If you thought you’d seen everything Dragon Age: Inquisition had to offer, think again. Here are 40 highly useful, sometimes game-changing tricks, tips, and secrets that you might not have known about, whether you’re a newcomer or a returning Inquisitor. From hidden mechanics to glitch exploits, strategic combat ideas, and advanced crafting tweaks, there’s something here for every playstyle.

40. Qunari – The Damage Powerhouse Choosing the Qunari as your Inquisitor isn’t just for the aesthetic – it’s a tactical edge. They come with 10% melee defense and certain Qunari-specific helmets like the Krytavik Tub (found in the Descent DLC) can give you a whopping +24 base damage. That’s a significant bonus when you’re maximizing melee builds.

39. Use Healing Potions to Break Disabled State When knocked down or disabled, most players wait it out or rely on a skill to recover. But simply using a healing potion (if you’re not at full health) will get you back into the fight instantly. It’s a quick lifesaver in intense battles.

38. Stop Rift Spawns Before They Start Demons spawning from rifts can be preemptively killed using Purge or Dispel spells. With a Templar and a Mage in your party, you can eliminate two enemies before they even materialize. Just make sure you’re using tactical view to target them correctly.

37. Fix Frozen Teammates with Disengage That odd bug where your companions stand around doing nothing? Instead of switching to them manually, use the disengage command. It instantly resets their AI and they’ll rejoin the battle.

36. No Weapon-Type Restriction on Passive Abilities Don’t be afraid to pick Archer passives even if you’re using dual daggers, or vice versa. Passive skills like Flow of Battle work across weapon types and can be excellent for any Rogue or Warrior setup.

35. Horses Can Climb Like Goats Can’t reach a hard-to-access loot chest or collectible? Mount up. Horses in Inquisition have uncanny climbing skills, allowing you to scale tricky terrain with ease.

34. Masterwork Upgrade Bonus Trick Crafting with masterwork materials gives you the base version of the ability. But if you also have the skill unlocked and upgraded on your character, then the masterwork triggers the upgraded version. This is especially useful for high-impact effects like Walking Fortress or Horn of Valor.

33. Infinite Loot Glitch Leave at least one item in a loot container, travel to another location, then return. The loot will respawn, allowing you to farm ability point-granting gear or schematics. It’s a known glitch – exploit with joy.

32. Don’t Miss the Grand Duchess Helmet The Mess of the Grand Duchess helmet is a 15% crit chance monster, but you’ll miss it unless you expose or execute Florianne in “Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts.” Plan ahead if you want one of the best helmets in the game.

31. Masterwork Farming Made Easy Turn on Trials mode to boost rare loot chances. Afterward, go to Skyhold and save before collecting from the special shipment chest. If the item isn’t what you want, reload and try again. More Trials, more chances.

30. Crafted Gear Is Better Than Found Gear Even with low-tier materials, crafted gear is almost always better than what you’ll loot. Plus, you can fine-tune stats to your liking. Once you have a solid schematic, start crafting immediately.

29. Descent Elevator Shortcut The Descent DLC has long elevator rides – but there’s a detour that skips the wait. Always worth checking for side paths in vertical levels.

28. Mana Surge Barrier Freeze Trick Mana Surge not only freezes enemies when a barrier is broken, but it affects all allies. Keep your team clustered when using a Mage’s barrier to potentially freeze multiple enemies at once.

27. Infinite Item Duplication Glitch At Skyhold, use the storage chest to dupe items. Put in an item, then press A and B simultaneously when withdrawing. It’ll stay in the chest and appear in your inventory too. Rinse and repeat for infinite money or rare mats.

26. Attack Animation Canceling Basic attacks too slow? Cancel them using the search command. For one-handed Warriors, canceling with Shield Wall boosts attack speed significantly while also blocking – double benefit.

25. Resistance Cap Mechanics The hard cap for resistances (melee, ranged, magic) is 80%. However, racial resistances stack on top of that. If you’re pushing elemental tank builds, keep this in mind.

24. Rift Mage Spell Combinations Combo spells like Chain Lightning + Pull of the Abyss, or Sleep + Dispel can lead to nightmare effects. A Rift Mage can perform all of these alone, enabling highly effective crowd control.

23. Masterworks Share Cooldowns Using different tiers of the same masterwork doesn’t stack effectively. They share a 10-second cooldown, so you’re better off stacking passive guard-granting types instead (e.g., 5 + 3 = 8 guard per hit).

22. Infinite XP Farming Spots Giants in the Emerald Graves respawn infinitely but are tough for low levels. A better method? Mislight a torch puzzle in the Tombs of Fairel to trigger endless demon spawns.

21. Charging from Close Range Doubles Bull’s Hit Bull Hit (a charging ability) hits twice if used up close. Always charge enemies at point-blank to maximize damage.

20. Runes Enhance More Than Just Damage Runes can reduce cooldowns (Warriors), restore stamina (Rogues), or boost Flashpoint proc rates (Mages). Even weak runes can have powerful utility effects.

19. Hidden Treasure Room in Elven Ruins In the Trespasser DLC, an inaccessible gold-filled room can be opened by getting the Anchor Blast upgrade and bombing a rock wall via a hidden path. This grants access to over 200,000 gold.

18. Get Amulet of Barrier – Don’t Miss It To earn the ultra-valuable Amulet of Barrier, side with the Templars during “In Your Heart Shall Burn.” You can loot it from Fiona during the Haven battle. Worth spoiling for!

17. AI + Flashpoint = OP Tempest When the AI controls a Tempest using Flashpoint, they react near-instantly, cycling through abilities with impossible speed. Sometimes, letting the AI run wild is more efficient than manual play.

16. Pommel Strike Stuns Nearly Everything Except dragons, Pommel Strike stuns almost all enemies, even mid-animation. Works on giants, ogres, anything – making it a clutch crowd-control tool.

15. Walking Bomb Combo Trick Casting another spell right after Walking Bomb lands allows that spell to be free – no mana, no cooldown. With Flashpoint, you can cast the same spell three times in a row. Devastating for single-target DPS.

14. Hakkonite Attacks Are Deadly Hakkonites stack a unique debuff that shreds your cold resistance. Dispel or Spell Purge can slow it down, but the best defense is a quick offense. Kill them before the debuff stacks.

13. Some Specializations Stack Two Artificers = double Opportunity Knocks. Two Templars = double Maker’s Will. Specializations can synergize hard when stacked correctly.

12. Use Tactical Camera to Check Resistances If you’re only doing 1 damage, use tactical view to inspect the enemy’s attributes. On Nightmare difficulty especially, knowing their resistances is crucial for swapping to effective elements.

11. Double Element Energy Barrage Using Blade of Tidarion turns Energy Barrage into a 24-projectile blast – 12 of your main element, 12 of the rune. Great for hybrid builds.

10. Skip War Table Timers (PC and Console) Set your system time forward to finish War Table missions instantly. Works on PC and likely on console too.

9. AI-Only Slotless Spells Post-Trespasser, some spells (e.g., Fire Mine, Wall of Fire, Ice Mine) can be cast by AI without occupying ability slots. This allows AI-controlled characters to access far more than 8 active abilities.

8. Infinite Power Shot via Canceling With Rolling Draw upgrade, Leaping Shot cancels Power Shot. Chain these together for endless knockdown shots. Requires skill, but deadly in practice.

7. Stamina-on-Kill Items Are Bugged Items with stamina-on-kill only work with basic attacks. Special abilities don’t trigger the recovery, making this trait less useful than it appears.

6. Class Restriction Removal via Crafting Certain materials remove class restrictions when used in primary slots: Dales Loden Wool (light armor), Snoufleur Skin (medium), Silverite (heavy).

5. No Fall Damage While Mounted Jumping down from cliffs? Mount up first. You and your horse will take zero fall damage.

4. Don’t Miss Recruitable Agents Agents reduce the cost of Inquisition perks and help unlock powerful bonuses. Keep an eye out during exploration and dialogue options.

3. More Than Three Elusives If you have multiple Rogue abilities that grant Elusive, you can stack up to nine charges, even though only three appear visually. A hidden survivability boost.

2. Walking Bomb Masterwork Is Overpowered Despite the tooltip saying 100% weapon damage, it scales far higher based on the triggering attack. Huge burst damage potential.

1. Use the Golden Nug to Sync Unlocks Finished a playthrough? The Golden Nug lets you sync schematics, recipes, and collections between characters by interacting with the statue in Skyhold or Haven. Great for New Game+ setups.

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These 40 tricks cover glitches, exploits, and high-level strategies that can drastically change how you approach Dragon Age: Inquisition. Whether you’re optimizing for combat, crafting the perfect loadout, or just looking for fun exploits, this guide should keep your next run through Thedas fresh and powerful.