansur to hover mid-flight while it gathers power for the attack. During this phase, you have two turns to negate/avoid the damage or risk the entire party either dying or be at low health. There is a hidden achievement “Crash Landing” where if you can stun Ansur while it’s in midair, you’ll get the achievement, but this is easier said than done. We’ll cover this later.

To deal with the attack, you have a few choices. Throughout the arena are objects called “Attuned Crystals”, and attacking these will give that party member the “Crystal Skin” buff which increases your resistance to all elemental damage. Although this may keep you alive, it won’t keep you healthy, so only use it as a last resort. Another method is to use a crowd-control spell on it such as stun, sleep, turn undead, etc. But the problem with this is Ansur has the Legendary Crowd-Control Resistance feat, so the odds of you hitting him with any is slim, but doable. The best method is to use a Globe of Invulnerability around the party which will negate all damage of the attack as long as you are within the shield.

If you can deal with Stormheart Nova, you won’t have too many problems with Ansur, but surviving the attack isn’t easy. For this reason, you may want to bring a Wizard (Gale), or a Sorcerer to have a better chance of landing your crowd-control spells. Once Stormheart Nova has been cast, it’ll leave behind five !Lightning Strike circles around the arena. When it gets to their turn, it’ll cast !Lightning Strike wherever the circles are, dealing damage to anyone inside them.

Ansur has a variety of attacks with most of them dealing significant damage. Here is a list of what to expect:

• Multiattack - Multiple hit melee attack.
• Fly - Relocates to another position, which can cause prone on landing. You can also get prone if you get hit by an attack of opportunity.
• Slam - An area-of-effect slam attack that will knock you prone.
• Frightful Presence - Area-of-Effect Frightened attack.
• !Lightning Breath - A cone-shaped breath attack in front of the dragon.
• Draconic Wrath - Retaliates with a breath attack on the first turn of every turn phase.
• Gather Power/ Hoarding Energy - Resistant (half damage) for two turns before casting Stormheart Nova.
• Stormheart Nova - Arena-wide !Lightning damage on all party members for significant damage.
• !Lightning Strikes - Places five circles that cast !Lightning Strike on anything within the circle. This begins after the first Stormheart Nova and repeats every turn phase.

As you can see, Ansur has some devastating attacks to deal with, and you’ll get punished for every first attack on a turn phase with a breath attack. Due to what you will have to deal with, you should have as many resistance-type spells/potions as possible. A !Lightning/Universal Resistance Potion on each party member would be a great start, Stoneskin if you have it, and Globe of Invulnerability which you should use when Ansur is about to cast Stormheart Nova. Next up you should have various forms of healing, more specifically, Supreme Healing Potions, and spells like Heal, Mass Cure Wounds, and Lay on Hands: Greater Healing for starters.

At the start of the battle, try to spread your party members as far apart as possible while still being able to attack Ansur. In the beginning, you’ll all be within Ansur’s attack of opportunity, so either take the hit with your highest AC member or use Darkness on Ansur to blind it; only group up the party when you use Globe of Invulnerability. For the first turn in a turn phase, use a member who has multiple attacks such as Barbarians, and Fighters, so you can destroy an Attuned Crystal first which will give you Crystal Skin. Then, when you do attack Ansur, try to do it where its Draconic Wrath won’t hit any other party members; this will be a cone-breath attack in front of the dragon.

In terms of dealing damage to Ansur, its defenses are nothing to write home about, and you should be able to deal significant damage every turn phase, although you will be at a disadvantage if you’re “Shocked”. Paladins are especially good for this battle as Searing Smite, Divine Smite, and even Thunderous Smite are particularly strong, especially if all the attacks get a Critical Hit. Then you have Barbarians and Fighters who also can deal some good damage with their multiple attacks per turn. For your spell casters, focus on casting multiple-hit attacks like Eldritch Blast, Magic Missile, Artistry of War, and Disintegrate. If you bring Wyll, use Hex (Wisdom) to lower Ansur’s Wisdom checks. There you have it, it may take you a few tries to take Ansur down, but when you do, it’ll be worth it. Once you’ve defeated Ansur, loot the dragon for the Balduran’s Giantslayer, and pick up the legendary Helm of Balduran for your troubles.

How to Get the Crash Landing Achievement/Trophy¶

As stated above, there is a hidden achievement in performing this feat “Wait until the dragon is mid-flight, then knock it out of the sky”. To do this, you need to find a way to get a crowd-control (CC) spell to hit the Dragon when it Gathers Power for the Stormheart Nova attack. You can stun the creature using skills like Banish, Turn Undead, Mind Blast (Illithid Power), Command (Flee), Concussive Smash, or any other form of CC that can affect Undead creatures.

Due to Ansur’s Legendary Crowd-Control Resistance, this can be difficult, so you’ll need to buff up the character who’s attempting the CC while also debuffing Ansur, so when it’s midair, you can stun it thus getting the achievement. Note: According to various sources, the achievement will work if you defeat Ansur while it’s gathering power, but this hasn’t been tested by ourselves yet.