Dragon's Dogma 2 is full of surprises and players are still working to discover them all. The main interest at the moment is the curious plague of dragons that can acquire pawns and cause the loss of an entire city in a single night.
Players believe that pawns can contract Dragonsplague after fighting a dragon, but the condition can also be passed between pawns.
If ignored, the consequences can be “devastating,” Capcom warns. The official Dragon's Dogma 2 website describes Dragonsplague as a “contagious disease-like condition that infects pawns as they travel between worlds.”
Capcom explains that, “Rather than becoming weaker, pawns with the disease are said to display remarkable performance and become noticeably bold in their speech and behavior. According to folklore, when the symptoms of the dragon plague reach a terminal stage, they will result in devastating calamities, but the veracity of those claims is unclear.
While I haven't personally experienced Dragonsplague during my time with Dragon's Dogma 2, there is plenty of video evidence from players who have seen it spread. And that devastating calamity Capcom alluded to? Well, if you have a pawn with the Dragonsplague condition in your party and you don't help him in a timely manner, he will transform into some kind of demonic ghost dragon during a cutscene while you sleep.
This in itself is pretty unusual, it has to be said, but hey, it's Dragon's Dogma 2. I've seen a lot of unusual things during my 10 or so hours so far.
After that, things take an even more sinister turn. When the player wakes up after a pawn transformation, they will receive a message saying “The dragon plague has attacked.” They will then discover that all the NPCs in a town have been killed. This includes those that give you the quests necessary to complete the main story.
You can see what it looks like thanks to the video below.
Dragon's Dogma 2: Dragon Plague Can Kill Your Entire VillageFortunately, while waking up to dozens of bodies and a lack of progression can be quite alarming, players who have experienced Dragonsplague for themselves say that waiting several days or so into the game results in several quest givers respawning. Others used stele stones to revive shocked NPCs.
As for what you can do with impacted pawns, Dragonsplague cannot be removed with any known consumables in the game. This means you'll have to watch out for signs of Dragonsplague (like a red glow in its eyes and a more abrasive change in attitude). When you see these signs, it's time to trade your infected pawn, hopefully to cure it through some future method. Otherwise, the only alternative is to design them to fall in battle before turning. It's worth noting, from what I've read this afternoon, Dragonsplague No It will appear in the Status menu of your pawns.
Manage cookie settings
For more on the game, be sure to check out Eurogamer's review of Dragon's Dogma 2, where Lewis Parker praised its “infinite discoveries combined with limitless potential.”
