Dragon Age Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Dragon Age Wiki
For entries found in Dragon Age II, see Codex (Dragon Age II).
For entries found in Dragon Age: Inquisition, see Codex (Inquisition).
Codex

The Codex tab of the Journal

The codex is a collection of lore that the Warden can build in their journal during their campaign. Codex entries give information about the world of Thedas, including stories of historians and scholars, passages from the Chant of Light and folktales, and also about the mechanics of the game and certain creatures, characters and items. Gathering codex entries rewards the player with experience (XP) and can open side quests and dialogue options with other characters.

The information in the codex comes from within the setting, and thus may not be completely accurate or even self-consistent.

Mother Ailis and Brother Genitivi are prominent contributors to the codex.

Codex categories[]

Codex entries are grouped into categories. For information about specific codex entries, see the relevant category article:

Finding codex entries[]

The codex entries are unlocked in a variety of ways: through dialogue, eavesdropping on someone's conversation, reading books, collecting items and killing enemies. (Like Bioware's previous RPG Mass Effect, the codex is received in full only by choosing all of the available options of dialogue with a particular character.) Once the entry is collected, it can be viewed in the Codex tab of the journal. Unread entries will be highlighted.

In many cases, collecting a new codex entry will reward the player with 50 XP. Wearing the Archivist's Sash will increase the XP received for collecting a codex entry to 75.

To help find codex entries, it is possible to set an option to make all items of interest shimmer gold on-screen. In the PC version of the game, pressing the TAB key will highlight all items that can be interacted with, making it much simpler to find hard-to-spot books and notes containing codex entries. In the console version of the game, pressing the left trigger serves the same purpose.

Context-sensitivity and codex updates[]

Some codex entries are context-sensitive and/or are updated during the campaign depending on The Warden's experiences and decisions. For example, the content of some entries will depend on the origin of The Warden. A codex entry for a companion may change depending on how well you get to know them, what you do with them - or even whether you recruit them at all. Creature codex entries can also be updated as you find additional variations of the same type of foe.

Numbering[]

Codex entries are numbered sequentially. However, the number of a specific codex entry may vary depending on what DLC a player has installed. Thus this wiki does not use codex entry numbers to identify entries, though entry numbers for the most common installation set-ups are given for information.

Codex entries on the Xbox 360 and PS3 are named, and not numbered.

Class or origin-specific entries[]

Certain codex entries can be only obtained when playing a specific classes or origin, either due to class or race restrictions, or due to bugs. Those entries are:

Mage only
Codex entry: Mana and the Use of Magic
Codex entry: Combat Basics - Mage
Warrior or rogue only
Codex entry: Combat Basics
Dalish elf only
Codex entry: The Brecilian Forest
Codex entry: Arlathan: Part Two
Codex entry: The Dalish Elves
Non-dwarf only
Codex entry: The Legend of Luthias Dwarfson
Advertisement