Dragon Age: Inquisition

This achievement is for becoming friends with three different members of your "inner circle" of traveling companions and advisers. You accomplish this by repeatedly talking to them, particularly after completing major story plot points, helping them with their individual quests, and in some cases doing specific operations on the world map that have their name.

As an example (side quest spoilers), talk to Cole repeatedly and ask about his abilities and what he is. After some story progression, there will be discussion with Solas and Varric about an amulet to protect him from binding, which leads to an operation to find it. After completion, you will have to decide to guide him toward becoming more human or staying a spirit. A few conversations and cutscenes later (taking him to lunch after convincing him to become human, in my case) he becomes your friend and counts toward the achievement.

Unfortunately, there is nothing evident in the game when the point has been reached, so you'll have to watch the achievement progress to determine when it happens.

Ok, I just got this achievement about 10 minutes ago so I will attempt to explain how I got it, this may not be the easiest way but this is how I did it (warning potential side storyline spoilers).

I ended up befriending; Cassandra (1st and easiest), Dorian (2nd) and Varric. I do apologise if I am a little vague here as I didn't track this as I went along i'm just recalling it all now.

Cassandra: I exhausted her dialogue options in Haven, then once I got to Skyhold I continued to exhaust her dialogue options, after a bit of progression in the main storyline and a few cutscenes you will find her sitting on a log reading one of Varric's novels. You talk to her about it (always go with the most kind option), then you are asked to visit Varric (in the great hall), you tell him Cassandra likes the books and wants the latest chapter. You should be able to talk to varric almost immediately after to receive the 'latest chapter' and prompt him to come with you when you give it to Cassandra. After you give her the book (cutscene), you become her friend.

Dorian: Once you recruit Dorian and you are in Skyhold you should get a quest after talking to him at some stage (this may be dependent on your main story progression), to take out 3 venatori mages (I'm sorry I can't remember the locales but if you assign this as your quest it will point them out). After you do this and talk to him a bit more you will eventually get a quest icon above Mother Giselle (in the main hall of skyhold), this pertains to a letter to Dorian from his Dad. Give this to Dorian and go with him to meet his dad. Once you meet his dad in the tavern make them talk, when you return to skyhold he will become your friend.

Varric: Varric's questline was the first one I started and was quite long-winded but I believe, still one of the easiest/first ones you can finish. In haven he will give you a quest regarding red lyrium (after you have seen the red lyrium in the Hinterlands.........South East in a cave that looks like a mine). He wants you to destroy 12 red lyrium deposits, there are more then 12 in the game and they are spread throughout most of the side story areas (they will be shown on your map even without assigning the quest). Now once I had finished that I was in Skyhold (I don't think you can physically do it until you get to skyhold and unlock more areas). I have no idea if this has affect or not but in the main storyline quest where you enter the fade I allowed Hawke to die........when I got back to Skyhold Varric was grieving a bit but after awhile I found him talking to another dwarf in his usual position in the main hall of Skyhold. After talking to them you get a lead about 'Valammar' (the dwarven dungeon in the Hinterlands) and you head there until you pick up a key and get a cutscene with Varric and Bianca. The questline will then prompt you to speak with Varric (I believe the quest name for this Bianca part was 'Well, shit"), of which you do by finding him in his usual spot in Skyhold. Briefly talk to him (cutscene) and then after that talk to him again for another cutscene. In this next cutscene all the main characters are grouped at a table playing cards/ telling stories. Once this cutscene finishes (ps. there is a hilarious bit with Cullen), you will become Varric's friend.

If you follow all this (sorry if it's long-winded I did this best I could from memory), you will then get the achievement. As of writing this I have exhausted dialogue with all the main characters and have done some other storylines but none of which have resulted in them becoming my friend. If you need a hand just comment and I will try my best!

*This achievement could have been patched since other solutions were posted, but this is takes into account how it behaves currently.

Becoming friends with you your "three of your inner circle" includes all party members as well as advisers. You must (not mandatory) compete their personal quest to become friends with them. Becoming friends in Inquisition is exactly the same as in previous Dragon Age games approval. Approval is still a tracked statistic, but it is not shown. There is no way to determine when or how close you are to becoming friends, but competing their quest results in a large amount of approval (not always stated on screen). Always side with a character you want to befriend as well. If they disapprove it will only be harder for you to gain their friendship later on.

Pick three characters you like, I suggest not trying to befriend a character you are romancing since it is unknown if they count. I got the achievement from working with my party before and after "Wicked Eyes, Wicked Hearts." I chose Iron Bull, Cassandra and Solas. By talking to each of them before the quest and completing Solas's personal quest I became his friend and I became Cassandra's friend without doing her quest (I have used her the entire game so her approval was high enough from that). I then completed WE,WH, after which Iron Bull gave me his quest.

The characters tend to have several layers of dialog that are not visible at the same time. Talk to them and exhaust all options you want to speak to them about then exit the conversation. Retalk to them and see if new options become available. Rinse and repeat until they either give you their personal quest or the dialog repeats. If it repeats finish a story mission and come back, there is a good chance they will now receive new options.

Once the approval threshold is reached you must talk to them to trigger a cut scene where they say they are now your friend. The achievement tracker will increase by 33% per character you befriend. This is how you can check that it is tracked, they will explicitly say they are your friend so no guessing is required.

There is some misconception about character cards. The friendship status of a party member and his/her character card is not related. Character cards are based on a variety of factors about their status.