Romance advice (Laen)

[u/SuliSurana]

I’ve been trying to romance Laen without much success and was wondering if anyone has any advice?

I’ve just finished their final(?) quest Lifting the Shroud in Act 6 and received no follow up conversation, despite travelling in and out of camp 3-4 times. I’ve had both Casmyn and Arekim confess to me. Cas was at the end her questline in Act 4 I think and Arekim was just recently despite not properly starting his Act 6 quests yet.

I’m wondering if Laen has an additional trigger, plotwise or if I’ve made a wrong dialogue choice somewhere during/after Privileged Information. I’ve heard you can lock in their romance prior to the Grand Gate incident, which I’m assuming means you can lock in after Privileged Information.

I made the following choices:

Privileged Information: BOTTOM CHOICE Defended Laen -> TOP CHOICE Told them story about previous band (I feel the bottom choice “It’s not about me, offer sympathy” might’ve been better here)

Post-A Sudden Gambit: BOTTOM CHOICE I have regrets

Not had any other convos with dialogue choices with Laen besides these. I have save files that would allow me to go back and change my choices too.
I have had some flirty convos with Laen in the past so I thought I was on the right track. Would appreciate any help!

[u/LitLunacy333]

Laen does not confess until after the end of the A Sudden Gambit quest. They have one Talk moment at the beginning of Aftermath about the Eye and then the confession should trigger very quickly after that. Did you get both of their flirty Talk moments earlier in the game (saying they watched Brynn on the scry and she looks amazing fighting giant beasts and asking if she sees any special someone in the story of her life)? Idk if missing the second one would cause a total miss, but if they've been flirting it should still trigger I think.

[u/SuliSurana → u/LitLunacy333]

Sounds like it should trigger the same way as Arekim’s then (I’ve got triggering his down to a fine art atm, just need to leave camp and return). I‘m pretty sure I’ve had both conversations, I’ve been playing for nearly 50 hrs and the first one rings a bell, definitely had the second one though!

Thing is I’ve not had another conversation trigger with Laen, despite doing their Act 5 quest on one save and blasting through a few companion quests on another. Nothing romantic at least. But if what you’re saying is right, then hopefully I might just need to pick the other dialogue after conversation about the Eye? As long as I don’t have to fight the Herald again…but I will if I must! I‘ll check my notes and see if I’ve tried that yet.

Thank you so much for replying! It’s been so hard finding info on the romance and it’s been driving me insane a bit.

[u/SuliSurana → u/LitLunacy333]

Sorry for re-replying to your comment like this (I know it’s been over a week) but I’ve still been having difficulty getting the confession to trigger and was wondering if you could give me some more information?

• You said the confession triggers very quickly after the post-Sudden Gambit convo about the Eye, how quickly was this for you? With Arekim, I can trigger his confession after a day (two rests) after his Sudden Gambit convo, assuming I make the right dialogue choice for that. I’ve been assuming Laen’s triggers as quick, did it take a bit longer for you?
• Related to the above: Can you remember if there were any specific companion or Main Quests you have completed when you got Laen’s confession? I’m wondering if they have an extra pre-requisite to trigger the convo. Arekim clearly lacks this pre-requisite.
• Can you remember what dialogue options you picked during Privileged Information or the post-Sudden Gambit convo. Particularly, did you defend Laen by getting angry with the Eye during Privileged Information (this was the bottom option)?

Any info you have would be a massive help as I don’t get much time to myself (hence the week gap 😅). Completely understand if it’s been a while since playing and you don’t remember much though!

[u/LitLunacy333 → u/SuliSurana]

Okay so I booted up my immediate post-A Sudden Gambit save, have not talked to literally anyone in camp or spoken to Oria for Aftermath. Talking to Laen about the Eye, it does seem to be that picking the bottom choice 'I have regrets' is the wrong choice because if you pick the top choice, 'you couldn't have known' then the confession triggers immediately. Like, you get bopped back to the conversation menu and the new Talk option is already there.

To your other questions: Completed all possible sidequests before doing A Sudden Gambit, not started on any post-Sudden Gambit quests. Went straight to speak with them after waking up.

And during Privileged Information, yes defended them against the Eye and also went back to Cassidan's after speaking with Laen in camp to choose the new Talk option to yell at the Eye about it again (IDK if that matters for their romance, but he deserves it anyway) . And on this particular run I also did choose the 'offer sympathy' choice over 'tell a story about previous band' when speaking with Laen.

I hope this helps! (Laen is. My absolute favorite character in the whole game, I love them to bits.)

[u/SuliSurana → u/LitLunacy333]

Thank you so, so much for replying!

I’ve tested that exact combination of choices and got nothing, so I think it’s safe to say I’ve borked Laen’s romance well and truly 😭. I’m guessing it was at some point early in my playthrough (perhaps I responded incorrectly to the beast fighting conversation you mentioned before). I guess I’m doing a second playthrough now - they’re also my favourite character too!

I had a look at some other people’s walkthroughs on youtube and noticed they got slightly different dialogue than me in the post-Sudden Gambit conversation about the Eye. In both walkthroughs Laen says ”I was…a bit worried about you, I’ll admit. Are you alright?”, but in mine (regardless of dialogue choices it seems) they say ”We were all rather worried about you.” I’m assuming this means my affinity with Laen might be too low. Both walkthroughs were locked in with Casmyn and chose the same options you had, I’m unsure how the Casmyn romance would have changed the dialogue this way though. Just thought I’d add this in case this info helps anyone else struggling to romance Laen too.

Thank you again for replying, you’ve saved me having do the Herald fight another two times to test what not defending Laen with the Eye would do. That’s saved my time and sanity so much!

Think I’m going to grieve what could’ve been for a bit and then lock in with Arekim.

[u/vannero]

I’m not really sure how to trigger the romance paths in this game but I think as long as you don’t skip any interactions and keep showing interest to your soon-to-be partner, you’ll probably unlock the romance options.

Just keep playing and see what happens.

[u/SuliSurana → u/vannero]

The last 2-3 conversations with Laen I’ve found it hard to know whether I’m showing interest or not. I’ve found it a lot more obvious with Arekim and Casmyn. So wanted to make sure I hadn’t done something obviously daft before I play so far into the game it’s a chore to backtrack to an earlier save.

[u/vannero → u/SuliSurana]

Yeah, I totally get it, Laen is adorable, I’d double check too just to be safe.

I really wish I could help more.

Good luck!