Introducing “Dragon’s Dogma 2 – Your Complete Pawns Manual” – a comprehensive manual designed to equip players with the knowledge and strategies needed to optimize their pawn companions in the exhilarating world of Dragon’s Dogma 2.
In this quick guide, players will discover essential tips and techniques for crafting pawns that not only serve their own needs but also become highly sought-after allies for other adventurers. Whether you’re a seasoned Arisen or just embarking on your journey, this guide will empower you to build pawns that excel in combat, support, and exploration, ensuring a thrilling and rewarding experience for every player.
Your Complete Pawns Manual For Dragon’s Dogma 2
Pawn Basics
Think of Pawns as your customizable allies, akin to summonable characters, across the world of Dragon’s Dogma. Unlike in other games where you directly aid others, Dragon’s Dogma allows you to send your personalized Pawn to assist fellow Arisen through the rift.
Always employ the double rest method: resting twice consecutively ensures your Pawns receive their rewards and advancements.
If your main Pawn perishes, it can be summoned again at any rift stone. However, if another Pawn falls, you may need to revert to your last save before it autosaves or utilizes a wakestone or alternative method to retrieve that Pawn and its possessions. Be cautious: reloading an inn save will result in any progress your Pawn made between inn rests being lost.
For instance, if you instruct your Pawn to collect seeker tokens and it perishes while carrying an essential item, reloading your last inn save means any time spent with other players won’t count towards your next inn rest’s rewards.
Furthermore, the developers have introduced special Pawns, known as “these Pawns,” which offer quest information to aid early-game players in their travels.
Rift Crystals (RC) are crucial early on for hiring Pawns above your level. Initially, consider hiring Pawns around levels 6-8 when you’re around levels 2-4, then adjust your hiring strategy as you progress. By level 20, you may have accumulated enough RC to afford higher-level Pawns.
Pawn inclination, while somewhat inconsequential, can influence their behavior in battle or when given commands. A straightforward approach often works best until later in the game when a more combat-intensive or support-focused Pawn might be preferable.
Commands play a vital role in directing Pawns. When a Pawn alerts you to nearby treasure or shortcuts, utilize the GO command to follow them. If a Pawn stops leading you, try using the Wait command to explore dangerous areas or the I Need Help command to prompt buffs or aid.
Specializations enhance Pawns’ abilities, so ensure you set them via the scroll to maximize their effectiveness.
Upon resting at an inn or home, Pawns return with findings, information, and gifts from other players if they’ve been summoned.
Pawns can gather information about quests, locations, materials, and battle tactics during their adventures through the rift.
By setting quests for other players, your Pawn can earn rewards and trade with other players for materials and items.
Skills and augments are crucial for Pawns, providing them with abilities and enhancing their effectiveness in various roles.
Advanced tips include using Pawns to activate environmental elements and leveraging their abilities to explore inaccessible areas.
Pawn Party Composition Tips
Considering your goals with your pawn, there are several important considerations:
Trading: When it comes to trades, the focus is solely on the pawn quest and the item reward.
Your Personal Play Style: Understanding your preferred approach to gameplay is crucial. Whether you’re a strategic tactician commanding from a distance, a melee fighter defending against attacks, or someone who prefers climbing for weaknesses or disrupting opponents, knowing your style will help determine the ideal support pawn for your party.
Balancing Desirability for Summoning and Party Compatibility: Striking a balance between having a pawn that’s desirable for other players to summon and one that complements your own party composition is key. Ideally, you’d want a pawn that satisfies both criteria.
Specializations:
- Chiguren: This combat specialization can be somewhat beneficial, particularly for hunting strong foes like the Dullahan. It’s best suited for support build mages, archers, and warrior classes.
- Woodland Wordsmith: While rare and niche, this specialization is invaluable for adventures involving elves, making it highly sought after by explorer Arisen.
- Forager: This specialization is extremely useful for those seeking to upgrade equipment or gather hard-to-find materials. It’s particularly effective on a thief with the pilfer ability.
- Logistician: Essential for managing items and preventing them from spoiling, this specialization is a must-have in any party.
- Hawker: When paired with a logistician, this specialization can generate significant income but carries the risk of losing valuable items. It’s great for a thief with pilfering abilities.
Party Composition:
With your Arisen and main pawn being the most versatile characters under your control, it’s advisable to tailor their builds to niche or specialty roles. Ensure that your pawn is leveling in a different location than your Arisen to maximize build versatility.
For example, starting as a thief to acquire subtlety for easier exploration, then switching to the mage for levitation to aid in finding seeker tokens, before eventually returning to thief once mage vocations are maxed out for stamina recovery. This approach allows for a diverse party composition, such as having a support mage and a thief with pilfer abilities until around levels 16-25, when transitioning to the next vocation becomes viable.
Pawn Build Guide and Tips
Starting Builds:
It’s highly advisable to level up one vocation enough to acquire a beneficial augment while your pawn focuses on the vocation you intend to prioritize initially. These initial builds are tailored for low levels (1-25).
Save skill-intensive builds for later stages when you’ll have more power and better synergy with your party’s composition, enhancing your overall effectiveness. Additionally, progressing through various classes with both your arisen and pawn can add to the enjoyment of the game. By mid to late game, you’ll be better equipped to fine-tune your final builds before transitioning to a new vocation that allows any skill combination.
While I’ll suggest augments or improvements that may enhance the build, remember that your play style and enjoyment should take precedence. Spending time leveling a vocation just to acquire certain skills might not always be the most efficient use of your time, especially if it detracts from your main gameplay objectives.
I typically mention the upgraded skill version to highlight the preferred choice for the build, not because other options aren’t available but because they synergize better. Alternatives to a build will be provided below the respective category for each build.
Pawn Mage Build Tips:
- Lightning affinity is the least useful of the three elemental affinities. While it has its uses, Levin is unmatched in versatility, excelling in various situations such as caves, water, and against airborne enemies.
- Fire affinity surpasses the flame spell, making it easier for the mage to set light enemies ablaze. Ice spell, while decent, doesn’t offer as much versatility as Levin.
- Status-effect curing spells are generally pointless early in the game; the primary threat is sleep.
Pawn Fighter Build Tips:
- Early on, prioritize high aggro and defense abilities to keep the arisen and other pawns, which can’t be easily revived, alive. Later in the game, offensive skills become less crucial as other vocations outpace the fighter in this regard.
Pawn Thief Build Tips:
- In the early stages, focus on maximizing stealing for parts, gold, and essential items like wake stones. Once you’ve accumulated a sufficient stockpile of materials, adjust the build to suit your preferred style.
Pawn Archer Build Tips:
- Avoid relying solely on special arrows and skills like Heavenly Shot or Extended Range Shot for your pawn, as they’ll be ineffective without the corresponding arrows equipped. At low levels, they also tend to have low damage and may inadvertently harm the party by triggering explosives or drawing enemy aggro from afar.
Pawn Mage Build: The Supporter
Weapon Skills:
Affinity: Ice, Fire, and Lightning Attack Buffs
High Palladium: Provides significant damage mitigation, offering robust protection for the party.
Alternative Setup:
High Palladium: Offers essential damage mitigation.
High Celerity: Enhances DPS and movement speed, ideal for agile combat tactics.
Ensure at least two different elemental affinities are available (or one if another source like your Arisen or another Pawn provides it). However, having a mage proficient in all three affinities is highly beneficial, with Fire being particularly essential. Lightning follows closely in importance, though High Levin can replace lightning affinity, leaving the mage free to focus on support buffs.
Specialty:
Chiguren: Maximizes effectiveness as a supporter, providing tactical advice and producing useful items like oil.
Augments:
Thief class augments Subtlety: Reduces aggro, allowing the mage to focus on support spells without drawing enemy attention.
Rings:
Anti-sleep and debilitation immunity rings: Provide essential protection against status ailments, ensuring uninterrupted support.
This build synergizes well with a second mage or a sorcerer, reinforcing the importance of High Palladium for potent damage mitigation.
Pawn Fighter Build: The Bulwark
Weapon Skills:
- Perfect Defense (Provides robust defense, blocking incoming attacks effectively)
- Flawless Guard (Prevents staggering or flinching, maintaining a steady defense)
- Shield Pummel (Offensive shield skill to retaliate against enemies)
- Shield Drum (Effective against aerial foes, discouraging bird-like enemies)
Specialty:
Any specialization besides Chiguren is suitable, emphasizing the pawn’s role as a tank to draw and absorb enemy aggression.
Augments:
- Mage class skills: Particularly those enhancing defense and stamina, bolstering the pawn’s resilience.
- Warrior class skills: Increasing aggro to ensure enemies focus their attacks on the pawn.
- Apotropaism: Further enhances defense, reducing the effectiveness of enemy debilitations.
Rings:
- Resolution: Prevents knockdowns, maintaining the pawn’s stability in combat.
- Aggro ring or Shield Stamina rings: If available, to enhance the pawn’s ability to maintain enemy attention.
- Vehemence: Improves offensive capabilities, discouraging enemies from knocking the pawn down by defeating them swiftly.
Pawn Thief Build: The Scorpion
Key Item:
Weapon: Spite (Inflicts poison on enemies, adding a debilitation effect to attacks)
Alternate Option:
Any weapon besides flame blades or elemental blades is supported by a mage with corresponding affinities.
Weapon Skills:
- Implicate (Supports debilitation tactics, enhancing the effectiveness of poison)
- Smoke Shroud (Provides stealth and evasion, allowing for tactical positioning)
- Plunder (Essential for stealing valuable items from enemies)
- Powdered Blast (Utility skill for crowd control or creating distractions)
Alternate Option:
Replace Powdered Blast or Smoke Shroud with any available flaming blades for additional offensive capabilities.
Specialty:
Any specialization besides Chiguren is suitable, emphasizing the pawn’s role in debilitation, theft, and crowd control.
Augments:
- Archer class augments (except Radiance): Enhance debilitation effectiveness and overall utility.
- Fighter Mettle: Improves resilience and combat endurance, ensuring the pawn remains effective in prolonged engagements.
Rings:
- Vehemence: Increases flinching and stagger effects, enhancing crowd control tactics.
- Brawn (if not wearing armor): Boosts physical strength for more potent attacks. Otherwise, choose rings based on personal preference or availability.
Pawn Archer Build: A+ Archer
Weapon Skills:
- Manifold Shot (Versatile multi-target attack, ideal for crowd control)
- Cascade Shot (Provides continuous damage against clustered enemies)
- Erupting Shot (Explosive attack effective against groups of enemies)
- Spiral Arrow (High-powered single-target attack, useful for focusing on priority targets)
Specialization:
Chiguren is suitable here for additional tactical advice and utility, but any specialization can work depending on personal preference.
Augments:
- Thief Subtlety: Reduces aggro, allowing the pawn to maintain distance and focus on ranged attacks.
- Fighter Mettle: Enhances resilience and combat endurance, ensuring the pawn remains effective in extended engagements.
Rings:
Consider rings that enhance stamina or reduce aggro to complement the pawn’s role as a ranged attacker. These can help maintain stamina for prolonged battles or reduce the likelihood of enemies targeting the pawn.
Conclusion:
In Dragon’s Dogma 2, your pawn’s role is pivotal. Whether supporting with spells, tanking hits, stealing from foes, or raining arrows, each pawn contributes uniquely to your success. By tailoring their specialization, skills, and gear to your needs, you’ll maximize their effectiveness in combat. So, craft your pawn wisely, assemble your party, and brace for the challenges ahead as you journey through the realm of Dragon’s Dogma 2.
Last Updated on March 31, 2024
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