Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen’s Random Loot Drops Aren’t “Excessively Grindy”

Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen Will Have Systems To Ensure Loot Drops Aren’t “Excessively Grindy” Published Sep 18, 2026, 11:30 AM EDT Sam Woods is TheGamer’s Senior Reporter. He’s been in games journalism since 2020 and has undertaken a variety of roles in that time. These have included roles such as SEO Editor, Managing Editor at DualShockers, and Global Head of Gaming, and he's also been seen on the BBC. He was promoted to the Senior Reporter position in 2025 following a series of high-quality reports and exclusives for TheGamer. Since 2020, Sam has written over 2,500 articles and specializes in telling the stories of the people behind the games. He’s interviewed the biggest game directors, some of the industry’s top talents, told the stories of how indie games came to be, and spoken to players about what really makes them tick. He’s also interviewed some of the world’s biggest musical artists to find out how the medium has inspired their work, and TV and Film actors about their roles in video game adaptations. He even hosted a PAX panel in 2021 and made a documentary in 2024 surrounding the creation of a Disney game. Alongside this, Sam focuses on breaking news. He got the scoop on Perfect Dark’s cancellation, got context around some AI drama, and revealed how Lady Dimitrescu’s actress would love to step back into the character’s giant shoes. These articles have been picked up by the biggest gaming sites, including IGN, GameSpot, and PC Gamer. He also loves to dive into the numbers behind the games. Sam’s journey in games journalism has taken him all over the world. He’s covered Gamescom in Germany, Summer Game Fest in Los Angeles, and Tokyo Game Show in Japan, each on more than one occasion. He’s been learning Japanese since 2024 with the intention of identifying and translating Japanese-language news and bringing it to English-language audiences first, something he’s done countless times. Sam’s first review was 2020’s Battletoads reboot, and he’s since reviewed games in The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario, and Pokemon franchises. Dragon’s Dogma 2’s first expansion could end up being a bit of a grind. It will feature randomized relic drops, inspired by the original Dark Arisen's Bitterblack Island, meaning players will need to complete various tasks to have a small percentage chance of receiving the items they want. Naturally, grinding in RPGs is nothing new, but it can be a source of frustration for a lot of players, so at this year’s Tokyo Game Show, I asked the team if they had any systems that helped to mitigate this. Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen’s Relic Drops Won’t Necessarily Require Hours Of Grinding In Dragon’s Dogma 2's Dark Arisen expansion, players can find relics in three ways: combat and enemy drops, exploration, and through Freckie the Wolf. These will have random drop rates, depending on the rarity. Thankfully, even with all of those systems, the grind won’t be too bad. ”We don’t want it to be excessively grindy,” Dark Arisen’s director Kento Kinoshita tells me. “It is always fun whenever you find something that has a low drop rate, but it can also go in the wrong direction if it stops feeling like fun.” So, what did the team do to combat this? ”The drop algorithm has a tendency to favour the vocations that you and your main pawns have set,” he says. “It works on the assumption that you would rather have gear that works with your vocation, so you won’t find that you’re getting drops for vocations that you simply never use. Secondly, there is a system in place for you to apply a certain bias to the outcomes. You’ll be able to specify ‘I’d like receive drops for X vocation more often.’ Not only is it built into the algorithm, a vocational bias, but you’ll also be able to go in and apply a buff towards certain vocations’ gear. Hopefully it won’t feel like you’re praying to the RNG gods too often.” Our full chat with Kinoshita, and Dark Arisen’s producer, Naoto Oyama, dives deep into the DLC. You’ll be able to read more about the world, its balancing, and the game’s free Hard Mode, when the interview goes live on the site soon. Dragon's Dogma 2: Dark Arisen Released October 9, 2026 ESRB Mature 17+ / Violence, Blood and Gore, Sexual Themes, Language Developer(s) Capcom Publisher(s) Capcom Prequel(s) Dragon's Dogma 2 Number of Players Single-player PC Release Date October 9, 2026 Xbox Series X|S Release Date October 9, 2026 Genre(s) RPG, Action, Adventure