Dragon Age: Origins

**HEAVY SPOILERS**

This achievement requires you to experience 4 different endings in the game. Each one differs in how the Archdemon dies, and who dies with it, or doesn't.

Ending 1 - Choose Morrigans way out and sacrifice no one to the archdemon.

Ending 2 - Turn down Morrigan (she leaves your group) and sacrifice yourself to kill the archdemon.

Ending 3 - Turn Down Morrigan, and let Allistair kill the Archdemon.

Ending 4 - Turn Loghain into a Grey Warden at the Landsmeet (Allistair will leave your party) and at the final battle choose him to kill the Archdemon.

Technically these take 4 playthroughs to accomplish, but for those of us without 160 or so spare hours to slog through the same missions four times, with careful saves you can easily get this with one character, and about 2-3 hours depending on your difficulty.

Save 1 - Once you reach the Landsmeet, make one new save before entering the Landsmeet Chamber. This save will allow you to go back and choose who you pick. Once inside, it does not matter who you choose, Allistair or Loghain. Each is only required for 1 of the endings, and you can get the other 3 with either one. You don't even need one of them if your character is male (for Ending 1).

For this guide I picked Loghain as Allistair was in love with my Character, and would, if in the party at the end, not let her sacrafice herself to slay the archdemon.

Save 2 - Next, once you get to Redcliffe castle and after conversing with the Arl and the others, you will have to go upstairs to talk with Riordan. Save either before conversing with him, or right after. Make sure NOT TO GO INTO YOUR ROOM BEFORE MAKING A NEW SAVE. Once in your room Morrigan will make her offer to you. Choose to not take her offer this first time.

Save 3 - Finally, once you get to the final battle, and after taking back the gates, make one more save before you talk to Riordan. This save is how you choose who goes with you to the Archdemon, as I said if Allistair likes you enough he will not let you sacrifice yourself. And as for Loghain, I have not tried taking him and choosing myself to do the slaying. I do not know if he will let you do it or not, but once again I suggest saving here just in case.

Now you have all the saves you need. If you have followed this guide to the letter so far, then i suggest NOT taking any other Grey Wardens to the Archdemon, and sacrificing yourself at the end getting Ending 2. Next go back to the Save 3 and take another Grey Warden with you, whoever you picked at landsmeet. Sacrifice them to the Archdemon, getting Ending 3 or 4.

Next go to Save 2, and pick Morrigans offer with whoever you have, or yourself if your character is male. This will get you Ending 1. Finally head back to Save 1, and choose the opposite character as you did the first time, and play till the end, turning down Morrigans offer, and choosing to sacrafice them at the end.


I do not know for sure how the have it setup to check the conditions required to unlock the achievement, either checking all saves, or your profile itself, I do not know. So i suggest viewing the ending, and making a new save after each ending. It takes an extra 5 minutes if you use X to skip everything, and means 4 more saves, but it with all this work already, it is worth it.

*SPOILERS*

Perfectionist Achievement Guide

This is the fastest way to get the Perfectionist Achievement as I know. It involves three strategic save points. If you follow this guide you should get the achievement in 6-8 hours depending on the difficulty rather then the 16-20 hours it would take otherwise.

Ending #1) Save Logain and tell Morrigan “No!”; Sacrificing Logain.

The first save point is when you arrive at the Arl of Redcliffe’s palace in Denerim. Just before the actual landsmeet you will have an opportunity to save. You will be by yourself running around the Arl’s palace. There is a quest you have to do in the Alienage so do that and save again. Hopeful you will save just as you’re ready to leave the palace for the actual meeting. This is save Point #1. We will come back to this save point in the second ending.

During the Landsmeet save Logain and let Alistair leave.

Note: If you haven’t done so already, prior to making your way to Redcliff go and buy as many heath potions as possible in Denerim.

Proceed through the final quest until you get to Redcliff. Once in Redcliff Castle go and buy more heath potions from the Dwarves then go to the Gray Wardens meeting. Once you have the Gray Wardens meeting upstairs in the Arl’s or Redcliff’s castle this will be save point #2.

Note: After the meeting with the Gray warden’s and prior to talking with Morrigan about her options this will be “Save Point 2” that will be used in ending 3. However, you do not need to save here yet.

Go to your room and speak with Morrigan, deny her request and she will leave your party. (I stripped her of all her positions prior to the meeting since she was leaving…and it made for a more interesting cut-scene). And I sold all her stuff to buy more potions and weapons.

Proceed with the quest until you get to the second floor of the tower. On the second floor you should find yourself in a room with a couple Ogers and a Mage. There are a few locked chests in this room. If you go up to the door, but don’t’ go through it just yet, you should notice that the door leads to the “Rooftop”.

Note: the door on the second floor of the keep that leads to the rooftop is “Save Point 3” that will be used in endings 3 and 4. However, you do not need to save here yet.

Next proceed to the Rooftop and fight the final boss, allow Logain to sacrifice himself and this will conclude Ending 1. Once you talk to the king and your codex saves you can load save point #1.

Tips on fighting the Archdemon:

Use the Ballistas!!. As soon as the battle starts proceed forward on your left up the ramp to the first Ballista. Keep you party in a holding pattern here to watch your back as you use the Ballista on the Archdemon. Also summon the Mages they do the most damage to the Archdemon. As the Archdemon moves have you party follow you to the next Ballista if you chose the one in front left you won’t have to move to far. He will move again and you will have to make your way to the furthest Ballista on the right as you are facing the rooftop door you came through. He will move one last time and you will then have to make you way all the way to the opposite end. Do so using the Ballista mezzanine on the left side to stay way from as many Darkspawn as possible. If you follow this strategy the enemy will do very little damage to your party since the Archdemon is too busy taking damage. If you run into trouble you only have to keep one person alive during the final fight, so use up all your health on your main character.


Ending #2) Killing Logain and tell Morrigan “Yes!”

Reload Save Point #1 - Arl of Redcliffe’s palace in Denerim. Go through the Landsmeet and kill Logain and place Alistair as king since we won’t need Logain or his daughter anymore. Then proceed to Redcliff.

Save just after the meeting with the Gray Wardens and prior to the meeting with Morrigan. This is Save Point #2. And we will come back to this save point for Ending #3.

Agree with Morrigan and then proceed once again to the final battle. This will be what I call the “Happy Happy Happy Joy Joy Joy” ending. Keep in mind the door to the rooftop.

Follow the Ballista strategy described above and kill the Archdemon. Let the credits roll. You might want to save in camp after the credits. This is the one I reloaded to keep everyone in my party and to keep playing.

Ending #3) Tell Morrigan “No!”, Sacrifice Main Charter.

Reload Save Point #2, talk to Morrigan and tell her “no deal”. [IMPORTANT] Pick Alistair as you final battle party member at the front gates. Then precede with the quest to the Seconds floor of the keep and save just prior to going though the Rooftop door. This will be Save Point #3!! [/IMPORTANT]

In the final fight and sacrifice yourself.

Ending #4) Sacrifice Alistair

Reload Save Point #3 at the rooftop door, fight the Archdemon and sacrifice Alistair. This will allow you to keep playing. If you want to keep Alistair go back and load the Camp save.

There it is! The quickest way to Perfectionist I know. I wrote this because I wish I had this during my playthough. If you want to keep playing just reload the camp save after ending #2!!.....

*SPOILERZ*
There is 4 possible endings that you need to view so you can unlock this achievement, they are as follows:

1. Towards the final moments of the game Morrigan will confront you after you learn how to defeat the Archdemon. She will offer you a solution to killing the Archdemon without having to sacrifice any Grey Wardens. if you take her up on this offer you will unlock a 50g achievement and will have discovered another ending.

2. Without taking up Morrigans offer, defeat the Archdemon and sacrifice the main character.

3. Without taking up Morrigans offer, defeat the Archdemon and sacrifice Alistair.

4. During the landsmeet a fight will break out between the main character and thier party and Loghain. When the fight is finished an offer between Loghain and a character of your choice to dual is presented. When you are choosing who to use at this point select your main character. After the fight is over you will have the option to either execute Loghain or to make him a Grey Warden. Choose to make him a Grey Warden (Choosing to make him a Grey Warden Removes Alistair from your party). Now without taking up Morrigans offer, defeat the Archdemon and sacrifice Loghain.

Numbers 2, 3, or 4 will also earn you another 50g achievement.

Thought I'd share a tip for the actual killing of the Archdemon.

Once the cut scene ends and the battle starts ignore the dragon completely and head up the nearby ramp to find a ballista. activate it to rotate it so it faces the dragon and keep firing away. Once the dragon takes X amount of damage it'll fly somewhere else, follow it and look for another ballista. rinse and repeat for an easy win.

Having your mage of choice (mine was Morrigan) set to spirit healer helps as she follows you about offering constant healing.

If you struggled with the Archdemon on your first playthrough, then try using mages during your second playthrough. Mages not under your control will automatically fire powerful spells at enemies, making them advantageous. Just make sure you have one tank in your party to deal close up damage. A main mage, Wynn and Morrigan along with a tank should work wonders.

Circle of Magi: The Fade is the hardest part of this because you have to know where to get all the abilities. Make sure you gather your abilities first, then defeat all of the demons. Then you want to bring back your party members. You'll need them for the Sloth Demon fight. Then there's one more fight to free the mages. If you want their support, you'll have to protect them with the Litany of Adrella.

Orzammar: The first main quest is easy. You'll have to take one trip to the Deep Roads to locate Lord Dace in Aeducan Thaig. Then you'll have to go through Jarvia's hideout. When you take the long corridor down the map, take the last exit to your left. This one leads to her room. Next, you'll head back to the Deeproads and navigate Caradin's Cross. Take the bottom exit to reach Ortan Thaig. This area is filled with spiders, but they're easy to defeat. At the end, read Branka's journal and exit to the Dead Trenches. This area is large but relatively easy to get through. At the end you'll fight the Broodmother. For this battle, just keep everyone centralized and use group heal whenever you need it. The room's exit leads to the Anvil of the Void.

Anvil of the Void: The Spirit Apparatus is easy to defeat. Just fire away at each anvil that lights up when a ghost foe is downed.

Anvil Fight: Keep your party from getting damaged by luring away attackers. This is especially true for Branka. You can go all out on the Caridin. I sided with Branka and defeated Caridin.

Nature of the Beast: Simply head over to Witherfang, go get Zathrian and defeat her. Or defeat the elves if you choose to side with the werewolves.

Urn of Sacred Ashes: You'll have to pass a few trials to get to the Urn. Other than that, it's fairly simple.

If you've already done the ritual:
Once you get past the rest of the main quests and make it to the Landsmeet, make a save. After the battle with Loghain, you'll be picking who will kill the Archdemon. If you pick Loghain first, come back later and pick Alistair. Then sacrifice them at the final battle. If it's your first time doing so, you'll unlock the following achievement:



For the final ending, simply load up your most recent save before the Archdemon battle, finish the fight and sacrifice yourself. If you still have the ritual to do, then accept Morrigan's request after the Landsmeet, no matter who you pick, and complete the game.