Dragon’s Dogma 2 Pawn system explained

Dragon’s Dogma 2 proves a massive step up from its already deeply underrated predecessor, and it’s likely to get quite a lot of GOTY buzz in the many months that follow. The first thing you’ll notice about Dragon’s Dogma 2 is the updated graphics, but the true star of the show is the Pawn system.

Pawns already existed in the original, but there’s much more depth to them this time around, so let’s look into what they’re all about.

What is a Pawn in Dragon’s Dogma 2?

The Souls games are remembered for their mostly single-player campaigns where players could enlist the help of (or get attacked by) other players online. Some games copied and pasted the idea, but Dragon’s Dogma went for a fresh alternative. Dragon’s Dogma allowed players to recruit “pawns,” a specific kind of NPC that didn’t have a backstory or motivation other than to serve the main character.

In Dragon’s Dogma 2, players can create and customize one main pawn, just like they can customize their main character and recruit two more to help in their quest. They can recruit the extra pawns via Rifstone or when randomly encountering them throughout their quest.

Your personally-created pawn will be out in the cloud for other players to recruit, and the two outside pawns are ones created by other players. So, unlike Dark Souls, players don’t get to have actual players fighting by their side, but they get to make a party out of characters created by fellow players, and they’ll get to do the same with their pawn.

Players get the main pawn for free and can hire some pawns at no cost, but most will require players to pay for their service. The main pawn will level up with the player, but the hired pawns will not. Don’t grow too attached to outside pawns, as you’ll likely have to replace them with higher-level pawns as you advance in your quest. Don’t be too sorry to let them go, as they’ll always have a job with the player who made them.

I find the concept of pawns very interesting as is, but it gets even better because these pawns aren’t dummies at all.

Pawns have evolved in Dragon’s Dogma 2

Capcom stated early on that Pawns in Dragon’s Dogma 2 are smart and will learn by observing the actions of players whose parties they join.

The game hasn’t been out for long, so it’s hard to point out just how long they can keep on learning new stuff, but players have already made some interesting discoveries regarding the Pawn’s ability to adapt to the player.

You can now inspire your pawns to become noble knights or go full goblin mode in Dragon’s Dogma 2 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.