Darkest Dungeon Catch All

Interesting. It seems my bleeds never just go away. They're death sentences without bandages.

escher77 wrote:

Alright, being you have a Healer in your group (Vestel best) Novice campaings -

Short- 8-12 food 1 Shovel 1 key (great for extra loot from chests) 6-8 torches.
Medium- 18-24 food 1-2 shovel 2 key 14 torches
Long - 24-28 food 2-3 shovel 3 key 24 torches

This is pretty close to what I do, though I take a bit less food with me on Medium journeys (16; haven't done a long one). I do take one or two bandages, anti-venoms, or herbs (some combination therein). Different areas have a different chance of encountering enemies the inflict bleed/plague/etc. The cost on those items does add up, but between the combat effects and detoxing the bad effects on various loot crates, I almost always end up using them. Never sat down to figure out if it's truly worth the $$ or not, but cleansing a "crate" is such a boon to the treasure you find that I'd be surprised if it's not worth bringing one such item along.

Some might consider this a cheat, but at this wiki page you'll find a list of the various treasure crates you'll encounter and what item, if any, will decontaminate it. Personally, I think there are so many of these and no easy way to remember what item cleanses what that I don't feel the least bit bad about keeping that list in an open tab. I figure seasoned adventurers really ought to know some of this stuff already.

Bandages and such should be taken according to the dungeon. Going to the Cove without bandages can be a death sentence (those arterial pinch bleeds are insane), as can going to the Weald without antivenom.

ubrakto wrote:

Some might consider this a cheat, but at this wiki page you'll find a list of the various treasure crates you'll encounter and what item, if any, will decontaminate it. Personally, I think there are so many of these and no easy way to remember what item cleanses what that I don't feel the least bit bad about keeping that list in an open tab. I figure seasoned adventurers really ought to know some of this stuff already.

One of my gripes against the game is this. I'm all for having to discover which items decontaminate which objects at first, but once you've figured out that the Holy Thingamy will decontaminate the Oozing Whatsit, the game could at least remind you of that every time you find another Oozing Whatsit. Just seems intentionally obtuse not to.

Jonman wrote:

One of my gripes against the game is this. I'm all for having to discover which items decontaminate which objects at first, but once you've figured out that the Holy Thingamy will decontaminate the Oozing Whatsit, the game could at least remind you of that every time you find another Oozing Whatsit. Just seems intentionally obtuse not to.

Agree. I figured out several of them early in the Steam Access, but most I don't remember anymore and don't care to re-learn the hard way. Also, I think if they were really going to make this aspect thematic, then certain classes should know when to use certain items. So a Vestral, for example, really ought to know you can...

Spoiler:

...use holy water...

...to decontaminate bones. And if you don't have a Vestral in your group then maybe you don't get to know that (or then you leave it up to the player).

You can decontaminate things without a prompt?! I thought the treasure chest not showing that you can use a key was bad enough.

I think the de-contamination is kinda intuitive when you have at least a little practice. I think once you've glanced over the wiki and gotten a feel for what works with what, you can use that to stumble your way through pretty well without repeatedly ducking back to the wiki to look. Although you need to read the descriptions closely as well.

Spoiler:

Anything with animal or human remains, or anything remotely likely to cause disease: Herbs.
Anything with religious connotations, or to do with death: Holy Water.
Anything locked: Keys (that one is probably pretty obvious.)
Anything crusted over or able to be broken: Shovel.

Although there're also some traps there, don't break Urns for instance. And burning books is really bad, but burning scrolls is really good.

It'd be good if perhaps there was a source of the knowledge inside of the game aside from trial and error however, perhaps class barks like ubrakto suggested.

Things not to do with a level 0 party: Use a torch on a glowing red orb statuette.

It...didn't end well.

Spoiler:

Although in my defence, I *DID* actually kill the resulting Cosmic Horror...it was one of his little spawns that finally finished off my last adventurer.

Still got the achievement for it though, sucks to be YOU, squid-face!

I didn't even realize that you could "improve" curios with items like that - I thought that anything that required an item would prevent you from using it unless you had the item, like locked chests or the red orb statue that requires a torch to function. The game really needs to do a better job of explaining and tracking this, because curios are pretty dangerous.

I'm enjoying my second game - in my first game my "A" team bought it from a Cosmic Horror. I do feel a little locked into having a Vestal and a Jester, which basically limits your offense to melee except for the occasional Judgement when no one needs to be healed. My current team is Vestal, Jester, Bounty Hunter, and Leper. Bleed, pull, kill, let the leper tank the weakest enemy while I heal stress and health.

Aetius wrote:

I do feel a little locked into having a Vestal and a Jester, which basically limits your offense to melee except for the occasional Judgement when no one needs to be healed.

Vestal is clearly the most versatile and reliable healer and an irreplaceable part of many parties. However, getting a reliable stable of vestal's to cycle into your parties can be a daunting task. The occultist is a viable alternative, although his healing is prone to swings of unnecessary glory and experimentation gone badly wrong. A third option that many don't consider is the arbalest. Their healing ability is reliable with a very confined range and grants a buff for future heals. Once you get the green arbalest healing trinket and the common healing trinket it actually becomes a fairly good talent. Combined with the arbalest's ability to mark and do reasonable damage to all ranks, it becomes a decent alternative to the Vestal and perhaps superior to Occultist.

I'm not sure why your such a fan of the Jester. I'm not sold on the Jester at all. They have some nice bleed abilities but their pure damage output as a result is pretty paltry. It just feels like it takes too long to burn down the baddies with a Jester in your group. I much prefer Highwaymen, Grave Robber, Bounty Hunter, and Man at Arms to fill out my second and third ranks.

It's been a long time since I've played, but I remember being firmly in the pro-jester camp. I believe my go-to party was vestal, jester, bounty hunter + x. Can't remember the 4th but I seem to remember having a lot of success with that party.

This was long before corpses and heart attacks and extra classes etc so maybe it isn't as effective any more; I'm holding out until the merchant class is introduced before jumping back in.

Copingsaw wrote:

I'm not sure why your such a fan of the Jester. I'm not sold on the Jester at all. They have some nice bleed abilities but their pure damage output as a result is pretty paltry.

I don't take them for their dps, I take them for the stress heal. -10 points of stress per turn is ... well, irreplaceable, especially if you drag out minor combats when necessary. The game tries to discourage this by eventually (and repeatedly) dropping reinforcements, but it's usually only two monsters that are easily dispatched or neutralized. The bleed damage is just a bonus you can throw out when you don't need their healing.

Made a few more runs over the weekend and knocked off the junior necromancer guy and the wizened hag. The former proved to be no problem for a group of level 2 adventurers, but the hag managed to throw my Grave Robber Buffy into the pot and I wasn't able to get her out with any health left. She perished on the first possible death blow. Fortunately, Buffy has a long history of resurrection, so the next Grave Robber into town will be "Buffy, Season 2."

I now have a group of four level 3 adventurers with a handful of mid-level 2s behind them. Planning to tackle my first Veteran level dungeon run next. In addition to Buffy, I've lost a Houndmaster in what has been my only abandoned run so far (which was a group mostly composed of rookies tackling the Cove). On the whole, not too shabby.

Aetius wrote:

I don't take them for their dps, I take them for the stress heal. -10 points of stress per turn is ... well, irreplaceable, especially if you drag out minor combats when necessary.

Hmmm .... I've never thought of using this strategy. May need to try it. I can see how it would make some monsters I usually target first more of an afterthought.

ubrakto wrote:

(which was a group mostly composed of rookies tackling the Cove)

This is a mistake everyone makes once.

Copingsaw wrote:
Aetius wrote:

I don't take them for their dps, I take them for the stress heal. -10 points of stress per turn is ... well, irreplaceable, especially if you drag out minor combats when necessary.

Hmmm .... I've never thought of using this strategy. May need to try it. I can see how it would make some monsters I usually target first more of an afterthought.

I still prefer taking a damage dealer to end combats quicker than to drag them out with essentially 2 DPSers, but Jesters do allow you to essentially ignore the Tempting Goblet guys and the other pure stress monsters.

My favorite party is Arabelist 4 - Vestel 3 - Jester 2 Leper 1

The Jester bleed if you stack 2 on 1 guy can be 8 dmg per turn for 3 turns. Yes it takes a little time. I also love the Arbaelist/Vestal Combo. Early on Arabelist doing constant damage from 4th position and when you start to fall behind on healing he can help get you back on track. It does take a little bit to get going but after you have a stock pile of Vestels (I keep like 4-5 with max party size 18). I always use a Healer + a Dmg/healer as a secondary heal.

Jesters- I also think people undervalue Jester's ability to move around the party while still doing dmg. If you run Finale/Stab he can move forward or go to back whenever you need. I often run him in spot 2 but he is invaluable once you get to Veteran/Master and your people get scrambled in 2/3rds of fights. Fact that you don't have to waste a turn to move him and just stab forward.

3 out of 4 of the second tier bosses down!

The fight with the cannon crew was a close call but I got everyone through relatively intact

Just the Sonorous Prophet to go...which is just as well because I'm running out of level 0-2 people and I don't want to dismiss any of my level 3+ folks!

Dedicated healers are nice, but the self heals that some classes can do, along with the minor heal the arbalest and plague doctor have, can be life savers. I've seen the late game, and a party with solely a dedicated healer can't mitigate fast enough. Not saying they aren't great, or required, but more that the having of one is a starting point, and learning how each class can help is worth knowing.

I'm a big fan of the occultist for healing - just remember to take lots of bandages!

Plus it means you can normally take an Abomination along.

Alex, Austin and Vinnie play Darkest Dungeon

If you want to see them actually attempt the first dive into the darkest dungeon, jump to about 56 minutes in.

The latest Game Informer podcast has a fantastic interview with the creators.

Gave this another go this weekend. I am finding the fun in it more now. I think it was the trinkets... having quest rewards in the "gear" category has made a difference for me.

Game is still very punishing though, but I am making progress. Need to sit down and figure out some teams that work well together instead of haphazardly putting in people who just need to level. Dont have a good sense of what is/isnt a waste of money/resources either.

I got a little time yesterday and put together a team that was (front) Hellion-Crusader-Occultist-Vestel (back) and got some sort of ding (I think it called the team "Heaven and Hell"). It seemed pretty effective, despite some really bad luck with enemy crits everyone got out alive, with the quest won, and without serious mental anguish.

I'm 4 weeks in and I have my cart upgraded so my roster size is 12 and I get four recruits each week. It seems like that's a good choice for early improvements, but I'm trying to figure out what I should focus on next. I imagine gear and training... Or is it better to go with stress relief?

Lots of decisions. So much flailing in the dark.

So far, I typically have either a Vestal or Arbalest in the back position and a heavy hitter (Crusader, Man at Arms, Hellion) up front, with the middle positions taken up with pretty much any of the other classes, depending on where their skills align. It's been pretty effective on the lower level and Veteran runs. (I've made about 3-4 Veteran runs at this point --no bosses-- w/o lethal mishap.)

I do think it's *very* handy to have either a Grave Robber, Highwayman, or Bounty Hunter in one of those middle positions. Their ability to deal with traps and high likelihood(?) of getting to scout nearby corridors makes a huge difference in keeping everyone alive. (I'm assuming having scouted increases your odds of surprising monster mobs, which is an enormous advantage.)

Still loving the game!

TheHarpoMarxist wrote:

I got a little time yesterday and put together a team that was (front) Hellion-Crusader-Occultist-Vestel (back) and got some sort of ding (I think it called the team "Heaven and Hell"). It seemed pretty effective, despite some really bad luck with enemy crits everyone got out alive, with the quest won, and without serious mental anguish.

I'm 4 weeks in and I have my cart upgraded so my roster size is 12 and I get four recruits each week. It seems like that's a good choice for early improvements, but I'm trying to figure out what I should focus on next. I imagine gear and training... Or is it better to go with stress relief?

Lots of decisions. So much flailing in the dark.

You will need lots of money for upgrading skills and equipment once you characters reach levels 3 and beyond. I've spent $40k gearing and training for a single higher difficulty missions. I would recommend at least $100k in the bank before you start to spend it. The only efficient way to achieve this is to use and discard recruits with a passion for your first 10 or 20 mission. Once you start getting some trinkets the missions will become easier. The only training I really would suggest at the start is the Vestal's healing skill. For everyone else just discard them if they have more than 30 stress or some bad traits. Don't even consider training and gearing until level 2 and, preferably, level 3.

This game is very much a management game. You must manage your resources very miserly to start if you are to have the resources necessary to succeed in the long run.

Copingsaw wrote:
TheHarpoMarxist wrote:

I got a little time yesterday and put together a team that was (front) Hellion-Crusader-Occultist-Vestel (back) and got some sort of ding (I think it called the team "Heaven and Hell"). It seemed pretty effective, despite some really bad luck with enemy crits everyone got out alive, with the quest won, and without serious mental anguish.

I'm 4 weeks in and I have my cart upgraded so my roster size is 12 and I get four recruits each week. It seems like that's a good choice for early improvements, but I'm trying to figure out what I should focus on next. I imagine gear and training... Or is it better to go with stress relief?

Lots of decisions. So much flailing in the dark.

You will need lots of money for upgrading skills and equipment once you characters reach levels 3 and beyond. I've spent $40k gearing and training for a single higher difficulty missions. I would recommend at least $100k in the bank before you start to spend it. The only efficient way to achieve this is to use and discard recruits with a passion for your first 10 or 20 mission. Once you start getting some trinkets the missions will become easier. The only training I really would suggest at the start is the Vestal's healing skill. For everyone else just discard them if they have more than 30 stress or some bad traits. Don't even consider training and gearing until level 2 and, preferably, level 3.

This game is very much a management game. You must manage your resources very miserly to start if you are to have the resources necessary to succeed in the long run.

This is where I'm probably pretty bad at the game as I will toss off level 1s that end up in dire shape, but if I can get an adventurer fit with just one visit to de-stress, I tend to do it. Once they make level 2 I commit to keeping them around. I think I've only fired 3-4 people so far and the cost has been that my cash tends to sit around 20-30k. If I'm ever going to see 100k I'm going to have to re-think my priorities a bit.

I've done pretty well in mission, but I think I might have squandered some resources in my early weeks. I've only got a little over 3K in cash going into my next mission, though pretty much everyone I have is Level 1. I'm still experimenting with classes. I enjoyed taking the Houndmaster out - that group destresser is pretty nice, and the marking worked better than it did with my Bounty Hunter (I was starting to think the wasted turn marking was too inefficient to make it at all worth it.)

Some days, your best laid plans go awry. And the dungeon fights back. 11min of Baertaffy getting some terrible luck.

TheHarpoMarxist wrote:

I've done pretty well in mission, but I think I might have squandered some resources in my early weeks. I've only got a little over 3K in cash going into my next mission, though pretty much everyone I have is Level 1. I'm still experimenting with classes. I enjoyed taking the Houndmaster out - that group destresser is pretty nice, and the marking worked better than it did with my Bounty Hunter (I was starting to think the wasted turn marking was too inefficient to make it at all worth it.)

Some people seem to think Houndmasters are one of the best classes. I'm quickly becoming one of them. I could imagine using 2-3 of them in a party along with a source of blight damage to round off... Those dog treats make them hit really hard.

I didn't even use the treats!