After two years of near-silence, Dragon’s Dogma 2 is getting a new adventure with Dark Arisen. And, it’s a substantial expansion at that, bringing a frozen new region, challenging dungeons, new companions, and a host of systems designed to give you plenty of reasons to return to Vermund. While the DLC is clearly aimed at players who have already invested considerable time with the base game, it also introduces new approaches to vocations and buildcrafting. So, from the dangers of Norgan to the mysterious Relics scattered throughout Lost Rites, here are fifteen things you need to know about Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen.
Norgan is a Brand-New Endgame Region
Undoubtedly, Dark Arisen’s biggest addition is Norgan, an icy realm in the northern reaches of the Vermund Kingdom. While it’s purportedly around a quarter of the size of Dragon’s Dogma 2’s original map, Norgan is designed with more verticality, making its smaller map size feel denser in comparison. And, as for the region’s subzero climate, well, this is more than aesthetic. The cold itself implicates gameplay, with environmental hazards like whiteout blizzards and the new Chilled status effect – more on Chilled’s impact later.
New Companions Join the Adventure
Accompanying your investigation into an undying Fallen Dragon is a new companion named Eir, whom not much is known save for her unyielding desire to pursue the ruinous dragon. She, however, isn’t the only new companion. Freki is a direwolf that can be tamed to subsequently assist with a range of useful services, from locating hidden loot and retrieving items, to even acting as a guide. Together, the pair will give exploration a wholly different flavour from the base game’s Pawn-led expeditions.
The Expansion Brings Twelve High-Difficulty Dungeons
Dark Arisen introduces twelve challenging dungeons known as the Lost Rites. And, crucially, these aren’t all confined to Norgan. This means that you’ve reason to revisit areas of the original game, rather than focus all your efforts in the northernmost corner of the map. Even if you’ve already fully explored the Vermund Kingdom, Lost Rites should provide fresh challenges away from Norgan’s frigid temperatures.
Lost Rites Can Be Tackled Alongside Norgan’s Main Narrative
The Lost Rites aren’t intended to be a completely separate activity from the expansion’s main campaign. Instead, you’ll move between challenges, alternating the frozen region and the dungeons scattered across the world. Again, their challenge is said to be high, so you’ll want to grind out an appropriate level before taking one on. There’s also an extra incentive lurking within: elite enemies. Defeating these will guarantee a Relic drop, making Lost Rites an important part of the expansion’s progression loop.
Relics Contain Powerful New Equipment
Relics are another significant addition coming to Dark Arisen. Found throughout the expansion’s challenging content – defeating regional bosses, finding hidden locations, and so on – these mysterious items must be appraised to reveal powerful weapons, armour, and equipment. Also, you’ll note Relics are unidentifiable loot that are needed to be purified to become usable.
Relics Could Completely Change Buildcrafting
And not strictly for the better. Now, there is strong appeal in the new Relics system in that they won’t just yield more powerful versions of equipment you already have. No, Relic weapons, armour, and other items can introduce unique skills to significantly alter how particular builds function. However, their stats are randomised, adding potential for mass-grinding. Appraising Relics requires Rift Crystals, with collectable Giant Rift Crystals providing a new way to increase your RC supply alongside exchanging unwanted Relics. This could go either way: finally acquiring the perfect piece of gear might be a worthwhile reward for a lengthy pursuit, or it could lead to frustration as your inventory fills with unwanted items.
Weapon Build Slots Are Increased to Six
Dark Arisen is also set to increase the number of active weapon build slots from four to six, which should make accommodating the expansion’s new Relic equipment decidedly more viable. See, rather than constantly rebuilding your loadout, you can experiment with different loadouts that are influenced by your acquired Relic items before deciding if they’re for you or not. There is one important catch though: Relic equipment can’t be upgraded like conventional gear. You’ll need to find a higher-tier equivalent if you want to equip an improved version.
The Possibilities are Expanded Across Existing Vocations
Relic weapons can also augment the behaviour of core vocation skills, opening up previously impossible archetypes for familiar classes. What’s more, the range of vocations available are receiving upgraded skills in the expansion, and while there are too many individual additions to cover here, the broader point is that Dark Arisen won’t push you to abandon your favourite vocation for something new.
You Don’t Need to Finish the Main Campaign
To step into Dark Arisen, you won’t need to have finished Dragon’s Dogma 2’s main story. The expansion, it seems, can be accessed through Brandt in Vernworth relatively early in the game. That said, and as we’ve already alluded to, the expansion is aimed at experienced players, with level forty recommended before making the journey up north. In other words: the story requirement is relatively light, with the difficulty providing the truer barrier to entry.
Hard Mode is Coming After Launch
Despite all this talk of increased difficulty, Dark Arisen is still planning an additional hard mode, although this is expected as a post-DLC-launch update. Finer details on the mode’s implementation aren’t yet available, but it’s rumoured to be aimed at extremely high-level players. This could make it something meaningful for those who have already exhausted what the base game plus expansion has to offer without forcing them to re-tread the same experience from the beginning.
Norgan Gets Harder as You Progress
Interestingly, Norgan won’t be a region where every encounter has a fixed difficulty. Instead, the expansion is designed to progressively increase the challenge to counteract your advance, with danger escalating alongside your character. As we’ve already mentioned, the cold grows into a more persistent threat too. The Chilled status, for instance, gradually drains your stamina, making combat, exploration, and navigation alike more difficult.
New Customisation and Transmog Options
Dark Arisen will also give you more ways for your Arisen and Pawns to look. New hairstyles and additional customisations lead the additional ways to inject more personality to your characters. Elsewhere, transmog functionality allows you to attach the stats of one piece of equipment to a separate wardrobe item. Now, you’ll be able to customise your appearance without sacrificing the gameplay benefits.
PS5 and Xbox Series X Get a 60fps Mode
A 60fps performance mode is now available for PS5 and Xbox Series X players. Released in early September as part of the colossal Title Update 3.2, now even previously laggy combat encounters feel more responsive. If you’re playing on PS5 Pro, September’s patch unlocks extra performance via Sony’s PSSR upscaling tech. However, if you’re playing on Xbox Series S, you won’t be able to use the 60fps performance mode.
Urban Performance Has Been Improved
Technical additions aren’t limited to performance mode either, with engine-level optimisation improving how the game runs across the board. The devs, however, have focused heavily on fixing the experience in busier urban areas. See, bustling settlements in Dragon’s Dogma 2 are plagued by middling performance, so hopefully these improvements iron them out.
PC Requirements Have Been Updated
PC players should take note of the game’s updated system requirements as, because of the aforesaid engine optimisations, the developer has actually lowered the minimum requirements while raising performance targets from 30fps to 45-60fps. The new minimum specs include an Intel Core i5-8500 or AMD Ryzen 5 3500 CPU, downgraded from an i5-10600 and Ryzen 5 3600. GPU-wise, you’ll need an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 or AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT at a minimum, with an RTX 2070 Super or RX 6600 XT recommended. Previously, the developer advised you’d need an RTX 2080 or RX 6700.
