Dragon Age: The Veilguard – The Labs Below Walkthrough

Dragon Age: The Veilguard slowly starts to open up as you complete the first few quests. One of the first places you can encounter this is in the Crossroads, which is where you can find one of the game’s first side quests.

“The Labs Below” is part of a set of side quests that take you back to moments in Solas’ past. You can’t do anything to change what happens during the quest, but completing it is part of the region quest “Regrets of the Dread Wolf,” which has more lasting importance for Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

How to Start The Labs Below

“The Labs Below” is the first of the “Regrets of the Dread Wolf” quests you can access, and is available as soon as you begin the main quest “Into the Crossroads.” First, take the spirit boat to the Converged City area, and head south to the main hub. The path that leads to “The Labs Below” is on the east side of the hub, just to the south of the Deep Sorrows door.

You should see a green fence, and a ramp that leads down. The ramp leads to a shimmering portal, and as soon as you step through, you’ll slide down and the world will turn gray. This marks the start of the quest.

How to Beat the Darkspawn

At several points during the quest, you’ll have to fight against darkspawn. During these fights, always target the blight boils first. You can’t escape these fights until all the darkspawn die, and the blight boils will constantly spawn new enemies as you defeat the old ones.

Fortunately, a quick ranged attack of any type should be enough to destroy each boil. Just make sure you destroy them all before you turn your attention to the enemies, and scan the entire battlefield to make sure they’re all gone. You don’t get extra experience from the respawning darkspawn, so you have no reason to wait.

After the first darkspawn fight, you’ll come across a set of stairs and listen to Solas talk to a former companion of his before the door behind them opens. Before you head through the door, follow the passage to the left of the stairs. There’s a Memento at the end of the passage that you won’t get a second chance to collect, so be sure to grab it.

How to Solve the Blight Boil Puzzle

Head up the stairs past the Solas encounter to enter a new room. This room contains a statue with a handle, and surrounding it are four locked doors. Each door will open when you point the statue (and the handle) at it, but the way forward is also blocked by a large blight boil.

To get through this area, you’ll need to destroy the glowing blight boils that are protecting the blockage. You can also destroy other blight boils in this area, and some of them hide treasures.

1. Turn the handle to the right (counterclockwise).
2. Destroy all the blight boils in the room you opened to uncover a chest. Loot it.
3. Turn the handle to the right again.
4. Destroy the blight boil on the ceiling of the opened room.
5. This blight boil will cause a second boil on the ceiling of the central room to start glowing. Destroy it.
6. Turn the handle two times (either direction) to face the starting room again.
7. Destroy the blight boil blockage to continue.

Past the puzzle is a fight, a cutscene, and another fight.

What Should You Say to Solas During The Labs Below?

After the last big fight, you’ll witness a brief conversation between Solas and Ghilan’nain. After that, Solas has to decide what to do with his companion, Tarasahl, whom Ghilan’nain blighted.

Rook can voice their opinion, but nothing will change. Everything that happens during “The Labs Below” is a memory, and happened thousands of years ago. The only difference seems to be whether Rook has a more positive or more negative opinion of Solas. (“Solas, try a cure” is the positive option, while “He won’t help her” is negative.)

After that, Rook will return to the present. Grab the wolf statuette to finish the quest, and open the large chest to the right to collect several rewards. Once you’re sure you have everything, climb the stairs and jump off the ledge to return to the Converged City hub.