You may have noticed while playing Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen that you’ve leveled up several times but your skills have remained the same. You’ve checked all of your menus, and yet there is nothing there to increase your power or make your methods of attack a bit fancier. It turns out that in order to upgrade your character’s and main Pawn’s abilities you’ll need to visit an inn such as the Union Inn in Gran Soren. When you talk to the proprietor of the fine establishment you will have the option to both ‘Learn’ and ‘Set’ skills.
As you level up you will earn Discipline Points (DCP). These are used to purchase skills within a Vocation. There are two ways to unlock skills for purchase. One is by purchasing the lower level version of a skill. This will unlock a corresponding upgrade denoted by a number of stars. The more stars, the more expensive. The other way is to rank up that specific Vocation. You can level up and change your Vocation at an inn as you please. But earning DCP while in a specific Vocation will level up that particular class, leading to many more skills. So remember, your overall level doesn’t really matter, it’s more your Vocation rank that you should pay attention to.
There are three main types of skills for you to learn: Core, Active, and Augments. Each one has a different purpose out in the field:
- Core Skills – These are Vocation specific and change how your character performs certain actions such as attacks. These add combos to your arsenal that don’t count as special moves meaning they won’t waste your resources. Some examples are being able to notch a bow quicker meaning you can fire more shots, faster, or adding a double jump to your abilities.
- Active Skills – These use your resources and are reserved for attacks, buffs, and debuffs. Special combos, large spells, healing, elemental buffs, status changing moves, and more are relegated to Active skills. The skills you can purchase are determined by the weapons you have equipped. So a set for your primary and a set for your secondary.
- Augments – Augments add benefits to your character that fit their Vocation such as more stamina for Striders or quicker escapes for Fighters. While these tend to be more on the expensive side, they tend to give you huge advantages out in the field which is always helpful considering how dangerous the world is.
Keep in mind that you must set skills after learning them. Knowing a skill does not mean you have access to it. You can only equip a limited amount of each. Three per each weapon type, along with a varying amount of Core and Augment skills depending on your Vocation and rank.
Make sure to coordinate your skills with those of your party to make sure you have all situations covered and you’ll be set for the world of Gransys. It’s a cruel world but you’ve just learned some ways to bend it to your will.
