The riddles of the Sphinx ("A Game of Wits") is one of the most interesting side quests in all of Dragon's Dogma 2. Matching wits with the Sphinx will get you all kinds of useful items and rewards, and one of the first rewards is the Sealing Phial.
The 
Sealing Phial can be a bit hard to figure out at first, but it can also be an incredibly useful tool once you figure it out. The biggest downside of the phial is that you can only ever use it once because you have to break it to free the person you trap inside. So what's the best way to use this unique item in Dragon's Dogma 2?
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Where to Find the Sealing Phial
To find the Sealing Phial, you first have to find the Sphinx. To find her, you must go to the Ancient Battleground, which is north of Checkpoint Rest Town. Climb up through the abandoned fort to reach the lair of a cyclops. On the cliff wall north of the cyclops is a cave, and this cave eventually goes up and around to the Sphinx's Mountain Shrine.
One of the riddles the Sphinx gives you is the Riddle of Eyes. To complete it, she asks you to enter a nearby ruin and give her the most valuable treasure you find inside. The ruin contains plenty of enemies and loot, but the item the Sphinx is looking for is in a chest that sits directly above the entrance. You only have to climb up the nearby ledges to reach it, and you can skip the rest of the ruin completely.
Be sure to present the phial to the Sphinx right after you get it. She won't accept a filled phial, and you'll lose it forever if you open a filled phial. The Sphinx won't keep the Sealing Phial, and since the Sphinx is just outside the entrance, you have no reason not to visit her right away.
Something else to note is that you may be able to get a copy of the Sealing Phial using the Riddle of Conviction, but only an empty phial. A filled 
Sealing Phial (Contains Person) with an NPC won't appear on the list of items you can give her for the riddle. You can also give the phial to the forger in Checkpoint Rest Town, but the copy is called a "Ceiling Phial" and has zero magical powers.
One more thing to keep in mind is that you can't move the Sealing Phial out of your inventory. You can't place it in storage, and you can't give it to a pawn. You have to keep it with you until you use it or throw it away.
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How to Use the Sealing Phial
Dragon's Dogma 2 doesn't really explain how the Sealing Phial works, but it's simple enough to use once you understand the basics.
- Stand close enough to a named NPC to get the "Hail" option. The phial doesn't work on enemies or nameless NPCs you can't revive.
- Go into your inventory and select the Sealing Phial. If you're close enough to a valid target, the "USE" option should be white instead of gray.
- Use the phial and watch as the NPC you would've talked to gets sucked inside.
- At any point later on, use the Sealing Phial again to release the captive NPC. They'll give you a few wary looks, but capturing an NPC doesn't appear to impact your relationship with them.
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When to Use the Sealing Phial
With such a unique (yet powerful) effect, it can be hard to think of ways to use the Sealing Phial. Here are a few ideas you can try:
Complete Sphinx Riddles
There are three riddles in Dragon's Dogma 2's "A Game of Wits" where the Sealing Phial can come in handy: the Riddle of Madness, the Riddle of Futility, and the Riddle of Differentiation. However, there are other ways to complete these riddles without using the phial:
- The Sphinx will accept your Main Pawn as a solution to the Riddle of Madness. Simply grab them and drop them off next to the Sphinx.
- For both Futility and Differentiation, you can place a Portcrystal near the Sphinx, grab the person you need, and then use a Ferrystone to bring them back to the Sphinx (or to the Sphinx's amphora).
Escort Quests
Don't use the Sealing Phial for minor escort quests. Specifically, this means the guard escort quests and the "travel along" quests you can get from important NPCs after their main story quests are over. You will fail these quests if the person you're escorting is too far away from you for too long, and "trapped in a phial" counts as too far away.
Regular Quests
Regular quests that show up in the quest log don't have the same fail state as escort quests. This means you can use the Sealing Phial to make sure an NPC reaches their destination safely. For instance, once you find Rodge during "Prey for the Pack," you can put him in the phial and then release him once you get back to Checkpoint Rest Town.
Another way to use the Phial is to grab someone who normally waits in the middle of nowhere for you to continue their quest. As an example, if you complete most of "Off the Pilfered Path" but can't find Hugo a job, he'll hang out near the top of Dragon's Dogma 2's Ancient Battleground until you can. With the Sealing Phial, you can take Hugo with you and speak to him the moment you line up a job. Just keep in mind that you'll teleport to where the NPC should have been when your conversation ends.
Challenge Mode
The Sealing Phial appears to work on Pawns. This means you can use the phial on your Main Pawn, dismiss any additional Pawns, and attempt to complete the game as a solo Arisen.
Dragon's Dogma 2
- Platform(s)
- PC , PS5 , Xbox Series X , Xbox Series S
- Released
- March 22, 2024
- Developer(s)
- Capcom
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG
- Metascore
- 88
