Dragon Age: Inquisition

I don't think there really is a guide that can be given on how to complete this game on Nightmare mode. I mean there is no do this ... and you will get the achievement. So I am going to give my top tips on how to go about completing this crazy long game on Nightmare:

I've played both of the other Dragon Age games as a dual wield rogue, but this time I could not get past the prologue boss on nightmare with that setup so I rerolled and went with an archer. By that time I had finally figured out the game mechanics and beating the first prologue boss was a piece of cake. Have Cassandra tank the pride demon and make sure Varric and Solas are positioned at a good distance from the demon and make them hold their position. Otherwise they will just stand right on top of the demon and get themselves killed. If they are spread out and one of them goes down this will give you a better chance to run over and revive them. Also make sure you are disrupting the rift whenever you can. You actually have to do this anyway to be able to dmg the demon.

So some quick tips for a nightmare run:
1. I really wanted to play with some of the other characters but I found it just easier to play with Cassandra as a sword/shield tank, Dorian and Vivienne or Solas as the other party members. I went with an Archer/Assassin. Stealthing as an assassin and then using Overdraw is just a beast.

2. In some tough areas, I'm mainly talking about main story missions cause you are locked into them once you start them, make sure you are fully stocked before you start the mission at the war table. I'm talking about grenades and rejuvenation potions. If you do not stock up on these before story missions you are SOL and will not be able to have any on you!

3. In story missions make sure to heal up (if you have any potions left) before you click on the resupply crates. Also, you should pick increasing the amount of health potions you can carry as soon as you can as an inquisition perk.

4. In some areas that were difficult (and seeing as I was playing as a ranged rogue character) if your characters are starting to go down, you can have your character stealth and run away into an area you have already cleared. If you run far enough your 3 other party members will revive back by you and even if their health is low you can send them back in to damage the enemies. The enemies do not regenerate health. I think this is my biggest tip. This saved me on numerous occasions. Especially at the beginning of the game in the haven mission. You have to keep trying to load this trebuchet, but everytime you do more enemies swarm you. You can run up a hill next to you and take out the enemies much slower than just getting spanked by them. Do this and it will make the nightmare run much easier!!

5. Make sure you are the right level for the mission you are about to start. At the war table it will give you the suggested level for starting that mission. If you're playing on Nightmare make sure you are at the higher end of that range. If the mission is recommended for a lvl 8-10 then go do side mission and stuff until you are closer to 10. Heck you can even over level and make the story mission even easier if you want. If you are going for the full completion then there is a ton of side stuff you need to complete anyway, so might as well get to it.

6. This achievement is for finishing the "main" campaign on Nightmare mode. This does not mean that you have to get the achievement for killing all 10 high dragons etc. while still playing on nightmare mode. When the final story mission is over you will end up back in Skyhold and can continue on with any side mission that you please. As soon as you kill the big baddie at the end the achievements for complete Nightmare and Hard will both pop assuming you never ever changed the difficulty level. The only side missions that you get blocked from are romance related ones and companion related ones. So by all means complete the main mission and get back to Skyhold. After the credits, make a save. Then switch to Casual if you like and go to town on those dragons or whatever else you have left to do.

7. I'm putting this one in here just in case it has a huge impact, cause for my story I think it did and it ended up being a side quest but it had an effect on a battle, so I'm putting it behind a spoiler for you just in case you don't want a story spoiler:



8. My last tip: If you make the right decisions in some story missions you can skip the boss fight completely, or get some nice help at least !



Have fun on your Nightmare run, I know I did !

I found this really difficult until I went the 3 ranged and 1 tank route. I ended up going with a super tank, 2 mages with regen abilities, and 1 archer with max damage abilities and stealth if needed. I found it ten times easier than any other setup I had.

Overall this game was both fun and challenging, when in doubt most of the time you can retreat, stealth, regroup and respawn then go back. Have two mages with revive and barrier also help. For your tank, try to get max guard belt and rings, it makes him pretty much unstoppable.

SpooilinChaos : "So did some testing, if you delete the game from your system, and don't let it update, and start a new game, you can use the glitch/exploit as long as you stay offline, then after you cap it out, then you can update the game and go on your way. This will also be the only way to do the exploit of getting the Amulet of Power for the hero, as they removed the amulet from the chest in Crestwood and just put it on the floor on it's own, so you'd have to do the same method to take advantage of that exploit as well."

PATCHED (Left for Reference)
One thing to add is that there is a glitch on a vendor that can give you max reputation and power, which can give you requisition perks that make this easier... like carrying more potions and have more abilities. I included a video on how to do that. You can access this vendor in the main story mission where u actually enter the void.

Here's the rub, folks: this is not an easy achievement, as the ratio proves, but it becomes easier if you can make it to Skyhold. The above solutions are fine and dandy, but I decided to go with two mages (myself as a human [this will help later with armor available in the Hissing Wastes, but that's up to you] and Solas), one ranged (initially Varric and then Sera once her bows become stronger than Varric's Bianca), and one tank (initially Cassandra and then Iron Bull once he gets a superior two-handed weapon). Two mages will allow you to maintain a barrier for the major part of most battles, and this was something I found critical to succeeding on nightmare difficulty. You can essentially alternate between yourself and Solas with casting Barrier when necessary (which is all the time) and this will greatly increase your chances of success. You should also focus on increasing the guard of your tank via belts and/or masterwork items once you acquire them. This won't make him unstoppable, but he'll at least keep the pressure off you for longer, which is crucial.

For the most part, you're going to be focusing on completing main story missions, with some asides that will help you level up (and overlevel, in some cases) in order to make the game slightly less challenging. Now the first thing you need to do is focus on upgrading your Barrier spell for your primary character and Solas. The initial spells that you start with (Chain Lightning and Flashfire) will suffice until you get to Skyhold. If you can spare it, I recommend getting Dispel, which is super useful in closing those glowing green holes that accompany rifts, and for reducing enemy barriers. It's also worth noting that Demons are susceptible to ice more than anything else, and this might be extremely useful during the most challenging part of the game, which is the siege on Haven, in my opinion.

Now you might be wondering about Inquisition Perks. First off, the exploit to max out your Influence and therefore the perks no longer works. Ruh-roh. In any case, I highly recommend that you take any two or three codex experience perks, preferably prior to exploring Val Royeaux (there are a bunch of codices laying around here for some reason, enough that you can get a sizeable chunk of XP at this early juncture). Then, I recommend the perk that gives you access to some pretty decent mage equipment, including the staff and armor you'll use for the majority of the game. This one makes the most sense since you'll be saving the world with two mages, and you might as well have them decked out in superior gear. You will also greatly benefit from increasing your potion capacity and, if possible, the extra potion slot, as soon as possible. 4 extra healing potions make all the difference in a lot of battles, as do rejuvenation potions. Other perks are up to you, but I recommend taking 10% increase to all defense as soon as you can after capturing the keep in Crestwood (you have to capture the keep to unlock the perk option; unfortunately you can't do it until after you've reached Skyhold). I also recommend the retroactive research item XP one at some point. Speaking of, collect and turn in research items as much as possible, as you'll gain experience and damage increases to the respective enemies this way, which is always good.

Okay, so here was my path to success:
1) Save frequently. This goes without saying. The last thing you want to do is replay 15 minutes of difficult gameplay because the 5-second save process was too inconvenient for you. As an added note, you can absolutely do this achievement on your first playthrough, so that's up to you.
2) Complete all the quests you possibly can in the Hinterlands. I don't recommend pursuing the shards here or anywhere in the game unless this is your sole playthrough, as the accompanying perks were ultimately unnecessary for me after I achieved my class specialization. More on that momentarily. Your goal is to reach level 11, or 12 if possible, prior to the siege of Haven. You should also have the best possible armor and weapons for all of your characters prior to the siege.
3) Speaking of, improve your weapons, your armor, and the respective weapon/armor add-ons as frequently as possible.
4) The Siege of Haven is a pain in the ass, and probably causes a lot of people to give up and/or break their controllers. Rest assured, the game gets dramatically easier after this point, so hang in there and keep trying. Most of the siege isn't especially difficult; just hang back and cast spells while the rest of crew distracts the enemies. Obviously, heal fully before replenishing your supplies. During the first two ballista sections, focus on cranking them while your buddies take care of the enemies. Only break to make sure your barrier is intact. I made it through all of this without dying or reloading, so it's not that rough. The real challenge will come during the penultimate battle of Haven, when you have to crank to final ballista. This is a really tough section, and you will likely die multiple times. Make absolutely sure to leave the crate of supplies right by the ballista until you absolutely need them, and to help yourself out even more leave a crate of supplies by the main doors to the Haven chantry, just in case. Speaking of, don't be afraid to retreat away from the ballista if you're overwhelmed and your buddies are dying off like idiots. They will transport next to you after a certain distance, and you can revive them easier this way. Also, there are two things to note about this battle: you can save between waves of enemies, which is nice, and a new wave of enemies will arrive each time you start cranking the ballista handle. For this reason, make sure to crank that damn handle (insert lewd joke here) for as long as possible before attacking enemies. I highly advise that you focus on this act instead of attacking enemies, because once it's complete the battle is over. With a little bit of luck you'll persevere and get to Skyhold. And just to give you a sense of where you should be at level-wise, I was at 11 when I attempted this, and it was challenging. Unfortunately, I think it's probably fairly difficult to get higher than this without some really serious grinding.

*** EDIT: Rhyolitic adds this about the Siege of Haven: [For that final trebuchet (not ballista - ballista are basically giant crossbows, trebuchets are counterweighted catapults), crank just enough that it spawns 2 enemies. Take them down, then continue cranking till the next group spawns. If you try doing as much as possible, you'll probably get overwhelmed. I was able to do this at level 9 w/Iron Bull, Solas, and Varric.] ***

5) Once you've made it to Skyhold your number one objective should be completing the class specialization quest for the Knight Enchanter. You will likely have acquired the Wisp Essences you need if you played through the Fallow Mire map (which you should have), so you're good there. If not, head back and fight until you have them. As for Lazurite, unlock the Hissing Wastes map and then head back to Skyhold. Go to the War Table and you should now have the "Hissing Wastes Resources" mission available. Keep doing this until you have 10. Alternatively, you can try to traipse around Hissing Wastes to collect the lazurite on your own, but be forewarned that the enemies here are all at level 16, and will likely kill you quickly. The final item, the book related to the Knight Enchanter quest, is located in the Skyhold room with Vivienne. Once you have all three, craft the Knight Enchanter hilt and turn that bad boy into Commander Helaine. Welcome to the best class in the game.

*******EDIT:Sakori says: "As of today [Sept. 9, 2015] Knight enchanter has received a very major nerf in spirit blade. Damage is now halfed and it lost most of the bonus damage vs guard/barrier.

The class is still pretty strong, but you can't just spam spirit blade anymore. Other spells (like barrage or fire mine) get the job done just fine." So it appears an update has made the Knight Enchanter far less powerful. I think it'll still prove to be the most useful class for the Nightmare playthrough if you use Sakori's spell tips. END EDIT*******

6) You might be thinking, wait, this puts me right in the fray. You're damn right it does, but you'll be nearly invincible while you're there. As soon as you can, acquire the spirit blade skill and it's second level option. You'll be using other spells throughout the game as needed, but this (along with barrier) will be your bread and butter. I highly recommend you lock all the other skills in this class tree, with the exception of fade cloak and resurgence. If you have to, use the blacksmith's shop to purchase the item that allows you to reallocate your skill points, keeping all skills that relate to barrier, putting all your points into knight enchanter, and keeping something like chain lightning and an ice spell around for the fade rifts. Now, the beautiful thing about the Knight Enchanter is that using spirit blade renews your barrier at a pretty decent rate, so as long as you're swinging away it's really difficult for enemies to hurt you unless they have some kind of armor / barrier penetration capability or you get knocked down. Suffice to say, I almost never had to heal once I unlocked Knight Enchanter, and would often find myself fighting on as a lone ranger well after my buddies had fallen unconscious. This was true in dragon fights and with several of the more challenging fade rifts, just to give you some sense of how overpowered you will become. As another note, you do bonus damage to enemy shields and barriers with Spirit Blade, making it hard to lose.
7) Play through the game normally now, making sure to be at the top end of the recommended level for each story mission. One thing I recommend is acquiring awesome crafting materials in the Hissing Wastes (lazurite and volcanic arum) and Emprise de Lion (silverite and dawnstone). You can also go for everite near the dragon in the Emerald Graves, and get august ram fur and great bear hides here. All of these things are great for crafting. Once you hit level 12 and/or have your Knight Enchanter in full-blown beast mode, you should be able to tackle more advanced areas and enemies, like the level 16 enemies/rifts in the Hissing Wastes and Emprise de Lion. I don't recommend trying to revive your buddies if they die, as they'll just suck up healing potions and usually die again. Anyway, our goal now is to acquire around 9000 gold to buy the best armor from the Canyon Shop in the Hissing Wastes. And by best I mean the heavy armor. You might be thinking, but wait, only my tank can equip that! Wrong. If you use silverite to craft armor it removes the race limitation (and fade-touched silverite removes the class limitation; thanks EbonHawk01 for that tidbit), so now your mages can enjoy an even greater defensive boost. Also, if you complete the various tomb puzzles in the Hissing Wastes you can get fairly nice schematics for yourself and other characters that will make life much easier.
8) At the same time you're doing this you should be pursuing the sidequests associated with Iron Bull. I don't think you can complete all of them until after the Wicked Hearts / Orlesian court story mission, but you can always get the ball rolling. Now this part is very important: when you are given the sidequest to accompany Iron Bull in the Storm Coast, you must decide to sacrifice his men and save the dreadnought. The reason we're doing all of this is to get the best staff in the game, the Masterwork Archon Staff, and you won't be able to do this if you choose to save his men. Eventually you'll be able to choose a number of spy missions from the War Table. They will take a while to complete, but they are totally worth it. This is the final mission you must complete in order to get the schematic for the staff:

http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Track_Spies_in_Vyrantium
(Obviously this is property of the Dragon Age wiki)

You can backtrack through all of the previous spy missions through the above link, so you know exactly what to do, who to send, and how long it will take. It helps to have acquired as many agents as possible, as they will reduce the mission time of your three main advisors. Up to you. If you like, you might want to search the same wiki for the best staff blades and grips. That's getting a little too nuanced for me, so I won't include that here.
9) Have fun! You can totally kill dragons without fear once you've become a Knight Enchanter, especially after you're level 14 or so. That's when I took on the dragon in the Hinterlands, followed by the one in Crestwood, Emerald Graves, and Hissing Wastes. You can go for more if you want, but I was really focusing on just beating the game after I killed these four (I had already killed all 10 in my first playthrough). Obviously the dragon blood and bones they offer are very nice for crafting purposes, and they also provide large chunks of XP. This is optional, though I found it useful. I didn't struggle against any of them, even as my companions lay uselessly beside me, dreaming of being as good as me. As a final bit of useful info, I was at level 19 when I completed the game, and, having done everything in my first playthrough in about 85 hours, I streamlined this playthrough to complete the game in 44 hours.

If you have any questions or comments for improving this guide, don't hesitate to let me know!

*** EDIT: Solution has been modified to reflect information on the Amulet of Power exploit that has been patched since the solution was originally posted. ***

*** EDIT 2: Information added and corrected to reflect comments by EbonHawk01. ***

Hello, I just thought I'd share my strategies for completing Dragon Age Inquisition on nightmare. The game at first could be a bit annoying. But once you get to skyhold and are able to get to emprise du lion the game becomes much easier and more enjoyable since you will be kicking serious ass. You just need about 5 hours of farming and grinding. If that puts you off, then my apologies. You also need access to the black emporium, for those great schematics. I'll make this as short and to the point as possible. Let's begin.

To start off you will want to play as an archer. Not sure if race matters but I went with a female elf. You want to get the stealth ability immediately and max out the archery skill tree. The skills in this tree is what you will use the most. Mixed with stealth all the abilities in this tree do great damage. Even out of stealth. My personal favorite combo is: stealth then full draw then leaping shot, I used this till the credits rolled. The rest of your party before Emprise Du Lion should be as follows:

Solas: Max out his green spirit tree, once that is maxed out I started working on the lighting tree, using those for offensive purposes. The abilities I went with where energy barrage, lightning bolt & static cage (the best skill in the tree) Set the barrier spell to preferred and use the dispel ability to terminate spawn points during fade rift battles. Just simply place the spell on top of it. This is important cause fade rifts are a good source of xp and you want to be able to take them out easily. Being able to neutralize spawn points is extremely useful, especially when you have those annoying terrors, pride demons & rage demons. You'll able to knock out two spawn points at a time if they are close enough to each other.

Dorian: The same exact strategy as Solas.

Cassandra: I maxed out the shield and weapon tree. Added warcry and challenge from the vanguard skill tree. You want her to get as much guard as possible during battles. I did not mess with any of her tactics.

I used Varric until I was able to obtain Dorian. Try and get him as soon as you are able.

Get the inquisition perk to hold more health potions ASAP. You want to do everything possible, all side quests & rifts that you are able to close. Some of these will seriously kick your ass and best left alone until later. Get as much loot as possible to find better gear and to sell items for gold. I did zero ocalurums & astriums. You want to get to the siege at haven at levels 11 or 12. This is by far the toughest part of the game. I did a lot of hit and run tactics using stealth.

Once you get to get to skyhold go ahead and do the war table assignment to unlock the specialization skill tree for your archer. You want to now start maxing out your assassin skill tree. I personally didn't use any of the abilities here, it's the passives that I was interested in. I wanted to give my archer all the dex passives I could.

Time for some material/gold farming. Open up the Emprise Du Lion as soon as your ready. When you get to the starting camp go down a bit and make a right out of the gate onto the frozen river that goes around in a big circle. You want to go around this frozen river killing snowleurs, they yield about 3 - 10 skin drops per kill, these can then be sold for 15g each. just keep going a round and a round killing, they never stop respawning. If I had to estimate you could get around 20k in an hour.

To get materials, traverse to the camp WSW of Sahrnia Camp (starter camp) in emprise du lion. It's called Highgrove camp and heavily guarded by red templars you need to take out. To do so climb up the rocks to the left of the camp and attack them from above. They won't follow you up there, just be careful with the archers and take them out first. This could take a while. Once they are cleared you now have access to the tunnel that goes north of the camp. Here you find silverite. You will be able to get at least three in the beginning part of the tunnel. You just have to clear out another group a templars & possibly a second group. You will be using a lot of silverite to craft your weapons and armor. It's a tier 3 material. It also has a small chance of dropping fade-touched silverite. This material gives your crafted armor or weapon special properties. The one you are looking for is +5 guard. So save your game at the first silverite you see then go and loot the 3, if you get no fade-touched, reload save. You want total of 5 +5 guard fade-touched silverite. You can also fast travel to other areas and come back to start stocking up on silverite. I did a combination of both. This could take time & test your patience but trust me they are worth it. The next important material you want is fade-touched plush fustian velvet which gives you +5 hidden blades. These are dropped by Red Templars, there is a big group further down the cave when you come outside. Simply save right before, kill, reload if you didn't get any. You want 4 of these, or whatever you can stomach.

In order to make this easier you will want to have at least one badass weapon crafted. I went with perseverance for my archer. You can buy the schematic from the black emporium for just under 17k gold. Silverite gave me the best DPS. Add the fade touched silveite that gives bonus electrical damage, I'm sure you'll get some while farming the +5 guard. You need Dagna for this as she is the one that can add the fade-touched materials to your crafted weapons. You get her via a war table assignment after you arrive at skyhold.

Once you have all the materials/gold you desire go ahead and modify your party and start crafting your endgame gear.

The party you want after Emprise du Lion is as follows:

Your main character: Build yourself a perseverance with silverite and add a +5 hidden blades fade-touched, add any runes you might have. I purchased a middle level armor for about 1600g, made it has strong as possible & added the +5 guard fade-touched. I kept this gear for the rest of the game.

Sera: Exactly like your main character. If you don't feel like farming more hidden blades just give her the perseverance with the electrical fade-touched. Same armor as well. I kept this gear for the rest of the game.

Dorian: Build a staff of corruption with silverite, add +5 hidden blades & any runes you might have. Middle armor with +5 guard. I kept this gear for the rest of the game.

Iron Bull: Skill wise you want to max out the reaver tree then add the skills from vanguard that give guard. Set his ring of pain skill to preferred. Craft him a seluvin blade with silverite and +5 hidden blades. I first crafted him a middle level armor with +5 guard but as the enemies got stronger he was getting raped. I then had to purchase a higher grade schematic from the black emporium for just under 11k. Craft it with +5 guard. His survivability increased drastically. I kept this gear for the rest of the game.

+5 guard gives you a chance of getting armor each time you land an attack (it's that metal bar that warriors get under their life bar). +5 hidden blades gives you a 10% chance dealing and addition 5 hits every time you land a hit, and it looks badass. If your whole party is rolling with this, then you will have little to fear for the remainder of the game.

The higher your level the better armor schematics you will get in the black emporium. Schematics of legend however, will be there no matter your level. So get those ASAP so you can start wrecking shit.

Once you have that party set-up you will be absolutely devastating, you'll see your enemies health bars deplete insanely fast, even if they are higher levels than you. The Iron Bulls ring of pain plus Dorians static cage PLUS your archers bow ability's (leaping shot!) deal so much damage it's ridiculous. So much fun and a joy to watch. You kind of break the game with this set up, but it's so worth it. I ended up finishing the game at level 19 with the rest of my party at 18. I honestly never died during the final two main story quests.

Crazy thing is you can make even stronger gear with materials dragon's drop. Since this was my 2nd play through I avoided dragon battles and took my chances with the materials presented to me via the black emporium and emprise du lion.

I hope this information proves useful & if you have any comments/questions please feel free to share.

Not proper a guide for this, but i found a very good website that list the most powerful and efficent builds for any class of character (and alot of other useful informations).

Here some link:
http://dragoninquisition.com/warrior-builds/

http://dragoninquisition.com/rogue-builds/

http://dragoninquisition.com/mage-builds/

There are a lot of solutions here for people who play as a damage-dealing character, but I didn't see anything helpful for playing with the inquisitor as a warrior tank.

I play with the Inquisitor as a champion, and like most Bioware insanity/nightmare challenges, the difficulty is only actually hard at the very start of the game if you know what you're doing. To achieve the easiest run at the start of the game, do the following:

Complete the prologue. If you struggle, the Pride Demon doesn't attack the non-party member NPCs and you can kite him around the main pillar while they finish him. Its slow, but if you end up with your party members dead, it can finish him off.

I'll assume you already know how to play a tank-type character in this game (i didn't use tactical mode ever, just controlled the battle with my champion), your early skill selections are very important. You want the following skills right away:

Payback strike (once you get the upgrade: get the one that makes it taunt)
War Cry (get the larger aoe when you upgrade it)
Charging Bull (never upgraded this, but the free skill is better)

You need to be able to taunt and build your own guard so the rest of your party won't die quickly at low levels. Charging bull has a fast cooldown and can gain guard for multiple targets hit.

Once you have these 3 skills, spend 2 points to get to the passive 'Bear Mauls the Wolves'. I personally never use the active shield block skill needed to get the passive, but you need the passive's benefit.

The other part of dominating nightmare is equipment. If you are playing a new file, you will need to manage your money so you can acquire necessary schematics. If you have already completed the game, you can use the Golden Nug to get good schematics and forego hunting them down. In both cases you'll need a good source of metal. Remember that one-handed swords in DA:I are inexplicably nerfed; always use axes and maces, they are dramatically stronger even when the dps values are the same (and they are rarely the same).

In order to make good equipment, you need to access tier 2 and tier 3 metals earlier than intended.

At the start of the game, unlock the Hinterlands and explore immediately south of your main camp until you acquire 4 power and use the first Occularum and acquire a shard. Acquisition of a shard is needed to unlock the Forbidden Oasis, as is the 4 power.

Once you have both of these things, return to skyhold and unlock the Oasis, then travel there.

You will be dramatically weak compared to the area. Characters can die in 1-3 hits. However, you can explore big parts of the area with minimal encounters (the occaisional Hyena; I killed as many as 3 at once, but recommend fleeing from more than 2 at once using Charging Bull). Head east from your starting point and go wide south around the rift and down the slant of the wall. This will let you explore most of the eastern half of the oasis and even reach the other campsite. Portions of this area are littered with Paragon's Luster, the only easily accessible tier 2 metal prior to Skyhold. You will never see more than the occaisional hyena or a single giant spider if you avoid the rifts and the cave in the northeastern corner. Paragon's Luster will respawn if you stay in the area a while or travel away and back. You can easily gather 100 of it with little effort. Tier 2 metals make dramatically stronger armors and weapons early in the game.

You will then need at least tier 2 schematics. Again, using the Golden Nug you can acquire your higher level schematics from other playthroughs. if you don't wish to do this, you can acquire level 2 schematics at the Black Emporium or in Val Royeux from a shop in the southeastern corner of town. The prices are half at the Emporium. The most important schematics will be Sturdy Vanguard Coat/Mail/Armor and a 1h weapon. You can also select other options depending on whether you use multiple mages, prefer a 2h warrior, or etc. Metal makes weapons for everyone so you will use your paragon's luster for all of it. Using a 2nd warrior (2h) gives you a secondary tank who benefits significantly from your expensive heavy armor schematic. I recommend Iron Bull; Cassandra is also good if you use a Tactician's Renewal to reset her ability points.

Once you create tier 2 weapons and armor with tier 2 materials, you will be overpowered for your level for all pre-Skyhold questing. Do enough sidequests to bring significant extra power with you to Skyhold.

When you reach Skyhold, you're going to go immediately to Emprise du Lion. It will be very difficult.

Your goal in the Emprise will be to win 4 fights against red templars. You will go to the first two available camps in sequence and take them. The fight at the first camp is hardest due to many archers who can 2-shot your dps characters or even 4-5 shot you. Remember you can run away and anything that died will stay dead.

Once you have connected the two camps (the one at the quarry and then Drakon's Rise), you can travel to Drakon's Rise and walk down, gathering Dawnstone and Silverite. There are over 20 dawnstone nodes on the walk, as well as 8 silverite nodes. You will be so underleveled for the area you will virtually always get 1. That is ok.

Dawnstone also provides one of the most important fade-touched effects: 10% chance on hit for 5 seconds of Walking Fortress. Repeat this cycle several times and hope you acquire a lot of it. You will get some level 3 cloth from the red templars. You can kill Snowfleur north of the starting area on the ice for high amounts of level 3 leather.

Then you will just need schematics. At this point your options are the Golden Nug and save scumming chests. Any chest in DA:I will reset its contents if it is not completely empty when you reload. This means you can loot all but one item, save and reset and farm chests endlessly. In the NE section of the Emprise du Lion, there is an area with multiple chests (the elven ruin/waterfall) where you can cycle several chests, save, reload and take any bonus items. You can acquire the best schematics in the game from these chests (short of DLC schematics). The Black Emporium will NOT sell you level 3 schematics until you reach a certain level, so this method is the only means besides the Golden Nug to get level 3 schematics early.

Once you have level 3 schematics and an abundance of Dawnstone, you can upgrade your weapons and armor again and will probably dominate the balance of the game. On Insanity, my inquisitor was routinely taking 1 damage in melee from most enemies and I was able to do multiple Tresspasser challenges against High Dragons while my difficulty was still set to Nightmare. Since metal is used for all weapons (even bows and staffs), you only need other materials for stat bonuses or DPS character armor.

This makes the nightmare run relatively effortless - I repeatedly forgot I was playing on a higher difficulty once I had equipped myself.

If you get to Skyhold you basically have unlimited Gold suddenly. The chest in the cellar where all the crafting tables are allows you to dupe items.

So buy the most expensive item you can buy, dupe it as often as you like, sell it and repeat or buy an even more expensive item to dupe.

Duping is done by putting the item into the chest and then pressing + simultaneously. This leaves the item in the chest and puts a copy of it into your inventory. For other system you have to press the key to take it out of the chest and the key for closing the chest simultaneously.

The most expensive items I could find are accessible in the Black Market from the free DLC with the same name.

If it wasn't clear... YOU CAN NOW BUY ALL THE MEANEST, BIGGEST WEAPONS AND ACCESSORIES AVAILABLE AND STEAMROLL ALL ENCOUNTERS WITH RELATIVE EASE.