Thread by @BrettScr_Gaming

🧵 Dragon’s Dogma Dark Arisen
Tips for Beginners
A lot of people are picking up this game in anticipation of the release of Dragon’s Dogma II. Here are my tips for beginners. #DragonsDogma

*Character Creation*
The character creator has a lot of somewhat hidden options. On a PS5 controller, press the square button to access options to change nose size, head size, etc.
If you make a big and tall character, remember to make their head size appropriate for their body.

Make your pawn look and sound unique!
If you go through their facial expressions (by clicking triangle on a PS5 controller), at the end you will hear them say “steal yourself for combat” to know what their voice sounds like.

Hiring other pawns and making your pawn available for hire is 100% FREE. You don’t need any online service (No PlayStation Plus or Nintendo Online needed). Just make sure that “Online” Connectivity and “Anyone” Main Pawn Online Access are selected in Gameplay Options.

You will start out with some equipment automatically in your storage. Some of these pieces have good stats for the early game. Others, like the Ruminator’s Monocle, can be sold for a lot of gold.

*Early game $$$ and equipment*
You can sell the Ruminator’s Monocle to Aestella and use the gold to buy other items you may need for yourself or your main pawn. Her shop is located across from Pablos’s inn.

*Hot keys*
I recommend setting hot keys for a health curative, a stamina curative, and your lantern so that you don’t have to go into the menu each time you need them! On PS5, use the triangle button to assign hot keys.

*Quests*
You can be locked out of certain quests if you progress too far into the main story. In particular, complete ‘Lost and Found’ before ‘Lure of the Abyss’ as it unlocks a quest line that is important to the lore of the game.
Visit dragonsdogma.fandom.com/wiki/Quests for a full list.

*Fast travel*
Once you arrive in Gran Soren, there will be an item in your storage called the eternal ferrystone. This is what you will use to fast travel. As you progress through the game, you will receive port crystals that you can use to set fast travel points.

(Note that regular ferrystones are an obsolete leftover from the original version of the game - I recommend selling them as you can simply use the eternal ferrystone as many times as you’d like.)

With Asalam at the Union Inn in Gran Soren, you can also change your vocation and learn or add skills and augments by spending discipline points. Augments are extremely important and you should return to Asalam periodically to add them as you level up.

*Carry Weight*
Carry weight is extremely important in this game. You should strive to be at ‘Very Light’ or ‘Light’ encumbrance at all times to avoid having your movement and stamina regen slowed down. (See dragonsdogma.fandom.com/wiki/Encumbran… )

A tip to help manage Carry Weight: Deposit all your Materials into storage at once by using the ‘Select’ button (or + button Nintendo Switch). You usually have no reason to hold onto Materials as they are automatically available to you when you do armor and weapon upgrades.

*A tip to manage difficulty*
If a section of the game starts to feel overwhelming, you can hire a higher level pawn to help you! Hiring higher level pawns normally costs rift crystals, but if you add the pawn’s creator as a friend, it will cost zero rift crystals.

Note that hiring higher level pawns will reduce your experience points somewhat. You can offset this by only hiring one at a time.

dragonsdogma.fandom.com/wiki/Experienc…

Visit pawnguild.xyz to find pawns that are available for hire. If the listing includes a PSN / Friend Code / Gamertag then that means the creator is ok with receiving friend requests from lower level players.

And a note on hired pawns
If a hired pawn dies on you, their creator will receive a 3 star review and no gift the next time you rest - It is poor etiquette to let this happen. I recommend @genmalady ‘s video on how to avoid ‘bodybagging’ pawns.