Darkest Dungeon Catch All

So I've had this in my steam library forever and decided to fire it up. I'd previously started an easy campaign and ... this is easy? Holy heck. I do like it, but "stress" is a mechanic and a feature that affects the player as well.

Just thought I'd say what's up in the official thread.

One of my favorites in recent years. Weighing the pros and cons of each potential move in combat kept my brain engaged along the same lines as the recent XCOM games. Not good for sleep.

After playing around with the default stuff for a while, check out some mods (especially if you're thinking its all too much and you'd like to try something else) There are great new characters and some tweaks to the things that make the game extra hard without taking too much away.

Localgod54 wrote:

So I've had this in my steam library forever and decided to fire it up. I'd previously started an easy campaign and ... this is easy? Holy heck. I do like it, but "stress" is a mechanic and a feature that affects the player as well.

Just thought I'd say what's up in the official thread.

Radiant mode is less an "easy" mode than a "less grindy bullsh*t" mode. It doesn't rebalance combat encounters or resources much if at all. Instead, it just lifts the restrictions on taking higher level characters into lower level dungeons and a few other things that alleviate the severe mid-game grind.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
Localgod54 wrote:

So I've had this in my steam library forever and decided to fire it up. I'd previously started an easy campaign and ... this is easy? Holy heck. I do like it, but "stress" is a mechanic and a feature that affects the player as well.

Just thought I'd say what's up in the official thread.

Radiant mode is less an "easy" mode than a "less grindy bullsh*t" mode. It doesn't rebalance combat encounters or resources much if at all. Instead, it just lifts the restrictions on taking higher level characters into lower level dungeons and a few other things that alleviate the severe mid-game grind.

Yes, do Radiant mode. Recommended.

Thanks for the tips, guys!

Is there any way to tell what difficulty mode you're playing once you've started? My estate is named "easy mode estate," but I think that might be a note I made for myself.

the symbol on the crest next to the estate has a bright sunburst radiance around it if you're in radiant mode.

pyxistyx wrote:

the symbol on the crest next to the estate has a bright sunburst radiance around it if you're in radiant mode.

Excellent, I think that's what I'm playing, then. Appreciate the quick response. I just took down a necromancer apprentice! Very satisfying, even though the quest said level 1 and I had three level 3 characters and a level 0 healer. Clearly, I was OP.

don't worry, even on radiant mode it'll cut you down to size when you least expect it. I lost six (6) top level characters within two consecutive weeks the other day

Radiant mode just cuts down on the end game grind by reducing the requirements and making leveling characters much faster.

I was doing a short mission yesterday to get past a week with meager rewards and I wanted to test out the Jester. It was going well, so the collector showed up. It seemed like it would be an easy missions, so I really hadn't planned things well and didn't have much ability to hit the back row. I was still handling the fight "okay," until the Jester got double critted to death's door and then deathblow(n?) before I ever got a healing action. I finished off the collector and the rest of the dungeon with three heroes, but jeez.

Be wary, for overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer.

So far, my latest start-stop hasn’t stopped. My previous experiences with this title has been, (1) start a match, (2) get some butt-kicking in, (3) get a squad wiped, (4) quit the game. That’s been my pattern since I started playing this thing, I think, when it first came out of beta.

This time around I decided to play it super safe and just grind the *bleep* out of it. I’ve managed to survive to Week 257 or something, I’ve got multiple sixth level peeps and a lot of high-level and super-rare trinkets. A sixth-level squad ventured into the Darkest Dungeon for the first of several end-game missions and came away with nary a scratch and almost no mental distress. Of course, it took forever to get this powerful.

Finally tried this with the Steam free weekend. Just 1-2 hours today, through 3-4 weeks of a run. Even on the easy difficulty I ended up with 2 party wipes. The first time, retreat didn't work. I lost a member and realized should have camped before the fight. So tried to retreat and it failed twice in a row, and I lost 2 more members. Last guy panicked and then got focused and I thought he was going to 1v3 dig his way out but he didn't.

The next week I was doing the same run with mostly new members. Took way more food. Remembered to camp with 2 rooms left. Everything was going great. Then like 2 little screens before the last room, my team got hungry again and I only had 2 food left. So everyone gets 20% health loss. 2 people die at the start of the fight, and it all goes to hell.

Easy doesn't seem very easy.

I don't feel like I'm making any progress. Did I lose all the loot I had when team wiped? Because if so then I can't upgrade guild or anything and when it opened I couldn't upgrade any of my people anyway. So it seems like I'm stuck until I get lucky with some better starter units or something.

I don't know if I want to spend more time with this or not. Are there good beginner tips somewhere? Should I try a totally new run?

I’d probably restart and chalk it up to a learning experience. Sound like you had a run of bad luck with the retreats.

I don’t know of any great beginner guides but I can offer some pieces of advice from my run.

1. The risk/reward ratio always seemed to favor short dungeons. I’d only bother with the medium and long ones if you’re going after a boss or there aren’t any other good options.

2. In most RPG’s the focus is on upgrading characters and their gear. That comes here eventually, but for the early part of the game you want to focus on steadily acquiring money and upgrading your town. Town upgrades are permanent. Characters are disposable, renewable resources. Throw some upgrades on the caravan so you have a steady stream of adventurers. Then the inn and church so you can reduce stress for multiple characters without it costing a crazy amount.

3. One of the main things that makes easy mode easier is that you can take over leveled characters into low level areas, so it may just be a matter of getting over the initial hump.

I'd also add that "easy mode" doesn't really make the game easier, just less grindy. It's still an unforgiving game by design. Definitely power level the chariot. All the advice I've seen is to treat characters as disposable, which I am very bad at, which is probably why I've never finished a run.

ActualDragon wrote:

I'd also add that "easy mode" doesn't really make the game easier, just less grindy.

This.

Radiant mode isn't easy mode. It's "fewer level restrictions and less grind" mode. Damage values, hit points, chance to inflict statuses, and all that jazz are unaltered.

Since there's no time pressure, I don't see any reason to restart. Just take a group of rookies and do easy quests. DD stands out in the genre for the fact that it's impossible to lose the game thanks to a squad wipe. You're going to have to do a bunch of grinding to get more high level characters, but that's it.

The grindy-ness is what eventually caused me to drop the game prior to beating it, but I got a solid ~40 hours out of it and found it mostly enjoyable.

Thanks all.

I guess I wasn't super clear earlier. I was basically still in tutorial land I guess. I did the initial entry mission. Then a scout 90% mission. Then the next mission was teaching me to camp, finish 100% of battles on a medium map. Failed it, wiped, and that was still the only mission available, as far as I could tell. So I failed it again. At that point, when I went back to play later after reading the comments here, it was week 4 or so and other areas were unlocked, and I could choose which mission. I am fairly sure that screen wasn't there before.

Anyway, got a Hellion and a Houndmaster in that first group. And I just chose an easy small 90% scout mission again, and got through it without losing anyone. Then the next week there was an event where the caravan had six extra adventurers, for 9 total. So I recruited all but one and my stable of heroes was full.

Mixed in a few more classes, and finished a couple more short missions, even after the first boss, the Necromancer, was available in the Ruins. And then finally I leveled up some of my heroes skills and took a shot at that. Went in without a Vestal because one was stressed and one only had group heal. But used a lot of stuns and managed to finish him off. Pretty sure my party wasn't optimal at all but I muddled through.

So there's definitely some fun here. Question is do I buy on Steam while it's on sale, even though I don't get much PC time lately? Or do I get it on Switch where I'll probably have time to beat it but have to start over?

I had a lot of fun with Darkest Dungeon. I'd definitely love to see what these guys do next, whether it's a sequel or another tactics type game. I never actually finished a run because, even on Radiant mode I found the end game too grindy. I just have a low tolerance for grind anyway. But.... I really enjoyed 95% of my 60-ish hours with the game.

Stele wrote:

So there's definitely some fun here. Question is do I buy on Steam while it's on sale, even though I don't get much PC time lately? Or do I get it on Switch where I'll probably have time to beat it but have to start over?

Glad you got more into it! It runs well on Switch but the text is rather small in handheld. I find it okay on the big screen but am relatively young yet. The other thing is the controls - a lot of info is in hover over which the switch accesses through holding shoulder buttons. It's not a bad scheme but is awkward to get used to. I also initially missed that you could check the info on status effects under enemies for a while, little things like that. But if neither of those bother you it's good.

I keep meaning to get back to my run but can't really take on more stress at the moment.

ActualDragon wrote:
Stele wrote:

So there's definitely some fun here. Question is do I buy on Steam while it's on sale, even though I don't get much PC time lately? Or do I get it on Switch where I'll probably have time to beat it but have to start over?

Glad you got more into it! It runs well on Switch but the text is rather small in handheld. I find it okay on the big screen but am relatively young yet. The other thing is the controls - a lot of info is in hover over which the switch accesses through holding shoulder buttons. It's not a bad scheme but is awkward to get used to. I also initially missed that you could check the info on status effects under enemies for a while, little things like that. But if neither of those bother you it's good.

Yeah I tried to start playing with the Dualshock 4 on my PC. The left trigger to mouse over things was really awkward. I also couldn't figure out which button toggled between map and inventory or even how to click on a room on the map with joystick, so I eventually gave up and starting using mouse + kb.

Does the Switch not have any touch screen controls? Slay the Spire does a great job of letting you touch or use controls. I tap the screen on it a lot of times to see status instead of toggling to cursor and scrolling around.

Well I did get it on PC, just the base game, last weekend. Played a little bit every night this week. Update below, and a couple questions in bold, if anyone has the time. Thanks!

Since my original post at week 4 where I had 2 team wipes, I made it all the way to week 23 until I lost another single hero. Took a fresh 0 Musketeer into a veteran mission with my strong team. I mistakenly thought it was Medium instead of Long or I probably wouldn't have done it. She just had really good skills and I wanted to boost her quickly with a vet mission. Didn't work out so well. But at least I still finished with the other 3.

Playing on the easiest level and yeah it really does seem grindy. I've got 3 heroes at level 5, 1 at 4. Then another set of 4 at level 3. And another group at 2, that I've dabbled with. My guild can promote to rank 3 skills, blacksmith only to rank 2 for both. Although I got enough heirlooms to increase one of those with that last mission. Increased my team size to 21 and got one of every type a couple nights ago. But not sure if I need any more people right now or just to build the ones I have better. Some have some awful quirks. I locked in a few good ones here and there with my mains. But that's really expensive. One week I had the town faire(?) event where everything was free, and that helped a bit.

I've tried not to dispose of any heroes that I've already leveled up to 2 or so. But I've tossed a few 0s and 1s as they got bad stuff. Figured it was easier to upgrade skills on a new hero than try to fix quirks and cure diseases, etc. Maybe I need to update my coach again to recruit some level 2s directly?

As I've done more veteran missions, or even some apprentice ones at new areas, I've started to run into stealth enemies and some other variety. But haven't always had a stealth breaking hero skill equipped. I've at least had some AOE skills so not completely useless.

As for the caretaker goals, I've Defeated 2 versions of Necromancer, 1 Prophet, 1 Swine, and been to each of the main 4 areas at least once.

Am I supposed to defeat each area boss before trying darkest dungeon? Or are they just there to level and give me good loot to prepare?

I've read a little bit on mechanics and it sounds like you can't retreat from Darkest without losing a hero. So I should probably at least get one team all the way to 6 before heading in there right? Any other tips? Is there any time pressure once I start DD? Like should I have 8 heroes at 6 just in case to go in the next week? I have peeked at boss descriptions on the wiki in each area just so I don't go in completely unprepared, like if they cause bleed/blight and I don't have a cure. So I'll probably do that for darkest too. But another other tips would be nice.

Just trying to figure out when I should shift from this mid game grind to end game attempts.

I honestly don't know if you have to defeat the bosses or not. I felt compelled to do them and enjoyed them. It helps to know that the bosses are always in the room farthest from your starting point so you can make a beeline straight there.

The biggest tip I can give for the Darkest Dungeon itself is that the maps, including the encounters, are static, not randomized. The individual battles getting to the boss are draining enough, so you'll want to take the path of least resistance. With the penalty for retreating, I strongly suggest just following an online map instead of figuring it out by trial and error.

Stele wrote:

Am I supposed to defeat each area boss before trying darkest dungeon? Or are they just there to level and give me good loot to prepare?

You can skip all the bosses if you want. But they help in a number of ways. Firstly - the rewards for killing them - the trinkets you get will help in the darkest dungeon (IIRC correctly you get an even better trinket if you kill them a third time, but that doesn't help with the grind). Secondly - you need level 6 heroes, just have in mind that this is going to be a long game and build a stable of heroes. That said, there's no harm in trying out the Darkest Dungeon early just to have fun and see what it's like (there's even an achievement for starting a DD run with all level 0 characters!). Finally - and my memory is hazy on this one but I think the caretaker goals, which allow you to fully upgrade the hamlet, require you to kill the bosses. Could be wrong on that one.

Anyone tried the inventory stacking or expansion mods on Steam workshop?

I got really frustrated with the couple of Long missions I have done. You can barely take enough shovels to dig through obstacles, much less any items to open curios. And everything is so random. Sometimes I get a ton of jewels but sometimes I get more gold. And the current stacks are so strange. 4 shovels, 8 torches, 12 food? The heirlooms all stack in strange numbers from only 3 or 4 up to 12. Do I keep a stack of jewels hoping I get more and the slot is worth more than the 1750 gold slot? It's so strange and there's no right answer because drops are so random. One time you could keep jewels and come out on top. Another time you'd wish you had the money or items or whatever. Then you need heirlooms to upgrade your hamlet, but you need money to upgrade your heroes, and it seems you have to choose one or the other most runs, or less of both.

Thinking that some inventory stacking might alleviate some of my frustration and let me enjoy the good parts of the game more.

Read this whole thread yesterday when I had some time. Well, I skimmed the first few pages of early access, as it seems like a lot has changed. The DD stages weren't even in the game then.

I've picked up a few things from tips given, and tried one of them today. Running dark with low level throwaway heroes to grind money! Honestly I just haven't run dark much period since the start of the game. I found that surprising the enemy was cool, and getting surprised when I ran out of torches one time sucked a lot. So I've just been trying to stay above 50 or even 75 light the whole time. But just ran totally dark through a medium clear rank 1 mission with a bunch of level 1 recruits, and survived and made 24k. Had to throw away the man at arms for sure, as he got stressed, afflicted, and nearly had a heart attack (188/200). That was fun too. He got "hopeless". At one point he moved from 1 to 2 saying he couldn't protect us. But that was fine, I had the Leper in spot 1 for that one clear attack. But then on the final battle, he was like "screw it, I'm going to die anyway" and moved up front again. Then he refused healing from my occultist. At least it didn't waste the turn, and let me target someone else. I really thought he was going to die.

At week 30 I have one 6 Hellion, and 7 level 5s (2 Vestals, Highwayman, Hound-master, Crusader, Grave Robber), my main two teams that I've rotated. I've also got a Leper and Arbalest at 3 that I think I'll keep. I just locked in the +5 accuracy quirk for the Arbalest yesterday since I like her. I have a handful of other level 2s. But now that I'm starting to get a few more level 1s from the coach, I might even dump some of them. It's such a money sink to start new skills from scratch. All the recruited level 1s come with a base rank in all 6 skills, and you can just toggle to the 4 you want. Even though I invested some time in the 2s, if I find some 1s with decent quirks I'm going to be replacing I think.

The new Occultist I grabbed for the throwaway mission had On Guard (+speed 1st round) and then learned Quick Reflexes (+speed), so I may be keeping him around instead of tossing.

If what I'm reading about the darkest dungeon is accurate, I'll need 4 leveled up teams anyway. Even on radiant where you can take someone back in, it sounds like the stress penalty is pretty harsh.

I also had an event where this crow showed up yesterday. Shrieker? I looked it up on the wiki and it said you had 4 turns to kill it. So I took my best team, all level 5s in there. And I did like 20 damage to it? Not even close. I didn't lose anyone but I did have one hero hit Death's Door twice, from some large hits. So if anything like that is waiting in DD, I'm not ready for end game yet apparently.

FYI, if you're having money issues, the whole point of the archivist is that they greatly increase the amount of money you bring in when they're part of the team. I've gotten some pretty sizeable hauls without all the carnage described above.

Well sh*t.

Remind yourself that overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer.

I had the Ruins up to the Champion Necromancer mission. Saw the mission to gain Silence in the Crypts buff, so wanted to do that ahead of time. Finished super easy with a low level team. Then I pulled out 4 of those level 5 heroes I had, ready to kick ass. Took the Houndmaster for some bleeds and the Grave Robber for some blight. The level layout sucked, one long path with a square of rooms at the end, so I was going to be in for a slog on this medium map. Oh well, here we go.

First room... team surprised and scrambled, despite 75+ torch. Ok fine... houndmaster is in spot 1. Can still do some bleeds. Oh wait the other team is attacking... attacking... Vestal heal. Oh sh*t 3 of 4 attacked him... he's stressed, got an affliction, whoa, that was quick. Ok maybe I should think about retreating? Well wait, he's still at 1/3 health. Let me try my Vestal again, and see if I can at least take out an enemy and relieve the pressure. THEY ALL THREE ATTACK HIM AGAIN. Dead lvl 5 Houndmaster.

Never wanted to save scum this game before but that was some bullsh*t.

Finished the battle with my team of 3. Got through a hallway battle fine. Hit another room battle, and in 2 turns everyone was down to 10 health. Retreated, and abandoned mission.

WTF!

I've done a couple of champion missions before, but not the boss level ones. That was just the Ruins. And I was buffed. I mean, damn. No wonder everyone seems to just play this game for a few hours but not beat it. That sucked.

A couple of things that you may/may not have picked up on, and it took me a while, but you can see what spots the enemy can hit, and if their abilities only hit spots 1/2 then your houndmaster was always going to get hit. Plus, I believe the AI is clever enough to know who you really don't want to get hit, so if they have an option of attacking spots 1 or 2 for example, but your houndmaster is in spot 1 and already in trouble, I believe (anecdotally) that they will always attack him. After all, that is what you would do.

It's not a Darkest Dungeon run without some bad beats. During my run I recall the odd occasion when I'd walk away for a week. Then it's time to roll your sleeves up and think about what you could have done differently. Even when the RNG Gods are against you, there's often something you could have done to be better, even if it wouldn't have rescued the mission.

Oh I totally should have retreated and regrouped. May not have won the mission but would have saved the houndmaster. Sadly he was my only one. I had to let me level 1 one I had picked up for backup but not used go because my team was full.

After that I modded the coach values to allow about 10 more heroes per upgrade. Still haven't had a new houndmaster show up in the pool on a few weeks of play yesterday, but I'm happy with the mod.

I also installed one of those inventory stacking mods I asked about a few days ago. My money is not completely drained after every mission anymore. It's making the grind much more bearable I think. It's not crazy, just switches all the upgrade items to stacks of a dozen instead of 6 and the one that was a dozen up to 18. Stacks camping wood for those long missing where you get 2. Doubles the gold stack so the antiquarian bonus is still useful too.

I also looked at one mod that keeps stress relief costs the same regardless of level. Thinking about trying it. That did bug me, that somehow my level 1-2 hero can spend 1k at the bar but it costs 1700 or something for a level 5-6. I mean I'm ok with higher skill ranks increasing by level, and higher weapon/armor upgrades, those make sense. But destress or quirk/disease costs changing based on level seems off. It's the same activity and it doesn't give more or less benefit based on level so why does it cost more?

Anyway the core gameplay is a blast for the most part. I've barely played anything else for 10 days now. But I'd like to beat the game before I do burnout. So a few money tweaks might get me there several hours faster.