Throughout the endgame of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, you’ll have to make a series of choices. Some of them are no-brainers and won’t affect the overall outcome much, while others have much more dramatic consequences (i.e., death, destruction, and so on).
Our Dragon Age: The Veilguard guide outlines all choices and outcomes in the endgame, helping you keep as many people alive as possible. But first…
Spoiler warning
Let’s get this out of the way: There are spoilers about the ending of Dragon Age: The Veilguard and the fates of the members of the Veilguard below. We’ll be cagey about it when we can, but there’s kind of no way around it.
Image: BioWare/Electronic Arts via Polygon
You’ve been warned.
How to prepare for the endgame in Dragon Age: The Veilgaurd
Everything you’re doing over the course of the game is secretly preparing your allies — both your party itself and the various factions around the world of Thedas — for the final battle.
Image: BioWare/Electronic Arts via Polygon
Completing each of your companion’s questlines will earn them Hero of the Veilguard status, grant them a new skill, and get them some fancy armor. A lot of these will be conversations and then the occasional fight.
The important thing is that, once you finish each companion’s story, they’ll be better prepared to survive the coming battle(s).
Similarly, your relationship with each faction — the Antivan Crows, Lords of Fortune, Mourn Watch, the Shadow Dragons, Veil Jumpers, and Grey Wardens — plays a role in their role during the final battle. Over the course of the game, you’re making decisions for them and helping them. And, ultimately, how good your relationship is with each faction determines how strongly (or if) they show up for the final battle.
This starts all the way back when you decide to save either Minrathous or Treviso from the dragon attack. Whoever you don’t help will be in a (slightly) weaker position come the end of the game.
Can everyone survive in Dragon Age: The Veilguard?
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All of your preparations are really to make sure everyone survives the final battle. But, sadly, not everyone will. You will lose one member of your party at minimum. And possibly more. We’ll get into it below.
All endgame choices in Dragon Age: The Veilguard
All the choices you make leading up to the end of Dragon Age: The Veilguard determine which ending you can get and who survives the final battle(s). Your faction strength and getting your allies to Hero of the Veilguard status can all but guarantee that everyone survives, but you can still make bad calls.
We’ll break down all the choices in detail below, but let’s list them for easy reference:
Choice |
Best party member(s) |
|---|---|
| Convince the Inquisitor to reunite with Solas | N/A |
| Who should lead the distraction? | Davrin or Harding |
| Who should dismantle the wards? | Bellara or Neve |
| Who should unravel the wards? | Bellara, Neve, Emmrich, or Harding |
| Who should kill the Venatori commander? | Lucanis, Harding, or Neve |
| Who should stop the Juggernaut? | Taash |
| Who stays behind? | Davrin, Harding, Lucanis, or Taash |
Can you convince the Inquisitor to reunite with Solas?
As you approach the end of the game, you’ll get a quest called “Legacies and Legends” where you have to meet the Inquisitor at the Cobbled Swan in Dock Town.
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Over the course of a long conversation about Solas, the Inquisitor will reveal that they were once in love with Solas and, depending on your choices, might be open to forgiving him.
Should Davrin or Harding lead the distraction?
Starting the quest “When Plans Align” gives you a warning that you’re heading into the end of the game. There’s still a long way to go, but this is where the action really kicks off.
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After an intense conversation with the team, you’ll head to Tearstone Island to stop the gods’ ritual. Right away, you’ll have to decide if Davrin or Harding lead the distraction force.
Whoever you choose will be successful, so that’s not a problem. The issue is that whoever you choose will end up sacrificing themselves later on during the fight against Ghilan’nain. There’s no way around this. I’m sorry. (Be warned that Assan sacrifices himself along with Davrin, if that sways your decision.)
Should Bellara or Neve dismantle the wards?
After the distraction team is successful and rejoins the larger party, you’ll come to a Fade tear and your path forward will be blocked by blood magic wards.
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Either Bellara or Neve can dismantle them (successfully), so there’s no wrong choice immediately. However, whoever does the dismantling is going to get grabbed by Elgar’nan and infected with blight (and won’t be available for your party for a while). Again, there’s no way around this.
Whether or not they can fight their way back from the abduction and infection depends on if you have gotten them to Hero of the Veilguard status. If you haven’t, they’ll succumb to the infection.
In short, pick whomever is at Hero of the Veilguard status.
Who should do what jobs in ‘The Last Gambit’
Over the course of “The Dragon and the Dread Wolf,” you’ll have a round of final conversations with the team (one of several, honestly). At the end, you’ll gather everyone (minus two) together at the kitchen table. This will immediately start “The Last Gambit” and you’ll have to make some life-and-death decisions.
In a montage that mixes planning and action, you’ll have to assign your party to various jobs that help in your assault on Minrathous. How well those people do depend on whether or not they’re a Hero of the Veilguard, your relationships with the various factions, and whether or not they’re a good fit for the task. (You don’t have to match the companion to the faction, though.)
Preparing and choosing poorly can (and will) lead to the deaths of your companions, the leaders of the various factions, or both. But if you get everyone to Hero of the Veilguard status, it’s hard to screw up here.
And that means you can focus on who you want to have in your party and work backward.
Who should unravel the wards with the Veil Jumpers?
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Someone magical is your best bet here as it keeps Strife, the head of the Veil Jumpers, alive. Bellara has experience with magical artifacts, Emmrich has his necromancy, and Neve is a powerful mage.
The strongest choice is Bellara or Neve — obviously, who you choose here depends on who you chose to dismantle the wards previously. But, if your faction strength is high enough and your companions are Veilguards, Emmrich or Harding work here, too.
Who should kill the Venatori commander with the Antivan Crows?
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Your next choice is who to send after the Venatori war mage while the Antivan Crows back them up. You’re looking for someone with experience fighting mages (or just, you know, stabbing). Neve is a solid choice, but if you’re looking for an assassin, Lucanis is the easy pick.
Depending on who’s available and unassigned, Harding or Neve can also pull it off.
Who should fight the Juggernaut with the Grey Wardens and Mourn Watch?
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Next, you’ll have to assign someone to fight alongside the Grey Wardens to stop the building-sized Juggernaut. It’s hard to pick anyone but Taash for this role for obvious reasons, but Davrin or Harding can fill in.
Can you increase Felassan’s Rune power?
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On your way into the final battle(s), you’ll get a chance to talk to Morrigan. She’ll give you a powerful new rune — Felassan’s Rune — the strength of which is determined by how much progress you’ve made in the “Heart of Corruption” side quest.
Who to assign during ‘The Dread Wolf Rises’
On your way to the Archon’s Palace, you’ll have one last assignment to hand out.
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Before you start your climb, all of your allies gather and alert you to a coming attack and you’ll have to pick one of your companions to stay behind and help out. This choice is about protecting others. Either Bellara or Neve — whoever got abducted earlier — won’t be available for this role — but the two of them are bad choices here. (Spoiler: They’ll die.)
Your faction strength figures in a lot here, as does the Hero of the Veilguard status of your companions. If you’ve got everything maxed out, their chances improve, but you can still lose an ally from this decision. In our experience, Davrin, Harding, Lucanis, or Taash will make it through the fight alive, so you can pick whoever you don’t need for your party during the final battle.
What to do about Solas
You do have one last choice in the endgame: what to do about Solas. That decision, though, determines what ending you see. There are three potential outcomes, broadly breaking down along the traditional “good,” “bad,” and “neutral” paradigm, and which one you can get is dependent on certain pre-requisites.
For more, see our guide on how to get all endings in Dragon Age: The Veilguard, alongside our explainer on how to unlock the secret ending (a post-credits scene).