Dragon Age: Origins Guide Essentials Equipment

Weapons

If your character loves to hack-and-slash, you'll be happy to scrutinize every weapon. Even if you don't jump into the thick of things often, a weapon can still provide valuable bonuses to attributes and special abilities.

What weapon is the right fit for you? First, identify what sort of weapon you want to carry around: a one-handed melee weapon, a two-hander, or a ranged bow or crossbow for distance damage. Next, check out the weapon's tier level; tiers range from tier 1 to tier 7, and generally the higher tier equals more damage and will prove more useful. Compare the weapon's damage score to other weapons you have in your inventory (or on local vendors) and choose the highest damage score if other bonuses don't matter. See the following tables for more details on the different quality levels.

Weapon Tiers

Axes
Tier	Material	Damage	Armor Penetration	Critical Chance	Strength Required	N/A
1	Iron	6	2	1	11	—
2	Grey Iron	6.6	2.3	1.1	13	—
3	Steel	7.2	2.6	1.2	15	—
4	Veridium	7.8	2.9	1.3	19	—
5	Red Steel	8.4	3.2	1.4	25	—
6	Silverite	9	3.5	1.5	27	—
7	Dragonbone	9.6	4.2	1.6	31	—

Battleaxes

Tier	Material	Damage	Armor Penetration	Critical Chance	Strength Required	N/A
1	Iron	10	3	3	18	—
2	Grey Iron	11	3.45	3.3	20	—
3	Steel	12	3.9	3.6	22	—
4	Veridium	13	4.35	3.9	26	—
5	Red Steel	14	4.8	4.2	32	—
6	Silverite	15	5.25	4.5	34	—
7	Dragonbone	16	6.3	4.8	38	—

Crossbows

Tier	Material	Damage	Armor Penetration	Range	Critical Chance	Strength Required
1	Horn	8	5	40	2	10
2	Ash	8.8	6	42	2.2	12
3	Yew	9.6	7	44	2.4	14
4	Whitewood	10.4	8	46	2.6	18
5	Ironbark	11.2	9	48	2.8	24
6	Sylvanwood	12	10	50	3	26
7	Dragonthorn	12.8	11	52	3.2	30

Daggers

Tier	Material	Damage	Armor Penetration	Critical Chance	Dexterity Required	N/A
1	Iron	4	4	3	10	—
2	Grey Iron	4.4	4.6	3.3	12	—
3	Steel	4.8	5.2	3.6	14	—
4	Veridium	5.2	5.8	3.9	18	—
5	Red Steel	5.6	6.4	4.2	24	—
6	Silverite	6	7	4.5	26	—
7	Dragonbone	6.4	8.4	4.8	30	—

Greatswords

Tier	Material	Damage	Armor Penetration	Critical Chance	Strength Required	N/A
1	Iron	11	3	1.5	18	—
2	Grey Iron	12.1	3.45	1.65	20	—
3	Steel	13.2	3.9	1.8	22	—
4	Veridium	14.3	4.35	1.95	26	—
5	Red Steel	15.4	4.8	2.1	32	—
Tier	Material	Damage	Armor Penetration	Critical Chance	Strength Required	N/A
6	Silverite	16.5	5.25	2.25	34	—
7	Dragonbone	17.6	6.3	2.4	38	—

Longbows

Tier	Material	Damage	Armor Penetration	Range	Critical Chance	Dexterity Required
1	Horn	6	4	35	1	14
2	Ash	6.6	4.8	36.75	1.1	16
3	Yew	7.2	5.6	38.5	1.2	18
4	Whitewood	7.8	6.4	40.25	1.3	22
5	Ironbark	8.4	7.2	42	1.4	28
6	Sylvanwood	9	8	43.75	1.5	30
7	Dragonthorn	9.6	8.8	45.5	1.6	34

Longswords

Tier	Material	Damage	Armor Penetration	Critical Chance	Strength Required	N/A
1	Iron	7	2	2	11	—
2	Grey Iron	7.7	2.3	2.2	13	—
3	Steel	8.4	2.6	2.4	15	—
4	Veridium	9.1	2.9	2.6	19	—
5	Red Steel	9.8	3.2	2.8	25	—
6	Silverite	10.5	3.5	3	27	—
7	Dragonbone	11.2	4.2	3.2	31	—

Maces

Tier	Material	Damage	Armor Penetration	Critical Chance	Strength Required	N/A
1	Iron	5	4	0.5	12	—
2	Grey Iron	5.5	4.6	0.55	14	—
3	Steel	6	5.2	0.6	16	—
4	Veridium	6.5	5.8	0.65	20	—
5	Red Steel	7	6.4	0.7	26	—
6	Silverite	7.5	7	0.75	28	—
7	Dragonbone	8	8.4	0.8	32	—

Mauls

Tier	Material	Damage	Armor Penetration	Critical Chance	Strength Required	N/A
1	Iron	9	7	0.5	18	—
2	Grey Iron	9.9	8.05	0.55	20	—
3	Steel	10.8	9.1	0.6	22	—
4	Veridium	11.7	10.15	0.65	26	—
5	Red Steel	12.6	11.2	0.7	32	—
6	Silverite	13.5	12.25	0.75	34	—
7	Dragonbone	14.4	14.7	0.8	38	—

Shortbows

Tier	Material	Damage	Armor Penetration	Range	Critical Chance	Dexterity Required
1	Horn	5	3	20	1	10
2	Ash	5.5	3.6	21	1.1	12
3	Yew	6	4.2	22	1.2	14
4	Whitewood	6.5	4.8	23	1.3	18
5	Ironbark	7	5.4	24	1.4	24
6	Sylvanwood	7.5	6	25	1.5	26
7	Dragonthorn	8	6.6	26	1.6	30

Staves

Tier	Material	Damage	Armor Penetration	Range	Spellpower	Magic Required
1	Iron	4	20	50	1	16
2	Grey Iron	4.4	23	51.25	2	18
3	Steel	4.8	26	52.5	3	20
4	Veridium	5.2	29	53.75	4	24
5	Red Steel	5.6	32	55	5	30
6	Silverite	6	35	56.25	6	32
7	Dragonbone	6.4	40	57.5	7	36

Unique Weapons

Certain weapons have restrictions, such as Spellweaver, a unique sword crafted for a mage who specializes as an arcane warrior. Sell those if you receive one that nobody in your party can use. Below your damage score, critical chance shows you the likelihood of dealing critical strikes, and armor penetration calculates how much more damage you can punch through armor. Higher values in critical chance and armor penetration can lean you toward one weapon over another that may have a similar damage score.

As you level up, more and more weapons (as well as armor and accessories) will come with attribute bonuses and special abilities. Now you must decide: Do you take the weapon with the greater damage score, or do you choose the weapon with the better bonuses? If you're playing pure DPS, damage may be the most important factor; if your play style is more versatile, bonuses tend to be the way to go. Ideally, you will find a weapon that has the maximum damage score for your level range and great bonuses to power your character up.

Axes

Name	Material	Quality #1	Quality #2	Quality #3	Quality #4	Quality #5	Quality #6
Aodh	Silverite	+3% Melee Critical Chance	+20 Fire Resistance	-5 Cold Resistance	+1 Fire Damage	—	—
Ash Warrior Axe	All Metals	+2 Attack	—	—	—	—	—
Axameter	Silverite	+2 Damage	Lucky	+10% Critical Damage	+2 Damage vs. Dragons
Axe of the Grey	Silverite	+3% Melee Critical Chance	+4 Armor Penetration	+3 Damage vs. Darkspawn	—	—	—
Biteback Axe	Silverite	+3 Armor Penetration	+15% Critical Damage	Required: Rogue	No Attribute Requirements	—	—
Bloodline	Red Steel	+3 Dexterity	+10 Spirit Resistance	+2 Armor Penetration	+2 Damage vs. Darkspawn	—	—
Dal'Thanu	All Metals	—	—	—	—	—	—
Darkspawn Waraxe	Iron/Grey Iron/Steel	+1 Armor Penetration	-1 Dexterity	—	—	—	—
Deygan's Dal'Thanu	Veridium	+10 Nature Resistance	+4 Attack	—	—	—	—
Everd's Axe	Veridium	—	—	—	—	—	—
The Veshialle	Dragonbone	+2 Strength	+5% Melee Critical Chance	+1.0 Combat Stamina Regeneration	+10% Critical Damage	+2 Nature Damage	—