VPN Setup
A VPN (Virtual Private Network) is an encrypted connection between you and an endpoint (in this case, a provider). People typically use VPNs for a sense of security and privacy from their ISPs, or to mask where their traffic is originating from. For the use case of playing Dragon Quest X, you will want to do the latter.
For players within Japan, China and the United States, a VPN is not required to play. Otherwise, you may experience the following error message when logging in:
Which loosely translates to:
Error Code: DQ-100-106-X You can only connect from the service area (in Japan). Depending on the customer's environment, an error may occur even from within Japan, so if you have any questions, please visit the Dragon Quest X Support Center. https://sqex.to/eh6
If you see this message, continue reading on.
Picking a VPN
There are several VPN providers that provide anonymity to users. Assuming you're not focusing on privacy and only looking to play Dragon Quest X, there are several to choose from - both free and paid. As each VPN client is different, this guide will not go over configuring each one, but will give you several options to choose from. Do your research and find the one that fits your specific needs and budget. Below are a few popular ones.
Note that you will typically have a better experience paying for a VPN versus using a free service.
Free
Free VPNs tend to be unreliable (though I have heard good things about Softether), riddled with ads and may disconnect you at certain intervals, but they are VPNs nonetheless. They are options if you are on a tight budget.
- ProtonVPN has both a free and paid service. The free version has three countries you can connect to (United States, Netherlands and Japan). This would fit the criteria of making your internet traffic look like it's coming from one of the supported countries.
- Softether is a free and open source VPN client that is able to connect to several types of endpoints around the world. You can use VPNGate to find an endpoint to configure Softether to connect to.
- Tunnelbear is another option with both a free and paid service. The free plan allows up to 500MB of traffic per month. For a reference point, a user on the Hiroba site stated they tested their bandwidth usage over the course of an hour and averaged about 8.5MB/hour, or about 59~ hours per month.
Paid
These VPNs require a monthly subscription, but have several benefits. Usually boasts a friendly, ad free interface, reliable connection along with hundreds of countries to choose from and no connection time limitations. Some also provide split tunneling, which is an option that allows you to choose what goes over the VPN and what doesn't.
How do I know it's working?
Once you've connected using whichever VPN client you've chosen, you can confirm it works by going to a website like ifconfig and looking at your public IP address and country you're coming from. You should notice that you're no longer coming from your country's IP address and that your public IP address has changed (if you took note of what it was before you connected).
Setting up your VPN
PC
If you play using the Dragon Quest X client, there's nothing more to do. Connect to Dragon Quest X and have fun.
NOTE: Sometimes while logging in after connecting to a VPN, your account may get locked for suspicious activity. This is generally due to them seeing your account logging in from different IP addresses and protecting your account from malicious login, and VPNs will sometimes connect you to different IPs each time. You can unlock your account by simply changing your password. I highly recommend setting up 2FA via your Square Enix Account, as you will never get this suspicious activity warning ever again, even when logging in from different IPs.
Nintendo Switch/PS4/3DS/Wii U
Playing on a gaming console requires a bit more work as you can't natively install a VPN client. You do have options though.
Setting up a VPN connection on your router
This option is only available if you have custom firmware installed on your router (DD-WRT, Tomato, etc.) or have a router that supports setting up a VPN connection. With this, you can pass all of your internet (WAN) traffic to the VPN provider.
This type of set up is usually supported for paid VPNs, but you might get lucky and find a service that also allows for this. This guide will not cover how to do this, but it's being listed an as option if you're interested in going this route. Note that this is an advanced setup and typically not recommended for people who aren't technically savvy.
Using your WiFi-enabled Windows computer to broadcast a VPN connection via hotspot
This option assumes you have already chosen a VPN provider and that VPN provider has a supported app you can download onto your computer. This also requires your computer to be powered on and actively broadcasting the connection while you're playing on your gaming console.
- First, make sure you have downloaded a client from your VPN provider, installed it and are currently connected to either a Japanese or US endpoint
- Next, you will need to enable a mobile hotspot. From your desktop, hold shift and right-click the start button and click on Network Connections.
- On the left, click on "Mobile Hotspot". Click "Edit" to rename your broadcasted network name and password (if desired) and click the toggle at the top to "On". Make sure you're sharing your connection over WiFi. You may also want to turn "Power saving" off for ease of use.
- From the "Mobile Hotspot" screen, click "Status" on the left and click "Change adapter options"
- Look at the connections listed here. One specifically will have an asterisk (*) towards the end of its name. In this example, we have "Local Area Connection* 2". This is the virtual adapter that was created when we turned our hotspot on. Note this name down.
- Find the other adapter listed in here that your VPN provider created. It usually has the name of your VPN provider in its description. In this example, we're using ExpressVPN and have an "ExpressVPN TUN Driver" adapter. This is the adapter your VPN provider created to route your connection. Right-click this connection and click "Properties".
- Click on the "Sharing" tab and check "Allow other network users to connect through this computer's internet connection". In the dropdown, select the hotspot connection we found earlier. Check the second box "Allow other network users to control or disable the shared internet connection" and click OK. We're done with your computer and your hotspot is now broadcasting your VPN connection.
- On your gaming console (we're going to use the Switch in this example as its commonly used for this game), go to "System Settings", "Internet" and begin the process of connecting to a new WiFi connection. Find your hotspot name in the list once it's done searching
- Enter the password you made for your hotspot and connect
- You're all set. You can validate the connection by going back to the "Mobile Hotspot" screen from earlier and you'll see your gaming console listed as connected
Using your phone as a hotspot
Note that this only works for Android and ONLY if you have rooted your phone. If your phone is not already rooted, we suggest NOT rooting it for the purpose of this game. Your phone is likely more important to you than DQX and can have financial consequences if you mess it up
This option requires you to leave your phone on and connected (and of course uses your phone's data if you aren't on WiFi), but you would connect to the VPN service you signed up with and make your phone a mobile hotspot. There are apps on the Play Store that handle the routing for you, though none are provided here. From there, have your console connect to your hotspot's WiFi connection. This is not a supported step, but just an idea that this is a possibility if you're in a situation that allows for this.
