Once the player’s exploration options open up Dragon Age: The Veil Guardthey must choose which of the story’s two main locations to visit first: Dock Town or Treviso. The player chooses one or the other by traveling through the corresponding eluvian portal at the Crossroads. Each houses the headquarters of an important Dragon Age faction Rook wants to partner with: Dock Town is the port district of Minrathous, home of the Shadow Dragons resistance, and Treviso is a high-rise city of ziplines and gondolas, home of the Antivan Crows, a guild of thieves and assassins.
Although players will inevitably visit Treviso and Dock Town During your travels, choosing which one to visit first makes a difference. Each region includes a completely different mission, completely different enemies, and completely different advancement opportunities, so it’s important to understand what the decision means and prioritize what’s most important to the player as they begin the mission.
What happens if you go to Dock Town first?
Pros and cons of starting with “Sea Of Blood”
If the player goes to Treviso first, they will start with a quest called “Sea of Blood” which introduces them to the Antivan Ravens. Players can only choose one companion for this quest, as the second slot will be taken by a character they are about to recruit. They meet their leader, First Talon Caterina Dellamorte, to ask about her grandson mage killer Lucanis She explains that despite the rumor that Lucanis is long dead, in fact, he’s still alive (if not very well) in an underwater prison. She agrees to hire his help in exchange for his rescue.
Rook and his friends then head to the prison, where they solve a series of puzzles in which they have to break a series of red crystals that power spectral barriers that impede their progress. Along the way, they will fight hordes of the undead, until they finally find their target, Lucanis. Lucanis joins the partyintroducing his new ability, which allows him to summon the Spite demon to pull objects out of the Fade. This is used in a series of platforming puzzles that lead the party to the elven wizard Calivan, the target Lucanis was chasing when he was arrested.
Calivan is a pretty difficult boss fightconsisting of three phases: first, players fight him and his small army of wizards. At around 50% HP, he transforms into the demon form Calivan’s Pride, with a health bar and shield of his own. Players will need to wear him down, at which point a weakened Calivan reappears and can finally be defeated. Throughout the fight, Calivan peppers the field with high-damage AoEs and summons additional mages to gain the group’s attention. Try to keep the group’s attention on Calivan while Rook works to eliminate distractions; they descend quickly.
Completing this mission and unlocking Treviso gives you access to a series of new side missions. Players should explore Fade, Crossroads, and Treviso well before proceeding with the story.
Ultimately, the fight is difficult, but winnable even if the player chooses to start in Treviso first. Afterwards, Lucanis joins the group permanently once he gets permission from his grandmother. It becomes available for almost all other subsequent missions (depending on certain choices the player makes later), and Dragon Age players can then begin dating Lucanis if they wish.
Players will complete the quest with a few items, some experience points, but most importantly, a new party member. After a brief exploratory interlude, they can go to Dock Town and start working on that mission,”The case of smuggled relics“, completely unchanged. There are no wider consequences to starting with Treviso first; it all comes down to personal preference.
What happens if you go to Dock Town first?
Pros and cons of starting with “The Case of the Smuggled Relic”
If the player decides to visit Dock Town first, they will begin the intriguing quest”The case of smuggled relics.” Again, party selection is partially blocked here, as Neve, a member of the Shadow Dragons and native of Minrathous, must come along. Anyone who can apply the Sundered ability is useful, as Neve can then detonate it with Permafrost; Ideally, Rook should bring someone who can also use healing abilities, like Harding or Bellara.
This quest has Neve introduce the party to her friends in the Shadow Dragons.who ask them to find a stolen relic. They track him to a temple, where Neve uses her investigative powers to follow a series of clues and open locked doors. The group must also solve more crystal puzzles that play a role in “Sea of Blood.” They will also fight several groups of Venatori along the way. Eventually, they discover where the relic is to be delivered and stop the transaction.
The puzzles in this mission are, in general, decidedly more difficult than those in “Sea of Blood.” It might be better to start with the other mission and work your way up, but it’s not necessary. The boss fight, on the other hand, is much easieralthough it has a similar concept. The group fights smuggler Albin Bataris, who also summons AoEs and adds. However, he deals much less damage and has much less HP, and his summons are as weak as Calivan’s, so players can effectively ignore them until they tire Albin out.
The quest ends and the player leaves some richer gold and experience points, along with some new items if the player is proactive in looking for them. They can start”Sea of Blood“unchanged immediately after; The only thing to note is that there are no new party members for this one.
You should go to Treviso first
Recruiting Lucanis takes priority
Ultimately, players better go to Treviso and complete “Sea of Blood” first. The rewards for each mission are roughly equivalent and the overall difficulty is balanced. However, going to Treviso first means recruiting Lucanis a little earlier, which is worth the effort. Lucanis is a powerful DPS and a fascinating ally; the more time players spend with it, the better it will be for them.
But there are no consequences for the player’s decision here. They will complete each other immediately after with no noticeable differences, so don’t worry about missing anything. Although Treviso is clearly the best choice, this is not the most important decision in the Dragon Age: The Veil Guardso players are free to choose whichever option they prefer.