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Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen PC |OT| Wolves hunt in 4K

DaciaJC

Gold Member
Wut? I never noticed that. The songs that play against stronger enemies have always been by enemy type (Chimera, Hydras, Cyclops, Griffins etc. each have their own theme). And the only "dynamic" song I recall is the "Imminent Victory" theme, when you've manage to deal serious damage to a big monster and it gets staggered. Speaking of which, I fucking love that song, and I will use any excuse or opportunity to link it. :D

I think he might be referring to BBI, where three versions of the same song are featured depending on the strength of the enemies in the area. The best version plays when you face Eliminators and the like.
 

Baalzebup

Member
IWut? I never noticed that. The songs that play against stronger enemies have always been by enemy type (Chimera, Hydras, Cyclops, Griffins etc. each have their own theme). And the only "dynamic" song I recall is the "Imminent Victory" theme, when you've manage to deal serious damage to a big monster and it gets staggered. Speaking of which, I fucking love that song, and I will use any excuse or opportunity to link it. :D
I think he might be referring to BBI, where three versions of the same song are featured depending on the strength of the enemies in the area. The best version plays when you face Eliminators and the like.
Hmm, I guess I never noticed it was based on their strength there either, I thought it was by monster type all this time... o_O
I'm referring to Despairing Combat and Tense Combat which have been in the soundtrack since Vanilla. They just aren't heard all that often because they are overridden by those enemy exclusive tracks, so you'll normally only hear them when facing very dangerous mooks. Just about the only exception to this are the Kill Quests from BBI that send you back to the Vanilla areas to kill Eliminators and Living Armors, as then they play by default no matter what level you are.
 

DaciaJC

Gold Member
I'm referring to Despairing Combat and Tense Combat which have been in the soundtrack since Vanilla. They just aren't heard all that often because they are overridden by those enemy exclusive tracks, so you'll normally only hear them when facing very dangerous mooks. Just about the only exception to this are the Kill Quests from BBI that send you back to the Vanilla areas to kill Eliminators and Living Armors, as then they play by default no matter what level you are.

Interesting. In my 300+ hours of playing the game, I've never heard those tracks. Thanks for the links.
 

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
I'm referring to Despairing Combat and Tense Combat which have been in the soundtrack since Vanilla. They just aren't heard all that often because they are overridden by those enemy exclusive tracks, so you'll normally only hear them when facing very dangerous mooks. Just about the only exception to this are the Kill Quests from BBI that send you back to the Vanilla areas to kill Eliminators and Living Armors, as then they play by default no matter what level you are.
Ohhh I see. I have heard Tense Combat before but never Despairing Combat (or I don't remember), so I never noticed the pattern. Interesting.
 
So I finally got around to researching pawn inclinations. Interesting stuff. Here's some general advice for my fellow noobs:

I. Avoid the Guardian and Acquisitor inclinations at all costs.

II. Good inclinations:
Melee pawns: Scather (Primary), Mitigator, Utilitarian
Ranged pawns: Challenger (Primary), Mitigator, Utilitarian
Spellcaster pawns: Utilitarian (Primary), Challenger, Medicant (for healers) or Mitigator (for nukers)

More detailed advice:

III. To set your desired pawn inclinations, go to Johnathan in the Encampment (he appears next to the rift stone after you finish the Reward and Responsibility quest) and buy the proper elixirs. You have to take them in reverse order. So let's say you want your Mage pawn to have Utilitarian as his primary inclination, Challenger as his secondary, and Medicant as his third.

This is the order you want to take the elixirs:
1. Neutralizing Elixir (to reset your pawn's inclinations to default)
2. Medicant Elixir
3. Challenger Elixir
4. Utilitarian Elixir
5. Another Utilitarian Elixir (to reinforce it as the primary inclination)

IV. Reinforce your pawn's inclinations at a Knowledge Chair (found in the inns). The first question your pawn asks you is always in regards to its secondary and third inclinations. You will be asked to choose between them (in the form of a somewhat roundabout question), which allows you to swap the secondary and third inclinations. Why is this important? Because every time you switch back-and-forth between the two, it apparently reinforces your primary inclinations. So every time you visit an inn, sit down at the Knowledge Chair to swap your secondary and third inclinations, and then use the Knowledge Chair again to swap them back. Doing this regularly should keep your pawn's desired inclinations stable (at least that's what I read).

Sources:
http://dragonsdogma.wikia.com/wiki/Pawn_Inclination
http://dragonsdogma.wikia.com/wiki/Pawn_Inclination_troubleshooting
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=600965086
 
Ugh, each time this gets bumped I think there's a new dragons dogma or a ps4 x1 hd remaster.
So I guess the game sold poorly on PC to warrant the current gen release right?
 

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
I actually don't mind the acquisitor inclination because I use my pawns as mules constantly. xD But yeah, Guardian is shit-tier, and so common sadly.
 
From the OP FAQ:

Q: What about min-maxing stats? Is it true that the current vocation affects stat growth?
A: It is technically true, but min-maxing is really, really not worth it. The gains to your damage boost are minimal compared to what you gain by gear improvement, the methods for min-maxing are frustrating and obtuse, and it is far more fun to simply not worry about it and freely experiment with all the Vocations instead.


Is this true, even if I'm level 56 now and haven't played any of the magic vocations? If I eventually want to switch to Mage, Sorc, Magic Archer, or Mystic Knight, am I gonna be super gimped? I generally prefer playing as a physical attacker in games, but I do want to try out some of those magic vocations at some point.
 
MRW I get swallowed by the Archydra and it kills all my pawns shortly afterward

c4jt321.png


But seriously, the Hydra and Archydra have been by far the toughest enemies for me. Maybe it's my party setup (Assassin, Warrior, Mage, Sorcerer). On the other hand, we absolutely destroyed the three post-game drakes we've encountered so far.

You'll be fine.

Ok thanks. I definitely see how gear is a much bigger factor in your attack power.
 

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
Mage and sorcerer should be good against hydras (providing they have the AI knowledge/inclination). Use fire to cauterize the heads you cut off, otherwise they'll grow back. So magic-based pawns with firespells (and/or fire-weapon-buffing spells) work wonders. Weapons with a permanent fire enchantment work too. But yeah cauterize those tentacles, otherwise it can take forever to take down the hydras.
 

Nohar

Member
Hello,

I hope you will be able to help me, because I am losing hope of making this work. I'm trying to play with a PS4 Controller. Initially the game didn't recognize my gamepad (well, it worked, but it switched between XBOX inputs and keyboard/mouse ones, and I was unable to map actions correctly), so I followed these instructions to make it work. Except that now I have another problem: I can't navigate menus easily. It seems the deadzone is too sensitive, and frequently I move multiples spaces in a single press of a button. I am getting a little frustrated by all this to be honest.

Edit: Huh. Now by playing wireless (controller not in charge) with InputMapper, it works. OK, I give up trying to understand all this magically-technically-mumbo-jumbowy works.
 

Ghizz

Member
I haven't played the expansion, only when it was Dragons Dogma on the 360. How is it?

Also, the portalstone game mechanic needs to be in other games.
 

Unai

Member
I haven't played the expansion, only when it was Dragons Dogma on the 360. How is it?

Also, the portalstone game mechanic needs to be in other games.

It's better than the base game. It focus on the two best things about DD: combat and dungeon exploration.
 

Baalzebup

Member
I haven't played the expansion, only when it was Dragons Dogma on the 360. How is it?
The expansion area is the absolute best Dogma has to offer, minus perhaps the interactions you have with Grigori at the end of the pre-Post-game (lol), cuz Grigori is just great all around.
 

Hellraider

Member
I haven't played the expansion, only when it was Dragons Dogma on the 360. How is it?

Also, the portalstone game mechanic needs to be in other games.

It's the best Dragon's Dogma has to offer. The only problem with it is that at the end of the day it's pretty damn small and with an absurd amount of rehashed content. It is still great and with a decent replayability, though.
 
Post-game Everfall is a bit of a letdown. It's so close to being a good dungeon crawler zone, but it falls short because it's annoying to navigate* and the mobs respawn too slowly.

* I haven't tried it yet, but can a Portcrystal be placed in front of an individual Everfall chamber? Ex: If I wanted to farm the wyrm in Chamber of Distress, could I place a Portcrystal outside of the door? That would slightly raise my opinion of the Everfall if so. But still, the whole falling through the sky thing was really cool the first time it happened, but after that it's just tedious and they should have given us shortcuts.
 

SNIKT!

Member
I am interested in this game. After beating the Witcher 3, I thought I'd be burnt out. But I need more! This game looks really unique. Is there any deals going on for this steam version?
 
Arousing Suspicion has been the best quest so far, in terms of story. I just looked on the wiki and apparently it's pretty easy to miss it, so I'm relieved I didn't. Still, I was pissed that
Aelinore got my ass thrown in the dungeon and tortured like that. That's what I get for trying to lay pipe with a married woman I guess. Never throwing the D her way again
.

Aelinore is straight up nutso. She knows you for all of five seconds and is all "hey I just met you, and this is crazy, but sneak into my heavily guarded and fortified tower and shack up with me behind the king's back, maybe?"
 

BadWolf

Member
Aelinore is straight up nutso. She knows you for all of five seconds and is all "hey I just met you, and this is crazy, but sneak into my heavily guarded and fortified tower and shack up with me behind the king's back, maybe?"

Resulted in some hawt girl on girl action in my case ^_^
 

Ogawa-san

Member
Well, it is a game where
a 10 year old may end up being your romance option against your will and despite the fact you talked to her like twice in the entire game
.

In DD things escalate very quickly.
 
I am interested in this game. After beating the Witcher 3, I thought I'd be burnt out. But I need more! This game looks really unique. Is there any deals going on for this steam version?

Let me warn you first and foremost: If you place a large emphasis on story and world-building (two things TW3 does incredibly well), you probably won't like Dragon's Dogma. The writing is pretty mediocre, the quests are pretty bland, and the open world is not that interesting to explore. This game is all about the action -- the combat and controls (two things TW3 does not do very well IMO) are superb.

Having gotten all that out of the way -- I bought this game during the Steam fall sale for $12. The winter sale is coming, so I'd say wait for that because I expect it should have the same discount then.

Aelinore is straight up nutso. She knows you for all of five seconds and is all "hey I just met you, and this is crazy, but sneak into my heavily guarded and fortified tower and shack up with me behind the king's back, maybe?"

Resulted in some hawt girl on girl action in my case ^_^

Well, it is a game where
a 10 year old may end up being your romance option against your will and despite the fact you talked to her like twice in the entire game
.

In DD things escalate very quickly.

Lol.

I'm just glad that I ended up with
Quina
. She's the proper choice, though I would also accept
Mercedes because dark-skinned women are my weakness
.
 

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
At least the female options aren't too bad. Mercedes is cool, Quina's OK though kinda boring.

What are the male options? Julian being the "best" one is uuuugh.
 

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
He's the only male NPC that looks sorta-attractive and has a sort of interesting character arc. He's weird though, he starts out as this honourable and generous captain, then he's a complete and utter contemptuous dick to Mercedes for no real reason, then
if you use the Wakestone to revive him
he switches back to being a decent guy. He could be a legit interesting NPC if he had been written a bit better. Oh and his damn faux-French accent is really cringe-worthy too.

Yeah, the male options really suck LOL. That's part of why I made a male Arisen on PC. :p

In my very first playthrough on PS3 I had picked Sir Maximillian for complete lack of options (since he seemed the decent sort -- I didn't know that
if he isn't your "beloved", he turns against you at the end like a fanatical asshole
)

If I was gay I'd totally go for
Reynard
. Dude is a hustler and has a slick haircut.
Ewww no. Awful hair, annoying voice, annoying side-quest. He can fuck off. :p
 
I am way too tempted to stand on a boulder in this chuckin' fireballs at fools then chucking them off when they come at me. The ammount of Stupid Things this game allows is neat.
 

Baalzebup

Member
I am way too tempted to stand on a boulder in this chuckin' fireballs at fools then chucking them off when they come at me. The amount of Stupid Things this game allows is neat.

I'll never forget that one clip of someone fighting with a Drake who then possesses the sorcerer pawn of the party near the end of the fight. The fight is won with a fanfare, followed by the sorcerer, who had been prepping a spell for a good while with the player obvious to the pawns status, casting High Maelstrom which then kills the rest of the party, player included.
 
Deciding if I should start NG+ now. Post-game Everfall is getting a bit stale, though last night I got the third Dragon's tear so the drops are nice.

I think I just played this part. Super tricky, had to abandon the area after a while, fighting bandits and wolves at night is hard. This game is winning me over. One thing I have to figure out is how I fight vs sword+shield dudes as a strider.

Yeah I got worked when I ran into that bandit ambush for the first time. For the shield guys, I try to shoot them in the head with my bow.
 

Baalzebup

Member
I think I just played this part. Super tricky, had to abandon the area after a while, fighting bandits and wolves at night is hard. This game is winning me over. One thing I have to figure out is how I fight vs sword+shield dudes as a strider.

The ability where you yank the enemies off balance with a bunch of wires (I've totally forgotten the name) works well with sword and board enemies. And if you're near any cliffs, you can try to just grab them and chuck them off the edge.
 
Oh man, before I started paying attention to my pawn's inclinations I think only 1 person rented her. After fixing her inclinations to Utilitarian + Challenger (she's a Sorcerer), I got over 300k rift crystals this morning when I stayed at the inn. Jackpot!

Also, I was an idiot earlier when I said the Ranger vocation felt weak. Holy shit it's so good. Tenfold Arrows is absolutely devastating and Great Gamble is the ultimate sniper shot.
 

DaciaJC

Gold Member
Tenfold Arrows is absolutely devastating and Great Gamble is the ultimate sniper shot.

I love equipping my Ranger pawn with Great Gamble. I see her charging a shot, then suddenly a bright flash of light and the monster has two or three lifebars instantly knocked off.
 
I really love this game; I regret not playing the shit out of it during summer when I had time. Being unable to transfer the save file from the PS3 (or just wanting to experience the whole game again), I started a new save file on hard mode. Everything was "smooth" and I totally didn't learn from my past experience with having a TERRIBLE habit of fighting high level monsters right from the beginning and exploring higher level areas.

Hard mode made leveling up and upgrading equipment kind of easy. However, I had a false sense of urgency that I must focus on the main quest and ignore the stupid side quests, but I have missed some important side quests and had to RESTART from the beginning after I reached Gran Soren.

Anyway, I am at the Wyrm hunt quests right now, but I decided to visit Bitterblack isle at level 40. I tried Magick Archer and even got the Frigid Finger (staff) but I had no luck getting a strong Magic bow. I reached
Gazer, the stupid piece of fucking shit. I got him to like 50% and below, and I almost killed all tentacles that were charging the beam, but the last one did not and we all died; I spent the majority of my attempts running to revive the stupid, useless pawns, and I basically can't damage the eye enough).
Next time will probably be the charm when I fully level up the vocation and get proper damaging gear (and pawns). I am aware of all the exploits concerning Assassin, Ranger and precipts+climbing+dagger with MA; I might use them because I practically killed that asshole, and there is nothing to prove (managed to survive long enough to almost kill it). BBI is really fun, and I love the level design and shortcuts; such a refreshing (and sad) experience after DkS3's crappy DLC.

Starting with Fighter and Warrior might have hurt my stat growth, but I am doing well; I don't get one-shot killed as much as when I started the game (they do happen against bosses A LOT though). As a side note, I tried fighting the
three dragons combo (Wyrm+Wyvern+Drake/Dick) by having the beast-luring incense by mistake. It wasn't pretty and I removed the incense immediately afterwards.



Yup. Even worse is the infinite carry load mod. Completely game-breaking. Oh hey carry an infinite amount of curatives and exploding arrows, how could that possibly break the game balance? e_e

Luap -- just stop picking up every random crap you find or transfer them to your pawns. Problem solved without cheating.

Make materials and equipment really light? They don't help in battle at all; you just grab them and deposit them in your storage. I agree about regarding infinite curatives and the traveling time with infinite sprint mod though. The stupid inventory system doesn't help as well; I wish there were hotkeys or easier commands to make pawns grab items instantly.
 
I finally started playing as a caster vocation -- figured I'd start with the Mage and level it to 9 for the Attunement augment. Yeesh, I'm not enjoying it so far. Fast enemies like hellhounds and goblin packs are an absolute nightmare.

Also, whoever designed the From Different Sky 14 quest is a sadist who deserves to be put in jail. I'm glad I looked it up on YouTube because there's no way in hell I would have ever found that Badge of Vows.

I love equipping my Ranger pawn with Great Gamble. I see her charging a shot, then suddenly a bright flash of light and the monster has two or three lifebars instantly knocked off.

Yeah I found a great Ranger pawn in the rift who uses GG really well. As soon as I see her charging it I make sure to protect her.
 
Good to know. I figured there would be some giant reward after collecting all of the badges. What a waste of time lol.

I'm level 71 now -- am I ready for BBI? I've collected 77 wakestones from Everfall so I can start NG+ anytime too. For now I've just been wandering around doing quests, but all that's left at this point are the most boring ones like killing rabbits.
 

Unai

Member
Good to know. I figured there would be some giant reward after collecting all of the badges. What a waste of time lol.

I'm level 71 now -- am I ready for BBI? I've collected 77 wakestones from Everfall so I can start NG+ anytime too. For now I've just been wandering around doing quests, but all that's left at this point are the most boring ones like killing rabbits.

You were ready tons of levels ago hahaha. From a story point of view is better if you finish the game, start new game+ and go to BBI as soon as possible because there are some spoilers there about the ending there.
 

Kilrogg

paid requisite penance
You're not ready until you and all your pawns are level 200, and you've rank-10'd every single vocation. Obviously
 
Good to know. I figured there would be some giant reward after collecting all of the badges. What a waste of time lol.

I'm level 71 now -- am I ready for BBI? I've collected 77 wakestones from Everfall so I can start NG+ anytime too. For now I've just been wandering around doing quests, but all that's left at this point are the most boring ones like killing rabbits.

All that the badges are good for is selling. I think I collected all of them when I played through it, including the ones you can miss, such as the one during the quest were
Grigori kills the cult guy (was he called Elysium maybe?)
.

You're definitely ready to at least start BBI now, but you might struggle with some of the later areas. If you've not fully completed the Everfall, some of the BBI gear will help you out.

However, I'd recommend you go through NG+, or at least start it, before you play through BBI.
 
Every time I see a loli pawn

You were ready tons of levels ago hahaha. From a story point of view is better if you finish the game, start new game+ and go to BBI as soon as possible because there are some spoilers there about the ending there.
All that the badges are good for is selling. I think I collected all of them when I played through it, including the ones you can miss, such as the one during the quest were
Grigori kills the cult guy (was he called Elysium maybe?)
.

You're definitely ready to at least start BBI now, but you might struggle with some of the later areas. If you've not fully completed the Everfall, some of the BBI gear will help you out.

However, I'd recommend you go through NG+, or at least start it, before you play through BBI.

Thank you for the info. Time to start NG+!
 
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