How to spot Dragonsplague in Dragon's Dogma 2

If you've heard about the Dragonsplague that can infect your pawns in Dragon's Dogma 2, you likely want to figure out what you can do to prevent it. And if you haven't heard about the disease, consider this a PSA on how to save your adventuring companions.

You might have overheard your pawns talking about Dragonsplague while exploring. One of the first pawns I hired from a rift mentioned this malady, but aside from a momentary consideration of whether he, himself, was infected and had brought it up in an indirect way due to some misplaced embarrassment, I thought little else of it. 

Thankfully, that particular pawn didn't have the disease, but my future pawns may not be as fortunate. So with that in mind, here's how to spot Dragonsplague, and what you can do if it's gone too far.

How to spot Dragonsplague 

Any pawn you hire has the chance to have the Dragonsplague disease, but you can spot it before it causes a problem if you're paying attention. There are a few signs you can look out for to help you figure out if one of your party members has it. 

Look out for these signs of Dragonsplague:

• Glowing red eyes.
• Ignores your commands.
• Has a headache (holds their head in pain).

The signs should be pretty obvious after a few days if one of your pawns has been suffering from the disease. It can spread to other members of your party too, including your main pawn. Provided you remain vigilant, you should be able to spot Dragonsplague before it becomes a problem, at which point you can do some damage control so it doesn't get out of hand. 

It's also been reported that you'll get a tutorial window pop-up explaining what the Dragonsplague is the first time you recruit an infected pawn, so don't dismiss that warning as irrelevant. 

How to get rid of the Dragonsplague 

If you know—or suspect—that one of your pawns has Dragonsplague do not rest at an inn or make camp. The disease spreads and progresses over time, for one, but choosing to rest will also overwrite your other last inn rest, leaving you stuck with the plague without the ability to reload a prior state. Instead, dismiss all of your hired pawns immediately—you can do this by talking to them and selecting the Dismiss option—and examine your main pawn for signs of disease. 

To be safe, you should dispatch your main pawn too, which is a nice way of saying "let them die". The easiest way I found is to unequip their weapon, find some enemies, and then leave them to fight alone. You'll need to stay in range so your pawn doesn't just follow you, but once they've been downed, you can either take care of the enemies yourself or do the brave thing and run away. After a few minutes, your main pawn will become forfeit and you'll need to find a Riftstone to summon them back, disease-free!

If it's too late and one of your infected pawns massacres an entire town, try not to worry too much. According to this Redditor, the town should repopulate, complete with quest NPCs, after about a week of in-game time. So while you can't revert your save, you should be able to continue with any quests or other progress tied to that location and its NPCs.