Dragon Age: The Veilguard has a lot of choices for you to make, especially surrounding its seven companions. But one of the most significant happens in the game’s final stretch and involves the dwarven rogue Harding and Grey Warden warrior Davrin. If you’re reading this, you’ve likely encountered the consequences of it and are looking to see if that’s how it had to go down. So here’s your guide to that big decision. Spoilers ahead!
In Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s endgame, protagonist Rook and their crew begin a covert operation to stop the elven gods on Tearstone Island. Once there, the team splits into two groups as they make their way through the mission. Rook leads one group while you have to make the call between whether Davrin or Harding will lead the second team. This will take them out of your party selection for the duration of the mission and you’ll see them throughout the assault guiding the rest of your party and helping you from time to time. All of this culminates in a final fight with the elven god Ghilan’nain, who nearly kills Rook in the scrap. However, the leader of the second team will create an opening to deal a killing blow to the god, only to be impaled by her and left to fall seemingly to their death.
If you came here looking for a way to save Harding or Davrin, I’m sorry to report that it’s impossible. This isn’t a Mass Effect 2 Suicide Mission moment, it’s an original Mass Effect Virmire decision. Harding and Davrin’s lives are mutually exclusive and whichever one you choose to lead the team will die by the end of the assault…presumably. When you return to the Lighthouse base, you can go to their respective rooms and examine some of their belongings. Rook will mention that there was “no trace” of whoever sacrificed themself for the cause, which could give BioWare an out to bring either character back in a future game. But whatever Dragon Age does in the future, you will lose Harding or Davrin for the remainder of the game, and if you romanced them you won’t see the culmination of that relationship.
There’s also another similar decision you make between Bellara and Neve that results in the character you choose getting captured by the elven gods. To be as spoiler-light as I can, I’ll just say you will be able to save them later in the game, but they will not rejoin your active party. So it’s not all bad!
