What Is Dragonsplague in Dragon’s Dogma 2, Symptoms and How to Cure It

Dragon’s Dogma 2 added a multitude of new things compared to the original Dragon’s Dogma. One of the newly added features introduced in the Dragon’s Dogma 2 website prior to its release was Dragonsplague. The official sources described Dragonsplague as an illness that only affected Pawns traveling in the Rifts for a long time. This illness was supposed to make the Pawns stronger but unruly to the commands. However, players are now starting to learn how destructive Dragonsplague can be when left unchecked in the game. The illness can wipe out all NPCs in the city where the Arisen is resting, ruining the entire game for players. Here is a complete guide on what Dragonsplague is in Dragon’s Dogma 2 and how to protect against it.

What is Dragonsplague in Dragon’s Dogma 2

Dragonsplague is an illness that can only affect Pawns, making them stronger but unruly. If a Pawn in your party has Dragonsplague, they will behave weirdly and stop listening to your commands. This plague can also spread to the other Pawns in the party.

The scary part about Dragonsplague is that it can wipe out all NPCs in an entire city if left unchecked by the Arisen. If you keep a Dragonsplague-affected pawn in your party for long enough, and then sleep at an inn or house in a city, you might see an ominous cutscene with the Pawn with the Dragon’s Plague and a Dragon appearing in the sky.

After the cutscene ends and you wake up, the Pawns with the Dragonsplague will leave your party, and all the NPCs in the city you’re resting at will be dead.

How Does Dragonsplague Infect Pawns?

Pawns are infected by the Dragonsplague through two different ways (as far as we know). The first way is getting infected by a Drake while fighting it. Drakes are often found in fixed spots in the Dragon’s Dogma 2 open world, and Drakes have a grabbing attack where they hold a pawn and speak to them. This attack has a chance of corrupting the pawns with the Dragonsplague, and the longer they are untreated, the more it takes over.

Another way a pawn can get infected with the Dragonplague is by traveling in the rifts for a long time. This is the given cause in all the official sources from Capcom.

How Do You Know If a Pawn Has Dragonsplague?

When you hire a Pawn with Dragonsplague for the first time in the game, a big pop-up will appear informing you about it. But, after that, it’s up to the player to look for the Dragonsplague signs. There are three clear symptoms of Dragonsplague:

• Red or Purplish glowing eyes: Pawns affected with Dragonsplague will have a slightly reddish or purplish glowing eye, which will only grow stronger until it becomes completely red. Remember that the Pawns can also have normal red eyes because of the character creator, so pay attention to whether the red eyes are glowing or not every second or so.

• Pawns will hold their head in idle animation: When you are idle for a time, your pawns will do their idle animation. If the idle animation shows the pawns holding their head, then the pawn is infected by the Dragonsplague.
• Pawns will become rude and unruly: Dragonsplague will make a pawn rude, and unruly, and not behave according to their Pawn Inclinations. If you find any pawns telling you to stop commanding them or not listening to your commands at all, then they are infected.

So far, we only know about these three obvious signs of Dragonsplague infection in Dragon’s Dogma 2. We will update this section if we find any more signs.

How to Cure or Protect Yourself from Dragonsplague (Yeet!)

The best way to cure Dragonsplague in Dragon’s Dogma 2 is to forfeit the Pawn. The quickest way to forfeit a pawn is to yeet them into the brine. After the pawn is forfeited, you can revive them using Rift Stones.

If you have hired a Pawn with a Dragonsplague, it’s best to send the infected Pawn back if you don’t want to go through the process of assassinating them. Simply hire a new pawn instead and that will keep you safe from Dragonsplague.

Another way to cure Dragonsplague on your main pawn, although not the most optimal, is to send them to another world by letting players hire them. After your pawn corrupts another pawn, they will return to normal.

How to Recover After Dragonsplague Kills All NPCs?

If you have failed to prevent the plague, and the Dragonsplague has killed every NPC in the city you rested, don’t panic as all is not yet lost. There are a few things you can do to recover your playthrough:

• Use Wakestones to Revive the NPCs: One way is to revive the dead NPCs using Wakestones. However, you will need to farm a lot of Wakestones in order to revive an entire city of NPCs, especially if it’s one of the bigger ones like Vernworth. Use the Dragon’s Gaze to mark the Wakestone Shards and combine them to have enough Wakestones.
• Skip Time by Sleeping: The easiest way to recover your Playthrough after being hit by Dragonsplague is to just sleep through it like a Nightmare. After skipping two to three weeks in-game, you should start seeing the NPCs respawn. Continue skipping days until all the NPCs have been revived. However, make sure you don’t have any time-limited quest active as doing this will definitely fail the quest.
• Return to your Last Inn Save: Dragon’s Dogma 2 has a failsafe feature where players can load from the last time they slept in an inn. If you triggered the Dragonsplague by sleeping in a camp or your home, then you can load your last Inn save and then yeet the infected Pawn out of your party before the plague hits. This method may not work if the plague hits after sleeping in an Inn.

Whatever happens, just remember to not lose hope. You can continue playing the game and recover your progress. My suggestion would be to just laugh it off as a funny incident and see it as an in-game event.