Dragon Age: The Veilguard - The Heart of Corruption Quest Walkthrough

Pretty early on in Dragon Age: The Veilguard, you'll arrive at the crossroads and receive the quest "The Heart of Corruption" when you interact with your first Blight-sealed door. While you might think that this is just a side quest, you might be surprised to find that this quest will take you quite a long way into the game to complete. You'll need to do a bunch of exploration and defeat a few pretty strong bosses, so this quest isn't for the faint of heart.

[Warning: The following article contains spoilers for Dragon Age: The Veilguard.]

Thankfully, "The Heart of Corruption" also offers you some juicy rewards once you finally complete it. While this may not seem worth it for players who don't like following super long quest threads, to be honest, you're going to be running into a lot of these bosses' locations as you explore anyway. You'll also get XP and other rewards along the way, so even if you don't pursue the entire quest, here's some of what to expect.

How To Start the Heart of Corruption Quest

You'll Find The First Blighted Gate In The Crossroads

After you stop Solas at the ritual site, bringing either Harding or Neve with you to knock down the statue, you'll arrive at the Lighthouse. Once Bellara fixes the eluvian in the Lighthouse, you'll be whisked off to the Crossroads. This land between lands is where you'll find the first Blight gate and receive the quest.

From your arrival through the crossroads Eluvian, turn directly to the right to find a gate made of Blighted branches, sealed with three locks. The boat spirit will appear, explaining that the gate can only be opened appropriately after you defeat difficult enemies. These enemies are locked behind their own Blight gates, which you'll need to unlock to access. There are three gates and three bosses, so you've got a lot of work cut out for you.

Find Three Champion Essences

Defeat Three Darkspawn Bosses

Your quest step, at this point, will ask you to defeat three enemies around the Crossroads, but before you can do that, you have to open the gates. It's only after you defeat certain bosses in other locations that you can return to the Crossroads to take on those three bosses to unlock the gate. Your first set of fights will occur in other locations, but you'll need to find gates in the Crossroads before the subquest appears.

Each of the following Gates is located somewhere in the Crossroads, and you are required to, as mentioned, defeat bosses around Thedas to open them. You'll defeat these Champions and collect their Essences, allowing you to defeat Revenant bosses. The Revenant bosses will drop Revenant Essencesopeningen up the triple-locked gate in the Crossroads.

Gate of Deep Sorrows

To find the boss you'll need to defeat to unseal this gate, you need to head back to Treviso. You can use the fast-travel point in the Crow hideout, then take a few ziplines across the rooftops until you reach the spot marked on the map. Here, you'll be confronted by some Venatori, which you should defeat before bopping the large Blight in the back of the arena.

Once you've cleared the arena, go ahead and pop open the Blight. This will unleash Desmal, Bloodbound, to Elgar'nan, who is a huge, level 25 Darkspawn. He's a tricky one, with a large slam attack that leaves very little room for dodging. Use fire attacks to damage Desmal until he's defeated. Upon defeat, he'll drop a Champion Essence.

Gate of Parched Hopes

Your second Champion is hiding in the Arlathan Forest, in the Tainted Woods. Clear out the fortress area before taking on the Blight pod, just like you did with Desmal. Once you're ready, pop the Blight and get ready to fight Entarus the Rekindled.

This huge boss uses fire attacks and is also level 25. If you were able to defeat Desmal, you should have no issue with Entarus. Once you defeat him, he'll drop your second of three Champion Essences, and you can head back to the Hossberg Wetlands.

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Dragon Age: The Veilguard Complete Quest List - Every Story, Companion, & Side Quest

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Gate of Pale Reflections

The last boss in the series of three Darkspawn Champions can be found in the Hossberg Wetlands. The Blight containing your next foe can be found in the center of the area and is once again surrounded by enemies you should defeat before popping it. Destroying the Blight will unleash Amarell the Unknown.

Amarell is yet another level 25 foe, but shouldn't pose a huge issue. This arena is the biggest of the three so far, leaving much more room for you to dodge Amarell's attacks. Like the others, he'll drop a Champion Essence after you take him out, which you will use in the next step of the quest.

Find And Defeat Three Revenants

After Collecting Three Champion Essences, Open Gates In The Crossroads

Now that you've got all three of your Champion Essences, you can finally pop open those Blighted Gates scattered around the Crossroads. They should be marked on your map already from your exploration around the various locations, but if not, you can check out their locations in ZaFrostPet's video above. You can do these in any order, so pick whichever is the most convenient for you and get going.

Betrayal of Felassan

The Betrayal of Felassan is located in the Converged City in the Crossroads. Use your Champion Essence on the Blight door here to make your way into the lower part of the island, where you'll face the boss. This boss is no joke at level 32, so make sure you're at or above that level before approaching.

This boss is weak to Necrotic damage, which makes Emmrich and Lucanis particularly helpful in this fight. It's also got a shield that prevents it from taking damage from the front, meaning you'll need to get behind it before you can take it out. The Betrayal's attacks are pretty heavily telegraphed, so play safe rather than greedy. If you time it right, the attacks can be parried, but if you fail, you'll be heavily punished.

Slaughter of the Pillars

The next Revenant boss you'll need to fight is the Slaughter of the Pillars, who can be found in Elvhenan's Haven. Using your Champion Essence on the gate here will open it up, allowing you to approach the Slaughter of the Pillars. This boss uses a spear and shield, much like the Betrayal did, but there are a few differences in this fight to keep an eye on.

The first thing to be aware of is that this boss is level 37, making it more dangerous and tougher to take down than any previous bosses. Additionally, this arena is smaller than Betrayal's, so you have to be smarter about where and how you dodge. You don't want to get backed into a corner against this melee-style boss.

Like the Betrayal, the Slaughter will summon undead adds periodically, making your fight that much trickier. Use any AoE or burst attacks to take out multiple adds at once to give you more space to focus on the Slaughter. Once you defeat the Slaughter, you'll pick up another Revenant Essencandas, another Unique Chest.

Fall of the Protector

The final Revenant boss you'll need to face is the Fall of the Protector, which can be found in the Heights of Athim. You'll be able to open the gate in the area after destroying some smaller Blights, which will unseal to allow you into the boss arena. This fight is a bit different than the other two.

This last boss is the strongest of the three at level 42. It's also not a shield/spear user, which means you've got some new attacks to look forward to. The Fall is a spell user and prefers to attack from a distance. This means you should ensure that your range damage is up to snuff.

The Fall is weak to Cold and resistant to Fire damage, meaning you should bring Neve with you on this quest to maximize your chances of winning. The Fall doesn't want to be near you, so take advantage of this by going in for bursts of close-up damage between its attacks. It will also spawn undead as you fight, so you'll need to multitask, dodging its attacks while also clearing out those pesky adds.

Once you take down the Fall of the Protector, you'll receive your last Revenant Essence as well as a third Unique Chest. Now, you're ready to head back to the triple-locked gate in the main area of the Crossroads. There are a few things you might want to do first, like upgrade your equipment, but you can also head right there if you're impatient.

Defeat The Revenant Dragon

If You Made The Right Choices Earlier, This Fight Will Be Easier

Once you're ready, head back to the gate to the side of the Lighthouse Eluvian in the Crossroads. Insert all three Revenant Essences into the Gate, which will open and allow you to slide down into the area underneath. Here, you'll enter the boss fight with the Revenant Dragon.

This dragon is nothing to sneeze at. Whether you fought the dragon in Minrathous or Treviso, you still won't be prepared for this level 50 monstrosity of a boss fight. While the Revenant Dragon is much stronger than the other Dragon bosses in Veilguard, it uses the same attack patterns. Here are some things to keep in mind:

This fight's gimmick is that the Revenant Dragon will swap which element it uses every so often, making it difficult to prepare for its attacks. With other enemies, you can equip certain armors or accessories that give you resistance, but against an enemy that uses multiple elements, you won't be able to do so very efficiently. Even so, as long as you play safe and smart, you should be able to take down the Revenant Dragon.

If you followed up on the "Regrets of the Dread Wolf" quest before coming to this fight and convinced Mythal that you were worthy of receiving her essence, she'll show up here to help you face your foe. This questline is necessary to get Veilguard's secret ending, so it's a good one to complete either way. This will only make your time fighting the Revenant Dragon easier, allowing you to take it down quicker to obtain your rewards.

"Heart of Corruption" Quest Rewards

A Pile Of Currency And A Unique Reward

After you take down the Revenant Dragon, the Caretaker will appear, musing that the Revenant Dragon seemed to be one of the gods' weapons in place to take down the Crossroads. You'll get a "Quest Complete" popup, which will list the following rewards:

This is mostly just currency and stuff that can be sold, but if you keep following the path that opened up behind the arena, you'll be able to pick up the "Dragon's Tear" memento as well as a unique chest. This chest contains the "The Last Resort" ring, which gives you +20% damage and -20% to your Resistances each time you use an Ability that hits an enemy. The bonus is reset each time you dodge or defend (RB).

After the boss has been defeated, congratulate yourself. This is one of the harder bosses that Dragon Age: The Veilguard has to offer. It gives you progress towards the "Bringing Down the Sky" achievement, which requires you to defeat each High Dragon in the game. Whether you're ready to strap on your dragon-hunting boots, you've successfully completed "The Heart of Corruption."

Video Credit: ZaFrostPet/YouTube

Systems

Released October 31, 2024

Developer(s) BioWare

ESRB M For Mature 17+ // Blood, Nudity, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, Violence