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Your Dragon Age Veilguard companions will be by your side for the long journey ahead, helping you in the fight against the Evanuris and even offering the possibility of romance if you play your cards right. While there are a total of seven companions who can join your squad, you'll recruit them gradually over the course of your campaign in Dragon Age The Veilguard, so although the process of getting them on board isn't that difficult it will take some time before every option is available to you.
Each companion is nuanced both in terms of their personality and the unique powers they have at their disposal - all of them have their own abilities and gear that can be upgraded, and they're also tied to particular factions, which can lead to some special interactions depending on your own faction. It's a lot to understand, so to help you recruit every companion in Dragon Age Veilguard quickly and figure out how to upgrade them, we've covered the essentials below.
All Dragon Age Veilguard companions
There are seven companions in Dragon Age Veilguard, all of whom are listed below in the rough order that they become available, as well as the Dragon Age Veilguard factions and classes they represent.
Companion | Class | Faction | Who are they? |
|---|---|---|---|
Neve | Mage | Shadow Dragons | A streetwise, ice-magic-slinging human detective. |
Harding | Rogue | Former Inquisition scout | A driven dwarf archer and explorer. |
Bellara | Mage | Veil Jumpers | An enthusiastic elven scholar of ancient magic and technology. |
Lucanis | Rogue | Antivan Crows | A human and master assassin possessed by a demon. |
Davrin | Warrior | Grey Wardens | An elf knight of the wilderness training a young griffon. |
Taash | Warrior | Lords of Fortune | A treasure hunter and tough Qunari dragon slayer |
Emmrich | Mage | Mourn Watch | A high-class human necromancer and academic. |
You'll also be pleased to read that all seven are Dragon Age Veilguard romance options, though not at the same time, as you're restricted to just one romantic relationship per playthrough - romancing companions is quite a long process so we've laid out how exactly it works in a separate guide linked above.
How to recruit all Companions in Dragon Age Veilguard
Minor spoilers ahead, but below we'll cover how to recruit all the companions in Dragon Age Veilguard. Like above, these are laid out in the order you'll encounter them across the game.
- Neve: Default companion available from the beginning.
- Harding: Default companion available from the beginning.
- Bellara: Recruited as part of the "In Entropy's Grasp" quest (1-2 hours in)
- Lucanis: Recruited as part of the "Sea of Blood" quest (3-4 hours in)
- Davrin: Recruited as part of the "A Warden's Best Friend" quest (4-6 hours in)
- Taash: Recruited as part of the "A Dragon Slayer" quest (8-12 hours in)
- Emmrich: Recruited as part of the "Where the Dead Must Go" quest (8-12 hours in)
The times laid out above are admittedly rough estimates that will vary depending on how much players do in the way of side quests (and how much trouble they have completing the game up until that point), but at the very least this is the set order - you can't recruit Lucanis before Bellara, for example.
The last two of these characters, Emmrich and Taash, have both their quests become available at the same time, though it's not important which you do first - the plot won't progress until you have them both.
We'll make it clear again; you cannot miss out on any companions or teammates in Dragon Age Veilguard so long as you're pushing through the main questline - the most you can do is delay the point at which you hire them by avoiding the relevant quest - in fact you might want to do this for Davrin to let yourself complete side quests before the Dragon Age Veilguard Minrathous or Treviso choice.
Dragon Age Veilguard companions ranked
In terms of ranking the Dragon Age Veilguard companions, there's no inherent "best companion" who is mechanically superior to the others. They all have good damage output and support abilities; instead it's about finding good combinations of teammates for the enemies you're going up against, paying particular attention to which effects a companion can apply and detonate with their abilities - there's a lot of crossover in this regard because the companions all represent classes in Dragon Age Veilguard, so mixing up your party is easy.
I'd recommend bringing Neve and Harding with you. Despite being the two default companions, they nonetheless make a powerful combo: Harding can heal and apply damage buffs as well as targeted strikes, while Neve does potent area-of-effect ice spells that damage and freeze crowds.
Likewise, the combination of Harding's Shred Power and Neve's Blizzard allows players to prime and detonate opponents - there are several combinations that can do this, as well as the player's own abilities, but it is still another reason that Neve and Harding work well together.
Dragon Age Veilguard companion upgrades and bonds explained
Additionally, all companions in Dragon Age Veilguard can be customized from the "Companions" tab of the main menu. Here you can do the following to make them more powerful:
- Swap their weapons and armor to alter their stats.
- Spend skill points to upgrade their abilities.
- Assign new active skills and powers for combat.
- Check your bond level and romance approval with them.
Equipment for companions is found throughout the game (especially in areas and quests connected with them, such as Dock Town for Neve) and can be enhanced just like Rook's, so make sure you know how to upgrade weapons in Dragon Age Veilguard.
Meanwhile, you unlock skill points for companions by increasing your bond level with them. Bonds appear to be separate from romantic approval, which means the main ways to increase your bond with a particular companion are to complete any quests while they're in your party, complete any companion quests they offer, and give them gifts. You'll also want to make sure you avoid the Dragon Age Veilguard Hardened condition as this will slow down the rate at which your bond increases.
Once a companion's bond goes up to the next level, you'll get two skill points to spend on their ability skill tree. The powers they have can also be slotted in and out from this menu - and you'll want to do that. Each character has six core powers, but can only ever have three usable in combat at a single time. To get more out of them, you'll need to swap them out to taste - try various combinations and see what works.
Dragon Age 4 has some excellent companions, as noted in our Dragon Age Veilguard review. But it's not alone in that regard as some of the best RPGs you can play now also have excellent allies.
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