Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen Catch-All

The accompanying Pawns have finally stopped Leroy Jenkinsing all over the place. That was inconvenient.

When you are hiring be sure to view their details and check their personality traits. If you see "pioneer" you probably don't want to hire them, because that means they like to run off ahead of you.

Incidentally, traits that I DO find useful:

- Acquisitor: This trait means they like to pick stuff up; it sounds silly, but it's a huge time saver since you spend a lot less time moving stuff you've picked up into your pawn's inventories

- Medicant/Nexus: Good traits for healers, since it makes them more interested in taking care of you and other pawns respectively

- Utilitarian: A good trait for an enchanter -- pretty sure it encourages them to give you appropriate buffs over other actions

I've made my pawn an acquisitor and a utilitarian (and if you don't know, the knowledge chairs work but it is much faster to go to the RC merchant in the pawn encampment and just buy the potions that alter your pawn's traits.

I love that this game has challenges right there, where you can go at any time, and then you can die because you're just not ready.

Yeah, I was starting to feel like I had reached a point where I was powerful enough to not worry in that way, but I think I've now reached a point where it's coming back. Very excited to fire the game up and find out this evening.

Last night I took Aristophans pawn out for quite a workout. Headed down into a cave / dungeon. 4(!) hours later, we emerged having finished 2 quests, slayed many skeletons and saurians + 1 giant, mean, ugly

Spoiler:

troll

(don't click that if you don't want a quest spoiled). Aristphans pawn behaved admirably I have to say, so I rewarded him with a few pieces of armor + a nice health potion.

ccesarano. You're up.

I haven't been playing this nearly as much as I would like. I love it, but work's been draining me pretty brutally of late. : \ Expect some friend requests and subsequent pawnage over the next few days, I hope.

Okay, played the demo. This game is interesting at the very least. Feels underrated. The combat is satisfying and the party members seem to be more useful than in Dragon Age or a Bethesda game. I'm intrigued and considering buying it to put on my shelf of neglected RPGs next to Dark Souls and The Witcher 2.

That demo's too short, DSGamer. It gives you no idea how engaging the pawn sharing/switching deal is. But you know how that sense of, "Wow, this is some high-adventure dungeon crawler actionfest!" is in there? It's really pervasive throughout the game. At least, it is so far.

I just played for seven hours. I got some stuff done with a few awesome pawns and hooked them/their owners up accordingly. More importantly, I got into this one spot where I was just wandering around the countryside and got besieged by both snow harpies and direwolves at the same time. There were a hell of a lot of 'em...I'd guess maybe about eight direwolves and ten snow harpies. And while I'm all, "Woo! XP! Skills! My party's bad-ass!", I turn and look up this hill, and this chimera comes bounding down the side of it...as though it were Chimera Time in Happy Monster Land, tralalalala.

Then the beast sees me, while there are still snow harpies and direwolves to take out, and gets super mad and starts coming my way. We tore off back towards the castle and lived to fight another day.

Oh, and I also escaped some giant toothy tentacles riddling a vast underground chamber. And there was also the cave under the waterfall, which led to a temple for some water deity nobody worships anymore. I cleared all the monsters out, but there's a door I can't open without some special key of some sort.

This game's crazy. I wish my chair didn't suck. I'd be playing some more.

Things I've learned this morning.

- Ensnare/Implicate are awesome abilities.

- Ensnare/Implicate don't work on zombies. At least, not well.

And things learned in Everfall...

Spoiler:

I was halfway to killing that Ogre when it killed me. Unfortunate, because I feel I really had a chance. I was also impressed that halfway through the fight it learned to just jump in the air and drop on its own back if that is where I was (which usually was, as climbing up to the back of its head and slashing away seemed decently effective).

I continued on figuring I'd ignore the Ogre for now and return to kill it later.

I thought I figured out the trick to defeating those tentacle beasts. "Oh, I'll just chop at the long tentacles! Those are probably the primary ones!" No, not at all. So after dying the first time and discovering I was at the checkpoint, I figured I'd flee on out of there. Wasn't aware that was the whole point of the quest.

On the way up I had to run past that Ogre, which was pretty nerve wracking at the time. Then as I was running up I suddenly got 5680+ experience. I guess he fell? It was awesome and disappointing at the same time.

Aristophan and Frederik_S, your pawns are now on my team for my next quest. Though I'm curious, does the game level-adjust the pawns at all? I feel like everyone else has had more time to play than I have. I'm at level 19, but your pawns are roughly level 21. That doesn't seem much further ahead than I am.

ccesarano wrote:

Aristophan and Frederik_S, your pawns are now on my team for my next quest. Though I'm curious, does the game level-adjust the pawns at all? I feel like everyone else has had more time to play than I have. I'm at level 19, but your pawns are roughly level 21. That doesn't seem much further ahead than I am.

No, and that's kind of why I've been curious why anyone is searching out a specific person's pawn. Once you're 3 levels or so ahead of the pawn there's really no reason not to switch them out. Maybe at the max level, whatever that is.

Apparently Ian used mine and now my pawn is terribly ranked >:O

It's probably more efficient damage-wise to have higher level pawns, but knowledge is a little trickier. Since we can do things in different orders, someone else's pawn may have learn about a quest/monster already, or you are teaching it new information that will help the other person. Also, I will occasionally release and resummon pawns to see if they have gained levels, as that is the only way their levels will increase.

Which is something I need to do more often. I grabbed my previous pawns around Level 13, and I continued down with them into Everfall where I was around 17 or 18 and reached 19. I wonder if I might have finished that Ogre instead of merely having gotten halfway had I a stronger group of pawns?

Blind_Evil wrote:

Apparently Ian used mine and now my pawn is terribly ranked >:O

What?! I didn't even catch that. Who's your pawn? I recall giving some props and loot to all but one from last night, a mage called Rose who only healed the party sporadically (as in, every fifth encounter) and tended to die in combat rather a lot, which was curious as she was level 23. IIRC, I ranked the combat rating down one star from the default or where it was at.

Let me know. I'll set this right.

Rose is a sorcerer, sorcerers don't heal she may have been a mage way back at 23, though. If you used her last night, I don't know how the game works, because I've been level 35+ since Thursday night.

She dies about as often as the other casters I get, which is too often. I think the Mage AI might be a little bugged, as often the whole team will be at half health and they just hang around yapping about the flowers and aught.

Then your mages suck because mine is awesome.

Though I wish I could manually command him to load my weapons with fire or ice whenever they've gone to regular. Sometimes I gotta spend too much time ...hrm.

Actually, now that I think about it, I should focuse him much more on support by making his healing and weapon boosting spells his primary, then toss him some offensive spells as his secondary.

I may have to experiment.

Aristophan wrote:

Also, I will occasionally release and resummon pawns to see if they have gained levels, as that is the only way their levels will increase.

Yes, this seems to be the only way to do that. Unfortunately, it also costs... whatever it is that you pay when you hire the pawns. So be wary of that.

ccesarano: I took your mage out for a quick run through the country side before my controller ran out of battery and I had to stop. Very impressed, though. I think I'll keep him around for awhile.

Also.. one question: Is anyone playing a Magick Archer or Strider? There's a few skills that are supposed to "shoot fire up in a column when you stab the daggers into the ground". Well, the character does indeed stab in the ground (jump, hit appropriate button), but there's no fire. Is there some trick to some of the controls or what am I missing?

Blind_Evil wrote:

Rose is a sorcerer, sorcerers don't heal she may have been a mage way back at 23, though. If you used her last night, I don't know how the game works, because I've been level 35+ since Thursday night.

So there, a question about game mechanics is answered. She was still in my party because I didn't chuck her on my previous play session, which was last weekend. She was still a mage at that point, and was such last night, as well as still level 23. So it sounds like when you take on a pawn, you have their stats, vocation, etc. from the time they entered your game. Makes sense they wouldn't mysteriously level up or anything until you let them go. This is a good reminder to freshen up the pawns routinely.

She dies about as often as the other casters I get, which is too often. I think the Mage AI might be a little bugged, as often the whole team will be at half health and they just hang around yapping about the flowers and aught.

Maybe...I've worked with a couple of not so great mages, but there was one guy I worked with last night who was just wonderful - lots of offensive casts, lots of healing, a class-act all the way. He was only level 16 but was perfect in a supporting role, and somehow, he stayed alive without too much trouble, though he wasn't hanging at the back of things at all. Maybe all that pawn chatting and such really is useful? I know a few reviewers pooh-poohed it, but people reviewing games often blitz the main story and do jack about the sidequests and the like, right? Just saying, his behavior was very different from other mage pawns I've used so far.

On my playthrough: just doing the catacombs/skeleton slaying mission off a board in Gran Soren, and damn it, I've got 16/36, and it looks like the rest of the catacombs are locked off behind a door. This is the second instance of a locked door underground where I've spent a lot of time checking out the locale and can't find the damned key, and I killed everything big in the joint that's on my side of the door. Has anyone picked up on how far out they're putting keys and the like? Is it likely I missed something, or am I going to have this pop up elsewhere and then go, "oh, right, forgot about that" and have to travel all the way back through this stuff? Not griping - I'm digging running around the countryside and getting ambushed by monsters. Just want to know what to expect. I don't want to search that catacombs area again unless I know the key's down there.

EDIT: Also, I really dig the din arrow thing. It's not always effective, but the wind-up animation is very cool.

Fredrik_S wrote:

Also.. one question: Is anyone playing a Magick Archer or Strider? There's a few skills that are supposed to "shoot fire up in a column when you stab the daggers into the ground". Well, the character does indeed stab in the ground (jump, hit appropriate button), but there's no fire. Is there some trick to some of the controls or what am I missing?

Haven't had this skill going as a Strider, but have you checked the details for the skill in the menu (I believe you press X or the PS3 equivalent)? I've nearly bought some skills that involve doing the main attack with the appropriate button combo, and then you press the button assigned to the skill a second time right after to make the secondary effect happen.

Fredrik_S: That's called Sunburst and it's Magick Archer only. It's an active skill rather than passive, so you need to have it on one of your three set buttons. I don't like the move much myself, hard to be accurate with it.

ianunderhill: there are a bunch of combinations that result in Skeleton Keys, keep a healthy amount of those on you. They fit a lot of the random locked doors. Otherwise, it's likely a later quest location.

ccesarano, rather than my mages, your face is what sucks. Shutup.

This thread really tempts me to say "Screw the pile, to the new and shiny!"

New lesson learnt: don't fight the dragon.

Also: escort quests take you waaaaay out into difficult places. But hey, I got to kill a Chimera (on a second attempt)!

So in the Elder Scrolls games I stopped picking stuff up because it was usually pointless. Now I'm learning just how useful a lot of these items are, as I decided to start enhancing a bunch of my equipment. There are items that I once had but sold or passed by because I didn't want to be overencumbered.

I must also say that I'm surprised at how much I'm enjoying this game. Usually I don't like a ton of side quests distracting me from the main. I usually like it the inFamous style, where most side quests don't unlock until reaching certain story points. But this game is just so different. The world feels a lot more defined, so exploring seems more worthwhile over an Elder Scrolls game ("oh hey, this forest looks just like every other area with trees in this game"), and just thinking "Okay, I'll go there later, when I'm stronger and more bad ass".

I'm going to remember this dragon, and I'm going to come back at level 30 or 40 and give him another go and see if I can bust him up.

FWIW, my pawn is being built specifically as a healer, but I'm plodding slowly through the game and only level 15.

In terms of a key: I actually found a skeleton key in the capital. Walk between the smithy and apothecary shops towards the Pawn Guild, but hang a right towards the noble quarter. After the first door way walk up the stairs, but instead of walking into the second doorway jump onto the ledge on the left. There's a chest containing a skeleton key.

Description: "A special key that can unlock any cell door, including those in the dungeons beneath Gran Soren."

Don't know if that will help anyone with randomly locked doors or not. I just found it, haven't put it to use yet.

Blind_Evil wrote:

Fredrik_S: That's called Sunburst and it's Magick Archer only. It's an active skill rather than passive, so you need to have it on one of your three set buttons. I don't like the move much myself, hard to be accurate with it.

Yep. that's the one. I guess I am doing it right. Need to experiment a bit more to see when the actual explodey goodness happens / when it doesn't. I am on a escort quest right now... last one went pretty badly.

I've never seen Sunburst look any different from this:

Blargh. I'm too used to smart auto-saves. I just played half an hour and died to some bandits, only to find that nothing I did after I left the town gate was saved.

No luck with that skeleton key, unfortunately...easy enough to find, but the door in the catacombs must require something else. Having embraced another quest since, though, made a previously empty room...well, let's say it made a lot more sense this time.

The game keeps 2 saves - one after you have rested at an inn and the other as you adventure. It autosaves at times, but I don't trust it anymore. Save early, save often!

Pick up everything! As far as I can tell, the storage space is unlimited, so everyone you rest you can put all your materials in storage. You will automatically access them when you upgrade equipment.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

This thread really tempts me to say "Screw the pile, to the new and shiny!"

If I understand your taste in games as well as I think I do, you'll love it Fed.

New lesson learnt: don't fight the dragon.

I was about level 45 before I got the guts to go back and take that guy on, and he was still a bit tough. Probably manageable much lower if you bring enough curatives though.

skeleton key

There are three kinds of locked doors:

- Doors that are barred from behind; generally these are the back doors to dungeons and you'll eventually find yourself at the other side and able to destroy the board that is barring it.
- Doors that are unlock able with a skeleton key; there aren't too many of these, but it's worth running around two or three just in case you find one.
- Doors that are locked for a quest

Generally the text will let you know what kind you are trying to open. I think the dungeon being specifically discussed has a couple barred doors and a couple quest doors; can't quite recall if it has any skeleton key doors.

Also, with regards to acquiring skeleton keys:

Spoiler:

The chest in town respawns from time to time, but it's much more efficient to craft them. You know all those shackles that the bandits drop? Combine them with various types of rocks to make as many keys as you want.

Learned a couple of things tonight.

1. Press R1 to switch your regular attacks to special attacks. That's why I could never get sunburst to work. I hit R1 on a whim and went "oooooooooohhh!" Yes, I'm slow.
2. When you go into the rift to refresh the pawns you must release them and rehire them. As long as you don't exit the rift it costs you nothing.
3. Hired a level 9 pawn from a friend of mine and she died quickly and often. Make sure the pawns you hire are about the same level or higher than you.
4. Even though a herb or flower say "combine to create bladdiblah blah..", as long as it is in the curative section of your inventory, eat away. It'll heal you in some way.

I am still not sure what happens if, outside the rift, you give a pawn a piece of equipment. Does that move over to the pawns owners game?

Oh, and Penny has an amazing new weapon (which will be even more amazing just as soon as I get the gold to upgrade it), so be sure to rehire her if you've been using her.

If you equip a summoned pawn you gift that equipment. The person will get it when they rest at the inn, after the pawn has been released. My pawn was hired out for a while by a couple of you guys. I got 10k Rift Crystals, and some equipment (including a gimp mask!).

I just switched my main pawn's vocation to Warrior, which means that he's rocking a two-handed sword, but doesn't have a shield. He'll still probably take anything that isn't nailed down. I'm also trying out Sorcerer, in order to bump up my magic damage.

I found the dragon. I got lost exploring the map, stumbled into a rather talkative thieves camp, and then was on a goblin/hobgoblin-slaying rampage for a while. Suddenly, I made note of movement between distant trees. I crept around some rocks and saw the dragon prowling, and promptly booked it south. The dragon rose up over the trees when I was a good distance away, but thankfully flew off in the opposite direction.

Then I met a chimera that took fifteen minutes to kill. Special mentions goes to a group of saurians we ran into as the battle rolled along the hillside. Those jerks didn't make it any easier.

Then I got back to just outside of Gran Soren and the griffin came back. He'd come to me before the previous departure, but flown off. So I fought him for thirty-five minutes and had his last layer of health down to about 40% before I got overzealous and got myself killed.

Frustrating as that was, it was way cool. I love how many huge monsters there are in this game. Seeing that griffin flying around on fire is awesome. Fighting it in a huge open area while bandits come rushing in is crazy. And this game just ate another five hours of my life.