Dragon's Dogma 2 Dark Arisen: How to Start Norgan and Lost Rites

You can start Dragon's Dogma 2: Dark Arisen long before the end credits. Both the new Norgan story and the 12 Lost Rites dungeons open early in the main quest, simply by speaking with Brant at the tavern once you reach Vernworth, as producer Naoto Oyama explained in Capcom's developer Q&A. The catch is the recommended level: 40 for Norgan, 20 for the Lost Rites.

This guide is built on Capcom's own material: that Q&A, the Title Update 3.2 patch notes, the expansion's Steam page and Capcom's 6 October launch-week post, with IGN's review for how the two halves connect. Checked on 8 October 2026, the day before launch, so anything Capcom has not published is flagged as unknown rather than guessed.

How do you start Dark Arisen?

Install the expansion, update the base game, then travel to Vernworth and talk to Brant at the tavern. Oyama's answer, which Capcom repeated in its Title Update 3.2 announcement, is that both expansion contents "can be accessed early in the main story" this way. Brant is the same contact who hands you the Eternal Ferrystone during the quest Seat of the Sovran, according to Capcom's patch notes, so most players will already know where to find him.

The expansion's Steam page is explicit that it cannot be used without Dragon's Dogma 2 and that you may need the latest patch first. If you own the base game, you buy the $29.99 expansion DLC; on Switch 2 the expansion is only sold together with the full game.

What level should you be for Norgan and the Lost Rites?

Capcom gives two numbers, and both are advice rather than gates. Oyama stresses that they apply only to the beginning of each content: the challenge ramps up as you go, and you are free to try either below the recommended level.

The gap between 20 and 40 suggests an obvious order for a mid-level character: dip into the Lost Rites first, then head north. That is our reading of Capcom's numbers, not an instruction from Capcom, and players who already finished the game can ignore it entirely.

Should you start a new character or use your old save?

It is a recurring question on r/DragonsDogma this week, and Capcom's answer is that either works. Director Kento Kinoshita says the balance is tuned for players who are just starting, still progressing or on their umpteenth playthrough, and that the middle and later stages still challenge characters who have hit the stat cap.

What changed is the cost of starting over. Title Update 3.2 (2 September) expanded save slots from one to three, and Oyama says that means up to three separate playthroughs, each with its own Arisen and main pawn. The same update added a way to skip the opening part of the story when replaying, so a new character no longer means losing your old one or sitting through the prologue again.

What should you do before Dark Arisen unlocks?

On Steam the expansion unlocks at 5pm PDT / 8pm EDT on 8 October, which is 1am BST and 2am CEST on 9 October; on PlayStation it is midnight local time on 9 October, according to PC Gamer's release-time breakdown, which also reports no preload and a download of about 25 GB. Until then, a few base-game changes are worth getting used to:

• Fill your new skill slots. Title Update 3.2 raised assignable weapon skills from four to six, and the expansion adds new skills and higher levels of existing ones for every vocation. There are no new vocations.
• Learn the new save types: Autosave, Interim Save and Last Inn Rest Save. Loading an inn rest no longer deletes the other two, but resting at an inn still overwrites them.
• Stock a Dragonsbaulk Draught, the item 3.2 added to cure Dragonsplague, or decide to keep an afflicted pawn: the same update gave afflicted pawns new combat behaviours.
• Pre-order if you want the Norgan Fashion Set (Northern Attire); Steam notes it may also be available later.

How do the Lost Rites and Norgan fit together?

Norgan is built around what Capcom calls the Relic Expedition cycle: you unearth relics and have them appraised, and Oyama says appraisal produces weapons, armour and skills with random parameters. Unlike the original Dark Arisen's single dungeon, it happens across an open map. IGN's review adds that Norgan has more portcrystals than Vermund and Battahl combined, which makes the back-and-forth less of a slog.

The two halves feed each other. New vocation skills are bought at obelisks in Norgan: per IGN, the first tier costs rift points, while higher tiers need offering flames from the Lost Rites, which are repeatable. If a skill you want is locked, the answer is usually a dungeon back in the south.

Is there transmog in Dark Arisen?

Yes, with a condition. Oyama says a side quest chain in the expansion, once completed, unlocks a feature that changes the appearance of weapons and armour obtained in Norgan to that of other gear, keeping the original stats. Capcom has not said whether it covers base-game gear, so assume it applies to Norgan equipment only. Side quests come from the locals of the Norgandian Settlement and from members of a research expedition.

When is Hard Mode coming?

Not with the expansion, as far as Capcom has said. Its 6 October Steam post says further main-game updates are "on the way", including Hard Mode, without a date. In the Q&A, Kinoshita describes it as a challenge for seasoned players whose stats have reached, or are approaching, the level cap. Hard Mode then arrived in Title Update 4.0 on 9 October, and Capcom says it can be applied to an existing save: our guide to every Dragon's Dogma 2 title update has the details.

Can your PC run Dark Arisen?

Capcom revised the PC requirements with Title Update 3.2 and says they apply to both the base game and the expansion. These are the figures on the Dragon's Dogma 2 Steam page. On consoles, Oyama said the update tuned the game to run at 60fps in Performance Mode on PS5 and Xbox Series X.

Still deciding whether the expansion is worth $29.99? Our report on Dark Arisen's 84 Metascore and the Steam turnaround covers prices, editions and what critics liked, and everything else we publish on the game lives on our Dragon's Dogma 2 hub.