Just like its predecessor, Dragon’s Dogma 2 brings back the romance system, allowing you to build bonds with various NPCs and even pursuing romantic relationships with some of them. Here’s a complete guide to how romance works in Dragon’s Dogma 2.
Table of contents
How Romance and Affinity Works in Dragon’s Dogma 2
The primary way of building affinity with an NPC in Dragon’s Dogma 2 is by giving them gifts, and you can do this by pressing and holding the circle button to talk to them, then hit the square button while they’re in dialogue to give them a present. This will bring up an inventory screen, where you can choose from a few select items to present to the NPC as a gift.
Like most modern video games with a romance system, every character has their own favorite gifts. As a general rule of thumb, though, the more valuable or expensive the item is, the more likely it is for a character to like it, thus increasing your relationship points significantly.
All Romance Options
You can build relationships with pretty much anyone in Dragon’s Dogma 2, but from my own experience with the game so far, it looks like Wilhelmina and Ulrika are the only proper romance options with full-on questlines that lead to satisfying scenes and arc conclusions.
Aside from these two, you can even build affinity with merchants and vendors. With a high enough relationship level with them, they may even give you store discounts, which can be very helpful especially since gold is so hard to come by in this game.
| Romance Option | Related Quest | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Wilhelmina | Every Rose Has its Thorn | Rose Chateau Bordelrie |
| Ulrika | Readvent of Calamity, Home Is Where the Hearth Is, Trouble on the Cape | Melve, Harve Village |
To romance either Wilhelmina or Ulrika, you’ll first need to actually meet them in-game as part of the main story, then complete the character-specific quests as listed above. As mentioned above, these are the only two romance options I’ve found so far, but I’ll update this list if there are more to be discovered.
For now, though, I’ve linked both romance arcs for Wilhelmina and Ulrika up above, complete with detailed instructions on which quests you need to complete to properly romance both of them.
Can You Romance Multiple Characters?
From my experience, yes. It’s possible to romance both Ulrika and Wilhelmina in Dragon’s Dogma 2, and there don’t seem to be any dire consequences from a narrative or gameplay perspective. You’ll be able to get both of their romance scenes by completing their related quests, and romancing one will not lock you out from the other.
In fact, the only thing that this could change is your answer for one of the Sphinx’s riddles in the game. The Riddle of Madness requires you to present the person you have the highest affinity with, so romancing both women may make it tricky for you to determine who you have the better relationship with in order to answer correctly. Because of this, it may be better to clear both Sphinx encounters first, answer with your pawn in the Riddle of Madness, and then romance Wilhelina and Ulrika.
How to Increase Affinity
As mentioned above, you’ll want to primarily rely on gifts to improve your relationship with an NPC, but we’ll go into a bit more detail here:
- Use the Allure Augment for Trickster: Allure will make it easier for you to rack up relationship points with an NPC as you interact with them and give them gifts.
- Eternal Bond: If you have enough Seeker’s Tokens, you can exchange them at a Vocation guild for the Eternal Bond ring, which gives you a significant affinity boost with whoever you gift it to.
Do note that you can only increase your affinity with a character once every in-game day, so you can’t just be spamming them with gifts. Because of this restriction, make sure to make full use of this opportunity and give them a gift they really like.
As your relationship with a character grows, you’ll notice that they’ll actually start blushing when you talk to them. Assuming you’ve purchased a house from Mildred, they may also show up at your dwelling from time to time. Your romance option can leave you gifts at the house, or even offer to go on a short walk with you.
How to Check Preferred Gifts and Relationship Status
If you’re pursuing multiple characters at once in Dragon’s Dogma 2, it can be easy to lose track of what you’ve done so far. Head into the menu and check the NPC Logbook section to see what your relationship level is with each NPC.
From here, you can also look at all the gifts you’ve given them so far and see which ones they prefer.
And that’s everything you need to know about how romance and relationships work in Dragon’s Dogma 2.
Published: Mar 27, 2024 12:45 am