In Dragon Age: The Veilguard, upgrading both your gear and your faction merchants is essential for strengthening Rook and their companions as you progress through the campaign. To take full advantage of the Workshop’s potential, you’ll need to collect Mementos scattered throughout Thedas, each offering a bit of lore and the key to unlocking new upgrade opportunities. In this article, we will discuss how to upgrade the workshop and merchants in Dragon Age: The Veilguard.
How to upgrade the workshop in Dragon Age: The Veilguard
To upgrade gear to higher levels in Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Rook will need to upgrade the Workshop. This is done by increasing the Caretaker’s power, which is linked to collectibles called Mementos. Mementos can be found throughout Thedas, and each one often has a bit of lore tied to it, available through a codex entry. They can be purchased from Merchants or discovered and looted during exploration. Once Rook has gathered enough Mementos, a pop-up will notify them that the Caretaker’s power can be upgraded. To do this, Rook needs to return to the Lighthouse, visit the Workshop, and select “Rank Up” on the right side of the menu. This will allow them to upgrade both their own gear and their companions’ gear to higher levels.
Trading Mementos to upgrade the Workshop also unlocks the ability to add Enchantments to items. At first, there are only a few basic Enchantments available, but as the Workshop ranks up, more Enchantments can be applied. To access them, players can select “Enchant” from the Workshop menu. After Rook solves the statue puzzle and unlocks the hidden Library passage in the Lighthouse, they’ll be able to access the balcony. Here, they can repair the Astrolabe, which boosts the Caretaker’s power. This also gives a permanent discount on upgrades at the Workshop for the rest of Dragon Age: The Veilguard.
How to upgrade the merchants in Dragon Age: The Veilguard
To learn about a faction merchant’s upgrade path, you’ll need to talk to them at their preferred location. These upgrades require various materials, and you may need to build up enough faction reputation before you can access the next rank. The biggest challenge in upgrading a faction merchant is earning enough faction reputation, but you can gradually improve this as you progress through the game. The best ways to gain reputation are by selling valuable items to the merchant or completing side quests in their region or near their headquarters. Some main story missions also offer faction reputation rewards.
The quests won’t always be available right away. You may need to return to the faction regions later to see if new ones open up as the Veilguard campaign progresses and more areas unlock. Selling valuables is a quick and effective way to level up faction merchants, plus you’ll earn gold from the transactions, which is a great bonus. When a region unlocks during your campaign, you won’t be able to grab everything right away. It’s better to return later, after you’ve completed more story missions and advanced some side quests with your companions. Talking to them might unlock more chances to interact with these factions. Keep in mind that earning reputation with the faction your Rook started with will always be faster than with the others. This is something to consider when creating your character at the start of the game, since your starting faction can’t be changed later on.
