Overview
This is a guide for advanced players who wish to fight shamblers and win. This guide contains heavy spoilers. *NOT UPDATED FOR CRIMSON COURT.*
The Introduction
So, if you’re reading this, you’ve probably seen one of those tentacled curios and had an entire quest ruined by what came out when you put a torch in it. Obviously these monsters are nothing to trifle with, so this guide assumes you have nigh-unlimited choices for trinkets and fully upgraded hamlet. Shamblers are essentially a bonus boss, after all. If you want to figure out how to kill them yourself, or you want any surprises when you play, you should not read this guide!
I play with heart attacks and corpses turned on, so this guide is compatible with both! (although the shambler and his spores don’t leave corpses anyway, thank God.)
Note that this guide is not current as of the cove update! I am working on it. The various buffs to trinkets mean that I have to rethink the entire trinket section, for starters.
If you find any information to be incorrect, please notify me.
The Monster
The Shambler is a bonus monster that can be optionally fought when the party encounters a “Shambler Altar.” This curio resembles a large sculpture of a tentacle with a glass bubble in the center. By using a torch on the Shambler Altar, the monster is summoned. At the start of combat, the torch is snuffed to 0 and the party is surprised. This happens even if you retreat and come back to the same spot, so don’t bother running if you intend to complete the quest.
There is also a very small chance of encountering a shambler as a random monster if you are exploring at torch level 0. (black as pitch)
The Shambler is a large (Size 2) enemy with a large amount of HP. It has at least three attacks:
Undulating Withdrawal: Blights and damages the party and spawns two Shambler Spores, moves the Shambler to the back.
Obdurous Advancement: Deals damage and bleed, moves the Shambler forward. Spawns two Shambler Spores.
Stentorious Lament: Minor damage and stress increase to the entire party. Can shuffle the party order in the same way as the blight giant’s confusion spores. Can crit.
Shambler Spores have low HP and the following attack:
Clapperclaw: Does serious damage and adds high stress while buffing the spore in pretty much every way imaginable. Protection, damage, accuracy, etc.
During the battle, light-producing abilities such as the vestal stun or crusader defense buff do not produce light, and torches are unusable.
When slain, the Shambler drops loot, including one trinket from the Ancestral set. These are the rarest trinkets in the game, only available by killing Shamblers or completing long champion-level quests, and they are extremely powerful.
The Heroes
Not all heroes have the right stuff for hunting the most dangerous monster to grace the normal dungeons. A detailed breakdown of good choices follows. The best time to hunt shamblers is probably at resolve level 0-2, since you won’t have put so much investment into them that losing them is a disaster, and a level 2 hero with upgraded weapons and armor is at a dramatic advantage. Bear in mind that the shambler can shuffle your party around at random at any point in the fight.
Abomination:The Abomination should throw caution to the wind and hulk out when he fights the shambler. Absolution can’t keep up with the shambler at all, and shamblers are resistant to stuns. If you get afflicted, the poison is probably okay if you can hit the shambler and one of his spores at the same time. Abomination in beast mode is one of the more ridiculous damage dealers, especially with the proper camping skills.
Antiquarian: Don’t put the torch in the altar if you have one in the party. In fact, I would recommend just retreating from any shamblers you find by running around with 0 torch. Greed is good, but not dying like a ♥♥♥♥♥ is better.
Arbalest: The new candidate for best damage output in Darkest Dungeon, she can also hustle backwards at comical speed if she finds herself in the front two positions. Even so, when the shambler is likely to be shuffling your party every single turn, she’s not a very good option. If you do take her, put her in rank 3 or 4 (4 is better if you’re taking the wrath bandana) and hope for the best.
Bounty Hunter: The biggest advantage about this guy is probably that he is very unlikely to care where he gets shuffled to, if you’ve selected the appropriate skills. Mark for Death+Collect Bounty is, of course, very deadly, but if someone else can mark it for him that’s even better. Don’t bother flashbombing or yanking the thing around. Put the Bounty Hunter anywhere you like, and make sure you can hit from any row.
Crusader: Holy Lance is what makes the crusader capable of fighting shamblers, and Zealous Accusation can be very good at clearing out the spores. On top of that, the Crusader is stupidly hard to kill and does good damage. Lance him forward until you’re in rank one or two.
Grave Robber: Considering how hard the shambler will shuffle you up anyway, a grave robber can probably afford to thrust whenever possible. Take pick to the face, too.
Highwayman: You will want to spec for gunplay if you take the Highwayman. Grapeshot blast can hurt the shambler itself while helping to clear out its tentacles, or you can just shoot it with your pistol. Even if he winds up in the very front, you don’t have to use the turn moving around unless you really want to. This is not a fight for faffing about with duelist’s advance and point blank shot, though it may very well be helpful to take PBS just in case you find yourself in the front. Spores are too accurate for it to be safe to rely on DA tanking. If you don’t spec him for guns, you’ll want to take open vein, to bleed the tentacles and shambler. Put him in ranks 2 or 3.
Hellion: She’s the helllion, of course she’s helpful. The Shambler can be hit by If it Bleeds no matter where it is, and she can use If it Bleeds from any position except the very back. High base damage and crit rate plus bleed attacks makes for a very powerful combo. Put her in rank 1 to enable iron swan and bleed out, if you like, but absolutely have If it Bleeds available . Probably one of the better heroes to take.
Houndmaster:The houndmaster is pretty good against the shambler if you have your scooby snack available, but where it really shines is in damaging and bleeding the tentacles while also hurting the shambler itself (the damage on the shambler is really just gravy) He also has a number of other useful tricks: guard an ally and laugh as you dodge everything, cry havoc as a precaution against stentorious lament spam, mark the shambler and reduce its protection… Not a liability, currently, for sure.
Jester: Surprisingly, a combat jester can be quite helpful. Harvest can hurt the Shambler and its spores at the same time, while also inflicting bleed. Slice off is positively murderous, and will always be able to hit the Shambler. The Jester is just as dodgy, just as accurate (aside from the grave robber’s self-buffs from throw dagger), and almost much of a crit factory as the Grave Robber, but unlike the Grave robber he also adds bleed with his attacks, in exchange for a point or two of base damage (hint: Bleed is a lot better than base damage). Additionally, battle ballad is actually pretty good. Finally, the jester can move exactly where you want him from any position. Put him in rank 2-3 to use Harvest. If you want to use Battle Ballad, you’ll want him in rank 3. I don’t recommend solo and finale, though: Too dependent on positioning, and you can’t afford to spend three turns with your jester debuffed to hell.
Leper: He might be able to weather and deal extreme damage, but he just can’t hit for beans. There are more efficient choices than the leper, and Shambler is one of the few circumstances where you really can’t afford his unreliable offense and completely inflexible reliance on being in the front line. If you must take him, he goes in the front two ranks, duh. (this is actually another reason not to take the leper-he can’t move around easily and he’s extremely dependent on being in the front two rows. Even the crusader can lance himself forward.)
Man at Arms: Neither the Shambler nor its minions give a hoot whether or not you mark yourself, but MOA can attack from any square except the very back, and you’re probably going to get a riposte off anyway. On top of that, he’s nice and tough, and he does quite good damage. The choice between him and a Crusader is just a matter of whether you want another multi-target attack, or a riposte. Put him in the front three ranks-if you need someone who’s in front of him to get behind him, use his stun.
Occultist: Properly kitted, this man saves lives with Wyrd Reconstruction. I cannot stress how powerful this ability is enough. On top of that, he’s actually really deadly with Sacrificial Dagger, as it has a high crit rate and does bonus damage to eldritch monsters like the shambler. He can even mark the shambler for you so your bounty hunter and arbalest don’t have to. Occultist is good to have. Put him in rank 3.
Plague Doctor:I do not recomment the Plague doctor for the Shambler. Her DoTs are in a pretty good place now and do decent damage, especially to enemies with high prot, so she can be useful for melting the tentacles, but her raw damage output isn’t really strong enough in my opinion. If you’re running Incision, then maybe, just maybe she could be worth having, but nobody uses incision because loads of other heroes can bleed and do good damage too.
Vestal: The vestal was mandatory, once. Then she was awful, and now she’s just pretty good. Rank 4, or Rank 2 if you’re running a profane vestal.
Finally, note that there’s no such thing as a “shambler-hunting” build. Altars and 0 torch random encounters don’t happen often enough for such a thing to be a reality. I would instead describe a team as being “shambler viable.” There’s not a tremendous change in tactics, really.
The Trinkets
Trinket selection has the potential to greatly magnify the effectiveness of a party in Darkest Dungeon. It should be tailored for the party you have, obviously, but these trinkets in particular come in handy.
Tough Rings are obscenely powerful defensive items, even after the protection rework. Crusaders and Men at Arms love these things, but there’s nothing to stop you from putting one on a Hellion. They no longer stack! weep, ye minmaxers.
Legendary Bracers are very important. To fight the Shambler, you’re going to need damage-lots of damage. Put these on Hellions, Jesters, Highwaymen, and Arbalests.
Gunslinger’s buckle: If you take a Highwayman, you should give him one of these. Grape shot and pistol are both excellent abilities. This also enables you to give a legendary bracer to somebody besides your highwayman, if you don’t have enough bracers.
Focus Ring: This can help a damage dealer balance out the accuracy nerf from a Legendary Bracer if your damager is lacking in accuracy-boosting quirks. The added crit chance is also helpful.
Cleansing Crystal: The Occultist shouldn’t leave home without this thing if he’s packing Wyrd reconstruction (and he should be).
Hero’s Ring: Pure theorycrafting at this point, as I don’t ever really use these, but virtues are always fun. EDIT:Having experimented with Hero’s rings a bit, I have to say that they’re not reliable enough to be worth using, unfortunately.
Commander’s Orders: Crusader only. This boosts the healing ability of your crusader. For shamblers, you can’t count on your crusader being in rank 1, so that doesn’t matter.
Ancestral items: Probably the only ones you should take to fight the shambler are the ancestor’s coat (for dodging), musketball, and pen (in the hope that you get a crit). I don’t even really recommend these. Laments and sycophants do a ton of stress damage.
Moon Ring/Moon Cloak: If your preferred method of hunting shamblers is to go on pitch black runs (Not recommended), then these are useful. If you aren’t planning on pitch black dungeon crawls, then these are a liability for the entire rest of the dungeon.
Of course, if you are fighting shamblers with a low-level party, it may very well be preferable to keep the rare and powerful trinkets listed here safe in your hoard.
The Fight
So now we come to the actual Shambler fight. He will continually shuffle your party, deal high stress, and inflict both dots, but the real danger comes from his tentacles. They do enormous damage and heavily buff themselves. Fighting the shambler is in some ways similar to fighting the brigand cannon-you need to damage the boss while clearing out the summons at a steady and fast rate. The Shambler’s resistance to DOT effects is moderate and it has some protection, so bleeding skills are going to be your friend here.
The Spoils
Having killed the Shambler, you now have a fabulous Ancestral trinket to help you through the dungeon! By this point you probably don’t need the help anymore.
Ancestor’s Bottle: +25% max hp, +10% stress
Ancestor’s Candle: +15% DMG, +2 SPD, +5 DODGE if torch is over 50, +10% stress
Ancestor’s Map: +25% to scout, +25% trap disarm, +10% stress
Ancestor’s Scroll: +25% heal and stress heal, +10% stress
Ancestor’s Tentacle Idol: +25% virtue chance
(Special Thanks to commenters who helped me to correct and update this list!)
The End
I can’t walk you through the battle itself. Darkest Dungeon is too unpredictable, and your options for parties are too varied. With that said, I prioritize multiple-target attacks that inflict DoTs and hit both the shambler and his tentacles. (AOE has been heavily nerfed since this guide was written. Try to kill at least one shambler spore every turn, and also kill the shambler quickly. You have to have heavy damage output to have a good shot at this foe.) Killing the spores with single-target attacks just sets you up for a battle of attrition that you won’t win. All I can do now is say good luck, and to remind yourself that overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer.