Overview
What does it do? What can it do for me? A simple guide on the newest mechanic from The Crimson Court. You might want to avoid reading if you don’t want to spoil the surprise for yourself!
Introduction
“There is power in the blood, for those with the fortitude to pay the price.”
The Crimson Curse is a persistent status effect, much like a disease, that gives a hero unique conditions, slowly turning them into bloodsucking monsters. It can’t be cured by normal means…
The Blood
Enemies from the Courtyard will drop The Blood,
The Sanguine Vintners district will produce two vials of The Blood every week.
The Curse
- Passive:
When first contracted, the Curse will add some atributes to your heroes:
- -5% Stun, Blight, and Bleed resist
- -10% Max HP
- -5% virtue chance
- +1 SPD
- Giving The Blood to the hero during this stage will give them +10 DODGE and +3 SPD.
- Craving:
Eventually your hero will get thirsty for Blood, at this point their condition gets worse;
- -10% Stun, Blight, and Bleed resist
- -20% Max HP
- -10% virtue chance
- +2 SPD
In addition to the debuffs, the hero can also randomly do the following things:
- Pass turns.
- Attack teammates
- Stress out heroes that use curios
- Receiving high Damage and high Stress Damage while Camping
- Deny heals and buffs
- Stress out heroes who are attacked
At this point you can ignore their craving they will become Wasting, or you can give them The Blood, which will send them into a Bloodlust.
- Wasting:
In this state, the hero starts to get desperate, as flies start appearing around their body. Their stats are the same as Craving, however they have an addional penality:
- -10% Deathblow Resist
The hero can also randomly do the following things:
- Deal stress damage to the party.
- Pass turns
- Attack teammates
- Stress out heroes that use curios
- Receiving high Damage and high Stress Damage while Camping
- Deny heals and buffs
- Stress out heroes who are attacked
Past this point, if the hero does not receive The Blood until their next blood check, they will die.
- Bloodlust:
If a Craving hero is given The Blood, they enter Bloodlust state. Here is where the true power of the curse is revealed:
- +25% DMG
- +4 SPD
- +15% Stun, Blight, and Bleed resist
The hero can also randomly do the following things:
- Deal stress damage to the party.
- Move forward
- Attack teammates, possibly inflicting Stun or Bleed.
- Deny heals and Buffs.
- Stress out teammates who are attacked.
- Heal stress
After a while, the bloodlust will fade, returning the curse to its passive state. If you give a hero The Blood during Bloodlust, they will receive 35-40 Stress Damage, but the buff will be reapplied.
- Notes
- Cursed heroes are immune to other diseases
- Using Holy Water on a hero afflicted with the Crimson Curse will result in 4 Blight damage for 3 turns, a -5 SPD debuff, and a -40% Blight Resist debuff for 12 turns.
- If at least two of your heroes have The Crimson Curse, The Fanatic will start to roam the dungeons in search for the cursed. The more cursed heroes in your party, the higher the chance of him appearing
Spread
It can also spread through your roster of heroes while you’re away from the Hamlet.
Dealing with The Curse
Defeating bosses in the Courtyard will trigger the “A Veil Lifted”, removing the Crimson Curse from all currently afflicted heroes, but they can still contract it again.
After completing the quest “A Bewitching Predator”, all your currently affected heroes will be cured, and you can remove future infections in the Sanitarium.
However, some effets of it can be mitigated by using certain trinkets:
- Delayed Curse craving
- -25% Stress if has Crimson Curse
- +33% MAX HP if Wasting
- +6 SPD if Wasting
- Immune to death by Crimson Curse
Closing notes
The content from this guide was compiled with the information available in the Official Darkest Dungeon Wiki.[darkestdungeon.gamepedia.com]
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Happy Dungeon Crawling!