A Dragon’s Dogma 2 disease, Dragonsplague, is killing NPC pawns

Know the signs before it’s too late.

In the early days of World of Warcraft, a digital plague spread across the lands of Azeroth. Called the Corrupted Blood Incident, this infection spread to players across all servers and killed scores of characters as it went. So famous was the blood plague that it led to actual, real-world studies on transmission. We now face a similar virulent disease in Dragon's Dogma 2 called the Dragonsplague. Infecting the game's NPC pawns, the Dragonsplague also runs a real risk of corrupting your save.

Alas, there's no microtransaction to fix this problem.

<em>Credit: Capcom</em>
Credit: Capcom

Let's look at what this disease is, how an NPC gets it, and what to do if you see Dragon COVID coming.

Watch out for the red eyes!

What is Dragonsplague in Dragon's Dogma 2?

Contracted when fighting a dragon or drake, the Dragon's Dogma 2 Dragonsplague is a malady that, if left unchecked, will spread to other pawns and destroy your entire village. Worse yet, your own pawns can pick up Dragonsplague if you hire a pawn from another world that has the disease. Whoops.

If left to its own devices, the plague eventually transforms the pawn into an exploding shadow demon. While this sounds rad, it can permanently kill quest givers and story-centric characters. You can even be removed from progressing the main story if you let this happen.

So, know the signs!

Can Dragonsplague be cured?

Alas, the Dragon's Dogma 2 Dragonsplague cannot be cured by any in-game item. Your only option is to delete the pawn or kill them--either in combat or by your own hand. Dragonsplague is nefarious, as it also doesn't appear as a status on the pawn's character sheet. The biggest telltale sign is glowing, red eyes on the pawn in question. However, be careful as this same eye color is a choice in character creation.

The disease festers over in-game days, so avoid skipping time if you think you're dealing with an infection. On one hand, it sucks that this is a potential game-killing issue. After all, there is no save-scumming in Dragon's Dogma 2, which means that the Dragonsplague can potentially be a ticking time bomb. However, this is very much in the spirit of classic RPGs and it's hard to not think this is kind of rad.

Maybe someone will write a paper about this one day.

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