How do you play Darkest Dungeon

[Yora]

This is perhaps the first game that I just can't make any progress in. I've played 66 weeks so far, but it seems that I am no further ahead that I had been at the start. I made it to the second tier of dungeons, but I almost always fail them. Sometimes I make it to a boss, but then I always fail. The big problem is that I don't have any clue why I fail. The enemies just seem to have much more health and deal much more damage than I do so that I run out of health and sanity before I can make it to the end.

Apparently people did have finished the game. But how? What could I possibly do different so that I can beat the second tier dungeons?

[DemonicAngel]

so first thing first, be ready to lose heroes. a lot of them. like, a metric ton of them. they are disposable. at first you don't even have to treat them.
that would save you the money the upgrade the survivors, both skill and equipment wise.
also, each and every hero is good for something. find what they're good for, and use them when the situation asks for it

that is all

[Wraith]

There were a few things that I eventually discovered that helped me succeed in Darkest Dungeon; party composition, budgeting upgrades and managing camping.

The first one is straight forward. One of the first things I like to do is increase the size of my Barracks and upgrade the stagecoach so that I'm getting in at least 3 heroes every week.
It costs NOTHING to hire a new hero or to fire an old one, so you might as well have a barracks full to capacity as much as possible. That way you can rotate teams out as often as you need to, in order that everyone can decrease stress as much as possible; or perhaps, that you have backups if another team wipes.

Until you have a full barracks, don't discriminate - any hero is a body with which you can burn them out in one mission and then fire them if needs be, if it helps you get together enough cash and artifacts to upgrade your preferred teams. Having said that, if you can have an Occultist and a Vestal in every party then you're doing just fine, but one of those and a secondary healer - like a Plague Doctor or Flagellant - is fine too.

Then just make sure that everyone has a strong attack that they can always use in their normal position and - if possible - another which can move them back there if they get Pulled out of place, and you're probably going to be okay. Attack with your high damage and heal every turn and the short missions go by remarkably quickly.

Budgeting upgrades is one that is really obvious when I think about it, but one it took me ages to actually implement; for every character, pick a few skills that you like and ONLY upgrade them.
It's very tempting to upgrade all your skills on every character so that you can test and alter on a whim, but that tends to be a waste of money. As I said above; one strong attack, one way to move yourself or others, and if possible a heal and/or a Stun, are all that most heroes need. Anything else is going to drain money, so don't go overboard if you can possible help it; no one character can finish a dungeon alone, so don't try to rely too heavily on your Crusader killing everything with 8 rank 5 skills when he can only use 4 of them in a fight.

The same goes for artifacts. Upgrading your stagecoach is a high priority, and if you haven't upgraded your Weaponsmith and Armourer by the time you're starting Yellow missions then you're going to have a bad time.... But by the same token, don't get a Rank 4 Weaponsmith if you don't have a Rank 4 hero. Save your artifacts until you can actually use them, as you never know when you might need to suddenly put a lot of people into the Infirmary or de-tress someone important.

Finally, camping. My preference is to not do Medium missions until I have a comfortably strong team, and avoid Long ones until I've picked up a bunch of relevant relics and abilities.
Crash through Short missions, pick up money and relics comparatively easily, and don't be afraid to avoid areas where you struggle - I particularly hate going to the Cove as nothing bleeds and everything hits harder than I like, for example :smalltongue:
But when you do go, always take one more stack of food than you think you need; if you're ever camping and not using at least 4 pieces of food in order to heal and de-stress, you're probably not using it efficiently. Similarly, food can be used in an emergency to heal someone from death's door, so lots of spare is never unhelpful. If you have Crimson Court, then getting the Granary early on can be a huge benefit for the rest of the game.

Apologies if this all sounds too obvious and comes across as patronising; that's not my intention, it's all stuff that I thought I knew but took me longer than it should to actually implement, and since I've started really clamping down on my budget and being prepared to turn out broken heroes before they become a liability or a drain on resources I've drastically improved how easily I can get through even Long, Legendary missions.

If you're really interested in seeing the instinct in action, why not watch some veteran players on Youtube? Dodger (PressHeartToContinue) and BaerTaffy both have long-running series of the game, and I learned a lot by watching someone else - maybe the same will help you? :smallsmile:

[Vitruviansquid]

Darkest Dungeon's tiers are designed so that the enemies introduce mechanics in the first tier, but you are not really required to wrestle with them until later tiers.

For example, you are likely to find out in the first tier of missions that you can use bandages to get rid of bleeding. However, you don't really need to bring or use bandages for that purpose until you hit Tier 2, when you start encountering the crab guys from the cove who have giant bleed damage that you are far better off bandaging than tanking.

Besides that, there are a few good practices you should make sure you're sticking to:

Make sure your armor and weapons are up to date before you enter tier 2 dungeons.

Make sure your skills are leveled up.

Make sure you are using trinkets to your advantage every run. I like to de-equip and re-equip all my trinkets every mission.

Make sure you are picking heroes that counter the enemy types you expect to meet. Crusaders do well in the Ruins due to their bonus against Unholy, Plague Doctors can be useless in the Weald but powerful in the Cove due to their blight damage, while Jesters built for bleed damage (you may also have built your Jesters purely for buffs) are better to bring in the Weald but useless in the Cove.

Make sure you are upgrading your stress relief buildings. Having cheaper and faster stress relief helps you sustain your work in higher tier dungeons.

[Kaptin Keen]

I wrote this (https://steamcommunity.com/app/262060/discussions/0/412447613577407402/), a long time ago. A guide for haters.

My theory is that, to succeed in Darkest Dungeon, you need to first realize what type of game you're playing. Not a dungeon fighting game, but a dungeoneer manager game.

And while I'm not particularly good at the game - I don't theorycraft all day and night - I'd like to point out that by the end of the game, I had way more people on my roster than in the grave yard.

[Starwulf]

so first thing first, be ready to lose heroes. a lot of them. like, a metric ton of them. they are disposable. at first you don't even have to treat them.
that would save you the money the upgrade the survivors, both skill and equipment wise.
also, each and every hero is good for something. find what they're good for, and use them when the situation asks for it

that is all

Ya know, I have to say that I kind of went the opposite way. I have 2(or is it 3?) teams that I rotate, but I haven't lost anyone yet, and I"m well into the 2nd tier of dungeons. Don't remember how far as it's been quite a while since I played, but I still have all the original heroes I first recruited, and was steadily upgrading all their abilities. Closest I've came to losing anyone was up against some boss shortly after I ventured into the 2nd tier, guy actually lost all his HP, but somehow survived? Don't recall how(again, been a while), just know that he did.

I will agree that every hero has a use, and also that you should always have at least one primary hero, and one back-up hero that can also double as a minor dps/debuffer. Also, bleed is your friend. Won so many battles just by making the enemy bleed itself to death.




Budgeting upgrades is one that is really obvious when I think about it, but one it took me ages to actually implement; for every character, pick a few skills that you like and ONLY upgrade them.
It's very tempting to upgrade all your skills on every character so that you can test and alter on a whim, but that tends to be a waste of money. As I said above; one strong attack, one way to move yourself or others, and if possible a heal and/or a Stun, are all that most heroes need. Anything else is going to drain money, so don't go overboard if you can possible help it; no one character can finish a dungeon alone, so don't try to rely too heavily on your Crusader killing everything with 8 rank 5 skills when he can only use 4 of them in a fight.

The same goes for artifacts. Upgrading your stagecoach is a high priority, and if you haven't upgraded your Weaponsmith and Armourer by the time you're starting Yellow missions then you're going to have a bad time.... But by the same token, don't get a Rank 4 Weaponsmith if you don't have a Rank 4 hero. Save your artifacts until you can actually use them, as you never know when you might need to suddenly put a lot of people into the Infirmary or de-tress someone important.


Not just the money, but the upgrade material itself. I would honestly suggest only focusing on set of upgrades at a time, period. Do skills first, the more damage you're dishing out/healing, the better. Once you've got them leveled up, do your equipment. Then focus on your artifacts. Ignore leveling up the abbey and sanitarum for the most part(I did enough upgrading so that I could heal two people at a time, and that was it), at least until you've got everything else leveled up. There is nothing worse than going to level up your blacksmith or something, only to find you don't have the upgrade materials needed.

[tensai_oni]

Here is a list of common hardships players tend to face in Darkest Dungeon:

1. running out of gold
2. characters get stressed/afflicted too much
3. enemies are too hard
4. running out of torches/food/other provisions
5. too many people get the crimson curse (if you have DLC)

From what you said, it sounds like #3 is the problem. If you have issues with any other point on the list, make sure to say so too.

There are three parts of a successful run in Darkest Dungeon.

1. Preparation - this is especially important for Veteran and later Champion level dungeons. To tackle a Veteran dungeon, make sure you have a party of level 3 (at least) heroes and all of them have tier 3 equipment and tier 3 whatever skills they use. If you don't have enough money for upgrades or enough heirlooms for the guild and the blacksmith? Don't go to Veteran dungeons yet. Run easier dungeons with other, newbie heroes.

2. Team composition - learn which heroes work well together and use them. Generally heroes that afflict bleeds are less useful in the Cove and significantly so in the Ruins (too many undead), while those who afflict blight are less useful in the Weald and the Warrens. They still have their uses though. The Plague Doctor is great due to her backrow stun and backrow blight. In general, heroes who can stun or who can hit more than one target at a time (exceptions: Grapeshot, Bola, these two are simply too weak) are good. The Man at Arms is a very good tank who can neutralize most attacks against one other party member AND himself by protecting. Same for the Houndsmaster. Heroes who are harder to use are the Arbalest and the Jester. If you're not confident with a dungeon run you're preparing for, don't use these two.

Also, if you are going into a Medium or Long dungeon, make sure at least one hero has a camping skill that makes you immune to ambushes.

3. Combat - know which actions are effective. Tanking and chain stuns are less reliable in Champion level dungeons, but they still have their uses. On Veteran they can very efficiently lock down a group of enemies. Remember, an enemy who is stunned deals 0 damage/stress, while an enemy who attacks and hits a protected target (or the one protecting) will also do a lot less damage. On the other hand there are times when you need to go full alpha strike instead of exercising battlefield control. Encounters with worms, spiders and other glass cannons with low HP are good examples of that. If you want to buff mid-combat, use skills that increase speed and/or dodge. These are two of DD's holy trinity of stats, the third being accuracy (but you should have enough accuracy from trinkets and the torch light level). In-combat stress healing is also a good idea if there is only one or two foes remaining.

I'm ready to provide more detailed advice if you have specific questions. In the meantime I'll comment on other posts in the thread whose points I disagree with.


so first thing first, be ready to lose heroes. a lot of them. like, a metric ton of them. they are disposable. at first you don't even have to treat them.
that would save you the money the upgrade the survivors, both skill and equipment wise.

No. This is a viable way to play Darkest Dungeon, just as you can play X-Com (the old one) with using rookies as cannon fodder. But it's not the only way, not the most efficient way, and from my experience not the intended way to play the game either. If you have more heroes in your graveyard than in your roster, you need to ask yourself what you were doing wrong, and adjust accordingly.



Then just make sure that everyone has a strong attack that they can always use in their normal position and - if possible - another which can move them back there if they get Pulled out of place, and you're probably going to be okay. Attack with your high damage and heal every turn and the short missions go by remarkably quickly.

Crowd control tends to be better than pure damage. Don't get me wrong, normal attacks are still needed to finish off the stunned/moved out of place enemies, but that is usually not your best move.

I found having "backup" abilities to be used in case your hero gets moved around to be mostly useless, unless you have a deliberate party of high-mobility characters. A combo of Highwaymen and Grave Robbers, or the most extreme case - 4x Crusader spamming Holy Lance.



Make sure you are upgrading your stress relief buildings. Having cheaper and faster stress relief helps you sustain your work in higher tier dungeons.

Stress relief buildings are the last thing you need to upgrade. Your heroes usually regain enough stress from a single session regardless of how much the building was upgraded, and making the relief cheaper saves you only little money. The only real advantage of upgrading these buildings is more slots if you really need to relieve many heroes at once. The real priorities in the hamlet are the stagecoach (and barracks), blacksmith, guild, and the sanitarium, in this order. Everything else is secondary.

[Vitruviansquid]

Stress relief buildings are the last thing you need to upgrade. Your heroes usually regain enough stress from a single session regardless of how much the building was upgraded, and making the relief cheaper saves you only little money. The only real advantage of upgrading these buildings is more slots if you really need to relieve many heroes at once. The real priorities in the hamlet are the stagecoach (and barracks), blacksmith, guild, and the sanitarium, in this order. Everything else is secondary.

Yes, that's why it's part of a checklist that also includes this language:


Make sure your armor and weapons are up to date before you enter tier 2 dungeons.

[DemonicAngel]

No. This is a viable way to play Darkest Dungeon, just as you can play X-Com (the old one) with using rookies as cannon fodder. But it's not the only way, not the most efficient way, and from my experience not the intended way to play the game either. If you have more heroes in your graveyard than in your roster, you need to ask yourself what you were doing wrong, and adjust accordingly.



Never said anything about getting your heroes killed on porpuse. but atleast at the first few weeks, its much more viable to let go of afflicted heroes then treat them.

dismissal is not death.

besides, it should also be the mindset of "it's okey to lose heroes" unlike most games where losing an hero to permadeath is very much a big deal.

thats all that i meant. also, RNG doesnt always let you win every fight, sadly.

[Maryring]

Not at all. I used to play the game, then I learned the final boss forces you to off your heroes and so a no-casualty run becomes impossible. With that I lost all interest.

But I did get to the final dungeon with no casualties at least by keeping in mind a few things.

Always bring at least one primary healer. The Vestal has smaller, more consistent heals, while the occultist has greater but more random heals. Pick one depending on how large HP pools you bring. A secondary healer is useful too, even if they can only heal 1 or 2 HP. Healing when you can is good, but going to 0 hp does not mean death. It puts you at death's door, where the next attack has a 1/3rd chance of killing your hero. Healing just 1 hp moves you away from death's door. Conversely, afflictions are dangerous because being brought to death's door with a bleed means that you can get killed before you have a chance to heal up. Remember, bandages and antivenom can remove bleeds and disease. They're well worth it.

It is better to prevent damage than heal it up afterwards. Stuns, disables and pulls do great work here. Plague Doctors and Vestals are again highly useful, but most heroes have some form of disable. Learn it and use it.

Build teams for what area you face. There are undead in the ruins. Beastmen monsters in the warrens. Plague in the weald and high protections in the cove. So bring respectively holy warriors, manhunters, plague healers and dealers.

Know what your heroes can do and who they synergize with.

Arbalests deal awesome damage. Especially with a mark, she's able to crush her enemies. And it doesn't have to be her own mark. Her heal skill also makes other heals better.

Bounty hunter has a great stun, and deals a *ton* of damage to marked enemies. Arbalest and Bounty Hunter focus mark damage on different slots, but while some large enemies occupy the second and third slot, you will no matter what be able to have one mark and the other take advantage of the mark.

Crusaders go in the ruins. While useful elsewhere, Crusaders really shine in the ruins. They're rather straightforward, with the exception of Holy Lance which works in high mobility teams. Use it if you're liable to have others lunge ahead of your Crusader, but otherwise ditch that skill for something better.

Grave Robbers are one of my favourite classes. Flashing daggers deals decent damage in two locations that are liable to have enemies, and she has a ton of really strong mobility skills and the ability to lay the hurt on any one position.

I consider the Hellion more of a support unit than a pure damage dealer. While her hits are good, what I truly bring her for is her ability to shut down the enemy front line. Alternatively to skewer large groups of easily dispatched enemies. Just... make sure she's got someone to protect her.

Highwayman is also really good at large groups of easily dispatched enemies. He also works well on a bleed team.

The Leper is highly inaccurate, yet highly powerful. But that is not why I use him. He is really tanky. So pack in some healing and have him take the brunt of all attacks for you, and be happy when he once in a blue moon actually hits the enemy.

Man-at-arms is there to provide support. Don't rely on him as your main damage dealer, but instead focus on having him keep your stronger units alive.

The Occultist is very useful. Only rely on him as a damage dealer if you're fighting Eldritch foes, but he also has the ability to mark an enemy, and he has a very strong heal. Now, his heal can cause bleeding for the one healed, so do bring bandages and/or someone who can heal bleeds. But there's one more point of interest. The chance to bleed someone acts like a typical affliction, so relics that reduce the chance to inflict bleed will also reduce the chance to inflict bleed on your allies.

The Plague Doctor may seem weak, and if you bring her to the Weald she really is. But her blight is really useful against backrow foes vulnerable to blight. She also has reliable bleed and blight curatives, so if you expect foes that excel in this type of damage, then she's valuable just for the incoming damage she's able to prevent.

The Vestal is amazing in teams with other religious characters thanks to her resting skills. In combat her use is generally to stun a dangerous enemy and to otherwise do a whole lot of healing.

[Mordokai]

Most people will advocate sending your heroes to their doom, wrestling what little money/resources you can from these doomed suckers. That never laid well with me. Perhaps that's why I couldn't enjoy the game. I know that's(kind of) a point of the game, but it never sat well with me.

Few weeks ago, I found this (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLv2Qcu6n6_mJPoDUFrJ7LAhtTKxUt8aau). The guy actually showed me you can run this game by being kind to your heroes. They will get stressed and yes, they will die sometimes. No way around it. But that doesn't have to be the *point* of the game.

Be kind to your heroes. De-stress them after the mission, if the situation warrants it(in my book, that usually means stress>50). Don't be afraid to spend gold on them. You have to spend gold to make gold. Hit stress casters first and hit them hard. Health damage is much less dangerous than stress damage. Drain that into your brains and let it become your maxim and you'll do well. Stuns are your friend. Blight/bleed overcomes PROT. After that, details are yours to figure out.

It helped me a lot. Granted, I'm playing Radiant mode currently. I'm a scrub. But those tenets should hold you over even on Darkest mode. Don't wanna thing what Stygian even looks like, so I'm not gonna speak about that.

Watch's first few of SB's videos, it should clarify a lot for you. And good luck to you. It's an awesome(if sometimes downright mean) game, well deserving of your time.

[tensai_oni]

It helped me a lot. Granted, I'm playing Radiant mode currently. I'm a scrub. But those tenets should hold you over even on Darkest mode. Don't wanna thing what Stygian even looks like, so I'm not gonna speak about that.


I played Darkest like that and it definitely holds up. Still lost about 5 heroes, but that's Darkest Dungeon for you.

These principles hold even more water than usual in Stygian/Bloodmoon. With a strict time and hero death limit, any run that doesn't progress heroes you want to keep for endgame is a week wasted. You simply can't afford to treat heroes as disposable.

EDIT: Oh yeah, by the way - Radiant isn't really that much easier than Darkest. It is definitely challenging and not total easymode. The actual fights are only slightly easier due to (slightly) increased bonuses from high torch levels. What it does is mostly make the game faster and reduce hassle, since heroes level up faster and upgrade costs are reduced.

Though I suppose the ability to bring higher level than usual heroes to low and mid level dungeons can trivialize encounters, but it's up to you whether you do that or send level-appropriate parties instead.


Not at all. I used to play the game, then I learned the final boss forces you to off your heroes and so a no-casualty run becomes impossible. With that I lost all interest.


Truth to be told, the final dungeon is really easy. Sacrificing your heroes is more of a narrative thing, where they give up their lives to defeat the evil thing of endgame spoilers. It's also what you bring Reynauld and Dismas for.

Or you can just send a team of three plague doctors and one leper and finish off the final boss in a single hit, bypassing the necessity of sacrificing heroes altogether. It's definitely not playing the game as intended though.

[Kaptin Keen]

Truth to be told, the final dungeon is really easy.

That is not true.

[tensai_oni]

No, it is. I'm not talking about all the Darkest Dungeon quests, only the very final one. Compared to the three first DD quests or any normal boss for that matter, it's a piece of cake.

[Kaptin Keen]

No, it is. I'm not talking about all the Darkest Dungeon quests, only the very final one. Compared to the three first DD quests or any normal boss for that matter, it's a piece of cake.

No. It isn't.

Sure, the last of the four quests is easier than the first three - but unless you happen to know what you're doing, you will get demolished. Absolutely destroyed. It's hard the way Swine King is hard: Unless you know how to beat it, it's punishing. If you do, not so. In a sense, it's more of a puzzle than a fight.

Of course that's true of most of the game. But to call it easy is frankly rude to the players who have struggled with this fight (among others).

[tensai_oni]

I don't know what to tell you then, first time I ran the final dungeon I didn't know what to expect at all, and yet I had no problems clearing it. From discussions in various Darkest Dungeon centric threads this seems to be the usual experience for most people, too.

[Kaptin Keen]

I don't know what to tell you then, first time I ran the final dungeon I didn't know what to expect at all, and yet I had no problems clearing it. From discussions in various Darkest Dungeon centric threads this seems to be the usual experience for most people, too.

Yes. I bet it is. Because that's invariably the case on forums. Take the hardest damn game in the world, go to it's dedicated forum, and read over and over again how easy it is. Surprising, really. Right?

Last I saw the figure, less than 4% of players had completed the game. It's likely somewhat higher now, with Radial being easier and quicker. Regardless, the huge majority of everyone doesn't think the final boss fight is easy.

[tensai_oni]

It's one thing to brag "oh of course the game is so easy, I cleared it without difficulty". I'm not talking about people who say that - and frankly it feels like you're accusing me of expressing this bragging sentiment right now, in which case knock it off please.

What I'm talking about is that whenever there's a discussion about the game's content, what is hard and what is easy (comparatively, because even easy Darkest Dungeon is still pretty hard), the general consensus is that while the first three Darkest Dungeon quests are pretty damn hard, the fourth one is (once again, comparatively to the rest of the game) a piece of cake.

[Yora]

Cool, so much advice. At least some of it is sure to be helpful.

I've always been very stringy with investing into equipment, under the assumption that it's lost money if the hero dies. And the difference didn't seem that significant to me. But I actually lost very few heroes in those 66 weeks (4 or so). I'll be concentrating on that more and see how that goes.

When it comes to combat, stun and healing is all nice, but doesn't it merely draw out the fight? When I stun an enemy, that hero tends to deal little to no damage that round, bringing me no closer to victory than I was before. I see it being worthwhile if I face one really dangerous enemy and a couple of week ones, but generally it seems that dealing as much damage as possible as fast as possible should be the priority.
I often tend to spend a lot of time healing up heroes because I don't want them to die or because I want them to heal up before I finish the last weak enemy. But again, it seems like I'm not really getting any progress that way.

One specific question I have is if there's something like damage types and resistances. Do I have to select specific heroes for specific dungeons, or doesn't it matter and they are all equally effective everywhere?

[tensai_oni]

The difference in upgrading gear and skills is very significant. Making sure your heroes have highest possible gear levels should be your absolute priority - at least the heroes who you are going to send to a dungeon now. Money isn't really an issue, if you need more of it just do an Auntie run: short dungeon, make sure to bring an Antiquarian along and have her interact with all relics so you get more loot. Bring food and torches as usual, and ~2 keys. The Auntie isn't that good for mid or long duration dungeons because you tend to get your packs filled up in those anyway, so her ability to generate more loot won't do you much good.

Stuns are used on high value targets. If there's a powerful enemy, for example a two tile monster, then it's a prime target for stunning while other heroes mop up the rabble. Alternatively you can use the plague doctor to lock down the whole enemy backline, or the hellion to lock down the whole frontline. You use 1 action but enemies lose 2.

You can't outheal enemy damage if all 4 enemies are attacking, but if 2+ of them are locked down (which means either stunned or pushed into a rank where their abilities are useless) or dead, then you can. It's also good for emergencies or just in general slowing down the enemy damage output. One exception here is the Flagellant. Flagellant's heals are hideously powerful. He's like the Occultist but instead of RNG he needs to be wounded himself - that's why you put him in the frontline.

Regarding heroes and dungeon types: heroes who bleed the enemy a lot are less useful in the Cove and especially the Ruins. Heroes who blight are less useful in the Warrens and the Weald. Flagellant and Plague Doctor can be considered exceptions, the former is just hideously powerful while the latter can contribute with much more than just blights so she's great all around. Ruins have a lot of Unholy enemies, making the Crusader a good pick. The Cove has a lot of Eldritch enemies, making the Occultist a good pick. Both the Warrens and the Weald have a fair spread of Human enemies so the Bounty Hunter is a good pick for those.

Also, the Cove has many enemies who bleed you out while the Warrens have a lot of blight and disease (and the Weald has both). Picking heroes who are strong against these afflictions isn't very important in my experience, but it can help.

[Kaptin Keen]

It's one thing to brag "oh of course the game is so easy, I cleared it without difficulty". I'm not talking about people who say that - and frankly it feels like you're accusing me of expressing this bragging sentiment right now, in which case knock it off please.

Nah, I can make a sweeping statement about gaming forums without including you. I was simply trying to explain that forums do not give you a true picture of how a game plays. That's why I pointed out that hardly anyone completes Darkest Dungeon.

Not calling you a braggart - sorry if it came across that way. But I do feel some care should be taken when talking about how easy the final boss is - because as I said, the great majority of players never even got that far.

But hey, I agree: It is an easier fight than the other quests in the final dungeon.


What I'm talking about is that whenever there's a discussion about the game's content, what is hard and what is easy (comparatively, because even easy Darkest Dungeon is still pretty hard), the general consensus is that while the first three Darkest Dungeon quests are pretty damn hard, the fourth one is (once again, comparatively to the rest of the game) a piece of cake.

And there you have it: Those people, they are ~4% of all players*. Don't listen to those guys, they're hardly representative.

*Again, this is an old figure. Could be higher now, I don't know.


I've always been very stringy with investing into equipment, under the assumption that it's lost money if the hero dies.

The gold - and the other ressources - are there for the upgrades. Doesn't serve any other purpose really (other than supplies), and being well prepared is honestly more important than precisely how you chose to use your skills.

[Rodin]

On the final boss - it's worth noting that its difficulty was increased significantly after the game was released, which could be causing a disconnect.

Even with the increased difficulty though, I still would say that it isn't any harder than some of the Champion bosses, which could get absolutely brutal and required specialized teams to beat. I went in blind with a bunch of random yahoos (read: guys not good enough to handle the other Darkest Dungeon levels) with second-tier equipment purely as a tester to see what I was up against. I still won, though it was closer than it might have been.

I don't fear the final boss, where I do very much fear the Champion-level Pounder, Hag, and Swine King.

[Fri]

Last I saw the figure, less than 4% of players had completed the game. It's likely somewhat higher now, with Radial being easier and quicker. Regardless, the huge majority of everyone doesn't think the final boss fight is easy.

Just wanting to mention since you keep mentioning this figure, not all people never finish a game because they find it too hard. A lot of time they lost interest or lost momentum on playing the game and forgot where where they or find other game or finding the game too long or whatever. Or maybe even finding a game too easy and never bother to finish! I have 300 games registered in my steam acount, and I doubt I've finished 20 of them.

So yeah, you remind me that I should finis the game :smalltongue:

[Kaptin Keen]

Just wanting to mention since you keep mentioning this figure, not all people never finish a game because they find it too hard. A lot of time they lost interest or lost momentum on playing the game and forgot where where they or find other game or finding the game too long or whatever. Or maybe even finding a game too easy and never bother to finish! I have 300 games registered in my steam acount, and I doubt I've finished 20 of them.

So yeah, you remind me that I should finis the game :smalltongue:

Yes, that's obviously true. However, on average, something like 30% of players finish a game. Depending on the game, of course, but .... let me express myself differently:

Darkest Dungeon had far lower completion percentage than the developers expected and wanted, and lower than average even for hard games - and the reason Radial exists is because of this. Well, part of the reason, anyways.

Or so blog and forum posts have led me to believe.

[Foxhound438]

As others say, party comp and upgrades are things you need to figure out. I'll say right off that you can easily get away with level 3 skills and equip in tier 2 dungeons, but if you have access to level 4 stuff it's way easier. In addition to those, you'll want to figure out good movesets for everyone, and work on trinkets.

As for party comp, I'll give a bit of in-depth insight as to how I do it at least:

Since the goal is ultimately to kill everything, you absolutely need damage. Most of the time if you pick 2 things that have good or better damage, you'll do okay. Things I consider to be damage classes are things like leper, crusader, hellion, highwayman, bounty hunter, grave robber, and arbelist. By the way, if everything's super fast, you can definitely get away with just jamming 4 damage classes together, since you can often kill half of everything before they move, and then kill the other half after they get one action. An example of a team that can do this is something like graverobber-graverobber-highwayman-leper. Note that healing is almost nonexistent there, so you don't really have the safety net that you would have with a primary healer.

Often you'll want ways to deal with enemy back line threats, since those can deal a lot of stress damage and in some cases spam blights or diseases at you. Good things here are hellions, hound masters, and grave robbers, since they can often just one-shot them. plague doctors are super good here since you can use plague grenade turn one, take one round of hits, and then blinding gas to stun both so that the blight can tick them down, and finish up with another plague grenade. Most things will only get one action through this, and that's more than manageable. Other things to consider are vestals to get a bit of extra damage with judgement, any class that has pull moves (I'm generally not a fan of these but it works), and occasionally you can get away with just blowing up the frontline with a game of nuke tag and then get rid of the corpses by whatever means (a team that would do that would be something like vestal-jester-crusader-leper).

Past all that, you usually want some healing. The only "strong healers" in the game are vestal and occultist, so most of the time you'll want a bunch of those in your roster. You can definitely outfit antiquarians to do... good enough healing, provided the rest of your team either is fast damage or has some amount of supplementary healing (in the latter case, arbelists, plague doc's, crusaders, lepers, abominations, hellions, hound masters, and flagellants[dlc class] would have that). In any case, which one you take at any given time is mostly preference, but there are some specific bosses that one or the other is better against- occultist for siren due to high debuff resist, vestal for cannon for the ability to hit any row.

and finally, "just utility". The one that comes immediately to mind is jester. You can easily get away with bringing a jester and having him do nothing but spam battle ballad, and as a result you'll be hitting all the time, going first all the time, and of course getting more crits than before. There are ways to build him to do damage (finale), but I generally don't. Just as an example of a good team that I love to play using jester, vestal-jester-grave robber-leper does wonders in any dungeon.


Anyways, figuring out movesets is mostly a matter of preference. Every skill has some utility. I've managed to nail everything down to the point where I pick the 4 moves that I like for a class and just use that every time, sans a few niche cases.

And for trinkets, I'll tell you the big secrets:

1) remove trinkets after every quest. It's tempting to have it so that trinkets are more or less glued to heroes for multiple reasons, but you really need to bring the best trinkets you have access to for a given hero whenever you send them out. This becomes really critical in champion dungeons.

2) sun ring is -the best- trinket, at least before you start collecting ancestral trinkets. Enemy dodge ratings go through the roof in champion dungeons, and you really need the acc boost to hit them. Damage on top is gravy. Even in tier 2 dungeons sun rings are just a huge quality of life improvement.

Good luck

[Yora]

2) sun ring is -the best- trinket, at least before you start collecting ancestral trinkets. Enemy dodge ratings go through the roof in champion dungeons, and you really need the acc boost to hit them. Damage on top is gravy. Even in tier 2 dungeons sun rings are just a huge quality of life improvement.

I first read quantity of life, which I guess is also true. :smallbiggrin: