Dragon's Dogma 2 (DD2)

Beginner's Guide: 23 Tips and Tricks to Get Started

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This is a beginner's guide to Dragon's Dogma 2 (DD2). Learn valuable things to know before you get started, as well as 23 tips and tricks for beginner and advanced players!

15 Beginner Tips to Dragon's Dogma 2

14 Beginner Tips
1. Character Size Matters
2. You Can Change Appearance Later On
3. Learn How Each Starter Vocation Plays
4. Vocations Can Be Changed At Vocation Guilds
5. Customize Main Pawn to Complement Your Play Style
6. Combat Consumes Stamina
7. Side Quests are Affected by Passage of Time
8. Pass The Time on Benches For Free
9. Collect Golden Trove Beetles
10. Preserve Food by Making Dried Items
11. Use Rotten Food as Lantern Oil
12. Use Your Pawns as Mules
13. Revive Yourself and NPCs with Wakestones
14. Exclamation Points Are Ladders

Character Size Matters

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Body size and shape play a huge factor in Dragon's Dogma 2. Smaller and shorter characters will regenerate stamina a lot faster, while bigger and taller characters will regenerate stamina at a much slower pace.

Larger characters will also have a higher max encumbrance, which means they'll be able to carry more items in their inventory. Max encumbrance is the maximum weight of items that a character can carry, and bigger characters will likely be able to carry more than smaller ones.

In addition, other body parts such as the length of your character's arms won't make a noticeable difference to attack reach for melee attacks.

Does Your Character Size Matter?

You Can Change Appearance Later On

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Your character's appearance is not permanent and can be changed later on as soon as you obtain a Book of Metamorphosis. This book can be bought from Guild Vendors for 500 RC (Rift Crystals).

Once you have the book, take it to a Barber Shop, which is commonly found in major towns. You can choose to modify your character's appearance, including height if you wish to change your character's size.

How to Get and Use Art of Metamorphosis

Learn How Each Starter Vocation Plays

At the start of the game, Arisens can choose between four (4) starter vocations each with a different playstyle:

Starter Vocation Playstyle
Fighter IconFighter ・Aggressive
・Makes the First Contact with Opponents
Mage IconMage ・Support (Applying Buffs)
・Relies heavily on pawns
Thief IconThief ・Strategic
・Stealth
・Outsmarting Opponents
Archer IconArcher ・Relies on Accuracy and Precision
・Plays from a Safe Distance

Best Starter Vocation

Fighter

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Fighters are aggressive melee warriors specializing in the use of their shield skills. Their shields have other neat uses other than blocking attacks, such as launching an ally in the air, drawing aggro to themselves and away from party members, and can also be used to negate a bit of fall damage.

Fighter Vocation Guide and Builds

Mage

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Mage is a great support vocation, capable of healing party members and applying buffs, such as applying elemental powers to other characters' weapons.

During the early game, Mages will be a bit slow in casting spells, since they need to charge them up a bit before unleashing the spells. But as soon as you level them up further, they'll be able to quickly cast spells in exchange for more stamina usage.

They are also great for exploration since they can levitate and float around, allowing you to access places that are somewhat difficult to reach.

Mage Vocation Guide and Builds

Thief

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The Thief is a master of deception and has amazing evasive skills. It's the only vocation that can dodge and evade attacks and also can do wall jumps, letting you reach high places.

Thieves are also played out strategically as they can also be used to sneak up on monsters with their unique Stealth mode skill. They can also plant explosives near monsters for AoE damage.

To add to this, the Thief can also steal items from enemies while in combat with them.

Thief Vocation Guide and Builds

Archer

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The Archer specializes in range attacks with their bow. They have the option to fire arrows either through manual aiming (which requires a bit of skill) or via auto locking on an opponent, the latter being less precisional.

Some weapon skills of the Archer require you to buy or craft specific arrows before you can use them, while some skills will just require stamina consumption to use.

Archer Vocation Guide and Builds

Vocations Can Be Changed At Vocation Guilds

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Feel free to choose any of the starting Vocations at the beginning of the game that appeals the most to you, as you can change this later on at any Vocation Guild, so don't feel too pressured to choose the Vocation that suits your playstyle.

How to Change Vocations

Customize Your Main Pawn to Complement Your Play Style

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Main Pawns are support characters that will assist you in combat. You can choose your main Pawn's Vocation early on, so try to pick one that complements your play style for a well-balanced party.

As an example, if you're playing range characters like Archer or Mage, it would be best to pick Fighter for your Pawn so that they can tank enemy hits and draw aggro away from you while you fire your arrows or spells from afar.

Best Pawn Party Composition

Combat Consumes Stamina

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Combat is tied to the stamina gauge, but is only affected by certain offensive abilities, such as activating weapon skills, casting out spells, using core skills, and climbing onto a monster.

Keep in mind that light and heavy attacks will not consume stamina, so feel free to spam them during a fight without having to worry about running out of stamina.

Side Quests are Affected by Passage of Time

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Some quests are affected by the passage of time, and will progress or resolve even without the involvement of the player. This means that you'll risk being unable to act promptly if you take on multiple quests at once.

Failing quests may lead to undesirable consequences in your playthrough, so be mindful of your current quests when taking on new ones.

List of All Timed Quests

Pass The Time on Benches For Free

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You might think that resting on campsites and inns is the only way to pass time but all Arisens can look for benches where they can pass time for free. This is especially useful when your quests are time-locked and you do not have money to rest inside inns.

How to Tell Time of Day

Collect Golden Trove Beetles

Dragons Dogma 2 - Golden Trove Beetle

If you see a shining, yellow beetle stuck on a tree trunk during your adventures, do not forget to get them! These so-called Golden Trove Beetles are special items that when consumed increase the overall carrying capacity of the Arisen. This is especially useful as you'll be picking up a lot of things while exploring.

It is also easier to spot Golden Trove Beetles at night as they glow brightly against the dark of night but be careful as nights tend to be a lot more dangerous in the world of Dragon's Dogma.

All Golden Trove Beetle Locations

Preserve Food by Making Dried Items

All food items in Dragon's Dogma 2 will expire in your inventory or storage as time passes. To preserve food, combine items into their dried version using the combine menu. Dried food items will never expire and are the best way to carry food if you're going on a long exploration quest.

This essentially replaces the Airtight Flask item from Dragon's Dogma 1 as the item does not make a return in DD2.

How to Combine Items

Use Rotten Food as Lantern Oil

If you find yourself with a mountain of rotten food items in your storage, do not throw them away! They can be used as a material to craft Lantern Oils which you can use to top up your lantern if it is low on fuel.

Lantern Oil Location and Effect

Use Your Pawns as Mules

If you find yourself over-encumbered by carrying a lot of materials gathered from the world, do not hesitate to transfer these materials to any of your pawns. They would even comment if you're carrying a lot of items and suggest that you transfer some to their inventory.

Transferring items can be easily done by going to Items, and electing to give an item to a nearby pawn.

What Happens to Items of Dismissed Pawns?

Revive Yourself and NPCs with Wakestones

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If you accidentally find yourself fatally wounded in battle or have failed to protect a certain individual during a quest, you can use Wakestones to revive them. A Revive prompt will usually show up over their bodies if you have a wakestone in your inventory. Similarly, if you die in battle you can also use a Wakestone to revive yourself.

How to Get Wakestones

Use an Eternal Wakestone to Revive Multiple NPCs

A much more potent version of a wakestone, called the Eternal Wakestone, is also present in the game. Its effect is wide-range and can revive multiple dead NPCs in your vicinity. This is especially useful if you find all townspeople are dead due to Dragonsplague.

How to Get Eternal Wakestone

Can't Find the Body? They Are Most Likely in the Morgue

If a dead NPC is left at a certain spot for too long, the undertaker will take it to the morgue so check on their bodies if you aim to revive them. The morgue is mostly found in major towns and is denoted by a coffin icon on the map.

Exclamation Points Are Points of Interests

When near any point of interest like cable cars and ladders, your pawn will usually inform you that it may take you to an important treasure. This will then be shown in your minimap as an exclamation point (!) to denote the location of the said point of interest! Try to explore that area to get valuable loot or progress thru an area.

9 Advanced Tips and Tricks for Dragon's Dogma 2

9 Advanced Tips and Tricks
1. Mitigate Fall Damage by Landing Directly on the Pawn
2. Make Sure to Climb Large Enemies
3. Translate Elvish With Pawns
4. Always Aim For Finisher Hits
5. Duplicate Items At the Scrap Store
6. Be Wary of Dragonsplague
7. You Can Find Destructible Hazards That Lead to Hidden Areas
8. You Can Command Pawns to Open Unreachable Treasure Chests
9. Destroying a Bridge Kills Enemies On It

Mitigate Fall Damage by Landing Directly on the Pawn

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Landing directly on a Pawn will cushion your fall and completely mitigate any fall damage. However, do note that they won't catch you if you fall from a fatal height.

Make Sure to Climb Large Enemies

Larger monsters can be climbed onto to reach and attack their weak spots. Breaking their weak spots will also possibly drop bonus items and materials.

Some Vocations can use weapon skills while mounted on monsters, like the Thief being able to use Powder Charge to plant an explosive on their backs.

As a bonus tip, if you see a large monster wobbling and hopping on one foot, you can grab its leg to push it and topple it over the ground.

You can even grab aerial enemies to take flight

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The Grab mechanic even allows you to latch onto aerial enemies such as a Harpie and slightly control the direction of where they're flying to. This is useful if you want to get to a high vantage spot as an Archer or Mage.

Grabbing Enemies Should Be a Habit

Grab Control Key
XBOX - Right Trigger.png Xbox PS4 - R2 Button.png PlayStation

Grabbing also has other niche uses such as grabbing smaller enemies, Pawns, or objects and then throwing them at your opponents to damage them. You can even throw them at aerial enemies if you're not using a range Vocation, like Fighter and Thief.

Another trick you can do is to throw enemies at melee Pawns to perform a special combo that should decently damage them. If you're feeling creative, you can even throw a barrel of oil onto an enemy and then use a fire attack to set them ablaze.

Translate Elvish With Pawns

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During your adventures, you might encounter NPCs that speak in a very peculiar language. The subtitles aren't helping either as they are written in an unintelligible language. These characters are speaking in Elvish.

To understand them, you have to get a pawn that has the Woodland Wordsmith specialization with the easiest way is to hire one from a Riftstone.

How to Learn Elvish: Woodland Wordsmith Specialization

Always Aim For Finisher Hits

Dragons Dogma 2 - Finisher Hits

Finisher Hit Key
XBOX - Right Trigger.png Xbox PS4 - R2 Button.png PlayStation

Always try to execute a strong, finisher hit that deals a significant amount of damage. You can only usually do this every time an enemy is down or when an enemy is stunned using skills. A strong, finisher hit is done by pressing the △ button for PS5 and the Y button for XBOX.

Duplicate Items At the Scrap Store

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In Dragon's Dogma 2, there is a store in Checkpoint Rest Town that allows you to create a forgery of an item which essentially duplicates it. Though some important items do not carry over their effect when duplicated, this is especially useful when giving items as gifts as most NPCs do not check gifts for authenticity. It's the thought that counts, right?

How to Create a Forgery

Be Wary of Dragonsplague

Dragons Dogma 2 - Dragonsplague

Dragonsplague is a terrible illness that infects pawns as they travel between worlds in Dragon's Dogma 2. This is usually obtained by fighting Drakes and can spread simply by being in the same party with a pawn that has one. The Arisen is also the only one immune to this sickness.

Be wary of this plague as it can infect towns and decimate all people making it a ghost town in the process. Always check if your pawn has dragonsplague by checking if they have red, glowing eyes and observing a drastic behavior change.

What Is Dragonsplague?

You Can Find Destructible Hazards That Lead to Hidden Areas

Dragons Dogma 2 - Breaking Environmental Hazards

There are some hidden areas in the game hiding behind destructible environmental hazards such as caves blocked by piles of rubble or water spouts that open up areas. You can grab and throw a large boulder at these interactable hazards to open it up and unlock a new area to explore. Be careful though! You can get hurt if you're close while breaking the hazards!

You Can Command Pawns to Open Unreachable Treasure Chests

Pawns with certain Vocations can navigate to unreachable places that contain treasure chests. Like the Mage Vocation, you can command them to levitate to cross a gap and collect a treasure chest waiting on the other side.

Destroying a Bridge Kills Enemies On It

One of the best ways to kill large mobs of enemies is to lure them onto bridges and then destroy the bridge to cause them to fall to their deaths. This is particularly useful if you find yourself low on health and will need a quick way to take out all those enemies chasing after you.

Do note thought that bridges take time to be repaired so assess if the disadvantage of not being able to use the bridge to cross outweighs the need to survive.

All Tips and Tricks Guides

Farming Guides
How to Get Gold Fast Rift Crystals (RC)
Discipline Points (DP) Wyrmslife Crystals (WLC)
How to Level Up Fast -
Beginner Guides
Fast Travel How to Tell Time
How to Increase Health How to Save
Best Party Composition How to Store Items
How to Dodge All Stats Explained
All Debilitations How to Combine Items
How to Increase Weight Limit How to Get Out of Jail
List of Controls Best Settings
What is Knockdown Power? How to Light Up Dark Places
How to Lower Ladders from High Areas How to Lock the Minimap to North
How to Fight Aerial Enemies All Damage Types and Elemental Weaknesses
How to Deal Fire Damage How to Deal Lightning Damage
How to Deal Ice Damage How to Deal Holy Damage
Advanced Guides
List of All Exploits How to Raise Affinity
How to Enhance Equipment Cooking Guide
How to Give Gifts How to Create a Forgery
How to Find NPCs Dwarven Smithing
FAQs
What is Dragonsplague? Can You Lock On Enemies?
Can You Change Difficulty? Can You Sneak?
Can You Change FOV? What Happens When You Die?
Why Do Guards Attack Randomly? Can You Hide Your Helmet?
Important Locations
How to Get Houses How to Enter Rose Chateau Bordelrie
Makeshift Vault Key and Vault Location Hot Spring Location and Effects

Dragon's Dogma 2 Related Guides

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Dragon's Dogma 2 Wiki Top

Dragon's Dogma 2 Guides

Dragon's Dogma 2 Wiki Contents
DragonWalkthrough DragonQuests
DragonVocation DragonTips and Tricks
Dragons Dogma 2 WeaponsWeapons Dragons Dogma 2 Armors Partial BannerArmors
DragonInteractive Map DragonRomance
DragonCharacter Creator Dragons Dogma 2 PawnsPawns
DragonItems DragonAugments
DragonMonsters DragonNPCs
Dragons Dogma 2 Weapon SkillsWeapon Skills Dragons Dogma 2 Core SkillsCore Skills
Dragons Dogma 2 Trophies and AchievementsTrophies and Achievements DragonChoices
DragonCollectibles DragonNews and Game Info
Dragons Dogma 2 - Updates and  Patch Notes PArtial BannerUpdates and Patch Notes DragonBugs and Errors

Recommended Guides

Popular Guides
Portcrystal Locations Missables
Stat Growth Max Level
Seeker's Token Locations Golden Trove Beetle Locations
Maister Locations New Game Plus
How to Delete Save Data and Start a New Game Best Equipment
Bosses -

Comment

1 Anonymous8 months

https://gocdkeys.com/blog/top-tips-to-start-your-journey-in-dragons-dogma-2 Here i find top 10 tips for beginners... really usefull

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