ITEMS
There are hundreds of unique items in Dragon Age II, corresponding to five major groups—equippable items like
weapons, armor, or accessories, usable items like health potions, runes that can enchant weapons or armor,
crafting items like recipes or resources, and plot items like keys or gifts for Hawke’s companions.
INVENTORY
The inventory stores all of the usable and equippable items you purchase, find, or create through the crafting
system. (The recipes and resources required for crafting, however, are listed in the crafting screens, and plot
items do not appear in the inventory.)
To inspect an item, highlight it in the inventory and press the F button. This displays the item’s various
properties, which are explained throughout this manual. If a character has another item of the same type
equipped, you will see a side-by-side comparison.
To equip or unequip an item, highlight it in the inventory and press the S button. To use a usable item, press
the A button several times to return to the game itself and press the W button to open the radial menu.
From the radial menu, you can use items directly or map them to the battle menu just like a spell or talent.
Stars
The inventory displays between one and five stars next to each weapon, piece of armor, or accessory. These are
an approximation of the item’s usefulness relative to the character’s level and class. Two stars indicate basic
equipment for that level. As characters increase in level, the number of stars next to a given item will decrease,
suggesting that it is becoming less appropriate and should be replaced.
Capacity
You can only carry so much equipment; once the inventory is full, you have to sell or destroy items before you
can pick up more. To increase the inventory capacity, purchase a backpack.
Junk
When you find an item in the inventory that you don’t think you’ll use, press the D button to send it to the junk
tab. Some items that have no use, only value, are moved to the junk tab as soon as you pick them up. Junk
items still count toward your inventory capacity, but when you visit a store, you can sell them all with a single
button-press. When you’re looking at the junk tab, you can also destroy items to free up inventory space by
pressing the D button.
CONTAINERS/LOOT
Whenever an object in the world or an enemy corpse is shimmering, it contains items that you can pick up,
presuming you’re able to open the container and have space in your inventory. Many doors and chests are
locked when you find them. To open a lock, you either need a key—which doesn’t always exist—or a rogue to
pick the lock. All rogues are able to open simple locks, but more complex mechanisms require additional points
in the cunning attribute. At 20, 30, and 40 points of cunning, rogues become able to open more difficult types
of locks.
ITEM SETS
Certain combinations of items from the same set—usually bearing similar names—offer an extra bonus
when equipped simultaneously. When you receive an item-set bonus, an extra passive ability appears in the
character’s abilities screen. If you manage to find multiple sets of items that can be equipped simultaneously,
the bonuses are cumulative.
ITEM POWERS
Equipment sometimes improves (or even diminishes) a character’s statistics. When inspecting an item in the
inventory, positive effects are colored green and negative effects are colored red. These bonuses or penalties
come into effect when you have the item equipped.
