The game goes out of its way to introduce a blacksmith who can temporarily fix karlach’s engine and then he’s like “sorry this won’t be a permanent fix. I would need a demon forge and better infernal iron to get a permanent fix.” And then, if you play the game such that he’s alive in act 3, lo and behold, he’s set up in a legit shop with a demon forge, and you get improved infernal iron from killing the mech guards.
But nope, no repair for you, sorry.
And speaking of the mech guards, the first one you encounter goes out of its way to tell you “hey karlach, you’ve got a defective engine. Come the foundry and we’ll give you a new one that should fix you right up.” And then you’re given the option to ally with the guy who runs the factory, or free the factory’s engineers and save their families - but either way, again despite being explicitly told the factory can fix her, nope, no option to do so.
It’s just so bad narratively. You want an ending where you can’t save her. Fine. But don’t go out of your way to introduce various ways she can be saved just to not even address them.
Karlach is really the only correct choice, also one of the saddest
I just hate how contrived her sad ending is.
Spoilers for BG3 ahead:
The game goes out of its way to introduce a blacksmith who can temporarily fix karlach’s engine and then he’s like “sorry this won’t be a permanent fix. I would need a demon forge and better infernal iron to get a permanent fix.” And then, if you play the game such that he’s alive in act 3, lo and behold, he’s set up in a legit shop with a demon forge, and you get improved infernal iron from killing the mech guards.
But nope, no repair for you, sorry.
And speaking of the mech guards, the first one you encounter goes out of its way to tell you “hey karlach, you’ve got a defective engine. Come the foundry and we’ll give you a new one that should fix you right up.” And then you’re given the option to ally with the guy who runs the factory, or free the factory’s engineers and save their families - but either way, again despite being explicitly told the factory can fix her, nope, no option to do so.
It’s just so bad narratively. You want an ending where you can’t save her. Fine. But don’t go out of your way to introduce various ways she can be saved just to not even address them.