Dragon Age: Saboteur

We tend to watch a few video game challenge runs here in RPG Central. Mostly in the souls-like genre. My favorites of those have always been the challenge runs where the player has to kill every boss with one keypress, usually using an extreme sort of build that would leave nothing on the table; if the boss has a chance to attack, it’s game over.

Dragon Age: Veilguard usually hands out a unique item after a major boss fight. These typically have great benefits, but also severe drawbacks — for instance, an armor with zero initial defense, but as you get hit, the armor buffs itself up to insane levels. When Andruil’s Chord dropped, I was excited.

Andruil’s Chord is a unique longbow with 315 physical damage — super high, and 100 stagger — makes them unable to fight if it accrues enough. Weakpoint damage is super strong — the only way to kill dragons is by focusing on their glowing weakpoints. BUT: the arrows refresh super slow, taking ten seconds. AND: you only get one arrow. Being able to attack from range only once every ten seconds won’t be nearly enough to build up the momentum for the abilities to fire.

You get an instant arrow back when you kill something, though. So all you really have to do is just kill everything in one shot and you’ll never be out of arrows.

As far as I can tell, though, it is impossible to one shot the big bosses in the game. I could be wrong, but there are going to be monsters that take more than one shot to bring down.

My solution: arrow regeneration.

There’s a specific armor that grants +50% arrow regeneration. There’s a ring that gives a little more. An enchantment that gives some more. And in the skill tree — if you go looking, there’s two or three places which give you more.

All combined, shooting the one arrow refreshes in between 1-2 seconds. That still doesn’t generate enough momentum to make abilities super useful, but… there are abilities that don’t use momentum, and the skill tree can make those faster (and last longer) as well.

I’m maybe midway through the game. With my current build, I one shot trash mobs — instantly refreshing the arrow. Stronger mobs take two shots if I get a headshot the first time. And I can take on dragons ten levels above me with my insane weak point damage — between six-seven thousand damage for a charged weakpoint shot to the weak point. I was working on a dragon twenty-five levels above me, but it pulled a nasty trick, blinding me and stunning my companions and refusing to add weak points. That dragon’s day is coming… in maybe ten more levels.

Maybe next time, I’ll work on powering up the sword that only works if you’re jumping… or the one that gives you a permanent Necrotic Weapons buff. THAT one looks fun; there’s lots of stuff in the skill tree that boosts necrotic power. Doesn’t work against some mobs, though.