So... Darkest Dungeon.

[Pua]

I'm just looking for advice, really.

My buddy sent me a copy of Darkest Dungeon as a gift and there's a lot to love about it. The aesthetic is really cool, the party construction is deep and thoughtful (as is recruitment), building the hamlet takes time and effort while being of great interest, and I like the way the game is constructed.

But after a couple of hours playing, I almost uninstalled it in a fit of anger.

It's just far too punishing. Debuffs are extremely painful to you, your healing spells are nowhere near up to the task, the gold requirement for food and torches is too much, and stress seems to ramp up relentlessly until your characters are useless. Is part of the design that you clear around four rooms per dungeon and then ditch?

I accept that I could just be playing it wrong. It's not the type of game I've played much of.

But to enjoy it, I need to find a way to make it less punitive. I'm just not into self-flagellation for 20 hours of game time before feeling like I'm getting anywhere.

[SpikeySquad]

I haven't played the game myself but I have been curious about it and hence read a lot of stuff. Are are you also aware that the game can be modded? I believe one that may be useful to you is called Lighter Dungeon but there are so many different mods and there may be better ones out there. Or if you are handy with that sort of thing I gather that you can also directly change the game files yourself. Have you checked out the in game options?

[Pua]

The only real change I've noted from the in-game options is that you can remove corpses, but that's a relatively minor problem. They're a pain in the arse, but I've typically got ranged characters in my group that stop them from being too much of a pain (plus, I always try to take a plague doctor who can clear them).

I've not really investigated mods yet, but a game that needs mods to be generally bearable seems a bit strange.

[Slaughty8]

It's one of the hard to play hard to learn hard to master games. This game is meant to be very hearsh and punishing. As the game itself says "it's about finding the best ways in difficult/hopeless situations". It's also about finding good team composition + item composition + skill composition + quirks composition. This is how more or less the games were back in the old days, no hand holding, you just play and learn and discover through successes and failures.
Remember to unlock skills and change/upgrade them.
Don't take +50 stressed heroes on medium/large dungeons, let them rest in one of the buildings.

If you want to optimize your jorney, turn off all the distrubing things in the game options. This should help a little. At least unlock 100% escape chance.
Also read and watch some guides, like:
http://guides.gamepressure.com/darke...e.asp?ID=30107
https://www.reddit.com/r/darkestdung...tting_started/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPaztEj901M

My first 20 dungeons were 90% Small ones, 10% Medium ones.

When you have experienced team, do some 1st lvl Small Dungeons with the new character - Antiquarian as the 3rd/4th place buffer/attacker. She does almost nothing, but You will learn lots of additional gold. You can read about her here: http://darkestdungeon.gamepedia.com/Antiquarian With more experienced team you can do medium 1lvl and start doing 3rd lvl Small/Medium Dungeons with her too. Google/Youtube to find the perfect team+skill composition for teams with Antiquarian. She will really boost your gold income so you won't have gold problems.
Later in the game after each normal team dungeon run I ran 1 Antiquarian team dungeon for gold.

Some provisions tips:
Small Dungeon: Important: 8 Food, 6 Torches, 1 Shovel / Optional: 1 Antivenom, 1 Bandages, 1 Holy Water, 1 Herbs
Medium Dungeon: Important: 16 Food, 10 Torches, 2 Shovels, Less important: 2 Antivenoms, 3 Bandages / Optional: 2 Holy Waters, 2 Herbs
Large Dungeon: Important: 24 Food, 16 Torches, 4 Shovels, Less important: 4 Antivenoms, 5 Bandages / Optional: 3 Holy Waters, 2 Herbs

Curios list:
http://darkestdungeon.gamepedia.com/Curio

If your first game is already in a very hard condition, just start another, you will catch up really fast after learning all the tips and knowledge.

Heroes will die from time to time, especially on the boss fights, its inevitable. Sometimes you have luck and they have Vritue after 100% stress and this can change alot. More about the Stress: http://darkestdungeon.gamepedia.com/Stress

With very experienced and trained teams with amazing items, you can even start to do crazy team compositions (youtube them otherwise you will fail with these) like:
4 Crusaders
4 Hellions (dark run, tons of gold)

I started with teams like:
1 Man at Arms - buffing like crazy + riposte
1 Crusader
1 Plague Doctor
1 Occultist

2 Lepers
1 Bounty Hunter
1 Vestel

1 Abomination - transforming and full dps
1 Abomination - stuning with chains/vomiting
1 Grave Robber
1 Arbalest

etc. I experimented alot, really alot. You can google good team+skill compositions. Skill compositon is veeery important.

I always run +80 light level.

I also added second names like "Gr1" (group one) "Gr2" etc to their names, so I could easily identify my teams.

I hope I helped. I've spent many hours in this game and I love it, I'am still playing from time to time

[Deleted]

The heals will *never* be as powerful as the damage you receive unless you really stack skills for that, they will become better when you start getting trinkets, but the suggestion that I can give you is try to "disable" enemies as much as possible, look at the damage your soldier does and the HP of the enemy and if you see a chance for a oneshot go for it.

[WarpedAcorn]

Early game is rough even for people who know how to play. Darkest Dungeon is a very unforgiving game, and its that way by design. One concept a lot of people have trouble with is accepting failure. Your heroes will die. You will lose heroes all throughout the game, some might be new recruits and others might be your legendary champions. But they can all die at any time. One bad encounter can destroy the group.

Slaughty8 has some good suggestions if you do choose to revisit the game. One note I would make is regarding your town. Your first priority should be leveling the Blacksmith and the Guild. The Guild will let you buy and upgrade your heroes' abilities, which is crucial to getting the best set up for your group (and increasing hit chances and damage). But the Blacksmith is where you will see the most tangible upgrade. You can really tell a difference once you start upgrading equipment. If you do try this game again, try to make it to the first upgrade tier of gear and see how the game changes.

That being said, you will notice a HUGE spike in the final dungeons. So...be prepared for that. >: )

[Pua]

Thanks for that, @Slaughty8 and @Brazorf. I appreciate it.

I started playing games in the mid-eighties, and had most every console up until the PS2 which is when I moved to PC games. Horribly punishing out of the gate is rare, and it's easy to see why such games tend not to do very well.

[Slaughty8]

Thanks for that, @Slaughty8 and @Brazorf. I appreciate it.

I started playing games in the mid-eighties, and had most every console up until the PS2 which is when I moved to PC games. Horribly punishing out of the gate is rare, and it's easy to see why such games tend not to do very well.

You are wolcomed

Well, old PC RPGs like Baldur's Gate or Icewind Dale vere almost as harsh as the Darkest Dungeon I remember my first hours in Icewind Dale, wiped my first 3 teams and I was like "the f...why...what did I wrong...". Overall many PC games were harder than now.
Darkest Dungeon is doing very well, Steam: Owners: 854,551 ± 24,871 that's alot for such kickstarer indie game But I think that the game should have "easier" mode too so people could casually have fun it it too. Luckily, there are mods like Lighter Dungeon, you can try it https://steamcommunity.com/app/26206...3594742934662/

[Simulacrum]

Best part of the game is how punishing it is. At least in the early-game. In the late-game, it becomes less fun, as the loss of even one hero to bad RNG can mean you'll have to spend literally hours grinding to make their replacement ready, never mind if you lose more than one.

It's not even that punishing, honestly. Most of the time, all you lose for your fuck-ups is time and money; the resources you just spent sending your part off on that mission that ended in a complete write-off. Just too bad that encourages even further grinding... and then you get 20 hours in and you realize that you're not having fun anymore because you're constantly running lower-level dungeons with shit parties, that you then send on suicide missions into the highest dungeons because man you sure ain't riskin' your A-team on a completely unknown dungeon. And then you realize that the fun of the early game is gone, because the game punishes you with so much grinding when you fuck-up that you don't want to take risks anymore, and without taking risks there's none of the tension that the game relies on to be fun. And then you stop playing. Or at least I did.

[Deleted]

Thanks for that, @Slaughty8 and @Brazorf. I appreciate it.

I started playing games in the mid-eighties, and had most every console up until the PS2 which is when I moved to PC games. Horribly punishing out of the gate is rare, and it's easy to see why such games tend not to do very well.

You are welcome I have nearly 200 hours on the game and I know perfectly how harsh the beginning is.
Game is a nightmare but finishing a dungeon with your characters almost mad and dead, can be very satisfying

Another few things to remember
Bleed and Plague damage stacks, so do not underestimate them, especially on mobs with high resistance

Check description of abilities, some have bonuses toward specific kind of mobs.

Example Bounty hunter has 20% damage against humanoids so it's particulary good in Warrens and Weald
Crusaders have bonus damage against unholy so it's better to take one of those in general, in Ruins

Moves that change your character positions usually do a shit ton of damage, try to combo them together between character (like point blank shot of the highway man one move it one backwards and one ability of the grave robber send him one position back so you can kinda cycle between them) and so on

Try always to get in your party someone that can attack back lines, be it a High way man, a grave robber with ranged abilities or the Hellion with the Swan attack, cause in the backline you often have the mobs that cause stress damage, and you want to avoid as much as that as possible

Lots of tricks in the game but it does require knowledge.

[Darsithis]

There is a long-running thread about this game here: http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...ungeon-Crawler