The Dragon’s Dogma 2 community is using this trick to warn of the Dragonblight plague affecting pawns

Dragon’s Dogma 2 has many systems in place to make for an exciting adventure, including one that has become the bane and horror of many players: Dragonblight, a sickness spread through contact with infected Pawns that can result in the death of entire cities. But the community has found a way to warn each other when they suspect someone is in danger.

In case you haven’t heard of it, Dragonblight is a plague of unknown origin (so far) that afflicts Pawns, the game’s companions which can be shared and hired by players all over the world. This sickness is initially difficult to identify, but in short it makes the usually obedient Pawns become bold and dangerous. In the “terminal” phases of the sickness, an infected pawn will actively disobey commands given to them by the Arisen (the player character), become much more aggressive and seeking fights, and their eyes will begin to glow red.

This sickness doesn’t have a cure, and should you rest at an Inn while an infected pawn is with you, it’ll result in the death of every NPC around you, regardless of their importance to the plot or to quests, locking you out of that piece of content unless you manage to revive them using a Wakestone, another special and very powerful item, or start a new run of the game. However, you can avoid the consequences of Dragonblight by letting the infected pawns die or sending them back to their masters before they can cause any trouble.

The community has a trick to warn each other of the Dragonblight

Curiously, should your own main pawn become infected, you can cure them of the Dragonblight by killing them and causing them to return to the Rift. Then, when you summon them once again, they’ll be rid of the sickness. As such players have started warning each other through the only method of communication in the game: sending gifts back with pawns.

As you cannot send any direct messages, players on Reddit have shared how they started “giving rotten fruit to any pawn I get that has Dragonsplague,” in an effort to signal that they suspect a pawn is infected. This method of warning has started to spread among the community, with various discussions online suggesting gifting players rotten food or wilted flowers as a sign of infection.

As such, should your pawn give you a report after going on an adventure online and they come back with rotten food, it’s better to be safe than sorry and throw them into the deep waters to be cured. Just in case.