Overview
I am a looter type of gamer, seeing my inventory full of gem and gold makes me happy, thus naturely Antiquarian become my favorite hero. After finish a few darkest mode (before radiant update), and saw someone winning the final battle with 4 Antiquarians on youtube, inspire me an idea that beat the game with only Antiquarians.Soon I realize it is just not possible. So I change my win condition:Beat the game with at least 2 Antiquarians in party. (Normal Mode)And I will prove looting is not the only thing Antiquarians can do, she is a Shining Goddess in this Darkest Dungeon.
DD1: We Are The Flame
P4 Antiq is healer/tank (P2 Antiq use “Protect Me” on P4, because Priest can hit both frontline.)
I let P2 equip Ancestor’s Scroll just in case, so other badly stress or wounded teammate may recieved better heal, but later it proves not necessary. Basicaly P4 spam heal/dodge buff, P2 spam “Protect Me” and “Flashpowder” (this skill suck ball on paper, but It actually work in fight).
The key to win DD1 is find the “heal battle”
(the one with 2 Rapturous Cultist, stun cancle guard, keep them alive so you can full heal your team, even remove affliction)
But I still got several close call, run out bandages in the middle of the quest. When camping, I find Antiq’s “Strange Powders” camp skill really help the boss fight, extra 20 bleed/move resist is a bless, hence I win my first DD quest with 2 Antiquarians in team.
Note:
DD battles don’t drop loot, even if you have Antiquarian in party.
(Still can get antique coin from the ancestor bag, and from boss which drop loot.)
(Got Ancestor’s Pen in bag, I let Jester equip before boss fight.)
My Antiquarians have 1 or 2 man/beast hater/slayer quirk, but their melee damage output are still weak (What do I expect?), their blight are ok though.
DD2: Lighting The Way
Riposte and Guard is the key to win DD2, naturally here comes the old “Protect Me” + “Riposte” combo. HWM dive first to get Riposte then HM stun damage dealer/cancle guard.
In theory, I don’t have to let my Antiquarians equip “Talisman”, they can use “Protect Me” let HWM/HM tank the Revelation. But I want maximumly use “Protect Me” (spam it every turn on different teammate to give them buff), I let my P4 Antiquarian equip the 3rd Talissman and a “Carapace Idol” to tank, position 3 Antiquarian will spam “Protect Me” and heal.(later it proves a wise decision, DD2 boss can move/stun your party, guard can get cancle sometimes.)
Bosses are 2 action per turn, so it actually double the blight damage, learned from my previous quest, now I only use blight attack on my Antiquarians. (That Beast Hater quirk hardly increase 1 melee damage in my Antiquarian D:)
Only the first boss fight is a bit of hard due to lack of camp skill buff, but later on it go smoothly.
(All thanks to my experience, and DD quest map.)
DD3: Belly Of The Beast
As long as you have a PD equip full stun trinket and a hero can kill white cell fast (plus a DD3 map) it would be an easy DD quest – even if there are 2 Antiquarian in your party lol.
For DD3 I trained an Eldritch Hater Hellion, equip with “Sun Ring/Heaven’s Hairpin” to prevent missing hit in this high dodge dungeon, really make this a simple quest.
Believe it or not, my 2 Antiquarians blight the Boss to death when the others busy doing “Stun, Kill white cell, Summon, Repeat” business.
Since boss move 2 actions per turn, make it blight out tons of damage, Its high prot/self heal is useless against Antiquarian’s mighty blight.
Note:
You can camp a lot in this quest, so before you fight the boss let hellion get all her camp skill buff else you may have trouble kill the white cell quickly.
Extra: Wolves At Door
I have no lv5+ antiquarian when the event trigger at first time, but I am well prepared at 110 week to accept the challenge. (This happens between my DD1 & DD2 quest)
OMFG, It is surprisingly EASY! The key point is to get at least one “Hardskin” Abomination, with protactive padlock boots his base prot to 25%, and use “Protect Me” boots even higher to tank the boomb thrown by Vvulf.
Protactive Padlock/Padlock of Transference are for prot and stun/blight, Thats right.
I never fight in beast form even once in this quest. It takes few more turn but a team full of “Blight Resist Debuff + Blight” is deadly, just make sure stun the damage/stress dealer first.
Abomination’s vomit won’t trigger Vvulf’s Barrel’s reposte, all you do is blight and heal, let Abmination got all the “Protect Me” buff, then you can watch the mighty Vvulf drowning in vomit.
P4 Antiq is for heal/dodge buff; P1 Antiquarian equip “Debuff Amulet”, make her “Flashpowder” and Blight attack more reliable. It is ok enemy didn’t get blight, but Blight resist debuff is crucial so that next blight will sucess.
I search the whole map find 3 bags, yet only 1 gives me Ancestor’s Trinket.
(There is a hidden room on top left, normal chest give Heirlooms though.)
DD4: Hell Is In The Heart
Antique Roadshow!
With my love for Antiquarians thus far, ofc I need finish the game with Antiquarians! Someone already did it on youtube, the previous 3 DD quest supposed to be harder, this one should be eas-
“Remind yourself, over confidence is a slow and-“
Yup, karma. But soon revive town event occured, so Pericard return my team for the round 2.
Last time I let them all equip offensive trink, this time I have an tank (“Tough” quirk, “Tough Ring”/Blight Amulet), if someone dying, use “Protect Me” on tank can make weaker one last a lot longer.
But when Darkest Heart use “Come unto your maker”, I wanted sacrifice my afflicted Antiquarians, funny thing happened. She is under “Protect Me” guard, so instead of the dying one, my tank smashed into ash. The best lol material in my entire antiquarians challenge.
After beating the heart with Pericard alone, I got another revive town event! Sadly I can only revive one, but what a great gaming experiance.
In the end, 8 DD Antiquarians in my roster, and 5 Antiquarians rest in my grave yard, all of them have a big beautiful shining headstone, coverd by bouquets of rose.
