Returning to Dragon Age Inquisition: 3 Crucial Gameplay Tips to Make Your Life a Whole Lot Easier

With Vielguard’s release date soon approaching, it’s an ideal time for a replay of the Dragon Age series, don’t you agree? Listed bellow are 3 key tips that should help you breeze though Inquisition without getting lost in The Hinterlands or stuck in an endless elfroot farming simulator.

Inquisition's advisors — Join us! We have to restore order to a world in chaos (and romantic storylines to *cough* uncover)!

Tip number 1:

Harvest everything!

Pick up every plant/metal that crosses your path as you traipse along (search key is your friend in this). To speed up the process and save yourself some time, invest the first inquisition perk in Optimal Cutting. Trust me. It’ll will make your life much, much easier down the line.

To do this go to War Table and open the menu on the bottom right corner of the screen

INQUISITION PERKS -> SECRETS -> Optimal Cutting.

Along this lines it also pays off to be on the hunt for every chest/pot you encounter on your adventures, as they contain schematics for weapons/equipment.

Why, you ask? Check tip number 2.

Tip number 2:

Upgrade stuff!

Crafting is how you get the best possible equipment, which is a MUST if you plan to play the game on any other difficulty than story mode. Also, cosmetics! You do want to look you best, don’t you? For the Pinkquisition!... if you're into this sort of things.
And even if you're not into herbalism...upgrade your healing potions. Regeneration potion is your friend! Equip at least one character with it.

Tip number 3:

Don't ignore the inquisition perks!

If you need help to start with:

MUST HAVE: Massache's Method AND Enhanced Studies ASAP. Trust me. 😉
OPTIONAL: One of the perks that unlock additional options in conversation (Arcane, Nobility or Underworld knowledge). I’ll let you decide which, but it will sure come in handy if you are like me and want to persuade everyone to do your bidding, without having to rely on a companion’s help.
FOR MY FELLOW HOARDERS AND COMPLETIONISTS: Deft Hands, Fine Tools. So you can unlock all doors without having to backtrack a ton.

Bonus Tip:

One of the problems you may encounter when playing DAI for the first time is that you can get into more difficult areas too quickly and thus level-up super fast, but then end up with a bunch of areas that contain enemies levels far below. Result - crap loot and no XP.

The rule to keep in mind here is that when you are at 3 levels higher than your opponents (let's say you are level 10 and your enemies are level 7) you lose the ability to gain XP.

The same goes for your companions. However, if they are only one level bellow you (2 levels above an enemy), you CAN still get XP – albeit an extremely small bonus.

From the top (meaning save the first for last):

Please note that a lot of these areas aren't tied to the central story, so you can skip them entirely. The only advantage they offer is a variety of crafting materials, level-ups and lore (so if you're not interested in those, just follow the core missions that will take you through the most important/key areas).

The Hissing Wastes (also geographically the largest area in the Inquisition, but only full of side quests. So, you can skip it, if you just want to stick to the story. However please note that there's a shop here that also sells the highest and unique schematics for armour and weapons) and Emprise du Lion (I recommend leaving this one for last).
The Emerald graves and The Exalted Plains (intended level 11-15).
The rest you can tackle as you wish. The easiest are of course The Hinterlands
(except for the top right corner of the map, where you have 3 high-levelled rifts and bears. Seriously. Beware of bears. So, start at level 8, if you wish to avoid making your life harder than it needs to be)
If you need help with those. You can find the best guide that ever existed on this link right here.