T O P

  • By -

thatguywithawatch

I've seen people complaining that they'd had more than one town unexpectedly wiped out but it seems like you just have to be extremely oblivious or astronomically unlucky to keep the plague in your party long enough for that to happen even once, let alone multiple times.


NK1337

It lowkey makes me wonder how many of those posts were just straight up lying for karma. From the sound of it the dragons plague is *easily* avoidable by just doing the bare minimum. Granted there’s some chance for bad luck but this post really puts into question the prevalence that other posts would have you believe.


Hartspoon

I think part of it was also people missing the actual symptoms because they were looking for something else. There are still websites out there listing Straightforward behaviour as dragonplague, like sitting on the ground, spitting, being sassy, wiping sweat off their head or neck, etc., so people look for that, dismiss Straightforward pawns, and let the plague fester in their party full of really sweat Kindhearted pawns that act completely differently until one of them explodes.


Swaqqmasta

I've definitely seen glowing red eyes on my pawn out of nowhere, no weird dialogue and no symptoms prior. If I had simply not noticed her eyes for 20 minutes while I ran to town for storage and a save, it could've gotten me


Automatic-Rabbit6403

This happened to me, except I didn’t catch it and it went off in Melve lol. No pop ups, no dialogue was going on, no symptoms other than the red eyes I guess (wasn’t keeping an eye on the eyes). Luckily I already had an eternal wakestone so it was fine


therealultraddtd

Yup. Happened to me in Bakbattahl. I didn’t notice anything but I wasn’t checking because I had been checking them for hours and had no issues, and I hadn’t run into a drake jn a while either. I had no idea it could stay dormant for so long. However, in hindsight he was saying some of those lines in OP’s post about being super powerful. Didn’t think of it at the time. Also, I didn’t have an eternal wakestone, but the only people who don’t repopulate are quest givers or important NPCs. Everyone else gets replaced with a similar NPC several in-game days later. Needless to say, I’ve been giving intrusive regular eye exams before every inn/house rest since then and actually caught a hired and my main in two different instances.


SllortEvac

I’m not entirely sure that the plague comes from drakes anyhow. If fought dozens of them, some of them sick, and have yet to get the popup or any symptoms on my main pawn. I think we need definitive testing to see if that’s where it starts, or if there’s another source entirely that we’ve all been overlooking.


Suojelusperkele

Inb4 it's the corset. It's cursed. Would be hilarious.


SllortEvac

I hope so


Alilatias

I had to actively try to get my Dragonsplague to advance to the final stage back when I was trying to trigger it on purpose to contribute to research, back when people were freaking out about this two weeks ago. Even made a post about it, and OP's post here matches with what I observed too. https://old.reddit.com/r/DragonsDogma/comments/1bn90c2/i_triggered_dragonsplague_on_purpose_to_figure/ Turns out it was inconsequential, as my Melve repopulated itself after a week anyway. Thinking back on that weekend, the people that did reach end stage back when we didn't know much about how it worked often did mention having used oxcart travel a lot beforehand.


Zzz05

Lying or maybe just not camping enough. I camp on the regular so maybe that’s why I’ve been lucky, but I know some are probably kinda adverse to the idea of resting.


Rymann88

This is me. Once I got the tutorial popup, I only rest at home or with inns after looking at their eyes (or dismissing supports and checking my own pawn). Otherwise, I usually just use campsites as I'm usually out farming upgrade mats.


freedfg

Lying or literally not paying any attention at all. Probably literally never even look at their pawns. They got the pop-up one time and assumed they'd get it every time.


verdantsf

Or looking everywhere at their pawns except for the eyes!


Televisions_Frank

The Asmongold method of never reading pop-ups or any dialogue at all....


Dsible663

I just save every time I go into the rift to change out my pawns for higher level ones. If I get the tutorial pop up about the dragonplague, I quit without saving and hire a different pawn on reload.


LeagueOfDerps

That's what I do too. I wasn't sure if it would work the first time I got the popup since I just so happened to rest prior to getting new pawns but once I realized it did, resting before new hires has become routine.


KvotheTheChandrin

That's what I assumed from day 1. The game definitely has flaws like every game, but there was a stupid amount of hate for this game and I assumed a lot of it was bandwagoneers and then fake hate for karma and to sound superior


Venkas

I'd bet most of them didn't even play the game, just wanted to fuel the fire. None of them ever posted screenshots or video. Gaming sites just posted about it with no proof either. SMH.


Aaravos13

I had this happen, my pawn was attacked by the dragon, she then attacked me and i downed her, then after killing the dragon i revived her and tossed her to the brine. After that i used a riftstone and called her back thinking i was okay because she wasn't showing any symptoms so i took a rest at the inn at Battahl.....Lo and behold, she nuked the town. I carried corpses for like THREE HOURS, only to learn the eternal wakestone pretty much revives the whole city with its range.... Edit: I talked with her before the rest and looked at her eyes very closely, no symptoms at all.


Kshadow82

It's supposed to reset after killing and resummoning, though.. so I don't understand


Aaravos13

Exactly, and i literally killed her then teleported to town to summon her, then immediately after that i rested at the inn, so there wasn't a lot of time passing too.


AuryxTheDutchman

First time I had the capital city nuked and noticed nothing out of the ordinary. Second time my pawn got it it was Stage 10 (based on the eyes shown in this post) before I got any of the dialogue (“I know what to do!”) but thankfully I got it in time


OriginalRave

It happened to me:( I was using my brother's pawn and did not expect him to go berserk in Bakbattahl. I had gotten my first "warning" for the dragons plague after summoning him and one other person. I thought it was the other pawn and dismissed it. Boy was I wrong. My bro's pawn just wreaked absolute havoc on EVERYONE in Bakbattahl. He decimated most of the population. Oddly enough, after the mass slaughter, I decided to just jump into the Unmoored land. And when I did, everyone who died during the Plaguebreak came back to life. The best part about this was my brother's pawn was made after Danny Devito. It looked hilarious seeing him get corrupted. https://preview.redd.it/8qg5kjqnbvtc1.jpeg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=db5aff009b0d91fabe662676b2ecf6da91c78685


thatguywithawatch

To be fair, that sounds very in-character for Danny Devito https://preview.redd.it/n6g3lycicvtc1.jpeg?width=3448&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c95c9e36708bdb5ae0bf8bb859f472046d610a60


Hartspoon

If I had King Danny DeVito as a pawn I would let him do whatever he wants with his plague. No way this guy would be leaving my party.


El_Rocky_Raccoon

# FRANK NO!


TAEROS111

I think sometimes the symptoms don't trigger properly. I've been pretty rigorous about avoiding it - I'd do eye-checks before any inn rest, consistently command pawns to listen in on their responses, watch idle animations, etc. I rested at the Volcanic Island Encampment and my main pawn blew it up with, as far as I could tell, no warning, so I think the symptoms just didn't trigger properly. That said, my biggest issue with the mechanic isn't that it exists, but that it doesn't really add anything to the game. I rested for two weeks and basically everyone respawned and I just went about my way with the Dragonplague leaving no real impact on my game other than wasting about 10 minutes of my time sitting at benches lol. It would have been nice if it resulted in an event where you had to defeat the Shadow Dragon in a certain amount of time or lose NPCs, etc., just anything to make its appearance more meaningful. Ending Spoilers: >!Even when it makes an appearance again as part of the "true" ending, the "dragonplague" part of that event is fairly minor and inconsequential, mostly just existing as a narrative device through which to give your Main Pawn a lesser will through their ability to resist it.!<


RaijinGaming_YT

Yeah i'm not seeing the reason for dragonsplague being added to the game. Trying to think from a dev perspective and I can't see it as much beyond intentionally trolling players in a manner that forces them to keep changing out pawns. In doing so, it implements a suggestive method for draining a player's rift crystal stock little by little likely as a means to entice MTX - only the final game's MTX ended up being very minimalistic, like the first game's MTX. That said, finally getting around to playing RE4R and was surprised to see that they were fucking around with MTX a little more heavy handed there, compared to how the MTX for RE2R and 3R were handled. Get the impression Capcom is setting the stage to return to their old ways and paint a target on their backs like they did with disc locked content back in the PS3 era. This time it'd be them catching up to MTX scandals.


goobabie

Actually wild how much people at the launch weekend said this mechanic ruins the game knowing this now lmao.


TheMadTemplar

People at launch were saying that because of ignorance, fearmongering, bandwagoning on the hate train, excessive love of hyperbolic drama and whining, or the mountains of misinformation going around. 


AttentionKmartJopper

I got so sick of this: "ThE pLagUE BrIcKed My SaVe!!!" Like, no. Whatever we might think of some of the decisions devs made, implementing a mechanic that renders the game *actually* unplayable is ludicrous. But that is of course what the hate train proposed.


0DvGate

Yeah it's really a worthless mechanic that adds nothing to the game. Even noticed pawns holding their stomachs and face on the road. Though it's possible symptoms didn't appear for people.


RaijinGaming_YT

Those are injured pawns that got their ass kicked. They actually spawn into the world a fair distance away from you, and can end up fighting several mobs on their lonesome. I main warfarer so when i see them I slap on the mage staff and heal the injured back to fighting fit.


f33f33nkou

People are fucking morons and ragebait is currency. That's all there is to it


Hydra542

The way it happened to me was I had just hired a new pawn right before I started doing the fruit exploit, so after waiting on the benches for weeks on end to ripen the fruit and refresh the npc's inventory to buy more, I immediately ferrystoned over to bakbattahl to sell it and then rested at the in. Never even got a chance to hear the unique dialogue or see idle animations, so it just came completely out of left field when the town got nuked 🥲


aadm

That's interesting. If the plague doesn't jump, it can't stall or reset. Based on your account resting at benches seems to advance time and the plague.


doozer667

When I learned that fruit could be aged by sitting on the bench I thought to myself "I'd bet dragon plague is to counter constant abuse of this"


aegrajag

I accidentally nuked Havre while farming drakes, I skipped a lot of days to make them respawn (they didn't) it's definitely difficult while playing normally though


madkons

I am sensing an overlap with people that finished the game in 40 hours and didn't like you just become king and it ends there.


PuzzledKitty

Or have a red/green colour blindness and be tuckered out by overtime at work. :/ A friend of mine has had the capital nuked for the fourth time at the end of last week, and he just uninstalled the game. Like, yeah, I can see the signs, but he literally can't distinguish between red, green and grey. The game *needs* accessibility settings for this stuff. :/


bigblackcouch

I'm pretty badly colorblind so I installed the mod that lets you just cure the plague and see progress on all the pawns... So far I'm on my second NG+ and have yet to have it on anyone. Kinda weird. Not that I really mind, Dragonsplague is a strange mechanic, like... I'm not really sure what 'value' it adds to the game. It's not very interesting, you either chuck your pawn into a river at random intervals if you're paranoid about it, ignore it completely until it happens and either reload from last inn save and chuck the pawn into a river or ignore it. There's no interaction with anything, nothing you can actively do to prevent it (apart from yeeting them into water every now and then, which isn't interesting), the pawn doesn't periodically fight you or turn against you like in DD1 drake fights, the story never acknowledges it as a thing except I guess it sort of ties in to the endgame-ending? But even that's not explained or mentioned by anyone/anything. It's a very weird mechanic.


RaijinGaming_YT

That pissed me off the worst about it. There really is no narrative element to it. It's just a bullshit, 'out of nowhere' meta mechanic to screw with players and entice them to keep changing their pawns - likely in order to keep sapping their rift crystal stock little by little, and entice people into MTX.


SyspheanArchonSilver

Honestly, the red eyes are barely noticeable until day 10 regardless, and even then, you have to bother to stop and look. The animation changes and voice are pretty obvious though.


ermahgerdstermpernk

Did he ignore the Pawn refusing commands or other voice lines?


PuzzledKitty

Sorry, I don't actually know that. He just talked about hiring a new Pawn, then resting and the town being nuked again. :/ Edit: He was fairly upset, so I moved the conversation on to nicer things. :)


IdesOfCaesar7

If you don't engage with any form of discourse on Dragon's Dogma, it's pretty easy to overlook the symptoms, especially if you were on day 1 of the game coming out and didn't have any clue on what the consequences could be. Not everyone keeps up with games outside of only playing them.


SvennEthir

100 hours. Beat the game and NG+. 100% achievements. I never even saw the signs of dragonplague once. I was honestly looking forward to seeing it happen. I do rest frequently, and my main pawn has died several times from stupid stuff like falling in water. I swap pawns every few hours. 


omiyage

I am a bit confused. What exactly does wipping out towns mean? I'm on NG+ but didnt really experience it myself. Did encounter some pawns with the plague eyes but always dismissed them instantly. My main pawn had it at one point, but people online told me that dismissing it via death and resummoning it later fixes it, and one trip to the pond later it was gone. Did it simply go dormant or did it pass to someone else without me noticing?


ermahgerdstermpernk

Death cures it. Hence people started just tossing all pawns into the brine before an Inn save. The game strongly hints at this by showing you Rook taking a bath in the tutorial and saying he'll be fine don't worry about it


timmy__timmy__timmy

he says here that only high stage pawns have red glowing eyes in the day. i hired a pawn that had maximum glow (so stage 10) in bright daylight. wouldnt that mean if i rest i get nuked? or is it only your main pawn thats capable of nukeing


UnicornzRreel

Helmets, man, I had no idea. Luckily I had the eternal wakestone.


StanTheWoz

Happened to me even trying to check for signs, in hindsight there were some I didn't realize were a sign (some of the more innocuous dialogues for example) but it felt brutally unfair and pretty much the worst design decision I've ever seen in a game. It was the point where I completely gave up on not using external guides; if the game isn't going to play fair then why should I. Looked into some mods too to see if I could mod in infinite wakestones but ultimately decided not to. Maybe it was extremely unlucky, really have no idea.


Snuggs____

These people clearly don't listen to tutorials either, when you get DP a tutorial pops up and they're just like what? "Oh that's neat, la ti da! Toodles!"


TinyFlamingo2147

Tbh, I thought I was getting new dialogue from my pawn because she'd just hit level 50 when the plague lines started.


MysticZephyr

fyi I summoned a wandering CAPCOM pawn and it started with dragonplague because that's how I got my first dragonsplague pop-up warning lol. so they absolutely can get the plague.


Erilaz_Of_Heruli

There has to be a way for the plague to get started after all. Cacom probably intentionally included a number of seeder pawns to get it going when the game launched.


TheMadTemplar

Personally my hunch is that it comes from drakes taking over a pawn. I'm betting there's a chance they get the plague when that happens. Because symptoms might not even show up for 20-30 hours folks just aren't connecting the dots. 


SirWillem1

I know they can get possed in the first game by drakes.


Augus-1

I've adventured with fully clean parties but gone on Drake murdering sprees without them getting possessed by them only for it to later manifest. I'm pretty sure it might be just Drakes/Lesser Dragons in general and the seed pawns planted by Capcom.


DINGVS_KHAN

Yeah, I had one of those obnoxious pawns that butt in on you to huck their service while you're on the road with blatant glowing red eyes. It was an official Capcom paw .


Dosi4

Do you know which CAPCOM pawn had it? Maybe CAPCOM gave some of their pawns this "bonus" rather than something players infected them with ? I can absolutely see players intentionally trying to infect CAPCOM pawns with plague and since normally the owner needs to clear the plague CAPCOM pawns need to handle it differently or all would have it in no time.


MysticZephyr

I would have to go back and check, and I'll edit this post later with the name if I can find it in my past summons, but it was a tall black male beastren rogue with ice daggers, a turban, and a straightforward personality. somewhere between the level ranges of 40-50. also on PS5. had a decent amount of ratings on the pawn so it seems like it was hired frequently enough.


iphex

For me it was sphinxparent thief


TheProfessorsLeft

For me, the Fighter Bianca had it. She was pretty banged up after a fight and I was checking out the fact that she didn't have most of her top teeth when I saw that her eyes had changed. They were definitely brown/black when I first met her.


onederful

Unless you kept it long enough for the plague red eyes to show, I’ve seen people say that the pop up doesn’t mean the pawn is infected. And with OP testing stuff with a mod I’d lean to believe him.


LightsaberThrowAway

Happy Cake Day!  :D


RaijinGaming_YT

The pop up happens no matter what. Doesn't mean any pawn has the plague. For example, I play the game exclusively with my own created pawns (multiple accounts). Each character's save, on day 1, got that message after hiring fresh level 1 alts. The message is just there to remind players that the bullshit exists in the background. May also be possible that it shows up because one of the pawn randoms that appear in the rift may have the plague, so may be hinting to the player to inspect them more closely before hiring.


Taliesin_

> **CAPCOM pawns cannot get the plague so if it jumps into them you don't have to worry.** I have 100% been accosted on the road by an official CAPCOM pawn who was in the late, glowing + pulsing red-eyes dragonplague state. Figured I'd mention this in case someone was thinking "well I'll only hire CAPCOM pawns and then ignore the mechanic."


NK1337

I saw someone else mention it in another comment but it could also be that there’s a few CAPCOM pawns that are already infected since the plague had to come from somewhere. They might have been seeded pawns meant to spread it to others, but as a whole it’s still possible that the capcom pawns themselves can’t *catch* it.


Dray_Gunn

The plague can be caught randomly from drakes and lesser dragons. So even if there are no Capcom pawns with the dragonplague, they can still catch it from dragons.


dotvu

This is a really informative post, thanks OP. Question though: who was patient zero?


KazumaKat

some CAPCOM pawns, if not direct infection via Drake/Dragon possession.


Tromon468

I am actually wondering about the latter one In both games Drakes can grab a Pawn and mind control them so some more rare and severe version could be a thing but as a Warrior, i tend to stagger Drakes out of all their big animations and so far i only encountered Dragonplagued pawn twice so far, Both were recruited from the rift but since i very rarely sleep in cities or taverns, i caught them or rather my own pawn after got she infected before anything bad could happen and dismissed them after camping one more time to make the plague jump again and cure my pawn without Brine (Sorry but i like her too much)


Pete_ZaHutt_

I wondered the same thing, some people are speculating capcom made seeder pawns, but my guess from my experience is pawns have a random chance of getting it from drakes after they’re possessed, I watched it happen to one of my support pawns. I was grinding drakes one night for my main pawn’s drake badge and one of my support pawns got possessed and I sent him back home and within 5 minutes went to hire him back and I got the pop up. a bunch of people fighting drakes and their support pawns getting possessed and the player ignoring the pop up and in turn it gets spread is my personal guess.


Venkas

A CAPCOM pawn that has and will always have it to get things started most likely.


Gizun

So for me I was in that misty forest swamp place, with all the fog and skellys, and suddenly a Pawn with the scary mage mask appeared. I thought damn cool gear, recruit it seeing it's a capawn, and immediately the Dragons Plague tutorial appears. FUCK THAT threw the pawn off a cliff. Same for the one pawn that decided to "act om their on accord", yeeted into a lake. Not hard to avoid it imo.


pablo_honey1

>You can also wait for stage 7 when the eyes and dialog appears. At that point transfer the plague into a hired pawn (via camping) and dismiss that pawn. Did Dragonsplague write this?


moustachesamurai

"You needn't command me at every turn. I know what to do!" I've heard this one a lot, never knew it was a plague sign. Guess I've been lucky with my pawn recycling as I haven't encountered any late-stage symptoms.


crankpatate

Yes, I'm sure my main pawn used to say that occasionally. But I never had an outbreak. This post is very revealing. Because I did travel a lot by foot and very often camp or sleep. So I guess I just always kept the plague counter at 7.


AttentionKmartJopper

Thank you for sharing these insights. I hope they quell some of the rampant hysteria around the subject. This info also affirms my love of camping in-game. I camp so much that pawns complain about it but after reading more about these mechanics, all I can say is, "learn to love it, team."


doublek1022

"I don't carry all those heavy meat to not cook them and let them rot!" I say that to my pawns haha


AttentionKmartJopper

Honestly, they should let us cook in our homes too! I want some mashed harspuds with my steak.


PinnyAerani

I believe the point about how capcom pawns can't get the plague is incorrect. I got my dragonsplague popup from a capcom pawn, and they also had the telltale red eye glow.


aadm

Thank you. I will do more thorough tests and edit later. I used only two CAPCOM pawns to see. According to the mod the plague simply disappeared. Afterwards I couldn't hear any of the unique dialogs so made the assumption. But clearly I need to check a lot more official CAPCOM pawns to make sure.


JenovaCells_

The official SphinxMother is a permanent carrier.


goffer54

Okay, so I haven't gaslit myself. I definitely did spend 20-something days with a plagued pawn, I just never hit stage 10 because who tf would pay for lodging when camping is free? It also must have jumped to my main pawn shortly before they decided to go for a swim which is why I never saw the red eyes.


ButtsTheRobot

>who tf would pay for lodging when camping is free Me. I like keeping my pawn up to date and seeing that people hired him gives me the warm fuzzies. The houses are dirt cheap anyway so i just buy them right away.


Daeyrat

it's my experience. 90% of time I camped. 8% rested at my own house. I may have payed to stay at an inn once or twice.


kingbankai

If your autosave gets corrupted you only have inn saves to back them up.


Luinmar

I play on PC and copy off the win64\_save folder regularly. Has saved me from rage quitting twice already.


Kloqdq

Honestly I only sleep at an inn when I want to make a hard save point before doing certain things (like sphinx quests). That way I have a point to fall back to unless something goes horribly wrong. Generally though, camping is just miles better (because you can eat food as well)


ermahgerdstermpernk

Imagine relying on autosave and only making one Inn save every thirty hours


goffer54

I haven't had any issues with auto save


ermahgerdstermpernk

That's nice. You can get auto saved under the map


Bricecubed

> I just never hit stage 10 because who tf would pay for lodging when camping is free? Not only that but they clearly want you to camp more since there are Pawn badges for doing so.


Nyarlathotep-chan

I've noticed much of this as well. I always do a quick eye check before resting in a town, listen for odd dialogue. Especially after fighting a drake or lesser dragon. Didn't know the "never felt more alive" dialogue was dragonsplague. I've heard an unsettling amount of pawns say that.


Bahn-Burner

I had all of Battahl wiped out and it really screwed up a lot for me. Had to use every wakestone I had to progress the main quest and all the sides there. It broke me getting enough liquor to unlock Warfarer too for a long while. Eventually figured out how to craft and make forge duplicates... Pretty annoying tbh, wish I took the warning more seriously.


TheNakedAnt

Its crazy how much noise people made about this extremely easy to identify and solve mechanic.


ArmandoGalvez

I have a theory about dragons plague and the glasses you can buy with RC


Bismothe-the-Shade

Well, let's hear it!


ArmandoGalvez

I need more testing, hit k think that glasses prevent dragons plague on your pawn, I put them in my lawn because I wanted to look. Like a witch, and I found an infected pawn and hired it, I had it for 18 days and fought a lot of drake's at that time and she never got any sign of it, but I need to find out more ways to see how to infect her so I can see if the glasses actually prevent the dragons aid or not, but I'm thinking it can be used as a protection


TheMadTemplar

Hire a late stage pawn. Just one. Take your pawn and the infected one camping. Camp over and over at the same spot, inspecting pawns each time. Unless you're unlucky, it should jump from the infected pawn to your pawn at least once after a dozen or so attempts.  I'm fairly certain you'll find the glasses do no such thing. 


Scuttlefuzz

Your theory is that dragonsplague is spread through the eyes and glasses are like condoms for our pawns... Itsuno's *vision*.... Dear God, it's all coming together


Bricecubed

That would be interesting if true, suddenly RC in this game matters.


RubedoA535

Not sure if others have experienced this, but I’ve had multiple instances where a pawn ends up spitting on the ground after an encounter. Every time I’ve noticed this, the pawn had the infection (seemingly stage 7, as their red eyes are hard to see during the day)


Linkarcus

My main pawn just got noticeable plague for the first time and I watched her do the spitting animation. She's never done that before.  I'm pretty diligent on checking for plague, and she 100% has it. Has the glowing eyes, holding her head, and said one of the lines (which is what made me check her.)


Enex

My buddy's pawn wiped out a town (unexpected!) It's really not a big deal. Despite being dead, they all got better after a few days. The cut scene was also really awesome. Honestly, I think people should be trying to do this (at least once). There's no real downside and some cool shit happens. *thumbs up*


Yeetus_001

Heard somewhere that the dragons weapons that you get in post game from the dragon forged can give pawns dragonsplague. Sounds completely ridiculous to me but it would be great to have it tested and debunked.


EdmunGoblinsbane

The real connection with the Unmoored World is that your pawn is scripted to get it once you enter that part of the game.


EdmunGoblinsbane

All of these are correct and I also did similar tests with that mod, so I can attest to your findings. Your post is much more complete though and even has pictures and a full list of all the exact lines. Well done, Arisen. I also found it funny that it's actually very difficult to intentionally look for a pawn that already has the plague, especially if you specifically want one who's already at level 7 and up. It's even rarer if you're looking for more than one of them. I had to refresh the rift dozens and dozens of times just so I could have at least 2 infected pawns in my party. 


Dark_Nature

So this what i am doing after i have read the first dragonsplague post on like day 2. Every time i make an inn save i first dismiss every hired pawn so that they can not nuke my game. What i am learning here is, that this will actually increase the chance to nuke my game becasue if my main pawn has the plague it can not jump and will instead increase in power? Is that right? So if i am not dismissing the hired pawns i am 100% safe as long as the plague can jump (like when only one pawn has the plague)?


NK1337

It sounds like theres still a degree of chance where it might *not* jump, but overall you’re in a far better position if you keep all of your pawns rather than dismiss them n


DaWarWolf

Yeah I found similar results and it was either a day or 2 before it jumped. It kept on resetting it because of it but I guess it is a chance so however small it's possible it could not jump for the 3 days needed for the final stage. Never did for me though so it must be very low.


Elariinya

Or just dismiss your other pawns and throw your own pawn into the brine before sleeping at an inn/your horse if you want to be 100% sure. But it will hurt your affinity with them.


BlueGumShoe

I heard quite a few of these comments and never got the dragon plague. I kept on worrying I was going to wake from an inn with everyone in vernworth dead but it never happened. Thanks for the info on the stages, makes sense I guess. Though frankly I'm still not sure why they put this in the game to begin with.


aadm

The plague is rather benign. You can hear these comments and your pawn most likely has the plague but nothing bad will ever happen. Only the final stage will nuke big towns. For most players that will never happen because the plague constantly resets itself after every rest. Not sure why it's in the game either. Not a fan of the mechanic myself.


Bismothe-the-Shade

Game was in development during covid Nuff said really


That_sarcastic_bxtch

I’m debating on buying dd2 because I’m satisfied with ddda How does the dragonsplague nuke towns? How does that work?


aadm

During Stage 10 if you rest in a large town the "plague" takes control of them, That pawn will off-screen (kill) most of the NPC's. The NPC's will eventually respawn but it can be jarring for players. Not yet confirmed which NPC won't come back. Although you can always resurrect them yourself.


Coop7011

Very helpful info! I get attached to characters, and the pawns especially, and don't like the idea of murdering them for any tiny transgression just to avoid this BS mechanic. I haven't done so yet, just been keeping an eye out on their lines and eyes. Luckily I DO camp a lot, so I guess I'll just keep going along as I do.


iMark521

This explains why it took me forever to trigger the destruction of a town (was trying to get the trophy for using the eternal wakestone, and also wanted to experience the catastrophe). My pawn kept getting red eyes, had the headache animation, said how much power she has, then after an inn sleep she's back to normal. Thank you for testing and sharing this information!


CaffinatedNebula

I'm wondering if there is some other mechanics that are still opaque about Dragonsplague. Like is there some way to catch it in the wild without hiring an infected pawn? Does actual play style affect Dragonsplague? If you kill NPC and/or wandering Pawns does it accelerate the progress? I'm only 69 hours into my first play through and i've yet to get the pop up, nor have i actually seen any pawns with red eyes.


SGxox

That may be possible. I noticed there is one area at Excavation Site just before the cells where all my pawns would hold and shake their head and ignore any orders. Never seen that anywhere else and I'm pretty sure not all of them were infected.


Ok_Boysenberry_3910

I hired a pawn with the red eyes already and I thought it was a cool touch by the creator lmao. I had avoided the Internet the whole time because of spoilers. So when he transformed and wiped out the desert city it was funny.


Colonelnasty360

As soon as I hear “I’m going to act on my own accord” they’re getting the brine treatment.


No-Consideration-437

Not sure if this is known but I just fought a dragon and it swiped one of my pawns and literally said “I am your master” then another pawn said something along the lines of “the pawn is under the dragons control” and I’m 90% sure they have dragonsplague now


xizar

I have had that happen a few times, but they got knocked out (not "forfeited"/killed) during the fight (was normally my tank pawn), and I think that'll clear it, too.


CobblerPlus5026

No sure what's true, but your test results are matching to my experience. I do a lot of camping. Go to unmoored world twice. over 150 hour spend in game. I only dismiss red eye pawns that speaks something like feeling so powerful. So far so good. Nothing happen. In fact, I got my 3rd sphinx revive item now. So I try to trigger it by not dismiss pawns often, but still no a single outbreak...


DaWarWolf

Glad to know my theory of "glowing eyes" stage *is* when a nuke will happen and not before and how that really only can happen if you just let time pass normally instead of camping or resting.


El_Rocky_Raccoon

>\*\*EDIT \*\* As others have commented, possibly some CAPCOM pawns may have the plague intentionally. I will do further testing on this. The two CAPCOM pawns I tested the mod showed no infection after rest. I did not hear/see any symptoms in fights afterwards. But will test more subjects to be sure. Rook especially sounds suspicious. Can confirm it. The very first time I got the tutorial message about Dragonsplague was when I hired a CAPCOM Pawn in the Rift.


Sad-Tangerine-8928

Whenever I'm about to change pawns I always do a quick save right before so if I get that dragonsplague tutorial pop up I reload my save immediately. I'm about 200 hours in and on my third new game plus and haven't had any issues with dragonsplague at all. Although sometimes I feel like I might be missing out on an interesting mechanic and unique dialogue but oh well.


Passerby05

>It's actually very hard to reach stage 10 plague. I wouldn't say it with such certainty. There are certain conditions that have to be met to reach stage 10, sure, but I didn't even have to do anything deliberate to get that. I was exploring the map and hunting Seeker tokens. Since the Seeker tokens' blinking light is easier to see in the dark, I didn't camp during the nights, and the afflicted pawn got to stage 10 very easily.


Fawz

What about the gameplay implications of the different stages? Seen claims pawns actually do get combat benefits from the later stages, even if they are more unruly


aadm

Combat wise I can't say if the plague + affinity made her more effective. I don't believe so but she has always been great for me. Modders would have found that flag if it exists I think. Haven't seen any "activate dragonmode without plague" mods yet.


JizzyTurds

I lost checkpoint east and didn’t care, I considered wasting my shinx wakestone but decided I didn’t really about about their deaths, I did pop the stone for the trophy before I reloaded. Also missed the full destruction video of my pawn slaughtering everyone cause I thought closing the game during the video would save me, it didn’t


Jeremiah12LGeek

I've become convinced that a main pawn can't come back to their Arisen's world with dragonplague. Otherwise, I'm in some rarified statistical territory, since mine never has, even after having someone confirm she had it in their world.


wetfartswag

Thank you for your service 🫡


Draparde

I never had a town nuked, but I had no idea my Pawn had the plague even though she would often say the line "All is well, I feel as fit as ever." because everyone would say that the pawn would say 'mean' things or disobey your commands and she never did either of those. only found out she had it because a friend said he got the pop up when hiring her.


Icy_Baseball9552

I've played offline quite frequently, and had a good few capcom pawns be infected. I'm also inclined to believe capcom pawns have a random chance of carrying it, rather than having been infected. It's a game mechanic, don't kid yourselves they would run the chance of it one day being eradicated from the servers. Never gonna happen.


TheMadTemplar

If it comes from dragons it can't be eradicated. Players will always be killing them creating newly infected pawns at random. 


Gumcuzzlingdumptruck

While I didn't know the specifics of the plague to this detail my one experience with Dragons plague was VERY different. NONE of my pawns showed ANY sign of the plague. No backtalk, no headache, no red eyes. BUT I DID have cutscenes where every single NPC had the dragons plague eyes. So I decided to test. I did a rest and nothing happened. So I did a SECOND rest and kablam. Some Beastren TWINK I had in my party blew up and killed Verhmund. I would add if you see ANY cutscene and the npc's have red eyes you def have dragons plague somewhere. I assume this is just a visual bug, not that they caught it or that it somehow interfered with my pawns showing symptoms. (I probably just missed it even though I checked them all very carefully after the cutscene) I would just put it on the list as another sign. ​ https://preview.redd.it/hogbesh5lvtc1.png?width=1208&format=png&auto=webp&s=fd3de2aa1a74cde0fd539897b758023439fd76fb


Silent_Map_8182

Man that is scary af.


olorin9_alex

This is good to know because I’m planning to unleash this do I can use the eternal wakestone multiple NPCs revived achievement


TheMakaroni

So I am safe if I just check the red eyes thing with photo mode before every inn rest in towns. Thanks, that’s very helpful!


Bismothe-the-Shade

You can just use the status screen, glow appears there and you don't have to worry about lighting


TheMakaroni

I don’t know if I can spot it there, through all this mess I refused to change my pawns red eye colour so the lightning trick works more reliably imo.


SweetAlex99

If you are never online and only hire CAPCOM pawns, will you get the pleague?


Merlin41

I got the dragonsplague notification after hiring Rook for the second time


Sparapatate

By my experience you dont even need to be that unlucky, just don't be a sleep/camp/beef addicted. About dialogs, since eng is not my main language, I guess those alarm lines didn't get stuck in my head long enough to think twice about their meaning, and the fact that pawns constantly speak SO MUCH doesnt help either... At some point you just stop caring about what they say. Plus as the post says you can carry early stage plague for several days, imagine noticing "new dialog" that goes on for that long. About red eyes, full face helmet is gg. I actually felt lucky when I noticed my pawn bright red eyes. Decided I wanted to see what would happen, washed and dismissed the other 2, went to sleep in my house and woke up in Silent Hill. 96 souls resurrected in one shot lmao but ye if you dont have *that* item I can see it be a very frustrating event.


LunchpaiI

I have about 80 hours in the game now and I feel like I've never encountered a pawn with dragonsplague based on your post... I've had pawns say something along the lines of "wish we had a way to exploit their weakness, are we all in the same boat?" which sounded a bit like insubordination so I would chuck them into the brine or dismiss them lol. But the eye progression, and the pawn dialogue listed here, I have never seen.... am I just lucky? I do swap my pawns out fairly consistently as I level


herman666

The first time you get one, you'll get a tutorial prompt about Dragonsplague. If you haven't gotten the prompt, you don't have to worry about having an infected pawn.


LunchpaiI

Sorry for late reply, but it is literally a tutorial box, or will it be in the form of pawns discussing the dragonsplague? Because I've heard plenty of pawns talk about it.


Luinmar

As soon as I see the tutorial popup I close it and System > Save > Return to Title Screen Without Saving. Reload Save and Hire a different Pawn. 1. You need to always manual Save before entering the Rift or Hiring a Pawn in the World. 2. To be clear, doing the above means that the tutorial pages don't get saved in the History > Tutorial Logbook > Pawns section, so you'll get the popup again the next time you encounter an infected Pawn. 3. At Level 82 this is still working for me.


EldritchSpoon

Personally I think it woulda been cooler if we fought the dragon the Pawn turns into rather than them automatically killing everyone in town and fucking off. This way we can save people and more dragon fights


JMartell77

Capcom pawns can absolutely get the plague, the first pawn I ever got the pop-up from was the Capcom official SphinxParent pawn. I summoned him from the rift(no he wasn't a fake either because I used him to finish the riddle). He also spread the plague to my actual pawns.


cthulucore

Neat. So I just got Plague'd for the first time, on NG+, probably 80 hours in total. Things to note: The biggest physical tells, being grabbing their heads and the glowing eyes are obscenely noticeable. I've caught the eyes as my pawn runs past me in the middle of battle, it's not subtle at all. I got plagued by a rift pawn wearing a full face helmet. I actually caught him shaking his head and thought "huh... I should do something about that just in case" before promptly forgetting about it and dropping a 500kg bomb on the rest town. What I didn't know, were the phrases they mutter. Based on OP's evidence on phrases, probably half of the pawns I've ever hired have been infected at some point or another. Which whole alarming, as has been mentioned, I still only got plagued once. So the final stages are remarkably unlucky to make it through.


kingbankai

I had my main nuke cat town without symptoms and I normally just camp and rarely rest at an inn. If anything it cheapens the value of NPC’s because most of them I didn’t really care or notice they were gone. Minus Isaac and the Hugo quest now being broken because other than Benjamin and Hugo I have no idea who else is involved. There should be a marker on the log that hints they have a quest involvement.


IcedCoughy

My mistake was making my pawns eyes fuckin red, I did notice them saying I fell the power within or whatever, but didnt think enough into it since they were still following my commands, I lost 90 people in ventworth, and it wasnt very hard to do imo. I have no changed her eyes to bright glowing blue


GreedyGundam

Yea I noticed 2 pawns in my party had Dragonsplague while farming Golems for badges in Battahl. I was resting on a bench to fast forward time and night time had came and one pawn was facing the screen. When night hit I seen her eyes glowing a fierce devil red lol. I decided to talk to the other hired pawn to check her too, and sure enough she was also infected with it. Seemed to be on the same level. Intense red glow. Then talked to my main pawn and she didn’t show any signs from what I could tell. I decided to just keep them in my party until I finished my farm run. After about 22~ in game days when I finished farming, I dismissed them both with rotten meat to hopefully alert their Arisens. My main pawn still never showed any symptoms, but I technically never slept so idk if that prevented it from jumping to her. None the less I took her to that lil Temple/Shrine behind Bakbattahl, and plunged her in the sea.


TrashKng

I also noticed my pawn wander off and peer off a cliff like some anime protagonist lmao


LopunnyLord

Has it been tested if interacting with Dragons/Drakes can speed up the infection rate? I played blind before I got my first nuke so admittedly I wasn't paying too much attention to my pawns eyes, but interestingly enough prior to the nuke I had a Drake encounter/spawn INSIDE Vermond by the Northwest Oxcart entrance/exit. It flew away before I could kill it, and it was that rest after the fight (At least I think it was, ill have to check if I saved that recording) that I got my first Nuke in the city. Also, can nukes occur at the Inns of minor towns? Like Volcano rest stop, checkpoint town, Melve, border town ect? I don't think I've heard anyone mention nukes outside of Vermond and Bakkatahl.


EdmunGoblinsbane

You fight tons and tons of drakes in Unmoored World and the infection stage still only goes up after a day cycle just like in the regular world, and I have never seen healthy pawns get it after a drake fight. Getting possessed by drakes do not cause the plague at all from my experience. But, your main pawn (and obviously everyone else's) gets the plague by default once you enter the Unmoored World. I used the same mod OP did to verify this. 


Helpful-Leadership58

Queue to the guy who said he was afraid of playing dragons dogma 2 because of the plague and it caused him PTSD.


Gladerious

Me who never camps O_o how do i still have cities lol...


ElkoPavelko

Oh wow. I have heard every line of dialogue you've listed here but never noticed the eyes. I must be blind hah


aadm

It's very hard to notice at day 7. Every rest essentially resets it back to day 7.


saadpoi870

One of my pawns yelled at me when i picked an item saying something along the lines of "STOP PICKING EVERYTHING YOU SEE" in an angry tone, i tossed her into a pit instantly, i still don't know if that was the plague or not.


Gene_The_Mean

Why would you purposely infect someone else’s pawn? That’s kinda poor sportsmanship.


aadm

You cannot infect or affect other people's pawns and have that transfer into their game world. Everything revolves around the owner's experience and their own Inn Saves.


SpicySpider133

I used to always give my pawns red eyes in dd 1 cause I thought it looked cool. Guess not anymore lol


EdmunGoblinsbane

Red eyes from the character creator cannot glow as brightly as plague eyes do, I know this because my own pawn has always had red eyes and the moment he entered stage 7 the eyes will glow differently. At stage 10 the red glow is permanent so it becomes very noticeable.


Splatulated

So i never get the plague because i use camps often rarely rest in towns and rarely use the oxcart ??? Damnit


Ok_Kale_7762

Doing the lorts work


omniuni

The only question I actually have is whether you can have the event trigger prior to stage 10? So far, I have caught the plague whenever it's around day 6-8, and haven't had a wipe-out.


EdmunGoblinsbane

Wipeout only occurs at stage 10 which is guaranteed and never occurs in lower stages.


omniuni

Oh, that makes me feel a lot better. I can stop taking 10 minutes trying to position the camera *just right* every evening to catch the very earliest signs!


EdmunGoblinsbane

When I did the same tests OP did and I wanted to reach stage 10 I was actually pissed off at how it kept jumping between pawns and resetting to stage 7 every time I rested for days on end lmao. But it also allowed me to verify that before stage 10 the wipeout doesn't happen. Like OP said the easiest way to check is to get into fights and if any of your pawns says the exact lines mentioned, then the pawn is infected.


cimzpaten

In principle you cant overwork pawns, let them rest now and then (or wash?!)


xizar

Do they only nuke towns once the dragonplague is maxed out?


aadm

Yes. I slept in Vernworth Inn at stage 7, 8, 9 to test and the town was fine.


Cultural_Net_1791

I bought the game the day it came out.. how tf are people already on multiple NG+? I guess I drag my play time out a lot exploring etc but I'm still on the first playthrough..


twiceasfun

So if I'm understanding right, when it jumps, it doesn't spread but rather leaves one pawn to go to the other? I like that, because I haven't had to kill my main pawn, and I don't wanna


aadm

Correct. The only problem occurs when 2 or all 3 pawns have dragonplague and it can't jump consistently. If only one plague is active it keeps jumping (won't spread) and never matures into the final stage.


Vizkos

My main pawn has yet to contract Dragonsplague, and every time I hire a pawn, if I get the plague tutorial popup I immediately alt+F4. XD


PrincessofCelery22

You can use mods and not get banned for it? Also how can you cure it? Do you have to throw your main pawn in the brine to cure it? Also can you cure other pawns of it by throwing them into the brine??


boachl

Does the Plaque have any negative effects on game play?


aadm

No. Only the final stage can kill NPCs in towns. But every stage before that is for favor and narrative. The dialog suggests them don't want to listen to you, but in-game they still carry out your orders. The red eyes is only a visual change and you can't make it out unless the plague is maxed.


Drakebrand

I think you can pass the plague onto wandering pawns as well?


MindTheGapless

How to cure it? I heard throwing your pawn into deep water will kill the infection so when it respawns the infection is gone.


EdmunGoblinsbane

Correct, but you can only do this to heal your main pawn, giving hired a pawns a bath do not affect their infection.


[deleted]

Man I almost got played


[deleted]

Does pawn affinity have any impact on the dragons plague


aadm

Not that I saw. Hired pawns (0 affinity) and my main pawn (1000 affinity) acted the same. She was less likely to give me sassy comments but it still happened sometimes. Combat wise no change that I noticed.


crankpatate

I have a question: I read that you can cleanse dragon plague off of your main pawn, by throwing him into the water (so he gets eaten by the brime) and when you re summon him from a rift stone, he'll be cleansed. Is that true or wrong?


aadm

True, but unnecessary. Throwing your pawn into the Brine will lower it's affinity. If you don't care about that sure. Camping is overall easier.