Dragon's Dogma

If you want to try the Duke escort quest, here's how I think you can do it:

• First, make sure you raise his affinity. Use Large Fish or Giant Fish as gifts.
• Spoilers for late game: do NOT complete "A Warm Welcome." Just jump into the Everfall to trigger the "Find 20 Wakestones" quest. I think completing "A Warm Welcome" causes the Duke's affinity to reset to zero.
• Complete the game, then start a New Game Plus. Hopefully, the Duke's affinity will carry over.
• Get to Gran Soren and check the inn's notice board for the "Avenue of Escape" quest.

The reward is just money, but I think it's a quest worth experiencing once, if only for the person you're escorting.

Been a while since I've last played it. I should start it up again, if only to see if some people hired my pawn. Also, I've never went so far as reaching Daimon a second time, because DAMN are the lower levels of Bitterblack brutal on a rerun.

But I'll be sure to be offline before ending the game a second time, because I want the Seneschal to have my first Arisen's face and not some random schmuck's. That'll be awesome.

I'm pretty sure I played online in NG+ and the Seneschal had the appearance of my Arisen. Does it even happen any other way? It would have no impact otherwise, you wouldn't recognise some random player's Arisen.

I've always played the final mission in offline mode so that the Seneschal is my previous character. Never tried it in online mode, and I don't really plan to.

You know, a while back I mentioned that the second run of the Fallen City was like facing Ornstein and Smough, and after thinking a bit, it's kind of an accurate comparison.

The Eliminators are Smough, as both are tough warhammer-swinging jackasses. The Living Armors are Ornstein, armored figures that can channel magic.

At least Dark Souls 1 never made you fight eight Smoughs and three Ornsteins in the same area.

So, I managed to pick Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen for the 360 from Game Stop. I've heard good thngs about this game and I'm gonna try it out.

I started playing Dragon's Dogma just this morning. I chose to play as a female and a fighter. I have my pawns and I am currently at the encampment after finishing Ser Berne's tutorial mission.

Hope you have fun. c: The beginning is a little tough, as some of the enemies - primarily bandits - deal a lot of damage, but you should be able to quickly bounce back from that.

Yeah, it's got a sort of steep learning curve (do not go out at night) and I think the only thing stopping you going anywhere you like straight away are Beef Gates, but stick with it, it's a good game, and the endgame is especially cool.

Hope you have fun! Just a tip: don't try Bitterblack Isle until you've leveled up quite a bit (my personal recommendation is not trying it until you've beaten the game at least once, just to be safe). Some of the monsters you meet pose a problem even for characters that hit the level cap.

Yeah, Bitterblack Isle is somewhere you go when you've beaten the game at least once already. I don't think I made any serious progress there until I'd beaten the game twice.

I hopped in around level 30 and never actually left the isle again after that... It was so much fun and I kinda overleveled the rest of the game.

So, I made it to Gran Soren after doing the escort mission with Mercedes. That escort mission was tough. I died a few times to either harpies or goblins. I have two missions to complete. Going to find Quina in Witchwood and gathering information about the pawns in Gran Soren. Is it alright for me to do Quina's quest then the information gathering quest or is it too late?

If you can, do Quina's quest first. The Pawn-information gathering quest is a "mainline" quest, so there really isn't a way to miss it. Finding Quina is a sidequest, and those have a point where they're not available anymore.

Thanks. Also, where can I find a shop in Gran Soren that sells armor, weapons and supplies?

The shops you want are pretty easy to find. Upon entering Gran Soren from the main gates (by main gates, I'm referring to the entrance you go through while escorting the hydra head), the shop at your left sells basic supplies. Go forward a bit, and there is another shop at your left which sells weapons and armors. You can also upgrade your gear here.

Ooh, great little touch in this game; gear has, as far as I recall, three upgrade levels, each needing different materials. However, if you have the materials for upgrade 3, for example, you can skip the other two completely. Any other game I know of would have you do the other upgrades first.

Definitely helps when you don't have the upgrade materials for Level 1 or Level 2, but enough for Level 3. Unfortunately, "rarefying" forces you to get Silver first before you can get to Gold.

Then again, it might just be Bitterblack Isle being Bitterblack Isle.

Which level was it again where you needed to get burned by dragonfire while wearing the armor you wanted to upgrade? I always thought that was a cool way of upgrading your armor.

You're talking about dragonforging, right?

Whenever you fight one of the dragonkin enemies, your Arisen's equipment has a chance of being dragonforged after killing it, basically the highest level it can be upgraded to up until Dark Arisen introduced rarerification.

For standard drakes, wyrms, and wyverns, your equipment needs to at least be upgraded to 1 Star before dragonforging becomes possible. the Firedrakes, Frostwyrms, and Thunderwyverns of Bitterblack Isle can dragonforge equipment that has never been upgraded, though the chances are low.

Beating the Dragon and the online version of the Bonus Boss automatically dragonforges any non-dragonforged equipment on your Arisen.

The dragonkin with the highest chances to dragonforge are the Cursed Dragons. Problem is, they're located on Bitterblack Isle and are one of the strongest enemies you can find there.

edited 12th May '17 3:17:14 PM by dragonfire5000

Ah. I never got around to playing Dark Arisen yet, so I had no idea about the rarefication system.

Rarerification is relatively simple; if you have dragonforged equipment, you can further upgrade the equipment by forking over some materials and gold. Problem is, all materials needed for rarerification are exclusive to Bitterblack Isle.

If you're looking to dragonforge equipment in the main game, there's a drake that can be encountered in Devilfire Grove (which is close to the Shadow Fort). It's the only non-Bitterblack Isle dragonkin you can find for a while.

3-Star equipment have around an 18% chance of being dragonforged. Be careful though; dragonkin are pretty nasty enemies to fight when you're starting the game.

edited 12th May '17 7:38:24 PM by dragonfire5000

In Gran Soren, most of your time and attention will be focused on the area directly around the fountain. There are of course more areas in the area, but there are shops and the inn around there, so you'll really see the spot a lot.

God I loved that game, even know I think about re-installing it again even though I probably played through 20 or more playthroughs + Bitterblack. I even found a way to reset my character level to progress through a hard playthrough with level 0 but with my stuff (for cosmetic more than anything).

Hope you enjoy it too.

I actually wonder how popular my pawn has been since the last playthrough...

Here's another tip for your first playthrough; don't expect to be able to 100% complete it the first time. Choosing certain actions will lock out the completion of some quests. So, don't worry too much about getting everything done, just play through the game at your own pace and then you can complete what you missed in new game+.

So, I managed to do a few quests. I managed to find Quina in the Witchwoods and get her home. I also was able to deal the monsters in the well in the village.

I have somewhat mixed feelings about this game. On the one hand it has an interesting premise and the story isn't bad. On the other hand, the combat seems a bit clunky, at least to me. I also really hate how you can't get one shoted quite easily on hard difficulty. I'm still playing the game because I find it interesting.

What are you getting one-shotted by?