Dragon’s Dogma 2 Early Tips and Tricks: A Rapid Onboarding Guide

Dragon's Dogma 2 is an awesome game, but it is not a simple game. Though it looks like a fairly straightforward action RPG at a glance, the truth of the matter is that Dragon's Dogma 2 is filled to the brim with some fairly obscure and, at first, somewhat unintuitive gameplay mechanics that can send players reeling if they don't know what they're about. From fast-travel mechanics to Pawn interactions, the odds are good that you'll keep learning more and more about the game over your entire first playthrough, and that's a hell of a thing to say about a game that takes dozens of hours to fully wrap up!

Now, if you too are a total newbie to DD2, there's no point in bothering you with extremely in-depth mechanics. You'll catch up with those as you go! Instead, this article is laser-focused on the earlier features that aren't immediately self-apparent. Stuff like oxcart use, physics in combat, and the like. Let's get to it!

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Must-know Early Tips & Tricks for Dragon's Dogma 2

We've tried to keep all the tips and tricks featured below as short and sweet as possible. Some of them will only begin to make sense once you're already experiencing the given situation in a game, though, so you may wish to keep this guide handy as you onboard into Dragon's Dogma 2. Good luck!

Stick to the roads

We cannot stress enough how important this is early on. Monsters hit hard in Dragon's Dogma 2 and a low-level character is wholly unprepared to be dealing with a whole flock of Harpies or - goodness forbid - a sudden Griffon. Take your time early on as you level up, and make good use of the Pawn system to alleviate your character's potential flaws!

Avoid exploring during the night

Another thing we must stress is that nights are a problem in this game. If you thought exploring the woods was a hassle when there are two dozen goblins on your tail, imagine doing that with ghosts, unkillable zombies and skeletons, and a high-level cyclops all trying to tear you to pieces. Oh, and it's punishingly dark, to boot. Just steer clear of the night until you know what you're about.

Running is not cowardice

That Griffon we mentioned in the first tip? You're bound to come across one rather early on, and it won't take long before you understand why the one you rode in on was shot at with a ballista. These things are a pain to deal with, and this is emblematic of many of Dragon's Dogma 2's higher-tier creatures. Just running away from them if you can't deal with 'em is a valid tactic, thankfully, and the game nudges you to do just that!

Be mindful of item rot

Indeed, foodstuffs can and will rot in your inventory. You're going to want to dry your meats and cure your fruits to keep them from going bad, and you can do so via the 'Combine' option in the inventory. Make ample use of it!

Have some camping supplies at hand, at all times

Your Arisen and your Pawns all get tired after a few fights, and you're going to want to avoid nighttime travel to begin with. No better way to alleviate all these concerns (and cook some stuff for snazzy passive stat bonuses) than to camp down for the night. Camping also heals you up and fills out your stamina, so it's an important boon no matter what.

Keep an eye out for throwing items (rocks, barrels, etc.)

Physics is an important consideration in Dragon's Dogma 2. Not only can you, say, pick up a sleeping enemy and throw them down the ravine for massive damage, but you can also throw stones, roll boulders downhill, and even destroy bridges to send entire armies tumbling to their inevitable deaths. Be inventive in how you deal with encounters!

Build a varied party of Pawns

You cannot go at it alone in Dragon's Dogma 2 and, even though the game doesn't have any multiplayer to speak of, Pawns are a hugely important feature. Notably, if your character is a Fighter, you're going to want to fill out your weaknesses with Pawns leveraging other Vocations. We highly recommend an Archer and a spellcaster of some sort at the very least, because healing and ranged combat are extremely important in DD2. You can travel with up to three Pawns at a time, and you can switch them around however you feel is right.

Oxen are your friends

Oxcarts are the only early-game fast-travel system you'll have access to. These are, essentially, bus carts your Arisen can jump onto and doze off to pass the time. The issue with oxcarts, though, is that they can (and will!) be intercepted by monsters, and the carts themselves can only go where the roads are clear. So, it's a give and a take, but given the rarity of actually teleporting Ferrystones, we think oxcarts are invaluable regardless.

Switching Vocations is easy as pie

Since you can only really have one character/Arisen in Dragon's Dogma 2, it makes sense that the game would let you change their Vocation at any given point. Simply visit the nearest Vocation Guild, and spend Discipline Points (DCP) to get the job done. You're going to want to experiment a lot, with that in mind, and since each Vocation is extremely picky in what gear and armour they use, it'll take a bit of time until you settle into something that truly feels right. One thing we'd like to highlight here is that Vocation passives can be equipped onto any of the other Vocations, so levelling virtually all of them up will pay off, no matter what.

Collect all the golden bugs (and then eat them)

One last tip we cannot stress enough is that you want to keep an eye out for the huge glowing gold beetles that you'll come across fairly often. On top of being fairly neat to look at and collect, eating these Golden Trove Beetles will increase your character's carrying capacity by 0.15. It's not a huge amount, granted, but it does stack over time, so don't ignore it.

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