[INFO] DA:I Troubleshooting & Workarounds

 
The EA Help team has been expecting Dragon Age: Inquisition for quite some time now, and we've put our heads together to collect a few tips, tricks, and observations to help start your journey in Thedas off right: 

Before you start:

• Whether you've played previous Dragon Age games before or not, we recommend using the Keep before you start DA:I. This will let you customize the world state of Thedas before you begin your game, perfect for setting up the world as you left it or familiarizing yourself with it before diving in to Inquisition. Remember, you can create multiple world states, but only one is in the game slot at a time. Make sure to match the timestamps from your world state with what shows in-game. Learn more about the Keep here.

General tips:

• You customize your character's appearance after the game starts. Helpful tip: Go easy on the make-up sliders, the Fade-light is not indicative of how make-up will look in the rest of the game.
• Remember to take time to explore during your travels. Armor, weapons and upgrades can be found as loot or built by crafting the materials you find, as well as a ton of people to talk to.
• If you get lost, the quest map is accessible in the middle of the radial menu layout.
• When you set out into Thedas, try to bring along a party with one of each class in it. There are certain actions that are unique to each class, and they'll be essential in your exploration.

Technical troubleshooting:

• Dragon Age: Inquisition runs on the Frostbite 3 engine and makes certain demands on your system in order to do so. If you're running into issues please check your system specs against our minimum and recommended system requirements.
• If you're encountering a black screen issue, you can toggle into windowed mode by hitting Alt+Tab which should let you continue playing.
• DA:I is compatible with the Mantle API, but you will need to update your drivers for it to be available.
• Remember that you need 7.5 GB of space to install DA:I onto your Xbox 360.
• Make sure your console has the most recent system updates for the best performance.
• Play with the settings under options, especially for audio. You'll want to hear all of the dialog and banter your party makes out in the field, and the game is set to Home Theater by default. This could be an issue on TVs since Home Theater sends dialogue through the center channel.
  • ​If you're still having issues hearing dialogue, you can turn on subtitles.

Battle Interface:
DA:I battles require a level of strategy and finesse, especially on higher difficulties. Master these battles by understanding the interface:

 

• Every party member has a health meter. They become unconscious when it hits zero and must be revived. Health can be restored with potions that are shared among the party. 
• Mages can apply a barrier effect to party members to shield them from damage.
• Warriors can gain Guard by performing taunts and other actions in battle. Their guard must be worn down before they take damage.
• Abilities use up mana or stamina, depending on the attacker's class.

Questing:
 

 

• You can focus on quests in the journal, or by selecting them on the map directly.
• Your main story quests are listed at the top of the journal.
• Items in your journal also appear on your map. Acquaint yourself with the arrows, starbursts, and Inquisition symbols spread over the map 
• To stay focused, try setting a waypoint on your map. Sometimes quests have multiple starburst icons and this will help from getting overwhelmed.

Crafting and Upgrades:

• To craft an item, you will need two types of things: a schematic, which determines the shape and function of the item, and materials, which determines its properties and appearance. Different combinations will result in differing attributes.
• In addition to schematics, you'll also find recipes for crafting potions. 
• Feel free to name your new gear so you can stay organized:

 

• Schematics can be bought or found, then taken to the Inquisition's smith to use for crafting items.
• Materials are found out in the fields by looting, hunting, harvesting or collecting. Keep an eye out for them while you're exploring.
• Different schematics will require different amounts of raw material to create the item.
• In edition to crafting, equipment can be improved by applying upgrades or runes. Upgrades can be added to slots and mixed and matched whenever you want, but runes are permanent. 
• Items you don't want anymore can be broken down into raw materials again so can make newer, better, shinier stuff. Be sure to remove any upgrades before you destroy items though.

Abilities and Talent builds:
DA:I is a game about managing resources, and this extends to choosing your new abilities and talents as your hero levels up. If you've made a mistake with building your character, you can buy a talisman from near the smith in your home base to reset them and start over. The first one is cheap, but subsequent tries will cost more and more money so choose wisely.

Final Words:
Our final advice can be summed up in three sentences:

1. Take your time.
2. Talk to everyone.
3. Fight a dragon; what's the worst that could happen?

We hope you enjoyed this guide to Dragon Age: Inquisition. You can find much more information about the game at the Dragon Age blog.