Monster Culling: Dragon's Dogma 2 Walkthrough Guide

This guide explores the «Monster Culling» quest in Dragon's Dogma 2, where you'll journey to three key locations to deal with menacing monsters. This mission is crucial not only for its immediate challenges but also because these areas play a significant role in later quests. The walkthrough will detail strategies for effectively handling the monsters at each site, ensuring you're well-prepared for future challenges that arise in these pivotal locations.

Upon stepping outside, you'll unexpectedly receive another side quest, «A Place to Call Home,» but whether to tackle it now or later is up to you. Additionally, as you approach the city gates, Donovan will approach you. He'll hand over a letter and ask you to escort a cart to Melve. This begins the side quest «Oxcart Courier.» It's a timed quest, so you might want to complete it first.

We recommend heading north towards the Great Bridge first, then following the marker to the east.

Stop before the bridge and inspect the building to your right. It's locked, and inside is a painted chest. If you have several pawns in your party, they might show the way to this hut.

You need to descend to the river on the right side of the bridge and find a tunnel swarming with monsters. At the bottom, there's also a chest, as well as a ladder leading into the house.

From the Great Bridge, run northeast and cross another bridge. Then, turn left and go around the tall mountain. This will bring you to the required location, where you need to eliminate several giant lizards. Do this to receive a reward of 3000 gold. However, this is only the first location; there are two more to go.

We do not recommend returning the same way. After the bridge, immediately turn left and run on the opposite road from the tall mountain. This will lead you to the cave «Spirit Trail».

I want to draw your attention to the fact that after opening the painted chest in the tunnels, high-level skeleton mages, who will likely kill you, will attack the party. To avoid this, as soon as you open the chest, call your pawns to you and get out of the caves. In the chest, you'll find a wakestone.

From the previous key point, continue heading southwest. This will bring you to a ruined settlement inhabited by bandits. Eliminate them and inspect all the buildings. In one of the houses, there will be a iron chest (wakestone shard), and another one of the houses will be locked. Wait for nightfall, kill the zombies and inspect their corpses. Our pawn opened the house on her own: possibly, one of the monsters' corpses had the key. Or, maybe to open the door, you need to buy a makeshift key from the traders. In any case, inside the house, there's a chest, where you'll find a decent shield (can be sold to merchants for 1000+ gold).

It's time to head to the nearest cave to clear the second location. Cross the huge bridge on the west side of the city and follow the only path. Along the way, you'll encounter no puzzles, just a few groups of monsters. Reach the fork and run right towards the cave.

Inside the mine, you'll also come across a fork. The quickest way to reach the marked area is to ascend the elevation on the right at the fork. Since the cave is enclosed, immediately after the battle, you can keep moving to the left to find several painted chests and exit the mine. In total, we were able to find four iron chests with valuable loot here.

From the previous location, follow the path south. Your landmark will be the ruined lighthouse visible in the distance. First, we recommend inspecting this building: on the first floor, you can find a painted chest (wakestone shard), and on the upper floors, valuable items and potions.

When you're ready, descend to the village and enter the cave directly under the lighthouse. First, activate the return crystal, then go down to the monsters. After defeating the first opponents, on an elevation, you'll see a chest (teleport stone) — you can get it if you circle around the cave and fight the second group of enemies. Right before the passage leading to this chest, there will be another one (serpent ring).

Don't rush to leave the mine. If you inspect all the adits, you'll find at least three more iron chests. Once you clear the location, you can return to Vernworth to report to the captain. In addition to the 9000 gold you've already received for clearing the locations of monsters, Brant will give you another 7000 coins, a scout's cloak, and 3000 experience points.