Andaran atish’an

1 Hinterlands

>>> In Hushed Whispers / Champions of the Just - I strongly recommend doing either of these as soon as possible. You can get the required Power Points by setting up camps, closing low-level rifts, recruiting companions, and doing some miscellaneous Haven quests, thereby leaving most of the Hinterlands untouched for later exploration with the full party of your choice

Note: You MUST complete Templars to the West and Apostates in Witchwood before In Your Heart Shall Burn or else they will auto-complete after that mission and the NPCs will all be gone.

Note from Phoray: I like doing the Rams Meat, Apostate Caches, the Andraste Cult, and the quests that recruit Horsemaster Dennet before moving on to the Plot Mission choice of IHW or COTJ


2 Storm Coast

This can be done either before OR after the main mission listed above (IHW vs COTJ) A strong argument for doing it before various NPC conversations that can be overheard.

If done before,  you have the added bonus of Iron Bull recruitment and his subsequent appearance in Haven. There is also a Chargers mission (by talking to Krem) that (I’m pretty sure) you can only do if you recruit him before heading to In Your Heart Shall Burn.

>>> In Your Heart Shall Burn, arrival at [NEW PLACE]

3 Fallow Mire

I suggest leaving this for after your arrival at [New Place]and the primary reason is Josephine’s dialogue about stuff you do only at the [New Place]

4 Exalted Plains (civil war, part 1)

Do NOTE that if you leave all of the civil war stuff until after the Winter Palace some of the dialog with NPCs is (can be) different. you do want to complete it before both Emerald Graves and the Winter Palace mission due to codex entries throughout the area indicating spread of the Freemen. You may also return after The Winter Palace mission to talk to some Orlesian officer NPCs and see their reaction [the events that transpired during that mission. ]

5 Forbidden Oasis

This zone can really be done at any time, or never if you don’t care for shard collecting. I place this here for personal RP reasons.
Note from Phoray: I recommend skipping this zone entirely


6 Crestwood

Due to the “urgency factor” mentioned above, I recommend waiting to talk to [important person on the battlements] until you are ready to head to Crestwood. [Person on battlements'] comments make it seem like they’re expecting you to head out very shortly, so hanging around [NEw Place] or venturing to some other areas, doesn’t really follow along with that. However, this does leave Varric unavailable for any dialogue, so if that bothers you you might want to go ahead and talk to him anyway.

In Crestwood I also suggest taking Caer Bronach, draining the lake, and closing that rift before leaving the zone, even if you don’t do anything else there. Again, the urgency and dire situation of the townsfolk suggest that this is a problem that can’t wait.

7 Western Approach

At this point you head to this area to continue along the story path to Here Lies the Abyss. If you follow along with Scout Harding’s suggestion about busting [bad guys] you will find a note that mentions a Keep. Because of this, I suggest taking the mentioned Keep before leaving the zone, but after you have already done the whole sequence with [Evil Mage Guy]

>>> Here Lies the Abyss - While you CAN do either Abyss or Winter Palace in any order, because of the whole sequence of events relating to speaking with [Important person on battlements] it makes more sense to me to do Abyss first.

8 Emerald Graves (civil war, part 2)

Resolve the final Freemen of the Dales conflict there before moving on.

>>> Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts

Afterward, talk to [Cameo] in [new places]’s garden at least once before meeting with them in the war room.

9 Emprise du Lion

Be sure to clear out the mine, take Suledin Keep, AND talk to Mistress Poulin again before leaving the area. Because of codex entries found in the mine, complete Red Water after clearing it out.

10 Hissing Wastes

This can be done before or after What Pride Had Wrought. Because of the structure of some of the dialog I recommend before, leaving the final missions to be done in succession.

The downside to this method is that it leaves you hanging around for quite a while, doing nothing, if you want to complete war table missions before finishing the main game. You may use this time to finish your shard collecting, or any other miscellaneous things you’d like to do. Or you can simply just focus on the story and ignore the war table objectives.

>>> What Pride Had Wrought

>>> The Final Piece (quest)

>>> Doom Upon All the World

EPILOGe - Enjoy the party + optional boy/girlfriend time.

The Descent - I can’t give advice relating to The Descent simply because I have yet to play it. However, I will say that the war table objective to start the DLC describes it as helping Orzammar – a key lyrium supplier to the Inquisition – deal with a darkspawn incursion. So, despite the large level range of the DLC itself, requiring that you return at various points throughout the game to finish it completely, you can use the lyrium supply angle to justify starting it at any point after you arrive at [new place]

Jaws of Hakkon - Because of the very high level range and the plot of this DLC, I do suggest playing it after the main game itself. There is so much stuff going on and the Inquisition, and your job, is going to take time away from the end of the world to [research historical information.] It just seems impractical to me, from a story standpoint, to complete it before the end of the game. There are also some small dialogue differences relating to the defeat of [main bad guy] (or not) and such depending on when you play this.

Trespasser is the final DLC and will end the game on a dramatic high note.