After you make it to Battahl, you’ll probably run into Hugo through the Coral Snakes quest before he’s taken into gaol. This will lead to the “Off the Pilfered Path” quest in Dragon’s Dogma 2 where you’ll need to figure out how to offer Hugo guidance.
Dragon’s Dogma 2: How to offer Hugo guidance in Off the Pilfered Path
When you first arrive at the scene in the gaol, Hugo won’t want to speak a word of anything. Like most quests in Dragon’s Dogma 2, figuring out what to do can be tough without any quest hints. You’ll first want to start by walking into the Bakbattahl Gaol Guardhouse which is a small room near Hugo’s cell.
You’ll find a Makeshift Gaol Key (I used this to open the cell containing a Seeker Token inside), and a book that you can read. Read the page, then speak with Hugo again. This time he’ll have more to say, and if you speak to Dietrich after, he’ll tell you that the head gaoler can give Hugo his freedom.
You can now take to the head gaoler, Ekratt, and he’ll ask for a bribe of 1,000 gold to let Hugo out. After I gave him that amount of gold, he said to wait a bit, so I went on another quest and came back. Instead of Hugo being out, unfortunately, Ekratt wanted more gold.
This time the head gaoler asked for 2,500 gold and I had to wait a second time for him to finish his business. The next time I came back to the gaol it seemed like the only change that happened was a new prisoner named Brefft.
He was another member of the Coral Snakes and I was able to press him for information on where the Coral Snakes’ new hideout was. This involved me speaking to him, then talking to Dietrich again (who told me there’s more to his tale), and then talking to Brefft over and over until I got the quest update. They’re now hiding out in the Ancient Battleground.
Where to find the Ancient Battleground in Dragon’s Dogma 2
You can find the Ancient Battleground in Vermund, it’s northeast of the Checkpoint Rest Town. I then told Hugo about the location of their new hideout. You can wait a day or two before returning to the gaol, where you’ll find out that Hugo escaped gaol.
As a reminder, don’t go to the Ancient Battleground until Hugo escapes. I made the mistake of checking out the Ancient Battleground before he escaped and I didn’t find the Coral Snakes. I then came back to the gaol to find out Hugo escaped, forcing me to make the trek back there.
You’ll have to make your way through the castle of the Ancient Battleground and then up another level where you’ll find Lanzo and his crew. After a tough battle, Hugo was disappointed to find that my group had killed the Coral Snakes before he could. I hadn’t seen Hugo that entire time, so I wasn’t sure how I could’ve had him kill them first.
Otherwise, he questioned my Arisen on what to do since I told him he could live an honest life. You can say that you know of a place he can live, and at the time I hadn’t known any places for Hugo. According to research, if you’ve finished Wilhelmina’s questline you can recommend he work at the Rose Chateau Bordelrie.
Although I’ve unlocked the ability to use the Rose Chateau, I’ve yet to explore it, so I probably missed more side quests with Wilhelmina. There may be other places you can recommend for Hugo, but that’s the only confirmed place you can recommend.
Hopefully, you were able to get through this confusing quest and get a better ending of it. Many quests in Dragon’s Dogma 2 have different choices and consequences, such as Tensions on the Highroad which asks you to side with either Simon or Raghnall.
