Hunting Griffins – Three Star Circus

Trying to get your three stars for Griffins? This guide can help you jump through the hoops of launchboard flinging and beak blocking to get your three stars, or even just help you find a willing griffin for Winged Reaver and Suppression.

Luring

• Shield summon helps!!
  
• Grab a corpse (F) and stand still. Seriously, don’t move. This is what the pawns do as well, and they will help you lure if you kill something for them first.
  
• If a griffon swoops down to get an ox, it doesn’t leave much time for you to get there. Better to kill mobs and lure it, otherwise, he will have little interest in you once he’s got his meal.
  
• Ferrystoning to a griffin spawn point, immediately killing something, and then luring a griffin down is the most effective way of getting a Griffin’s attention. Otherwise, be prepared to be annoyed.

Killing (The Easy Way)

• Blast arrows
  
• Sit on him

Flagging (Bestiary Knowledge)

These are the actions your pawn needs to witness to get their bestiary stars for griffins:

• Grab a griffin and see it flail before bolting Griffin Strategy Vol 1[dragonsdogma.wikia.com]
  
• Lure a griffin down by holding a carcass Griffin Strategy Vol 2[dragonsdogma.wikia.com]
  
• Use a shield to block a beak attack Griffin Strategy Vol 3[dragonsdogma.wikia.com]
  
• Set it on fire
  
• Shoot the wings to force it to the ground
  
• Experience the griffin's dive attack
  
• Attack the head for extra damage
  
• Weigh down a griffin by climbing onto it from the ground
  
• Bring down a griffin by launching a third pawn onto the griffin while it is in the air
  
• Participate in killing fifteen griffins

Beak Attack Block

If you haven’t done Griffin’s Bane at the Bluemoon Tower yet, that is the perfect time to get this with a griffin because he will stay grounded. Otherwise, it is incredibly hard to make a griffin perform a beak attack. However, this flag is shared with cockatrices which you can easily find post-game in the Chamber of Aprehension, Chamber of Resolution, and Verda Woodlands (and of course on Bitterblack Isle). Here are some recommendations for cockatrices:

       

• Make sure to have a shield and a taunt. I recommend going as an assassin because then you can also use your bow. (quick tip: take some Galvanic Razors or Caladblog and some blinding arrows to get all your flags at once)
  
• Give a stack of Cockatrice Liquors to your pawn so you don’t have to worry about petrification (assuming your pawn knows what to do with them).
  
• Shoot the bulging throat sack of a cockatrice when it’s about to breathe its petrifying breath (the long, deep breath, not the short one that sounds like he has gas issues, which is usually his opening move).
  
• If you successfully interrupt and shoot the cockatrice down, it will collapse and begin to enrage (his eyes will turn red).
  
• Taunt it and get within arm's reach of its beak.
  
• Wait for it to get up and throw its tantrum. He'll jump three times then attack.
  
• Perfect block when it leaps toward you from the ground. If you are in the right position, this tends to happen immediately after his third tantrum-jump.
  
• If you are successful, you’ll enter a QTE standing and blocking.
  
• If you are unsuccessful, consider reading Griffin Strategy Vol. 3 (Or send me a note and I'll be happy to read it to your pawn.)

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1199900386

Circus Troop Launchboard

Unlike the climb-aboard flag where your party needs to climb onto the griffin while it is grounded, the Launchboard flag can only be accomplished by flinging your party into the air while the griffin is hovering above you. Here are some recommendations

• Go as an assassin with launchboard and shield summons. Of course other vocations with a launching skill are perfectly viable, but it’s useful to have a Dragon’s Ire as backup.
  
• Unequip all your pawns. You want them to be useless and not kill your griffin. You also want them to listen carefully to your commands and not be standing around doing stupid things like healing you.
  
• Don’t damage the Griffin at all if you can help it. He’ll hang around for a long time as long as you don’t scare it off with your awesomeness.
  
• Use shield summons and block if he dives. If you block him, he’ll collapse to the ground but don’t attack; let him get up. Call off your pawns (F2) and don’t let them climb him. You want them close to you. It’s alright to let one or two climb him if you have a particularly obstinate scather with you.
  
• Use launchboard a few times before he takes off. This will bring your pawns close in.
  
• After he’s hovering in the air (or even better, while he's taking off), make sure you are directly under the griffin and keep using launchboard until you get all your pawns in the air.
  
• If you’ve done it correctly and all your pawns are aboard, he’ll plop out of the sky. (Note: non-scather casters do not want to stick and will jump off immediately. You may have to fling them several times.)
  
• The learning pawn does not have to be the last one up, but they will need to see the trick two times to get their knowledge flag.
  
• If you’re having trouble, you can also bring a 3 starred pawn with launchboard and they will know to fling people up with you.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1199959123

Locating

It is most important to remember that griffins are not always present in your game. There will be no griffins in Gransys until the day after you turn in the main quest Griffins Bane at which point three will show up at very specific places on your map. Then, after the Final Battle, there will be only one Griffin.

If you’re going on a griffin hunt to get your fifteen kills at once, the basics I got from forum browsing was: ferrystone to a griffin, kill it, sleep five nights, kill it again. This works fine if you are hunting in the Verda Woodlands (pre-Final Battle) or the Northface Forest (post-game only).

But the spawn timers elsewhere are a lot more complicated. There are three spawn locations with three separate griffins. However, they share a timer with some other mobs (namely, the cyclopes and chimera that either have to be killed or waited out).

To use the following ferrystone route, I recommend this process: ferrystone to the griffin, run in the direction it tends to spawn, kill the first thing you see, and if your pawn says, “griffin,” immediately use shield summons and hope your pawn picks up the corpse. Then look. If the griffin doesn’t want to play, see what direction it was flying toward. Kill yourself, reload, and next time run in that direction. After you kill it, go to the next spawn point and repeat. After you've killed all three griffins (or just the one post-game), sleep five days (to reset the spawn timer) and start over.

Ferrystone Route (After Griffin's Bane and Before the Final Battle Only):

• Northface Forest: The hill overlooking the goblin camp (above the “i” in Hillfigure on the map). Check on the chimera, then run southwest toward the road to check on cyclops
  
  • If you see a chimera, kill it (in the forest to the northwest) and go to the next ferrystone on the route.
    
  • If you see a cyclops on the road, don’t kill it; go to the next ferrystone on the route.
• Estan Plains: On the rocks overlooking the harpy pit, run toward the bandit meeting house (northeast).
  
  • If you see a cyclops, kill it and go the next ferrystone.
• Verda Woodlands: On top of the rocks along the broken wall near the oxen, run to goblin camp (north) then aqueduct (east) around the Eradication Site or toward the sea (south).
  
  • Look to see which way the griffin is flying and head that way.
• Barta Crags: sleep until morning.
  
  • You can plop your port crystal on top of the Inn guy here to save time. If you don't see a Griffin at one of the points, sleep one day and try again.
    
  • Repeat until you’ve killed the three griffins, then sleep five days.
    
    

Ferrystone Route (Post-Game Only):

• Northface Forest: Same as above. This is the only griffin post-game.
  
  • I keep a port crystal in the Does Hills to farm the Wyvern (place it below the boulder directly south of Windbluff Tower and east of the map’s marker for Conquest Road). After I kill the Wyvern (which spawns under the tree by the boulder), I trot up north to the goblin camp and the Griffin is always there (seven day spawn timer). He spawns the minute you step into the camp. Some people say they have trouble finding him, so it's possible he shares a timer with the Wyvern but I haven't tested this. I tried putting my portcrystal next to the goblin camp, but I tend to miss him that way. The kill-wyvern-then-trot-up method works every single time (and gives you an opportunity to clear the area of mobs before stepping into the camp and spawning the griffin).
    
  • A drake and a cockatrice replace the other two griffin spawn points.
    
    

Random Notes:

• If a griffin escapes you, it has the same respawn timer as if you had killed it.
  
• Griffins only appear in the day. Sometimes even the Inn's version of 'morning' is too early for them. If the day looks dark and depressing, try waiting a bit.
  
• The griffin at the Eradication Site (Verda Woodlands) has a respawn timer of 4-5 days.
  
• The respawn timers at the other sites are delayed by the chimera and cyclopes, but the base seems to be 5 days.
  
• Typically a pawn will say “Griffin” or something similar within the first ten seconds of arriving via ferrystone. If they don’t say anything after thirty seconds, a griffin is not likely to show up.
  
• Each of the spawn points has its own timer. I have been able to kill two griffins in the same day (Estan Plains and Hillfigure Knoll) on multiple occasions. I killed the third on the day previous.
  
• I have not seen a griffin disappear only to reappear in the next location with the same health, but reportedly this happens.
  
• It does seem that the chimera (that spawns in the Northface Forest, west of the Hillfigure) prevents the griffon from spawning on the Estan Plains and Hillfigure Knoll. However; the same day I killed a Chimera, I also saw a Griffin on the Estan Plains.
  
• The wiki says to not kill the cyclopes (sleep an extra day instead) at Hillfigure Knoll, but murder the one on the Estan Plains. I haven’t really tested this enough to understand the impact.
  
• However, if there is a cyclops anywhere, there will be no Griffin on either the Hillfigure Knoll or Estan Plains. The Eradication Site seems unaffected by what happens in the other areas.
  
• In my early days of killing griffins, I tried to find a pattern in their spawn timers through a spreadsheet, so I thought I’d share that here if you’re into spreadsheets: Griffin Spawns Research[trello-attachments.s3.amazonaws.com].

If you find any errors or discrepancies in your experience with griffins or have some other tips to offer, it would be great if you’d comment.

[afkaesque]

So I just used this guide to kill my first pesky winged rat (thank you), but in the interest of science:
1 - I got the scripted event outside Gran Soren (goblins x soldiers fighting, ox cart). Night (js)
- Found out griffins exist in the game (reload, watch it fly away x20)
- Find this guide
2 - "Geared up", teleported to Gransys, went to lake camp overnight. Slept well
- Woke up, made my way back to the Eradication Site (btw wtf?)
[!] Instructions unclear (jk), assaulted by dragon on the way (wait wtf?)
- Reached Site area. Commit goblin genocide as suggested. Repeatedly
- Avoid ogre halfway through (ugh no)
- Raise goblin bodies up high until arms tired (at house, camp, etc.)
- Clear skies. Not my day
3 - Take it out on ox herd nearby (as advised)
- Big Boy comes for brunch!!!1!!
- 420 immolate it
- Legends were true. Thankful <3
[!] - Chimera bites me in the behind on the way to camp? (tf?)
- All in a day's work? Is life real?

[Siloam]

Obrigado por escrever. Boa sorte!

[Makotron_Gordex]

Obrigado

[Ostro]

Yeah either my luck or I need to go get Post Game for the Base Game Content

[Siloam]

Ah, well then you should be able to find it. It just means walking in and out of the Rotunda door till he pops up.

[Ostro]

I already finished Bitterblack Isle 5 Times

[Siloam]

Ah, if you are already on BBI and at the Rotundra of Dread, then you just need to walk back and forth through its door until the Evil Eye spawns. If you walk in and there is a foe you don't want, just walk out, then walk back in. It will cycle through the different spawns. The archhydra won't spawn until you've completed BBI though (Post-Daimon).

[Ostro]

You might be right my Current Playthrough isn't all the way there so it's possible that's why they aren't showing up in the Rotunda of Dread the Arch Hydras.

[Siloam]

@Ostro Sounds like you could use the wiki. My blowing up Hydra Heads guide has the location of Hydras and Arch Hydras somewhere in it too, and Evil Eyes are in the Everfall and on BBI in the Rotunda of Dread. It may be that you're not far enough along in your quests to come across them, but if you do follow the quest line, I can promise that you will find them eventually. Otherwise, check out the wiki: https://dragonsdogma.fandom.com/wiki/Evil_Eye

[Ostro]

I use stuff like this to find them can't seem to find Griffins , Hydras , Arch Hydras and Evil Eyes. As well as others. Driving me insane