#Welcome, agents of the Inquisition!

This guide will help you get acquainted with the Multiplayer aspect of Dragon Age: Inquisition. This experience is completely separate from the main Campaign, linked in narrative only. This means that you can enjoy Multiplayer without worrying about spoiling the main story-line in single-player.

##Multiplayer? In a Dragon Age game?

Much like Mass Effect 3 multiplayer, you and three others will venture out on missions to aid in the overall plight in Thedas. There are a few differences when experiencing Multiplayer compared to the Campaign:

You can only have four abilities at one time.

This makes for more specialized characters

Abilities and Equipment can only be changed in the lobby

You can NOT respec a character’s abilities unless you Prestige them back to level one from from level 20. (This will also give all of your characters one additional stat point according the the class you prestige.)

You can carry up to four potions, and you are limited to TWO health potions per mission. I recommend you DO NOT use your health potions until the later zones, as you are able to heal your entire party after completing each individual zone.

Crafting Items are very limited. This is how BioWare created the grind for more characters and better loot. You can only obtain crafting items by “Salvaging” your unused weaponry (with the exception of your starting “Inquisitor” gear, as characters do not keep their weapons in slots, thus you must keep at least these weapons).

Since armor is how you unlock more characters , weapons and upgrades are abundant, and armor is not. If you want to choose what character you unlock next, you will need a LOT of crafting materials. You can obtain armor from the chests you purchase, but only RNGesus can save you with that…

Experience is given only after the mission ends. While gold is given as soon as you obtain it. Also, all gold and experience are shared evenly among players . This allows lower level characters to still obtain the same amount of experience even if their contribution wasn’t as much as the other players. If you get disconnected from your game, you will keep the gold you have earned up until that point. If you do not reconnect, you forfeit all of your EXP earned.

You can be revived twice per mission. Once you have gone down the third time, you will be sent to the fade, unable to return to battle and the remaining monsters will gain more power as a result of your defeat. From the fade, you can travel around as a wraith, and voice chat is still enabled, allowing you to potentially give insight to the enemies’ weaknesses to the other players (although one player’s defeat usually spells trouble for the rest…).

##Picking a Class

When starting out as an agent of the Inquisition you are able to pick one of three unlocked characters out of a total of twelve. There are four characters for each class: Warrior, Rogue, and Mage,

Legionnare - Warrior Class

The Legionnare’s main ability is Shield Wall , which allows him to build Guard and help tank for the other players.

Keeper - Mage Class

The Keeper has Barrier at her disposal, letting anyone she casts it upon take damage without fear of losing health.

Archer - Rogue Class

The Archer is the group’s main DPS class. His abilities revolve around utility: his Caltrops ability allows him to set up choke points or a means to get away for the other players.

As you continue to fight for the Inquisition, you will be able to unlock the other nine characters to aid in your fight. You can freely switch between characters in the lobby before playing, and each character has their own level progression, up the max level of 20.

##Entering into Battle

It is recommended that your team consist of at least one character of each class. As you go through your mission, there will be doors that can only be opened by rogues, mages, or warriors. These rooms will contain treasure, with the possibility of a few enemies as well. These doors, in addition to having all of the traditional roles in an RPG will give you the best options for fighting, although it doesn’t mean you cannot with without a given class.

Each mission may take place in one of three areas: Elven Ruins, Orlesian Chateau. and Tevinter Ruins.

In addition, you will encounter once of three enemy groups:

The Red Templars - Employ mainly physical attacks, Watch out for assassins in the back!

The Venatori Mages - Have both physical and magical attackers at their disposal, as well as some assassins of their own.

Demons - have mostly magical attacks and also elemental resistances.

You can determine what enemy group you will be fighting in the mission by the defenses set up by each group.

Each mission has five zones.

Zones 1 and 3 are straightforward and have you killing enemies in general.

Zones 2 and 4 have a random side mission that may be completed for extra gold. If you fail these missions, you do not gain a penalty.

Zone 5 is the boss zone. Enemies do not spawn until you are ready. You may plan with your group on what areas you would like to stay in and what defenses you want to employ before starting. Once you place the banner , enemies will spawn from all directions. Your task is to defeat all enemies, including a boss, to finish the mission. If it is your first few times into Multiplayer, do not get discouraged if you can’t defeat zone 5, or even make it that far.

##Gather your spoils after the mission has ended!

As mentioned before, your gold and XP is shared among all members of your group. You can then use the gold to purchase chests for more potions or for equipment in hopes for getting better weapons and armor. After you are finished, you can enter again stronger than you were before, and hopefully able to be farther in the mission.

There are three difficulties: Routine (Recommended for levels 1-8), Threatening (8-16), and Perilous (16+). **As a tip, you get significantly more gold from difficulties higher than Routine, so try to level up at least one character quickly to access more gold.

#Agent Tips for Multiplayer

Don’t be discouraged if you can’t finish the missions - as you are not supposed to do so, especially at a low level.

You have to grind for more characters, a lot - It takes a very long time to even get materials that you would need to build one character, and you also need a lot of one resource to build it. Either that or get lucky with chests…

Make sure to have defensive abilities - Much like the single player, there isn’t a good way to heal while out on a mission. You can heal your entire group once per zone beaten, however. Mages should take Barrier, Warriors should build Guard, and Rogues should take evasive abilities. (I personally like the Fadestep ability on the Keeper.)

Communication and Patience are key - The best teams are the ones that use the voice chat effectively. While I have played with people who do not use it, it is much more efficient (and more fun) when you communicate with your team. Also, try to plan out who are the high value targets and how you will manage the barrage of arrows and spells that may be pointed to your mages.

A balanced team is a happy team - Its pretty difficult to beat a mission with only mages. In addition, you will be locking yourself out of treasure rooms if you do not have the specific character to open the door for you.

Rogues can point out the more difficult targets and focus DPS on them.

Mages can cast barrier to help prevent damage to their teammates.

Warriors can aggro enemies to prevent them from stopping the others.

ADVANCED TIP: It is ok to save the healing wells between zones for later!

You can have one member backtrack to the previous healing well in the middle of a zone, or try to leapfrog the healing wells and save the one from zone 4 until you need it in zone 5.

This was quite a bit longer than I originally planned, but hopefully it will help someone, as a bunch of this stuff is not really explained…

Footnote: While writing this post, I referred to the Prima Official Game Guide for any clarifications or questions that may have arisen, and for structuring assistance with this post.