Add Mods to Dragon Age: Inquisition

Although the Frostbite engine, the game engine upon which Dragon Age: Inquisition is built, is notoriously hard to mod, modders have figured out how to change some things, bringing a new level of customization to the game. To add mods to Dragon Age: Inquisition, all you need is the DA-I Mod Manager and the game.

Careful!

Modding Dragon Age: Inquisition is still a very experimental process. Mods can and do break saves, making it impossible for you to continue playing without starting over. Additionally, some mods don't play nice with expansions to the original game. For instance, mods do not work at all for entering the Descent DLC.

What's my point? If you're going to mod your game, please back up your saves to an earlier time before you added mods; that way, if a mod breaks your game, you can just remove it and pick up the game from where you left off.

1. 1
   Navigate to your BioWare folder.

   

   BioWare Folder in My Documents

   It's located under your Windows user name\documents\BioWare

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2. 2
   Open the BioWare folder

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3. 3
   Open the Dragon Age:Inquisition folder

   

   Dragon Age Inquisition Folder

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4. 4
   Right-click on the Save folder and select Copy from the drop-down menu

   

   Saves Folder

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5. 5
   Click somewhere on your desktop and either left-click and Paste or hit Ctrl+v to copy the folder and its contents to your desktop.

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The only tool you need to add mods to the game is the DA-I Mod Manager. You can also download it directly from its page on the the Dragon Age: Inquisition Nexus.

1. 1
   Click on the Files tab to open up the files section on the page for the DA-I Mod Manager on the Nexus.

   

   DA-I Mod Manager on the Nexus

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2. 2
   Click download manually and then OK to download the file to your hard drive.

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3. 3
   Save it somewhere on your hard drive. I am going to save my copy to my desktop where I can get to it easily.

   

   Downloading the Mod Manager

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4. 4
   Right-click on the file and extract its contents to your desktop.

   

   Extract to Desktop

   I am going to extract it to a folder by the same name on my desktop. I suggest keeping it in a folder rather than just extracting it directly to your hard drive; it creates its own files, and it's best to keep them all together in one location.

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1. 1
   Double-click on the DAI tools exe from within its folder to run the tool

   

   DA-I Tools Folder

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2. 2
   Select (64 bits)Mod Manager v1.0 on the left-hand side of the launcher and click the Launch button.

   

   DA-I Tools Launcher

   The Mod Manager window will appear. This is the part of the program that you'll run to actually install your mods in the game.

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3. 3
   Make a new folder and rename it something like DA-I Mods, or whatever you want to call it. This is where you will put your DA-I-mod files. It can be anywhere on your computer, so long as you know where it is.

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4. 4
   Click the Browse button at the top of the Mod Manager window and browse to the mod folder you just created.

   

   Mod Folder

   I have mine where I install all of my games, but like I said, you can have yours anywhere on your hard drive.

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5. 5
   Click the second Browse button at the top of the Mod Manager window and browse for the Dragon Age: Inquisition executable.

   

   DA-I Executable

   It's in the Dragon Age: Inquisition game folder, which is in the Origin Games folder, wherever you have that installed.

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For the most part, the majority of Dragon Age: Inquisition mods are located on the Nexus, but individual modders also may upload some of their mods to Tumblr. Another good place to find mods is on this forum, which is run by the creators of the Mod Manager.

Although the Frostbite Engine has limited what modders can do with the game, there are still a variety of mods available. You can change things such as your character's hair style, unequipped outfit, lovingly referred to pajamas, formal outfit, and much more.

Hair mods are ubiquitous. Your Inquisitor can have everything from a short undercut style to long, flowing tresses that flow down his or her back. Well, the hair may not exactly *flow*, but you get the picture. One issue to be aware of with hair mods is that they won't show up in-game unless you use ultra-mesh settings, and they won't appear in the Black Emporium, which is the free DLC that lets you customize your character after you've already created him or her.

Complexion mods add different face textures for your Inquisitor to the game. From super-smooth skin to that imperfectly perfect look we all strive for, your Inquisitor can have more freckles, and moles, or be blemish-free. Like hair mods, complexion mods cause issues with the Black Emporium, but instead of just not showing up, complexion mods cause the Black Emporium to crash when you click on the mirror. I'll tell you about a workaround for this problem later.

Clothing mods mostly change your Inquisitor's unequipped outfit and formal wear. Recently, modders were able to add some clothing to the single-player game from the multiplayer game.

There aren't too many armor mods, at least not in the way they exist for Skyrim. Most armor mods remove class restrictions, that is, they make it so a warrior can equip light armor and a mage can equip heavy armor.

Companion mods change the appearance of your companions and advisors. For instance, I have a mod for Dorian that changes his hairstyle, gives him a tattoo, and changes the colors of his clothes and armor.

Tattoo mods replace the tattoos in character creation with others that you may like more. Be aware that custom tattoos, like complexion mods, cause the Black Emporium to crash upon entering character customization.

Weapon mods do everything from a simple retexture to changing the stats, availability, and removing class restrictions.

Reshade presets change the lighting in-game with post-processing effects. You don't use the Mod Manager to install them; instead, you simply drag and drop the files into your game folder. Reshade mods can be taxing on your computer and may make your game run slow if your computer can't handle them.

User Interface or UI mods are mods that affect how the game's menus and heads-up-display (HUD) work.

Game play change mods do just what the name implies: they change something about how you play the game. They run the gamut from removing the level cap to cheat things that give you more experience per level.

For this section of the guide, we're going to be installing the Combat Unleashed mod from the Nexus.

1. 1
   Click on the Files tab to bring up the files available for download.

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2. 2
   Click on the file you want to download.

   

   Combat Unleashed Mod Page

   I'm going to pick Combat Unleased - Mage (Spirit Blade) for now because I like playing as a mage mostly. You can pick any of the three you like, however.

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3. 3
   Choose a destination for your file and click Save. I always save my files directly to my desktop because it's easier for me to find them.

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4. 4
   Right-click on the file you just downloaded and extract its contents to somewhere you can easily find them. I'm going to put it on my desktop.

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5. 5
   Drag and drop the DAI-Mod file into the mod folder you created earlier.

   

   Mod Folder

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6. 6
   Double-Click on DAI-Tools.exe to run the Launcher

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7. 7
   Select (64-Bits) Mod Manager v 1.0 from the left side of the launcher window and hit the Launch button in the right upper corner.

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8. 8
   Click on Merge in the bottom right corner of the Mod Manager window and let it do its thing

   

   Merge Button

   Depending on how many mods you have, it may take a few minutes. You'll see this if everything went okay.

   

   Success!

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Remember how I said that hair mods don't show up in the Black Emporium and complexion mods make it crash? Well, here's how you can get around that particular problem:

All hair mods replace a vanilla hairstyle, which we refer to as the "base hair."

1. 1
   Visit the DAI Beard, Hair, and Horn Compendium to find the base hair for the particular hairstyle you want to change your character into.

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2. 2
   In the Black Emporium, pick that base hair; when you leave the Black Emporium, your character will be sporting the modded hairstyle.

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The workaround for complexion mods is a little more complicated than the one for hair mods. Here's what you do:

1. 1
   Launch the DAI-Mod Manager like you're going to install a new mod

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2. 2
   Untick your complexion mods on the left side of the window.

   

   Untick Face Textures Before Merging

   Make sure that you get them all, including any companion or advisor face retextures as well.

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3. 3
   Run the mod manager

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4. 4
   Navigate to your Dragon Age:Inquisition game folder and find the Update folder inside.

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5. 5
   Copy the folder titled Patch_ModManagerMerge to your desktop and append its name with something so that you know it's the one without the face textures.

   

   Merged Patches Folders

   As you can see, I've named mine Patch_ModManagerMerge_NFT.

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6. 6
   Move that folder back into the Update folder. It should not overwrite anything because you've changed the name.

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7. 7
   Run the Mod Manager again and re-merge your mods, including your face textures. When you want to change your character's looks, use the patch without the face textures, then switch it with the one that includes them, renaming before your switch.

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8. 8
   Keep track of the complexion number of the complexion your mods replace so that you can pick it in the Black Emporium. The mod page should list which complexion number it replaces.

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If you have problems with any of the steps in this article, please ask a question for more help, or post in the comments section below.

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