Why can’t I heal in Dragon’s Dogma 2? Loss Gauge, explained

It can be frustrating when you aren’t allowed to use healing items or spells to get to full health in Dragon’s Dogma 2. If you are trying to heal but can’t in Dragon’s Dogma 2, it’s because you’re experiencing the Loss Gauge mechanic.

What is Loss Gauge in Dragon’s Dogma 2?

Dragon’s Dogma 2 has a brilliant mechanic called the Loss Gauge that works to give the player more decision-making power. Will you push your luck and keep adventuring or will you look for a camp or head back to town?

The Loss Gauge in Dragon’s Dogma 2 works like this: Whenever you take damage, you lose a bit of your max health. Don’t worry, this loss is temporary. From my experience, the harder you’re hit, the more damage you take. If you’re taking more damage than you’d like, check out how to use lock-on.

You can tell how much of your maximum health is gone by looking down at your health which is located at the bottom of the screen and seeing how much is grayed out. It’s subtle, but you’ll notice a grey line telling you where your max HP ends.

The reason you can’t use healing items or don’t see an increase in your health when standing in a Mage’s healing circle is because you have your max health temporarily lowered because of the Loss Gauge mechanic.

How to remove Loss Gauge and heal in Dragon’s Dogma 2

There are two ways to remove the Loss Gauge and get back to max HP. One is to sleep at an Inn and the other is to Camp at a fire. Inns can be pricey, ranging from 1,500 to 2,00 Gold, but in order to camp in the wilderness, you need a Camping Kit which weighs a lot. Which will you choose?

I’m a big fan of this mechanic as it instills a risk/reward system to how far you want to go with your adventures, unlike other games where you can limitlessly explore without needing a reason to rest. It almost makes Dragon’s Dogma 2 a rogue-like which I love, just like how I love how you can change Vocations easily.