Dragon’s Dogma II: The Arisen’s Shadow quest guide

It’s a quite deliberate game design decision that Dragon’s Dogma 2 features some obtuse and open-ended quest design - it’s meant to help you to engage with and properly role play in DD2’s world. One perfect example of this is The Arisen’s Shadow, a quest that sees your protagonist stalked by a mysterious stranger. This quest guide will help you to track down the pursuer - and punish him accordingly.

The Arisen’s Shadow: How to Contend with your Pursuer in DD2

The Arisen’s Shadow quest will pop randomly when you’re hanging around Vermund capital Vernworth in Dragon's Dogma 2, and is specifically tied to your overall progression through the early main story missions bequeathed to you by Captain Brant. The exact circumstances and moment in which it appears will slightly vary for players. Once it’s triggered, however, it’ll pop up in your quest log - and your pawns will say that they've noticed that you're being watched.

“A shadow dogs your every step—perhaps sent by someone who did not take kindly to you prying into palace affairs? You had best confront this individual and find out their intent.”

This is the exact sort of quest that is difficult to solve alone without assistance in Dragon’s Dogma 2 but easy to explain in a guide. To “Contend with your pursuer” as the quest log suggests, you must keep an eye out and then engage with the game’s mechanics carefully.

Once the quest is available, look out for a hooded man in Vernworth. He’s not the best stalker in the world - if you get too close to him he will yell out “YOU!” and begin to run away. Attempts to talk to him just see him say "Hmph," and reveal his name is Bermudo. So, what then?

This happens even if you walk past him on other business - so rather than searching Vernworth for the pursuer specifically, our recommendation is to wait until this randomly happens to you as you’re exploring the city for other DD2 quests, and then drop everything and give chase once you hear that sound byte.

Chase down the hooded figure, who is called Bermudo, and when you’re close enough, use R2 to tackle him and bring him to the ground. With that, you have captured your pursuer. This is the same method you use to apprehend the Saint of the Slums in the quest of that name - it's not just a grapple for combat, but a method of arrest!

DD2 The Arisen’s Shadow: Should you let Bermudo go?

After some dialogue revealing who he is, you have a choice: let him go and take a bribe to do so, or take him down. As always in Dragon's Dogma, the game will save when you make a decision, and short of deleting your save you won't have another shot at it - so here are the outcomes. 

• Letting him go will reward you with 5000 Gold.
• Refusing the cash will mean you fight him, earning a small amount of EXP in the process. Once he’s defeated, you’ll be automatically transported back to Captain Brant. Brant has the man arrested (so he’ll remain in the jail, where you can later free or taunt him) and also gives you 4000 Gold.

It’s worth noting that there are other ways this quest can proceed, but the outline is broadly the same. Bermudo can be involved in a monster attack on Vermund, which is intended to blow his cover and act as a way in which you might first notice him, for instance. Alternatively, if too much time passes, Bermudo may outright try to assassinate you, skipping the hunt phase of the quest and jumping straight to the fight.

In any case, the choice above will be the same, and the path will be the same. Most people will probably follow the path we laid out in full above, though.