Dragon Age: Inquisition
69 Achievements
1,570
106-134h
Lateral Thinker
Unlock all caches watched over by ancient statues.
15
0.35%
How to unlock the Lateral Thinker achievement in Dragon Age: Inquisition - Definitive Guide
I don't think the first statue is missable. It's found naturally as you progress through the story. When you're following the blood trail through the eluvians, you'll come to an area where elven spirits and qunari block your path. At the end of a long hallway, you'll see the statue. Illuminate the veilfire brazier that the statue is looking at and it will move out of the way to reveal a set of stairs and its loot cache will appear at its paws. You must loot the cache for achievement credit.
The second statue is found in the Deep Roads, but as far as I can tell, it is not accessible until after you find the third statue. After you enter the eluvian leading into the Deep Roads and fight the qunari waiting for you, you'll travel along the path until you come to a chasm with a large amount of qunari on the other side. There is a hallway directly after this chasm that is dark. If it's your first time here, you'll be prompted to use your anchor to illuminate the area. Remember this spot so you can return to it later.
The third statue is found in the Sundered Library. In this area, there are several floating islands that you'll have to travel to in order to find the Viddasala. When you step out of the eluvian leading to one of these islands, you'll see a circle of statues holding veilfire braziers. This is the island you need. Go upstairs, above the circle of statues, and travel through the eluvian there to reach an area called "Scholar's Retreat." In this area, there is a ledge blocked by purple flame. You need to make your way around these flames to a hidden flight of stairs. Ascend the stairs and walk around the path to find the statue. When you activate the button there, a green orb will fly out of it and back downstairs through the eluvian and ignite the veilfire braziers in the circle. The veilfire only stays lit for a short amount of time, so you'll need to jump from the statue's ledge onto the lower ledge, go through the eluvian, jump from that ledge down to the circle of statues, and light a veilfire torch of your own. Bring this torch back to the wolf statue and use it to light the brazier on the wall next to it. Doing this will reveal the statue's cache.
Tip: If you're a necromancer mage, you can use Simulacrum to move through the purple fire with ease. You'll die, but your spirit can walk through the rest of the flames and ascend the stairs. Be sure to cast a spell to force your spirit to drop the torch before it expires or you'll have to get another one. Then, just go back to the area where you dropped the torch with your real body and continue.
After you return to the Winter Palace, you'll be tasked with finding the Viddasala. Don't do this. Instead, return to the Deep Roads and go back to the dark hallway from earlier. Now that you have the damaging anchor ability, you can set off the gaatlok barrels here. Doing so will expose a room hiding an eluvian. Travel through the eluvian and you'll see a veilfire brazier. Take a torch, go into the next room, and walk to the mural on the wall, exposing a rune there. The statue will turn around to look at the rune. Press the button on the statue's back to raise the stairs up to the other brazier and ignite it to unlock the cache.
The final statue is beyond the keystone eluvian. Be sure to bring a mage with you before you go! After you come through the eluvian, you'll fight through some qunari and quickly reach a locked door in the area marked "Courtyard." On the opposite side of the area from the bridge, you'll see a large tower. Climb the stairs to reach the second floor of the tower, kill the qunari there, and go down to the basement where you'll find the statue. Have a mage ignite the veilfire brazier in front of the statue, take a torch, and then climb to the top floor. Ignite the brazier near the halla statue first, then the brazier on the floor. Go back to the bottom floor and the statue will now reveal the final cache.
Tip: If you've missed any of these, you can backtrack until you go through the keystone eluvian. When you're told to pursue Viddasala, you can ignore that and travel through any of the other eluvians to get collectibles you've missed. Good luck!
An additional tip for anyone still going for this, for the one in the shattered library with the purple flames: I found that the first time I had to go through them, anchor blast was fine to get me through, but when I tried to use it while going through with the veilfire torch, it just killed me and reset me to just in front of the eluvian. What worked for me was gettng the torch in the way described in this guide, returning to the flames, and then having a mage cast barrier on me just before walking through. That way I could get through in plenty of time, and still be holding the torch.
NOTE: Make sure once you finish the puzzles to LOOT the boxes on the staute for it to count. It's not enough to just complete the room puzzles.
1st as part of the story, light the torch the statue is looking at among the many in the room.
2nd when you get to
3rd is in the library, press the wolf button and go back to the previous area to find the ring of sconces now lit
4th is in the supply tower, just before going into the big door locked with a wheel turning puzzle. Light the bottom floor, then the top floor hallah, then the bird of prey, then return to the basement for the reward
Hope that helps!
Throughout the Trespasser narrative, you will come across four Ancient Statues of the Dread Wolf, all of which are tied to a puzzle that must be solved for this achievement. Upon solving the puzzle, a treasure cache at the base the statue will open for your looting pleasures.
The first Statue/cache you come across is unmissable, as you must solve its puzzle in order to progress through the quest at that time. You will notice during this first encounter that there is usually a stone tablet nearby that gives a subtle clue in how to solve the puzzle. A text-based guide would only complicate the matter, so please refer to the video guide below, provided by ixii.
NOTE: You must loot all of the items inside the Statue caches in order for it to count towards the achievement.