Hey! It's me the checklist guy again and I'm back for Act 2! Click here for the checklist for Act 1

Here are things to do (+ bits that in my opinion are interesting) before leaving Act 2. The point of no return for Act 2 is entering Shadowfell to retrieve the Nightsong then fightingKetheric.

As the game did not clearly indicate to me where Act 2 begins, I will assume entering the Shadow Cursed Lands marks the start of Act 2. Again, this is a hero or a good guy playstyle, so your mileage may vary which also means this list is not exhaustive.

Shadow Cursed Lands

• Meet He-Who-Was
• Play hide and seek with Oliver in the House with Flowers
• I think there are several ways to initiate this, this house was marked on the map for me after reading a journal in one of the dead in the lands
• I discovered 3 ruins in the area that has hidden shadow people which leads to some loot
• Somewhere southeast of He-Who-Was
• Northwest of the House with Flowers where you find Oliver
• Southeast of Shadowed Battlefield waypoint
• Abandoned potter's workshop (relates to Selunite Resistance)

Last Light Inn

• Meet Dammon again
• Give him infernal iron for some gear
• Give him the Devilfoil Masks you found from Grymforge to make some bombs
• Meet Strange Ox from the Emerald Grove again
• Bear statue at inn's entrance, interesting trivia
• Convince Mattis to give you a tower-shaped key (this is for the Mason's Guild)
• Speak to Jaheira again
• Speak to Alfira
• Speak to Rolan
• You will find him later wandering in the area between Reithwin and Moonrise Tower trying to be a hero
• Speak to the cat in the inn for some dialogue
• Raphael will be playing chess with Mol on your left from the inn's entrance
• Be sure to speak with Mol afterwards
• Enter one of the rooms in the bottom floor where there is a bedridden Flaming Fist (Art Cullagh)
• After speaking with Art, I personally recommend you to travel to House of Healing first to help Art before speaking to Isobel (or elseyou risk him dying to the upcoming fight triggered by speaking to Isobel)
• I did not have Halsin with me, so I spoke to him in my camp after this
• Access the inn's cellar from the outside, discover a hidden area that belonged to the Selunite resistance
• Exit the inn and some Harpers will approach you to ambush a cult convoy together to get something really useful (a pixie bell that gives your entire party immunity to the weak and strong shadow curse).

Reithwin

• The central pillar of the town has an interesting secret: it unlocks Shar's Sanctuary
• At the graveyard entrance, you will find Arabella

Mason Guild

• At the entrance, you will meet an NPC then they go poof after a while (Act 3 foreshadowing)
• Selunite Resistance stuff
• Bring someone with high Perception
• Didn't encounter very amazing loot here other than the infernal iron but do check it out nonetheless. (Let me know if I missed any good loot myself)

Tollhouse

• Lots of littered gold on the ground
• Speak to the Thorm made of gold (has lots of gold)
• Explore rooms that are barricaded off
• Unlock the safes

House of Healing

• You will find Arabella's parents, bring someone with Speak with Dead
• Speak to Dr. Thorm
• Explore the library at the top floor
• Check out the morgue (I completely missed this, might check it on in my next playthrough)

The Waning Moon

• Grab Madeline's ledger for He-Who-Was
• Speak to the bartender
• After dealing with the bartender, head to the backroom, read the recipes and you will find a hidden potion stash in town marked on your map

Moonrise Tower

• Speak with the gnolls and the chef in the kitchen (be good to the gnolls and you won't regret it later)
• Interact with the ogre on the ground floor for something interesting
• Speak with the weapons & armor merchant (I forgot his name), do bring Karlach with you for some interesting dialogue
• Save the prisoners in the basement
• Save the gnomes
• Save the tieflings
• Be sure to speak with Rolan, Alfira and Bex to fully complete the quest
• In case you are wondering, you will not find Zevlor , Mol and the Grand Duke here
• Balthazar''s room
• Be sure to read the books and notes
• Solve the protruding books puzzle
• Grab the moon lantern if you still need it (I got the cult convoy's pixie bell instead)
• You may also want to bring Gale for this
• Ketheric's room
• Some important letters and notes that foreshadows Act 3
• Ketheric''s daughter''s room (Isobel's room)
• You can try to face Ketheric but there are multiple points within the game where it will tell you he's invulnerable so you need to first find out its source.

Grand Mausoleum

• You will meet Raphael before entering this place
• Read all the books/notes/plaques you can find in the first part of the mausoleum
• Bring someone with high Religion for some interesting trivia
• Once past the first puzzle, you enter the Gauntlet of Shar

Gauntlet of Shar

• You will find Balthazar on the west wing, he gives you something to summon Flesh
• You will find Raphael''s old enemy on the east wing
• Complete all 3 trials
• Explore the library, read the books, solve the puzzle, you will get:
• Dark Justiciar''s helm (very rare)
• Dark Justiciar''s armor (rare)
• Explore the bottom of the huge Shar's statue, read everything and speak to the rat
• WARNING: Entering Shadowfell is a point of no return for Act 2: for me it locked out areas in Act 1 and quests within the Shadow Lands. Do not enter Shadowfell until you''ve done everything else such as rescuing the prisoners at Moonrise Tower and only advance when you are ready to face Ketheric .

(The following areas are past the point of no return)

Mind Flayer Colony

• Rescue Zevlor from the pods (and you will not find Mol here as well)
• Rescue Wyll''s patron (Mizora )
• In the lab, there are 2, in my opinion, easily missable spots
• Balthazar''s working area has a brain interface thingy where you can insert the ''Minds'' you found throughout the colony. I found 6 in total.
• Puzzle room where there is a node connection minigame, upon solving shows the Grand Design relief, a rare blade and one of the 6 ''Minds'' that you can put into the brain interface thingy
• After defeating Ketheric , be sure to loot the table northwest of the chamber.

Misc

• Find a night orchid in the shadow lands and give one to Shadowheart
• Again, long rest often:
• This progresses your companions' questline.
• Owlbear Jr's surprise appearance (if you rescued it)