Dragon’s Dogma 2 Combat Guide: The Basics, Explained!

As was the case with the original Dragon's Dogma, the sequel too has a far more hands-on and engaging combat system than most other action role-playing games. We've touched upon some of this in our early tips & tricks guide, but the gist of it is that this is more of a character action game than any other ARPG, and you need to take foes on in an appropriate manner. Aside from regular goblin encounters, the odds are good that simple button mashing won't get you anywhere, and this guide will help you take the right sort of approach, instead.

Play Dragon's Dogma 2 on PC with 2Game!

Dragon's Dogma 2 Combat Overview & Tips

The gist of Dragon's Dogma 2's combat system is that it's dynamic and physics-based, wherein you can push large boulders onto enemy camps to decimate them right off the bat, for example. Or, you could goad a griffon into attacking a cyclops that's blocking your way, if you like it risky. There's an entire combat sandbox you can explore in this game, really, and understanding its ins and outs is key in getting stuff done. We've organized our collection of tips into several short sections you should read up on and understand.

Vocations, Vocations, Vocations

Dragon's Dogma 2's Vocations are the bread and the butter of almost every other combat system in the game. That's because these character classes dictate the specifics of what your Arisen and the Pawns that follow you can wear, use, and do, to the point that you always need to have a varied selection of Vocations in your crew.

Switching Vocations is, granted, quite easy, and they're a tad bit more flexible than it seems at a glance. For example, the Warfarer can equip Vocation abilities from up to three different Vocations, and even if you're not keen on being a Warfarer, you can equip any given Vocation passive onto any given Vocation. Provided, of course, that you've already unlocked the passive in question in the first place.

So, we recommend always having a healer and a ranged combatant at hand, no matter what. Your two remaining squad slots can be fiddled around with, depending on how you'd like to fight, but the game gets extremely punishing if you jump from one encounter to the next (which you will, inevitably, do) and healing is crucial. Similarly, dealing with harpies, griffins, and other flying beasts gets exponentially more difficult if you don't have anyone around to target them at range!

Positioning is Crucial

Enemies in Dragon's Dogma 2 are far more tactically inclined than you'd expect. Even if we disregard the larger encounters, such as those griffons we mentioned before, dealing with roving bands of small foes is a danger in and of itself. We recommend taking it slow at first and seeing how the enemies behave. For example, the saurians are extremely tanky and aggressive... until you cut off their tails.

This is why positioning is crucial: sometimes you'll need to leverage your Pawns, the terrain, or the nearby structures to funnel enemies into the optimal fighting position. Dragon's Dogma 2 is far more reactive in this respect than most other ARPGs: whether you're clambering across ruins to get the (literal) jump onto a heavily armored goblin or throwing rocks at wolves from far away, there's always a way out. You just gotta think ahead and prepare!

Identify weak spots and climb bosses to reach them

Finally, the bigger boss encounters are the most important aspect of Dragon's Dogma 2. From the small-ish cyclops to the phenomenally huge Wyrm, you'll often find yourself having to climb enemies to get to their weak spots. Dealing with these larger foes without clambering on top of them is virtually impossible, especially early on, and the resource that matters the most here is your stamina.

Just grabbing onto a large monster and crawling atop it drains stamina extremely quickly, so you're going to want to use the principles we outlined in the section prior to figuring out how to best turn as much of your stamina as possible into actualized, punishing damage. Will you jump onto that cyclops from a nearby ruin? Will you cut at its legs to make it fall, instead? The options are all there, and the only way to learn how to best deal with an enemy is to engage them in combat and look at what they're doing.

Just be mindful of the flyers: they will try to shake you off while high up in the air, and that's not something even the Arisen can survive.

Play Dragon's Dogma 2 on PC with 2Game!