Playing through Dragon’s Dogma, I used to lament at the high cost of seemingly inflexible application of “fast travel” – that is, the method by which a player may warp from one point to another on the Gransys map.

If you’ve played the game, you know that the world of Gransys is quite large and sprawling, and often treacherous – particularly when traversed at nighttime. With no immediately accessible way to warp around, embarking on a quest often means a long and perilous journey ahead.

Then again, you are an adventurer. On your first playthrough, the game effectively  forces you to go on adventures and learn the lay of the land. The only shortcut it provides is in the form of Ferrystones – initially rare and expensive items that allow you to teleport back to the central hub town of Gran Soren, or anywhere else that you’ve laid down a Portcrystal, of which there only exists one on your first playthrough. 

Think of that as a fact of life: The game forces you to play the game. The sooner you come to terms with that, the sooner you’ll find yourself immersed in what is a truly unique experience. Savor your first playthrough of Dragon’s Dogma. It’s one for the ages.

After completing the game, you will have the option of beginning New Game+, which preserves all of your progress and also opens new doors to the wonderful world of fast travel. When you next visit the shady but personable Mountebank of the Black Cat shop in Gran Soren, you will discover that in New Game+, he offers Portcrystals for the extravagant price of 200,000G per. Additionally, he continues to sell Ferrystones for 20,000G. At this point in your progress, that shouldn’t feel like a particularly formidable price. A quick quest or two or a medium-length romp in the open world should be all it takes to save up the funds for a Ferrystone. Portcrystals will require a more long-term finance plan, or you could just pawn off a bunch of the unneeded equipment you’ve amassed over the course of your first playthrough. Yes, “pawn” off indeed.

So begins the meta-game of “colonizing” the land of Gransys. Once you have some Ferrystones and Portcrystals, you can set out to find ideal spots in the open world to place the crystals as fast travel points, ferrying back and forth as needed to expedite the journey. You can only place ten Portcrystals at a time, but with careful planning, that should be enough to ensure that you never have to journey too far between two points on your second and subsequent playthroughs of the game. 

↑ The Black Cat is a shady shop in a back alley of the lower reaches of Gran Soren. 

↑ Speak to Mountebank here to buy Ferrystones and Portcrystals.

↑ Portcrystals demand a hefty sum, but a little bit of questing or selling some of your equipment should be enough to afford at least one, and you only need ten total to maximize your fast travel ability.

↑ If you can find Fournival in town, he sells Ferrystones for 10,000G less, plus he’ll give a discount if you help him out during the game. . . . 

↑ In my latest venture, I decided to place a Portcrystal just outside the Blighted Manse, one of the northernmost locations on the map. 

↑ To lay it down, simply select and use it from the Tools in your inventory. It can be retrieved and replaced at any time.

↑ Use a Ferrystone to pull up. . .

↑ . . . your fast travel menu. You can select any location where there’s a Portcrystal. 

↑ To dramatic effect! Just remember that once you use a Ferrystone, it’s gone forever. Again though, they’re cheap enough that you should always be able to afford a few once you’re a mid-level Arisen. The Portcrystals, meanwhile, will stay where they are until you move them, even lasting through multiple playthroughs of the game. 

It’s proven to be a fun “quest” in and of itself to set out and “tame the land,” trying to figure out the most strategic spots to lay down crystals. Try it for yourself and let us know where the best warp spots are!