Dragon’s Dogma 2 Difficulty Explained, How Does It Work?

You'll be surprised to know that difficulty works differently in Dragon's Dogma 2 and there are no settings to tweak.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 returns you to the sprawling world of danger and epic battles. However, unlike traditional games, this game differs regarding pre-set difficulty levels. It scales difficulty according to how you play. But this can be difficult to understand for the uninitiated. Fear not, Arisen, as this guide will help you determine whether it caters to your preferred playing style.

The lack of one-shot kills from enemies suggests a forgiving experience compared to the original game; the open-world environment poses a different challenge. This guide will give you detailed information on difficulty settings in Dragon’s Dogma 2.

Can you choose difficulty settings in Dragon’s Dogma 2?

You will be surprised to know that Dragon’s Dogma 2 does not have a difficulty setting like traditional RPGs. Instead, it uses a Dynamic Difficulty System. When you start and play the game, it considers how you play it, your equipment, and even your pawns.

It scales your experience based on these factors and gives you a challenge you can overcome but won’t be overwhelmed most of the time. However, know that it is still difficult for new players but easy for average to experienced gamers.

How to Tweak Dynamic Difficulty Setting?

If you find this setting difficult to understand, you must build an army of balanced pawns, including a support Mage using different Vocations. These help a great deal in fighting combats and taking down stronger enemies, making the game easier for you. But if the game is too easy for you and you wish to make it more challenging, you can skip building a team of pawns for help or skip some equipment upgrades.

This way, when you encounter bosses, the difficulty will become greater. You can also try some mods when they become available to up the challenge of the game. At the time of writing this article, there aren’t any mods to tweak the combat system or increase difficulty, but you can be sure that there might be some down the line. Capcom itself may release a hard mode as a patch update or as a DLC.

You can also try an NG+ run but use only basic equipment throughout this playthrough. As you may expect, the game ports all of your gear from your previous run to the NG+ run. The enemies are tougher but the game balances it out with allowing you to use your previously upgraded gear. But to make matters more challenging, you can forgo this step and use basic equipment to increase the difficulty and make things harder.

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Namra is a gaming enthusiast and guides writer, always looking to play AAA titles on day one, while her favorites being Last of Us, Uncharted series, Spiderman, Final Fantasy, and Alan Wake.