Overview
I’m so good I decided to make a deep guide on how to master Darkest Dungeon. This include guide on perks, how to effectively synergize your heroes, how to enter fight with boss without the belly full, without stress and ofc, beat once for all the base game.This guide is not better than all other on steam. You can’t compare the garbage of the mortal realm and the pelagic wonder that is this guide. It’s just superior.
PREFACE- INTRODUCTION, NUMBERS, RNG
This guide is not for the faint of heart. We will do some serious SCIENCE to figure out the numbers, and the the RNG
As the complexity of this game grew ever more.. Complexe, there will be a lot of reading in this guide. I would have made a video of 1m30s to sum it up for you, but we don’t really know each other yet, as I didn’t met you parents. So it’s too soon. I prefer to pass the next 8 hours to write something you won’t read to the end, cos your eyes are bleeding and sins are crawling on your back.
What can I say, I’m SO a romantic.
So yes. I just get out of 256 hours of this marvelous game content and I think i squeezed all of it so far.
In a first time, we’ll bend over some serious numbers as we delve into the realm of Rng, seeing how much we can impact it with correct trinkets and Perks. We’ll briefly pass on the synergy that can be obtain teaming heroes with complementary perks to strenghen your groups and the importance of supports buff AND debuff during specific fights. Finally we’ll dress a pool of the bosses, their mechanics that can be learned quickly and the reflexion behind the idea of scouting to analyze.
Of course we’ll finish by talking about how important is scouting to learn the place of the secret room, giving us maximum income and alternatives path to reach our differents goals.
Finally we will devise on Greed, and the concept of reward over mind, and how it can impact your social interactions with real people and sending you on a path of crime and lust, loosing your job your marriage and selling your kids for drugs, cos you know, that Shambler should have died last turn, before triggering all those hearts attacks that killed your favorite group wearing those smoky artefacts.
But not today, cos the cops are coming and I need to reload my shotgun.
Episode -1 : Higher Being, these words are for You alone.
If you start Darkest Dungeon, this chapter is for you and you alone. Yes. Consider it as a gift of Unbirthday. That’s how generous I am.
Let’s take a step back and ask ourselves; What’s Darkest Dungeon?
The answer is simple.
Yes.
Darkest Dungeon is a « weyrd » game. It’s a patchwork, of different mechanics sew with precision to offer a unique experience.
It’s like taking a puppy, putting it rabbits ears, replacing his tail by a snake, sharpening the teeth and letting him out in a nursery.
So yeah.. It’s a Management / Roleplaying / Strategic / Building / Mental Calcul game
Very abridged: You are put in charge of a village with views on a Dungeon, and you’ll recruit Heroes to go plunder the riches, tending for those heroes as the game is set in a Lovecraftian universe and will take its toll on their sanity.The plus is that you also take direct control of the team you send in dungeon, putting you in charge of everything on the field.As your heroes finish missions, they will gain experience and level, making them more effective.Classic Rpg elements on paper.
But(t), Darkest Dungeon is also something else, that people instinctively know without taking conscience of it: It’s a game surrounded by a powerful aura of dread and tension.
First the Lovecraftian universe, spooky tentacles and the overall artistic direction of this game is a unsettling one (and a motherforking beautiful one). Monsters are these gorgeous pelagics wonders, the light overall color won’t bring you comfort either.
Also, It’s now what we can call an « old » game as the alpha created a core of gamers, was left to his own for a time and rediscover by Youtubers twitchers and over.
But That’s not the true source of “stress”. In fact, it’s not even a game mechanic yet:
New players often come into this game after seeing someone play it. there is a lot of Raging, or compilations of epic fails as the entire party wipe due to heart attacks. Again, strong aura ++: The game will kill you, and your heroes will die. Even that one that you loved cos, you know, you renamed it thinking « This one won’t die ».
With The Soul serie now a THING, Dark Soul seems to join the frey.
The reputation of this game add to the stress new players will experiment, or the reaction they will have doing dungeons on their own. Due to that particuliar stress, they WILL use too much gold on mission equipement for their first runs, gold that will inevitably misses weeks later.
The true difficulty of this game reside in the starting weeks..
As you try to understand how the mechanics works and try new team combinations, heroes will eventually go mad, what will require gold to heal (and a week). Also, the fear to have people go crazy can make new players spending gold to cure like 20 stress. Quirks removal is expensive and often for heroes that will be replaced.
Enters the Rng, the only true important Rng of the game: The stage coach arrival. If you have a second heal week 2 or 3, you’re basically settle as you can focus on getting things done quickly.
But when it’s week 9 and you are still waiting for one as your only heal is now too high level to even consider going on those easy quests, well you’ probably fork and better off starting anew.
The mechanic revolves on the players always surviving a poor gold income. Tension is accumulated when a hero dies, cos it can’t be replaced without paying gold, and time. First boss fight can be unforgiving with certain builds, and the first encounter with the shambler can and will be desastrous (The sweet wipe of the whole MVP team).
This put you, the player, in stress as your begin to analyze evrything and count the percentage of chance to stun, bleed or blight. Every fight becomes a calcul, because you don’t want to loose those heroes you spent time to upgrade. This stress will finally make you upset, as heroes misses shots, opportunity, pass decisive turns or just, you know, kill one another.
But Neo, What if told you that you can avoid this painful painful way up to the top? Will you leave Trinity and go with me on a date? I’ll bring spaghettis. More on that later.
Of course, there are so many meme videos (The Last Crusade, The Pain Train) showing you the exact opposite as sur-equipped heroes will eventually roll over the obstacles with incredible display of pure force.
As it seems very complex to apprehend, Darkest Dungeon is actually very simple to take in hand. The Curios (Item with which you will interact in the Game) are a good example of that, as you can use item on them to get more rewards, (Like a key on a Chest). You’ll first try the different options, make few errors and adjust.But truth be told, the game follows exactly the same rules. You’ll quickly learn the ropes, take confidence, Greed, inevitably die to a Shambler, Reconsider, Adapt, Evolve.
Is the Shambler coming back too often in this discussion. Yes NO.
The game is designed to have tiers of difficulty (0>2, 3>4, 5, 6) adding more monsters to the runs and raising the stats of previous ones. Bosses require different strat too, and you MVP team of Melee heroes that steamroll dungeons could be made totally useless against Boss that Hide, or are just protected by 3 MOTHERFORKINGS RUBBLES OF WOOD THAT ARE MADE OF DAMN ADAMANTIUM!
Hem. 98 Stress as I begin to write this guide. You are in trouble.
As you can imagine, Death courb will dramatically rises when entering those tiers, because you won’t know what to expect.You can avoid this with different strategies, that you will learn here and by yourself.With no further a due, let’s dive in.
“Splash”
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… …
… … …
Fork You.
Episode 1: Genesis, the Old Road. How to succeed the hardest quest ever.
Hey. I just escaped Guantanamo and I’m here to begin the incredible tale of your endoctrination.
Did I said Endoctrination? No I said endoctrination, whitout the Caps!
If you played Darkest Dungeon, you know that some quest and objectives are more challenging than others, and more rewarding too. The difficulty scale with the global Resolution Level of your Character and you should be able to deal with any quest without ever loosing a Hero if you know what you are doing.
But you don’t. That’s why you’re here right. As a big chunky purple fellow once said, your failure have brought you back to this guide.
WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING JUST READING? START THE GAME.
Is it started? Remember than I can see you throught the camera of your computer (You’ll thanks the NSA for that).
Let’s make a new Darkest Run but first a little disclaimer to pay my drugs.
“Do you love video games? Wah, me too!
“Do you love to play them again and again and again and again and again and again and again aid gnaidesluv? WAH ME TOO!
“We should hang out sometimes and I could talk to you about the Workshop! Yeah hundreds of mods made by talented people to enhance your gaming experience. New monsters, dungeons, classes, you name it! And you know what is best? It’s free! So go in the workshop and rip the benefit of geniuses at work.”
As the cinematic fade, you find yourself in dungeon mod, leading a glorious party of two heroes. These heroes are the epitemy of the Heroes. If at any moments one of them die, just delete your savefile and begin anew.
THERE IZ AN ACHIEVEMENT IF THEY MAKE IT TO THE END! And I can feel than deep down, you are an achievement ♥♥♥♥♥ as all pre milenial would be. Blame Pokemon, Blame the collection stickers, the Pogs, and other shets that we used to have. Steam got us right in the childhood.
So yeah, the Old road. I hope you are prepared for this burning crusade of yours.
First of all, ctrl shift your torch. You don’t need light. You know it. You passed month alone in the dark thanks to Grand Father Nurgles. Light is for the weak of mind, for those who don’t have the strenght to carry on throught the blackest hour, throught the toughest of days, throught the Darkest of Dungeons.
The Emperor Protects.
But It doesn’t apply to your heroes so don’t ♥♥♥♥ up.
If you have correctly mod your game, you should have 257 fights, and should be able to access the Pantheon of Gods.
After taking down Ganondorf, travel to the Cruscible and choose the blue option as Agent 47 will take you down if you chose a Genocide Road. Go forth and use the Artorias ring to get safe passage throught the Abyss.
In the next corridor, don’t forget to shovel the Crimson Plant, and make place for the Blue Shell. Choose to save the Bullet and watch Clementine take down the Metal Gear. Use Dragon Shouts to support in case hp get’s too low.
Finally the last fight can be tricky, as the Purple Guy will try to murder you if you are underage cos it seems than in a society like ours, murdering childrens is the coolest of tricks to make horror games, so trick the game by changing the clock of your computer by one year in the futur. While reloading the fight, he will be dead of old age and you will be able to grab his sniper rifle relic, that add 10% to your melee skill if you used Aard sign last turn.
>MEET THE PYRO..HEROES!
As you can imagine this is useless! Who would want to strategically avoid attacks while doing small amounts of damages? No, just bash people.
Now it’s the end of fight. If a Hero is still alive in your party but in death door, don’t forget to open the chest, as it is always trapped and will apply Bleed to your hero. Don’t hesitate to go back in the corridor and walk few steps to be sure to die like a Bill.
Coz You are welcome. And I accept credit card. Now let me understand why everytime i use caps lock, the voice reading in your head becomes louder.
Comics abuse or pending sign of your iminent downfall into madness?
Only time will tell.
CHEERS!
MaJ 2.1.547 -The HamHamlet, Building Order, Districts, Ripping SpaceTime Continuum.
We have extra time. I’m in the plane that will drop me to your house. If I get there late, don’t worry, I’ll just stay in front of your bed watching you until you wake up. I’m a cool friend you see.
The Hamlet you arrived is a mess. Most of buildings are closed, there is a muddy stagecoach with only two heroes in it, a Plague Doctor and a Vestal, but who need Girls in a party of real MEN with muscle and football feets?
Keep your heirlooms for now. You can’t do much first week in your hamlet.
That’s a lie.
Well here we are. It’s your first time entering the Dungeon and look at you. So grown up now.
I remember when you were this big and now, you’re gonna crush skulls and bash cultists to death until your mind break under the pressure.
Gosh your mother would be so proud.
Obviously, the game is still in tutorial as we can’t access much, and that’s a shame.
That’s a lie.
Let me talk to you about Scripted quest.
“Distant Harp strung”
“It was by a cold night of 1875 that Percival Edward Tuthoryal invented the concept of Infinite universe into a microverse, with the theory that if chaos could be ordered, Humanity could be transformed into hovering pancakes connected by a Hive Mind.
Of this was absurd, as we know today that pancakes can’t hover but can just gently fly when thrown from a plane. But from this heresy, a monster born, as a Percival now insane created the first Tutorial.
And the fate of Humanity was Sealed”
What it means is that the first ruins will always give you a key for a chest, a shovel for the rubble and a Holy water for the Fountain. It also mean that there is seven lootspawn that can be access and four fight to be …Fought. And you know what? The first one is an easy one with two walkers with sticks. It can be cleared with any hero level 0.
Oh yes..
So we Embark with one char only, ctrl-shift our torch, take the first lootspawn, enter the room, kill the creeps and take the little chest.
Aaaaaaaaand we Brexit.
But don’t worry, you didn’t loose. You just merely fail to suceed.
As you go back on the hamlet screen, two new buildings have are now open. But that’s weird, the week is stil 2.
What devilish heresy is happening here?
Well, you see, you didn’t pass much time in the dungeon. Soo. Well, the week didn’t pass at all.
After all, you did just one room. But hey, you know what, now the first buildings are unlocked so, that’s nice.
Go back to embark. Repeat the same pattern. Now the Blacksmith and Guild are unlocked, allowing you to take level one of skills for your Crusader and Dismas (Remember, I see you). They are the only level one of your little roster, cos, you know, failing quest doesn’t make you earn exp.
Oh yeah, you understand now that you’re gonna need a lot more bolters to clear this heresy.
Before going back in, make sure that your stagecoach grants you the more heroes possible, and put the Crusader in the sanitarium to cure Kleptomania. Embark with the others. Repeat, clear the first room and make a big step. In the next corridor is a fight (if you didn’t cured Kleptomaniac on the Crusader, he will randomly take your loot, so don’t be a looser. Be a Derek) that will be easy with stuns and Dismas. The next room is empty.
PEACEFUL ENDING: Retreat.
MAXIMUM DEREK ENDING: Go north, new corridor, a bag. New fight for a big safe in the room (You have a key if you runned in the dark).
Get the loot. Retreat.
You failed to success again! Damn. But look! This time you gained perks and quirks! And more gold. And the week has passed. New heroes arrived and the Crusader is now an honest lad!
Mes Félicitations, You just broke time and space., as the scripted quest is still in waiting to be complete.
That mean that you can theorytically get a full roster and upgrade your town while never ending the tutorial quest.
You just have to wait for antiquariens, healers and stuff, that will never pass the first level of resolution but will add consequent loot to your booty. If you play with mods, the Heir and Heiress are lovely choices, as they take more herilooms back with them. Some classes like the monk can solo the Chest Way alone when level 1 resolution with only self heal and riposte.
“But You ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ goat!” I hear you say.” You just said that heroes can’t exp with this method!”
That’s true. But heroes that can be recruited by stagecoach can arrive level 1 if the upgrades has been made.
Or you know. Two.
Of course, all of this can be done by taking the right mods (All roster week 1, more loot, head start). But it’s not about wasting time. It’s about taking back your power, and also have a second look on this game;
This game is not hard. It’s not a Soul game in this sense people can think of it.
This game helps you a lot in fact, displaying intel on monsters, their attacks. Darkest Dungeon gives you the resistances of monsters at first glance. The game want you to succeed, but also want to show you that it won’t make it too easy for you.
Because there is another scripted quest that only stays week one and two, a hunter quest; clear the battlerooms. That can be done easily as the rooms are near the starting area. But if you decide to go the corridor east. Bam. The Collector appears, blue eyed skeletton and oh boy you’re gonna have a bad time.
But again it’s a show off. Despite the MAD MAAAAAD world they throw you into, Red Hook are actually helping a lot.
The first characters that are given to you forming the Red Hood squad is one of the most polyvalent you’ll ever have early game, and it’s nammed after the Devs.
That my friends is some serious Love.
To get back on tracks, Having the possibility to make quick rewarding rushes with minimal risks will kinda screw up the difficulty of the start. But this method allows you to recruit heroes that you don’t usually use, make quick roster to see who is good with who, what combos you can do to do massives damages, or stun the whole ennemy party. This insight is very valuable for this or future game of Darkest Dungeon and allows you to get to the fun part of the game without the stressing start. There is downside however, as the early game mechanics revolve on the fact that you have few golds and few options. The early will become easy to break and the satisfaction that you should get of it will be weaker. And Farming can be dull and boring.
That why you will be chained to your computer to do this awful hard work of building your hamlet for the next ten generation as I stay near you, encouraging you with therapeuthic screams and video of lolcats.
What a blast we will have right? RIGHT?!
Chapter III – Dereking the low level content
But is it really enough to beat the game.
Yes. NO
A major problem met by new player is the leveling wich is too fast. You can’t really chain up the bosses with the same team cos they will get to their cap too quickly, locking them away from easy rewarding quest and WILL be killed if not correctly equipped or uprgaded when trying superior quest (we covered that).
Look, THZIS IS ORANGE QUEST NOW ZIS IZ DANGEROUS!
First: Short quest of exploration allows champions to quickly gather 10k gold for minimal risk.
Second, you still don’t have level 3 hero, I just mention that for later use.
You main goal is now to upgrade your main buildings, unlocking the ability to quickly have hero level 2 that spawn in the stagecoach.
Heroes recruited in the stagecoach past level 0 have all their spells unlock, better equipement, and best of all, That’s free.
You still understand the word free?
Is it still a thing?
So as you do only short quests with your “main team” caping them slowly 2 to scout the different areas, unlocking bosses, you can stack powerful heroes for further raid, or use suicide squads to get more loot with level 0. Don’t even bother upgrade those as you can ditch them just after the quest. You are not a sentimental are you?
Stack some healers, even if not level max, as Vestal are just the beloved healer that we know and Occultist will take care of tank team later.
Time to clear low level game now and open the path to the first bosses. Should be easy now that you understand perfectly the game mechanics, and death is not so scary anymore as heroes can be easily replaced. The missions done to open the Bosses dungeons will just show you different types of monsters, Biomes special affinities, and will give you inisight on what is strong and what is weak. Keep that in mind. Actually, no, tatoo it on your entire body in case you are put in jail.
And remember, If I did it, you can probably try to do it and maybe, if the stars are align, success! What a great guy you are, get this pep another pat in the back and fetch me the D.D.A.O.T.B.O.D.D.
Interlude: The Talk
When beginning to write this poor excuse of a joke, I only had the objective to get rid of boredom while writing a forking troll on a game I loved.But something strange happened. Maybe it was the Derek click bait, or the intro text of this guide, but people actually began to click it, and before I can say Jason, the guide was popular, slowly showing in the first pages. And that’s super weird!
Cos if your read this, that mean your probably read all of it. What the fork? Why are you doing this? Why are you hating yourself?
And between stupid jokes, bad English translation and pop culture references that won’t not be relevant next year, The Time-breaking strat is really a thing, as I observe my roommate put it to the test. (25k gold on a « longue » route with an Antiquarian and an Heir)But I decided to go on twitch and see by me eyes how new players react to Darkest Dungeon. So by now, some of you should know me as I stalked your progression for few dungeons.
The data gathered is very precious on how new players apprehend DD, and before doing the boss guide, I shall forth edit a bit this guide to make it relevant for new players.Et maintenant, pauvre âme en peine traduisant du français, let’s continue !