Intros are dumb.
Dragon Age prelude. No spoilers!
Quick list of useful tips:
Tab is your best friend. Use it well and often.
Scrolling Down all the way enables you to go into top-down view (might need to shift the camera). This view also enables you to click through objects! This makes top-down a superior choice for scanning and/or looting an area.
Looting doesn’t have to be a one-man job. Try pausing with Spacebar, commanding each of your companions to loot a corpse, and unpausing (Spacebar). With just a little prep, you can significantly cut down your loot time.
Leveling up can seem daunting, but one very straight-forward approach is to look at the last couple of columns of a given character’s Talents/Spells. Pick your favorites and see what requirements you need to meet. Boom, now you know how to level.
The following order is what most people agree is the intended order-of-events for this game and its content. Since there are a few DLC that are only within Origins itself and a few that take place in different timelines and histories, I have placed them all under “Dragon Age Origins”, implying that they can be done at any point in the main game.
However, since there are a few significant bonuses, there are certain DLC that I highly recommend finishing early on. I include those opinions in the order presented below.
The Stone Prisoner, Warden’s Keep - finish early
Leliana’s Song
Darkspawn Chronicles
Return to Ostagar
Dragon Age Awakening
Golems of Amgarrak
Witch Hunt
I’m not going to say much here, since this game is all about choices. However, I do have a few pointers that will help you make better decisions. Having said that, I will not spend any time talking about the different intro stories since that’s all part of the individualized DAO experience. Rather, I’ll spend some time talking about the different classes and stats.
There are 3 classes you can choose from: Mage, Rogue, and Warrior. This decision actually affects a lot of your experience, but I think you should make it yourself. All three classes can deal massive amounts of damage, if leveled correctly.
Your Attributes are the Strength, Cunning, Willpower, etc. stats. The only advice I can give here is to read the in-game description for each stat (by hovering over the stat). The description is so…well…descriptive that I even still find myself referring to it every once in a while.
Your skills can be thought of as how you intend to interact with the world. For example, people who want to be able to Persuade NPCs obviously should consider Coercion. If you think poisons sound cool, do that. For the record, I’ve never done Trapping, but it seems like it could be pretty cool. The only advice I have with these is to (usually) try to max out a given skill tree. If you’re not console commanding, you won’t get that many opportunities to add skill points. As an example, there was one time when I suddenly realized that I needed the 4th and final skill in the Stealing skill tree. When I looked at my skills, I then saw and regretted the single point I put into Poison-Making.
As another note, it is a good idea to make full use of your companions’ starting skills. If a companion already has 2 points in Poison-Making, consider having them as your sole poison person. Having said that, it’s somewhat hard to judge what your companions will be bringing to the tabel (especially when you haven’t met them yet). Sadly, I can’t say anymore on that subject without any spoilers about your companions. You got this!
These are your bread and butter (and honestly the only exciting part about DAO combat). Choose wisely. Choose things that seem like they’ll be fun and interesting to see, because you’ll be using them a lot. The mage’s Spells are a bit more diverse than any of the Talents, so I suspect you’ll have some fun choosing those. As I mentioned before, I highly recommend basing a lot of your levelling decisions on what Talents/Skills you would like in the future.
If you don’t care about your companions’ approval rating, you can probably skip this section.
Gifts are explained in high detail (with MAJOR spoilers) here and here. Below is my spoiler-free explanation.
Most gifts can be given to any companion and will usually result in a change in their approval of you. What’s important, however, is that gift-giving has diminishing returns. This means that each gift you give a companion is 1-affection-point-worse than the last gift you gave that companion. Since most gifts only give +5 Approval, this obviously puts a pretty hard limit on how much affection you acquire via gift-giving.
However, what’s even more important is that each companion has a set of gifts that mean more to them. These gifts will give +10 Approval (with diminishing returns) instead of +5. Since each companion usually has less than 10 gifts that are special to them, it’s pretty obvious that ideal gift-giving requires you to give a companion all of their unique gifts, before non-special gifts (feel free to double check my math).
I’m not going to spend any time specifying who likes what (that’s for you to figure out!), but since there are so many non-special items, I will list all of the special ones here. I highly recommend selling all other gifts, unless it holds sentimental value to you. I also highly recommend gifting your companions as soon as possible, but that’s really only to have access to more dialogue options.
This list was shuffled once and then ordered by its approximate location (on a super broad, 5-valued scale of the entire map). This way, you A) should not be able to deduce who likes what (for the most part), and B) you should be able to travel with ease by simply checking the gifts you already picked up with this list. I do not recommend reading the list and hunting the items, although I’m sure there are some that you only have one chance to get. For the record, that has never been a problem for me.
| Gift | Location |
|---|---|
| Golden Rope Necklace | Lothering, Party Camp |
| Bronze Symbol of Andraste | Lothering chantry |
| Small Carved Statuette | Lothering |
| Joining Chalice | Ostagar |
| Golden Scythe 4:90 Black | Lothering |
| Silver-Framed Still Life | Redcliffe Castle |
| Wilhelm’s Special Brew | Honnleath |
| Golden Demon Pendant | The Gauntlet |
| Lamb Bone | Redcliffe Castle |
| Small Silver Bar | Haven Chantry |
| Locket | Haven Village Store |
| Map of Occupied Ferelden | Redcliffe Castle |
| Antivan Leather Boots | Haven |
| Remarkable Greenstone | Village of Honnleath |
| Stone Dragon Statuette | Redcliffe Castle |
| Large Bone | Haven, Soldier’s Peak |
| The Guerrins of Ferelden | Redcliffe Castle |
| Redacted | Redcliffe Castle |
| Discovering Dragon’s Blood: Potions, Tinctures, and Spicy Sauces | Ruined Temple |
| Onyx Demon Statuette | East Brecilian Forest |
| Silver Brooch | Dalish Camp |
| Legacy White Shear | Lower Ruins (Brecilian Ruins) |
| Ox Bone | West Brecilian Forest |
| Fancy Scroll | Lower Ruins |
| Andraste’s Grace | Redcliffe Village, West Brecilian Forest, Elven Alienage |
| Chasind Sack Mead | Ruined Temple |
| Dalish Gloves | West Brecilian Forest |
| Silver Medallion | Ruins Upper Level |
| Remarkable Malachite | Circle Tower |
| The Rose of Orlais | Circle Tower |
| Water-Stained Portrait | Senior Mage Quarters |
| Redacted | Senior Mage Quarters |
| Small Gold Bar | Circle Tower |
| Sun Blonde Vint-1 | Circle Tower |
| Silver Chain | Senior Mage Quarters |
| Chantry Amulet | Circle Tower |
| White Runestone | Circle Tower |
| Totem | Caridin’s Cross |
| Remarkable Amethyst | Dust Town |
| Cute Nug | Acquired in Dust Town |
| Remarkable Emerald | Orzammar |
| Veal Bone | Denerim Alienage |
| Current Map of Ferelden | Denerim Alienage |
| Black Runestone | Aeducan Thaig |
| Remarkable Topaz | Orzammar (Entrance) |
| Golden Mirror | Orzammar Commons |
| Medium Gold Bar | Arl of Denerim’s Estate |
| Remarkable Sapphire | Orzammar Commons |
| Steel Symbol of Andraste | Genitivi’s Home |
| The Search for the True Prophet | Orzammar |
| Ancient Map of the Imperium | Denerim Market District |
| Gold Amulet | Orzammar Commons |
| Map of the Anderfels | Grey Warden Vault |
| Medium Silver Bar | Anvil of the Void |
| Golden Symbol of Andraste | Orzammar Commons |
| Etched Silver Symbol | Ortan Thaig |
| Remarkable Ruby | Denerim Alienage, Cadash Thaig |
| Redacted | Grey Warden Vault |
| Portrait of a Goosegirl | Frostback Mountain Pass |
| Alley King’s Flagon | Orzammar Commons |
| Stone Warrior Statuette | Mountainside Caverns |
| Ale | Sold by Bartenders |
| Silver Sword of Mercy | Old Tegrin |
| Redacted | Companion Quest |
| Garbolg’s Backcountry Reserve | Found by Dog |
| Painting of the Rebel Queen | Old Tegrin |
| Tangled Ball of Yarn | Found by Dog |
| Wine | Various merchants |
| Redacted | Companion Quest |
| Blue Satin Shoes | Old Tegrin |
With the two Feastday DLCs, you are given a couple of super short/confusingly-worded “quests” to acquire the pranks and gifts. These are items you can purchase from a merchant who hangs out near your camp. All of these gifts are quite amusing, with some having actual animations for their respective character.
One should excercise extreme caution when using these items, however, because all of them will add or subtract 50 Approval from the corresponding companion. If you like a challenge or if you want your companions to “lighten up” to you at a regular pace, do not use these items on them. If erring on the side of caution, a safe way to complete the two useless Feastday quests is explained later, under “Easy Bonuses” (in the “Your Dog” subsection).
There aren’t many important items; especially if you don’t care about full sets of armor/weapons. However, one indispensible, priceless item is the Backpack. As you probably guessed, this item increases your carrying capacity. In a game with very few storage options, this quickly becomes a matter of necessity.
There are only a handful scattered around Ferelden, but there are three that you need to keep your eyes peeled for. These 3 are the only backpacks that you can miss in the game. Fortunately, all 3 are very early in the game. In fact, you’ll have acquired all 3 around the same time you make your first decision on where to travel (in the open map).
Without further ado, here is the simplified method to acquiring all 3:
The first two backpacks can be purchased from the Quartermaster in Ostagar (immediately after your character’s opening story). In order to purchase both backpacks from him, you’ll need to see him both before you head off to the Korcari Wilds and after you return.
The last backpack can be purchased from a merchant stationed at your party’s main Camp (visited only after leaving Lothering). It is important to note that the “3rd” backpack is only available on your first night at camp. This merchant will reappear and will actually have a 4th backpack later; however, your first night is your only chance to purchase his first backpack.
Believe it or not, you can Harden certain companions. To leave things super spoiler-free, here is the basic jist of Hardening:
Through multiple (very specific) dialogue prompts, a companion is forced to confront some sort of unfortunate truth.
After some time, the companion will notify you that they intend to change their behavior.
For the rest of the game, the companion will act (or attempt to act) differently, typically being more assertive and disapproving less whenever you’re assertive (i.e., you can be more assertive without losing approval). Hence the name “Hardening”.
None of this process is explicitly noted to the player. I.e., there is no prompt in the game that says “so-and-so has become hardened;” it just happens.
If you have a dog, there is an odd glitch that will likely go unnoticed:
Your dog is programmed to start with 100 Approval. Due to this (or maybe something else), you do not get your deserved bonus from befriending your dog! The following spoiler-free remedy temporarily reduces your dog’s Approval before maxing it out again. Afterward, you get all the bonuses you were supposed to get. Plus you complete 2 side quests.
You must be at camp to do this.
Purchase a Protective Cone from the merchant at your camp (this will also complete the useless dlc quest “Feastday Pranks”).
Gift the Protective Cone to your dog. Talk to your dog, if you’d like.
Purchase a Stick from the merchant at your camp (this will also complete the other useless dlc quest “Feastday Gifts”).
Gift the Stick to your dog. Exit the Inventory sceen to see the changes take place.
Note that the Stick (and probably Protective Cone) are still items in your inventory. Like all Feastday Pranks/Gifts, in addition to being giftable, they can sometimes activate funny scenes. In my opinion, these two items are too unremarkable to keep; I suggest selling them.
Among the mods that I installed, I really liked:
Whiter Teeth
Dog as Fifth Companion
The DAO Wiki contains a description of the somewhat tedious method of enabling console commands. Make sure you enable it for the correct version of the game (Steam’s Ultimate Edition vs. not).
Once you have everything enabled and are running the game with console commands (I used the help of a mod manager), you may want to get a mod that displays your console commands, though this is not needed (I don’t use one).
And yes, I’m implying that DAO doesn’t actually show you what you’re typing. It can be a huge pain, but whatever. Due to this, there are a few things you need to remember about the console command process.
Initiate console commanding with ` (above the Tab button).
Type whatever unseen words you want. As soon as you start typing, DAO will display some weird qwerty display. I still cannot figure out what the display is for, but it does effectively let you know that it has recognized you typing something.
Enter.This has lead to some scenarios where I accidentally initiate console commands in the middle of a fight, only to get confused by my entirely unresponsive character. As you can guess, pressing Enter will remedy this issue.
Anyway, here are some very useful console commands (some once you have the appropriate mod):
runscript additem <itemID> <#ofItems>runscript zz_money <#ofCopper> (DAO)runscript zz_money2 <#ofCopper> (Awakening)runscript killallhostilesThe next few require the appropriate mod and are applied to whichever character is being currently controlled. Furthermore, the #ofPoints defaults to 1.
runscript addtalent <#ofPoints>runscript addskill <#ofPoints>runscript addattrib <#ofPoints>There are some tactics for when things are just too hard. Might get added later.
Due to DAO’s way of auto-leveling equipment as soon as you find it, you’ll find yourself abandoning weapons and armor pretty regularly in favor of better stuff.
One way to keep your old armor and/or weapons as viable options, however, is to sell them to one of 2 possible merchants: either the one at your camp, or the main merchant at Warden’s Keep (who offers the best deals). Both merchants seem to hold onto weapons and armor indefinitely and will actually level your equipment to your current level, given some time (usually just means leave the area and return). The only downside to this is that it is quite expensive to sell and rebuy your equipment, especially when it upgrades in between.
Also keep in mind that some armor and weapons do not level. Doesn’t change things much, but you might waste some money in the process of finding out.
Also, you might notice that some but not all equipment is leveling. This is unconfirmed, but the number of items in the merchant’s inventory seems to be inversely proportional to the probability of an item getting leveled. This means that if you dump 50 items onto the merchant and come back only to find 5 leveled up fully, you might want to do things in smaller batches. Another decent alternative (to this 5-in-50 example) is to simply buy the 5 that leveled properly, and then try again (by leaving and returning). A new group should have leveled up, and you can continue this process until you have all the items you wanted leveled.
For most fights, particularly those with many NPCs, you can do quite a bit of damage by doing the following:
Stay far away and within visible sight of the enemy. Use H to Hold your team.
Equip bows to as many team members as possible. The farther the reach, the better.
Concentrate fire on the nearest single enemy, one-at-a-time. Can be done with Ctrl A and clicking.
You should be good, for the most part. Be wary of mages and other spellcasters.
With the Feastday Gifts DLC comes a very unique item. Jumping straight to the spoiler-free point: under the right circumstances, the item Qunari Prayers for the Dead can be used to near-instantly resurrect any and all fallen members.