Let's suck at Darkest Dungeon

[Yora]

Such a lovely game, but damn! This is hard!

I played through most Dark Souls games and with those I made regular progress. With Darkest Dungeon I am now 55 weeks in and I think I am still no better off than I was after week 20 or so. Getting hireloms to get faster, cheaper, and more efficient stress recovery helps, but I still spend more on supplies and recovery than I get lot from most dungeons.
Short Level 1 dungeons is the only way to make a little bit of money to pay for upgrades right now, but that's a really slow process.

[Rodin]

Short dungeons are actually a pretty bad investment in general since they aren't a whole lot easier than Medium dungeons and you don't get to camp to reduce stress. Long ones are obviously the best way to make money but those can be pretty dangerous and backfire if you can't make it all the way through.

One thing that can help is what trinkets you use - the speed and accuracy stats are king in this game, as going first and killing a couple enemies before they can react makes the game dramatically easier. Clearing out stress dealing enemies first will really help with your run costs, as de-stressing your heroes is one of the biggest cost sinks in the game.

Another thing that can help is selling bad trinkets, of which there are many. Most of the common non-class-specific trinkets aren't worth hanging onto once you have something better for each of your classes, and that can make a huge difference in keeping your money up. If you're really tight on cash, don't be afraid to do runs where you don't pick up heirlooms at all and just keep the money - even for experienced players the money situation can get you if you run into bad RNG.

[Cespenar]

If you're upgrading everyone's arms & armor, or hospitalizing everyone who suffers from stress, don't. Investing on anyone below level 2 is needless during early-game, scaling to 3/mid-game and 4/late-game. Give or take a level depending on your cash level, of course.

Also, if you have played that far, consider spoiling yourself on which objects to use at all encounters, if you haven't already. Going blind is sweet and all in your first try, but after a while, losses against such simple obstacles begin to chafe.

[Yora]

I am very conservative with upgrading equipment. If the character dies, the whole money is gone. With ability upgrades I tend to get the first one (which is only 125 gold) and then focus only on the primary ability I use almost all the time.

I think I got to a point where health is indeed no longer the issue. With a vestal and an occultist in the group there's little risk of running out. Stress has become the real killer. The last dungeon I played yesterday went seemingly amazing, with the party at full health and every room cleared except for the boss. And that was just the second time ever that I even managed to reach a boss. But then I rested and got surprised by four fish men and getting my team turned around took so long that eventually there were two more fishmen coming as reinforcement and the whole fight ended after 11 rounds. Now I know that at that point I should have aborted the whole thing.
The boss wasn't that tough, but then everyone got wiped in a single round from heart attacks. Even without the reward I had so much loot. :smallbiggrin:

Didn't know that speed affects initiative. Really good to know. I got the impression that the whole enemy party always goes first in a round before anyone of my heroes gets a turn.
So far I've only used items that are class restricted and bleed stones. Wasn't really sure who to equip with resistance items.

How do some of the standard items work? There is a blue-green potion, green soup, and a key. What are they good for?

[Chen]

Not sure if this works still, but when I needed cash I just grabbed 4 people off the cart, threw them into a dungeon with nothing, got as much as I could and then ran out. Then I got rid of those 4 characters. Was good if I had to have my prime teams regaining sanity and/or retraining perks.

[ThePhantom]

Okay, key is good for locked items and only them, which means you mainly bring them just to the ruins, but it doesn't hurt to bring one to anywhere but the darkest. This is because there is for middle and long dungeons a hidden room, which can be found by scouting (grave robber, houndmaster). It has a chest with special loot in it.

The potion is anti-venom, which can remove toxin from your guys and handle poison objects.

the soup, removes debuffs, cleans corpses for food and with coral removes bad traits.

[Rodin]

Learning what the curios (the interactable objects in dungeons) do when you use an item is one of the more important basic strats in the game. If you don't want to cheat and look them up I recommend bringing some of everything, experimenting, and writing down when you get a good interaction. Most curios in the game have a very positive reaction to a particular item. They're mostly intuitive, but there are a few weird ones out there.

As a fairly non-spoilery example, Heirloom chests. If you open them normally, you've got a pretty good chance of getting some treasure, but have a 25% chance of the chest being trapped. If you use a key on it, not only do you get 50% more loot but the chance of it being trapped drops to 0%.

Some of the other curios actually have a 100% failure chance unless you bring an item. Others will have multiple item interactions and which you want to use may depend on the situation - including just using your bare hands. Purifying a shrine to get a gold reward is all very good, but sometimes you want the blessing of the gods that gives you stress relief and healing instead.

I would also say not to underestimate skill upgrades, at least in Veteran and Champion dungeons. The Accuracy upgrades you get are not trivial, and monster Dodge increases sharply with each dungeon level. It's okay to have some abilities at lower levels (mostly support abilities) but anything aimed at enemies should probably be max level.

On the camping ambush, that was just unlucky RNG. You can prevent that by bringing a character with a night watch ability - Vestals can lay down a Sanctuary spell for example. If you have someone in your party that can learn that ability, it's worth teaching it to them and using it at pretty much every camp unless you're utterly desperate. The punishment of a campfire ambush is too severe otherwise.

On Resistance/Dodge trinkets, it's debatable. I tend not to run them, and focus on raw speed and damage. For certain areas though, it can be very worthwhile to use them on your tank characters. For instance, in the Weald the Fungal Shamblers can only hit the front two rows, but deal massive amounts of damage. Stacking Prot or Dodge (depending on whether you have a proper tank or an evasion tank like a Highwayman) can make all the difference in allowing you to eliminate the squishies at the back without getting utterly mauled by the Shamblers.

[Vitruviansquid]

I am very conservative with upgrading equipment. If the character dies, the whole money is gone. With ability upgrades I tend to get the first one (which is only 125 gold) and then focus only on the primary ability I use almost all the time.

I think I got to a point where health is indeed no longer the issue. With a vestal and an occultist in the group there's little risk of running out. Stress has become the real killer. The last dungeon I played yesterday went seemingly amazing, with the party at full health and every room cleared except for the boss. And that was just the second time ever that I even managed to reach a boss. But then I rested and got surprised by four fish men and getting my team turned around took so long that eventually there were two more fishmen coming as reinforcement and the whole fight ended after 11 rounds. Now I know that at that point I should have aborted the whole thing.
The boss wasn't that tough, but then everyone got wiped in a single round from heart attacks. Even without the reward I had so much loot. :smallbiggrin:

Didn't know that speed affects initiative. Really good to know. I got the impression that the whole enemy party always goes first in a round before anyone of my heroes gets a turn.
So far I've only used items that are class restricted and bleed stones. Wasn't really sure who to equip with resistance items.

How do some of the standard items work? There is a blue-green potion, green soup, and a key. What are they good for?

You have too much stress and reinforcements because when you put a vestal and an occultist in the same group, so you don't have enough damage to actually kill the enemy.

Consider instead having a Vestal or Occultist as the primary healer, and matching that with an Arbalest or Plague Doctor. The Arbalest can heal too, but also does very decent damage if healing is not actually required. The Plague Doctor also hits like a truck (don't bring her into warrens, though) and can mitigate an awful lot of damage by canceling bleed and blight.

It's also extremely useful to have at least one member of each team with mobility skills, like a Grave Robber, Jester, or Highwayman. Due to the nature of the battle system, you can't move one character without moving another, so, for instance, a Grave Robber's shadow fade can accomplish 3 things in one round: stun a key enemy, move herself out of melee so she can throw knives/darts, and then move another character like a Hellion into the frontline. Though there's also something to be said for having your team full of characters who can do their jobs from 3-4 positions, like Bounty Hunters and Houndmasters.

[Yora]

Learning what the curios (the interactable objects in dungeons) do when you use an item is one of the more important basic strats in the game. If you don't want to cheat and look them up I recommend bringing some of everything, experimenting, and writing down when you get a good interaction. Most curios in the game have a very positive reaction to a particular item. They're mostly intuitive, but there are a few weird ones out there.

As a fairly non-spoilery example, Heirloom chests. If you open them normally, you've got a pretty good chance of getting some treasure, but have a 25% chance of the chest being trapped. If you use a key on it, not only do you get 50% more loot but the chance of it being trapped drops to 0%.
You can use items on objects? :smalleek: That's completely new to me. :smallbiggrin: Is that explained anywhere in the game? (Might not have read the tutorial messages very carefully.)


The Plague Doctor also hits like a truck (don't bring her into warrens, though) and can mitigate an awful lot of damage by canceling bleed and blight.

Why not?

[Vitruviansquid]

Many enemies in the Warrens have high resistance to Blight, which is most of the Plague Doctor's damage.

Also, many enemies in the Ruins and Cove are resistant to Bleed, so you should not bring a Jester there, though the jester also brings a few benefits that are not bleed-based.

[Rodin]

You can use items on objects? :smalleek: That's completely new to me. :smallbiggrin: Is that explained anywhere in the game? (Might not have read the tutorial messages very carefully.)



I think they do, but I'm not sure. There's an item slot in the middle of the object menu when you bring it up, and dragging an item from your inventory will attempt to use it. If there's no interaction possible, the item is consumed with no benefit, but you can try as many as you're willing to spend to find one.

[Yora]

So like automatically using a shovel on barriers. I see.

I noticed that Lepers seem to deal huge damage to fishmen, getting critical hits all the time. Is there any reason for that in their stats?

[Destro_Yersul]

No, lepers are just badass.

[Cazero]

Well, I'm stuck at week 120 or so, beaten all 8 bosses on the three difficulty tiers, beaten the event, and unable to finish one of the final expeditions.
I've been rebuilding something like three teams of champions with top tier gear and skills to no avail. Even my most promising attempt was unmade in a single round of fight. And it's not the final level. At that point I kinda dropped out because I don't see what I can do better to beat it.
The Darkest Dungeon really is something else. Be prepared. It won't help, but the sentiment will be there.


I noticed that Lepers seem to deal huge damage to fishmen, getting critical hits all the time. Is there any reason for that in their stats?
Lepers have high (the highest?) base damage and great survivability skills. "They're just badass" pretty much sums it up. However, their drawbacks (lower base accuracy and lack of skill usable outside of the first two rows) can be fatal without some planning around. Awesome frontliners until you get surprised against pusher enemies and they spent the whole fight trying to get back to the first rows.

Short on money? If you have one, consider bringing an antiquarian on short missions. Having an antiquarian give bonus antique loots worth lots of gold and allow your gold piles in your inventory to stack up to 2000 instead of 1500. Antiquarians weaker skills/stats are too much of a burden for longer runs, but a succesful medium/long mission should fill your inventory with loot already.