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Baldur’s Gate 3is chock-full of missable content. The unique trait you’re able to receive after a successful encounter with the Slack-Skinned Head is no different, as you’ll need to explore a room full of enemies, solve a puzzle, and interact with an NPC to get it.
Near the end of Act Two, you can meet the Slack-Skinned Head, who’ll extend an offer to you. Make the right decision, and one of your characters might just obtain a permanent trait that gives them an advantage on Intelligence saving throws, which is quite useful for NPC interactions and combat.
Updated July 14, 2025 by Trinity Lerum:We’ve updated this article to make the difference between purging or consuming the Waking Mind clearer to understand.
Where To Find The Slack Skinned-Head
You can find the Slack-Skinned Headinside the Mindflayer ColonyduringAct Two. To access this area, you must firstdefeat Ketheric Thormon the roof of theMoonrise Towersandfollow him after he runs away, leading you to a place below the Hollow Tower.
Right after making your way into the Mindflayer Colony by jumping through the Hollow Tower’s hole, go to thesouthwest corner of the map. This will lead you to theNecrotic Laboratory, where the Slack-Skinned Head is located(coordinates = X: 696 and Y: -117).
The Necrotic Laboratory isguarded by a group of Winged Horrors and Zombiesthat, unlike most other NPCs in the Mindflayer Colony,willattack you on sight.
verify you’re prepared for a long, drawn-out battle before entering this area.
After defeating the enemies, you may nowtalk to the Slack-Skinned Head.
You can do this bypicking up a “mind"such as theTrue Mindand theWilling Mind(both of which are located near the Slack-Skinned Head) andputting them in the Mind-Archive Interface.
Upon interacting with the Slack-Skinned Head, you’ll find that the minds scattered all over the map are theprevious consciousnessesof people who have been abducted by the Absolute’s cult.
None of the mindsyou can pick upnear the Slack-Skinned Headare completely cognizantof their situation.You still have to find the correct mindthat will fully converse with you and give you the offer, which is theWaking Mind.
Where To Find The Waking Mind
Tofind theWaking Mind, you’ll have toopen the Flesh-Wrought Doorbysolving the neural connection puzzlelocatedfurther south of the Necrotic Laboratory.
After solving the puzzle, you’ll be able toloot the Waking Mindfrom the other side of the door, along with a few decent equipment pieces.
Should You Purge Or Consume The Mind?
Putting the Waking Mindin theMind-Archive Interfacewillchange the Slack-Skinned Head’s consciousnessto that of a Zerai warrior who has been captured by the Illithid and kept as a trophy.
One of the dialogue options will allow you tocatch the Waking Mind in a lieand press it to reveal the truth as to how it wasreallycaptured by the Illithid,but thiswon’t affect the outcome of the encounterwhatsoever.
After going through the Waking Mind’s dialogue options, it will thenoffer its psionic knowledge in exchange for you purging its mindwith your parasite, basically killing it and ending its torturous existence.
This psionic knowledge will manifest in your character as apermanent traitcalled theGithzerai Mind Barrier, which gives youadvantage on Intelligence saving throws.
Before talking to the Slack-Skinned Headvia the Waking Mind,switch to the character that you want to receive the Githzerai Mind Barrierfirst, as this traitcannot be transferredlater on.
You may alsoreject the Waking Mind’s offerby leaving it alone orconsuming its mindinstead of purging it.
Be warned, however, thatyou gain absolutely nothingby consuming the mind—except, of course, the personal satisfaction of picking the “evil” option and either theapproval or disapproval of some of your party members.
Unless you’re doing an evil playthrough and don’t care enough about the advantage on Intelligence saving throws that the Githzerai Mind Barrier provides,it is highly advisable that youpurge the Waking Mind’s consciousnessrather than consume it.
After all,you won’t be able to revisit this contentafter delving further into Act Two’s finale.
There’s the potential that you may encounter a bug while interacting with the Slack-Skinned Head, whichsoft-locks the gameand leaves it unresponsive.
If you encounter this bug on PC, you shouldrerun the game in DirectX 11 instead of Vulcan. This will not onlyfix the bugbut also increase Baldur Gate 3’s overall FPSmoving forward.
Other players also recommendtalking to party members,saving and reloading, orchecking the game files' integrityto fix this bug. Feel free to try all of these and see what works.
