Pawns in Dragon's Dogma are inhabitants of a place called The Rift which connects them through multiple different Arisen in other worlds. They lack their own will and serve the will of the player character Arisen that they are joined with.
Pawn Information
- You will create a Main Pawn which will serve as a constant partner, and can then summon up to 2 additional support pawns for a total maximum party of 4.
- Support pawns can be selected from in game generated pawns or from user created pawns, and are found either wandering the land or in the rift. If you are playing online the pawns you see will be a mix of game and user generated pawns, and if offline you will see game generated only.
- Main pawn skills and AI can be changed whereas support pawn AI and skills cannot be changed.
- Main pawns level up and learn new skills but support pawns do not, so regularly releasing and hiring new pawns will be crucial as you level up.
- Support pawn equipment can be changed, but any new equipment given to the pawn stays with the pawn as a "gift"
- Pawns can hold inventory items
- Pawns will learn about the areas, creatures, and quests they encounter in a player's game world and will bring that knowledge back to the players that created them. They will offer information on defeating challenges, open levers, or offer words of caution among others. This mechanic is referred to as Pawn Travel Knowledge
Hiring and Releasing Pawns
- Pawns may be hired by approaching them in the world or in The Rift which is accessed via a Rift Stone
- Pawns of a higher level than you require Rift Crystals to hire.
- Pawns of players on your friends list are always free regardless of level.
- To retain a pawn while hiring another, you can approach the pawn to keep and select Toggle Retain Pawn
- Pawns can be dismissed from servitude in different ways:
- Manually releasing them within The Rift via the Release command. They can be sent away with a gift for their creator, and are then can be rated by Appearance, Helpfulness, and Battle. A comment can also be sent along.
- Death will release a pawn from the party. A dead pawn will not be given the option to receive gifts and will receive an automatic average rating.
- Exchanging a pawn by hiring a new pawn with an already full party will trigger you to choose a pawn to release. Once chosen, you will follow the same steps as the manual release option. This is the only instance where you can manually release a pawn from outside of the Rift.
The following Fextralife Community members have offered the services of their main pawn for hire. Send them a friend request and enter the The Rift after they have accepted.
| Online Name | Platform | Pawn Name | Pawn Level | Pawn Vocation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Banditjingx | Playstation 4 | Karen | 40 | Warrior |
Rift Crystals
Hiring pawns costs Rift Crystals. They may be gained by completing quests, killing major monsters or by receiving Rift Crystals as enemy drops. Drops are of different natures:
- Rift Fragments contain 100 Rift Crystals
- Rift Crystal contain 400 Rift Crystals
- Rift Cluster contain 800 Rift Crystals
Introduced in Dark Arisen and found only on Bitterblack Isle:
- Rift Crystal Speck which contains 30 Rift Crystals
- Rift Crystal Flake which contains 50 Rift Crystals
- Rift Crystal Chunk which contains 200 Rift Crystals
- Rift Bicrystal which contains 2,000 Rift Crystals
- Rift Polycrystal which contains 5,000 Rift Crystals
- Perfect Rift Crystal which contains 10,000 or more Rift Crystals
- Rift Crystals can also be gained when your pawn is hired. This can happen in two ways:
Online hiring of your main pawn by other players is another method of receiving rift crystals. A part of the experience gained by your pawn in the other player's world is given to you as Rift Crystals. The longer the pawn has been in the party the higher number of Rift Crystals you receive. Killing powerful enemies at high levels also increases the amount of Rift Crysals you gain.
Main Pawn Information
- Main pawns level up and learn new skills in the same way that the player character Arisen does.
- Main pawns have an AI that can be set which is called Inclination. The different Inclinations are as follows:
