SegmentNext
Five pages make up our Dragon Age: Inquisition coverage, and not one of them walks the main quest. Two get the PC version running, one recruits and manages the nine companions, one prices the merchants across Thedas, and one lists the operations on the war table. What the five have in common is that almost everything they describe is behind a gate the game states: a companion joins after a particular trip, a shop opens when its region is scouted, and the war table page names a requirement on nearly every one of its 299 rows, from an Inquisition Rank to a main quest to a keep you have to hold. So this hub is arranged by what has to have happened first: the PC, then Haven, then the Val Royeaux trip, then Skyhold, then the two capstone missions and Rank 8.
Reading Order
| Page | When it applies | What it holds |
|---|---|---|
| Errors, crashes and PC fixes | Before the game runs | 25 numbered problems, from a locked 30 FPS cutscene cap to a wireless controller the game ignores |
| Graphics and performance tweaks | Before the first hour | 12 in-game options weighed for cost, plus four changes outside the menu |
| Companions guide | Haven to Skyhold | Nine companions, where each joins, and 138 lines of what raises or lowers their approval |
| Merchants guide | Each region as it opens | 24 shops and 353 priced entries, from 9 gold to 21,433 |
| War table operations | Haven through Inquisition Rank 8 | 299 operation rows in five sections, with the advisor each prefers |
Before Haven: Make the Game Run
The two PC pages overlap on one fix that both put near the top. Cutscenes are capped at 30 frames per second, which the fixes page blames for stutter and lag and the tweaks page for jerkiness, and both remove it the same way: the launch option -GameTime.MaxSimFps 60 -GameTime.ForceSimRate 60+, added to the shortcut or to the game's properties in Origin. The fixes page adds the second step of turning off post-processing and lowering the last two graphics options if that does not settle it.
The rest of the fixes page is 25 numbered problems. Random DirectX crashes and the MSVCP110.dll license error share one cure, the Visual C++ 2012 Update 4 redistributable, and the Setup Cannot Continue error is solved by running the three redistributable installers under the game's __Installer folder and swapping in a working copy of whichever one fails. Wireless Xbox One controllers do nothing by default: use a wired one, or switch to the pad with the mouse after starting with it already on. An invisible mouse or greyed menu means the Origin overlay is on. The page is also candid about what it cannot fix, including the PC controls, weapon switching in combat and a gender bug, and it says so rather than inventing a workaround.
The tweaks page ranks the 12 in-game options by what they cost. Mesh Quality is the one to keep high, because it controls character detail in the cutscenes this story leans on; Tessellation, Shadows and Post-Process Quality are the three to cut, with Post-Process alone worth five or six frames in cutscenes at Low. Ambient Occlusion has three settings that scale from SSAO to HBAO Full, and Multisample Antialiasing should be off in favor of the cheaper post-process version unless you are near the recommended specification. Outside the menu, Anisotropic Filtering exists only as a 0 to 4 value in the ProfileOptions_profile file, a nine-line user.cfg trades visual fidelity for frames, and a registry edit of two EA Games paths shortens Origin's loading times.
Haven: Three Companions, Two Shops and the First Approval Swing
The companions guide starts you with three. Cassandra holds you prisoner after the Temple of Sacred Ashes, so she is met before anyone else, and Varric and Solas both join automatically once the first Fade rift outside Haven is closed. The page's approval lists begin at the same moment: the prologue's choice between the mountain path and charging with the soldiers gains Varric's approval on the path and Cassandra's on the charge, and the path costs Cassandra's. That pattern, one decision moving two companions in opposite directions, runs through the lists.
Haven's shopping, on the merchants guide, is the smallest in the game: Seggrit sells three Bianca upgrades at 19 to 28 gold and three Bianca schematics at 20, and Harritt's shop lists one item, The Tactician's Renewal, with no price. The war table already has work here. Two operations are available at Haven itself (The Cult of Andraste and The Secrets of Andraste), one only exists until In Your Heart Shall Burn is done (Address a Nobleman's Concerns), Varric's Hard in Hightown chain and Sera's Drop and Grab both start in Haven, and the page's opening explains the two kinds of operation: a scouting operation costs Power and completes instantly, while a mission ties up an advisor or their agents in real time.
The Val Royeaux Trip: Five Recruits and a Choice Worth 30 Lines
Five of the nine companions are tied to the visit to Val Royeaux. Sera joins there during A Friend of Red Jenny, after the courtyard fight. Vivienne's invitation comes after the visit and leads to Duke Bastien's estate in The Imperial Enchanter. Blackwall's quest, The Lone Warden, unlocks on your return, and the page's one hard deadline is his: recruit him before Adamant or he is gone. The Iron Bull is reached through Krem outside Haven's Chantry once the clerics are dealt with, and the page reminds you he is a Ben-Hassrath agent who reports on the Inquisition. Dorian's entry depends on which side you choose next: go after the Templars in Champions of the Just and he arrives at Haven's gates with a warning; go to the mages in In Hushed Whispers and he is inside Redcliffe's Chantry.
Counted as one choice, mages or Templars is the decision the approval lists mention most often: Redcliffe appears on 18 of the 138 lines and Therinfal Redoubt on 12, more than the Temple of Mythal's 28 or the Winter Palace's 27, and they pull in every direction: allying with the mages pleases Solas, Dorian and Cole while costing Cassandra and Vivienne, conscripting them does roughly the reverse, and Sera wants the mages conscripted and the Templar Order disbanded. Blackwall is the exception, approving of an alliance with either side and disapproving of forcing either to surrender.
The shops on this stretch are where the prices first climb. Val Royeaux has 82 rows across eight shops, from four resistance tonic recipes at 53 gold in Willvan's to the Golden Nug Statue at 10,000 in Deraboam's, with Havel's Bloodied Wings at 5,598 the dearest weapon in the city. The Hinterlands add 67 rows: ten crafting materials at 20 gold each at the Crossroads, twenty weapon and twenty armor schematics at Redcliffe's schematics merchant, and the Masterwork Battlemaster Mail at 14,212 in the Redcliffe armor shop, which only one item in the whole list exceeds and one other matches.
Skyhold: The Ninth Companion, the Dearest Shops and Most of the Table
Cole is the companion the fall of Haven delivers. If you took Champions of the Just he appears in the nightmare world and then in the War Room; otherwise you meet him in the courtyard after Corypheus attacks. The companions page suggests helping the oppressed in several quests before recruiting him so his approval starts high, and it rules him out of romance along with Varric, while stating who else is available: Cassandra for a male Inquisitor of any race, Blackwall for a female one, Dorian for a male one, and Sera with a culmination scene but no stated requirement.
Skyhold's shops hold the top of the price list. Seggrit reappears with Siege's End at 21,433 and Tenasarin at 11,110, Bonny Sims sells the Axe of the Dragon Hunter at 11,540, Magehunter at 7,629 and Grunsmann's Bow at 4,082 beside a full ladder of Bianca modules, and Farris the Representative deals only in documents: twenty of them in four price bands, five at 6,886, five at 1,690, five at 490 and five at 167. The later regions on the merchants page are the ones the table's scouting operations open, and Suledin Keep in Emprise du Lion alone lists 23 weapon schematics, more than any other shop.
The war table page's largest section, 157 general operations listed alphabetically, mostly belongs to this stage. Its unlocks sort into a few kinds: a completed setback (Acquire the Arcanist, House Amladaris, Rumors of Maleficarum), an Inquisition Rank (Rank 4 six times, Rank 5 once, Rank 6 three times, Rank 7 once), a claimed or scouted region (eight Resources operations, one per zone, paying materials and throne accessories), perks invested in one advisor's tree (eight operations), and fifteen operations that simply grant a mount, including preorder and deluxe bonuses. For eight rows the page gives its unlock as a question mark. Across all 299 rows the advisors are asked for almost evenly, Forces 84 times, Connections 80 and Secrets 71, and 112 rewards include influence; 28 later steps depend on which advisor you sent on the step before, which is the reason the page's Inner Circle and Inquisitor's Path chains are written as branching lists.
The Two Capstones and Rank 8
Two main missions recur as gates through the whole table: Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts at Halamshiral and Here Lies the Abyss at Adamant. Chains that wait on one or the other include the dwarf Inquisitor's The Dasher, the human Inquisitor's Deal with an Unexpected Gift, Stop Bann Dorner from Spying and the Grand Tourney against Lord Albrecht, the mage allies' Reparations for Redcliffe, the Kirkwall group, the Crows chain and the Kal-Sharok chain; The College of Magi wants Rank 7 as well, and the elf Inquisitor's Protect Clan Lavellan and Wycome wants both missions plus Restore Order in Wycome. The same two missions dominate the approval lists: the Winter Palace is on 27 lines and Adamant on 20, second only to the Temple of Mythal's 28, 15 of which concern who drinks from the Well of Sorrows.
The top of the ladder is Inquisition Rank 8, where the war table page lists nine one-word operations, one per specialization: Break for Reavers, Endure for Templars and Inspire for Champions among warriors, End for Assassins, Make for Artificers and Smash for Tempests among rogues, Revere for Necromancers, Trust for Knight-Enchanters and Train for Rift Mages. Below them sit three rows all titled Specializations for the Inquisitor, one each for mage, warrior and rogue, available at Skyhold.
What These Pages Do Not Cover
No main quest walkthrough sits among our five Dragon Age: Inquisition pages, and neither do class builds or region quest lists; the operations page gives completion times only as a warning to read the screen before committing an advisor. The companions and merchants pages still name a romance guide, a specializations quests guide, an agents guide and a mage class guide in their text, and the war table page names a rare materials guide and two region quest guides; none of those seven is on this site yet, so the words stand without links until they are.
Inquisition Questions
Do war table missions take real time?
Missions do; they occupy an advisor or their agents for the time shown on the mission screen, so the page tells you to read that screen before sending anyone. Scouting operations cost Power instead and finish at once, and the advisor can carry on with other work.
Who can the Inquisitor romance?
By the companions page: Cassandra with a male Inquisitor of any race, Blackwall with a female one of any race, Dorian with a male one of any race, and Sera, whose lists include a romance culmination without stating a requirement. Varric is not available and Cole is not either.
How do I get cutscenes above 30 FPS on PC?
Add -GameTime.MaxSimFps 60 -GameTime.ForceSimRate 60+ to the game's launch options, through the shortcut or the game's properties in Origin. Both PC pages give the same line.