When you first arrive in the Crossroads of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, most of your possible routes are unavailable. The reasons for this include Eluvians that don’t work, areas that are beyond the Caretaker’s reach, and several gates and passages blocked by Blighted roots.
To solve the Blighted roots problem, you’ll need to locate the Blighted guardians whose essence will unlock the gates. These guardians aren’t just in the Crossroads: you can find them in every area you can visit in Dragon Age: The Veilguard. For the Gate of Deep Sorrows, you’ll need to visit Treviso after recruiting Lucanis.
How to Beat Desmal
The guardian of the Gate of Deep Sorrows is Desmal, Bloodbound to Elgar’nan. To find him, exit the Crows hideout in Treviso and look for a zipline that goes north. You may need to turn it on. On the far side, activate the beacon, jump across a gap, and look for a broken window. Go through, and you’ll encounter a group of Venatori cultists. You’ll need to break the three red crystals that protect them, first, but after that, you shouldn’t have any trouble defeating them.
In the southeast corner of this rooftop is a giant Blight cyst. Destroying it will release Desmal, so make sure you’re fully prepared, and the cultists are all dead before you do. In particular, Desmal resists necrotic damage but is vulnerable to fire, plus he has Blight armor on top of his normal health. The last important detail is that Desmal is level 25. While it’s possible to take him on at a lower level, doing so is very dangerous.
- A jumping AoE.
- A short line that leaves burning residue on the ground for several seconds.
- A one or three-swing melee attack.
- A linear charge attack.
- A teleport.
- A double mouth beam. Don’t trust the silhouette: he always aims at you if you’re standing still.
- A double stone throw that spawns two Alpha Ghouls from each stone. These ghouls have the same elemental affinities as Desmal, and Desmal can hit them with his attacks.
- An eruption attack that hits your current location eight times and leaves a burning residue behind.
Your best strategy against Desmal is to focus on fire damage. Also, avoid taking Lucanis with you as he focuses on necrotic damage, which won’t be much help.
Once you take down Desmal, you’ll have the essence you need to open the Gate of Deep Sorrows.
How to Get Through the Deep Sorrows Undead Gauntlet
Once you open the Gate of Deep Sorrows (it’s the first gate on the left as you enter the Converged City area), you’ll have to fight your way through several sets of undead enemies. These enemies include Superior Undead Warriors, Superior Frenzied Dead, and Rathera Loyalists. The Loyalists come in two varieties: warriors with armor, and mages with barriers. All of them are level 24, and despite being undead, all of them resist cold damage but are vulnerable to necrotic.
During the second big encounter, your companions will mention that the lesser undead keep coming back. This is because of an enemy called General Rathera, who is behind a steel gate at the end of the hall. To open the gate and stop the undead tide, you’ll need to enter the room to the left of the gate. There’s a wisp here, and you can lead it to a wisp node next to the gate. You can then kill General Rathera, who doesn’t have much more health than the Loyalists. Rathera’s room also holds a Memento, so be sure to grab it.
After one more fight, you’ll enter a hallway where the Caretaker appears and warns you about the boss ahead. The room also features a beacon, which gives you an autosave and a chance to swap your party members. The boss has the same affinities as the undead, so bring Lucanis and leave Neve behind. You may also want both of your followers to have their healing skills ready.
How to Beat Betrayal of Felassan
“Felassan” is a name you might remember from “The Wolf’s Call,” if nowhere else. Betrayal of Felassan is a mean boss, especially since he’s level 32, seven higher than Desmal. He also has several health bars, a couple unblockable and unavoidable attacks, and three sets of reinforcements. On the plus side, his move set is short and relatively easy to see coming. They include:
- A tower shield that blocks all light damage from the front. However, the shield also makes him vulnerable to guard breaks.
- A short, blockable attack.
- A long-range blockable swing.
- An unblockable charge and stab.
- An unblockable charge and kick.
- A flying skull that can inflict Chilled.
- During the second and third stages, Felassan also gets an ice nova that hits a wide area around him…
- And a wide-ice projectile he can fire six times in a row.
Once you get through his armor and about one-fifth of his health, Felassan will teleport over to the Fade rift and start drawing power. There appears to be no way to interrupt him, and no way to stop the explosion that will hit the entire room after a few seconds. You can escape the explosion by leaving the room, but this will also interrupt the encounter and give Felassan back some of his health and armor. Surviving the explosion is the better option.
While Felassan is drawing from the rift, two Rathera Loyalist warriors will appear. You should take them down as fast as you can since otherwise they can distract you from Felassan or hit you in the back. With that in mind, try to keep Felassan and your current target on screen at the same time, so you know when you need to react.
While Felassan doesn’t get more health from the Fade rift, he does get a new barrier bar you’ll need to cut through. Once you do, and he has around two-fifths of his health bar left, he’ll head back to the rift and draw from it again. This time, four Rathera Loyalist mages will appear, but everything else will stay the same. Felassan gets another barrier, but no new attack moves.
When Felassan finally goes down, the Fade tear will explode and the boss will drop his essence. You’ll need this to open the Heart of Corruption door, along with two other essences. You can also open the chest in this room to get a unique amulet. Once you’re done, you can head through the open door near the chest to get back to the Converged City hub.
- Released
- October 31, 2024