Dragon’s Dogma 2features a vast,open-world Fantasy adventurethat will demand your full attention if you want to get the full experience. Unlike many modern video games, Dragon’s Dogma 2 doesn’t have much handholding… at all. From quest solutions to ability interactions, there’s so much that’s left to the player to discover on their own.
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This list will come in handy, steering you toward some of the most important pieces of advice I wish I’d had right when I started the game. After hours and hours ofplaying the game for review, I knew I had to share my collected ‘wisdom’ with you intrepid Arisen! Whether you’re brand-new to the franchise or you’re aDragon’s Dogmaveteran, this list breaks down some of the most important things to keep in mind as you journey across Vermund and beyond.
Dragon’s Dogma 2
10Save Often While Adventuring
It’s Surprisingly Easy To Lose Hours Of Progress
Take these words to heart. You really can’t save too much. Thesave systemis fairly forgiving — it autosaves after resting, after ending quests, and after some major discoveries — but you might go hours out in the open-world without triggering a save, and after dying, you might be in a bad way. Saving after every battle might sound excessive, but it’s quick and easy, and it could save you a huge headache later on.
Saving after every battle might sound excessive, but it’s quick and easy, and it could save you a huge headache later on.
Additional point of advice: always be careful when loading your game. After dying or on the title screen, you have the options to load your previous save or load your previous rest point. Sometimes, these are one and the same, or they’re not far apart. Sometimes, they’re hours apart, and a misclick here can erase hours of progress. There’s no system for multiple save files or anything, so take extra care of this one.
9Grab & Throw Things
Important In & Out Of Combat
Grabbing and throwing things is a primal activity, and Dragon’s Dogma 2 makes it well worth your time. Up on a hill overlooking a group of enemies? Pick up that huge rock next to you and toss it down. Fighting some hungry wolves along the edge of a ravine? Pick up one of those wolves and toss it over! When dealing with larger enemies like Ogres or Cyclopes, grabbing on is an equally useful tool. Not only can you and your Pawns grab on to their legs to attempt to trip them, butyou can also start climbing them, allowing you to access their vulnerable weak points for attack.
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Surprisingly, this advice applies to situations out of combat as well. If you’re escorting an NPC, and they get stuck, grab them, throw them over your shoulder, and keep running! Some quests will require this of you (whether you know it or not). One quest in particular required me to apprehend a suspect. I didn’t understand what it needed of me — until I accidentally grabbed them, which triggered a cutscene and the end of the quest. Don’t be afraid to pick someone up; you can always put them down gently afterward.
8Swap Out Pawns Regularly
Variety Is The Spice Of Life
ThePawns are a huge highlight of Dragon’s Dogma 2, and while it’s easy to quickly grow attached to your first batch, pleasepleasemake sure you’re trading them out! It’ssuch a fun system to engage with, allowing you to recruit the main Pawns of other players across the globe, and they each can come with their own player-assigned quests, personalities, and traits. This is great not only for trying out different party compositions (more on this below), but it’s an awesome way to adventure with your friends — sort of.
…they each can come with their own player-assigned quests, personalities, and traits.
Whenever I spotone of my friends' Pawns, I always jump at the chance to recruit them. They cost nothing, and they create this fun, asynchronous point of contact that brings a touch of camaraderie to a single-player game.
7Pay Attention To Party Balance
Each Pawn Brings Its Own Expertise
Aligning with swapping out Pawns regularly above, it’s important to pay attention to party balance. A group of four Sorcerers, while sounding cool at the outset, will leave you in a tough position after a few battles. While you might eventually find the best party composition, variety is ultimately the bottom line toward party balance.
…variety is ultimately the bottom line toward party balance.
The game offers 10 Vocations in total (though 4 of those can only be used by the Arisen), so the Pawns have 6 Vocations from which to choose. It can be super easy to fall into a rut of finding your favorite grouping and simply swapping out Pawns to fit into that, but you also want to make sure you’re trying out different groupings. You never know what awesome combinations you’ll discover.
6Listen To Your Pawns
They Are Surprisingly Helpful Out In The World
Ok, final note on Pawns (for now, at least). Listen to them! Pawns love to talk, and while sometimes that might be idle chatter — some gossip they heard, rumors about so and so — they’ll also provide hints toward things in the game. They’ll let you know when your pack is full. They’ll beg you to find a campsite after traveling for days on end.
They’ll even point out ladders or chests they spot!
They’ll even be more overtly helpful. If they’ve adventured in the area previously and discovered a chest, they’ll point it out to you and offer to lead you to it. When you discover something their own player hasn’t, they comment that they’ll need to show that to their Arisen when they see them next. They create such a fascinating dynamic in the game world, and I highly encourage everyone to interact with it at every opportunity.
5Experiment With Each Vocation
They All Offer Something Unique & Fun
You begin the game with the choice of one of the four starting Vocations, but you’ll discover another six throughout your sprawling journey across Vermund and beyond, and they each offer unique abilities and interactions to make them all worth trying out at least once. Unfortunately, you aren’t able to try out different ones across multiple save files, since you only have your main one, but it is thankfullyexceedingly simple to swap Vocations!
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Simply visit the Vocations Guild and swap into another one. Doing so will help you get a feel not only for which one you enjoy playing the most, but it’ll also give you a better idea of the capabilities of each Vocation your Pawns can use. You’re able to change your and your main Pawn’s Vocation whenever you visit a Vocations Guild, so even if you just want to mix things up, it’s a great way to keep the game feeling fresh.
4Rest Often At Inns & Campfires
Always Have A Couple Camping Kits Handy
Fast Travel is a thing in the game, but it’s fairly limited and something you won’t be using constantly. Instead, you’ll be hoofing it everywhere, and sometimes, you’ll find you’ve strayed very far away from civiliation in your pursuit of adventure. Alwayskeep an eye out for a Campfire. The longer you go without resting, you and your Pawns build up exhaustion, which reduces your total HP. This effect grows dramatically worse over time, and you’ll sometimes find yourself desperate for a Campfire in the dead of night. It’s important to always have a coupleCamping Kits handy(though give them to your main Pawn — they’re heavy).
The longer you go without resting, you and your Pawns build up exhaustion, which reduces your total HP.
Resting gives you a chance tocook a dish, which will provide a buff to you and your party, and you’ll also be able to swap out your skills — very handy when you know you’re about to enter a tough fight. Same goes for when you’re readying to leave a city. Make sure you’re freshly rested before setting out. You never know when your next opportunity will arise.
3Talk To Everyone Around You
Any NPC Might Have An Important Quest
Unlike many other Fantasy RPGs, Dragon’s Dogma 2 is very hands-off with how it handles quests. You aren’t going to see exclamation points over someone’s head or on the mini-map. You really can’t tell at a glance who might have a quest for you — though if you’rereallypaying attention, you might notice something amiss. Some NPCs will pull you into a brief cutscene if you walk nearby, but many require you to speak with them in order to begin their questline.
You really can’t tell at a glance who might have a quest for you.
And these aren’t simple fetch quests. I would have missed one of the coolest Vocations — theMystic Spearhand— had I not picked up a seemingly innocuous side quest to go visit a previous location I’d been to earlier. At first, this design choice frustrated me, but it ultimately immersed me even more deeply in the setting, demanding I engage with the world, which in turn made me even more invested in the setting.
2Search For Golden Trove Beetles
Increasing Your Carrying Capacity Is High Priority
While out exploring the lands of Vermund and Battahl, you’ll sometimes find these Golden Trove Beetles clinging to trees or the sides of rocks. Keep your eyes peeled for these elusive insects! It’s so easy to become overencumbered in Dragon’s Dogma 2, and every Golden Trove Beetle you find and use willpermanently increase your weight capacityby 0.15 lbs. That doesn’t sound like much, but there are a surprising number of these you may find in the game, and they add up!
…every Golden Trove Beetle you find and use will permanently increase your weight capacity by 0.15 lbs.
They can be tough to spot during the day, since many will blend into your surroundings surprisingly well — or they might simply be on the opposite side of a tree you’re looking at — but when you’re adventuring at night, they become easy to spot. They emit a bright golden glow, which is slightly visible during theday time, but at night, they stand out like a sore thumb. Just beware — you’ll encounter additional dangers while adventuring at night.
1Take Your Time
Immerse Yourself In The World
This might seem like an obvious piece of advice or a bit of a wasted entry on this list, but I mean this earnestly — Dragon’s Dogma 2 truly shines when you’re taking your time with things, immersing yourself in the world, and interacting with the systems and setting at your own pace. The game makes a lot of bold design decisions that can quickly grow frustrating or offputing if you’re just trying to burn your way through the main story to reach the ending. Slow down a bit.
Dragon’s Dogma 2 truly shines when you’re taking your time with things, immersing yourself in the world, and interacting with the systems and setting at your own pace.
When you’re off on a quest, and you get side-tracked, embrace it. See something odd in the distance, or just want to go explore those ruins you see down a side path? Do it! The game offers some wonderfully organic encounters that truly shine when you’re just out in the world. When that Griffin swoops down on the road ahead, rush in and take it on! Even when an encounter goes south, the organic stories that will develop from simply existing in the world make the experience worth it.
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Dragon’s Dogma 2 is an open-world Fantasy adventure you can’t afford to miss.
