Exploits (Dragon Age II)

An exploit is a vulnerability that can be triggered within a game that allows the player to use a bug to give the player an unintended advantage. Some of these bugs get patched, so the patch version where they occur is noted where it is relevant.
== Unpatched exploits ==
=== Item and money duplication ===
It is possible to repeat the duplication exploit from Origins. It is simply more time consuming, as buying and selling are in two completely different menus. One must also press the "Sell All Junk" and "Sell" buttons in quicker succession than in Origins. One must press "Sell All Junk", and quickly before the item is sold, press "sell", while releasing "Sell All" immediately after pressing "sell", all in an instant.
Sample:
# Press Y
# Still pressing Y, Press A
# Release Y, still pressing A.
All must be done in an instant, meaning at one point both buttons are pressed, but it is not as simple as pressing both at the same time.
As in Origins, basic items cannot be duplicated, but can be sold twice. "Stackable" items can be duplicated in this manner, as long as one of the item remains in the seller's buyback window.
Items such as weapons, armor, and accessories can be repurchased from merchants, while "loot" items (the type moved automatically to the junk list) cannot be repurchased. By using this exploit with a very expensive weapon, one can make themselves a load of gold very quickly.
=== Infinite rivalry for Sebastian and/or Aveline===
In Act 2, one can get infinite Rivalry with Sebastian and Aveline in a conversation with Grand Cleric Elthina. Engage in a dialogue with her and choose the option "You're Useless" and this will trigger and and then the conversation will end. This can usually be repeated for an infinite amount of rivalry. (Note: On PS3, Sebastian will continually give rivalry, whereas Aveline will only give it once. This is also true on the Xbox 360. On PC and Xbox 360, Sebastian will also give it only once.)
Under certain circumstances, one will not be able to talk to Grand Cleric Elthina again. There will be another chance in the main questline for Act 2 anytime after talking to Orwald during Offered and Lost. This can also be done immediately after recruiting Sebastian when one finishes Repentance. Under other circumstances, the choice "You're Useless" is gone and is replaced by saying "Nothing". To work around this, simply follow this line of dialogue choices to get it to appear: "Investigate" > " How do we handle the Qunari?" > "You're Useless."
=== Free ability point (no Maker's Sigh) ===
 v1.03
First, plan out DESIRED abilities and EXPLOIT abilities. This exploit uses the quickbar at the bottom of the screen to allocate phantom abilities that do not register as "Confirmed" or "Earned" within the ability talent trees. So, the DESIRED abilities should be upgrades, passive abilities, and activated/sustained abilities that function as part of the tree that unlocks other abilities. The EXPLOIT abilities must only be activated and sustained abilities; they cannot be upgrades or passive abilities. Exploit abilities are also best used when they are the ending or solo ability in a talent-tree branch. For instance, Rock Armor stands alone in its branch, as does Elemental Weapons.
The following steps will help one acquire a few free abilities:
1) Make sure there are at least two free spaces in the 1-0 ability quickbar
2) During level-up, choose attributes normally and click "Confirm"
3) During level-up, choose the DESIRED ability and the EXPLOIT abilities. Note that EXPLOIT abilities should not be part of a tree containing DESIRED abilities. For this reason, it is advisable to wait to use this exploit until at least level 14 so that most of the abilities are unlocked. Again, plan which abilities are desired and which will be exploited.
4) Click the talent tree containing an EXPLOIT ability.
5) Click the EXPLOIT ability and then click "Back"
6) The EXPLOIT ability will still be in the quickbar until another is chosen... but not if the exploit ability is moved to a new slot. The EXPLOIT ability can even be moved to an un-numbered slot to the right.
7) Click on a talent tree and select another EXPLOIT ability. Repeat steps 5&6 until satisfied.
8) Click a talent tree and the DESIRED ability. Then click "Confirm" as usual.
Please note that one MUST select the EXPLOIT ability, click "Back" and THEN move its position in the quickbar. If the EXPLOIT ability is moved before returning to the "all talent trees" screen, this trick will not work. If the ability is used as an exploit, but something is wanted on its tree later, one will eventually have to "earn" that ability legitimately.
Abilities obtained with this exploit have no cooldown (PC v1.02).
=== Four Companions in Act 1 ===
# Start the Birthright quest with Bethany/Carver and enter Amell Estate Cellar. Go all the way to the vault room. But don't open the chest that contains the will. 
# Leave Amell Estate area. Drop Bethany/Carver from the party and replace with another member.
# Go back to the vault room in Arnell Estate and pick up the will. Now Bethany/Carver will appear and ask to take the will back to Leandra. Don't take the will back or go to Gamlen's house. Bethany or Carver will stay with the party as a fourth companion until completion of Birthright quest. 
As a temporary companion, Bethany/Carver is not directly controllable but other companion functions such as changing tactics should work. Also, he/she is invincible in this state as long as the Birthright quest is not completed.
== Patched exploits ==
=== Unlimited gold and XP ===
# The first step of this glitch/exploit is to choose one of the “Find and Deliver” side quests.
# Retrieve the desired item.
# Return to the quest-giver with the item.
# Draw equipped weapon.
# Initiate dialogue with the quest-giver immediately after the weapon is sheathed, before they are finished speaking. Each time the action button is pressed will result in a gain of money and experience. This can be repeated indefinitely.
# Amount of money appears to have no upper limit. Level Cap is 50. Beware though that most enemies will scale up in relation to the character level and there is little suitable equipment available, save for Fadeshear and other gear that improves with level-up.Generic weapons are scaled to Hawke's level and thus useful for this exploit.
The exploit stops if the character is moved, and can be used with any Find and Deliver sidequest.
Exploit no longer available due to the new patch. Xbox confirmed. PlayStation confirmed. New patches can however be deleted through the Xbox dashboard. Note: a prompt will appear when the system is restarted to download the DLC and, if refused, Xbox Live connection will be terminated and DLC will no longer be available. A way around this is to delete the patch and start a new game. To delete patches click Y on the memory screen in Xbox dashboard. Play through the quest "The Destruction of Lothering". Once in Hightown do the easiest find and deliver quest, which is "A Paragon's Toe". Find the item in the Blooming Rose, then deliver it to a dwarf in Lowtown. After the exploit is used, save the game, exit, then restart and choose to download the patch. The result is a max level character with lots of money that is able to play DLC.
*Note: If you want more bang for your buck the earliest and most rewarding "Find and Deliver" quest would be "Eustice's Pommel" with 750 XP and 1. The earliest this can be acquired is after "Birthright" as soon as you return to Gamlens House check your letters for the Bone Pit. While at the Bone pit search for a sack containing the item.
It does not work with the Games on Demand version of Dragon Age II even if you delete the patches.
== Unlimited Gold For PC version (Works on patched version) ==
# First of all, buy 2 potions from the merchant.
# Now double left click and hold it to sell the items. (Since you have more than 2 potions, you'll be prompted to select how many to be sold )
# While holding the left click, quickly press ALT. (When it works, the item to be sold will seem to disappear)
# Now you'll be able to sell the items twice!
# Repeat. 
Note: After selling the potions, don't buy back all the potions but leave at least one in the merchant (otherwise the items sold won't stack). 
Note: it works for all stackable items, making duplication possible. 
Steam version Note: duplications is possible with personal storage as long as you transfert 1 potion before inside your personal storage. It won't give you money but doubles your item stack. Also have been able to directly sell entire stack twice witout the merchant having potion un inventory. It will not double the item but will give you twice the money so you can buy entire stack back. 
=== Extra talent/ability points ===
After using the "Unlimited Gold and XP" exploit. When levelling the character, using auto level will produce more talents than the manual level, and it is possible for an extra ability tree to be filled. This also works for non-warrior companions. After pressing auto-level a few times, manual talents can still be selected. It does not work with a warrior because the number of talent points exceeds the number of talents and it will be impossible to exit the levelling screen. Xbox confirmed. This may only work if little or no talent points are spent before using the exploit.
=== Ability points (Maker's Sigh) ===
A rogue that has not unlocked stealth can load a previous save to unlock it. Thus every time one drinks a Maker's Sigh they can save and then load and will have an extra talent point. The exploit works only with stealth, and sometimes you can get many points.
=== Infinite armor ===
WARNING: this glitch has severe bugs, such as not being able to go into the deep roads. When Bartrand tells the player to choose a team, they will not be sent to the team selection screen, they will just loop the conversation. Save before attempting this glitch and do not do it before the deep roads expedition, (and any other points this glitch will halt game progression)
Whenever a shield is removed from a character, the armor bonus added by that shield is never removed. So if one puts on a shield and then removes it and then put it on again, they will have gained double the armor. This can be done indefinitely. It is easy to reach 100% physical damage resistance. This happens on any warrior that equips any shield. This is useful for two-handed warriors as well as sword and shield users.
This has been fixed in PS3 patch 1.05.
=== Infinite attribute points ===
Hawke:
You need to be in Act 3 and should be able to craft the Rune of Valiance. Only tested on Hawke and on the PC version.
Get a Helmet and an Armor with at least 1 rune slot each. Craft one Rune of Valiance on the Helmet and one on the Armor. Make sure that the amount of attributes added on each item is different (for example, +7 on the armor and +5 on the helmet). Usually this happens when one of the items is significantly higher quality than the other.
Equip both items. Now remove the armor first (assuming it has the largest attribute bonus), then the helmet. Not all the attributes bonus will have been removed and will now be permanently added to Hawke. Equip both items again and repeat at will until the attribute cap is reached which should be 100.
This was discovered using a Rogue Hawke with the Arms of the Champion (Rogue) armor and the Cap of Kings helmet.
*edit* Confirmed on Xbox 360. Only caveat is that when reequipping the armor, be sure to reequip the BETTER piece first, so in the above example, remove the armor then the helmet, then reequip the armor and then reequip the helmet, you'll find that the stat difference remains permanently on Hawke.*CONFIRMED* but one must also remove other attribute increasing items you have on otherwise it will not work *360*
*edit* Latest XBOX360 update not only fixes this, but rolls back any increases.
*edit* This bug has been patched on the PS3 version.
Aveline:
This exploit can be quite expensive. One needs to have a shield with a rune slot and have at least 1 character armor enchantment slot available. One will need many Runes of Valiance. First enchant both the shield and the character armor with a Rune of Valiance. Go to another area and equip the shield. Then return to the enchantment station. Replace the Rune of Valiance on the armor with another defense rune. Leave to another area and unequip the shield. The bonus attributes should not have been removed. One should make sure not to have any other attribute enhancement items equipped. Attribute caps are 100.
Category:Guides