Nobody could have predicted the person who fled the Agamen Ruins so long ago would be the savior of the excavation. But, in Dragon’s Dogma 2‘s postgame, the Shepherd of the Pawns is your chance to let the other prisoners escape the cruel overseer. Let’s free this encampment.
The Shepherd of the Pawns is one of five escort quests in the Unmoored World of Dragon’s Dogma 2. This quest is not required for the ending of the game but is for the best possible ending.
How to start Shepherd of the Pawns in Dragon’s Dogma 2
The Shepherd of the Pawns questline begins soon after you enter the Agamen Ruins Excavation Site in the postgame of Dragon’s Dogma 2. You must have already started the Halls of the First Dawn quest to begin the evacuation effort. You can tell the Shepherd of the Pawns has started if you walk into the camp and a cutscene showcasing a Golem begins.
To begin Shepherd of the Pawns, you need to kill that Golem. It’s an endgame Golem, so he has a few more Magick Medals to crack than your standard boss. Still, large magic spells like Meteoron or Maelstrom, high damage stabs from a Thief, or an Archer’s arrows can make quick work of him.
The only character that has to survive during the fight is Henrique, the guard who warns you against heading up Moonglint Tower before the Legacy quest. If he dies, you need to spend a Wakestone to pick him back up during the fight’s conclusion if you want to start the quest. The Mystic Spearhand’s Mirour Shelde does a great job keeping him safe if you’re worried. If you take too long to resurrect Henrique, he’s taken to the Bakbattahl Morgue, and all sorts of issues can start cropping up. Thankfully, he’s relatively durable—even taking a few lasers from a Golem wasn’t enough to put him down.
Once the Golem is dead, and if Henrique either survived or got revived, he thanks you for your help. You may need to talk with him one more time after the fight concludes to get him to start walking because he has something to ask you. Be sure to loot the Golem before following Henrique down the bridge and into a jail cell, where a handful of Pawns are cowering. Talk with them to get them to explain that they are under orders to stay in the ruins. Henrique is surprised that they’re willing to talk to you but explains the Overseer must be nearby if the Pawns are acting like this. That bitter jerk.
How to rescue the Pawns
There are two methods to rescue the Pawns during Shepherd of the Pawns: Find the Diminished Godsway on the Overseer’s corpse or hire the Pawns to your own party and bring them across town. These methods seem to have no difference in reward for you, so you can choose whichever one you like for flavor purposes. Though, we recommend the former if you don’t want to organize your party inventory.
The primary method of rescuing the Pawns involves searching the lodgings on the south and western side of the encampment for the Overseer. The key Henrique gives you works on all doors over here, so feel free to walk around and loot the place. There’s a bunch of randomized loot in the various buildings of the Agamen Ruins, from gold to tomes, in ratty chests scattered about.
Once you’re done exploring, head to the building marked above to find the Overseer dead on the floor. Pick up his Diminished Godsway and walk back to Henrique, who isn’t surprised about the Overseer’s fate or how he was controlling Pawns. Hand over the item to complete the quest.
Alternatively, you can take control of the situation yourself. If you talk with the Pawns after the first time, you bring up the familiar Pawn hiring menu. You can hire each of these guys and bring them to a nearby Riftstone—presumably, the one in town, tucked around the corner from the Apothecary. Once you’re near that Riftstone, they thank you for your help and dismiss themselves, leaving your party slots open. Henrique thanks you for doing this for them, but it doesn’t change any reward for you. This can be arguably faster than the previous method, depending on how many Pawns you have to hire, but we recommend just getting the Diminished Godsway.
While rescuing the Pawns is definitely the harder of the two types of rescue mission, it does have its upsides. If your favorite Pawns have accumulated a lot of loss gauge during the endgame, this is a great excuse to cycle them out for NPCs for a brief time. Then, you’ll be right by a Riftstone to re-hire them, fresh-faced and ready for battle.
Rewards for Shepherd of the Pawns in Dragon’s Dogma 2
The Shepherd of the Pawns quest rewards you with 20,000 XP, 15,000 Gold, and 30 Wyrmslife Crystals. We couldn’t find a way to get additional funds out of this, sadly, even with a higher affinity with Henrique. In addition, after a few days, Henrique and the Agamen Ruins Apothecary head down to the Seafloor Shrine, letting you purchase endgame Apothecary gear significantly easier.
This is by far the least significant addition to your Seafloor Shrine bunker. Agamen Ruins doesn’t have dozens of civilians, as is the case when you evacuate Battahl or Sacred Arbor. This ruin doesn’t even have a blacksmith to buy stuff from—you just get the admittedly good Apothecary. You need to complete this to get full 100 percent status in the Unmoored World, but not if you’re just looking to get to New Game Plus.
The real highlight of this quest is the Crystals. 30 Wyrmslife Crystals is a far cry from the reward you get for killing a Purgener. However, it is enough to work towards Dragonforged Weapons and Armor, some of the best gear in the game. Alternatively, it lets you enhance your already-acquired gear with Wyrmfire Style, halving the weight and generally improving the stats of the piece. With how quickly and cheaply you can clear Shepherd of the Pawns, the reward is quite well worth it.
