The best Dragon Age Veilguard factions are a hard thing to pick out when you're choosing a faction for Rook during character creation, but don't worry - it's not a huge deal and there's still the chance to ingratiate yourself with the other factions across the course of the story. From the Shadow Dragons to the Lords of Fortune to the Grey Wardens, with several factions to pick out, each one comes with their own perks and bonuses.
With that in mind, we've put together this page on the best factions in Dragon Age The Veilguard, laying the different advantages to each one, what you get for joining a faction, and how you can increase their strength and potential across the course of the game.
Best Dragon Age Veilguard Factions
Of the six factions available in Dragon Age Veilguard's character creation, I'd say the best is the Antivan Crows, mainly for their free extra potion slot, though it's a tight competition and that's only if pushed - the reality is that there is no clear standout among the six factions, and it's more contextual and about what you want to prioritize.
The factions don't offer much that you can't get in the game elsewhere, even the final extra buff in some cases - there's a Rune you can discover that grants an extra potion, for example. However, not having to worry about that by picking the Antivan Crows is a big help, and this bonus is equally valuable to any of the Dragon Age Veilguard lineages, classes, and builds.
Still, if there's a particular companion in Dragon Age Veilguard you want to appeal to, or a specific build you want to lean into (such as picking the Veil Jumpers when you're making a crit-heavy Rogue), picking the other factions is completely viable. None of them are seriously better or worse in any meaningful way, so feel liberated to choose more based on character concept than min-maxing.
All Dragon Age Veilguard factions
As mentioned, there are six factions that the players can choose from in Dragon Age Veilguard, with other non-playable factions (like the Inquisition and enemy groups like the Antaam) mentioned in-game. For whichever one you choose during character creation, you gain the following benefits:
- Faster reputation building with that specific faction (referred to as Strength)
- Slightly increased damage against a particular kind of enemy
- Bond-building dialogue options with the relevant companion
However, each faction in Dragon Age 4 has some unique features and minor benefits, including an associated companion and a unique buff. I've laid out the essential details on all the available factions below:
| Faction | Increases Damage Against | Ability/Buff | Associated Companion | Who are they? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grey Wardens | Darkspawn | Defense/Health Increased | Davrin | Paladin Knights who fight back the Blight |
| Veil Jumpers | Fade-Touched | Critical/weakpoint damage increased | Bellara | Scholars of ancient elven magic |
| Shadow Dragons | Venatori | Class specific resource regenerates faster | Neve | Stealthy resistance fighters keeping the Venatori blood mages at bay |
| Lords of Fortunes | Mercenaries | Perform combat takedowns more frequently | Taash | Bombastic treasure hunters and mercenaries |
| The Mourn Watch | Undead / Demons | Apply 1 additional affliction stack on enemies | Emmrich | Necromancers who study life and death. |
| Antivan Crows | Antaam | Hold 1 extra potion | Lucanis | Assassins who guard their home from the shadows. |
If you're going through character creation at the moment, don't worry - at the hub area you unlock soon there's a way you can discover how to change appearance in Dragon Age Veilguard, so if you want to customise your character's face again, feel free! There's no changing your starting faction after the fact though - it's not like Rook has access to a time machine with which they can rewrite their own history.
Once you properly start playing and begin looking at your Dragon Age Veilguard class skill tree, you'll also notice that three of the six segments are associated with one of the above factions (for example, the Warrior has segments for the Lords of Fortune, Grey Wardens, and Mourn Watch). As far as I can tell, the faction names just serve as a way of adding flavor to specializations and categorizing certain skills - they don't have any meaning beyond that. For example, choosing the Grey Wardens as your faction but ignoring their section of the skill tree in favor of the Lords of Fortune is completely fine.
How to increase Dragon Age Veilguard faction Strength
In Dragon Age Veilguard, each faction has a measure of Strength for the fight ahead. This is effectively a reputation system, where helping out a particular faction increases its Strength - similar to how collecting mementos in Dragon Age Veilguard helps the Caretaker strengthen their workshop.
As an example, the Dragon Age Veilguard Warden Vault side quest grants Strength to both the Grey Wardens and Lords of Fortune. However, be aware that some choices, such as the Dragon Age Veilguard Minrathous or Treviso choice can actually reduce a faction's Strength.
On the World tab of the map screen, you can see the Strength of all factions in a little sub-menu on the left. All factions start Weak, but you can increase the Strength of a faction by doing the following:
- Completing main quests and side quests associated with a particular faction (check the Factions and Regions quest section of your journal)
- Selling Dragon Age Veilguard valuables to a faction's merchant
The main benefit of increasing a faction's strength is that hitting certain Strength thresholds for a faction lets you pay to increase the rank of their merchant's shop, granting you access to new and better gear, helping you upgrade weapons in Dragon Age Veilguard. Just remember that the faction you align yourself with in character creation gets a little boost to their Strength gains, so upgrading their shop should be slightly easier.
Many of the best RPGs incorporate faction mechanics and politics into their gameplay and stories, and Dragon Age 4 is no exception here. If you want to read all our glowing thoughts on it, check out our Dragon Age The Veilguard review.
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