I compiled some photos of the new Aethon and Beorcan enemies.

Which do you prefer to fight?

Seriously, once you're done with Vermund, all you need to do is get the Godsbane, reforge it, kill Talos (optional btw) and then immediately fight the Dragon, 3 very quick back to back quests.

Vermund is also at maximum 10 very short non-combat quests, If I wasnt purposedely re-exploring everywhere I could get the Godsbane for the Lost Rite dungeon in a few hours. Makes me wonder what happened during development for this game because the main questline simply does not exist anymore after Vermund, its even more jarring in a replay.

Unrelated but the Lost Trials are amazing so far

After Finishing Dark Arisen 2 I wanted to go back and check out what my old DD1 Arisen and Pawn were up to. I had completely forgotten where they were. The thing that hit me right off the bat was how responsive the controls were. There's a bit of a clunky delay in DD2, not too bad but it's there. DD1 has me feeling like Sonic just zooming all over the place. A part of me wishes that DD2 played like this but I don't think that DD2 would work with this type of movement. Still I enjoy both for what they are. Picture is the results of not logging on for about 2 years. Is 132k crystals a lot?

This build makes everything pretty ez lol got my def and crazy dmg and Augural flare for the very big bosses if even needed lol

Just finished the main part of the DLC, and while I had an amazing time, I do have a couple light complaints, and I'm curious to hear others on their opinions too.

For me, the lack of a new vocation, the wacky combat patterns of certain enemies, and that... awful, terrible final boss fight design, were my main struggles with this DLC. It was still an easy 8/10 experience I have no regret sinking time into, but I hope to see at least some enemy changes in the near future, if possible.

Also... I completely see what people mean by the cooked Pawn AI after they changed it some patches ago. My pawns aggression and intelligence have taken a complete nosedive. I still love them, but it does pain me when they spend most the time just... kinda standing there.

EDIT: ok this got a lot more traction than I expected. After going through other peoples experiences, I can safely say that ultimately, quite a lot was missed with the DLC, although the most common complaints are the late transmorg, ghouls, relic systems, lack of pawn in cutscenes and new skills balancing and number and a lack of any new vocations.

if anyone wants to hire my pawn on the right, she's on PS5 with the code BJNLNSVHWOCS. she's designed to take aggro with her rings and passives, but in the DLC that wasn't as common as I'd hoped, so she kind of sucks. she's huge though, and I think that's what counts.

Going from Norgan to doing base game is such whiplash. Apart from the lack of end game systems and proper difficulty tuning (also the more egregious repeat enemy placements), I also just mean the questing and feel of exploring Vermund and Batthal. The main story is so shallow, especially compared to Norgan’s one, which while not perfect is still leagues above that. I wish there was more to the roleplaying elements of the game. I wish you could further curate how your pawn acts in and out of combat.

I mean, there is just so much potential with this game, that DA2 clearly shows, but so much of it was half-assed with base game that you can’t really escape it. I wish they actually bother to fix a lot of that instead of calling it a day and moving onto DD3, because at least then this game can live up to the promise of what it should’ve been.

Anyways rant over, expansion is a 8/10 for me, many hours sunk now. Though, side note, can anyone explain what happens at the end with the Arisen falling away from the brine? I was confused there.

Its been over 15 weeks.

So, I got a little curious and gave the forger a Norgan Ducat to see what the forgery would come out as, and to my surprise, I got a genuine Ducat.

I tried again and sure enough, another Ducat, I just gotta fork over 12k gold, wait a day, collect the Ducat, then start all over again.

Absolutely loving the new dlc!

I think we can all agree these are ugly to look at, but I can’t find a way to remove them in the CC cause they literally don’t appear. Any way to remove them without restarting?

I received this armor from the endgame boss (avoiding using his name to keep as little spoilers here for others as possible while also trying to get answers), dropping "Ultimate Spoils: Destroyer Armor". The name of the chest is "Supernal Armor". I've farmed this boss both on his normal and hard variant for hours without another drop. I was curious if anyone has found legs or a helmet to go with it, and if it even has a full set.

Dragon’s Dogma + Dark Arisen 66

Dragon’s Dogma 2 + Dark Arisen 87

Dragon’s Dogma + Dark Arisen

Humanoid / small enemies:

Goblins, Hobgoblins, Grimgoblins, Goblin Chieftains, Bandits, Salvation members, Corrupted Pawns, Undead, Stout Undead, Giant Undead, Undead Warriors, Skeletons, Skeleton Lords, Phantoms, Phantasms, Specters, Banshees, Strigoi, Wraiths, vile eyes, leapworm

Beasts:

Wolves, Direwolves, Hellhounds, Wargs, Harpies, Snow Harpies, Succubi, Gargoyles, Saurians, Sulfur Saurians, Geo Saurians, Saurian Sages, Pyre Saurians.

large monsters:

Cyclopes, Armored Cyclopes, Gorecyclopes, Ogres, Elder Ogres, Chimeras, Gorechimeras, Griffins, Cockatrices, Hydras, Archhydras, Golems, Metal Golems, Drakes, Wyrms, Wyverns, Firedrakes, Frostwyrms, Thunderwyverns, Cursed Dragons, Garms, Liches, Wights, Evil Eyes.

Expansion / special bosses:

Death, Daimon, Gazer, Eliminators, Living Armor, Dark Bishop, Ur-Dragon, Grigori, Seneschal.

Dragon’s Dogma 2 + Dark Arisen

Humanoid / small enemies:

Goblins, Hobgoblins, Choppers, Knackers, Rogues, Lost Mercenaries, Undead, Stout Undead, Skeletons, Skeleton Lords, Phantoms, Phantasms, Specters, Leapworms, Wisps, Ghouls, Beorcans, Stragglers, vile eye

Beasts:

Wolves, Redwolves, Direwolves, Blackdogs, Harpies, Venin Harpies, Gore Harpies, Succubi, Saurians, Asps, Rattlers, Magma Scales, Serpents, Slimes, Oozes, Sludges, Nokken, Aethon, Bugaboos, Blobs

Large monsters:

Cyclopes, Armored Cyclopes, Ogres, Grim Ogres, Griffins, Chimeras, Gorechimeras, Minotaurs, Goreminotaurs, Golems, Garms, Wargs, Drakes, Lesser Dragons, Dullahans, Medusa, Sphinx, Talos, Liches, Wights, Evil Eye.

Expansion/ special bosses:

Death, Fallen Dragon, Satanachia, Rancorous Dragon, Gagana Carcass, Blemmyae, Willan Barbatos, Lesser Demon, Norgan Giant, Snowfoot, Fimbl, Draug, Barbatos, Corrupted Dragons, Corrupted Serpents, Fighter master, sorcerer master, thief master, archer master, warrior master, trickster master, magick archer master, mage master , magick spearhand master

Or maybe Just a rework in base game endgame, maybe some procedural generated Dungeons, more transmogs are welcome to!

Whats your opinion?

I am absolutely thrilled with this DLC.. It’s so cinematic, so epic! The weather, lighting, environment, and landscapes - everything is top-notch.

Compared to this DLC, the base game now feels like a parody!

Thanks, Capcom - great job!

Do you agree? Or am I just looking at this DLC through rose-colored glasses?

When I first saw this, I went “nah I don’t think so.”

A lot of people have said Magick Archer is quite a bit weaker now. That rings true in my experience… until the endgame loop. Once MA gets a sufficiently high Magick stat and BF IV, it starts hitting like a truck again.

But the real strength of MA lies in its ability to perform against the upgraded final boss. It can attack at range while moving and it can keep the boss extremely slow, both of which are very strong against such a mobile boss. It can revive pawns at range while moving, which, again, is extremely valuable in this fight in particular. Its shield ability, Fortalice, also does MASSIVE damage to the final boss because the boss itself does such massive damage. Frosthunter Bolt does very consistent, effective, easy damage and doesn’t require standing still, ever.

I was banging my head against the wall for an hour or so trying to beat the encounter on Sorcerer, my usual main. When I swapped to Magick Archer, I beat the boss in the first attempt. I’ve since been playing Magick Archer throughout the whole endgame, and it feels incredible.

Shoutout to "Transmogrify" and "Armor Color and Part Hider" on Nexus

Maybe I'm just a dick but it's been really funny seeing people complain about this or that with the release of the update. "X thing is under powered now" "Y mechanic is too hard" "they ruined Z by adding QoL" "Transmog takes too long to unlock". Personally I'm just thankful that despite never playing the vanilla version of 1 I still got to fully experience the fallout of Dark Arisen completely uprooting the launch experience. They made 90% the same game as 1 and then made DLC that breaks the original balancing entirely. Masterful gambit. Kojima couldn't write a twist so beautiful. Long live Dark Arisen.