How to Open the Gate of Parched Hopes In Dragon Age: The Veilguard

As you explore the Crossroads of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, you’ll come across many blight gates that bar your way into sections of the area. To open these gates, you need to defeat the champions scattered across the game’s various maps.

The Gate of Parched Hopes is one of the gates connected to the “Heart of Corruption” quest. This means it leads to a powerful optional boss, and you’ll need to prepare the right set of equipment, abilities, and companions if you want to win.

How to Beat the Disciple-in-Ichor

The Disciple-in-Ichor is one of two champions you can find in the Hossberg Wetlands region. Its blight cyst is on the path you take as you collect samples for the story quest “Something Wrong.” A fight against darkspawn takes place around the cyst, so be very careful where you aim your blows. You definitely don’t want to face the Disciple-in-Ichor along with a pack of darkspawn.

Disciple has the traits Necrotic Imbued, Exploding, and Trapper. It’s also vulnerable to fire but resistant to necrotic damage. In fact, Necrotic Imbued means that necrotic damage is next to useless against it, so you should absolutely avoid taking Emmrich and Lucanis into this fight. It also has the following attacks and abilities:

• Disciple starts with a strong blight barrier.
• It can teleport across the battlefield at will.
• It can use an erupting attack that targets Rook’s location six to eight times.
• It can leap and hit a medium-sized area.
• It can charge in a straight line to deliver a melee attack.
• It can throw two projectiles that damage a large area. Two ghouls sometimes emerge from these projectiles.
• It explodes and damages a large area around itself every ten seconds or so. This happens no matter what else Disciple is doing at the time.

You also have to worry about the battlefield in this fight. Several sections of the area have a persistent blight effect that can damage you if you stand in it, and there are a few toxic mushrooms scattered around that explode if you get too close to them. On the bright side, you can also find plenty of pots with healing potions inside.

How to Beat Slaughter of the Pillars

By beating Disciple-in-Ichor, you get the champion essence you need to open the Gate of Parched Hopes. This gate is directly north of the dock in the Elvhenan’s Haven section of the Crossroads.

As you enter the new area, the Caretaker gives you a warning, which means that a powerful boss is ahead. Before going to meet him, be sure to climb up into the broken tower and cross the bridge. You’ll find a small chest with an item inside.

Next, you’ll encounter a pair of Superior Undead Mages. To their right is a waterfall you can jump through, behind which is a Memento. To their left is Slaughter of the Pillars, a level 37 boss.

When you step into Slaughter’s room, a gate closes behind you, making this a fight you can’t flee from. Five Superior Frenzied Dead appear as Slaughter of the Pillars stands up, but these enemies aren’t very powerful and don’t have much health. Take them down quickly so you can focus on Slaughter.

The attacks you can expect from Slaughter include:

• A charging kick
• A charging stab
• A shield bash
• A sweeping spear attack
• A one to three hit melee attack
• A necrotic projectile

After you remove Slaughter’s armor and take out about one-quarter of his health, he’ll teleport to the Fade tear and draw power from it. Doing so will give him a fresh barrier. After around 30 seconds, the Fade tear will explode, damaging you no matter where you are in the arena. However, if you can destroy Slaughter’s barrier before it goes off, you’ll avert the explosion and get a few seconds of free hits against him.

Either way, Slaughter gets a pair of new blight-based attacks during this second phase:

• A line attack that summons blight branches which stick around for around eight seconds
• A small nova burst that also fires a line of blight that tracks towards his target

Slaughter draws from the Fade tear a second time once his health drops to around one-third, and the same rules apply. This time, he also brings in two Superior Undead Mages and two Superior Undead Warriors. Try to destroy them as fast as possible so you can focus your attention on Slaughter. On the bright side, he doesn’t get any new attack types during the third phase.

Here are some general tips for the whole fight:

• Slaughter and his minions are all resistant to ice and vulnerable to necrotic. While they were bad for Disciple-in-Ichor, Emmrich and Lucanis are perfect party members for this fight.
• Slaughter has a big shield, so be prepared to use plenty of charged attacks to get past his defenses.
• Don’t expect to stagger Slaughter. You can get a few seconds of breathing room by breaking his guard with charged attacks, but a takedown isn’t likely.

Once Slaughter of the Pillars finally goes down, you can pick up his essence to use in “The Heart of Corruption” quest door. You can also head through the doorway to the left of Slaughter’s throne to find a Timelost Horde chest. This chest holds Andraste’s Will, a unique ring that’s perfect for builds that focus on fire and the Burning condition.