Dragon Age: The Veilguard marks BioWare’s long-awaited return to the world of Thedas and traditional single-player RPGs. So far, we’ve been enjoying our time with it and feel like going for a Mass Effect-like structure has helped it land quite well, and that includes game-defining decisions that come out of nowhere, such as helping Minrathous or Treviso.
Before we give you a comprehensive rundown on when this decision triggers and what you win/lose with each pick, make sure to check out our choices of the best Dragon Age: The Veilguard mods that have been released so far. Moreover, we have a short guide to the max level caps for both Rook and the companions in case you’re worried about your builds early on.
When does the Minrathous or Treviso choice trigger?
Blighted dragons controlled by the Elven gods attack Minrathous and Treviso as soon as you recruit Davrin the Grey Warden regardless of your prior progress in the side quests located in both cities. While some of them might not be accessible anymore after the city in question is blighted, in our experience, most are still available, so don’t stress over that too much. However, there are some hard-hitting consequences to leaving either to fend off the gods’ forces for itself.
As Rook and Davrin enter the Crossroads’ nexus of sorts, they’re informed by the other companions of what’s going down, with both Neve and Lucanis pressing the player to help their respective cities. If you’re just rolling with anything that happens, saving your more defined runs of the game for later, you’re free to go with whatever, but should you be targeting certain world states and romances, read on below.
Helping Treviso - rewards and consequences
We’re not gonna lie: Treviso feels like the far more vulnerable city in this case, as it has no standing army and has already been invaded by the Qunari. Should you help Lucanis and the Crows instead of Neve and the Shadow Dragons, Neve will temporarily leave the party to help the people of Minrathous after its destruction. Furthermore, her allies, the Shadow Dragons, will be hit hard, which results in Minrathous’ streets having an increased Venatori presence moving forward. You’ll have to reactivate the fast travel points too.
On the more personal side of the game, Neve will be ‘hardened’ by the traumatic experience, thus making relationship progress with her slower (but not impossible) and her approach to combat more damage-oriented than support-like, getting extra passive buffs and dropping the Replenish healing skill and many other support upgrades altogether (respeccing her tree will be forced).
Helping Minrathous - rewards and consequences
If you choose to save Minrathous, the general sequence of events and consequences, dragon battle included, is the same but swapping locations. Predictably, Lucanis will leave the team for a while and become ‘hardened’ as well, favouring damage over the healing skill. Also, the streets and canals will be blighted and far more dangerous.
There’s one massive difference, however: Lucanis will completely lock Rook out of a potential romance if Treviso isn’t helped. If you were planning on getting closer to him, you should rush to Treviso instead. We’ve also learned that at least the ‘A Slow Poison’ quest, a key one to the Antivan Crows’ questline, will deactivate if the player didn’t do it beforehand, so keep that in mind too.
Generally speaking, the choice depends on what you’re aiming for regarding a deeper relationship with each character and their respective factions. While helping Treviso yields more net positives than Minrathous, anyone focusing on Neve’s romance or maxing out their rep with the Shadow Dragons should prioritize them instead.
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