When Minecraft meets classic JRPGs, you get Dragon Quest Builders 2 — the second game in the series introduces a lot of new elements, including swimming, farming, and a ton of base building features. If you’ve ever wanted to construct your very own village and help the townsfolk prosper, this is the game for you. It’s also incredibly fun — even if it can get a little complicated sometimes.
Whether you’re new to the series or a returning player, we’ve put together a quick list of 10 helpful tips to help you delve into the many, many features of Dragon Quest Builders 2. Farming is the major focus here, as monsters will want to raid your crops — and villagers can be convinced to plant seeds for you! Everything can be automated, but it isn’t always clear how to make your little friends happy. Build the perfect paradise and get started right with the 10 handy builder tips below.
#1. Combat For Beginners – Fight Better With Friends
There’s good news; you’re no longer fighting alone. Malroth, your buddy, is always at your side and will fight to the death for you. He can equip special powerful weapons that are totally unique to him — you’ll unlock recipes as you level up, and he’ll help you fight everything that’s in your way. If he’s defeated, you can either way for him to recharge, or take him to a bed and get him up even faster.
You’ll be able to fight too. Your weapons no longer break, so you can use them infinitely — but, you do have a hunger meter. If your hunger is low, you won’t be able to swing your sword as fast, and your sprint stamina will drain / recharge at a much worse rate. It’s important to eat before entering a fight.
#2. What Else Is New? First-Person View Tips
You can now leap into first-person view at any time, and it offers a few useful advantages. You’ll be able to specifically target blocks to pick up or smash with the cursor, and you can easily get a good look at interiors without fiddling with the camera too much.
You even get a handy builder tool — cursor over a certain face of another block to build outwardly. If you point at the side, you can hold down the block placement button to just keep placing blocks until you run out, or run out of room. You don’t even have to be looking.
You even get a handy builder feature — cursor over a certain face of another block to build outwardly. If you point at the side, you can hold down the block placement button to just keep placing blocks until you run out, or run out of room. You don’t even have to be looking.
#3. Bring These Items On Every Adventure
Before leaving your village, there are several items you’ll want to bring every single time. These items are your basic survival kit, and with these items you’ll be able to survive just about anything.
Basic Survival Kit: Bring food (20+ cabbage), 5+ torches, 1 straw bedding, and +100 spoiled soil, 1 simple door
Food is important to keep your hunger meter high and your health full. The torches are useful for marking locations or seeing in the dark, or keeping ghosts away at night if you’re away from your village. The straw bedding is important — you can place it down, and then create a makeshift room with spoiled soil and a simple door. Sleep the night, then take the simple door / bedding with you.
#4. Staying Up Late At Night – How To Deal With The Dark
Everything changes at night. Powerful enemies prowl around, and standard monsters just get their beauty rest. If you want to avoid the endlessly respawning enemies that appear at night, you should sleep on a bed until morning.
NOTE: You can only sleep safely inside a room. That’s why you’ll want to bring plenty of worthless soil, a door, and a bed. A room only requires four walls (two blocks high) with a door. Plop down a bed, and you’re safe in a dangerous world.
You can also scare away certain enemies with bright light. As long as you haven’t attacked them already, some creatures will run away when they approach a light source. Any light source will work, hence why you’ll want to bring plenty of torches.
#5. Farming For Beginners – 4 Items You Need
Every farmer needs four basic ingredients to create a thriving field — healthy soil, a water source, seeds, and a scarecrow. To mark your field, place a scarecrow. This will define your location, and your villagers will begin tilling the fields. They’ll also water your plants for you if you have a water source nearby.
Only a few types of soil can be tilled. Stony soil works, and Earth is very good for planting — but these are rare. More likely, you’ll need to use your worm-y friend to purify the soil for you. In the case that he can’t, you can dig up spoiled soil and replace it with fresh soil that can be found in rare clusters around the islands. Plant your seeds in tilled soil, and just wait for food.
#6. Villagers Do All The Work — How To Get Villagers To Plant Seeds
Villagers don’t just till fertile soil and water your growing plants, they’ll also plant seeds for you. It takes some time in the story, but eventually you’ll be able to get villagers to plant for you — once this ability is available, you’ll need to interact with the scarecrow that marks the field.
Select the seed you want to plant in that field, then place seeds in a community chest nearby. The villagers will start planting for you! Now you’re free to adventure while your helpers do all the busy work.
#7. Earn More Gratitude Points — Keep Your Villagers Fed & Happy
Villagers can survive on their own, but the happier you make them, the better they become at farming, fighting, and other activities. Happiness comes in the form of gratitude points — little hearts that pop out when villagers are happy. If you want to make villagers consistently happy, you need to keep them fed.
Villagers will only eat if you have two ingredients — a dining set, and food in a community container. It helps if the dining set is on a table with a chair, but it isn’t required. If you want to stop lines, build a large table with many dining sets so your entire village can eat breakfast faster.
#8. Protect Your Crops — Build Strategic Fences & Arm Your Villagers
Monsters will constantly attempt to attack your base. They target your crops specifically, but they’ll always come from the same angle. That means you can place a two-block high fence in the direction they attack and completely block them.
It helps to build a perimeter fence early, as monsters will constantly attack your crops randomly — it’s really annoying, but there’s no need to waste resources surrounding your entire base in a high wall.
#9. If you Played Builders 1, You Can Claim A Free Bonus
Got a save file from Dragon Quest Builders 1? If you’re on the same console, you can claim a bonus special reward. You need to sign-up for the online service, which is incredibly easy — just agree to the TOS, basically. Then you’ll be able to claim your prize.
NOTE: For completing DQB1, you’ll get the Dragonlord’s Throne recipe!
And that prize? It’s the Historic Headwear. This special helmet changes your hero / heroine to match the look of the main character from Dragon Quest Builders. If you prefer the classic look, you can swap out the historic headwear and change headgear / hairstyle at any time.
#10. Manage Your OCD With The Scarecrow & Balls of Worm Food
The Scarecrow and the Ball of Worm food are important items — both can change a vast swath of the blighted land on your island into soil. If you want to get rid of the purple, despoiled ground — you can simple move around the scarecrow until your wormy friend completely transforms the ground. The ground will not change back when you move the scarecrow — so you can use the scarecrow to mark the limits of your village easily.
The balls of worm food is a little trickier. This item, when placed, transforms a large area into green grass. It doesn’t show you the dimensions until after you place it, but if you equip the glove, you can simply move the ball before the area is changed to green grass. You’ll have to move fast, but you can correct misplacements this way.
