Forum Discussion

NoraCuspidora's avatar
10 years ago

How to make characters REALLY Hold in PC version (Dead Hand)?

Seriously.  I have spent over 20 hours over three games trying to do the Dead Hand puzzle.  I want the very nice reward for my Rogue.

But I can NEVER do it because my characters won't hold.  I use the command, and perhaps 15% of the time it actually works.  EVEN THE PARTY MEMBER LOCKED IN THE LITTLE CAGE ROOM appears by my side when I'm trying to light the lamps and use the lever. I can't get past it. 

Is there any way to cheat the amulet into the game?  I don't think I should have to forgo something because the game mechanics don't work properly.

4 Replies

  • It "works as intended", it's just that the way it's intended is incredibly stupid!

    Bottom line is that you have to use the Tactical Camera mode, and RE-ISSUE the Hold command after every action you take with the controlled character.

    Every. Single. Action.  ☹️

  • @NoraCuspidora That's strange, that is the one place in the game where the Hold command has always worked correctly for me. Just make sure that after you take control of a character you remember to tell them to hold again before switching to a different character (if you pause, the hold command should show up next to the name of the characters who are currently holding). Other characters should only teleport to you if you get too far away from them. 

    When I do this puzzle I have one character hold on the floor tile, one next to the main lever, one who runs around to light the torches (and to do the wheel thing in the second cage where I believe the mosaic piece is) and one for the lever in the cage. I haven't played in a while and my memory sucks, but I think that's what I do. Sometimes I forget to retell someone to hold after controlling them, which mucks things up, but I've never had characters teleport in that room. I have never had to use the tactical camera for this puzzle. If it's at all relevant, I use mouse & keyboard, not a controller, I don't know if that makes a difference at all.

    If you still have issues, perhaps try turning your graphics settings down. May seem unrelated, but having the graphics settings too high for your computer can cause random weird bugs and glitches, so that could be why your characters aren't behaving properly.

    I'm not sure what amulet you're referring to (I just do this puzzle to get through the tunnel into the area beyond, and to collect mosaic bits along the way 😛 ), but there are several mods which change the stock of shops to sell things like accessories, version 1.9 of this mod adds all accessories available in the base game to a shop in Val Royeaux, so the one you're looking for should be in it. If you don't want to use mods, there are no console commands in this game, so you can't cheat an item into your inventory unless you use Cheat Engine, which comes with its own (possibly game/character breaking) risks.

    Hope that helps 🙂

  • Hey, thanks for the response.

    I've gone through several walkthroughs and  know exactly what I have to do.  I use the Hold command on each character correctly.  After many, many hours trying to do this puzzle, I have concluded that it just doesn't work.  Even the character I have locked and Held in the little cage room moves magically out of the room a lot of the time. The two party members I have Holding near the other two lights don't stay put either.  Once one light is lit, the other characters run towards that light (yes, even the one in the cage).

    Ah.  I've had enough.

  • mckrackin5324's avatar
    mckrackin5324
    10 years ago

    @NoraCuspidora wrote:

    Hey, thanks for the response.

    I've gone through several walkthroughs and  know exactly what I have to do.  I use the Hold command on each character correctly.  After many, many hours trying to do this puzzle, I have concluded that it just doesn't work.  Even the character I have locked and Held in the little cage room moves magically out of the room a lot of the time. The two party members I have Holding near the other two lights don't stay put either.  Once one light is lit, the other characters run towards that light (yes, even the one in the cage).

    Ah.  I've had enough.


    Behaviors.

    Set all your characters to "follow" themselves.

    That way they stay put with themselves instead of rubber banding to the character you have them set to follow or protect.

    The whole game works better this way.