Dragon's Dogma 2 players are hurling their pawns into the briny depths to purge Dragonsplague, a mechanic so deadly and unique I don't want to spoil it in a headline

Dragon's Dogma 2 is a game of bizarre mechanical complexities—it's at times frustrating, baffling, and weird, but that also gives it a unique flavour. The game isn't that interested in being convenient, but it is interested in leaving you asking what the hell just happened while you're surrounded by corpses. I'm about to spoil how, but you may want to read on if you're scared of calamity.

In short, the Dragonsplague is an illness your pawns can contract after fighting a dragon or, according to the mechanic's tutorial tip, by coming into contact with an infected pawn. If you lived through the horrors of WoW's Corrupted Blood plague, you might be getting flashbacks, and with very good reason—the elimination of a whole town's worth of NPCs is a genuine option. 

Infected pawns will eventually transform into a shadowy dragon and obliterate the town you're sleeping in, killing everything, even quest-essential characters. This is, ah, bad, because Dragon's Dogma 2 is a game in which you only get one save and can not, under any circumstances, miss your chance to blow. 

Here's a haunting example of the carnage via Kylmere on Twitter: «I forgot about the warning so I randomly got a cutscene after sleeping and now everyones literally dead, including characters important for progressing the story», they write, sharing a video of a corpse-filled Vermund.

I'm LOVING dragons dogma 2 but dagonsplague has to be the most batshit insane mechanic ever added to a video game. I forgot about the warning so I randomly got a cutscene after sleeping and now everyones literally dead INCLUDING CHARACTERS IMPORTANT FOR PROGRESSING THE STORY pic.twitter.com/MW5ourg7HPMarch 25, 2024

Symptoms of this disease include coughing, head-clutching, getting ornery about your commands, and glowing red eyes that are easier to spot in the dark—as shown below. This particular symptom is apparently obvious, but considering I'm colorblind and can't see a difference, I think a rather unfair village nuking is