Dragon's Dogma 2's Dragonsplague Pawn affliction can wipe out an entire town

Dragon's Dogma 2 is full of surprises, and players are still working to discover all of them. Chief of interest at the moment is the curious Dragonsplague affliction that can be acquired by Pawns – and cause the loss of an entire town in one evening.

Players believe Dragonsplague can be contracted by Pawns after they fight against a dragon – but the condition can also be passed between Pawns, too.

If ignored, the consequences can be “devastating”, Capcom warns. The official Dragon's Dogma 2 website describes Dragonsplague as a “contagious disease-like condition that infects pawns as they travel between worlds.”

Capcom explains that, “Rather than being weakened, Pawns with the disease are said to display remarkable performance, and to become conspicuously bold in their speech and behavior. According to folklore, when the symptoms of Dragonsplague reach a terminal stage, it will result in devastating calamity, but the veracity of those claims is unclear”.

While I personally have not experienced Dragonsplague during my time with Dragon's Dogma 2, there's plenty of video evidence from players who have seen it spread. And that devastating calamity Capcom alluded to? Well, if you have a Pawn with the Dragonsplague condition in your party and you don't help them in a timely manner, they will transform into some kind of demonic ghost dragon during a cutscene as you sleep.

This in itself is pretty unusual, it has to be said, but hey, it's Dragon's Dogma 2. I have seen plenty of unusual things during my 10 or so hours so far.

After that, things take an even more sinister turn. When the player wakes up following a Pawn's transformation, they will receive a message to say “Dragonsplague has struck”. They will then find every NPC in a town has been murdered. This includes those who give you quests required to complete the main story.

You can see just how it looks thanks to the video below.

Fortunately, while waking up to scores of bodies and a lack of progression can be quite alarming, players who have experienced Dragonsplague for themselves say that waiting for several days or so of in-game time results in a number of quest givers respawning. Others used wakestones to revive impacted NPCs.

As for what you can do for impacted Pawns, Dragonsplague cannot be removed with any known in-game consumable item. This means you will have to keep an eye out for signs of Dragonsplague (such as a red glow in thinner eyes, and a more abrasive change in attitude). When you see these signs, it is time to swap out your infected Pawn – hopefully for cure via some future method. Otherwise, the only alternative is engineering them to fail in battle before turning. It is worth noting, from what I have read this afternoon, Dragonsplague doesn't appear in the Status menu of your Pawns.

For more on the game, be sure to check Eurogamer's Dragon's Dogma 2 review, where Lewis Parker praised its “endless discoveries paired with limitless potential.”