Dragon's Dogma 2 Equipment Enhancement - Smithing Styles and You
One of the most esoteric and granular mechanics in Dragon's Dogma 2 would have to be enhancing equipment; unlike the first game, where increasing your equipment's strength was mostly a linear affair, things have been shaken up quite a bit with the sequel. There are four unique smithing styles in Dragon's Dogma 2, each with their own weaknesses and benefits, in addition to Wyrmforging - a linear increase in power for otherwise fully enhanced equipment. These include Vermundian, Battahli, Elven and Dwarven styles of smithing. Depending on the equipment, players might want to make use of one or more types of smithing during the process of enhancing their gear - and the depths with which players can explore the mechanic is surprisingly deep, all told.
Smithing Types and Where to Find Them
The most common of the smithing types would be Vermundian and Battahli smithing, due to the abundance of easy to access settlements where players can take advantage of the enhancement. Elven smithing is exclusive to the Elves of Sacred Arbor, and while there are no prerequisites to accessing it, players will likely benefit from learning the Elvish language. In lore, Dwarven smithing is the origin of Battahli smithing, and as such is exclusive to the region - yet both vendors for the style are locked behind lengthy sidequests, with the shorter of two being in a far less accessible location than the other.
This means that Dwarven smithing is the hardest of the styles to find in practice, and it's likely that many players might not even know of its existence during the entirety of their playthroughs. The same can be said of Elven smithing, but with the barrier of entry being so much lower it's far more likely that the average player will learn of its existence. With that said, what does each style bring to the table?
Vermundian Smithing
This style is the most basic of upgrades, improving each stat on a piece of equipment evenly, as a percentage increase on the stats that it benefits. Vermundian smithing also decreases the weight of equipment it enhances. Due to its moderate nature, Vermundian smithing won't be the best option for most players, but also won't be the worst. Vermundian smithing may be especially strong for duospears, as the weapon makes use of both physickal and magickal attributes.
As the most common smithing style, Vermundian style can be found at most villages, cities and outposts across Vermund.
Elven Smithing
The style of smithing practiced in the Sacred Arbor focuses heavily on magick enhancement. While this smithing will still improve physickal strength and defense, they're improved at a reduced degree compared to Vermundian style - and magick, the opposite. As such, any weapons that purely scale on magic you'll get the most benefit from enhancing with this style. Much like Vermundian smithing, equipment weight is reduced upon enhancement.
Unlike any of the other smithing styles, Elven smithing is only practiced in the Sacred Arbor - making access difficult compared to its contemporaries.
Battahli Smithing
Bakbattahl and the other Battahli outposts employ a smithing style that can be best described as the exact opposite of Elven smithing; physickal attributes are greatly enhanced, while magickal ones offer a milder upgrade. For weapons that scale on strength, that makes Battahli style the obvious choice - though there is one caveat. Unlike Vermundian and Elven smithing, Battahli smithing increases the weight of equipment. Usually this is a mild enough change to border on unnoticeable, but with some items it can add up with repeated enhancements.
As the second most common smithing style, it can be found across many areas in Battahl, including the capital of Bakbattahl.
Dwarven Smithing
Unlike the other three categories, Dwarven smithing requires some extra explanation, in part due to the prerequisites required to access it. Players will innately unlock a vendor for it in the process of acquiring Magick Archer, but most players would benefit from taking the time to complete the regalia sword sidequest that unlocks Bakbattahl's vendor for the craft.
In practice, Dwarven smithing offers stat increases very similar to the Vermundian style, with just a slightly lower improvement overall. This tradeoff is countered by a massive increase in knockdown power for weapons, and knockdown resistance for armor. This makes Dwarven smithing incredibly useful for toppling monsters, and Vermundian smithing a bit redundant once you've unlocked the craft. The only major downside is that it shares Battahli smithing's increase to equipment weight with each enhancement.
As previously stated, Dwarven style can be found in two locations in Battahl - yet requires some prep to become accessible on either the Agamen Volcanic Island, or the capital of Bakbattahl itself.
Wyrmfire
While the game does classify this as a smithing style, it goes without saying that Wyrmfire exists separate from the rest of the enhancement system for the most part. Instead of the pick and choose approach to enhancement prior, once a piece of equipment has been fully upgraded, Wyrmfire is a flat improvement to its stats. Additionally, Wyrmfire will halve the weight of a piece of equipment.
The other distinquishing factor for Wyrmfire is the materials required for the enhancement - Wyrmslife Crystals drop from Drakes, and other lesser dragons. This means that in order to get a final push for your equipments stats, you'll have to tackle some of the most dangerous enemies that the game has in store for you. All told, Drakes shouldn't be an issue by the point you'd consider these upgrades - but it's still a trial nonetheless.
Wyrmfire is only practiced by the Dragonforged on the Enoa'Battahli coast; but it's not a terrible trek from Bakbattahli, and players will be forced to become acquainted with him during the course of the story.
Other Notes
With how detailed the equipment enhancement system is, there are a few remaining things to keep in mind as you improve your character:
- You may have noticed in the images above, but different smithing styles call for slightly different materials. This means it's possible that a player might be unable to upgrade their equipment with one style, but still capable of doing so with others.
- We haven't tested with enough permutations of the same equipment to know for sure, but it stands to reason that the final improvement from Wyrmfire - if it scales as a percentage like every other enhancement in the game - might differ depending on the journey a piece of equipment has made to get there. This means that even though Wyrmfire itself might be a linear upgrade, the impacts of it could still differ depending on the choice of enhancements prior.
- Even if you've enhanced a piece of equipment with one style of smithing already, nothing prevents you from utilizing other styles for the remaining two enhancement slots - and, in some cases, that might actually be the optimal strategy. You may want to use Battahli or Elven smithing to "balance" the defenses on a piece of equipment, and then opt to switch to Vermundian or Dwarven styles for the rest of the enhancement tree.
Overall - there's a lot to consider when choosing how to enhance your equipment. At the end of the day, however, this mostly boils down to theorycrafting. No matter how you choose to improve your equipment, it will never end up weaker, or heavier, then how it started. So feel free to upgrade without any worry; you'll still be getting stronger with every enhancement. Best of luck, Arisen!