Dragon’s Dogma 2: How To Beat Dragons

Drakes, also commonly known as Dragons, are typically the fiercest enemy type you can face in a game, and that is certainly true with Dragon’s Dogma 2. These giant beasts roam the wilds of Vernworth and Battahl, and can be certain death if you encounter them unprepared.

But defeating drakes is one of the more important things to focus on, especially in the later part of the game since the rewards they drop can unlock some really important items and upgrades. If you are going on a drake hunt and are wondering the best way to take them down, look no further. In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to prepare, what to expect from combat, and how to come out on top of every battle.

How To Prepare

Drakes deal a considerable amount of damage with every move they have in their arsenal. On top of that, they have 5 health bars you have to contend with, which means regardless of how good you are, you need to be prepared for a long fight.

Before heading out to take on a drake, you’ll want to make sure you have at least two wakestones on you. Drakes have some powerful moves that will cut your health bar in half with one hit, so you need to be prepared to quickly revive and potentially save your party. In addition, you’ll want to be prepared with a handful of health and stamina regen items since your party won’t always be able to get to you right away.

It is also good to consider your overall level and your Vocation-specific level. While each drake varies in difficulty, with the easier ones residing in Vernworth and the more formidable ones in Battahl, you should probably be at a minimum of level 25 before taking any of them on. Otherwise, you can expect to be killed in one hit sometimes. Furthermore, you’ll want to make sure your Vocation of choice is leveled up enough that you have access to some powerful weapon skills. Going in with the starting Vocation skills isn’t always a good idea, and you will likely realize pretty quickly that you are outmatched.

Drake Battle Strategy

When taking on such a formidable foe, it is important to know what your overall strategy is before you head into battle. Since dragons have 5 health bars, you will spend a considerable amount of time chipping away at their health. They can also heal themselves with specific moves, so this means you’ll need to always keep the pressure on them in order to stay ahead of any healing they do.

The best way to do this is to target their weak point, their chest. During the battle, you’ll frequently see their chest glowing. Aim as many of your attacks for that spot as possible to quickly drain each of their health bars. If you hit them enough in a shorter window of time, you can even stun them which will cause them to fall to their side, leaving their chest exposed to an onslaught of attacks.

The last major thing you’ll want to consider is what kinds of attacks you are bringing with you and your party. Naturally, fire is not going to be very effective against an enemy who literally wields fire. So instead, try to have a mage with you that has ice spells, or make sure you have some ice spells or ice-enchanted weapons at your disposal as well. If you don’t have access to ice, other types will work as well, though you won’t deal as much damage as you will with ice, or get the added advantage of slowing down the dragon throughout the fight.

Drake Attack Types

Not all drakes will employ every type of attack mentioned below, but usually, they will use a combination of them. However, the more challenging drakes you’ll face deep in Battahl territory will utilize all of these, so be forewarned.

Basic Drake Attacks

Like any beast in this world, the drake will occasionally take swipes at you with their claws or tails, trying to both hurt you and often get you away from them as they areweaker when you are up close. There are even times when the drake will grab you in their hand and throw you, though that move isn’t too powerful so you don’t have too much to worry about it

Although not every creature has the ability to breathe fire, the drake’s fire-breathing attacks are still relatively basic and fairly easy to dodge. When they stick their neck all the way out, they’ll shoot a line of flame, typically held in one specific direction. Get close to their body and you’ll easily dodge this. When they stand up on their back legs, however, they’ll do a sweeping fire attack that is much harder to dodge. When this happens, try circling around behind them to avoid getting burned and knocked down.

Drake Lightning Attack

Some drakes will employ a powerful lightning attack that will damage your health, remove some of your overall health bar, and stun you when it directly hits. Suffice it to say, you don’t want to get hit by one of these attacks as they can be pretty damaging in that moment and for the remainder of the fight.

Thankfully, these lightning attacks are pretty easy to avoid. When you see the drake summoning the lightning attack in their front hand, just start moving and don’t stop until the barrage of bolts ceases. If you just keep moving, you will almost certainly never get hit.

Drake Fire/Explosion Attack

When the drake has a bolt of fire in their hand, you are in for one of two moves. When the fire is in a single hand, they are either going to heal themselves by pressing it to their chest, or they are going to trigger an area explosion around them. When you see this, it is best to just clear the area and you’ll avoid taking damage.

When the drake has a bolt of fire in each hand, you need to start running. This is their most formidable move, one that only later game drakes typically employ. When you see this, they are going to summon a meteor storm. Small areas will begin lighting up all over the battlefield. Only a second or two after seeing them light up, a meteor will come crashing down. A single one is enough to instant-kill you or get you very close to death (depending on your stats), so you need to avoid getting hit at all costs. This attack is awful even if you don’t get hit as it will almost certainly KO your party as well. This means you’ll likely need to run around reviving them before you can resume attacking the drake.

Source

Dragon’s Dogma 2: Every Vocation, Ranked

Vocations determine the weapons, skills, armor, and overall play style of a character in Dragon’s Dogma 2; here are all ten vocations, ranked.

Best Vocations For Drake Hunting

Each Vocation has at least a couple of weapon skills that will help you in taking down a drake. However, there are some Vocations that are better suited for them, namely the Mystic Spearhand and the Magick Archer.

Mystic Spearhand Strategy

One of the best things about the Mystic Spearhand is how agile it makes you. With moves like Dragoun’s Foin and Skiedragoun’s Feste, you can easily close the distance between you and the drake as well as get on top of their back if needed. Furthermore, if the drake is doing an area attack, Dragoun’s Foin can be incredibly useful as a dodge, allowing you to quickly get out of range.

When it comes to attacking, it depends on the drake you are fighting. For the lesser dragons covered in boils, Dragoun’s Foin is a great way to quickly direct your attack to a boil, and then when it connects, hang on to the drake while you unleash attack after attack on the weak spot. You can also use this weapon skill to quickly dash into the weak point on their chest.

If you so happened to have unlocked the Mystic Spearhand’s Master skill, Wild Furie, then you can use this ability to absolutely obliterate the drake’s health bar while you are fighting underneath them, or when you stun them, and they are defenseless on their side.

Finally, the somewhat hard-to-pull-off Magike Speregonne move can be a great choice for when the drake flies up into the air. Simply take a few steps back, start charging, aim at their chest, and release to deal massive damage. Sometimes you can even stun them with a single attack.

Magick Archer Strategy

Although there are many regular Archer Vocation skills that will work similarly, Magick Archer is just superior to killing drakes because of the sheer power of its attacks, and the ability for said attacks to hunt down the drake’s weak points for you.

Rather than focus on spending the time to charge each powerful weapon skill, like Arctic Bolt, you’ll want to focus on unleashing the full volley of arrows in your regular attack as often as possible. Aim for the heart, charge until full, and release. Although this might feel like it takes longer to drain their health, it is more steady and guaranteed. If you focus too much on charging up power attacks, you’ll often get interrupted, hit, or just miss as the dragon moves around a lot.

I highly recommend trying to unlock all 10 levels for the Magick Archer Vocation before taking on a dragon. The Sagittate Avalanche skill is probably the most effective and powerful, but you only get it at level 10. This attack essentially functions like your basic volley in that it will hunt down the dragon’s weak points. But it is also incredibly powerful when fully charged, and can drop a fourth of a health bar when all shots connect.

Next

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