I'm working on the People Person achievement and I can't figure out whether I've made friends with any of my party members or not. Is there any way of telling for sure who's a friend and who isn't?

I haven't gotten to Inquisition yet but awwww, out of context that's the sweetest topic title I've ever seen. In the other DA games there was an approval bar in the companion's equipment screen, that's all I know.

The portraits in character selection change to a different picture, so if you remember what they originally looked like you can easily tell.

As a rule of thumb: Characters are smiling/looking happy in the new pictures.

I think it's when the tarot card in character selection changes.

@sessh said:

Is that so? I noticed that the portraits would change based on where you were in their personal arc. For instance Cole's portrait changes to almost a pure white spirit form if you decide he should remember what he was before. Another one is Iron Bull's portrait changes to a horde of Qunari, where before it was just him. That is, if you decide to sacrifice the Chargers.

I also never lost approval with Varric, but during his personal story arc his portrait changed to him sobbing into his hands with red lyrium ghosts around him. Then when I finished his story arc, he was holding Wicked Grace cards and looking content.

@cusseta: Simply stated, no. You basically need to finish a character's arc in other to unlock this achievement, which involves doing their major personal quests, talking to 'em plenty and what not. The one exception to the rule would be Cassandra, who straight up starts referring to you as her damn friend. It takes a good while in order to reach this point, so unless you're at the very end of the game, I wouldn't worry about it.

The only indicator of progression within said arcs will be the tarot cards in your character select screen. They'll change after large personal events to basically better represent these characters' frame of mind. They're not really a reliable source, however, as some of 'em change multiple times and others just the one. What is cool, however, is that there are different versions for all characters depending on the decisions you help them make.

Make sure you finish the personal quests before doing the very last mission of the game, though, as while you can continue playing the game and doing side-quests afterwards, companion progression is shut down. If you're unsure whether you're at that point of the game, you're not. They make it pretty obvious.

Oh, and that damn thread title, man..

Uh people say look at the cards but no don't, they aren't an accurate judge. Why? Well for one there are two characters (I won't name for spoiler reasons) who you can most certainly do all their quests and be their "friend" but their tarot cards never change UNLESS you actually engage them as your love interest. Some characters can also get their Tarot swaps really really early without even needing to get along with them all that much. I didn't make a ton of pro Sera choices for example but she was the second person who got a Tarot switch for me.

Just play the game the way you want, do all the "inner circle" missions, and remember it isn't just companions. Pretty sure the advisers count too.

After re-reading my thread title... yep. That's embarrassing : P Thanks for the responses. I'll just keep pushing through friend quests until the achievement pops.

Each character has three tarot cards. Their initial card. Their friend card, and their romance card.

For example, here are Sera's three cards.

You can only get the friend card (they become your close friend) by you completing their personal quest line and engaging them in multiple conversations that show you all the cut scenes with them.

A couple of them even have four. As there is a choice for you to make in their personal quest line. One is they become your friend, the other is they do not and or something else happens with them.

Here is what they all look like by default. So if you don't have three that don't look like this, then you haven't talked to them enough to finish their quest lines and conversations. The only two you have to worry about showing something else and not counting are Blackwall and Iron Bull. But you will know if they are your friend or not if you have completed their quest/conversation path. So its easy to tell if you should have the trophy/achievement or not.

@sterling: Again as an aside not totally true. There are two companions whose card only changes if you romance them regardless of if you become their friend or not. There is also a post game event that can change some companion cards but who cares about post game, by then it is too late :P.

@karkarov: That is incorrect. There are three characters that you have to not only finish their quest line, but as I stated above, talk to them and go through their cut scenes and all dialogue for it to actually complete and switch to the friend card. There is no character that only has a romance card. And there is no character that has to be romanced to be a friend. You can get anyone of them to be your friend if you talk to them. I gotten all of them across two playthroughs.

Also the major key part of this that we have all forgot to post, is that they have to have high approval of you in order for this to even work. If you make choices for that person that they disagree with all the time you will not be able to gain their friendship. So even if you complete their story line, and talk tot hem all the way through you may not get the change. Because they disapprove of you. Or they don't approve enough. This is why this should be represented like in past games.