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Dragon Age: Inquisitionis a game that encourages exploration. Many of the secrets hidden throughout the game’s dozen-odd sprawling regions can be uncovered through little more than thorough strolls and combat encounters. But the game’s rich enough in RPG mechanics to know when to hide certain treasuresespeciallywell - and that’s when a specific perk comes into play.
Related:Dragon Age: How to Influence Who Becomes The Next Divine In Inquisition
That perk is called ‘Deft Hands, Fine Tools’, and it’s required in order to retrieve some of Dragon Age: Inquisition’s best loot. In this guide, we’ll go over the perk system, sending you on a path to crack Masterwork Locks with ease.
Inquisition Perks, Explained
Dragon Age: Inquisition hosts a rather tidy mechanical economy. What we mean by this is that the designers found ways to feed its various systems into each other in fairly satisfying ways - take influence, for instance.
Players earn influence through a number of primary methods, including quests, war table missions, defeating foes, and even purchasing it outright from special vendors.
Influence, in turn, grants various things. For this guide, we’ll focus on perks.After accumulating enough influence, the game allows you to purchase a perk.These perks grant a broad variety of good things, from increasing your Inquisitor’s knowledge on specific matters during conversations to improving party member focus or even increasing available crafting schematics.
There are 34 in total, though a maximum of 19 can be obtained per playthrough.
How To Get The ‘Deft Hands, Fine Tools’ Perk
The Inquisition Perks overlay seen above will pop up for you the first time you access the war table upon accumulating the requisite influence to obtain a new perk. As you can see, there are four categories:
‘Deft Hands, Fine Tools’ belongs to Leliana’s ‘Secrets’ category.When scrolling over it, you’ll be able to read the following description:
“The training, gear, and experience working with master locksmiths needed to tackle the toughest and most ingenious locking mechanisms. Allows all rogues in the party to open masterwork locks.”
However, some perks can only be acquired when a fixed number of points have been spent in a given category. That is to say,perks like ‘Deft Hands, Fine Tools’ cannot be obtained until you’ve grabbed three other perks within Leliana’s ‘Secrets’ category.This is to prevent players from opening Masterwork Locks too early in the game, no doubt.
We recommend’Arcane Knowledge’and’Enhanced Studies’for two of the three predecessor perks you unlock on the road to reaching ‘Deft Hands, Deft Tools’. The former gives your Inquisitor more speech options in matters related to the study of magic; the latter bolsters the number of researchers studying the Inquisition’s foes.
More to the point,both these perks increase the amount of EXP you’ll earn.‘Arcane Knowledge’ gives you a 50 percent increase in experience points earned from magic-related codex entries, and ‘Enhanced Studies’ provides the same boost for completing creature research.
You’ll need to be controlling acharacter classified as a Rogueto open Masterwork Locks with ‘Deft Hands, Deft Tools’, so if that’s not your Inquisitor, be sure to bring someone along who fits the bill - Varric, Cole, and Sera are all Rogues.
Related:Dragon Age: Inquisition - Guide To Completing A Nightmare Difficulty Playthrough
Where To Find All Masterwork Locks
Armed with ‘Deft Hands, Fine Tools’, you’re ready to retrace your steps and crack open all those Masterwork Locks strewn across Thedas. Good times! We’ve compiled this list of Masterwork Lock locations so that you’re able to keep quick track of your pending treasures.
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Inside the wheelhouse in Redcliffe
The Bottles on the Wall Vintage changes name depending on choices made via the Dragon Age Keep, referencing either Warden Bethany, Warden Carver, or Warden Steed. The item is a functionally identical collector’s trinket regardless.
House in Redcliffe
Sigil of the Tusket requires that the player has installed the ‘Trespasser’ DLC.
This particular house is closer to the docks than the other one.
Avvar Fortress
Prepare to be haunted by your party members commenting that something is nearby here for many hours before you’re able to unlock this door.
House in Crestwood Village
The house in question here will be inaccessible until after you have sealed the Flooded Caves rift.
North Tower at Fort Revasan
Sigil of Deathroot requires that the player has installed the Trespasser DLC.
Coracavus
Coracavus is the ancient Tevinter prison to the far north of the area.
Still Ruins (Western Door)
Sigil of the Nug requires that the player has installed the Trespasser DLC.
Chateau d’Onterre
Din’an Hanin
Keep an eye out for a nearby elven artifact while you’re here.
Main Area
The Cradle of Sulevin is not a region in and of itself, but rather, a dungeon accessible from the world map after completing the ‘Rumors of the Sulevin Blade’ war table mission.
