Darkest Dungeon 2

[Rustedsaint]

Third boss is a bitch took me like 4x to get it with plague range mode rogue, jester,man

[Gomelus]

A tank + an off-tank.

Taunt makes the eyes ignore their position so that's valuable to get marks on them. Much easier than moving around tbh. Though I combo that with a movement since you usually only get two taunts by default.
The eyes will eventually skip phases and go to max size, which is around round 7.
Getting abilities that hit all ranks to remove dodges is crucial and pay attention to the turn order.
I suggest getting the supposed person to get marks at rank 3 so you have options with taking the first two with taunt and then move forward or backwards. But depends heavily on the turn order.

In the next phase have the real tank or a class with some mitigation use guard on the person that's marked. It nullifies all bonus damage. Since the ones taking dmg should have 0 marks.

I used flagellant and vestal, though a MAA would be better than vestal. Flagellant heals like a beast on his own and stress isn't an issue for him.

I imagine Leper as a marked tank would work as well.

I have no idea why the few guides I have seen doesn't mention guard, instead it's about getting the main tank all marks, which you should, but not even them can tank it and guarding makes the boss throw peas at you and if the marked gets hit massively one time guard gives time to stabilize.

Vestals healing overtime is good as well since it gets them off deaths door on turn start.

Guard is your friend.
Haven't tried but maybe you can even use guard to grab a mark now that I think about it.

Pretty sure they don't mention guard because the common strategy is to concentrate all marks on a tank (MaA for example) and stack him with the inn item that increases healing received, to counter the debuff for a few extra turns.
The boss was changed yesterday though so I don't think the same strat is going to work.

[Kumorii]

Pretty sure they don't mention guard because the common strategy is to concentrate all marks on a tank (MaA for example) and stack him with the inn item that increases healing received, to counter the debuff for a few extra turns.
The boss was changed yesterday though so I don't think the same strat is going to work.

Seems like it's harder to get that going tbh. I'm 100% guaranteed to have my abilities handle it rather than stacking inn items and it's not like you can outheal it anyway due to CDs.

Curious what the changes are. I think the intended way is to use guard... Doesn't mean it's the most effective though.

Hopefully Jastall beats the boss soon regardless of the tactic used

[Gomelus]

Seems like it's harder to get that going tbh. I'm 100% guaranteed to have my abilities handle it rather than stacking inn items and it's not like you can outheal it anyway due to CDs.

Curious what the changes are. I think the intended way is to use guard... Doesn't mean it's the most effective though.

Hopefully Jastall beats the boss soon regardless of the tactic used

You could outheal it though, because when using a MaA, for example, you can get 2x Block and 1 Block+ at the very least per turn. It makes the eye attack hit for 8 or something like that, it's EXTREMELY managable, giving you ample time to deal with the boss with the other 3 characters. And yes, guard works for getting the marks, you don't have to manually move your tank to every lane, you could start him on rank 3, guard rank 4 and then move him rank 2, and guard rank 1.

I haven't done the new version yet, but from what I have read, you have to kill the eyes in p1 now, the marks are whatever (once applied they can't be removed), but the luminance skill in p2 hits for way lower. Also, the healing debuff is gone, so there's that. Dunno, I'll try him myself later, but it sounds a bit bland now tbh. The mark mechanic was a gimmick for sure, but a good gimmick imo.

[Jastall]

Seems like it's harder to get that going tbh. I'm 100% guaranteed to have my abilities handle it rather than stacking inn items and it's not like you can outheal it anyway due to CDs.

Curious what the changes are. I think the intended way is to use guard... Doesn't mean it's the most effective though.

Hopefully Jastall beats the boss soon regardless of the tactic used

Thanks to all that helped, I got it yesterday.

Truth be told it feels like I got both lucky and unlucky. The latter because on turn 7 the speed RNG made 3 eyes go back to back; 1 hit my MaA with taunt on, the other two hit the backliners and the boss immediately spawned so it feels like all those turns of carefully pruning the eyes and taunting them away from my squishies were useless because of it and they got blasted. They did survive a long time due to me being loaded on healing items to get them out of death's door after each cast, and the lucky part was the chad man-at-arms tanking 4 death's door checks, dying, and the highwayman finishing off the beastie with one Double Tap before he himself would surely have been killed.

I still think it's not a very well designed boss due to everything hinging on that first phase that can easily spiral out of control for no real reason other than RNG even if you know what's coming. I heard the next boss isn't so bad, we'll see.

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

I still think it's not a very well designed boss due to everything hinging on that first phase that can easily spiral out of control for no real reason other than RNG even if you know what's coming.

Well, I just did it this morning and they seem to have changed the boss again...so it was almost like going in blind. It's not a complete overhaul...but there are some substantial differences. I lost my Occultist but still managed to burn the boss down.

I heard the next boss isn't so bad, we'll see.

Well, before the change to the Act III boss...I found the act 4 boss to be much easier...but now I'll have to re-evaluate the rankings.

[Jastall]

Well, I just did it this morning and they seem to have changed the boss again...so it was almost like going in blind. It's not a complete overhaul...but there are some substantial differences. I lost my Occultist but still managed to burn the boss down.



Well, before the change to the Act III boss...I found the act 4 boss to be much easier...but now I'll have to re-evaluate the rankings.

Well the Act 4 boss was indeed miles easier since I did it in one try and lost only one hero. The first two phases are basically warm-up, and the last one hurts but doesn't have the number of attacks to force death's door checks often and DoTs really screw up its strategy. I had plague doc, grave robber, hellion and flagellant so yeah things went pretty well and I stacked like 20 blight and 10 bleed when it died. Kinda feels easier than the second boss even I daresay.

Heard final one is a doozy and real cool.

[Flame6]

I beat my head against the launch version of eye boss.
I one shot hand, but I had one character left who was on death's door. Very close, but still pretty good for going in blind. Eye boss is just evil!

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

Well the Act 4 boss was indeed miles easier since I did it in one try and lost only one hero. The first two phases are basically warm-up, and the last one hurts but doesn't have the number of attacks to force death's door checks often and DoTs really screw up its strategy. I had plague doc, grave robber, hellion and flagellant so yeah things went pretty well and I stacked like 20 blight and 10 bleed when it died. Kinda feels easier than the second boss even I daresay.

Yeah that matches up pretty close to my first fight against act iv boss. I do think it's easier than Act II mostly because i think the potential for things to spiral out of control in ACT II is much higher. Act IV boss feels more like a straightforward DPS check. But I havent done it much...so its possible I was just lucky or had the right teams with the right trinkets etc.

[Gomelus]

Yeah that matches up pretty close to my first fight against act iv boss. I do think it's easier than Act II mostly because i think the potential for things to spiral out of control in ACT II is much higher. Act IV boss feels more like a straightforward DPS check. But I havent done it much...so its possible I was just lucky or had the right teams with the right trinkets etc.

Act IV boss boils down to: how much bleed resist do you have and do you have a Sergeant MaA and/or The General's trophy? If you check those requirements, the boss is free. You could even make without the move resist as long as you have a decent dancing party. Otherwise I'll say the only mandatory thing is to stack bleed resist.

[Rustedsaint]

Act 4 boss was way easier than act 3 even after you take act 3 nerf into account.
Working on act5 almost had it down first try but I kinda screwed up on my trinkets if I just had put the 100% bonus hp/damage per missing hero on dis or dam I woulda had it down. Was finishing off helion storyline that round anyway.

[Gomelus]

Act 4 boss was way easier than act 3 even after you take act 3 nerf into account.
Working on act5 almost had it down first try but I kinda screwed up on my trinkets if I just had put the 100% bonus hp/damage per missing hero on dis or dam I woulda had it down. Was finishing off helion storyline that round anyway.

I love that trinket. I tried it last night just for memes, and my Hellion ended up with 200hp, hitting around 60 on average, and almost 200 with a howling end crit. It felt straight up evil.

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

I love that trinket. I tried it last night just for memes, and my Hellion ended up with 200hp, hitting around 60 on average, and almost 200 with a howling end crit. It felt straight up evil.

It's like the night before the big fight looking around at your party and thinking to yourself:

[Gomelus]

It's like the night before the big fight looking around at your party and thinking to yourself:

Unironically that's what happened, I was doing the achievement that you have to wipe on every confession boss, and I was only missing the act 5 one. I went in with the suicide squad, but I got this trinket in the last region, so I said "might as well".
It was such a rush to oneshot the fucking cherubs.

[Zenfoldor]

Reading over this thread again, this is just the type of game I end up loving and sounds like they did the sequel up right. Likely waiting on a console version, but do want to play this asap.

[morok48]

A tank + an off-tank.

Taunt makes the eyes ignore their position so that's valuable to get marks on them. Much easier than moving around tbh. Though I combo that with a movement since you usually only get two taunts by default.
The eyes will eventually skip phases and go to max size, which is around round 7.
Getting abilities that hit all ranks to remove dodges is crucial and pay attention to the turn order.
I suggest getting the supposed person to get marks at rank 3 so you have options with taking the first two with taunt and then move forward or backwards. But depends heavily on the turn order.

In the next phase have the real tank or a class with some mitigation use guard on the person that's marked. It nullifies all bonus damage. Since the ones taking dmg should have 0 marks.

If you are experiencing issues with Xbox Game Pass not working, please refer to the troubleshooting section on the Howly website for a solution.

I used flagellant and vestal, though a MAA would be better than vestal. Flagellant heals like a beast on his own and stress isn't an issue for him.

I imagine Leper as a marked tank would work as well.

I have no idea why the few guides I have seen doesn't mention guard, instead it's about getting the main tank all marks, which you should, but not even them can tank it and guarding makes the boss throw peas at you and if the marked gets hit massively one time guard gives time to stabilize.

Vestals healing overtime is good as well since it gets them off deaths door on turn start.

Guard is your friend.
Haven't tried but maybe you can even use guard to grab a mark now that I think about it.

I agree with everything they mentioned, especially the parts about using a tank and off-tank, taunting to manipulate the marks, and using guard to protect marked allies. The point about using abilities that can hit all ranks to remove dodges is very important too.

In addition to what's been said, I've also found that focusing on stress management can make a huge difference in this fight. The Plague Doctor, who you mentioned, can be very effective at this with her Battlefield Medicine ability. Not only can it cure blight and bleed, it can also remove a death's door debuff from an ally, which can be a lifesaver in this fight.

I also suggest experimenting with different trinket combinations. Some trinkets can increase your heroes' dodge, protect, or max HP stats, which can greatly enhance their survivability. The Eye enemies have quite high accuracy, but every dodge chance can make a difference.

Lastly, remember to keep an eye on the boss's attack patterns. Some of its attacks are more predictable than others, and knowing what to expect can help you plan your moves more effectively.