Dragon Age: The Veilguard – The Heart of Corruption walkthrough

How to complet the Heart of Corruption quest in Dragon Age: The Veilguard to unlock the Crossroads gates

Dragon Age: The Veilguard / EA/BioWare

The Heart of Corruption is a quest in Dragon Age: The Veilguard that you’ll get very early on, but won’t be able to complete until you’re quite a long way into the game. This quest has a lot of different steps and involves defeating a lot of tough bosses along the way, so it isn’t an easy undertaking.

Still, the rewards are worth it so we’ll explain every step of the process, so you can complete The Heart of Corruption in Veilguard as soon as possible.

Finding the Champion Essence

The door at the start of the Crossroads with the three locks on it will no doubt have piqued your interest, but before you can unlock that, you first need to unlock three other doors in the Crossroads, one in each of the main areas leading from the three docks, which are unlocked by defeating powerful ogres hidden in Blight Cists around the world.

Champion Essence 1 – Gate of Deep Sorrows

Dragon Age: The Veilguard / EA/Bioware

This first essence is found on the Rooftops of Treviso, and to get it you must defeat a Level 25 Ogre called Desmel, Bloodbound to Elger’nan who uses powerful blood magic.

Champion Essence 2 – Gate of Parched Hopes

Dragon Age: The Veilguard / EA/Bioware

The second essence is in the northeast section of Arlathan Forest, in a ruined building overrun by blight. A horde of Darkspawn will appear when you first arrive here, so we recommend defeating them before breaking the Cists and summoning Entarus the Rekindled, who uses powerful fire attacks.

Champion Essence 3 – Gate of Pale Reflections

Dragon Age: The Veilguard / EA/Bioware

The final essence is in the swamp at the center of the Hossberg Wetlands. Once again, this area with have enemies you should clear out before taking out this high-level Ogre, Amarell the Unknown.

Defeating the Revenants

Each of the three Champion Essence will open the path to three Revenant bosses, which are among the hardest in the game. You will need all three of the Revenant Essences that they drop to unlock the gate back at the Crossroads hub.

Revenant Essence 1 – Betrayal of Felassan

Dragon Age: The Veilguard / EA/Bioware

This Level 32 boss is no pushover. Found in the Converged City, it has a heavy shield that can deflect attacks, several large AoE attacks, and the ability to spawn minions to pester you throughout the fight. Defeating it will get you your first Revenant Essence and a unique chest holding The Burden amulet, which has the following effects:

• +20% damage while at low health
• Low health triggers 10% earlier
• Your health cannot go above 70%

Revenant Essence 2 – Slaughter of the Pillars

Dragon Age: The Veilguard / EA/Bioware

This boss is in the Elvhenan’s Haven section of the Crossroads. This boss sits at Level 37 and is quite similar to the previous boss, as it has a big shield and summons minions to try and wear you down over time, though its attack patterns are different. Defeating it will get you a second Revenant Essence and a unique chest containing Andraste’s Will, a ring with the following effects:

• +50% burning duration
• +1 maximum burning stack
• All afflictions that you apply are applied as burning instead

Revenant Essence 3 – Fall of the Protector

Dragon Age: The Veilguard / EA/Bioware

In the Heights of Athim section of the crossroads, this is the boss that sits behind the big gate on the high-up platform you’ll see when you first enter this area, and it’s quite different to the other two bosses. You’ll start off by having to defeat a Zombie Horde, then when the boss spawns you’ll find it’s an ice mage that hovers above the ground, making it hard to hit with a lot of your abilities.

Defeat it and you’ll get the final Revenant Essence and another unique item, that will be a different weapon depending on your class. As a Rogue, we got Optimist’s Span, a broadsword with the following effects:

• Your weapons deal +100% damage while attacking in the air
• Your weapons deal -30% damage while attacking on the ground

Fighting the Revenant Dragon

Dragon Age: The Veilguard / EA/Bioware

With all three Revenant Essence in hand, you can now return to that first locked gate that caught your eye and unlock it. After a short run through you’ll be faced with your final test, the Level 50 Revenant Dragon boss.

Attack-pattern-wise, this boss isn’t any different from all the other dragons you fight in this game, but there are a few important things to keep in mind. First, this dragon spawns with a layer of armor in its health bar, which means you’ll need to prioritize heavy attacks first. Second, this dragon changes the element it uses to attack at certain milestones in its health bar. It starts with fire, then switches to frost, and finally shock.

You can get a bit of help though, as if you already have convinced Mythal to give you her essence, she will appear in her dragon form and knock a big chunk of the Revenant Dragon’s health bar off for you, making the fight a lot easier. Aside from that, just stay out it’s way where you can, make you’ve got plenty of revives, and you’ll be good.

Defeating it will get you one step closer to getting the Bringing Down the Sky achievement, which requires you to defeat every high dragon in the game. On top of that you’ll get a unique ring called The Last Resort, which has the following effects:

• Each time you use an ability that hits an enemy, gain +20% damage and -20% to your resistances.
• The bonus is reset if you defend or dodge.