The centerpiece of Gortash’s control, the Steel Watch Foundry is where Gortash produces the Steel Watchers that you can find throughout Act 3. What’s more, the creation of these watchers is only done with the labor of enslaved Gondians, who are threatened via bomb collars and the danger of the Iron Throne‘s destruction to work for the Black Gauntlets and Gortash. Needless to say, destroying this facility will cripple Gortash’s operation, which is why this walkthrough will help guide you through that process.
It should be noted that it is almost always best to complete the Iron Throne before completing the Steel Watch Foundry. This not only saves more Gondians, but also gives you more allies within the Foundry itself.
Map
Points of Interest
NOTE: If you have not yet completed the Iron Throne, rescuing the Gondian hostages and putting an end to the leverage Gortash holds over the Gondians at the Steel Watch Foundry, then you should consider doing so. Failing to save the Gondians at the Iron Throne before disabling the Steel Watch Foundry means the Iron Throne will be destroyed, killing everyone in it, including many Gondian Hostages, Duke Ravenguard, and Omeluum.
1 – Guards
There are two guards to the right of the main entryway to the Steel Watch Foundry. These guards are not present if you have already visited the Iron Throne, instead being with the Black Guard & Gondians (#2), preparing to put down a potential rebellion. These guards are in a position where they can notice characters who are not careful enough entering from the Main Entrance (A1), Ventilation (A2), or Roof (A5).
2 – Black Guard & Gondians
If you have not been to the Iron Throne, then you will first see the Black Guard taunting and intimidating the Gondians, threatening them with the destruction of the Iron Throne and deaths of their family. In this case, when you approach, you have a few options: with a successful DC-15 
Deception check, you can make an excuse to be there, avoiding combat. Or, with a successful DC-18 
Intimidation or 
Persuasion check, you can convince the Gondians to rise up, fighting the Black Guard immediately.
In this case, only a Fist of Bane, Black Guard, and Iron Consul will fight you. The Black Guard will drop a Motivator, which you must disable with a DC-5 
Intelligence check within 3 turns or else the Gondians’ bomb collars will go off. Once you have disabled one this way, you will not need to make the check in the future.
If you have already been to the Iron Throne, then you will come into a scene where the Black Guard, their leverage having been destroyed, will be met with Gondian resistance. Before you can interfer a fight breaks out: 4 Gondians will be on your side, with 2 Fists of Bane, 2 Black Guards, and 4 Iron Consols acting as guards to oppose them.
When defeated, the Black Guards will drop their Motivators. If these are not interacted with and disarmed using a DC-5 Intelligence check within 3 turns, then the bomb collars around the Gondians’ necks will explode, killing all (or nearly all) of them. Once you have disabled one this way, you will not need to make the check in the future. Gondian Zanner Toobin can survive, but the rest will die.
Ideally, you should try to ensure that the Gondian Zanner Toobin, a blind Gondian who knows the most about the construction of the Steel Watch, survives, as he will be useful when you make it to the Control Console (#10). Talking to him after the fight will get him to join you as a temporary companion. If he does die, then casting Speak With Dead on him will get him to reveal the “True Face of Gond”, which you can also learn from a book in the Laboratory (#8).
3 – Hellfire Crossbow Parts
You can construct the Hellfire Engine Crossbow, one of the best late-game ranged weapons in the game, using 3 parts that can be found throughout the first floor of the Steel Watch Foundry. The items required are as follows:
- 3a: Steel Watcher Arm
- 3b: Targeting Module
- 3c: Watcher Crossbow Blueprint
Gathering these 3 parts and bringing them to the Workbench (#5) will allow you to combine them with it in order to create the Hellfire Engine Crossbow.
4 – Freight Elevator
A Freight Elevator connects the upper floor of the Steel Watch Foundry with the Laboratory floor. A button in the walkway about the Workbench (#5) can summon the Freight Elevator to the upper floor, or you can activate it from the laboratory level.
5 – Workbench
The Workbench allows you to combine the Hellfire Crossbow Parts (#3) in order to make the Hellfire Engine Crossbow, one of the best ranged weapons in the game.
If you have not destroyed the Iron Throne, then Gondian Zanner Toobin will be here, though he will dissuade you from continuing through the Foundry. He suggests that he would be willing to rebel against the Black Gauntlets and destroy the Steel Watch Foundry, if the hostages there were rescued.
He also lets you know about the Black Gauntlets’ motivators, which the Black Guantlets throughout the Foundry drop when defeated. These need to be interacted with and disarmed with a DC-5 Intelligence check within 3 turns of appearing in order to avoid the bomb collars going off. Once you have disabled one this way, you will not need to make the check in the future.
6 – Gondians & Altar
If you have been to the Iron Throne, then there will be 5 Gondians on the lab level who are rebelling against the Hellfire Watchers and Black Gauntlets (#7). If you have not been to the Iron Throne, though, then these Gondians will be labelled as hostile, though they will only attempt to flee and not fight the player.
Near the Gondians, there is a small altar to Bane, revealing some about the religion of the guards in the Steel Watch Foundry.
7 – Hellfire Watchers & Guards
Throughout the Laboratory floor, there are quite a lot of acolytes of Bane and Hellfire Watchers (a more powerful version of Steel Watchers) keeping guard. In total, there are:
- 2 Hellfire Watchers: Powerful AoE attacks, Immobilizing attacks, self-detonate at 50hp left.
- 3 Black Guards: Upon defeat (or using ability), drop a Motivator that must be interacted with to prevent the Gondians’ bomb collars from detonating.
- 6 Fists of Bane
- 2 Iron Consuls
If you have been to the Iron Throne, then you will come into all of the various guards surrounding a few Gondians (#6), giving you a better in.
To the north of the Laboratory floor, you can access the Control Center Antechamber via a DC-30 
Sleight of Hand-locked door. The key for this door is on Black Gaurd Hahns Rives.
8 – Laboratory
At the back of the room, you can find an Mind Flayer Parasite Specimen on a desk, a twitching “zombie” labelled hostile (but which won’t actually attack you), and several disturbing documents revealing some truths about the Steel Watch Foundry and its goals. If you have not been to the Iron Throne, then a Black Gauntlet and Gondian will be here.
A book, The Many Faces of Gond, can be found among “Rows of Books” behind the zombie, which can reveal that the True Name of Gond is “Nebelun.”
9 – Steel Watcher Titan
In front of the Neural Switchboard (#10), you will come across 3 Hellfire Watchers, waiting to defend it. If any of these Watchers see you, then the Steel Watcher Titan will rise up from below in the center of the battle. Between the three powerful Hellfire Watchers and the Titan (which has some extremely powerful attacks that can debilitate you), this can be a somewhat tough battle. So long as you make good use of spacing, though, it should be manageable.
The Steel Watcher Titan drops the legendary Gontr Mael bow, which can be very useful to a ranged-focused support character.
The 3 Hellfire Watchers can be snuck past using Invisibility or teleportation to access the Neural Switchboard. (#10).
10 – Neural Switchboard
Once you reach the Neural Switchboard, there are a few things you can do with it. Firstly, you can learn more about it with a DC-15 Intelligence check, though that won’t create any new options to disable it. In order to disable the Steel Watch, you can do the following:
- If Wulbren survived Acts 1 and 2, and you spoke to Wulbren in Rivington, then he will give you a Runepowder Bomb, capable of destroying the Steel Watch Foundry, which you can plant here.
- If you have escorted Zanner Toobin (#2) to the Neural Switchboard, he knows how to destroy it. Talk to him once you get there. Though he will phrase his action as a sacrifice, he actually survives, destroying the Steel Watch Foundry.
- You can get Zanner’s password if he dies, then you can learn his password either by casting
Speak With Dead on his corpse or by reading a book in the Laboratory (#8). With that, you can attempt a DC-7 Intelligence check to destroy the Steel Watch Foundry. If you fail, you will be locked out of attempting again, though your other party members can attempt it.
After doing any of the above, the Steel Watchers across the Lower City and Wyrm’s Rock will be disabled, and when you return to Gortash next, he will be most vulnerable.
Exits
There are several entrances/exits between the Steel Watch Foundry and the Lower City:
- A1: The front door, which is locked with a DC-20 Sleight of Hand lock.
- A2: Passing a successful passive Perception check and being small will let you use the Ventilation shafts.
- A3: A side entrance, which is unlocked. A platform with a lever can rise up and down leading to it.
- A4: The side door, which is locked with a DC-20 Sleight of Hand lock.
- A5: Accessing the roof, you can come into the Steel Watch Foundry through a skylight.
