Dragon's Dogma 2 features a gameplay concept that is incredibly severe and involves your pawns. If you are not careful, this game element has the potential to disrupt your progression through the game. Untreated, Dragonsplague might cause your pawns to kill any non-player characters (NPCs), including important ones from the story in the town you happen to be sleeping in at the time this mechanic is activated. Because I went through the hardship of dealing with Dragonsplague—which took a significant amount of time—I've chosen to publish this piece to assist individuals in preventing the devastating effects of this problem.

First things first: what exactly is Dragonsplague in Dragon's Dogma 2? This infectious sickness can only infect pawns and is undetectable. It usually happens when you're fighting Drake or Dragons. If left unattended, your pawns will grow distressed and rebellious against the Arisen's orders. If you choose to ignore this problem, it will eventually cause a major disaster. Then how can one identify Dragonsplague, particularly when it is said in the instruction that it is untraceable? Even while it won't appear as a debuff on the status page, there are specific indicators that you should be aware of.

Once the Dragonsplague cutscene triggers, the game will show you this message, “Dragonsplague has struck, leaving a trail of innocent lives in its wake. The pawns who brought the illness into this world have now returned beyond the rift. if only you had been more observant, perhaps this tragedy could have been prevented. Assess the situation”.

Before anything else, know that a pawn is infected with Dragonsplague if you receive the Dragonsplague tutorial message while recruiting it. You should remove them immediately from your party, and get another pawn. Unfortunately, this statement is only visible during the initial encounter; subsequent recruits will not be so upfront about it. Pawns infected with Dragonsplague, according to some players, may start to glow crimson eyes. This did not occur initially throughout my playing experience, however, it showed up after a few days when I traveled with the infected pawn.

The Warrior pawn I hired, Harley Quinn, started showing certain peculiarities, such as making casually critical remarks and a tendency to sit on the floor whenever we were idolized. When I hired her, she didn't have red pulsing eyes when she first triggered the Dragonsplague signal for me. Despite being on the road with me for days, they never turned crimson until the very end. But it was obvious from the way she spoke while she was answering orders. She always complained whenever I tried to get her help or heed my battle commands.

As far as she was concerned, there was no place for debate. She’d say, “Seems there's no room for argument here. I shall obey, but I won't pretend I'm happy about it”, or “I'm sure you knew well. I just happen to know better”, or “I am perfectly capable of making such decision for myself!”, or "Power surges within me!". For instance, when my main pawn told her while she was sitting idol, “Really, now. You mustn't shirk your duty. Lest you forget, ‘tis the Arisen we serve here.” And then she’d reply, “I'm well aware of that. thank you.”

After a few days of traveling with her, I began to notice that the eyes of my primary pawn were beginning to turn a reddish color. The spread of the plague was evident, even though she showed no signs of disobedience. The plague didn't activate the cutscene even when I rested in various inns. Therefore, there are other reasons besides the reddening of the eyes for that. After that, I brought in another Capcom pawn; she had piercing blue eyes, was constantly acting disobediently, and probably would have been the one to set off the disaster had Harley Quinn not intervened sooner. Some players have also claimed seeing physical tells in their pawns, such as holding their heads or sitting down on the ground. Other players have noticed this as well.

If you notice any of these actions, the only way to remedy the situation is to get rid of all of your pawns. Proceed to the body of water that is closest to you and throw all of them into the Brine immediately. You simply have to eradicate the other pawns from the board; if they contract the plague, eliminating the main pawn will cure them. Because you're already at the river, it might be wise to just throw them all in. Worry not, your main pawn will come back fully cured right after you touch any Rift stone again.

To further reduce the risk you face to the Dragonsplague mechanic, you can either avoid sleeping in towns and instead choose to rest at campsites outside of the main cities, or you can eliminate your pawns each night before bed. To be honest, it's not fun to play this method, but it will save a lot of NPCs from death. I am aware that this is an extreme approach, but regrettably, this is the only way to deal with it. You won't find any consumables or anything similar that can stop or reverse the effects of the plague. The only way out is through death.

This could be your fate when you take refuge in an inn if you do nothing to stop the plague. Even the important quest characters, such as Disa, Sven, and Brandt, were dead when you woke up in the capital city. Other pawns, passing merchants, and children were the only characters I noticed wandering about. However, I'll confess that I was prepared for what was to come with this mechanic thanks to all the videos and forums I'd been a part of. Fortunately, I had gotten quite far in the main story and had finished most of the side quests. So I decided to bring back a few significant non-playable characters (NPCs) and see if I could make progress. Using the eternal wakestone is a simple way to restore normalcy to the entire village.

In my experience, other capital cities, such as Battahl, remained unharmed because this only impacts the town you stay in. However, something quite peculiar occurred at this juncture. Several non-playable characters (NPCs) resurrected when I retreated to an inn; this included the oxcart driver, all of the merchants, and countless others. Somehow, I seem to have lucked out; I don't know if this is intentional or not. It appears that I will be able to complete the game without any problems as just three key story quests are remaining.

Before I finish this article, here are some suggestions that you might want to follow to avoid your pawns getting infected by Dragonsplague:

1. The moment you hear your pain pawn or any other pawn talking about an illness that can spared, means you’ve got either of your pawns is infected.

2. Check all your pawn's behaviors right after you kill a dragon. Especially if any of them were grabbed by the dragon and it whispered something to its ears.

3. Check your pawn’s eyes every now and then if you see them showing disobedience.

4. Don’t hire pawns who are wearing a head great or glasses.

5. Don’t hire a pawn that says “I might act independently” once you interact with him/her inside the rift.

6. When you try to talk to a pawn you want to hire, but he/she isn’t making eye contact with you while talking.

7. Pawns showing usual activities like pulling their head down in idol situations.

At this point, I would like to ask whether or not the Dragonsplague mechanic is a fair one. According to the rules of the game, you will be given a warning about it the very first time you come across another pawn that is infected with the disease. Additionally, these tutorial messages will provide you with a general warning about a potential disaster and instructions on how to handle it. Consequently, it satisfies the definition of fairness that is found in the dictionary since it gives you all of the information that you require. Nevertheless, it is such a cruelly punitive technique that it has the ability to soft-lock your playtime in a game that does not even contain a new game feature.

In addition, some players will simply fail to notice this because the symptoms of the condition are so minor. Certainly, we ought to peruse the instructional messages; but, who among us hasn't carefully analyzed a tutorial's pop-up text box? Therefore, the only offense that would be considered a crime in this situation would be to not read a tutorial text box. But does it make sense to punish that offense with the destruction of an entire town full of non-player characters? Fighting dragons, one of the game's most enjoyable activities and a necessary part of completing the main storyline is how you contract it. It's like receiving life in prison for breaking a neighbor's pen.

Obviously, you grow attached to your pain pawn in the game and you'd always want your pawn's cheek to glow red when you talk to her, not her eyes. This also ensures that she isn't infected. But it makes us question whether Capcom included this to make players less likely to get attached to their hired pawns and more likely to turn them out more frequently. But after this incident, new pawns have simply served to deepen my mistrust of them. Now whenever I bring one on board, I wonder if it's going to ruin my game. Several of the design choices that were taken in Dragon's Dogma 2 are, if you ask me, a little bit too much. Believe me when I say that I really like Dragon's Dogma 2 and am currently attempting to unlock every ending. Whilst playing, I can't help but wonder why Capcom included certain gameplay and design choices. The last thing you need is for a Dragonsplague disaster to occur during your playthrough; if it has, I wish you the best of luck restoring order.
 

Azfar Rayan (@AzfarRayan)
Senior Editor, NoobFeed