Let’s be real for a second. There is nothing quite like the first time you stumble into the Hinterlands, turn a corner near some scorched trees, and realize a massive High Dragon is currently making it its life's mission to melt your face off. It’s terrifying. It’s awesome. But if you’re trying to check off the "Dragonslayer" achievement or you just desperately need that Tier 4 crafting material, you realize BioWare didn't exactly make finding these things easy. Some are tucked behind lengthy war table operations, while others require you to literally walk into a trap.
If you’re hunting for dragon age inquisition dragon locations, you’re essentially signing up for a tour of Ferelden and Orlais’ most hostile real estate. There are ten High Dragons in the base game. Ten. Each has a specific elemental weakness, a unique arena, and a nasty habit of flying away just when you think you've got the upper hand.
Most people think you can just wander into a zone and find one. You can't. Not always. Some of these beasts are gated behind specific side quests or environmental puzzles that the game barely explains.
The Hinterlands: Ferelden Frostback
This is usually everyone’s first mistake. You’re Level 6, you’ve got Iron Bull in your party because he’s cool, and you wander into the Lady Shayna's Valley. Boom. You’re dead.
The Ferelden Frostback lives in the northeastern corner of the Hinterlands. You have to travel through a narrow tunnel near the Dusklight Camp. Once you emerge, she’ll start lobbing fireballs at you from the air. It's annoying. You have to keep moving until she finally lands in the large circular arena at the back of the valley. She’s weak to Cold damage, so bring a mage with a frost staff. Honestly, the hardest part of this fight isn't even the dragon; it’s the tiny dragonlings she summons to nip at your heels while you're trying to dodge a tail swipe.
The Western Approach: Abyssal High Dragon
This one is a process. You can’t just walk up to the Abyssal High Dragon. You have to earn the right to fight it by helping a researcher named Frederic of Serault. You’ll find him hanging out in the south-central part of the Western Approach.
You’ll do a bunch of fetch quests for him—finding dragon signs, hunting down some bandits who stole his supplies—and eventually, he’ll give you the recipe for a lure. You place that lure on a specific pedestal in the southern barrens. This dragon is a fire-breather. It’s weak to Cold. Because the arena is so wide open, it’s one of the easier fights to manage if you have a good tank like Cassandra holding the aggro while your archers sit back and chip away.
The Exalted Plains: Gamordan Stormrider
The Exalted Plains is a mess of trenches and ghosts, but if you head to the Crow Fens in the northeast, you’ll find the Gamordan Stormrider.
This is a Lightning dragon. It’s weak to Spirit. Here’s the catch: the arena is mostly water. When the Stormrider charges up the water with electricity, your entire party is going to take massive damage if they’re standing in the puddles. You have to constantly micromanage your companions to keep them on the small patches of dry land. It is a micromanagement nightmare, frankly. If you aren't using the tactical camera for this one, you're going to burn through your potions in about thirty seconds.
Crestwood: Northern Hunter
Crestwood is depressing. It’s rainy, it’s dark, and there’s a giant hole in the lake. But once you drain the lake—which involves a whole quest line involving an old dam and a bunch of corpses—you gain access to the Black Fens.
The Northern Hunter is just sitting there waiting for you. It’s an Electricity dragon, weak to Spirit. Unlike the Stormrider, you don't have to deal with electrified water here, but the Northern Hunter hits like a freight train. It loves to use its wings to pull you in close for a massive AOE attack. Keep your mages far away.
The Storm Coast: Vinsomer
Vinsomer is the dragon you see fighting a giant when you first arrive at the Storm Coast. You can’t reach her then. To get to her, you have to unlock the "Red Water" quest, which requires you to have progressed the main story enough to have a certain amount of Power and then complete a War Table operation to clear the way to the Lyrium Falls.
Once you take a boat to Dragon Island, she’s waiting. Vinsomer is an Electricity dragon, weak to Spirit. She has a massive health pool. This is one of the toughest fights in the mid-game because the arena is cramped, making it hard to dodge her lightning breath.
The Hissing Wastes: Sandy Howler
The Hissing Wastes is a giant sandbox of nothingness, but way out in the east, near the Tomb of Fairel, the Sandy Howler sleeps.
She’s a Fire dragon, weak to Cold. She’s Level 20, so don't even think about it until you're at least Level 18. She spends a lot of time calling dragonlings. If you don't clear the adds quickly, you'll get overwhelmed. The trick here is to use the dunes for cover when she starts her screaming stun attack.
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Emerald Graves: Greater Mistral
High up in the northern reaches of the Emerald Graves, past the giants and the spiders, sits the Greater Mistral.
This is a Cold dragon, which means it’s weak to Fire. Finally, a use for all those fire runes you’ve been hoarding. She has a very high guard-building capability, meaning you’ll spend half the fight just trying to chip away at her armor bar. Bring someone with "Shield Bash" or "War Horn" to break that guard down faster.
Emprise du Lion: The Triple Threat
Emprise du Lion is the endgame for dragon hunters. There isn't just one dragon here; there are three. They live on the Colosseum-like structures across the Judicael’s Crossing bridge. You have to repair the bridge via a War Table operation first.
- Hivernal: The first one you’ll hit. Cold dragon, weak to Fire. Fairly straightforward.
- The Kaltenzahn: Also a Cold dragon, weak to Fire. However, she is much more aggressive with her summons. She will stay on the perches and rain ice down while you deal with her kids.
- The Highland Ravager: The granddaddy of them all. This is widely considered the hardest dragon in the base game. It’s a Fire dragon, weak to Cold. It starts the fight asleep, but once it wakes up, it’s pure chaos. It uses mines—circles of fire on the ground that explode after a few seconds. If your AI companions stay in those circles, they’re toasted. Literally.
Why People Struggle With Dragon Locations
A lot of the frustration with dragon age inquisition dragon locations comes from the fact that the map markers are deceptive. You see a dragon icon, you head toward it, and you hit a mountain wall.
The game uses verticality a lot. In the Emerald Graves, for instance, the path to the Mistral is a winding trail that looks like it's going the wrong way on the mini-map. In the Storm Coast, the dragon is on a literal island you can't swim to.
Preparation Strategy for the Hunt
If you’re going to go on a killing spree, you need a setup that works. You can’t just wing it.
- Resistance Tonics: These are more important than healing potions. If you’re fighting the Highland Ravager, everyone needs a Fire Resistance Tonic. It turns a one-shot kill into a manageable hit.
- The Right Tank: Blackwall is objectively the best tank for dragons because of his "To the Death" and "Walking Fortress" abilities. He can sit under a dragon's belly and take hits for days.
- Target the Legs: Don't just hit the body. If you focus fire on a specific leg, you can hobble the dragon. It'll collapse for a few seconds, giving you a window for massive burst damage.
- Mage Barriers: You need at least one mage (two is better) purely dedicated to keeping Barriers up. Dragons do too much damage for standard armor to handle.
Common Misconceptions
People think you need to be the same level as the dragon. You don't. If you have a well-built Reaver or an Assassin Rogue, you can take down a dragon 3-4 levels higher than you. It’s all about the burst.
Another myth is that you can "cheese" them from a distance. BioWare thought of that. If you stay too far away or try to hide behind a rock where the dragon can’t reach you, the dragon will often reset its health or start using a high-damage "pull" move that drags you right into its jaws. You have to be in the arena. You have to fight fair, or as fair as one can fight a building-sized lizard.
Actionable Next Steps
To effectively clear all dragon age inquisition dragon locations, follow this order to manage the difficulty curve:
- Unlock the Hinterlands dragon around Level 12 just to get your feet wet.
- Head to Crestwood next. Draining the lake is a long quest, but the Northern Hunter is one of the more manageable fights.
- Focus on the Western Approach. You’ll need the materials Frederic gives you anyway.
- Save Emprise du Lion for last. Do not go there before Level 20 unless you want a very quick trip back to your last save point.
- Craft Dragon-Slaying Runes. You get the recipe from the Skyhold merchant. They add flat damage to every hit against a dragon, which is a literal lifesaver in the longer fights like the Highland Ravager.
Once you’ve cleared the base game dragons, if you have the Jaws of Hakkon DLC, there is one more waiting for you in the Frostback Basin. But that's a whole different level of pain involving ice beams and a massive health bar that puts the Highland Ravager to shame. Stick to the ten first. Collect your dragon bone, craft your endgame gear, and enjoy the fact that you're now the most dangerous thing in Thedas.