Avowed walkthrough route for the main story

Avowed isn’t quite as sprawling of an RPG as some other games of its ilk, but a full main story walkthrough is good to have on-hand as you try to free the Living Lands from its plague and figure out just what’s going on with all these strange gods. 

There are also many quests where your actions will impact the state of the world, sometimes directly affecting what you have to do next. There are also many points where your choices will give you specific abilities to use for the rest of the game, so we’ll point these out to you when they come up.

Our full Avowed walkthrough covers the entire main story at a glance, including pivotal choices and moments.

Avowed walkthrough and main mission list

Avowed takes place in Eora, the setting for developer Obsidian Entertainment’s Pillars of Eternity series of role-playing games. You’re cast as an envoy from the Aedyran Empire and tasked with investigating a plant-like scourge infecting an island region known as the Living Lands.

The Avowed main story plays out across 11 main missions:

1. On Strange Shores
2. Message from Afar
3. An Untimely End
4. The Animancy Method
5. Ancient Soil
6. A Path to the Garden
7. Face Your Fears
8. Shadows of the Past
9. Our Dreams Divide Us Still
10. The Heart of the Living Lands
11. The Siege of Paradis

How long it takes you to finish these missions is entirely dependent on how caught up you get in optional activities. Avowed all but requires you to regularly upgrade your equipment to survive, and to do that, you’ll need to complete a lot of side quests. But if you’re looking for a summary of the main story, this Avowed walkthrough has you covered.

Bear in mind that this entire guide contains spoilers, so for extra caution, you can consult the table of contents below to jump to a specific story segment.

On Strange Shores

Avowed begins with a shipwreck. After creating a character (including deciding your background and assigning your attribute points) you end up near a dilapidated seaside fort. Pick up your first weapons and fight the Xaurips and other enemies. Here you’ll learn about using various mushrooms for elemental puzzles – in this case using the hot Magran’s Fury to burn through some brambles.

Now you’ll face your first choice, on whether to trust the stranger Ilora and free her or whether to leave her in prison. This won’t have a huge impact, but there will be some consequences, so choose carefully!

Either way, keep pressing forward, fighting enemies and burning brambles, until you’re able to sail to Paradis.

Message from Afar

When you make it to Paradis in Dawnshore, you’ll learn that your contact has gone missing. You’ll meet your first companion, Kai, and learn that he can burn brambles with his blunderbuss. Who needs mushrooms anyway?

Once you find the ambassador, you’ll need to kill an infected bear. Then commune with the adra to speak to the strange voice in your head.

If you accept the Voice’s help, you’ll get the Godlike ability Dream Touch, which heals and revives allies while dealing damage to nearby Delemgan, Dreamthralls, and Vessels. If you instead choose to reject the help, you’ll get a bonus ability point.

An Untimely End

No spoilers, because there’s a pretty big story beat here, but once you get through it, you’ll be trying to solve a crime. Meet Marius, your newest companion, to help you track down the culprit. 

Marius will point out where he thinks the crime was committed, and you’ll be able to find some evidence there that will lead you to the Apothecarist. When you arrive, he’ll be being threatened by local thugs – defeat them and their leader. This won’t make you popular in town, so watch out for people coming after you after this!

Once you save him, the Apothecarist will point you in a new direction, so head to the Temple of Ondra. Then track the culprit through the cisterns, fighting anyone who gets in your way.

Once you find the person in question, you’ll have a choice about how to deal with them. This one is pretty influential on outcomes in the late-game, although it won’t affect how you play the rest of the game directly. 

After choosing, you’ll be asked to visit a Watcher, a local spiritual advisor, and then sent off to the second area of the game, Emerald Stair.

The Animancy Method

In the city of Fior mes Invèrno, find the governor, who will point you in the direction of Giatta, your third companion. Giatta is an “animancer” — a type of magic-user who deals with puppeting the soul. You’ll have to run errands for several of her friends before she’ll be ready to travel with you.

You can tackle these errands in any order, but chatting with Ivette and Remi at the docks and helping Elia deal with a feral revenant are fairly straightforward. The third errand, collecting an Adragan Heart for Monto Pastor, is a bit more involved.

You’ll need to head to the Delemgan Glade and ask the queen for the heart. If you can avoid combat with the enemies outside the queen’s area, you should be able to persuade her to hand it over peacefully via dialogue options. However, this is easier said than done! If you’re even spotted by her guards en route to her chamber, you’ll have a pretty big fight to deal with when it comes to the queen herself.

Whether or not that went smoothly, return the heart to Monto and (if necessary) complete the other quests for Giatta’s friends. You’ll have to head down to Giatta’s basement and learn a bit about her backstory, and then you’ll have your third companion.

Ancient Soil

[Note: This section contains extra spoilers.]

The main quest “Ancient Soil” will send you to Naku Tedek, some ruins towards the south of Emerald Stair. You’ll need to have Giatta with you for this quest. 

However, there’s a good reason not to go Naku Tedek right away. Instead, go to the Waterfall Cave and see what you discover there.

Once you do go to Naku Tedek, follow along with Giatta’s experiments. When you get to a closed door, don’t forget that Giatta can electrify the wall switches. Watch out for the traps and enemies on your way down into the depths of the ruins. 

In the room with the corpse pinned down with a weapon, you can either pick up the Giant’s Slumber, a unique one-handed melee weapon, and fight two waves of strong spectres, blights, and scourges, or leave it alone and continue unscathed. Either way, you’ll only be one fight with a bunch of Xaurips and a miniboss mushroom from communing with the adra.

You’ll have a choice to accept or reject a gift here. Accepting will get you the Godlike ability Thorn of Sapadal, which fires a thorn of energy that pierces, deals damage, and roots enemies in place. Rejecting the power grants you a bonus ability point.

A Path to the Garden

Head to Thirdborn to meet with Yatzli. 

On your way, you’ll have to talk to the Steel Garrote captain, Aelfyr, and fight some Dreamthrall outside the city before you can get in, but otherwise this quest is very straightforward.

Face Your Fears

Now that you’ve officially recruited Yatzli, head to Ryngrim’s Domain, in the northeast of Shatterscarp, with her in your party. There’s a camp in Shark’s Teeth that you’ll pass on the way, so you can add her there if you don’t want her in your regular rotation. 

Use her ability to dispel illusions and head into the icy area, following the path until the archmage asks you to reassemble a statue. Explore around to find the three pieces you’ll need.

Once the statue is complete, it’ll teleport you to the tower. Be prepared for a big fight with multiple waves of skeletons and spectres. 

After speaking to Ryngrim, you’ll be able to teleport out of the tower.

Shadows of the Past

Head north to Naku Kubel, again with Yatzli in your party. Enter the tower and complete the three trials: Strength, Wisdom, and an unnamed test of your soul. When you’ve finished the trials, you’ll be able to speak with the voice at the adra. 

Once again, you’ll have a choice between accepting and rejecting their power for different abilities, but it will also depend on another choice made at the end of the quest. 

For now, the tower is filling with Dreamthrall that seem to be endless, so make your escape.

Speak with Lödwyn and Ryngrim. You’ll have a big choice to make about what to do about the Dreamscourge here, so it may be worth making a save if you want to see the eventual impact of both outcomes. 

• If you accept the offer and destroy the ruins, you’ll get the ability Scion of the Immortal Land, which increases your damage and regenerates your health for 12 seconds. 
• If you accept the offer and sever the adra, you’ll get the ability Severed Branch, which grants you maximum move speed for 20 seconds.
• If you reject the offer, whatever you choose next, you’ll get a bonus ability point.

Return to Thirdborn to close out this quest.

Our Dreams Divide Us Still

Head to Galawain’s Tusks. You’ll be able to get as far as seeing the Garden in the distance, but won’t be able to cross the sea to it, so you’ll have to head to Solace Keep. Be sure to have Marius in the party to get in, but even when you do, they won’t help, so head back out to find the Steel Garotte.

After making your way through their camp, you’ll get a chance to speak to Lödwyn. If you agree with her plan, and your previous actions have impressed her, you can avoid a fight, but otherwise, defeat her. Then interact with the adra.

Accept help to get the ability Seeds of Vengeance, which replaces Dream Touch for the same effect while also adding three corpses as allied puppets. Reject it for another ability point.

Head back to Solace Keep and from there, through the lava tubes. When you finally reach Kostya, you’ll get to decide what happens to the city. After that, head to the Garden.

The Heart of the Living Lands

As you progress through the Garden, you will also get the quest Pulling Back the Veil which, though marked as a Main Story quest, appears to be entirely optional. It involves helping your companions learn important lessons; speak to them when prompted if you want to complete these objectives.

Otherwise, keep going until you fight a Pristine Maegfolc, and when you do, be sure to pick up its arm as you’ll need it shortly. After you repeat this with two arms, you’ll be at a major point of no return, so save if you want to.

In the following cutscene you’ll make a major decision. This will have various outcomes for the world depending on your earlier choices, but you’ll also get a final ability.

• If you choose “destroy,” you’ll gain the ability Woedica’s Call, which summons a maegfolc to fight on your side.
• If you don’t choose “destroy,” you’ll get Sapadal’s Fury, which lifts all enemies and slams them into the ground again.

The Siege of Paradis

This final quest may look very different for you depending on the choices that have led you hear, but speak with the leaders of the Living Lands and then head to Paradis. 

Save before speaking to Lödwyn, as this is essentially the final point of no return.

You’re most likely going to have to kill Lödwyn again, unless you can convince her based on your actions that you’re actually on her side, in which case congratulations, monster. 

After that, take a seat for the ending slides to learn what impact you had on the Living Lands and its people, and enjoy having finished Avowed!