As you know, Dragon’s Dogma contains an elaborate class system, where each of the nine classes ultimately available to the player is very distinct. If you’ve played the game, you probably have a favorite class. Mine is Mystic Knight. Or Ranger. Or Magick Archer.

If, like me, you’ve been having trouble picking a favorite, then I guess you’ve probably been jumping around a bit from one class to another (which, by the way, the game lets you do at your whim, as long as you visit town). What you may or may not have noticed, however, is that in switching classes, there are some things that are held over. That is to say, changing classes doesn’t mean completely starting your character progress over from scratch. Indeed, you can actually navigate the class system to create a character who at once bears elements and advantages of a variety of classes.

First and probably most significant, any progress you’ve made within a given class will be retained, should you eventually choose to switch back to that class. So for example, if you begin the game as a Ranger, earn a bunch of rad Ranger skills, level up your Vocation Rank, and then switch to a Sorcerer, all of that Ranger progress will still be there waiting for you to come crawling back (should you decide you don’t like being a Sorcerer).

So that’s pretty cool, right? What it means is that, if you wanted to, you could beef up your character in every single class (bleeding into New Game+ or New Game++ if necessary), until you’ve created a sort of “Super Arisen”–a master of all crafts and a true force with which to be reckoned.

On top of this, you’ve got “Augments” for each class. No, I’m not talking about cybernetic implants that let you stealth kill suckas with your elbow. That’s not what I’m talking about at all. I’m talking about those “passive” Skills that give your Arisen useful advantages, such as increased base Health, resistance to strong wind, and knockback reduction during combat.

While Augments differ from one class to the next, any Augment that you’ve purchased is yours to keep and set at your whim, even if you’re no longer playing as that Augment’s class. Hence, if you love the Ranger’s ability to shoot arrows 1.3 times further than normal but don’t want to be a lame ol’ Ranger, you can play as one just long enough to purchase the “Trajectory” Augment, then switch to the totally rad Assassin class, which, as I’ve mentioned, is totally rad.

Effectively, Augments allow you to mix your classes a bit. So when you’re talking about your character with a friend, you can be like, “I play a Mystic Knight, but with subtle whispers of Strider and a sort of Warrior bouquet, if you will.”

This is the behavior of the seasoned Dogma connoisseur.

As a third and final point, players should be aware that stat increases per level vary from one class to the next. This system can also be played to the player’s advantage. If you want to boost your Stamina early on, play as a bow-wielding class, then switch to the class of your choosing when you’re satisfied with your gain. If you favor high base Health, go for a Fighter or Warrior. Regardless of class, stat boosts decrease per level after Level 100, so be sure to consider that when mapping out a leveling strategy.

There you have it. There are a variety of ways to play the class system, and countless combinations of class elements. This should give you even more to do in subsequent playthroughs of the game, as if there wasn’t enough already.

Let us know your class-leveling strategies in the comments!