6 Things To Do First in Dragon’s Dogma 2

Diving into the vast world of Dragon’s Dogma 2 can be intimidating, to say the least. Capcom’s follow-up to the beloved 2012 RPG doesn’t hold your hand at all, dropping your amnesia-riddled Arisen into a world where nothing is made especially clear. We’re here to help, with a handy list of things to do first in Dragon’s Dogma 2.

Best Starting Activities in Dragon’s Dogma 2

Below, we’ll list six things to do before you really sink your teeth into Dragon’s Dogma 2. They’ll help you understand the game’s key mechanics, as well as dipping your toes into the lore and narrative that’ll take up dozens of hours once you get hooked!

Create Your Own Character

Once you’ve watched the opening cutscenes to outline your Arisen’s quest to reclaim their rightful throne, it’s time to create that character for yourself. Released as a fun bonus prior to the game’s full launch, Dragon’s Dogma 2’s suite of customization options has been praised across the board, both for its pawns and Arisen.

Think of a real-life person, and the chances are you can make them your playable character in the game. You’ll need plenty of patience and character creator skills, but anything’s possible. From Kratos to Geralt of Rivia, the only limit is your imagination.

If you’re like me, though, you’ll simply switch out to a funky hairstyle and proceed onto the following steps to get into the action as fast as possible!

Choose Your Vocation

Next, you need to decide how you want your Arisen to act in combat. Like most fantasy RPGs, you can pick from a number of classes, which are called Vocations in Dragon’s Dogma 2. At the start of the game there are four to choose from, which are as follows:

You can freely change between Vocations once you’ve started the main quest, and even unlock a few more by following optional quest paths. That said, the longer you stick with a Vocation the further you can level it up throughout the game, so it’s wise to pick one and stay loyal to it.

Get Started With the Main Quest

With your character fully set up, it’s time to get through the first few quests. In fact, Dragon’s Dogma 2 doesn’t properly let you loose in the open world until you’ve played for a few hours, once you’re on the route to the capital city of Vernworth.

By this point, you’ll have escaped from a mine where you’re held captive, linked up with some soldiers, and even fought a cyclops. It gets pretty eventful, so you’re bound to be sucked into the narrative by the time Dragon’s Dogma 2 finally lets you roam around.

Eventually, you can either head to Vernworth with the troupe of soldiers or make your own way there. If you opt for the latter choice, you can freely roam the nearby areas!

Head to Vernworth

Of course, after a little while of messing around in the open world you’ll want to get to Vernworth. It’s the first major settlement you encounter the game, a sprawling city full of NPCs to interact with and places to see.

Some of the game’s most exciting early quests take place here, from attending a masquerade party to spying on the Queen’s private quarters to unravel a mystery plot. Alongside that, Vernworth is the first place you can properly buy new weapons and armor. It’s best to kit out your Arisen to prepare for tougher combat.

Find Your First Home

Just like Baldur’s Gate 3, the only way to fully replenish health and do away with status effects is to rest. Once you suffer from permanent HP Loss, you can’t get back to 100% HP until you do so. You can always fork out money to pay for a room at an inn. However, it’s preferable (and cheaper in the long run) to find a home for yourself. Even better, homes have storage chests to leave behind anything you don’t need.

Fortunately, speaking to an NPC named Mildred in Vernworth opens up a quest called A Place to Call Home. She goes away for a week and leaves you the sole tenant of her property. This lets you use it as a home for seven days. That way, you can sample the features of owning a property to decide whether to buy one or not.

Use an Oxcart

Last of all, you’ll want to become familiar with Dragon’s Dogma 2’s oxcart mechanic fast. It’s no secret that the game has no form of fast travel or mounts to make your traversal faster. Instead you have to rely on oxcarts. These travel to pre-determined destinations a few times a day for a small fee.

The catch: you could well be ambushed by enemies midway through an oxcart journey. In those cases, you’re forced to disembark. Then you must deal with the threat, and get back on to doze off and reach your destination. When you start getting quests across the map, you’ll want to become familiar with oxcart routes and stations to get around fast.

Those are all the things you should do first in Dragon’s Dogma 2! For more on the game, check out how to get Ferrystones and how to enter Myrddin’s home. We’ve also got a guide on how to revive dead characters.