Dragon’s Dogma 2 – Dragonsplague Explained And How To Avoid It

The world of Dragon’s Dogma 2 is filled with danger. However, there’s a particular threat that’s so insidious that you might not realize how close you are to disaster. Here’s our guide that explains the signs and cures for Dragonsplague in Dragon’s Dogma 2. Likewise, please be reminded that this article contains spoilers.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 – What is Dragonsplague

Dragonsplague is a type of affliction that only manifests in pawns. It can infect any pawn, whether made by a player or those created by Capcom.

The Dragonsplague warning

When you encounter a pawn with Dragonsplague in Dragon’s Dogma 2, the game will immediately notify you. The message tells you how this affliction is contagious and can pass from one pawn to another. There’s also a mention of a “devastating calamity” that can occur.

How do you know if a pawn has Dragonsplague?

The pop-up notification is the only direct warning that informs you if the pawn you summoned/recruited has Dragonsplague. There’s no drastic change to a pawn’s behavior/attitude, and it won’t appear on their respective panel either. Still, there are some tell-tale signs.

• Red eyes – An infected pawn will have eerie red eyes, which are somewhat different from what you’d normally see during character creation.
• Ailments – If standing idle, the pawn will sometimes cough, spit, or have migraines. The migraines have a longer animation, roughly 15 seconds or so, which should be noticeable.

Are all pawns with red eyes infected?

No, far from it. Some pawns are designed that way by players. If you see a pawn with red eyes while inside the Rift–and you did not get a notification/warning–then those are just red eyes from character creation.

We can attest to how insidious this disease is, given that we got a notification that a pawn we recruited was infected. While waiting for them to show symptoms, we suddenly realized the illness was passed on to our main pawn.

Can you cure Dragonsplague?

Moreover, you won’t be able to cure Dragonsplague in Dragon’s Dogma 2, at least not in the traditional sense (i.e. flasks or curative items). These are the only ways to “stop” the condition:

• Dismissal – If you’re quick enough, you might be able to dismiss an infected pawn that you just recruited. Just keep your fingers crossed that they didn’t infect anyone else in your squad. The disease is basically like playing hot potato.
• Infecting others – The pawn has to infect another pawn. For instance, let’s say you hired someone with Dragonsplague and they pass the disease to one of your support pawns. The one you just hired has been “cured,” which means you need to get rid of the newly infected support pawn.
• Death (i.e. forfeit) – The pawn has to be forfeited, meaning they need to die and you should avoid reviving them. If your main pawn is the one that got infected, just throw them into deep water or let a monster kill them. They will respawn once you interact with a Riftstone. For support pawns that perish, you need to search for them by selecting the “View Previously Hired” option.

The devastating calamity

If you don’t heed the warning, you might continue adventuring with the same pawns for prolonged periods. Then, disaster strikes!

Once Dragonsplague has reached its terminal stage, a cutscene will play when you rest at an inn. The pawn’s eyes will glow red before they erupt in a dark shroud. They will be sent back to the rift (i.e. forfeit), and the entire settlement will be filled with nothing but corpses of NPCs. Other pawns will perish, too, and you’d have to re-recruit them.

You can see what transpires in the video below from YouTuber Ruba:

Can you still revive everyone?

Is this as drastic as it seems? Most definitely. That’s because the Dragonsplague in Dragon’s Dogma 2 can wipe out entire cities, including NPCs that are essential for quests. Fortunately, there are a few ways to avoid or alleviate this predicament:

• Check pawns before resting at an inn – The calamity cutscene only occurs when a pawn is terminally ill and you sleep at an inn. Because of this, you should double-check pawns for any symptoms. Boot them out of your party or, in the case of your main pawn, have them perish before you rest to avoid issues.
• Backup saves – For those playing on PC, you can keep backup saves that you can reload later on. You can find your save files in: C:Program Files (x86)Steamuserdata<user ID>2054970remotewin64_save.
• Eternal Wakestone – Alternatively, you can make the journey to the Sphinx shrines. If you’re able to outwit the Sphinx and slay her, you can obtain the Eternal Wakestone. Using it revives multiple NPCs at the same time, and it nets you the Reaper’s Scorn achievement, too. You can check all the details in our Sphinx riddles and solutions guide.
• Just wait (inconsistent) – Lastly, we’ve seen discussions on Reddit where players suggested that waiting for several days to pass in-game should do the trick. As noted in a Reddit post by user Lightningbutt, the NPCs that perished in the calamity came back to life after a while. However, a few still remained dead. We decided to test this so we waited for roughly 20 days in-game. We found that many NPCs still didn’t get automatically revived, such as Sven and Waldhar. As such, the Eternal Wakestone might be your only recourse if disaster befalls you on your playthrough.

That’s everything you need to know about Dragonsplague in Dragon’s Dogma 2. We hope you don’t encounter this particularly nasty disease.