Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion About the Us brain...

(Spoilers for the end game and epilogue)

I have a question about the intellect devourer named 'Us' that we can rescue. Is there anything within the game or elsewhere that tells us whether it will


I'm quite sad that I'm not able to summon it or see it during the epilogue or in the end. I was wondering if it's meant to be ambiguous whether Us survives or not or if they give any clues and or info about what happens to it at the end.

🧠🍵

Unfortunately this is one of those 'Larian simply forgot' answers.

Us survived no doubt as it wasn't tethered to the Absolute and the lobotomy (if it's given) at the beginning of the game ensures it never again being able to join any hive-mind. But it was a very minor character to be carried around as a familiar spell item with the only voice-line post-rescue being its kitty disguise explanation, basically to be a very tiny cameo.

Could send feedback to remind them. They made some extra additions to the endgame by including other minor factions and characters with Update #7, so could ensure Us is present as well. But if not; personally I like to think it went on to live with the Emperor since he isn't present either. Like the mindflayer Nihilor who had intellect devourer pets;

It should be the same without lobotomy, since I never use that option and Us is still an outcast for not being able to join the hivemind again, when you find it in act 2.

Oh the lobotomy isn't to ensure Us is recruitable in ACT II, it's to ensure from a story perspective that it is truly permanently severed from any hive-mind.


Unfortunately due to inconsistent rewrites between Early Access and full-release the lobotomy lost its true gameplay and story purpose.

• During Early Access its actual purpose (which still holds today mind you) was to sever Us from the rest of the illithid hive-mind at the beginning of the game. This allowed the player to attack other intellect devourers and thralls without Us attacking the party because it was truly severed from the hive-mind (and thus would explain today why it's not following the Absolute when we meet it in ACT II).
• In full release however the entire prologue section got drastically shortened and there's nobody to attack anymore from the illithid faction (other than that single neutral intellect devourer patrolling the thrall chamber). Yet without the lobotomy performed Us will still attack the party if they attack the intellect devourer.

Larian while rewriting everything either accidentally forgot or intentionally ignored this fact and made Us recruitable without the lobotomy, but had they maintained writing consistency Us should not be recruitable without the lobotomy being performed. This would from a gameplay and story perspective make actual sense then for the character, while the choice to perform or not to perform it would carry actual weight; either get a fully able Us as a temporary companion for the prologue or crippled Us as a potential freed intellect devourer later. The choice carried actual weight in terms of story and gameplay, which is why today it is a useless story choice that merely cripples Us with a permanent debuff.

But in the scope of the question being asked by the OP; there is no excuse for Us not to be in the epilogue because it isn't tethered to the Absolute, especially if the player lobotomized it to ensure it can never again be a part of any hive-mind at all. So it survived the battle, but Larian unfortunately forgot to include the character in the epilogue.

Inconsistent Larian strikes once again, yet I am consistent in avoiding nitpicking and forgiving them, because Baldurs Gate 3 is one of my favorite games and is astonishingly beautiful and has a spectacular story.

BTW, OP, what part of the epilogue do you wish to see Us in? I think they never thought of adding extra to the harbour scene, because its already quite heavy on the characters.

Yes, we need justice for Us!
We want to recruit and romance Us!

This, so much. BG3 quickly has become one of my favourite games despite the story faults. The only game above that for me is Vampire Bloodlines.

I headcanon, that Us gets adopted by one of the companions - I can see Gale, Shadowheart, Halsin, Jaheira taking care of it. Wyll and Karlach probably don't want to take it to the hells and Astarion I just cannot see caring for Us. Lae'zel might have conflicetd opinions about our 'not quite cat', but she probably is wise enough to not take it with her to the other githyanki.
And I would honestly be afraid to leave Us with Minthara, especially, when we kill the Netherbrain and she looses her powers. She is probably not in the best mood then?

Thank you @Crimsomrider for your very detailed and helpful response 👍
Shame all that EA stuff was taken out.
I'm just glad that Us most likely survived. I hc it living its best spoiled cat life after the ending.