r/darkestdungeon

I remember wanting to play darkest dungeon for a long time, when it was on sale my friend gifted it to me. It was a lesson in humility that I ultimately denied. I renamed every hero and gave them a unique look. I made dangerous strategic choices to shape the story of my heroes with their daring achievements. Whole generations died under my watch. I never knew you can access the final dungeon before completing every region, so I did just that. The grinding for new heroes to replace my old ones felt the worst, Warrens allowed for no heroics.

By the finale of my first-ever run of darkest dungeon, which was done on "Normal," I thought that it was a great and unique experience, and that I'll never touch the game again to avoid going insane even further.

DD2 is on a great sale now, but it is not often that I buy games nowadays. I liked the original game for the way I can make up entire stories for my heroes as they survive battle after battle, but I hated the grind to access late-game content after each setback for a chance to even attempt it again. Would DD2 be a better or worse experience for me by the sound of my story, or is it too different to compare at all?

I believe that two hours is simply too little to get to know the game beyond its basics, so I think asking around is preferrable, for I would likely not be returning it back one way or another should it be not to my liking

I’m a big fan of board games but looking at some of the older posts it seems like Mythic Games did a shit job of the initial release. Is the bg worth it or did they continue fumbling the bag over the last couple years?

never ever played before found the concept amusing . am i that talented tho or was it the same for yall .

But i did kinda cheat my friend told me how op baldwin and nun lady was knew nothing else kept running into loathings and bandits

and is there anything else this game has to offer now

Had a member of a party die, made it to the inn recruited a new hero.

Upgraded all my mastery and stuff, but didnt bother equipping (I typically do that once I load up in the wagon, moving characters around and such)

Anyways, one of the default-on skills got a negative relationship built around it, but I have ZERO intention of using said skill, ever.

Now, I cant unequip it even though it serves ZERO PURPOSE in my build.

Recently I started to play this game and is absolutely amazing, maybe my favorite dungeon crawler. I am a newbie and I'm confused about what skills are the best for each character. I know that in certain situations all of them can be good, but generally what are the best skills for each type of character?

(Disclaimer. Long post. Lots of potential skill issue ranting/whining below, be warned. I'm not very good at this game. And yes I know there's previous posts on this sub asking this same question but I haven't found a satisfying answer yet.)

Currently at Obsession. The number 1 issue I noticed from my many, many reruns from Denial to Resentment is that all the worst enemies in this game are things that sit in the back rank. Tangle Drummers and Bishops, Cultist Altars and Cherubs, Widows, all the lair bosses minus the Dreaming General (and even that one needs you to target something in the back for his gimmick), the Collector (Fuck this one especially, they somehow made him even worse than the first game), and almost anything in the Shroud.

I've been trying to build teams and trying out different characters, but the whole 2 acts I felt forced to use Iron Swan Helion and Sharpshot Highwayman in every single team because of the aforementioned issue (Both my successful runs against the Confession bosses is using these 2). There's also Deadeye Grave Robber but she feels like a weaker Sharpshot to me, so I only use her when I get bored of Sharpshot and want Dismas to be a frontline dancer with Duelist advance (my favourite way to play him back in the first game). I've tried DOT options like Runaway and Plague Doctor but enemies kept resisting burn/blight even outside the Sprawl/Foetor respectively (And I want to go to these two places cause they have the best music don't @ me).

Speaking of Plague Doctor, I also felt forced to bring her in every single run cause the other healer options are either RNG like Occultist or inconsistent like the new Vestal. Crusader's heal is nice but running him as a solo healer doesn't feel as good when he has other things to do like attacking, stress healing, tanking hits, etc, unlike Plague Doctor who can chill in the back and heal on reaction without much worry.

None of these problems are that pronounced to me back when I played the first game when Arbalest/Houndmaster existed for backline killing + there's not that many annoying backline enemies to begin with (or at the very least none that are that deeply imprinted into my mind the way this game's enemies do), and Old Vestal/Flagellant were consistent healers without conditions tied to them.

Hence the title. Running the same 3-4 characters every single time just to win gets very boring. Tell me what teams you guys run so I can try them out.

I was not familiar with her game. I ignored her for so long. I thought I was supposed to park her in back and toss darts and daggers for incredibly mid damage and watch as her high crit rate produced damage I could get for one PD knife.

Enter tangle. Ugh I hate the tangle, I hate having to watch the drummers, admittedly cool, drumming animation 15 times. I dismissed so many guard ignoring moves as they normally never hit the rank I need. Holy crap does that ignore guard work wonders in the tangle. Dodges for the anti shields is a chef's kiss for the tangle.

Lunge for damage, darts for shields, dagger for guards, front cleave, money printer go brr, two ways to heal herself one of which gives her dodges the other can relive stress, dancing etc. pickaxe... okay so pick axe sucks imo because darts is literally right there... But she's so good in rank 2 and I've been sticking with her in rank 4 and 3 like a fool.

I get it now. You get a pseudo tank with self sustain who can hit any rank and has a bunch of utilities. 2 mastery points and she's happy. GR I am sorry.

I stream every day doing challenge runs over at twitch.tv/Mariner_Hawk, and have been streaming DD2 since June 2023 alongside making videos on YouTube. I chose DD2 to sink my time into because I knew I would love the game, and at the time I started streaming it had ~800 or so players on Steam and not a lot of streamers. I knew it was a game I could play a lot of, and I hoped I could get some people to stop by with the relative low amount of content creators. I have 1.4k followers on Twitch, which may not be huge in the grand scheme of things but I'm proud of it. I have 500 hours in DD1 before I was ever a streamer, so I was pretty sure I was going to love DD2 in all its differences and fortunately I was right on that. I've been doing challenge runs since I started streaming. I was the first (recorded) player to do a Bastard's Beacon Grand Slam when the flame first came out starting with no memories, and I'm currently doing a challenge where I'm trying to beat all 6 Kingdoms maps vs. Crimson Courtiers without losing any inns, any heroes, or repeating any paths...and it's kicking my ass. I've played (seemingly) every comp there is to play, so I hopefully can answer any advice you'd like to hear.

I really do truly love DD2, and my whole goal as a streamer/content creator is to help people enjoy the game as much as I do. I've learned a ton of things about the game through trial and error, so I can summarize the best way to play a hero or path if you're having trouble with anything.

What do you want to know about DD2? Comp ideas, path tips, challenge ideas, enemy tips, DLC speculation...anything you want to talk about with the game, streaming, about me, or anything else. Test me!

I'll be answering questions kinda randomly throughout the day, but I promise if I haven't gotten to your question yet then I will later!