The Hawke's Key

The Hawke's Key is a plot item and weapon equipped by Hawke in the Legacy (quest) in the Legacy DLC for Dragon Age II. The identity of the weapon will vary depending on Hawke's class. The damage/dps of the weapon will vary by the level at which Hawke acquires it, but will not increase upon level-up. The bonuses from breaking the seals appear to be affected by level in the same way.
== Background ==
== Acquisition ==
The key is acquired by defeating the Carta dwarf Rhatigan in the Carta Hideout (Legacy). The key is then automatically equipped as a weapon which varies depending on Hawke's class.
* For mage Hawke, the key is a magical staff. The staff inflicts electric damage.
* For rogue Hawke, the key is a dagger or an archer's bow, depending on talent choices. (If Hawke has equal or all skills in both Dual Weapon and Archery skill trees, it will default to a dagger.)
* For warrior Hawke, the key is a 2-handed or 1-handed sword, depending on talent choices. (If Hawke has equal or all skills in both Sword and Shield and Two-Handed skill trees, it will default to a one-handed sword.)
During the course of traveling through seals and fighting various Guardians (first one just teleports - the second teleports and spawns replicas of himself, the third and final Guardian spawns a large ring of replicas of himself) you will be prompted to make a choice of weapon enchantments for the above mentioned weapon. These stats may vary by weapon type and Hawke's level when the key is obtained.
The first seal gives
* Electricity Damage: +X electricity damage
* Nature Damage: +X nature damage
* Fire Damage: +X fire damage
* Cold Damage: +X cold damage
The second seal gives
* Armor Penetration: Attacks ignore enemy armor (choosing this for staff version is ineffective since non-physical attacks always ignore enemy armor)
* Mana/Stamina Drain: X% chance to regenerate Y% Mana/Stamina
* Health Drain: X% chance to regenerate Y% health
* Attack Speed: +X% attack speed
The third seal gives
* Stun Chance: X% chance to stun
* Speed Reduction: X% chance to reduce enemy movement and attack speed
* Critical Chance: X% critical chance
* Critical Damage: X% critical damage
== Codex entries ==
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== Notes ==
* The Hawke's Key cannot be placed into the personal stash at the Hawke Estate nor can it be destroyed. However, it can be sold to merchants for a small sum of money after Legacy is completed.
* The first upgrade to apply to the Key is for +elemental damage. Given the resistances of enemies throughout the game it may be a good long-term idea to give the weapon frost or electricity damage. However, for the sole purpose of completing the Legacy DLC, nature damage may be the best element to take; while the corpses and spiders resist it, all other enemies, namely the deepstalkers and darkspawn, including Corypheus, as well as the shades faced in the final battle, will all suffer twice as much elemental damage from the weapon's basic hits.
== Exploit ==
* To get all bonuses on the Key you must arrange each party member next to a pillar and activate them in the following order:
# Press hold for your team
# Position every member in front of a pillar (be sure that each party member is actually touching their pillar, because it takes time for them to walk to the pillar if they aren’t)
# Pause the game
# During the pause click every pillar with the character in front of it (for example, Hawke activates the first pillar, second character activates the second pillar, etc.)
# Unpause the game
* The exploit is much trickier on Xbox. For the second and third seals, it's much harder to get all four. You will likely get three out of four at best.
== Gallery ==
Hawke's Key 2hSword.jpg|Two-handed sword
Hawke's Key 1hSword.jpg|Longsword
Hawke's Key Bow.jpg|Bow
Hawke's Key Staff.jpg|Staff
Hawke's Key Dagger.jpg|Dagger
Category:Dragon Age II weapons
Category:Dragon Age II plot items
Category:Legacy
ru:Ключ Хоука