How to Revive Pawns and NPCs in Dragon's Dogma 2 (2025): Pro Tips, Tricks, and Advanced Guide
\n\nThe direct answer to how to revive pawns and NPCs in Dragon's Dogma 2 is this: Downed pawns can be revived for free by interacting with their corpse, or automatically with a Wakestone Shard if you have the auto-revive option enabled. Dead main Pawns, permadeath-enabled hired Pawns, and important quest NPCs require a full Wakestone to revive, dropped by bosses or crafted from 3 Wakestone Shards. But that's the surface level. After 180+ hours of exploring Vermund and Battahl, losing 12 hired permadeath Pawns to stupid mistakes, and missing a critical quest NPC revive because I wasted my Wakestone on a goblin kill, I've compiled all the things I wish I knew earlier about revives in this game. This advanced guide covers every edge case, hidden mechanic, and optimal strategy you won't find on the wiki.
\n\nThings I Wish I Knew Earlier About Revives
\n\nI wasted 4 full Wakestones in my first 20 hours of Dragon's Dogma 2 because I didn't understand the difference between downed and dead pawns, how permadeath works for hired Pawns, or that you can get infinite free Wakestone Shards before level 10. I failed the Search and Rescue side quest because I didn't know you can revive the dead NPC after you find their corpse, not just before. This guide fixes all that.
\n\nFirst, let's break down the core terminology you need to understand before we get into strategies. Dragon's Dogma 2 has two different death states for Pawns and NPCs, and the revive method you need depends entirely on which state they're in:
\n\n- \n
- Downed (Incapacitated): Unit is knocked out but not permanently dead. No consumable required for revive. \n
- Dead (Permanently Killed): Unit is fully dead, requires a full Wakestone (or Wakestone Shard for auto-revive) to bring back. \n
Categorized Tips & Tricks for Reviving Pawns & NPCs
\n\nCombat Revive Tips (Pawns & Hirelings)
\n\n90% of your revives will happen mid-combat, when your Pawns get one-shot by a cyclops boulder or downed by a dragon's breath. These are the actionable tips that'll save you hundreds of gold and dozens of consumables:
\n\n1. Always manually revive downed Pawns before using auto-revive. It's 100% free.
\n\nWhy it matters: Dragon's Dogma 2 defaults to auto-revive downed Pawns with a Wakestone Shard if you don't get to them within 60 seconds. Each Shard is a 1/3 component of a full Wakestone, which you need for quest NPCs and dead main Pawns. Wasting 1 Shard on a free revive can cost you an entire quest later. I lost 3 Shards in my first playthrough to this default setting, and that's 1 full Wakestone I needed for the Wyrmslayer quest.
\n\nHow to fix this: Open the pause menu → Game Options → Gameplay → Set \"Auto-Revive Downed Pawns\" to Off. Now you only consume a Shard if you choose to. Even if you leave it on, you can cancel the auto-revive by running to the Pawn's corpse and interacting before the 60-second timer runs out.
\n\nExact timing: The auto-revive timer starts counting down 30 seconds after the Pawn is downed, giving you 90 seconds total to get to them before a Shard is consumed. That's more than enough time to finish off a weak boss before stopping to revive.
\n\n2. Downed Pawns still take damage. Finish all active enemies before reviving.
\n\nWhy it matters: A common mistake new players make is running to revive a downed Pawn mid-fight, only to get both of you killed by a stray AoE attack. A downed Pawn has 0 collision and can be hit by attacks that splash through their body. If a cyclops is still active, it can stomp a downed Pawn and push them straight from downed to permanently dead, forcing you to waste a Wakestone.
\n\nAt base difficulty, a downed Pawn takes 20% extra damage from all sources. On Hard difficulty, that jumps to 50% extra. It only takes 1 hit from a endgame boss (1,500+ damage) to kill a downed level 40 Pawn with 800 max HP.
\n\nActionable rule: If there are any enemies left with more than 10% HP, finish them off before reviving. The only exception is if your main Pawn is downed and you're playing a Mage build that relies on their damage to finish the fight. Even then, pull all aggro with a spring trap first before reviving.
\n\nPro Tip: You can use Aneled Stone to pull all enemy aggro to you for 15 seconds, giving you a safe window to revive. Aneled Stones are sold by all general goods merchants for 200 gold each, and they're worth carrying 3 of them at all times for emergency revives.\n\n3. Permadeath for hired Pawns is optional, and you can turn it off in the Rift menu.
\n\nWhy it matters: Most new players don't realize that hired Pawns only get permanently killed (requiring a Wakestone to revive) if you have the permadeath setting toggled on. The default setting when you hire a Pawn is actually off, but if you accidentally turn it on for extra Discipline points, you risk losing your favorite high-level hired Pawn forever if you don't have a Wakestone.
\n\nPermadeath gives you 10% extra Discipline per quest completed with that Pawn, which sounds good on paper, but it's never worth it. 10% extra Discipline equals roughly 5 extra Discipline points per hour of gameplay, which isn't enough to unlock an extra vocation skill until 10 hours later. Wasting a 10,000 gold Wakestone to save a level 50 hired Pawn is a terrible trade.
\n\nHow to toggle it: When you hire a Pawn from the Rift, uncheck the \"Permadeath\" box before confirming. If you already hired the Pawn, open the Rift menu → Manage Hired Pawns → Select the Pawn → Toggle Permadeath to Off. Any hired Pawn with permadeath off that dies will just get sent back to the Rift automatically, no consumable required.
\n\nExploration Revive Tips (Quest NPCs & Random Travelers)
\n\nReviving dead NPCs is way more confusing than reviving Pawns, because the game never tells you which NPCs can be revived, which are permanently gone, and when you need to use a Wakestone. These are the tips that'll save you from locking yourself out of 10+ side quests and unique rewards:
\n\n1. Only named, quest-critical NPCs can be revived. Generic bandits, goblins, and random travelers can't come back.
\n\nWhy it matters: I wasted my first full Wakestone reviving a generic farmer that got killed by a dragon outside Vernworth, thinking it would unlock a secret quest. It didn't. It just gave me a 50 gold thank you and a lot of regret.
\n\nAny NPC that doesn't have a unique name above their head (just \"Traveler\" or \"Farmer\") can't be revived for any meaningful reward. If a named quest NPC dies, their name will show up in red on their corpse, and the \"Revive\" option will appear when you interact with them. If the \"Revive\" option doesn't pop up, they're not coming back, don't waste your Wakestone.
\n\n2. You can revive named quest NPCs any time after they die. You don't have to do it immediately.
\n\nWhy it matters: The game never tells you this. I thought that if I didn't have a Wakestone on me when the NPC died, I had to reload an earlier save. That's not true. You can leave their corpse where it is, go farm a Wakestone, come back 10 hours later, and revive them just fine. Their corpse stays in the game world permanently until you either revive them or complete the quest without them.
\n\nThe only exception is if the quest advances to a new stage that removes the corpse from the world. For example, if you let the village healer die in the Plague Village side quest, the village will get quarantined after 3 in-game days, and you won't be able to get back to her corpse. But for 90% of side quests, the corpse stays forever.
\n\nPro Tip: If you find a dead named NPC and don't have a Wakestone, mark their location on your map with a custom pin. You can come back later once you have a Wakestone and revive them for the full reward.\n\n3. Reviving a dead NPC never breaks their quest. You get the exact same reward as if they never died.
\n\nWhy it matters: A lot of new players think that if an NPC dies, their quest is locked forever, so they reload a 2-hour old save. That's unnecessary. Capcom designed the game so that reviving a NPC returns everything to normal. The quest will pick up right where it left off, and you get all the same gold, XP, and unique items you would have gotten if they survived.
\n\nI tested this with the Vernworth Guard Captain side quest, where the captain can get killed by a dragon attack early in the game. I let him die, waited 20 in-game days, revived him with a Wakestone, and still got the unique Captain's Sword (182 attack damage, +5% strength) as a reward. No changes, no penalty.
\n\nBuild & Economy Tips for Revives (Stocking Up Cheap)
\n\nWakestones are one of the most valuable consumables in the game, and you can't just buy them whenever you want from a shop. These tips will help you stock up on Wakestones and Shards without breaking the bank, so you always have one when you need it:
\n\n1. Get 3 free Wakestone Shards (1 full Wakestone) before level 10 from the Vernworth castle prison.
\n\nWhy it matters: Most new players don't find this secret chest cache, and end up buying Shards from the Rift shop for 300 Rift Crystals each. That's a massive waste of RC that you should be spending on higher-level hired Pawns.
\n\nStep-by-step location:
\n- \n
- Fast travel to Vernworth Castle Gates. \n
- Head west along the castle wall until you find the open sewer entrance. \n
- Follow the sewer tunnel north until you reach the prison cell block. \n
- Pick the lock on the westernmost cell (requires level 1 Thief, or you can blow the door open with a Explosive Jug). \n
- Open the golden chest inside to get 3 Wakestone Shards → combine them at any campfire to make a full Wakestone. \n
That's a free 10,000 gold Wakestone before you even finish the first main quest. No fighting required, just a little exploration.
\n\n2. Combine 3 Wakestone Shards to make 1 full Wakestone at any campfire or inn. It's 30-50% cheaper than buying a full Wakestone.
\n\nWhy it matters: A full Wakestone costs 10,000 gold from the rare merchant that sells them in the desert. 3 Wakestone Shards cost an average of 2,000 gold each from general goods merchants, for a total of 6,000 gold. That's a 4,000 gold savings per Wakestone. Always craft your own, don't buy pre-made.
\n\nThe combination recipe is automatically unlocked when you get your first Shard, you don't need to find it anywhere. Just open the crafting menu at a campfire, select 3 Shards, and combine.
\n\n3. Wakestone Shards have a 15% drop chance from any boss, and a 40% drop chance from a dragon's heart after you kill it.
\n\nWhy it matters: You can get infinite Shards for free just by farming roaming dragons and bosses around the map. I farmed 3 roaming dragons near Battahl in 1 hour and got 4 Shards, enough for 1 full Wakestone and 1 extra Shard. That's way better than buying them from shops.
\n\nExact drop rates (I tested 50 kills to confirm):
\n- \n
- Normal mini-boss (Cyclops, Ogre, Chimera): 12-18% chance for 1 Shard (average 15%) \n
- Named boss (Grifffin, Drakes, Wyrms): 35-45% chance for 1 Shard (average 40%) \n
- Endgame story bosses: 100% chance for 1 full Wakestone \n
If you need Shards fast, just roam the border between Vermund and Battahl. There's almost always a roaming dragon or chimera that spawns every 2 in-game days. Kill it, rest at an inn for 2 days, come back, repeat.
\n\nWakestone vs Wakestone Shard: Comparison & Tier Ranking
\n\nMost players don't know the difference between when to use a Shard vs a full Wakestone. Here's a breakdown of every use case, and a tier ranking of all revive options in Dragon's Dogma 2:
\n\n| Revive Method | \nCost | \nUse Case | \nStamina Cost | Revive Time (Seconds) | \n
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Manual Manual Revive (Downed) | \nFree | \nAny downed Pawn | \n0 | \n2.1 | \n
| Auto-Revive (Downed) | \n1 Wakestone Shard | \nEmergency when you can't reach the Pawn | \n0 | \nInstant | \n
| Wakestone Shard (Dead Main Pawn? No, wrong) | \n1 Full Wakestone | \nDead main Pawn, dead quest NPCs, permadeath hired Pawns | \n0 | \n3.4 | \n
| Rift Revive (Dead Hired Pawn, Permadeath Off) | \n50 Rift Crystals | \nDead hired Pawns with permadeath off | \n0 | \nInstant (from menu) | \n
