Dragon's Dogma 2: Dark Arisen Is Bringing a Major New Adventure on October 9

If you stepped away from Dragon's Dogma 2 after its 2024 launch, the upcoming Dark Arisen expansion could give you a good reason to return. Capcom is preparing a major expansion that adds a new region, a separate story campaign, challenge dungeons, new enemies, combat changes, progression systems, and a range of quality-of-life improvements to the base game.

Dragon's Dogma 2 had plenty going for it at launch, but it also felt uneven in some areas. The new expansion is designed to make the overall package feel more complete while giving returning players plenty of new content to work through. With the expansion arriving on October 9, you'll also be able to jump into the complete experience if you haven't played the game yet.

The biggest addition is the Forsaken Dominion, a large snowy and mountainous region that was once part of the prosperous Kingdom of Vermin.

The area offers harsh, cold environments and new environmental mechanics, like wind direction affecting gameplay. It's also said to be more vertical and open than the Bitterblack Isle from the original Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen.

Dark Arisen includes a new story campaign and an area focused on the Fallen Dragon and the one hunting it. Depending on how you want to approach the expansion, you can either continue the adventure with your existing Arisen, or create a new one. Forsaken Dominion, which you should start at level 40, will take about 20 hours to complete the main story.

Another big part of the expansion is the Relic Expedition cycle. You will discover new areas, fight monsters, and hunt for hidden items you can collect as relics. Once you find them, you can take them back to settlements and have them appraised, potentially unlocking powerful weapons, armor, and skills with improved stats.

The upgraded equipment then lets you push further into the expansion, while relics can continue to appear as enemy drops or hidden discoveries.

You'll also get help locating some buried relics through a new companion. The companion system adds another party member during specific story moments, although it won't replace your existing pawn. You'll still have your pawn alongside you, while a direwolf companion can help track down relics buried throughout the environment.

Dark Arisen also introduces the Lost Rights, a collection of challenge dungeons designed to give you more replayable content. 12 newly uncovered dungeon challenges are spread throughout the existing game world, each presented as a trial from the Pathfinder.

Each challenge is expected to take around 30 to 60 minutes, depending on your skill level, and becomes available around level 20. Completing these dungeons can reward you with rare equipment once owned by previous Arisen, and you can upgrade the gear the same way you do equipment from the base game.

These dungeons are intended to provide more endgame content while also giving you reasons to keep returning after completing the main story. Because Lost Rights has a lower recommended level than Forsaken Dominion, you'll have some flexibility in deciding when to take it on.

The expansion is also adding more character customization options. You'll have additional hairstyles and tattoos for your Arisen and main pawn, along with broader facial customization options that give you more control over your character's appearance.

While those changes are mainly cosmetic, they're part of a much larger package. With the new region, additional story, challenge dungeons, enemies, bosses, and gameplay systems, the expansion is expected to add at least 25 hours of content, depending on how you play.

The new region also comes with its own collection of enemies.

You'll encounter icy versions of existing monsters alongside completely new creatures. Some of the enemies pointed out are ice-based cyclops variants that freeze you with their breath and use tree trunks as weapons.

You'll also encounter corrupted versions of enemies from the original game. These variants have altered behaviors, different statistics, and other changes that should make familiar encounters less predictable.

New bosses are also being added, including undead versions of existing bosses and returning Evil Eye bosses. Combined with new enemies and environmental conditions, the expansion should make combat feel different from the base game.

Combat itself is also receiving some important changes.

Weapon skill slots increase from four to six, while existing vocations receive new and upgraded skills. The relic system adds a new appraisal and loot-grinding loop, giving you another reason to keep fighting enemies and exploring areas for better equipment.

For players looking for a tougher experience, Dark Arisen will also include a hard mode. This gives you an option if the normal difficulty isn't quite challenging enough, especially after you've upgraded your character and equipment with the new progression systems.

Capcom has also continued improving the base game through free updates ahead of the expansion. The Arise Again title update 3.2 brings optimization improvements and several quality-of-life changes. These include increasing skill slots from four to six, adding more save slots, and adjusting the save system.

The update also includes changes involving afflicted pawns. The update makes it easier to recognize when a pawn has been afflicted, while enhanced combat behaviors give afflicted pawns new actions in combat. It also makes it easier to cure the condition.

These improvements are particularly useful if you're returning to Dragon's Dogma 2 after a long break. Rather than simply adding the expansion on top of the original experience, Capcom is also changing the base game so the overall package is in better shape.

Progression is another area where you'll have some freedom. Forsaken Dominion recommends starting at level 40, while Lost Rights recommends level 20. Those levels are only intended as guidance for the beginning of each piece of content, however. The difficulty will increase as you progress through both experiences.

You don't have to wait until reaching those recommended levels, either. You can access both pieces of content relatively early in the main story by speaking with Brandt at the tavern after arriving in Vernworth. You're free to try them below the recommended levels if you want a tougher challenge.

Capcom's recommendation is a reference rather than a strict requirement, letting you decide how you want to approach the new content and how much grinding you're willing to do before entering it.

PC players are also getting performance improvements, which could be important for anyone who experienced the game's rough performance at launch. Dragon's Dogma 2 has received optimization work, and performance has improved, although the game's open-world nature means some technical issues may remain.

The updated minimum requirements call for an Intel Core i5-8500 or Ryzen 5 3500, alongside an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 or Radeon RX 5500 XT. You'll need 8 GB of VRAM and 16 GB of RAM, with those specifications aimed at 1080p. Using FSR with performance prioritized should give you around 45 to 60 FPS, while prioritizing graphics is expected to put performance closer to 45 FPS.

You can adjust the upscaling option depending on whether you want to prioritize image quality or performance.

The recommended specifications move up to an Intel Core i7-10700 or Ryzen 5 3600X, paired with an RTX 2070 Super or Radeon RX 6600 XT. At 1080p with DLSS or FSR and performance prioritized, you're looking at around 60 FPS.

For players prioritizing graphics, the target moves to 4K using DLSS or FSR, with around 45 FPS expected. So, even with the improvements, you'll still need a fairly capable PC to get the most out of the game, and some bugs and technical issues may remain.

The expansion itself arrives on October 9, giving both new and returning players a chance to experience Dragon's Dogma 2 with a much larger selection of content. If you already own the base game, you can buy the expansion separately, while newcomers can pick up the complete edition with both the original game and Dark Arisen.

The expansion also includes bonuses.

The pre-order package includes the Nor Fashion Set and Northern Attire. In contrast, the complete Dragon's Dogma 2: Dark Arisen package includes additional content such as the Explorer's Camping Kit and the Dragon's Dogma music and sound collection.

With a new region, a separate campaign, relic hunting, 12 challenge dungeons, new enemies and bosses, additional combat skills, hard mode, expanded customization, and improvements to the original game, Dark Arisen is shaping up to be a substantial addition rather than a small piece of extra content.

If you left Dragon's Dogma 2 on the bench after its initial release, October 9 could be a good time to step back into the boots of the Arisen. The expansion not only offers a new adventure, but also builds on the base game with a set of changes that aim to make the overall experience more complete.