Should you help Minrathous of Treviso in Dragon Age: The Veilguard?

As one of your first big decisions in Dragon Age: The Veil Guardyou will have to choose to help Minrathous of Treviso. The choice appears immediately after you return to the lighthouse with Darvin, your griffin-guarding companion, in tow. The rest of the crew meets you and tells you about some dragons attacking Minrathous and Trevisoand you will have to save one city or another.

Us Dragon Age: The Veil Guard guide will help you decide whether we want to help Minrathous or Trevisoalong with some helpful advice.

Complete the side missions first before choosing Minrathous or Treviso

Not really a spoiler, but a dragon attack is kind of a big deal for a city, so things are going to get messed up. One of those things is all the side missions available.

If you have open side missions in whatever city you are in not choose to save, they will all fail automatically. Based on our testing, if you have companion missions for Neve or Lucanis, the mission in the city you don’t save will also automatically fail if you don’t complete it.

Load a save from before ‘A Warden’s Best Friend’ and round up what you need. The only exception, according to our testing, are the side quests that involve defeating a champion of the gods; these are higher level missions and remain available even after you complete ‘On Deadly Wings’.

Should you help Minrathous or Treviso?

Look, you’re dooming one city to some pretty major damage, so this is really a call to action about which faction you want to help the most: the Shadow Dragons or the Antivan Crows (and, by extension, Neve or Lucanis, respectively).

There’s a lot to consider here: any outstanding side quests, your relationship with the faction, your relationship with the companion, and the pressure on your conscience. However, most of the dialogue, the big bad you encounter (aside from the dragon), and even how the battle plays out are the same.

This ultimately comes down to a choice between Neve and Lucanis. The one you don’t choose will leave the lighthouse and your party for a while (until you complete both “The Dragon Slayer” and “Where the Dead Must Go”).

The change in the world is a little clearer. While neither city will be completely destroyed, there will still be lasting consequences.

Additionally, your contacts in the Antivan Crows or the Shadow Dragons take a hit and you lose access to their merchant. You’ll need to re-explore the city you didn’t save and unlock fast-travel beacons again. Your enemies – the Antaam and the Venatori – also make moves and gain power in every city you don’t help (leading to new side missions).

However, there is a more lasting consequence that we must consider…

Your choice hardens an ally

The one who doesn’t help you is understandably upset (and seems extra upset if you allied with their respective faction during character creation). You lose them from your schedule for a while. More importantly, one skill stops working and some of their other skills become so Hardened.

Whoever you don’t choose: Neve or Lucanis can no longer use their healing abilities in your party (Replenish and Soothing Potion, respectively). If that’s a skill you use a lot, it’s worth considering.

At the same time, Hardening increases the power of a handful of their abilities. For Neve, it’s her cold damage against barriers and their cooldowns. For Lucanis, it’s his necrotic attacks on barriers.

Hardening also means that building your relationship with that character – such as how to romance him or her – progresses more slowly.

For more Dragon Age: The Veil Guard guides, here’s how to romance party members and how to recruit all companions.