The gameplay basics to know about Dragon Age: Veilguard (so you can spend more time choosing the best hairstyle in the character creator)

If you’re interested in Dragon Age: The Veilguard, but it’s been a few years since you’ve played the rest of the series (or you’ve never played at all), you’re in luck. After a decade without any new Dragon Age games, Veilguard aims to be one you can jump in and play, with familiar classes for the Dragon Age veteran, which should also be easy to understand archetypes for newcomers. The gameplay looks to give us a modern RPG that draws from our favorite BioWare games like Mass Effect and the few good parts of Anthem.

And while Dragon Age has an immense amount of lore spanning games, comics, novels, and television, you shouldn’t feel overwhelmed even if you’ve never played before. The introduction will get you up to speed with what’s happening, and you can dive right into the game.

Here’s what you need know about Dragon Age: The Veilguard before it comes out in October.

When can I play Veilguard?

The game comes out on October 31, 2024. Up until launch, you can pre-order the game on the official EA site, Steam, the Epic Game store, or your big box retailer of choice. Console players can also pre-order from the Xbox or PlayStation stores. Pre-orders get a special blood dragon armor cosmetic for each class that mimics the box art of Dragon Age Origins, and look similar to the Blood Dragon armor in Mass Effect 2 and 3.

The game is available in a standard edition for $59.99 (PC) or $69.99 (console), or a deluxe edition for $79.99 (PC) or $89.99 (console). The extra $20 will get you extra armor sets and weapons for both Rook and your companions.

What are the playable classes in Dragon Age: The Veilguard?

There are three classes in Dragon Age: The Veilguard, exactly the same as previous games in the series: Mage, Rogue, and Warrior, each with three subclasses. But these familiar classes have new strengths and weaknesses, and play in a more action-oriented way this time around.

• Mage: In Dragon Age, Mages deal with spirits from beyond the Veil, heal wounds, and blow stuff up. In the Tevinter Imperium, where Veilguard takes place, Mages rule the land, and powerful Magisters are to be feared and obeyed. Mages have the following subclasses:
  • Death Callers are your typical Necromancers, animating the dead or causing enemies’ bodies to rot away.
  • Spellblades are melee Mages, with a variety of close range spells, a little like Inquisition’s Knight Enchanter.
  • Evokers call upon the elements burn, freeze, blast and otherwise unleash destruction on their foes. Your classic “Is it time for Fireball?” style of Mage.
• Rogue: If you want something stolen, someone assassinated, or some overwelmingly impenetrable vault to be penetrated? Rogue may be the class for you. Rogues have the following subclasses:
  • Veil Rangers focus on ranged combat with bows and crossbows — but they’re really fancy about it.
  • Saboteurs use bombs, traps, and tricks to bring down their targets.
  • Duelists stab people in close-quarters combat. Sometimes it’s just that simple.
• Warriors: Soldiers, mercenaries, and sometimes heroes (and just as often brutes and villains) these are your classic pick up a sword and fight types. Warriors have the following subclasses:
  • Slayers use big two hand weapons and prefer simple but brutally effective attacks that can break defenses and deal serious destruction
  • Champions are your bread and butter sword and board tank-style Warriors, with a sword and a shield and a hankering to keep enemies focused on them
  • Reapers use Night Blades — we don’t know exactly what those are yet, but they at least use two of them — to steal the health from their enemies, and also gain other strange and unnatural abilities.

You might compare the gameplay of Veilguard to the recent God of War games, mixed with Mass Effect-like combos and a primer/detonation system last seen in BioWare’s Anthem. It’s an active, fluid system and you can pause the game at any time to set up a primer and a detonation ability using not only your own abilities but those of the two companions who follow you into battle. If you’d like more info on combat, BioWare released a video on how high-level combat works to give you a better feel for the system.

Unlike in previous DA games, you can’t switch to and directly control one of the party members following you around, but you can still use the game’s command wheel system to order them to use their abilities to synergize with your own.

Your character is Rook, but Rook can be anyone  want

In Veilguard, your hero is named Rook — though like previous games, it’s less a name and more of a title. You can choose your character’s given name, and your last name is decided based on the faction you choose for Rook.

Your Rook is completely customizable, and Veilguard promises to have the most customization options yet, with a more robust character creator that offers more appearance options (and much better choices for hair). Like Dragon Age Inquisition, you can choose from four races for your character:

• Dwarf
• Elf
• Human
• Qunari

But you’ll also choose Rook’s faction, which allows you to customize your background in ways the series hasn’t offered since Dragon Age Origins — and even then, your origin primarily affected the starting scenario for your player, with just a few alternate options later in the game based on your choices. The factions in Veilguard may have more of a story impact, however. While many of these factions are new, choosing to be a Grey Warden, for example, feels like it would have an impact on the story. Here are the factions available to Rook in Veilguard:

• Grey Wardens
• Antivan Crows
• Veil Jumpers
• Shadow Dragons
• Mourn Watch
• Lords of Fortune

Companions in Dragon Age: Veilguard

The companions that join you on your adventure are a huge part of every Dragon Age game, and Veilguard is no different. Rook will be able to collect a series of seven unlikely allies in their quest to prevent the destruction of, well, Thedas itself.

These companions make up the game’s titular Veilguard, and each has their own reasons for being involved. Here are the companions who can join you in Veilguard.

• Davrin: A Dalish Elf and Grey Warden, Davrin serves his order as a monster hunter as well as the protector of Assan, a juvenile Griffon who fights at his side.
• Lace Harding: Deadly with a bow or a quip, Harding was a lead scout for the Inquisition, and she’s come to Tevinter (along with Varric Tethras) in pursuit of Solas. With the Inquisition gone, she joins Rook to prevent disaster from the weakened Veil. Harding is a surface Dwarf, never having been to Orzammar or other underground Dwarven cities.
• Bellara Lutare: This Elven Mage is a Veil Jumper from the Arlathan Forest, and she’s obsessed with ancient Elven artifacts and the magical secrets they contain.
• Emmerich Volkarin: A Nevarran Necromancer who aims to keep the dead in their graves (which is made much harder by all the demons escaping the Veil). This leads him to the Veilguard, along with his assistant, a skeleton named Manfred.
• Neve Gallus: A Tevinter rebel and member of the Shadow Dragons, Neve is both a Mage and a detective. She’s skilled at finding people and equally as adept at hiding herself and her agenda.
• Lucanis Dellamorte: One of the Antivan Crows, Lucanis is a master assassin who specializes in killing Mages, a risky calling in Mage-dominated Tevinter. He’s hunted and killed Venatori and freed prisoners captured by the secretive cult.
• Taash: A Qunari born in Rivain, Taash hunts dragons for the Lords of Fortune. She likes axes, killing, and having a good time.

You can have two of these companions with you at any moment — down from three in previous games — giving you plenty of ways to combine classes in combat.

What do I need to know about previous Dragon Age games to play Veilguard?

Dragon Age: The Veilguard requires no prior knowledge of Dragon Age games. You’re playing a new character in a new place, and though there is a lot of history to learn in the previous games, Veilguard starts off with a dramatic scene in where Lace Harding and Varric Tethras will set the stage for your new adventure.

During Veilguard, you’ll be adventuring through Tevinter, a kingdom that has been long discussed but never before seen in the Dragon Age games. Playing the previous games is recommended, but you don’t have to play them to understand what’s happening in Veilguard (though they will provide a lot more context).

Now that you know the basics, it’s time to go off and save Thedas, whether it’s your first time or you’ve done it three times already.