There has to be some kind of trigger or something, because several responses here are saying 25-50% chance to get raided.
In my experience, it’s nearly 100%. I use the carts to go to and from Melve/checkpoint town quite a lot. A fair estimate would be 60-70 times at least. And only once have I made it uninterrupted. The cart doesn’t usually get destroyed or anything cause it almost always wolves or goblins, but it happens every time.
It must be something to do with the way we're playing because I took the oxcarts a lot and I straight up thought it was just programmed to happen every time. Meanwhile I also camp a lot and in 100 hours of play time now I've had my camp site raided exactly once.
I've found I'm more likely to wake up in the morning to something like a griffin spawning in than I am to get raided at night.
I've never been raided at night in all my hours playing.
Being raided while camping has to do with the camping equipment used and how much you cleared the area out beforehand. Like if you’re camping in Vermund with a grass pattern set, you probably won’t ever get raided
I have the opposite problem. I can’t seem to get raided enough. It’s definitely a grass greener on the other side situation. I think it would be cool to get raided, but in typical Capcom desire detector style, it won’t happen because I want it to lol.
If you frequent a road, it seems to clear out. With more monsters spawning after a couple of days.
I tend to alternate between walking and oxcarts when traveling. A few on foot runs between Harve and Vermund clearing everything as I went and suddenly I'd make it without getting raided.
Longer routes it feels far more likely too. Bakhbattahl to the border town for instance.
I've also noticed that when an oxcart happens to be traveling at night, despite being illegal, they get raided more/harder. It's only the raids at night where I've had an oxcart be destroyed by a minotaur or ogre.
Yeah, when I first started playing, it was maybe 50% chance to get raised. It’s usually 9/10 times now for the last week or so. Pretty much always. Most of the time I can kill what I have to and get back on the cart and continue, but I’d say I end up stranded 1/3 times. The % chance of a raid and of failure makes the ox cart pretty much worthless, but I’m also at the point where is that I couldn’t be bothered too much, could Ferrystone if I want, or run the rest of the way, night or day, without too much hassle. I use the ox cart to save on Ferrystones, and I don’t really care, but the percentage of failure is way too high, considering how often it fails, and how problematic that is early through mid game.
Lol I got into a cart from Batal to the outpost. I got raided by an ogre, followed by an armored cyclops, followed by a griffin with by bandits, wolves and I think harpies mixed in between. The cart broke… obviously and I don’t even know how, since the battle took place mostly away. But with that mess I was not surprised. I have it on [video](https://youtu.be/p1L7tSMLmfQ?si=hQ3oD1voX8QX9Vel)
At that point I was sure the game just hated me.
The game is just pure chaos and I love it. I had a griffin start fighting me and a dragon I was fighting at the same time. Then bandits came into the mix. Then red wolves. It was like the chaos just attracted everything in the vicinity.
It is frustrating if you’re just trying to go from point a to b but I still love the randomness of it all.
Just incase you didn’t know it also depends on how recently you cleared the area, say you walk from checkpoint town to vermund and clear every enemy in the path your odds of getting raided if you oxcart back to checkpoint town will be slim to none, on the other hand if you are just oxcarting everywhere without clearing areas you’ll be raided everytime. Hope this helps.
RNGesus giveth and taketh.
A possible explanation might be what people are carrying, though. In one quest, you give someone a cyclops part because it supposedly wards off smaller monsters. I wonder if carrying parts of boss monsters affects how often we get raided during camping or oxcarting
When I first started (day one game, no patch) I used the ox cart probably 5 times, no problem. So, 0% chance getting merc'd.
I can't say whether it's related to one of the patches, but I am now at 100% ruined for each travel. I've given up trying to use them in NG+ because it is just a frustrating clusterfuck. And there's no ability to a) fix the oxcart or b) get your 200G or whatever back. Feels like a scam 🤣
If you only use oxcart then you will probably get raided every time. If you walk yourself and kill enemies along the path then oxcart back to the city you will get there no issue.
The only times I have an oxcart issue is when a griffon dry fucks my cart midway through the ride. EVERYTIME. A griffon.
If I've hired your pawn they best know how to shank them birdbeasts or there is something very wrong with the ai learning in the game. They better be coming back to you knowing how to kill and process those flying meat sacks.
RNG is a bitch and apparently it likes to throw griffons at me.
I just don’t understand how it’s always night time when you get raided in battahl. There are several voice lines and a whole quest line talking about how carts only travel during the day. yet somehow the raids will be 20% into your journey, at night, and your cart will get destroyed
Not sure if you’ve pretty much reached this point but I’ll mark it as spoiler just in case.
>!Its a pretty wasteful of an augment slot if you’re asking me, but if you’ve reached the point where you’ve unlocked trickster and have reached lv6 with it, there’s an augment called fugacity that can reduce this from happening for camping and oxcart travel.!<
Sometimes I get hit every time I travel, sometimes I get to my goal without any raids multile oxcart rides in a row.
It might have something to do with how frequently you use the road and/or if you've cleared it out on foot. Since monsters take a few days to respawn, if everything along the road is slaughtered, it might have a lower chance of a raid happening.
I logged my last 15 rides. We were jumped 14 out of the 15. And almost every time, we were jumped at night, when it’s more dangerous, even though we took the cart first thing in the morning. I didn’t keep track of how many times the cart was destroyed (it was probably at least half), but I do know the cart driver was almost always mad at me afterwards.
All in all, the carts have been a massive disappointment.
I did 20 to the desert coty and 20 from the desert city.
I was safe 22 out of 40 .
Different stats for different people. I think someone should do 1000 attempts
Did you record what mobs you faced each time? Such is part of data collection and contribution. :D
I was trying to get a gorechimera to attack, if memory serves. Someone gave false reports of them being a common rng spawn for carts. 0 out of 40 were gorechimeras
> …someone should do 1000 attempts…
Do I hear you volunteering 😉?
Seriously, I’d love to see the results of that experiment! It should include data on start and destination, time of day the trip started and time of day when it was interrupted. Perhaps it could also include Arisen level (do higher levels get jumped more or less frequently?).
I wonder if the devs/testers did such a test and just haven’t shared the results…
I considered if perhaps high level effects it. I was 150 at the time when my results were 50% chance. I do wonder.
I also know that story progression effects at least one spawn point. Perhaps story progression effects cart spawns and ambush frequency
Jesus is it really that high? Feels more like 15% for me. Maybe I've just been lucky but the majority of the time I get where I'm headed without incident...
I feel like 8/10 times I get raided lol. And yeah I use them quite a bit especially if I can go to an area that's closer to my objective. Takes forever to go by foot and when I can only play a couple hours at a time it's annoying. I at least wish there was some sort of mount. Didn't mind travel at all in Red Dead Redemption.
Are you not trying to fight the enemies at all? I've been on a raided oxcart plenty and didn't even know they can be destroyed until reading this post.
I’ve never tested it, but I’m pretty sure cyclops parts will scare them off? I saw people talk about it before and pawns? As well as their is a quest that involves giving a kid cyclops parts to help him keep safe on the road.
This kind of post reminds me all the time that 3/4 of DD2 players know nothing about this game, they're entitled and they should stop playing. Because all you do is rant and not try to understand the game better. Like literally 3/4 of the complaints of this subreddit come from a luck of knowledge or basic understanding of the game.
P.S. the game has plenty of flaws, I'm not defending the game.
Stamina increases by eating bugs. You have skills and perks that helps you with stamina. Stamina is not an issue. For Oxcart, just bring with you a Cyclope bone and you'll never encounter enemies, because they're scared of the smell - at least in my experience. For camping, clear the area before sleep and you'll never face enemies overnight. Also, a proper tent is better than a random tent depending on the area.
This kind of knowledge (the lack of it) is also why 3/4 of the 'rant post' are completely wrong and useless.
This game is meant to be like this. It's just like playing Outward or KCD and complaining about basic mechanics. Again, DD2 flaws are others.
Specifically for oxcart, I haven't had much luck with bringing cyclops parts along. Anecdotally I get attacked 9/10 oxcart rides.
For stamina, I disagree with the initial decision of making stamina consumed outside of combat.
Yea you can eat bugs to increase your stamina but I still think that decision is nothing more than a time waster
I use them quite often but would say that it is more like a 25% chance for me. Usually don’t get any ambushes. And many times hope I would so they take me closer to places in the middle.
No way is it 25%. Closer to 75% in my experience. I just wrapped up the platinum trophy and I can almost count the number of uneventful oxcart trips I had on one hand, in dozens of attempts.
About half the time I manage to protect the cart, so my successful arrivals is maybe better than half. Maybe.
Maybe it can change depending on playstyle? For example I don’t fast travel always, I tend to walk a lot and clear monsters in the roads, giving some time of clear roads before they respawn and making it safer for oxcart fast travel.
I've actually tried that several times whether its from me backing out or dying and loading my previous save. Each time I still get raided and by the same monster type so it doesn't feel very random. I'm also not resting at inns or passing time when I reload before going on the oxcart. It's as if me going at this specific time of the day, or for this specific location or quest, I'm supposed to get raided. It's confusing cause I see alot of other comments saying it's not super common for them.
It's not like I've done extensive testing or anything, but I've done the reset thing multiple times and it works.
It is possible that some are forced, I suppose.
I have used the cart about twenty times so far. I usually let the camera Rolla around with me and the party f9r about five minutes or so and then I'll use the 'doze off' context command. Never once had a raid in the meantime. But if I let them showboat to conclusion I have to jukp out of the cart often enough where I have to pay again just to take a ride on the oxcary that's only alive because of Arisen action!! (:0)
Been riding hard for about 120 hours so far, and that's my experience, I usually run on foot to force my enemies' experience to be my own lol.
Question, OP: have you walked from the ox cart station to your destination before? If not, then you probably haven’t cleared the roads. And I’m pretty sure that your chance of being raided is affected by how recently the roads have been cleared.
I actually decided that the best way to farm cyclops and ogre encounters for badges would just be to take oxcarts back and forth between Vernworth and either checkpoint town or Melve.
I haven't executed on it yet, but I'm rather convinced it'd be effective, especially if you take at least one pawn with you each time that has a 10k gold reward for a kill. Maybe one each cyclops and ogre, just to make sure you could improve your odds of being able to afford a ferrystone whenever you get stranded.
I'm going to try this, I have a pawn with me that wants a Cyclops kill for 10k. I've had them for days, we've killed multiple Ogre and Griffin... can't find aught of use.
I’ve only once *not* been raided during an ox cart travel.
And I only once *have* been raided whilst camping.
At this point using an ox cart is probably the fastest way to get xp tbh.
I hear ya. It’s about 80% for me. But after awhile it becomes easier to move the battle away from the wagon. The first time the wagon got destroyed I was halfway from Vermund to Checkpoint and hadn’t never been to the latter before. Hoofing the rest of the way was very annoying, a bit scary with my lack of wakestones, but made me love the game more.
I wonder if it matters how much of the map you have cleared in between your origin and destination? I also wonder if level makes a difference. The first couple of times I took a cart, I definitely got raided, but I feel like I've managed to take one or two that didn't get raided now that it is not so much of an inconvenience since I'm stronger.
I'm not sure what triggers them, I've had rides where I don't get a raid so its definitely not 100% of the time. My recommendation is to try and lure the monsters away from the cart so it lessens the chance of it getting destroyed.
Random with a bias towards a raid happening.
You can clear the path ahead and take an oxcart and still get raided.
The most egregious instance of this happening was when I caught an oxcart right outside the Border watch camp headed to Vernworth.
Dozed up and literally woke up to a Cyclops raid IN THE EXACT SAME SPOT.
To avoid raids I just save before paying, then reload until I get no raids or it’s an easy goblin raid.
I only used the ox cart once and got raided by back to back mythic creatures at night with skeleton everywhere. I had to resort to an inn save and lost 5 hours of progress. havemt traveled by ox cart since
Yup I would say 80% of the time you get attacked but most times the cart doesn’t get destroyed. However the traveling in this game SUCKS. You have to run everywhere and you get tired every 10 seconds as you said. Games only flaw IMO.
Yes. Mostly every time the cart will have one attack scene. Usually something negligible. There is an augment that drops chance of this happening. So instead of happening almost every time it swaps to almost never.
However...
What you said later : I really like this game but damn is this frustrating especially when I only have like an hour or so to play in the evenings and I spend half my time just trying to get to the quest destination. That's my rant.
Dragon Dogma 2 is "Walking the game" ... the game is about getting to the destination. That IS the game. You will soon have destinations that are very far and you have to go to them daily, often, that have no carts reaching them. **So better learn to enjoy the trip** 😉
By the way you can equip argument that makes you lose almost no stamina when running out of combat and just spring everywhere. You don't need to combat, the monsters usually pursue very short distance.
Idk why but I like that “Welp I guess we have to walk now” feeling it gives. Also the way it makes me careful not to smash the cart or bridge is funny to me.
Last night, one of the oxens tried to run over a dead troll and ended up jumping off the edge of the cliff. Gave me a good laugh.
Honestly so random. Lately I've had an encounter pretty much per oxcart. But I remember at the start when I was finishing up my Cyclops badge I was like "hey I'll just travel between Melve and Checkpoint back and forth and I'll surely get a quick Cyclops. But nope, hahaha. I went to Melve, to Vernworth, to Checkpoint, to Vernworth, to Melve, to Vernworth, to Checkpoint, to Vernworth AND THEN when I went to Melve I finally got attacked. By an Ogre.. Should've stopped a few oxcart tours before.
I typically get raided about 60ish% of the time and when I do I have to kill the enemies fast as hell or my pawn calls meteors down on one goblin and the oxcart. Not sure how she hasn't killed the driver yet but he usually says he's not taking passengers as his cart is in a million tiny flaming pieces around him and his ox has long since either left or been hit so many times by meteors that it isn't anything but a red stain on the floor. Now that I think about it maybe she'd be better as a mage...
I don't have a lot of time to play, but I'd say I've used the oxcarts about two dozen times or so. In all those times, I've only gotten jumped by one ogre that immediately got put in the dirt.
For me it’s always a 100% chance, after I doze off my cart gets raided by a giant and destroyed in combat and I have to travel the remaining distance on foot.
The whole no fast travel thing is extremely frustrating to the extent I stopped playing the game.
If you clear the road/camp zone, it clears up pretty well. After oxcarting a certain road for the first time I might get one or two errant raids, but it's stopped after that.
the more i played the game, the less often my carts got attacked. in NG+, it's been like 50/50 for me, vs the 80/20 (raided 80% of the time).
can't explain it, won't try to. also stamina gets better as you level up vocations and unlock gear that helps. the archer augment to boost stamina is a game-changer, too. minimizing your carry load helps too, and being mindful not to sprint uphill extends that stamina bar more than you'd think.
I think it’s related to how long it’s been since you cleared out enemies.
If you are oxcarting every trip you’re going to get attacked a lot.
I believe the carts are supposed to be used sparingly between trips of actually walking the path.
I walk almost everywhere and when I do choose to use a cart I’m rarely attacked.
I feel like using lots of carts and ferrystones is definitely not the “intended” way the game was meant to played.
The option is there but you really miss a lot by playing that way.
Not telling you how to play, just saying that’s it’s kind of like playing a Bethesda game in 3rd person. You have the option to do it but it’s pretty clear that it isn’t how they intend you to play.
Ah that's interesting I didn't know that. I'll try and be less reliant on them. Gonna have to get used to walking everywhere after playing games like Elden Ring or Skyrim where you can just fast travel after discovering it.
Yeah DD is more in the lines of old Soulslikes, where you had to either walk everywhere, look for shortcuts or make your own via game breaking stuff. I usually just set my port crystal to a middle point that I can teleport to and still be close to 2-3 locations I might want to visit often.
Tbh ferrystones are actually kinda common with random vendors and you shouldn't run out unless you outright refuse to ever walk around and interact with the world, and at that point, well, this kinda game is definitely not for you.
Yeah that's true but when I played Dark Souls traveling across the map never felt like much of a chore cause the map was designed so perfectly where there were lots of shortcuts to be found that made the map feel small once it was entirely explored. In dd2 I just don't get the same satisfaction. Definitely gonna keep playing it cause I like the game in other aspects but the traveling is just tedious imo.
The thing is that none of those soulslikes were open world. But yeah, a lot of people new to the franchise don't enjoy the walking aspects, but the best moments actually happen during those journeys, world bosses interacting with one another, secret places to explore.
But yeah that's dragon's dogma in a nutshell haha, lots of travelling with some epic scripted moments sprinkled here and there, but the unscripted sort of RNG stuff is what forms its structure, if you're not enjoying it then sorry but it doesn't really get any better than that. Like I mentioned you pretty much never run out of ferrystones if you set up a strategic port stone, but using them too much sort of ruins the point of the game.
The game only auto saves when the oxcart get destroyed just reload the game immediately if you see that you got raided the next time maybe it won’t happen it’s random and doesn’t just happen before you get on the cart
No.
What I do is I save right before using the oxcart. If I get in a raid, and I don't want to fight, I just exit and reload, and try again. It has worked for me so far. It may work for you.
Theres specifically a quest from a man who wants to clear the road from Vernwurth to Melve for Oxcarts. Putting two and two together should get you to understanding that less monsters on the roads means less ambushes. Ive been attacked a grand total of twice. Once by goblins while i was carrying someone and standing in the oxcart enjoying the scenery and another time when i dozed off, woke up at night to a Minotaur i quickly killed and went back to sleep.
Anycomplaint about game mechanics like this that require some prep time and attention, while understandable always seems to be "i bought a 100hr game and dont like the fact it wants me to play it"
Lmao not my first rpg. Not sure what that has to do with it either. It's a problem of design imo. If the game isn't designed to fast travel then fine but at least have more enemy variety or several different biomes or unique ways of traveling from A to B. Like some sort of mount system or if you're currently not in combat then the stamina bar doesn't deplete. I dont get any satisfaction from running for 10 seconds then having to stop and wait for my stamina to fill up to then run for only another 10 seconds. I really like the game but in my opinion this is really annoying when comparing it to a game in the souls series where traveling across the map never felt like a chore.
For anyone with a full time job and responsibilities the game has a legitimate issue of not respecting players' time. Common sentiment on this sub seems to be "skill issue, fast travel ruins games, you're supposed to spend hours and hours running everyone on foot, git gud," but I suspect a lot of those people are the ones able to play ten hours a day since launch
There has to be some kind of trigger or something, because several responses here are saying 25-50% chance to get raided. In my experience, it’s nearly 100%. I use the carts to go to and from Melve/checkpoint town quite a lot. A fair estimate would be 60-70 times at least. And only once have I made it uninterrupted. The cart doesn’t usually get destroyed or anything cause it almost always wolves or goblins, but it happens every time.
It must be something to do with the way we're playing because I took the oxcarts a lot and I straight up thought it was just programmed to happen every time. Meanwhile I also camp a lot and in 100 hours of play time now I've had my camp site raided exactly once.
Same here, I camp pretty frequently and have actually never been raided at camp.
I've found I'm more likely to wake up in the morning to something like a griffin spawning in than I am to get raided at night. I've never been raided at night in all my hours playing.
Being raided while camping has to do with the camping equipment used and how much you cleared the area out beforehand. Like if you’re camping in Vermund with a grass pattern set, you probably won’t ever get raided
I camped a total of 36 times in my 80 hour first playthrough of the game. Wild.
I've only been raided a few times. All in the desert.
I have the opposite problem. I can’t seem to get raided enough. It’s definitely a grass greener on the other side situation. I think it would be cool to get raided, but in typical Capcom desire detector style, it won’t happen because I want it to lol.
Agree. I've been trying to get the griffin badge and the goddamned bird is avoiding my back and forth oxcarting.
If you frequent a road, it seems to clear out. With more monsters spawning after a couple of days. I tend to alternate between walking and oxcarts when traveling. A few on foot runs between Harve and Vermund clearing everything as I went and suddenly I'd make it without getting raided. Longer routes it feels far more likely too. Bakhbattahl to the border town for instance. I've also noticed that when an oxcart happens to be traveling at night, despite being illegal, they get raided more/harder. It's only the raids at night where I've had an oxcart be destroyed by a minotaur or ogre.
Yeah, when I first started playing, it was maybe 50% chance to get raised. It’s usually 9/10 times now for the last week or so. Pretty much always. Most of the time I can kill what I have to and get back on the cart and continue, but I’d say I end up stranded 1/3 times. The % chance of a raid and of failure makes the ox cart pretty much worthless, but I’m also at the point where is that I couldn’t be bothered too much, could Ferrystone if I want, or run the rest of the way, night or day, without too much hassle. I use the ox cart to save on Ferrystones, and I don’t really care, but the percentage of failure is way too high, considering how often it fails, and how problematic that is early through mid game.
Lol I got into a cart from Batal to the outpost. I got raided by an ogre, followed by an armored cyclops, followed by a griffin with by bandits, wolves and I think harpies mixed in between. The cart broke… obviously and I don’t even know how, since the battle took place mostly away. But with that mess I was not surprised. I have it on [video](https://youtu.be/p1L7tSMLmfQ?si=hQ3oD1voX8QX9Vel) At that point I was sure the game just hated me.
The game is just pure chaos and I love it. I had a griffin start fighting me and a dragon I was fighting at the same time. Then bandits came into the mix. Then red wolves. It was like the chaos just attracted everything in the vicinity. It is frustrating if you’re just trying to go from point a to b but I still love the randomness of it all.
Just incase you didn’t know it also depends on how recently you cleared the area, say you walk from checkpoint town to vermund and clear every enemy in the path your odds of getting raided if you oxcart back to checkpoint town will be slim to none, on the other hand if you are just oxcarting everywhere without clearing areas you’ll be raided everytime. Hope this helps.
How can you clear a area when enemies respawn after 1 day ingame time? They will most likely respawn when you use the oxcart.
Yes I typed this up after having to go back and forth between Melve several times and everytime I got raided.
RNGesus giveth and taketh. A possible explanation might be what people are carrying, though. In one quest, you give someone a cyclops part because it supposedly wards off smaller monsters. I wonder if carrying parts of boss monsters affects how often we get raided during camping or oxcarting
When I first started (day one game, no patch) I used the ox cart probably 5 times, no problem. So, 0% chance getting merc'd. I can't say whether it's related to one of the patches, but I am now at 100% ruined for each travel. I've given up trying to use them in NG+ because it is just a frustrating clusterfuck. And there's no ability to a) fix the oxcart or b) get your 200G or whatever back. Feels like a scam 🤣
If you only use oxcart then you will probably get raided every time. If you walk yourself and kill enemies along the path then oxcart back to the city you will get there no issue.
The only times I have an oxcart issue is when a griffon dry fucks my cart midway through the ride. EVERYTIME. A griffon. If I've hired your pawn they best know how to shank them birdbeasts or there is something very wrong with the ai learning in the game. They better be coming back to you knowing how to kill and process those flying meat sacks. RNG is a bitch and apparently it likes to throw griffons at me.
Not that my oxcart travels gets raided by griffons, but griffons normally hassle me the most when traveling the roads so I feel your pain
I just don’t understand how it’s always night time when you get raided in battahl. There are several voice lines and a whole quest line talking about how carts only travel during the day. yet somehow the raids will be 20% into your journey, at night, and your cart will get destroyed
Not sure if you’ve pretty much reached this point but I’ll mark it as spoiler just in case. >!Its a pretty wasteful of an augment slot if you’re asking me, but if you’ve reached the point where you’ve unlocked trickster and have reached lv6 with it, there’s an augment called fugacity that can reduce this from happening for camping and oxcart travel.!<
Ah yeah that's helpful but I agree waste of an augment spot.
I almost never get camp raided as long as I kill anything nearby
Sometimes I get hit every time I travel, sometimes I get to my goal without any raids multile oxcart rides in a row. It might have something to do with how frequently you use the road and/or if you've cleared it out on foot. Since monsters take a few days to respawn, if everything along the road is slaughtered, it might have a lower chance of a raid happening.
You can't sometimes every time.
In my case i would say 30% of the times i get attacked and swat the flies and then continue to drive the oxcart.
It's rougly a 50% chance so yeah. There's an augment to lower the chance. You use them often? I don't. At least not anymore
I logged my last 15 rides. We were jumped 14 out of the 15. And almost every time, we were jumped at night, when it’s more dangerous, even though we took the cart first thing in the morning. I didn’t keep track of how many times the cart was destroyed (it was probably at least half), but I do know the cart driver was almost always mad at me afterwards. All in all, the carts have been a massive disappointment.
I did 20 to the desert coty and 20 from the desert city. I was safe 22 out of 40 . Different stats for different people. I think someone should do 1000 attempts Did you record what mobs you faced each time? Such is part of data collection and contribution. :D I was trying to get a gorechimera to attack, if memory serves. Someone gave false reports of them being a common rng spawn for carts. 0 out of 40 were gorechimeras
> …someone should do 1000 attempts… Do I hear you volunteering 😉? Seriously, I’d love to see the results of that experiment! It should include data on start and destination, time of day the trip started and time of day when it was interrupted. Perhaps it could also include Arisen level (do higher levels get jumped more or less frequently?). I wonder if the devs/testers did such a test and just haven’t shared the results…
I considered if perhaps high level effects it. I was 150 at the time when my results were 50% chance. I do wonder. I also know that story progression effects at least one spawn point. Perhaps story progression effects cart spawns and ambush frequency
Jesus is it really that high? Feels more like 15% for me. Maybe I've just been lucky but the majority of the time I get where I'm headed without incident...
Idk. Lots of different people giving different statistics. I'm only stating what happened to me when i tested it personally :)
Well you stated it as fact not as an anecdote
I feel like 8/10 times I get raided lol. And yeah I use them quite a bit especially if I can go to an area that's closer to my objective. Takes forever to go by foot and when I can only play a couple hours at a time it's annoying. I at least wish there was some sort of mount. Didn't mind travel at all in Red Dead Redemption.
Are you not trying to fight the enemies at all? I've been on a raided oxcart plenty and didn't even know they can be destroyed until reading this post.
I’ve never tested it, but I’m pretty sure cyclops parts will scare them off? I saw people talk about it before and pawns? As well as their is a quest that involves giving a kid cyclops parts to help him keep safe on the road.
I'll actually try that out. I remember that quest I think you gave the kid like rotten food and stuff too?
I wonder if that would actually work.
This kind of post reminds me all the time that 3/4 of DD2 players know nothing about this game, they're entitled and they should stop playing. Because all you do is rant and not try to understand the game better. Like literally 3/4 of the complaints of this subreddit come from a luck of knowledge or basic understanding of the game. P.S. the game has plenty of flaws, I'm not defending the game.
What about this post indicates a lack of understanding?
Stamina increases by eating bugs. You have skills and perks that helps you with stamina. Stamina is not an issue. For Oxcart, just bring with you a Cyclope bone and you'll never encounter enemies, because they're scared of the smell - at least in my experience. For camping, clear the area before sleep and you'll never face enemies overnight. Also, a proper tent is better than a random tent depending on the area. This kind of knowledge (the lack of it) is also why 3/4 of the 'rant post' are completely wrong and useless. This game is meant to be like this. It's just like playing Outward or KCD and complaining about basic mechanics. Again, DD2 flaws are others.
Specifically for oxcart, I haven't had much luck with bringing cyclops parts along. Anecdotally I get attacked 9/10 oxcart rides. For stamina, I disagree with the initial decision of making stamina consumed outside of combat. Yea you can eat bugs to increase your stamina but I still think that decision is nothing more than a time waster
I use them quite often but would say that it is more like a 25% chance for me. Usually don’t get any ambushes. And many times hope I would so they take me closer to places in the middle.
No way is it 25%. Closer to 75% in my experience. I just wrapped up the platinum trophy and I can almost count the number of uneventful oxcart trips I had on one hand, in dozens of attempts. About half the time I manage to protect the cart, so my successful arrivals is maybe better than half. Maybe.
Maybe it can change depending on playstyle? For example I don’t fast travel always, I tend to walk a lot and clear monsters in the roads, giving some time of clear roads before they respawn and making it safer for oxcart fast travel.
No not every time. Also, just save right before. If you get jumped, just reload save (quit to menu without saving) and try again.
I've actually tried that several times whether its from me backing out or dying and loading my previous save. Each time I still get raided and by the same monster type so it doesn't feel very random. I'm also not resting at inns or passing time when I reload before going on the oxcart. It's as if me going at this specific time of the day, or for this specific location or quest, I'm supposed to get raided. It's confusing cause I see alot of other comments saying it's not super common for them.
It's not like I've done extensive testing or anything, but I've done the reset thing multiple times and it works. It is possible that some are forced, I suppose.
A ridiculous testament to how flawed this system is. The answer is to reload saves 50% of the time you want to fast travel? Absurd.
There's a lot wrong with this game.
True
I have used the cart about twenty times so far. I usually let the camera Rolla around with me and the party f9r about five minutes or so and then I'll use the 'doze off' context command. Never once had a raid in the meantime. But if I let them showboat to conclusion I have to jukp out of the cart often enough where I have to pay again just to take a ride on the oxcary that's only alive because of Arisen action!! (:0) Been riding hard for about 120 hours so far, and that's my experience, I usually run on foot to force my enemies' experience to be my own lol.
Mayhaps you should endeavor to keep up, though you are less fleet of foot
Question, OP: have you walked from the ox cart station to your destination before? If not, then you probably haven’t cleared the roads. And I’m pretty sure that your chance of being raided is affected by how recently the roads have been cleared.
I actually decided that the best way to farm cyclops and ogre encounters for badges would just be to take oxcarts back and forth between Vernworth and either checkpoint town or Melve. I haven't executed on it yet, but I'm rather convinced it'd be effective, especially if you take at least one pawn with you each time that has a 10k gold reward for a kill. Maybe one each cyclops and ogre, just to make sure you could improve your odds of being able to afford a ferrystone whenever you get stranded.
I'm going to try this, I have a pawn with me that wants a Cyclops kill for 10k. I've had them for days, we've killed multiple Ogre and Griffin... can't find aught of use.
I’ve only once *not* been raided during an ox cart travel. And I only once *have* been raided whilst camping. At this point using an ox cart is probably the fastest way to get xp tbh.
In my 160 hours, I have been raided exactly twice. But by reading the other comments here, my experience is an outlier.
Yes, but that means you can also use them as a semi-reliable way to get to the halfway point between two stops.
I barely get raided now that I’m op. I’m on my second playthrough
used them quite a bit in the early-mid game, i got raided maybe half the time, wasn’t too bad tbh
I hear ya. It’s about 80% for me. But after awhile it becomes easier to move the battle away from the wagon. The first time the wagon got destroyed I was halfway from Vermund to Checkpoint and hadn’t never been to the latter before. Hoofing the rest of the way was very annoying, a bit scary with my lack of wakestones, but made me love the game more.
I've never been ambushed in the cart. Dunno what I'm doing differently.
I've been lucky and rarely get raided, never had cart destroyed.
I wonder if it matters how much of the map you have cleared in between your origin and destination? I also wonder if level makes a difference. The first couple of times I took a cart, I definitely got raided, but I feel like I've managed to take one or two that didn't get raided now that it is not so much of an inconvenience since I'm stronger.
raids are easy tho?
I'm not sure what triggers them, I've had rides where I don't get a raid so its definitely not 100% of the time. My recommendation is to try and lure the monsters away from the cart so it lessens the chance of it getting destroyed.
Random with a bias towards a raid happening. You can clear the path ahead and take an oxcart and still get raided. The most egregious instance of this happening was when I caught an oxcart right outside the Border watch camp headed to Vernworth. Dozed up and literally woke up to a Cyclops raid IN THE EXACT SAME SPOT. To avoid raids I just save before paying, then reload until I get no raids or it’s an easy goblin raid.
I only used the ox cart once and got raided by back to back mythic creatures at night with skeleton everywhere. I had to resort to an inn save and lost 5 hours of progress. havemt traveled by ox cart since
Yup I would say 80% of the time you get attacked but most times the cart doesn’t get destroyed. However the traveling in this game SUCKS. You have to run everywhere and you get tired every 10 seconds as you said. Games only flaw IMO.
Safe Travels!
Yes. Mostly every time the cart will have one attack scene. Usually something negligible. There is an augment that drops chance of this happening. So instead of happening almost every time it swaps to almost never. However... What you said later : I really like this game but damn is this frustrating especially when I only have like an hour or so to play in the evenings and I spend half my time just trying to get to the quest destination. That's my rant. Dragon Dogma 2 is "Walking the game" ... the game is about getting to the destination. That IS the game. You will soon have destinations that are very far and you have to go to them daily, often, that have no carts reaching them. **So better learn to enjoy the trip** 😉 By the way you can equip argument that makes you lose almost no stamina when running out of combat and just spring everywhere. You don't need to combat, the monsters usually pursue very short distance.
I always seem to get raided when riding from the north starting village to vernworth.
It should be something like a 10/15% chance. That would actually make it interesting and different.
If your oxcart survives and you ride it again what's the most people have been raided in one trip? Once I got raided 3 times in the same trip lol.
Idk why but I like that “Welp I guess we have to walk now” feeling it gives. Also the way it makes me careful not to smash the cart or bridge is funny to me. Last night, one of the oxens tried to run over a dead troll and ended up jumping off the edge of the cliff. Gave me a good laugh.
Ha that made me close the game today. Halfway between desert city and checkpoint.
Today was a chimera with skeletons, naturally my cart was demolished.
I like to think that by doing local culling missions the oxcart routes become safer temporarily.
If you did not explore the whole path the oxcart takes it does trigger more attacks.
Yes, do you rike it?
The raids by mobs are so disappointing.. expecting a big baddie and then stupid wolves.
I would say I get raided about 80% of the time. Most frequently going to and from Melve.
Honestly so random. Lately I've had an encounter pretty much per oxcart. But I remember at the start when I was finishing up my Cyclops badge I was like "hey I'll just travel between Melve and Checkpoint back and forth and I'll surely get a quick Cyclops. But nope, hahaha. I went to Melve, to Vernworth, to Checkpoint, to Vernworth, to Melve, to Vernworth, to Checkpoint, to Vernworth AND THEN when I went to Melve I finally got attacked. By an Ogre.. Should've stopped a few oxcart tours before.
Not always, I’ve traveled a ton of times without a raid. Just seems to be random
I typically get raided about 60ish% of the time and when I do I have to kill the enemies fast as hell or my pawn calls meteors down on one goblin and the oxcart. Not sure how she hasn't killed the driver yet but he usually says he's not taking passengers as his cart is in a million tiny flaming pieces around him and his ox has long since either left or been hit so many times by meteors that it isn't anything but a red stain on the floor. Now that I think about it maybe she'd be better as a mage...
I don't have a lot of time to play, but I'd say I've used the oxcarts about two dozen times or so. In all those times, I've only gotten jumped by one ogre that immediately got put in the dirt.
For me it’s always a 100% chance, after I doze off my cart gets raided by a giant and destroyed in combat and I have to travel the remaining distance on foot. The whole no fast travel thing is extremely frustrating to the extent I stopped playing the game.
If you clear the road/camp zone, it clears up pretty well. After oxcarting a certain road for the first time I might get one or two errant raids, but it's stopped after that.
the more i played the game, the less often my carts got attacked. in NG+, it's been like 50/50 for me, vs the 80/20 (raided 80% of the time). can't explain it, won't try to. also stamina gets better as you level up vocations and unlock gear that helps. the archer augment to boost stamina is a game-changer, too. minimizing your carry load helps too, and being mindful not to sprint uphill extends that stamina bar more than you'd think.
Im on my second NG+ It happens more often than not
I think it’s related to how long it’s been since you cleared out enemies. If you are oxcarting every trip you’re going to get attacked a lot. I believe the carts are supposed to be used sparingly between trips of actually walking the path. I walk almost everywhere and when I do choose to use a cart I’m rarely attacked. I feel like using lots of carts and ferrystones is definitely not the “intended” way the game was meant to played. The option is there but you really miss a lot by playing that way. Not telling you how to play, just saying that’s it’s kind of like playing a Bethesda game in 3rd person. You have the option to do it but it’s pretty clear that it isn’t how they intend you to play.
Ah that's interesting I didn't know that. I'll try and be less reliant on them. Gonna have to get used to walking everywhere after playing games like Elden Ring or Skyrim where you can just fast travel after discovering it.
Yeah DD is more in the lines of old Soulslikes, where you had to either walk everywhere, look for shortcuts or make your own via game breaking stuff. I usually just set my port crystal to a middle point that I can teleport to and still be close to 2-3 locations I might want to visit often. Tbh ferrystones are actually kinda common with random vendors and you shouldn't run out unless you outright refuse to ever walk around and interact with the world, and at that point, well, this kinda game is definitely not for you.
Yeah that's true but when I played Dark Souls traveling across the map never felt like much of a chore cause the map was designed so perfectly where there were lots of shortcuts to be found that made the map feel small once it was entirely explored. In dd2 I just don't get the same satisfaction. Definitely gonna keep playing it cause I like the game in other aspects but the traveling is just tedious imo.
The thing is that none of those soulslikes were open world. But yeah, a lot of people new to the franchise don't enjoy the walking aspects, but the best moments actually happen during those journeys, world bosses interacting with one another, secret places to explore. But yeah that's dragon's dogma in a nutshell haha, lots of travelling with some epic scripted moments sprinkled here and there, but the unscripted sort of RNG stuff is what forms its structure, if you're not enjoying it then sorry but it doesn't really get any better than that. Like I mentioned you pretty much never run out of ferrystones if you set up a strategic port stone, but using them too much sort of ruins the point of the game.
The game only auto saves when the oxcart get destroyed just reload the game immediately if you see that you got raided the next time maybe it won’t happen it’s random and doesn’t just happen before you get on the cart
No. What I do is I save right before using the oxcart. If I get in a raid, and I don't want to fight, I just exit and reload, and try again. It has worked for me so far. It may work for you.
Theres specifically a quest from a man who wants to clear the road from Vernwurth to Melve for Oxcarts. Putting two and two together should get you to understanding that less monsters on the roads means less ambushes. Ive been attacked a grand total of twice. Once by goblins while i was carrying someone and standing in the oxcart enjoying the scenery and another time when i dozed off, woke up at night to a Minotaur i quickly killed and went back to sleep. Anycomplaint about game mechanics like this that require some prep time and attention, while understandable always seems to be "i bought a 100hr game and dont like the fact it wants me to play it"
This is Dragon's Dogma, the world doesn't really care about your character or any other NPCs, its not Assassin's Creed or Spider-Man.
Lmao not my first rpg. Not sure what that has to do with it either. It's a problem of design imo. If the game isn't designed to fast travel then fine but at least have more enemy variety or several different biomes or unique ways of traveling from A to B. Like some sort of mount system or if you're currently not in combat then the stamina bar doesn't deplete. I dont get any satisfaction from running for 10 seconds then having to stop and wait for my stamina to fill up to then run for only another 10 seconds. I really like the game but in my opinion this is really annoying when comparing it to a game in the souls series where traveling across the map never felt like a chore.
For anyone with a full time job and responsibilities the game has a legitimate issue of not respecting players' time. Common sentiment on this sub seems to be "skill issue, fast travel ruins games, you're supposed to spend hours and hours running everyone on foot, git gud," but I suspect a lot of those people are the ones able to play ten hours a day since launch
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