Darkest Dungeon -

[AnOminous]

I'm just starting this because, being a faggot as OP always is, I am new to this game. (I got it because it's something like 20 bucks to buy the game and all the DLC right now on Steam and I wanted to get it for a while but was just that cheap and chintzy to wait until now.)

Also I didn't want to shit up the @Jaimas threads with dumb requests for newbie advice.

 

[King_Scrotus]

I actually just recently got this game as well, been having a minor issue though. The game freezes if it's run with the steam overlay on for some reason, and annoyingly keeping it off means I can't do dumb shit like take screenshots. Anyone know of a fix for that?

 

[CabbageMan]

I ragequit this game around the time they added Cove during early access and made stalling impossible, added corpses, and other ridiculously unnecessary hard shit. Also nerfing Hellions into uselessness.

I lost two rank 6 Hellions on a m.ilk run and quit.

 

[ES 148]

This is how you play Darkest Dungeon.

 

[AnOminous]

I ragequit this game around the time they added Cove during early access and made stalling impossible, added corpses, and other ridiculously unnecessary hard shit. Also nerfing Hellions into uselessness.

I lost two rank 6 Hellions on a m.ilk run and quit.

I like games that not only don't give you a helping hand, but actually chop your hand off if you reach out for help, and just capriciously and arbitrarily murder you for the slightest mistake, or even for no mistake at all, when you do everything perfectly and get killed anyway.

It is a refreshing break from our participation trophy culture. If you win shit like this you can actually take some pride in it because you won even though the game itself was cheating.

 

[CabbageMan]

I like games that not only don't give you a helping hand, but actually chop your hand off if you reach out for help, and just capriciously and arbitrarily murder you for the slightest mistake, or even for no mistake at all, when you do everything perfectly and get killed anyway.

It is a refreshing break from our participation trophy culture. If you win shit like this you can actually take some pride in it because you won even though the game itself was cheating.

There's a difference between 1994 XCOM and what DD does, though. DD routinely rams that spiked dildo up your ass, it doesn't just put it there.

 

[Terror Rism]

i don't like how all of the extra curio/room object effects are the only information in the game hidden from you
it's annoying to have to open a wiki for that 1 thing every time when none of the other game mechanic stuff is hidden from you, the other mechanics are just hard to deal with on their own
i have a bad memory so i prefer my games to be all wiki or no wiki at all (i also refuse to trial and error it cause it just forces you to grind more if that mistake fucks you over)

also the classes that rely on swapping places with your other characters are easily the most fun to use imo

 

[Rand /pol/]

There's a podcast called Let Me Tell You About that did an episode on Darkest Dungeon talking about why they didn't like it. That's basically all I know about the game. Here's the episode if you want to listen: http://www.lmtya.com/7d3fc236

 

[Wallace]

i don't like how all of the extra curio/room object effects are the only information in the game hidden from you
it's annoying to have to open a wiki for that 1 thing every time when none of the other game mechanic stuff is hidden from you, the other mechanics are just hard to deal with on their own
i have a bad memory so i prefer my games to be all wiki or no wiki at all (i also refuse to trial and error it cause it just forces you to grind more if that mistake fucks you over)

I think this has been changed in a recent patch. The game will take notes for you, if using a certain item on each curio does something good, bad, or nothing.

 

[Jaimas]

JAIMAS' BIG LIST OF FUN ADVICE FOR DANKMEME DUNGEON PLAYERS!

* Don't feel bad about doing Radiant. This game is hard as shit. 0.9% of the playerbase has beaten it. Play this game how you like and fuck anyone who tells you you're a pussy for playing it on "make the game suck slightly less" mode.

* For short trips, average 12 food and 8 torches. For Medium, 18 and 12. For Long, 20 and 16.

* Never take undue risks. You might get good treasure if you can make it one more room, or you can fucking TPK to a barrage of criticals. Be smart. Always err on the side of caution, and only bite off more than you can chew if you're prepared for the consequences. Only when you absolutely cannot continue if you don't should you ever consider taking stupid risks.

* The Vintner's should always be the first district you build. Period, followed by the Bank.

* Sell shitty trinkets you don't need for extra cash.

* Upgrade weapons and armor before skills. Improved skills are important but not as important as surviving more and doing more damage and moving faster.

* Your first four characters will always be a Crusader, Highwayman, Vestal, and Plague Doctor. Of these, only the first two have fixed skills. You will want to lock in their positive traits and shed the Crusader's Kleptomaniac trait ASAP.

* Negative quirks generally fall into the category of harmless (preferred de-stress option or disallowance), annoying (Lygophobia), irritating (vulnerability quirks, weakness quirks), to dangerous (Kleptomaniac, Dark Temptation, Compulsive). Prioritize the worst ones first.

* Don't worry about locking in traits until you have at least 3 currently or the trait is so phenomenal you must lock it in. You can have a max of 5 and only lock in three.

* You need to survive a full month of game time (4 weeks) to unlock the bulk of the game's facilities.

* Early on, kill stress spiking enemies first.

* Do not hold back when fighting a boss. Bring your A game.[/spoiler]

* Early on, avoid Abominations if they're available until your roster fleshes out and gets more slots. Vestals, Flagellants, Lepers, and Crusaders won't work with one, and you already have 2 of those if you haven't lost anyone yet.

* Occultists are solid healers but do have some risk. They're the best healer you're getting for a fucking Abomination.

* Any healing enough to get you off Death's Door can save you from death, so don't ignore the Crusader, Antiquarian, and Arbalest's heals. Sometimes just surviving is more important than being healthy....

* Grave Robbers, Bounty Hunters, Houndmasters, and Highwaymen are perfect for rounding out a team payload. Almost any team can use one in a few different configurations.

* Try to pair up complimentary teams. Pair Marker Bonus characters for max damage, bleed/blight stacking for max concurrent damage, and so on.

* Flagellant is the best healer, followed by Vestal, Occultist, Arbalest, Plague Doctor, Crusader, and Antiquarian.

* Jester is the only class that can reliably get a hero to un-afflict (by bringing Stress to Zero).

 

[AnOminous]

* Sell shitty trinkets you don't need for extra cash.

I find it difficult to identify the shitty ones, because most of them seem to have positive and negative traits.

The class-specific ones seem to be pretty good, and combos of two class-specific ones especially good.

There's lots of crap though, and some of the common ones at least look good when you have nothing better.

I also hate when I have a trinket that looks super good, but it's also class-specific and I have nobody of that class. And it's worth a lot of money. I guess just sell those?

 

[Jaimas]

I find it difficult to identify the shitty ones, because most of them seem to have positive and negative traits.

The class-specific ones seem to be pretty good, and combos of two class-specific ones especially good.

There's lots of crap though, and some of the common ones at least look good when you have nothing better.

I also hate when I have a trinket that looks super good, but it's also class-specific and I have nobody of that class. And it's worth a lot of money. I guess just sell those?

The only trinkets you should absolutely never sell are the ultra-rare ones (Music boxes, Tempting Goblet, Corvid Trinkets, Ancestral trinkets, The Iron Torches, Trophy Trinkets, and Trinket Sets). Everything else is basically fair game if you're not actively using it.

 

[AnOminous]

The only trinkets you should absolutely never sell are the ultra-rare ones (Music boxes, Tempting Goblet, Corvid Trinkets, Ancestral trinkets, The Iron Torches, Trophy Trinkets, and Trinket Sets). Everything else is basically fair game if you're not actively using it.

Is the Tempting Goblet actually similar to that horrible thing the Courtiers throw at you? This game has a confusing habit of using the exact same name for different objects.

 

[Jaimas]

Is the Tempting Goblet actually similar to that horrible thing the Courtiers throw at you? This game has a confusing habit of using the exact same name for different objects.

It is the fucking exact same.

They have a chance, however low, to drop this fucking thing as a treasure. And it's fucking awesome, if you feel like playing dangerous:

+20% Max HP
+2 Speed
+8 Dodge
+ 35% Stress
- 10 Virtue Chance

 

[AnOminous]

Is there a reasonable way to grind to turn these useless level 0 meat shields into something useful with little risk? I notice even the low level quests seem to get tougher so you can't completely cheese it just by grinding low level shit over and over again like DSP. So even later in the game, when you have to train up some replacements, it's still a harrowing nightmare.

 

[Jaimas]

Is there a reasonable way to grind to turn these useless level 0 meat shields into something useful with little risk? I notice even the low level quests seem to get tougher so you can't completely cheese it just by grinding low level shit over and over again like DSP. So even later in the game, when you have to train up some replacements, it's still a harrowing nightmare.

Yes, but it's complicated.

Provinces and Shit:

The bulk of the estate will gradually "level up" each area as you explore:

The Map fully leveled up, from the chronicles of The (The) Kiwi Farms Estate

Each area starts at level 0 except for The Courtyard and Darkest Dungeon, which have their own bullshit.

As you adventure, you build "XP" for your estate's zones, representing your team exploring them deeper and gaining access to their secrets. When a zone levels up, the quests become slightly harder and a boss fight unlocks.

Levels 0-2 will have almost entirely Novice rank quests, with periodic Veteran.

Level 3-4 will have predominantly Veteran rank quests with a smattering of Novice and Champion.

Levels 5-7 will be almost entirely Champion with a few Veteran and Novice.

The province won't level up until you beat the boss, so you can abuse this to keep the province artificially lower in level, though the game scales missions to your roster so you'll likely get more Champion and Veteran missions as more and more of your roster becomes inveterate. Additionally, how long the game's gone on serves as a modifier; you start to get more veteran missions around week 16, and you'll start to get more Champion missions starting week 35 or so (this also is when Vvulf starts prowling around; beware).

Provided you rotate each area you go to and build each character up slowly but steadily, you will, essentially, always have at least one Novice and one Veteran mission available every single week.


Now we get to the tougher part, which is character leveling.


Character Leveling Made Easy:

Character level determines their base status resistances (including disease) and how likely they are to become virtuous. Note that just leveling up doesn't really make the character any stronger; you need to train and upgrade for that shit. It just boosts your resistances and gives a bonus against stress gains.

Each level you gain unlocks new levels for your skills (upgrade these at the guild), new levels for your weapons and armor (upgrade these at the smith) or both. These are what you need to do to actually level up, and this is not a cheap process, as weapons and armor, in particular, cost thousands of gold to upgrade to max. This is also why upgrading the Smith and abusing the Lost and Found event is fucking important.

Characters max at level six.

For the most part, a successful mission of any kind will level up a level 0 character to level 1.

At a certain threshold, characters will refuse to do lower-level quests. Level 0-2 characters will do Novice quests but level 3 will refuse, since they will, if upgraded, outgun the locals by a substantial margain and won't gain any real experience or face any real challenge for doing so. Similarly, level 3-4 characters will do Veteran missions, but Level 5+ will refuse and will only do Champion.

There is a town event that allows you to bring any level character to novice or veteran rank dungeons, which is a great opportunity for you to get a team of level sixes together to butt-fuck the Novice-level Shambler when it happens.

Interestingly, the reverse isn't true: There is no restriction against bringing low-level characters to high-level dungeons. In fact, this is a great way to level up quickly, since the XP gains from a high level dungeon is much higher than it would be otherwise (this is why Crunklord in the Kiwi run jumped to level 3 in one go).

Be forewarned, however: It imposes terrible risks. Low-level characters will have trouble getting status effects to stick in high-level dungeons, will not be able to hit more evasive high-level monsters, and will be using lower-level equipment, meaning lower HP, lower evade rate, and lower critical hit chance and damage and speed. There is an achievement for sending a team of level 0s to the Darkest Dungeon, in fact (to the best of my knowledge, this is a death sentence, due to Stress).

One big problem with bringing low-level characters to late-game areas is that they will start with tons of stress and gain noticably more. Stress goes from being annoying to a threat that can and will kill with this shit in mind. The bigger the level difference, the more stress they will gain (to a maximum of 60 for bringing a level 0 to a Darkest difficulty mission). Each level difference adds 10 stress and +5% stress gains.

If you have a character who survives going to the Darkest Dungeon, he/she will refuse to ever go back to it. However, this comes with a boon in trade, as they will boost XP gain by other party members by 50%! Additionally, the Ancestor's Portrait Trinket boosts XP gain by 50%.

 

[AnOminous]

There is an achievement for sending a team of level 0s to the Darkest Dungeon, in fact (to the best of my knowledge, this is a death sentence, due to Stress).

As an achievement whore, I'm definitely doing this at some point with four level 0s I'd otherwise just dismiss. Why not just kill them if there's an achievement for it?

Is there something like a dummy's guide for this game, but preferably as close to zero spoilers as possible? Before beating a game at least once I prefer to figure it out myself. This one is really, really ugly, though.

 

[r4ndom]

dont rely on lepers.

 

[Jaimas]

As an achievement whore, I'm definitely doing this at some point with four level 0s I'd otherwise just dismiss. Why not just kill them if there's an achievement for it?

Is there something like a dummy's guide for this game, but preferably as close to zero spoilers as possible? Before beating a game at least once I prefer to figure it out myself. This one is really, really ugly, though.

It would be nice if such was the case, but sadly, no. Dankmeme Dungeon likes to throw your ass in the deep end and mock you for struggling when you don't know what the fuck you're doing yet.

It actually used to be way worse than this.

 

[AnOminous]

There is an achievement for sending a team of level 0s to the Darkest Dungeon, in fact (to the best of my knowledge, this is a death sentence, due to Stress).

There's also another achievement when you get the inevitable Total Party Wipe. I sent a bunch of level 0s there with no equipment at all. They survived an encounter with two Rapturous Cultists (which apparently have no attacks anyway) but then ran into a Cultist Priest. They'd nearly killed it but then it summoned two more of its kind. Everyone died of Heart Attacks on the same round shortly after killing the original.