What are pawns in Dragon's Dogma 2?

Dragon’s Dogma 2 is finally out and I’m betting that Capcom’s new big thing will likely be the most talked-about game for a while. One of the things making this a one-of-a-kind experience is its “Pawn System”, whose mechanics I delve into right here.

But if you’re less concerned about the technical aspects and more interested in learning what pawns represent in the game’s lore, then you’ve come to the right place. Let’s learn what’s at the heart of a pawn in Dragon’s Dogma.

Pawns in Dragon’s Dogma lore

A pawn is a unique type of companion. Whereas other RPGs have characters with backstories and motivations joining our party, Dragon’s Dogma comes as close as possible to a story-based game acknowledging the existence of bots. Though they look just like real human beings would and have their individual vocations, Pawns have no backstory or agency to speak of.

Pawns are summons made by the Arisen, the person chosen by destiny to slay the dragon, to help them in their quest. A pawn’s actions are always no more than the reflection of the Arisen’s will. In the world of Dragon’s Dogma, you can identify a pawn by looking at their hands, which will have a mark that matches the scar the dragon made on the Arisen’s chest when their heart got ripped out — more on that here.

The Arisen gets to create one pawn of their own, but we’ll still see many other pawns in the world of Dragon’s Dogma and Dragon’s Dogma 2. That’s because we have access to Rift Stones, which serve as a sort of portal to parallel games universes where we get to recruit the pawns of the Arisen from that universe. Even though pawns belonging to other Arisen were summoned to serve that very same Arisen, that’s not a problem as you’re still an Arisen, and that’s enough to command their loyalty. For story purposes, there are some pawns that you cannot hire in the game, but any pawn that you manage to hire will prove as loyal as your own.