Very positive. On Reddit and the BioWare forums, Patch 13 was praised as “the patch that saved Inquisition’s replayability.” The addition of Trials turned a casual-friendly RPG into a challenging tactical game for veterans. The Golden Nug alone made starting new characters a joy rather than a chore.
Modders manually edit the package.mft file in the game's update folder. By changing the version number from the default 12 to 13 (or higher), you "trick" the game into thinking it is updated enough to load the saved file. Patch History Overview Re: DAI Patch Issue | EA Forums - 7444773 dragon age inquisition patch 13
Furthermore, Patch 13 carried a distinct emotional weight as the final major content update before BioWare moved on to Mass Effect: Andromeda and the long hiatus of the Dragon Age franchise. It was a love letter to the hardcore community. The inclusion of —a statue that syncs collected schematics and recipes across all playthroughs—was a direct response to player frustration with New Game Plus limitations. It was a quality-of-life feature that showed BioWare was listening to the forums, the Reddit threads, and the Twitter complaints. In an era before live service games dominated the landscape, Patch 13 represented the pinnacle of the old model: a developer squeezing every last drop of polish into a product out of respect for the people who played it. Very positive
On October 3, 2016, BioWare producer Cameron Lee posted a cryptic note on the forums: "We haven’t forgotten you." Five days later, went live across PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. The patch note count exceeded 150 entries. It was massive. Modders manually edit the package