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Dragon Age: Origins Nightmare Guide by David Milward


INTRO & ABOUT  |  CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT GUIDELINES  |  EQUIPPING CHARACTERS  |  COMBAT GUIDELINES  |  CHARACTERS
Areas in Order of Appearance:  
Origins  |  Ostagar  |  Lothering  |  Circle Tower  |  Warden's Keep (DLC)  |  Return to Ostagar (DLC)  |  Stone Prisoner (DLC)  |  Brecilian Forest  |  Redcliffe  |  The Urn of Sacred Ashes  |  Orzammar  |  Deep Roads  |  Denerim  |  Final Onslaught  
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Orzammar: 
Frostback Mountain Pass  |  Orzammar Commons  |  Chamber of the Assembly  |  Aeducan Thaig  |  The Royal Palace  |  Harrowmont Estate  |  The Proving Grounds  |  Dust Town  |  Carta Hideout  |  Shaperate  |  To the Deep Roads  

CARTA HIDEOUT

Carta Doorman

Now it is time to destroy the Carta. I go on ahead and run into a Carta Doorman who demands a password. It doesn't matter what I try as a password, another fight is inevitable. This is a fairly routine battle where having better attack and defense allows the battle to pretty much take care of itself.

Jammer's Journal

Now I continue onwards, and find myself in a long tunnel that leads southwards with small caves on either side. The first cave to the right has a lot of Carta Thugs. I show how to squeeze the most out of an Arcane Warrior hybrid by shutting off his combat-related sustainables (Rock Armor, Miasma, Combat Magic) and leaving on the spell-casting related sustainables (Spell Might, Death Syphon) beforehand. He then unleashes a Storm of the Century before the enemies can even begin to rush forward. Wynne adds crowd control with Earthquake and Grease. She then adds a Greasefire Inferno on top of the Storm of the Century. Pretty much nothing can survive those two together.

I enter the cave on the right and loot a few containers. The Jammer's Journal starts a quest called Jammer's Stash.

The cave on the left has only a few enemies, including a Qunari Mercenary. The fight is small-scale enough so that I can simply let my own advantages (attack, defense, armor) play themselves out.

Kanky's Common Box

I continue south, and there are two more Caves on either side. Some of the Carta Thugs will be very close to the branch off points at the sides, so getting off something like a Storm of the Century won't be workable. I instead cut right to the chase and dive in. Wynne does unleash an Inferno on the Archers that are hanging back in the cave to the right.

The cave to the left has only a few enemies. It includes an Elven Mercenary with Spirit Healer abilities, but Aldarion takes her out instantly with Mana Clash. I loot several containers in the cave. There will also be Kanky's Common Box, which has an Emerald Costume Ring, a Gold Costume Ring, and a Silver Costume Ring. Remember that the Jammer's Stash indicates taking the least valuable item from each box. In this instance it's the Silver Costume Ring.

Carta Armory

I continue south and come across two doors, one to the east and one further south. I go to the south one. On the other side will be several Thugs surrounding a Glyph of Paralysis trap. Aldarion blows the archers away with a Storm of the Century, while the weakened melee Thugs are easily mopped up. The cave itself serves as an armory. Its containers yield random items.

Carta Armory

Now I backtrack a little, and this time go through the east door. There are a lot of foes on the other side, and yet close enough that Storm of the Century becomes impractical. So instead I have Wynne do an Inferno-based Greasefire.

I continue on and have Leliana disarm a tripwire. I press on east, north, and then west. I soon find myself in the Carta Jail. Leliana disarms the tripwire as soon as the door is opened. There will be plenty of thugs to fight. They happen to be so closely packed together that Aldarion manages to catch nearly all of them with the Cone of Cold + Shock combo. They become easy pickings after that.

The Carta Jailor leaves behind the Jail Key, which I use to let a Dwarf named Leske out of his cell.

Jammer's Common Box

I continue east and then north. I have to kill a trio of Carta Assassins as soon as I enter the room, which won't be difficult.

I then continue west and kill a lone Qunari Mercenary. The room further west will have plenty of Carta Thugs, including Archers, with plenty of leghold traps in between. On that basis, I don't rush them. I have Wynne set up an Inferno-based Grease Fire that will kill off the Archers, and let the party handle the melee Thugs as they come forward after being softened.

There will be several containers in the room, including Jammer's Common Box which holds three Letter Openers. As per the instructions in the Jammer's Journal, I take the cheapest one, the Iron Letter Opener.

Pique's Common Box

Now I continue north. I soon run into another room where I have to fight several Carta Thugs, including a Carta Assassin and an Elven Mercenary. I wipe them out with tactics that by now should be quite familiar.

The room has several containers. One of them is Pique's Common Box, which has three gemstone trinkets. I take the cheapest one, which is the Garnet Trinket.

Jammer's Stash

Now I head east. I come to a tunnel crossroads of sorts, with the tunnels continuing either north, south, or straight ahead east. I go down the south tunnel first, where I have to kill a few spiders that are easy enough by now.

I then go up the north tunnel. There will be many Carta Thugs waiting for me, some of them with crossbows and others with melee weapons. Wynne keeps them under control with Earthquake and Grease, and then roasts them under an Inferno-based Grease Fire.

There are several containers here. Jammer's Stash, which is revealed by taking the proper items from the Common Boxes, has some gold and the Longrunner's Cap (+0.5 stamina regeneration), which I don't have any use for as its stamina regeneration bonus is so minimal.

Jarvia

Not it's time to kill the leader of the Carta, Jarvia. This room is loaded with traps, so I simply stay put and have Wynne blanket the area with crowd-control (Earthquake and Grease) and then an Inferno-based Grease Fire. Now I concentrate on those of Jarvia's thugs that come up close, while the archers fry. Wynne will have earned a lot of aggro, so Aldarion protects her with a Force Field. Once the Inferno elapses, Wynne hits the remaining enemies with a Fireball. This makes them easy pickings for Leliana.

Afterwards, Leliana goes around disarming the traps and scooping up the loot. Jarvia herself will leave behind some choice random items, as well as a Longrunner's Cap (+0.5 stamina regeneration), the Carta Key, a pair of Drakeskin Gloves, and the Pushback Strikers (+5% melee critical chance). These will be Zevran's gloves for the rest of the game. Note that I prefer them to the Red Jenny Seekers. Increasing your chances of critical hits does far more to increase your damage output than increasing your damage by a certain percentage when there is a critical hit.

Janar Armorers

The video involves me emerging in Janar's shop, and him feigning surprise. There will be a nearby Wall Carving that yields a Codex entry for "Life in Orzammar" as well as 50 xp. Janar himself sells a lot of mundane armor, and some crafting components if you're interested.

I then leave the shop and equip Zevran with the Pushback Strikers. Now I intend to do a few quests involving the Shaperate.


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