Darkest Dungeon (2016)

Started playing this again the other day after putting it down several years ago. I'm really enjoying it so far. Got a couple characters killed on my first delve which I actually think was good because now I've learned to not grow attached to anyone, haha!

I really like the game, but I think the controller implementation could have been done a lot better. It's clear that the game was made to be played with mouse and keyboard.

Completed 100% on PC in 82 hours, Darkest difficulty.

I was left kind of disappointed with the challenge of DD, as I expected it to be way more complicated. I started playing on Radiant for like 2 hours and then made a new Darkest file.

By hour 5, I found the Ves-Jes-Hwm-Cru/Lep party to be a safe choice and used it for almost the entire game, except for a few boss fights. I also beat DD1 to 4 each on my first try. I expected (wanted?) to die at least once on DD.

There is NO way I'm gonna try Stygian beacuse the game is just too grindy, an issue even acknowledged by the devs. Honestly, I've had enough of this dungeon.

I liked the art and the atmosphere a lot. Gameplay is also good, with some smart design choices. The narrator is excellent, of course. Music is just "ok". Regarding the RNG, I'm very tolerant to it, but it may annoy some people.

Recommended, just be ready to grind.

Beat the base game on Darkest difficulty (I did not buy any dlc). I had watched some gameplay before buying it so I knew the basics, but that did not stop me from screwing up digging. My 1st death was a vestal who had a heart attack early on because I thought I had to drag a shovel to the shovel icon and then click the hand to ok the dig. Wait, how come they are taking damage and stress for digging with a shovel? By the time I had figured it out, it was enough to push that character over the edge. This caused me to have to play up to level 3 without any vestals, since none were showing up to hire. I had to rely on occultists and plague doctors for healing. Not too long after I had a party of level 1s; it was 3 of my B team and the hellion from my A team trying to get the hellion a level up to catch up to the rest of A. I had passed this thing which wants you to sacrifice a torch for dark powers. Other times I ignored it, this time I did not since I figured the occultist might like it. Occultist and crusader died that fight, then I killed the boss, then the grave robber died from the minions. The hellion had to flee the fight and abandon the quest. Damn.

I did not have a whole lot of deaths and I was able to resurrect a few. At end game I have 8 deaths. A level 0 man at arms that I deliberately killed off early on because he started with bad stats. The 3 mentioned above (though the crusader was revived and reached level 4 before dying again), a level 1 plague doctor, level 6 hound master (this was a brutal loss since he was one of my best characters; forgot how he died, maybe that time I screwed up on the cannon boss and the entire party was nearly one shotted), level 6 vestal and level 6 abomination who died at the end dungeon. I played quite safe while also trying to do as much as possible in each mission to get the most loot possible. I found giants to be the worst enemy, with their massive single damage and changing the party order. Every time I fought one it was a nail biting experience where I threw everything I had and strongly considered retreat if I could. After that would be those goblet throwers and their tendency to focus on the most stressed person.

I generally took 1 healer, 1 tank and 2 damage characters. Here is my final roster

Tanks:

3 Crusaders, including the one you start with that I renamed after myself. He managed to never die. I found this to be a solid class that works especially well in the ruins. Mostly used the basic attack, occasionally the 2 target. Bulwark of faith to help tank, and usually the heal with stress reduction. Even a single point of healing can bring someone back from death's door, and I did not see much benefit for the slightly larger heal. My character used holy lance instead to counter knockbacks and get some ranged damage in, but overall I think the heal is safer.

2 men at arms. They would use their basic attack, which I found very useful for its ability to hit the 3rd rank. Bolster to buff dodge and stress, ripost for tanking and bellow to give him something to do if knocked to the back. I liked them so much that I almost always took 1 along for bosses.

2 lepers. Basic attack, 2 target attack, self marked tank buff and self heal. Even though they have lower resists than other characters, that self heal is pretty sweet.

Damage:

3 hellions. They used the basic attack, the one that hits the rear of the enemy if the hellion is in 1st place (I love that skill), rage for self heal and status curing (love that too). The final ability was breakthrough early on to help counter knockbacks, but I later changed it to if it bleeds due to its targeting flexibility.

1 abomination. For normal battles he was in rank 2 using blight and stun. For tougher fights I let him transform, and even some bosses (he was on the final boss team) I let him take 1st position.

2 highwaymen. Pistol shot + a melee attack (bleed or normal depending on resists), grapeshot (which I found to miss way too much and it very much grew out of my favor), and tracking shot to reveal stealth. This class is very good and can fight effectively from any position.

2 grave robbers. Throwing dagger as the main attack, dual daggers is a great opener to kill the middle rank enemies, pickaxe for melee and prot enemies, followed by blight darts. Another great class very similar to the highwayman.

1 houndmaster (not counting the dead one). I specifically recruited this guy and powered leveled him to replace the dead guy. I use the basic dog attack, hit all dog attack, self heal and mark. Probably one of the best classes, with ability to hit any enemy with that basic attack from any position except the 1st.

1 archer. Using the basic shot, bolas, mark and heal. I often used her for bosses. Not as flexible as the other damage dealers but excellent at dealing with the rear ranks and large monsters.

Healers/support:

4 vestals (not including the dead level 6). Yeah after struggling through most of the early game without any I made sure to hire every one I could. I took 1 on every single mission and had a rotation set up for them. They used the single heal, group heal, self heal attack and illumination. I found their healing to be key to completing missions.

2 plague doctors. I use single target blight to hit the front, plague grenade to hit the back, battlefield medicine for healing and status curing (was pretty bad when that was the group healing) and the stun that destroys corpses. While useful I often found their damage over time inferior to straight up killing an enemy quicker. Their unique camp skills carried me through the early game.

2 occultists. Using heal, pull + destroy corpses, tentacle ranged attack and 1 of the hexes. Better healer than the plague doctor and I used them extensively as main healers until I got some vestals. I prefer the hex that lowers enemy damage, especially if there is no vestal in the group.

I never used the bounty hunter or jester. I had an antique lady early on but booted her.

For quirks I reinforced great ones (my crusader has warrior of light +10% damage, slugger +10% melee damage and quick reflexes), others I like are evasive and fated. I only got rid of really bad ones like lower max hp. I found a healing boost artifact in a secret room and combined with the vestal scroll artifact my vestals were getting +60% on heals. I had gauntlets with +25% damage for the lead character, unique class specific artifacts for the archer and houndmaster, and my preferred combo was the legendary bracer (+20% damage) and feather crystal (speed and dodge), though some of the end game artifacts were quite good. I usually gave the plague doctor and occultists support things, like resist boosts so they could interact with curios and ambush benefits.

When I got to the final form of each boss I looked up the strategy online. I had already beaten each boss without help but wanted to make sure I was not missing anything. Then I went into the darkest dungeon itself. I went in blind with a man at arms, highwayman (the 1 you start with), grave robber and vestal. The mission was fairly brutal and the vestal was focused on to the point that she became afflicted. I did not take all the supplies I could have, and could have used a few more bandages. The boss was a spectacular fight. The vestal went at least 4 turns straight without healing due to a combination of being shuffled to the front and skipping her own turns. She died. The highwayman went virtuous and he spent at least 4 or 5 turns at 0 hp, including with a bleed most of that time. I cannot believe he survived! For the next mission I looked up the trinkets you get to see how they work and inadvertently learned the strategy for the mission. So I had a man at arms guard the vestal, who went with both healing trinkets. The others were hellion and archer. This mission was not too bad. For the 3rd I went with a leper, grave robber, vestal and plague doctor. Was going ok until a battle where they really went to town on the leper, making him abusive. At this point I was not feeling good about the odds of getting through the mission so I decided to look up the map online. Oh I am 1 room away from the goal and I was going that way anyway. Well then. I kept using the plague doctor's stun to kill the little teleport things (I did read the basic strategy before hand). For the final battle I took the abomination, highwayman, vestal and hound master. I did read the strategy before hand and figured the abomination would be a great idea since it was one long fight where he could just transform once at the beginning. The 1st phase dragged on for a long time and they focused so much on the vestal that she had a heart attack and died. Damn. In the next phase the abomination became afflicted and automatically canceled his transformation. So much for that plan. The 3 of them were not in great shape by the final phase; abomination was high health but very bad stress, highwayman was around 40% health and virtuous, while the houndmaster was decent on both. They wrecked the boss and I chose the abomination to die, since he was doing the least.

Overall great game. I very much liked the tactics and tough decisions; how much supplies to take, should I risk going this way etc. I do wish you could drop stuff inside dungeons and come back for it though. My biggest problem came from the permadeath and how it had an effect that made me less want to play the game. The thought that I could start the game up and be worse off than before is a somewhat demoralizing concept, and I would much prefer a normal save system. Or something like the alt F4 trick in State of Decay.

Been playing Crimson Court maddeningly non stop and needing a short break. I had actually started a new game for a third time after getting an updated feel for it. Game has improved a lot but DD is still fun but depressing/discouraging in a weird way. It almost feels like similiar niche in the vein of Stone Soup Dungeon Crawl or older XCOM games where you play them over a very long period of time. Unfortunately this isnt exactly like some repeatable rogue-like due to it's considerable time investment so setbacks feel far more punishing... nor is it a game you can endlessly grind to slowly 'improve' yourself, because It will nip you in the ass regardless of your patience/preparation or level, and it often feel like it's an imbalance issue/random.

This is one of the best games to cheat in and tweak things yourself i've played in a long time. Because you have lots of freedom to go about it in different ways. Editing the kickstarter trinkets, and modifying the tables to allow for more equippable trinkets is the (time consuming) route i've taken. I found that this doesnt break the spirit of the game one bit, and gives you edge as you feel you need it. It also lets you customize yourself a bit and almost gives it a bit of a gear/stat RPG feel which i wish the game had a bit of anyway.