Dragon's Dogma: Secrets, Tips and Things to Do

If you've had aught to do with Dragon's Dogma, you'll know that "aught" is a very special word. NPCs use it all the time, generally in that highly arch, enthusiastic tone which says: "check me out, I was localised with the aid of a GSCE in Theatre Studies". This article should be titled "Aught to do in Dragon's Dogma", really. Only "aught" isn't very search-friendly.

Welcome to the first of what we're hoping will be many, many OXM tips and secrets round-ups, powered by you, the community. The editorial rationale is thus: tips and secrets round-ups take ages (see also: yonks) to produce, but are generally worth reading, so let's trick those poor trusting fools who visit the site into writing them for us. Ha ha ha! Wait, did I just type that out loud?

If you'd like to contribute to future round-ups, pop an Easter egg, amusing glitch-related anecdote, button combination or what-have-you in this forum thread. You can also post in a thread for a specific game, but we'll be less likely to notice. Onward!

1. Splash the cash (Matt)

As soon as you arrive in Gran Soren, jump into the fountain in the square. Climb onto the centre of the feature, and you'll find a secret cache of gold coins - perfect for buying that first decent weapon.

2. Forging ahead (SidTheSloth)

The guy at the Black Cat and his forgeries are a great way of keeping hold of some decent in-game objects - a lot of people have been taking advantage (great for completing collect quests or gathering enhancement materials) but not for arguably the most useful item which comes during the main quest late on.

At some point you'll be asked by someone of importance to retrieve something that's been stolen. If you or your pawn are in any way magically inclined it would be a great idea to forge that item once retrieved and keep the original in your inventory - you don't have to equip it. By doing this you'll enjoy a permanent reduction on cast time for all magic skills (includes Magick Archers apparently).

3. Piggy in the middle (Maverick_McCool)

You can throw pigs at your pawn and they will play catch with you, also the Strider technique "Hundred Kisses" works while climbing beasts and by the time you hit Level 30ish, will absolutely destroy them in seconds.

4. Best of both worlds (Msbhvn)

Don't just stick to one Vocation for yourself or your main pawn, keep switching because there are skills in common and you can choose from all the Augments you've unlocked. If you stick to Mage or Sorcerer, you'll get killed quickly. Stick to Fighter or Warrior and magic will devastate you. Stick to Strider or Ranger and everyone will hate you for being an overpowered ranged attack spammer... kidding! Also, don't make your pawn look like a naked twelve year old girl, it's creepy!

5. Know your potions (Msbhvn)

The Elixir items from Jonathan (the man standing by the rift stone at the Encampment) are invaluable for changing your pawn's inclination. Look at Status in the pause menu, and then under Profile for your main pawn. Guardian isn't very useful for Fighters and Warriors, use either Scather or Challenger Elixirs to make them more aggressive in combat.

6. Maelstrom Magic (Matt)

It's worth maxing out the Sorcerer class just to get your hands on the Maelstrom spell. Summon a whirlwind the size of a house,and watch it hurl everybody within fifty yards into the sky for the next 15 seconds.

7. Share the love (Ed)

I'm a relative stripling in the Dogmatic Arts, but one thing that's massively clear already is just how much fun you can have outfitting, sharing and comparing Pawns with other users. Head to the forum and check out Grummy's thread for the best specimens the OXM community can muster. They're all massively levelled-up by now, of course, so you'll need plenty of Rift Crystals. (Update: Bezza points out that Xbox Live Friends don't have to pay to use one another's Pawns.)

8. Stock up on meat (Grummy)

For fairly easy money when you first reach Gran Soren, go around all the fields outside of it, leading as far as the road to the mines and the bridge across the river and find all the oxen and kill them all, they'll drop an average of one beast steak each. Keep those beast steaks in your inventory and in time they will go sour (the first stage in them going off), at this point, get to any inn you can, or if you find one of the rest camps, use on of the guards there and dump them in your storage. Everything in your storage stays the way it was when you put it in there. All food types will degrade and become 'sour' at some point, and when they do, they are at their most valuable. The beast steaks can sell for a few thousand gold each, all for the simple job of slaughtering some oxen and carrying them around a bit.