In Dragon’s Wake is one of the first quests in Dragon’s Dogma 2 and you will automatically start it shortly after landing in Vermund, upon visiting the Borderwatch Outpost and spending a night. This will ask you to venture a long way south to Melve.

However, thankfully the route there isn’t laid with too many traps and dangers. Before you leave the outpost, it is worth completing the Ordeals of A New Recruit side quest, which you can fail if you don’t save the soldier in time. Thankfully, though, his location is on the route to Melve.

Make For Melve¶

To get to Melve you want to head out of the southern gate in the Borderwatch Outpost and follow the main path. This is the slightly thicker line on the map, as following the other paths will lead you into danger or away from Melve. You are still extremely early in your journey, so you need to be able to gear up before exploring properly.

On the trek towards Melve, you will mostly run into small clusters of Goblins and Harpy flocks. These can be easily taken out and ideally, your Pawn will assist you with taking down the Harpies. If you don’t have a ranged ability, the best bet is to walk away from them as they dive, so they mistime their attack and strike as they recover.

You may die in a few spots early on as you end up triggering larger groups of Goblins, just off the main path, but if you do, you will want to take the same path again, simply staying as far away from them to avoid attracting their attention. During your journey to Melve, you will also find one or two Pawns you can hire. These are definitely worth adding to your party as the extra help can make surviving attacks from groups of low-level enemies easier.

As you pass under a large wooden gate, keep an eye out on the right too for a Golden Trove Beetle. Consuming one of these will increase your carry weight slightly. Another one can be found on the left as you approach the village. Our world map for Dragon’s Dogma 2 also has these marked so you can get a better idea of their spots.

Upon reaching the bridge across the water you can then head into Melve!

Look Around Melve¶

After entering Melve, walk around the dilapidated square from the recent attack and you will find a mysterious voice starts talking to you. Shortly after you will enter a flashback and a gigantic dragon will show up in the village and you will need to bring it down with the villagers.

Unfortunately, the dragon is far too fierce and you will fall to it. However, it will choose you as the Arisen in the process.

Upon waking up in Melve in the present day, you will meet Ulrika, a fighter who was there with you when the dragon attacked. However, you won’t be able to stay long as a soldier, named Gregor, seeks to take you to Vermund’s capital to declare your status as the Arisen. Before you can go, though, you will need to speak to Lennart in the Inn. He will thank you for rescuing Ulrika and tell you about the Vocation guide, where you can change your class to one of the other Dragon’s Dogma 2 classes.

Initially, this will only be the starting four classes, but if you didn’t choose one of the best Vocations in Dragon’s Dogma 2, this is your opportunity to switch.

With that finished, you can now speak with Gregor and make your way to the capital.

Accompany Gregor To The Capital¶

This trek to the capital is much longer than the one you took to get to Melve, so make sure you have purchased some new skills from the Vocation Guild, grabbed a few items from the store, and are ready to set off. On your journey, you will almost always run into small groups of goblins, which shouldn’t be a major problem for the amount of people in your party. Eventually, you will have the option to take an Oxcart, instead of walking the whole way.

Oxcarts are one of the main fast travel methods in Dragon’s Dogma 2. And, once you catch up to it, you should take a ride as it can speed up the journey quite considerably.

On the way, you will have to defeat a Cyclops that is blocking the path as a part of the One-Eyed Interloper quest. With all of Gregor’s men and you and your Pawns, this shouldn’t be too tricky of a fight, as long as you keep far back and don’t go overboard on mashing the attack button.

You can choose to go to Vernworth on your own or with Gregor’s men. You will also get a Missive To The Captain quest item, which will be useful later on. It is worth accompanying the group to the capital, just to have more support if you run into enemies. Be sure to doze off on the cart to skip time, or else you will watch the entire, very slow journey. If you do get attacked, hop out and kill the enemies and then sit back down again once have killed the enemies.

Eventually, you will arrive in Vernworth, meet Captain Brant, and complete the quest. He will let you know that he worries if the queen regent knew of another claiming to be the Arisen that you would be killed. He will tell you that there is now a false sovran on the throne and task you with learning more about him, before declaring yourself as the Arisen.