I was just listening to podcast and heard Brad say he was playing dragon age but he hadn't yet left Hinterlands. I heard Rorie and others say not to waste too much time there and I didn't. I bounce to and from areas all the time. I've gone back to the hinterlands probably half a dozen times atleast. I've also gone to sword coast, swamp, desert and a few other places. In fact, there is a great place on sword coast that when you travel there, there is always some dragonlings, which are easy way to scales and dragon blood.

Basically what I've been doing is focus on one objective, go do it and do whatever else I happen across. I loot everything so when I'm full I head back and make sure I go different area next. I still feel has if I'm over leveling myself, but I also run into tough fights ever now and than. I'm currently focused on leveling my base has high has possible.

Best tip yet don't spend too much time in one area, move on.

Also do "your heart shall burn" mission had fast as possible.

Even Bioware devs have said to leave the Hinterlands. It's a great and terrible trap of a zone.

It's rough to say but I think this would have really been helped by a little railroading just until you finish 'In your heart shall burn'. I guess it's hard to do when you're trying so hard to show people who hated DA2 that this game isn't that.

I dunno, that's subjective. I personally had a lot of fun in the Hinterlands. I stayed there for like the first 15 hours of the game and I completely enjoyed it.

I don't think it's a bad zone but so much is made available after the first act that getting lost in the starting area where things are at the most basic seems kind of a shame.

Nooope, just can't do it. It's ok, I managed to more or less clear it out, followed by the Sword Coast then the Fallow Mire, before finally moving on with the story. It's just the way I'm wired, and I'm having a fucking blast.

I know I will play Inquisition from start to finish. I know I'm loving it right now. Even if it means I'll play 30 more hours than what I would have needed if I didn't play like this, or if I'm overleveled most of my playthrough, I much rather take my time and enjoy the game at my own pace. I guess I'll leave the Hinterlands whenever I feel I'm done with the area, and when that quest everyone mentions comes up, I'll do it. But I won't rush my playthrough.

is there really a place called the sword coast? If so, cool!

I disagree. Everyone should play the full 15 hours of the are before doing anything else.

Disagree, but to each their own. I pretty much try to exhaust an area before I move onto another area or the main missions (...like a plague) and the 35 hours I've put in have been fantastic.

Its not about fast forwarding or skipping anything and you cant even clear out the zone before you move the story forward. Just make sure that within the forst 10hour or so you complete the first couple of storymission until you are at least done with "in your heart shall burn". After that you have the whole awesomeness of DAI before you and if your heart so desires you can go back and spend another 20hours in Hinterlands.

If you spend 20hours in Hinterlands without leaving you are just running around in the tutorial without knowing it.

I started having a much better time with the game when I left the Hinterlands. I was enjoying the Hinterlands, but you just don't get the character or story interaction doing the side quest stuff, and those are so key to the game. Also it's kind of a shame to spend so much time in that one environment considering there's so many cool and distinct ones.

Seems like people are talking about Storm Coast. I don't know if there is some reason people are calling it Sword Coast or not. I've seen others do the same(on youtube, gamefaqs, etc.).

I come from the Gerstmann school of over leveling, so I stuck around in the Hinterlands for as long as I could (probably around level 9 or so, if memory serves) before moving the game progress forward, in order to ensure that the mid and late stages of the game didn't frustrate me with difficulty. I like to just sort of plow through stuff in most games, and will put up with a bit of a grind at the beginning if it makes the rest of the game more to my liking.

but... all those map icons...

@uitdetoekomst: instead of grinding level 1 mobs you can turn down the difficulty. Just saying..

Yup. I didn't do Heart Shall Burn quest until like 20 hours in.

Been playing totally different... I've been keeping up with the main quest logs and just started doing them when I reached or went over the max required level for it. Other then that HInterlands has been a blast and you can easily get enough power to not have to really worry about it through the entire game.

Its not that Hinterlands is a great place, but let me tell you that none of those missions go away. Like I said I've gone back several times and have now cleared almost everything. Personally I'm a slow pack rat, but moving on I think helps seem like you're doing more. This way I go into an area spend a few hours doing stuff than move on to another. Later I go back into same area and enemies and herbs respawned, but I also have an idea how to get around. I'm sure I'll do atleast 90% of missions by the end and I'll hit level cap before end of game. It's just hard to say cause there is a question of how far you are in, but as long you're having fun, do what you want.

This is the best piece of advice to give anyone starting DA, the hinterlands is great but you should collect your party before you start going ham on a zone.

I mean I did kind of the same thing and spent way too much time in that zone and I enjoyed it well enough but after the fact I was just staring back and realizing that I had extended the games tutorial section by like 6 hours. None of that stuff goes away if you progress and you'll have MORE things to get lost in if you do some of that stuff just a little bit later.

Most likely it's Bioware paying homage to the Forgotten Realms settings.

Play it however you want.

I didn't go to Val Royeaux until I'd finished everything that was possible in the Hinterlands and I had a blast. 30 hours in and I just finished In Your Heart Shall Burn.

Look, I'm the kind of crazy son of a bitch who spend untold amount of hours collecting every single collectible in Assassins Creed 2. Believe me, I know the urge. You get access to so much more of the game which will actually greatly help your enjoyment when you go to clear out areas. Its well worth advancing the story because you won't get your specialisation class unlocked until you get ACT I completed and you should REALLY want to get you specialisation unlocked as they are the most fun classes in the game.

I did the same thing. I spent ~4 hours playing a single side mission area last night. I'm now just over 44 hours in. And judging by the amount of things in my journal and how I play these games, we (or maybe just I) have about 50-60 hours more of things to do. I also read everything in the game.

Ah. I don't really know much at all about Forgotten Realms stuff.

Yup. I spent like 3 hours in Skyhold today talking to people and exploring.

Have you played the game? I ask because anyone who has played would probably know that there are portions of the Hinterlands in which the enemies are well above "level 1 mob" territory. Just saying...

@uitdetoekomst: im about 50 hours into Inqusition and i made the mistake of clearing out everything before doing the first tutorial story missions thats why im recommending folks not to do the same mistake. At the very least you shuld be aware you are still in the tutorial.

That doesnt matter tho as my comment was about your general "Gerstmann aproach" and not specificly about inqusition. In the majority of rpgs the amount of xp rewarded and required for leveling up grows exponentialy wich means grinding low level mobs gets you nowhere. Especially if you are locked to just tutorial mechanics like in this game.

@tehsorrow: No. The area is called The Storm Coast.

I've heard this about the Hitherlands but to be honest I'm actually really enjoying the area. I liked the people at the stable so completed those tasks for example. If the leveling up too high does genuinely become a problem that negatively impacts my experience in the story missions I will just up the difficulty (if this is indeed an option)

@flameboy84: Well if you level up to 12 in hinterlands and then do the main missions its not especially rewarding when you recieve your epic level 3 rewards and your grey level 10 hinterlands items are ten times more powerfull. A problem you will run into no matter what difficulty you run on in this game if you do alot of the sidestuff, the xp system seems to be balanced for b-lining the game witch is sad.

My collection disease would not allow me to leave the hinterlands until I was all done with it.

I took this advice and left to blindly go into some area with zombies. At first I was toughing it out. I even lit a few beacons and made FULL use of the tactical view as if I was playing Dragon Age: Origins again. I'd issue commands, unpause, pause, issue commands. Eventually I got to some story rift where my team was completely decimated.

I am back at the Hinterlands..

So I went over the 60 hour mark last night. And I still haven't done the two story missions after the major one everyone talks about needing to get to in this topic. I still have so much side content to do too. I will probably finish this game with over 100 hours into it on my first playthrough.

@sterling: I did a fairly complete run, did the vast vast majority of quests, I didn't bother with all the shards (only enough to unlock 1.5 complete paths in the temple), didn't bother with mounts and killed all the dragons. Took me 98 hours.

I've heard that I need to do "In your Heart shall burn", but I've avoided going forward with the story until the "No Companion Banter" glitch get's sorted out. I figure that as long as I stay in the Hinterlands (just went to the Storm Coast) I wont miss out on character banter that I should be getting.

Is there a mechanic that opens up upon completing that quest or is it a story thing? I'm quite happy clearing out random sidequests until the bug gets fixed, but if I need to complete that mission to open something then maybe I should push forward. I just don't want to miss more banter.

@golguin: A lot of stuff opens up after that quest. The most gameplay-relevant change is that you get to choose a specialization.

I've played this game for 62 hours, I'm yet to complete any meaningful story after unlocking Skyhold :P

@golguin: I don't remember have any banter in that area at all. Other areas I get quite a bit. But I honestly don't remember have any in that one area.

The specializations from Origins? I believe I was a ranger so I could summon my trusty wolf.

@golguin: Different ones. No wolf-summoning this time, sorry. And, unlike Origins, where you could eventually have two specializations, this time you can only choose one. So choose wisely.

I see. I guess i'll find out when I get there.