Dragon’s Dogma 2: How to get Wakestones in DD2

Just because your HP bar gets depleted in Dragon’s Dogma 2 doesn’t mean you’re out of the fight just yet. You have the chance to use a Wakestone before you’re forced to reload a previous save, which brings you back to full health and gets rid of any debilitations.

Wakestones are essentially a get-out-jail-free card you can use whenever you die in DD2. Because of that, however, they are fairly difficult to acquire and should only be used in dire circumstances. If you’ve been having trouble getting your hands on Wakestones in DD2, fear not; I’m here to explain all of the ways you can go about getting them.

How to find Wakestone Shards in DD2

Wakestones are primarily acquired by combining three Wakestone Shards. Once you have a stack of three Wakestone Shards in your inventory, the DD2 engine automatically crafts a Wakestone for you to use, which is a separate item in the inventory. With your Wakestone, you need to wait until you die to use one, so ideally, you don’t have to use them too often.

Wakestone Shards can be acquired in several different ways. For the most part, you’ll find them in random chests across the map. If you want to boost your odds of looting Wakestone Shards, you can use an item called the Dragon’s Gaze. This is a very handy item originally given to you by Brant in Vernworth after completing an early quest, but there are a couple of Dragon’s Gazes available throughout DD2.

Using the Dragon’s Gaze (click on it in your inventory) reveals all Wakestone Shards in your direct vicinity. The shards appear on your map as red icons, allowing you to see exactly where to go to loot them. I suggest using the Dragon’s Gaze every few minutes in new areas if you want to find all Wakestone Shards around you.

You can also earn Wakestone Shards as quest rewards, given to you by NPCs, or bought from vendors. Regarding buying Wakestone Shards, the best source I’ve come across is Ibrahim’s Scrap Store in the Checkpoint Rest Town (which is between Vernworth and Battahl). You can buy Wakestone Shards here for 5,000 gold.

You can only buy the Wakestone Shards one at a time, with any given DD2 shop getting new stock every few days or so. This is a constant source of shards, so if you ever need one, you can travel to Ibrahim’s and buy it. Other vendors across the map also sell Wakestone Shards, but I haven’t found as reliable a source as Ibrahim’s store.

How to get Wakestones in DD2

If you want to bypass the shards in DD2 and acquire full Wakestones, you’re mostly out of luck. I have only gotten one full Wakestone in my 40 plus hours of playtime, and it was by completing a pretty in-depth quest. They simply aren’t given out as rewards or found as loot, as the game wants you to find shards and combine them to make Wakestones.

Fortunately, you’re able to find Wakestone Shards just about anywhere on the map, so long as you’re using the Dragon’s Gaze to its potential.

How to use Wakestones in DD2

As I mentioned earlier, the only time you can use a Wakestone is if your HP is completely gone and your character has died. If you have a Wakestone to use, you’ll see a prompt on your screen after dying that says “Use Wakestone?” If you answer yes to this prompt, your character will pawns back in with a full HP bar, ready to start attacking again.

If you say no to using a Wakestone, the regular death sequence will play out, forcing you to reload a save and lose much of your HP bar. I recommend using a Wakestone if you’re in the middle of a quest, fighting a large enemy worth a lot of XP, or if you made progress you don’t want to reset. Any other time, using a Wakestone probably isn’t worth it.