Darkest Dungeon Guide: Game Basics, Tips and Tricks

Darkest Dungeon game was released quite a long time ago and there is quite a lot of material on it, but we will write our own guide, will analyze the basics and subtleties of the game. And in this Darkest Dungeon guide I will collect all the material dedicated to the game, and will not breed a lot of articles on this topic. All updates directly in this article.

Game plot

In the story of the game, you are the descendant of a rich and powerful grandfather who sent you a letter saying that some crazy shit is going on in your family estate and only you can figure it out. Why not the grandfather himself? Well, he's busy with more important things, he's shooting himself in the head. But don't worry, he'll always be with you as a storyteller. But if when you arrive at the estate you expect to find a luxurious mansion, pizza, florentines and hot anime girls, you are mistaken. Instead you'll find shambling buildings, a kleptomaniac knight, and an old devil who laughs at you.

What to do in the game

In Darkest Dungeon you need to gather a team, send it to clean the dungeon from monsters, earn gold, pump your team, for hours long and hard, then - lose your team in one easy room because the gods of random love this green spider more than you. And start all over again, because evil will not destroy itself.

The game focuses a lot on character and resource management. In addition to health, your characters have a stress scale and can go insane. They have various traits that give them personality. Often a rather strange personality, such as "unbelieving nun", "scourger afraid of blood" or "kennel who is afraid of animals".

Each character has their own unique skills and role in the group, and the number of combat stats is quite large, although they work according to very simple formulas and I'll go over them all later. Also in each outing you need to collect supplies: food, torches, bandages and antidotes. And with the money you earn, send your heroes out to drink and play cards, otherwise they'll go crazy.

The goal of the game is to pass the last dungeon - the darkest dungeon, and to pass it you do not necessarily need to pass the rest of the game, it is available from the beginning, but there are naturally sit very strong monsters and do not go there yet. To begin with, you need to completely rebuild the city, collect powerful trinkets, pump up to the maximum level, at least 16 heroes.

Many people say that Darkest Dungeon is one of the most difficult games, that it is completely unfair, that players are practically mocked. In reviews on the game are jokes about burning chairs, and someone even puts it on a par with "bosha" and similar. But as far as I'm concerned it's completely undeserved. DD is not really that difficult, it just depends a lot on randomization, and the stakes are high.

A moment from one of the streams I watched: "Dont do it. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck. FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK."

DD randoms are legendary. Even the most pumped team, with the most powerful trinkets in the game has a chance to die in the first battle from a bunch of spiders in a regular dungeon. What is there to talk about random. In training, in training, Carl, you can meet one of the strongest bosses that will kill you in two moves. But that's the whole point of the game, it's beyond the player's control, it's not a sandbox that will entertain you, this game will challenge you.

Darkest Dungeon is a truly amazing game, incredibly beautiful, atmospheric, immersing you 100%. It's a game with very smart gameplay, where you need to think, plan, take risks. However, if you're reading this guide to The Darkest Dungeon, you won't have to do all that :).

The game is not without disadvantages, it is quite long and the gameplay is quite grindy (when you have to do the same thing many times). You will have to go to the same dungeons a lot, with the same characters, changing only the cast of characters. Okay, now on to the Darkest Dungeon guide.

Darkest Dungeon - The Most Complete Guide in 2021

Many of the complexities of this game start at the very beginning. In the form of a variety of mechanics that are not explained in any way within the game. What supplies to take, how scouting works, what happens if you gain 200 stress, how resistances are counted - the game will not answer all these questions. And although I can not call them any complex, even on the contrary, they are interesting to learn by trial and error, to adapt, but I also realize that many players feel frustration from not understanding whether they play correctly or do some bullshit. So I've put together a list of 15 tips of varying degrees of banality on all aspects of the game that will help you play as competently as possible. Well, enough introductions, here we go.

1. Tips on the estate: what is important and what is not

Your estate contains many buildings with their own functions:

• the chapel and inn relieves the heroes' stress after a mission.
• the guild improves the heroes' skills
• The forge improves weapons and armor
• the stagecoach is bringing in some new characters.
• the gypsy sells trinkets
• the hospital treats heroes
• the forester is pumping camp skills.

These buildings are initially in poor condition, but they are improved with the help of relics of four kinds. These relics will be very scarce at first, but if you spend them wisely, the start will be much easier. Busts are needed for the chapel and hospital, use them in the chapel to open a second place for meditation, it's only 3 upgrades, and then invest them all in additional items and places in the hospital and cheapening of psychotherapy. Cheapening the treatment of illnesses no needsince your hero doesn't get sick as often. Paintings - are spent on inns and the guild. Forget about the inn and put all the paintings into the guild. Kupchi - are needed for the forge and the wagon. Make a couple upgrades for the number of heroes you bring in at first, increase the list as you fill it up. As for smiths - improve it as needed. To improve the heroes still need not only a high lvl blacksmith, but also a high lvl of the heroes themselves, which is apapa in the campaigns. As for the upgrades themselves - make priority first in armor, then in weapons and already background in cheapening. Coats of Arms are used in all buildings, their spending priority is roughly as follows - wagon, hospital, blacksmith, guild, chapel and last but not least gypsy and woodsman.

2. Artificial selection of heroes

The wagon brings you randomly generated characters with their skins and quirks. While there are slots you can hire everyone, but remember - from the wagon you take heroes for free, but pump them for money. If you took a hero and he got sick, bad perks or psychosis, it will be much better to fire him and take a new one of the same class than to treat the old one for a long and costly time. Therefore, I do not advise you to pump cannon fodder of the first levels, which can die the first sortie. Let them go through a couple of dungeons naked, prove their usefulness and if after that do not become crooked paranoids - you can and pump.

3. How to farm gold correctly

Darkest Dungeon is at first a bum simulator rather than a rich landlord. There is not enough money for anything, but there are three tips that will help you quickly remedy this situation.

Tip 1

We'll pump up the heroes before we go out. Some players are like, "Oh, Reynold upgraded to level 3, we need to improve his armor and weapons". No, do this - gather a specific party to a dungeon, now ask yourself the question "will this party pass the dungeon?". If they lack something, pump it up. For example, you are going to the boss, it is reasonable to invest in the party to successfully pass, but it makes no sense to pump the randoms who go to the green fast dungeon or even more just sit in the city. The essence of advice - do not spend money on characters who are frankly bad or sit in the city.

Tip 2

In the tenth week, you will be given a blueprint that can be spent to build an additional building. I highly recommend paying attention to the bank - 15,000 gold and 50 paintings are not hard to accumulate by this week and he'll add 5 percent to the gold he's already accumulated every week.. If you play as frugal as possible at the start, with a bank week to thirtieth you will forget about the problem with money. However, additional buildings come with the DLC "Crimson Curtain". If you do not have it - rest in peace.

Tip 3

To build up your bank account, take Antiquarka with you to all easy dungeons. This is a weak hero, but she pulls from the objects plates, selling which can be great rise. Just remember - to find a plate to open objects should be Antiquarka.

4. How to treat stress and quirks

After outings, your heroes will accumulate stress, which can be relieved by six different methods in the inn or chapel. Forget about the inn in principle, visiting it heroes can get drunk and lose trinkets, lose money, get syphilis, become alcoholics.

For the same money you can send a hero to meditate and nothing bad will definitely happen to him. Plus - meditation is the cheapest method, so I advise poisoning heroes there.

Well don't send them to relieve stress if it's less than 50, it'll slowly go down on its own. As for treating quirks. Quirks are character traits, negative quirks can make characters much weaker, but they can be removed in the healing center.

Be sure to get rid of quirks like (or else there is a chance of losing a lot of money) as soon as possible:

• kleptomania,
• compulsiveness,
• curiosity.

It is also important to get rid of perks that reduce accuracy, maximum health or speed, in fact, any combat stats to be honest. In the red dungeon, it is desirable to get rid of all negative traits, except for harmless, almost not affecting anything, like obsession with frequency or guilt. We are done with the city and hero management, now let's move on to the sorties.

5. Uniform pumping of heroes

As you level up your heroes, more difficult dungeons will appear. They are divided into 3 levels of difficulty: green, yellow and red. Each new level is noticeably more difficult than the previous one, new enemies appear, and the old ones become stronger and get new skills.

Rookie heroes will not be able to pass yellow and red dungeons, but the worst thing is that high-level heroes will refuse to go to low-level dungeons. So level up your heroes evenly, don't go with the same team. One way or another, most of the heroes in the future will be needed and if you leave someone in the outsiders, it will be difficult to pump them later, because your cool heroes will not go with them in a weak dungeon.

6. Procurement tips

What exactly and in what quantities to take on an outing. First, look at the duration of the outing.

• For quick dungeons, we take: 8 torches, 8 food, 2 shovels and a key.
• For medium: 12 torches, 24 food, 3 shovels and 2 keys.
• For long dungeons: 20 torches, 30 food, 4 shovels and 3 keys.

This is the minimum you need for a comfortable passage. On top of that, you should take more food if you don't have a good hitman, and supplies depending on the location. Into the ruins get a couple bottles of holy water. Into the bay - herbs, bandages, lots of bandages, believe me you'll need them, and complementary shovels. Into the thicket - herbs and antidotes. To the sanctuary You can take everything, anyway, when you come back half of the batch will have diarrhea and the other half will have black plague.

7. Torch or torch

There is such a parameter as the light level when you go out. It starts at 100 and decreases by 6 every cell passed. Using a torch you will increase the light level by 25. Maintain the light is necessary, the less light, the more painful and accurate the enemies hit, the more stress and chances to scatter your fighters when they meet. Keep your torch level as high as possible and burn through it every time it drops below 75, you'll avoid all these problems. There is another opinion.

Treihards (those who like it harder and hotter, i.e. on maximum difficulty to pass the game) like to walk completely extinguished torches. First of all, it is immediately plus a hundred to hsv, you are such a dungeoner, not like these casuals with torches, ew. And secondly, without light wo get much more treasure and do not spend on torches.

Well, this approach has a place But I do not advise you to do so, mostly they do it for the sake of showing off, not because it is really better to play.

8. How to loot correctly (pick up dropped items)

As you travel through the dungeon, you will encounter many interactive objects. Most of them, if interacted with properly, will give you treasure. They require a certain item to do so. You can interact without an item, but you may get a bad quirk, poison or stress instead of a treasure.

Gradually, by trial and error you will learn for which objects what things are needed. Don't be afraid to experiment or read the manual in stime. However, it is not enough just to know how to open the object to take the treasure, your inventory is very limited and to accommodate something, you will have to choose between supplies and money. There's a not-so-obvious way to avoid having to choose. You don't have to touch every object along the way, you can always come back for it. First go through the dungeon, deal with the enemies, spend your supplies, and then loot the dungeonwithout the fear of throwing away a shovel you might still need.

Also, at the beginning of the game, if you find a trinket, you don't have to find a place for it in your inventory, you can shove it into your character and save an extra slot. Of course, this won't work in serious dungeons, as your characters will be full of important trinkets.

9. Tips on building a pack (team) and their skills

Both your heroes and enemies walk in a line behind each other and for good reason. The position of the heroes in the group directly affects what skils he can use and on what position of the enemy. Place your characters correctly so that they can use all or most of the skills from their position. The height of virtuosity is to make a so-called dance party, which will use the most effective moving skills, while constantly changing positions and not interfering with each other.

However, it is better for a beginner to concentrate on static games and just put tank forward, sapports back and damagers somewhere in the middle. I will talk about good hero combinations and dance parties later. The enemy's stance also affects their attacks. For example, the skeleton crossbowman of the back row is a very accurate painful shooter, but once in the first or second position, he is forced to fight hand-to-hand, which reduces his danger many times.

The best packs for getting through the game (subjective)

Farming Party: Vestalka-Psari-Assassin-Robber-Antiquar.On damage: Jester-Whisperer-Redneck and Leper.Vintage - Occultist-Psari-Mogul Thief-Guardian of the North.Against a Necromancer, a standard Red Hook is fine.

Top 5 (subjective) characters

Leper

• Biggest base damage
• Can take a lot of damage
• Achilles' heel is accuracy

Trainer

• Nice damage
• The dog has extra damage on the beasts
• Knows how to put on a bleeder.
• He can outsmart himself
• Dismissal buff
• Versatile fighter

Brood

• Minus - can't walk around with religious classes
• Can be a werewolf, which makes it very powerful, dealing damage on the first three
• In human form, there's a lot of control

Vistalka (battle nun).

• Best healer in the game, what other questions could there be?

Flagellant (self-mutilator).

• The more damage he takes, the more damage he takes
• Bleeding, the most among all heroes
• Heal yourself and the party.

10. Proper combat or damage focus

Speaking of crossbowman, there is one rule that works in almost any battle. Enemies from the back row should always be your priority, especially frags from the red dungeon. If your party doesn't know how to hit the back rows, it's pretty much doomed. In the front are usually fat enemies with a large pool of XP and high defense. In the back are weak but very nasty damaggers, buffers, and stress dealers. By quickly eliminating them, you will make the enemy front practically helpless.

Also remember that focusing damage on one target is always more effective than spraying damage on all of them.

An example: there is Reynold and two skeletons, Reynold can attack both skeletons but not kill either of them, he will get 2 hits in return, on the other hand Reynold can hit only one skeleton but kill it and get only one hit in return. Don't abuse mass attacks, focus the enemies of the whole party one by one, starting from the back rows.

11. Stalling (steal like a thief)

When the most dangerous enemies are defeated and only a lone fat tank is left, it's time to stall.

Stalling is when you could finish off an enemy, but instead you start hitting corpses, changing stances, heal, buff, stress relief. This is done to heal and prepare for the next fight without wasting food. Stalling is especially important if you are playing without a good hitter.

Of course, you won't be able to over-abuse it, the game can recognize when the player is stalling and when he can't really kick the last enemy. If the game (internal AI) thinks that you are stalling, you will get a warning from your hero that "it's time to end the fight". After that you have one round to finish the enemy. If you continue to hit without finishing, all of your heroes will get stressed, and if you don't finish, your heroes will get even more stress and the enemy will get reinforcements.

To maximize the effectiveness of stalling the last enemy can still stun or hang pillboxes to definitely not approach, or he will give out some crit and all your stalling you will come out the same side.

12. How to win night attacks

Starting from the middle dungeons you will be given firewood. It's a very useful tool that can be used to make a fire, heal, relieve stress, and buff heroes. However, sometimes a fire can do more harm than good. I'm talking about night attacks, of course.

With a 33% chance after the bonfire you will be attacked by a group of monsters, during the fight with them the light will go out to zero and cannot be rekindled, which will noticeably strengthen the monsters. Also your heroes will be randomly shuffled and it will be impossible to escape from this fight. And if your party isn't prepared for this, this could be their last fight.

There are two ways to counter such an attack.

Method 1

Take a hero with you that has a skillet that protects against night attacks. They are the brigand, cruiser, stalker and kennel.

Method 2

If you don't have the skill, there is a slightly less reliable option, but it still works. Before you start a fire stir your group yourself, not just stir, but put the heroes in the worst position, let the crossbowman tanks face, let the lepper sits in the ass, "militant of stalk", behind her back hides a tank. Make the heroes so bad that you can't think of anything worse. Great, now if you are attacked, the party will be mixed and miracle, the heroes will stand on their rightful places.

13. Best trinkets

Trinkets are things that you can get for sorties or buy. Each hero can have two of these things and they can make your heroes much stronger. At the beginning of the game you will get one trinket, which has more minuses than pluses. I'll tell you where to find good trinkets quickly.

First of all - secret rooms. Sometimes during exploration on the map you can find an asterisk icon, go there and when you stand on the asterisk and you will get to a secret room where there is only a box, open exclusively with the key. There you will find expensive stones for three and a half thousand gold each, as well as three excellent legendary trinkets. Especially I would like to highlight them Julia's Head, which will be a great buff to your Vestal or Ahmed, because it is clear that 0 multiplied by 30 percent is a lot.

But heads are nothing, the best tinkets in the game are hidden by the mini-boss shambler.. You can find this boss in the sphere. You can summon him by playing the torch on the sphere. This The boss drops a simple imbue candle, a scroll and a card.. Also, summoning him in a green dungeon will be much easier than if you summon him in a yellow or red dungeon. So I strongly advise you to hunt him early, even though he is quite dangerous for a newbie. Here, I'll even spoiler the perfect party in shambler hunting.

14. Speedhack

This tip is only for those who play Darkest Dungeon from a computer, such as through Steam.

Actually a very optional tip and unlikely to be needed by newbies, but DD has very slow animations. And yes, they are beautiful, but when you see them for the second thousand times, they somehow get boring. That's why a lot of players use speedhack. And no, it's not a cheat, you can put a mod on it from the styma workshop or use the cheat engine. To do this, select Darkest Dungeon process and sub and the desired speed value. I for example use 1.6, as for me, very comfortable.

15. DLC

If you are, in addition to the original game, a happy owner of the DLC "crimson guard", but still only a beginner, do not go to the dlc-shh location, in general. The point is not that the very complex and dangerous enemies, although they are complex and dangerous. The point is that after completing a mission in a dlc location, vampires will start spreading throughout the locations and infect your heroes with the curse, which will add even more management and noticeably increase the difficulty. Sure, I'm all for complexity myself, but the curse mechanics honestly burned my ass. So I only go to this location when the heroes are already pumped and you can go off to kill bosses.

That's the end of the tips for now. I tried to cover all the basic mechanics, without getting down to too trivial information, like how to hit, how to walk, give money. Tell me how successful I was in my efforts in the comments.