Trading and Gifting

For Gifting of items to raise affinity or for quests, see Gifting.

Trading and Gifting is the concept of trading or giving desired Items, Weapons, and Armor from one player to another player by use of Pawns in the pawn community. Using this process allows one to acquire common items, rare loot, Ur-Dragon drops, etc.

Overview

There are two separate ways of trading and gifting:

For Items a hired pawn can be given a single item at the end of a hire as a reward.

For Weapons, Armor, Clothing, and Jewelry such equipment can be equipped on a hired pawn to gift them.

There is no formal 'in-game' method of trading, however informal trading can be carried out by cross-gifting.

Not all items are tradable. See § Item Trading Restrictions below for more details.

Trading/Gifting Process Walkthrough

Important: Make sure you are online and logged in.

Step 1 ~ Send a Friend Request

(Optional) This is recommended. In the case the user's pawn is a higher level than the player, this eliminates having to purchase the player's pawn with Rift Crystals. Being friends can also be beneficial to the player and the new friend as forms of communication to complete the trade.

Step 2 ~ Locate the Pawn

Locating the pawn is done using the Riftstone inside the Rift. Using the search feature, the player can locate the pawn in which they want to trade with. Using the "Friend List" search to locate pawns is a common way, or searching by other categories.

Trading and Gifting (Items)

Step 1 ~ Enlist the Pawn

In order to gift the item, the player must enlist the pawn to their party.

Step 2 ~ Release the Pawn

Releasing the pawn will allow the player to choose a gift for their master during departure. Usually, it is possible to enlist and release the pawn in the same visit inside the Rift. If it does not pull up the gift window, simply leave the Rift and re-enter.

Step 3 ~ Gift the Pawn

Choose which item to give to the pawn. Upon gifting, the system will release them from the party.

Step 4 ~ Rest at the Inn

This will allow the server to refresh and update the trade.
The data exchange with the server can only happen in online mode. Also the player's Main Pawn must be alive.

Trading and Gifting (Armor and Weapons)

Step 1 ~ Identify the Pawn's Vocation

This is an important step when trading Armor and Weapons. Some Weapons and Armor are only equippable by certain vocations. If the player is about to trade, be sure the item is usable by the pawn being recruited before enlisting them. Vocations can be determined in the search function of the Rift using the Riftstone.
Note: Any equipment that only Hybrid Vocations can equip cannot be traded or gifted. An example would be trying to trade a Lustrous Greatshield that only a Mystic Knight can use.

Step 2 ~ Enlist the Pawn

In order to equip items to pawns, they must be enlisted to the player's party.

Step 3 ~ Leave the Rift

Exit the Rift to begin the equipping process.

Step 4 ~ Equip the Pawn

In order to send armor and weapons as a trade or gift. It has to be physically equipped to the pawn.

(1) Choose to give the desired equipment to the pawn.

(2) Choose to equip the pawn with the equipment that is going to be traded/gifted.

(3) Once equipped, a message warning will pop up. Choose Yes to proceed or No to cancel the trade.

Step 4 ~ Release the Pawn

Go back into the Rift and release the pawn. THIS IS AN IMPORTANT STEP! This step is often missed and a common problem that hangs up a lot trades.

Step 5 ~ Rest at the Inn

This will allow the server to refresh and update the trade.

Item Trading Restrictions

Certain items and equipment cannot be gifted or traded.

In general any item that can be obtained using Rift Crystals cannot be gifted - this includes :

All items from the Rift Shop, including :
- Inclination Elixirs
- Eyeglasses
- Aneled Weapons
- Solar Armor, Asura Armor, Gloves of Might
- All Costume Jewelry from the shop.

Additionally weapons specific to Hybrid vocations - that is Maces, Magick Shields, and Magick Bows cannot be given, since pawns cannot equip these weapons.

Any bought DLC items cannot be gifted.

Dark Arisen

The restriction on trading items that require Rift Crystals to obtain includes new items in Dark Arisen such as :

All equipment that has been Silver or Gold Rarified.
Any item that can be obtained from Purification. This includes :
- All equipment that can be got from Bitterblack Armor.
- All weapons that can be got from Bitterblack Weapons.
- All equipment from Bitterblack Gear including :
  - Virtuoso Ring, Preceptor Ring, and Master Rings.
  - All Skill Rings and Bands.
  - Bloody Knuckle, Ring of Perseverance, Ring of Desiccation, Vandal's Ring, Wanderlust Ring.
- All items from Bitterblack Novelties :
  - Including Light Pickaxe, Elite Lantern, Expediting Papers, Ring of Thrift.
  - All Single use magick items from Dark Arisen excluding Liftstones.
  - Rancid Bait Meat.

Whilst previously ungiftable DLC armor and weapons from Dragon's Dogma became giftable, some previously giftable items become ungiftable as they can be obtained from Purification of cursed items. These include :

Weapons from Bitterblack Weapon Lv.1 - generally high quality weapons below Draconic quality and items only found in the post-Dragon Everfall (for example, the Savage Fang, Bloody Thistle, or Cyclops Sigil).
Items from Bitterblack Novelties, including Priceless Artifact, Dragon's Gaze, and the Antique Panoply.

Additionally Moonbeam Gems cannot be gifted.

Items Allowed for Trading

Some notable items/equipment which are allowed to be traded:

Unpurified (cursed) Bitterblack Weapons, Armor, Gear, and Novelties level 1-3.
Ur-Dragon rewards including both the weapons, armor, and masks.
Dragon Weapons, Rusted Weapons, and Golden Weapons.
Quest items, including the Wyrmking's Ring, Gold Idols, and Blessed Flowers.
Most keys, e.g., First Key To Salvation , Windbluff Tower Key, and the Void Key.
Arisen's Bond and Dragonblood rings.
All monster parts needed for enhancing and rarifying.
Wakestones, Liftstones, and Portcrystals.
All Badges of Vows.
Drake's Tear, Wyrm's Tear, and Wyvern's Tear.

Notes

Caution! Do not gift more than 10 items or equipment pieces at a time. Although it is possible to equip 12 pieces of equipment to a Hired Pawn and gift 1 item, the gifting limit is 10 items.
- If the limit is exceeded, all gifted items will be lost, no Rift Crystals will be gained from the rental, and a 3/3/3 review will be given.
- The server capacity is defined as ten equipped armor/clothing/weapons gifted within ten rentals between resting (at an Inn). If a pawn had been previously gifted 10 items on an initial rental and a further item was equipped on a second rental, this would cause the capacity to be exceeded.
  - This gifting limit may be exceeded for items of the same type.
- It is necessary for the Pawn's Arisen to rest to accept and receive items - the recipient must rest to clear the rental and item lists.
Caution! Do not gift multiple pieces of equipment of the same type. For instance a piece of body armor and then equip another piece of body armor. Only the last item equipped on the pawn is actually gifted. The first piece is discarded and disappears.
Caution! Do not gift a duplicate item by simply equipping it on top of the original, or in case of rings not even as a secondary ring equipment. These items will be discarded and disappear. In order to equip duplicate items on a pawn, first select the pawn's equipment you wish to replace and choose "unequip" (sending it back to the owner). After this you may equip the actual piece you wish to send without it disappearing.
To gift multiple materials, release the Hired Pawn at a Riftstone and then re-hire them to gift a second item.
To indirectly gift another player with Gold, send or equip the Hired Pawn with valuable items. The most valuable items to send are unpurified Bitterblack armor and weapons, which when purified can sell for over a million gold.
If the player sending a gift has more than one of the gifted items and at least one of them is in the player's active inventory, the gifting system will select the item from active inventory rather than from storage.
Gifting Quest Items incurs little consequence for the sender since the item will reappear available for purchase at The Black Cat in Gran Soren.
Using the gifting system in this game for a trading between two players in an agreement for a return trade relies solely on the other person honoring the agreement. There is no means to force the agreement. For instance, if you send an item to another player and the other player refuses to keep their part of the agreement, there is nothing you can do about it.
Warning! If an item was sent to a pawn and the player loads a save from before the trade was made, a temporary two day trade ban will be automatically put onto the violating account. This is to prevent players from gifting an item and then reloading an older save to duplicate the item beyond the bounds of the game.
- Under these circumstances gifted items may be changed into Rocks.
- Additionally, Rift Crystals are not earned during this period.
No method of gifting unpurified Bitterblack items will change the outcome of the purification - see Purification for more details.
(BUG) When searching for lvl.200 pawns only offline pawns appear in the list. For maximum level online pawns set the search to lvl.199.

Platform specific

Pawn hiring is via Pawn IDs or via a Friend Code. The Pawn ID can be found in the in game Menu >> Status >> [Select Pawn] - near the bottom of the screen.
Pawn servers were switched off end of March 2018, ending hiring and trading

Hiring and Trading Websites

Capcom has designed Dragons Dogma Dark Arisen to be a very social game, gamers are encouraged to use pawns belonging to other active gamers, and several creative methods have been developed by gamers for gamers to facilitate locating and hiring pawns through message boards or registries. There are several forums for arranging trading and hiring of other pawns:

www.gamefaqs.com : PS4 , XONE , PC , PS3
www.reddit.com : r/DragonsDogma (all versions - see "Pawn Rental Post")
'Steam' steamcommunity.com (PC only)
www.facebook.com :

Trading cannot be guaranteed to work on as the online servers were officially shut down in Mar 2018. (Some limited service was still working as of mid 2020, but cannot be relied on)

Caution! Trade arrangements are made at ones own risk. It should be noted that "trading", or "gifting" for real world money or services is likely in contravention of the "Terms of Service" of XboxLive, PSN, Steam etc.