Introduction to Maps

While navigation is rarely an issue in Dragon Age II, plundering its countless locales of their finest treasures can be a demanding task. Help is at hand. This chapter reveals the locations of all noteworthy collectibles, including rare and unique items, locked chests and codex entries.

Before you continue, take a moment to familiarize yourself with the icons we will use throughout this chapter. As many points of interactivity (such as area exits and merchants) appear on the in-game maps, we instead focus exclusively on the countless collectibles that do not – which will make the process of tracking down treasures much easier.

Icon	Meaning	Notes
	Standard container	These can be opened by any character and include things like regular chests, but also piles of bones, corpses, furniture and so forth – in other words, any possible source of loot.
	Locked chest	Locked chests can only be opened by a rogue. There are 4 types of locks (basic, standard, complex and master), each requiring the rogue to have a minimum amount of points in the Cunning attribute (respectively 10, 20, 30 and 40).
	Rare item	Rare items include gifts, armor upgrades for companions, Codex collectibles, side quest items, and crafting ingredients or recipes. Note that some Codex collectibles are available in several areas: picking one up will deactivate the others that appear in different locations.

As a rule, all collectibles are removed from maps and replaced by new items at the beginning of each act. There are also certain collectibles that will only appear during a specific quest.

Make sure you do not miss these items during the corresponding window of opportunity, as you will not be able to collect them later on. For maximum clarity, all collectibles are represented in color-coded sets on our maps, with their availability conditions (such as act or quest restrictions) clearly stated on each map’s legend.

Most maps in the game are unique and used only for a given location. For example, the Hightown map is only ever used for the Hightown district. However there are a few “generic” maps that can appear on multiple occasions in different quests, each time with a new description.

When this occurs, you will always find the name of each instance of a map clearly labeled. If in doubt, simply refer to the map section of our eGuide.