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[Disgraced]

It's a legit strategy.

I use it.

Keep some cannon fodder spaces open on your roster and switch up your playstyle as needed.

---

Has anyone here given any bonus skin mods a shot? In trying to remedy my gripe with the existing alternates lo and behold good folks out there have delivered:

DD - Color Variants

This set of Variants are color variants for an assortment of classes. They do not replace/overwrite anything and can be be copy/pasted directly into the class folders of each class. Be sure to make sure that your color folders are lettered appropriately (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, ETC)

Samples (Warning - Large Images):

Spoiler

If anyone is interested, I'm going to try these out and report any issues I have, technical and critical alike.

 

[DeadPhoenix]

The one thing I've noticed is that stress treatment is really not worth it. At least in the early levels it's not when your heroes are not leveled or upgraded. My first attempt at the game I got about eight weeks before going broke trying to keep everyone treated after runs. I tried dark runs but found them more of a waste of time than taking rookies and forcing them to finish apprentice level quests then dismissing them if they return with a bar full of stress.

I've noticed that heroes seem to recover a marginal amount of stress in town if they aren't in treatment. So I try and carry four less than important heroes through dungeons for loot while letting my core group recuperate from their trips. And hey, if they live up to level three I might actually start caring about those expendables.

I've noticed that it feels like you gain less money from the short mission then you used to, but I've found just doing 1 medium will have me set cash wise for a few short mission. This only gets better as you upgrade and healing stress becomes cheaper and more effective. My last run actually ending with only one guy stressed(the occultist, because of course they aim for the healer), despite 2 guys ending up on deaths door before the end(1 of them early on, neither of whom was the healer).

To me the hire and dump strat just feels lame. I'd rather not waste perfectly good xp and i'll likely end up with more cash in the end anyways...although luck is admittedly a huge factor in this(assuming i'm doing short runs. medium+ runs are fucking gold mines).

 

[Szadek]

Finished the game.
Getting enough party members for the Darkest Dungeon is way too tedious.
You need at the very least 16 level 6 party members for this dungeon alone.
The level are pretty damn good, but all the grinding beforehand really sucks the fun out of the game.

The final boss and ending are really good aswell and very fitting for a lovecraftian story.

 

[Uthred]

Trinkets can save your life moneywise.

But yeah, I pretty much agree. The idea of Trinkets are cool, but the negatives of each far outweight the passives they give.

Not really, in fact for any of the good trinkets, not at all. What the better trinkets do is let you specialise, they support a particular build very well, if youre using that build theyre a huge boost e.g. the buckle that increases Highwaymen's ranged skills while decreasing melee or the one that increases Vestals healing while decreasing damage. There are lots of great blue and orange trinkets, and some which are just flat out great e.g. the Sunlight (IIRC) sets that give massive bonuses when the torch is above 75 - which if youre doing light runs it should be more or less 100%of the time anyway.

 

[TheSadRanger]

My only lvl 6 Vestal just stepped out to get a pack of cigarettes

 

[KaYotiX]

Just bought it today, loving it already and nly 5-6 missions in

 

[DrArchon]

Beat the Sonorous Prophet. Double Abomination is totally legit, plus I finally got another restraining padlock for one of them so now I can use Abominations and not have to worry about everyone else going crazy.

Still have to deal with the Sodden Crew and the 8-Pounder though. They're gonna be a bitch.

 

[Vincent Alexander]

"Search 90% of rooms"---then they started me RIGHT in the middle of a dungeon, with half the rooms to my left and other half to my right. Fuuuuck you, game.

 

[JJD]

So at what lvl should I try to fight the Shambler? And any strategies?

I'm pretty much steamrolling everyone including collectors. Already killed all the first lvl bosses. I have 5 lvl 3 characters. I'm going to start the medium difficulty dungeons as soon as I get more characters at lvl 3.

This game is great, but it's too grindy for it's own good. More characters and skins for the available characters would be great! More enemy variety too!

Has anyone here given any bonus skin mods a shot? In trying to remedy my gripe with the existing alternates lo and behold good folks out there have delivered:

DD - Color VariantsSamples (Warning - Large Images):If anyone is interested, I'm going to try these out and report any issues I have, technical and critical alike.

Man this is great! Please report if you have any problems. I want to try those skins.

 

[Vincent Alexander]

There is nothing that makes me feel better in this game than that fuck yeah moment in a tense battle when my Hellion hits 100 stress and goes Stalwart. The baddies done fucked up.

 

[HP_Wuvcraft]

Not really, in fact for any of the good trinkets, not at all. What the better trinkets do is let you specialise, they support a particular build very well, if youre using that build theyre a huge boost e.g. the buckle that increases Highwaymen's ranged skills while decreasing melee or the one that increases Vestals healing while decreasing damage. There are lots of great blue and orange trinkets, and some which are just flat out great e.g. the Sunlight (IIRC) sets that give massive bonuses when the torch is above 75 - which if youre doing light runs it should be more or less 100%of the time anyway.

I got 70k off Trinkets.

 

[DeadPhoenix]

Man this is great! Please report if you have any problems. I want to try those skins.

I went ahead and downloaded it and just did a couple missions. I didn't see any bugs or anything. They do totally stick out despite attempts to make them fit into the games style, which kill it for some people.

 

[HP_Wuvcraft]

I went ahead and downloaded it and just did a couple missions. I didn't see any bugs or anything. They do totally stick out despite attempts to make them fit into the games style, which kill it for some people.

Sounds like it's way too early for me to be adding it then.

 

[Landford]

Feels like I have hit a brick wall. Have 5 chars with resolve level 3, but they cant last half a veteran dungeon (I lost one of them in a single fight when 3 of the enemies hit with criticals in a single turn). The only way out I can see is to grind a lot using the new recruits as cannon fodder.

 

[Falk]

Level 3 and Level 5 are significant speedbumps until your manor is robust enough that you can kit out your team with lv3 and 5 equipment/abilities. Those confer far greater numbers than the actual hero levels.

 

[Disgraced]

Man this is great! Please report if you have any problems. I want to try those skins.

I have played with them for a couple hours now, and no bugs so far. However, the mod's Plague Doctor file is incorrectly named "Plague Doctor" when it should be "plague_doctor," so you'll have fix that when you paste it into the game files if you want the PD alt, unless it was just mine spelled that way for some reason.

I went ahead and downloaded it and just did a couple missions. I didn't see any bugs or anything. They do totally stick out despite attempts to make them fit into the games style, which kill it for some people.

All things considered, I disagree, they blend in pretty damn good...

...idle. In motion they definitely stick out. All my screenshots ended up being my desktop, I will try to take some using something else later, but it's mainly the faces that give it away—going from standing to walking is particularly bad, and some attacks are iffy.

If you're really itching for more diversity amongst the classes I absolutely recommend this. If you think a little jank will spoil the game's gorgeous aesthetic, maybe try it, or maybe wait for updates or alternatives. If you don't care about cosmetics and you're playing this for the math, obviously not.

 

[Falk]

If you're really itching for more diversity amongst the classes I absolutely recommend this. If you think a little jank will spoil the game's gorgeous aesthetic, maybe try it, or maybe wait for updates or alternatives. If you don't care about cosmetics and you're playing this for the math, obviously not.

I would play this game in ascii art if it meant no loading nor animation times.

Spoiler

¯\_(&#12484_/¯

 

[DeadPhoenix]

I have played with them for a couple hours now, and no bugs so far. However, the mod's Plague Doctor file is incorrectly named "Plague Doctor" when it should be "plague_doctor," so you'll have fix that when you paste it into the game files if you want the PD alt, unless it was just mine spelled that way for some reason.All things considered, I disagree, they blend in pretty damn good...

For me almost half of the folders had the wrong name. every class with a space in their name and the arbalest iirc.

 

[Disgraced]

For me almost half of the folders had the wrong name. every class with a space in their name and the arbalest iirc.

Weird. Definitely check your folder names if you use it, people.

 

[Uthred]

I got 70k off Trinkets.

And? Thats entirely tangential to the point I was making i.e. that trinkets used correctly are mechanically potent and certainly outweigh their downsides. I never said you couldnt sell them.

 

[bobnowhere]

Had a fun Wisened Hag run.

First screwup was I forgot to bring shovels and of course I immediately ran into two blockages quickly so massive stress. Luckily it was pretty obvious the Hag was in one of two rooms so I made a beeline for the junction in between to camp. No stress relief camp skills in my party only stress reduction for a time! Choose the wrong room first and ran into the Collector. Beat him down pretty easily, no head only a 2.5k gem.

Finally found her, BH first in the pot, thought I'd have time to beat her while he was cooking, nope constant misses and dodges and by the time I got round to breaking the pot, he was at death's door and full stress. Luckily he went powerful and finished the Hag the next round with a massive crit!

 

[TheSadRanger]

Champion Hag Witch was rough, managed to get her down but lost a lvl 5 hellion after focusing on the hag and after the hellion popped out of the pot the hag immediately used tenderizer to deathblow her.

I actually had two chars at deaths door that fight, the witch kept using 'taste the stew' which healed her each time.

Also got the Swine God down which was surprisingly the easiest of the first four champion bosses' I've downed. I brought along an arbalest to use flare in a chance to clear the marks that Wilbur puts on your group. If you have the speed on your arbalest set right it works really well, 2-3 times Wilbur set his marks only for them to be cleared and the god flails wildly which missed all three times.

There was two times though that he did get them off and my arbalest had his turn before Wilbur's 2nd. This is a bad thing since Wilbur usually gets two actions per turn, the first is usually a stun and the 2nd is a mark.

Either way I still got him down with zero deaths and zero deaths door but I thought my input might help some ppl. For the Swine God fight I used a hellion at (1) Leper (2) Vestal (3) and Arbalest (4). I had a 48 dmg crit from my archer that helped a crap ton though.

 

[Klyka]

I just used an arbalest, houndmaster, occultist, bounty hunter group.

everyone can mark. everyone does HUGE damage to marked. the occultist and arbalest have a heal.

i minced everything.

only stress was a bit of a problem cause they didn't really have good stress management.

 

[Kaffeemann]

Wow, what's up with the reviews on the steam page.
Play the game for 100 hours -> don't recommend it?

 

[Neoweee]

Wow, what's up with the reviews on the steam page.
Play the game for 100 hours -> don't recommend it?

They are in the camps that think it was a long Early Access that either never really panned out, or in some opinions got worse.

It's also a really easy game to leave idling at the town screen, so everybody's time is inflated at least a bit.

 

[Lanrutcon]

Wow, what's up with the reviews on the steam page.
Play the game for 100 hours -> don't recommend it?

Get the impression people aren't liking the grind, especially at the end of the game.

 

[Neoweee]

Get the impression people aren't liking the grind, especially at the end of the game.

There's overall a lot of problems with how the game progresses and sustains itself, beyond the grind near the end. I wouldn't even call it a grind, as there are a lot of traps along the way that aren't that easy to grind out of.

 

[Truant]

Played this during Early Access a year ago, lots of potential.

I can't really tell what's different or new now. This probably isn't for me, it's just not fun.

Shame, becuase the art design, setting, and overall Lovecraftian themes are amazing.

 

[Falk]

My biggest issue wasn't so much with the grind, because in the end, I'm going into dungeons repeatedly because I find it somewhat interesting (journey rather than destination, etc etc) but more with the difficulty curve. It doesn't help that the three tiers have essentially the same 6 8 bosses three times, and the minimal AI/ability changes don't really shake things up enough. It feels like the numbers get bigger, and it gets slightly harder, but it's the same thing.

 

[BeesEight]

My biggest issue wasn't so much with the grind, because in the end, I'm going into dungeons repeatedly because I find it somewhat interesting (journey rather than destination, etc etc) but more with the difficulty curve. It doesn't help that the three tiers have essentially the same 6 8 bosses three times, and the minimal AI/ability changes don't really shake things up enough. It feels like the numbers get bigger, and it gets slightly harder, but it's the same thing.

Yeah, that's my biggest disappointment so far. When I first saw the boss list it looked crazy but then to discover it's mostly repeats makes me wish they just didn't have that many bosses in the first place. Can you beat the game without killing all of them?

 

[Neoweee]

Is the final dungeon at least rather interesting?

 

[Falk]

Is the final dungeon at least rather interesting?

Oh yeah, I feel the payoff is worth it.

 

[Admiral Snackbar]

Just had my first "No one dies, everyone's OK!" run through the first dungeon. I've been peeking in throughout EA and only now giving it a real shot.

So many dead Highwaymen. I love the Houndmaster, though.

 

[Fantastapotamus]

Had to pull out on a Long Quest, one room before it ended. All my guys were insane and bleeding, and I had no bandages left. Brutal. Encountered the fucking Collector after the first room. It wasn't a great run.

 

[K.Jack]

Holy shit this game is addictive. Been playing for an hour and can't stop.

Can someone help me understand why my Highwaymen is no longer using his pistol? Suddenly my only attack option is Open Vein.

 

[nailbombxx]

Can't wait to play this game when it comes out on PS4.

 

[Admiral Snackbar]

Holy shit this game is addictive. Been playing for an hour and can't stop.

Can someone help me understand why my Highwaymen is no longer using his pistol? Suddenly my only attack option is Open Vein.

Probably positioning? The party order really matters.

When you hover over one of his pistol skills, it'll show Red Pips for where he can strike in the enemy's order and Yellow Pips for where he can strike from YOUR order.

He needs to be in one of the Yellow Pip positions to use the skill.

 

[Professor Lich]

Holy shit this game is addictive. Been playing for an hour and can't stop.

Can someone help me understand why my Highwaymen is no longer using his pistol? Suddenly my only attack option is Open Vein.

Attacks and abilities are always based on the location of the character and a possible target. Pistol Shot can only hit enemies / targets in spots 2 - 3 - 4 but can't hit someone in spot 1. As well, you can't use Pistol Shot if your Highwayman is in spot 1 on your side.

Edit: Here's a quick and dirty infographic.

 

[Hoo-doo]

Arbalests coupled with Occultists have been working out very good for me just now.
Fucking 30+ damage power crits with sniper shot on bosses who are marked for vulnerability. Add a houndmaster in the party for even more marked damage and that's some fierce damage output.

Also, just discovered Retribution on my Man-At-Arms. Dude gets hit for 1 and ripostes for 9 damage. I love this guy.

 

[Professor Lich]

Also, just discovered Retribution on my Man-At-Arms. Dude gets hit for 1 and ripostes for 9 damage. I love this guy.

Yeah, I love Man-At-Arms too. Just another tip, Retribution lasts for two turns, so you can 'cast' it one turn, then use his Guard Ability on another party member the next. Until he attacks again, whenever he or that other party member gets attacked, he'll strike back.

 

[K.Jack]

Probably positioning? The party order really matters.

When you hover over one of his pistol skills, it'll show Red Pips for where he can strike in the enemy's order and Yellow Pips for where he can strike from YOUR order.

He needs to be in one of the Yellow Pip positions to use the skill.

Attacks and abilities are always based on the location of the character and a possible target. Pistol Shot can only hit enemies / targets in spots 2 - 3 - 4 but can't hit someone in spot 1. As well, you can't use Pistol Shot if your Highwayman is in spot 1 on your side.

Edit: Here's a quick and dirty infographic.

Ah ok, thanks for the tips. I thought he could shoot from the 4th position.

 

[Fantastapotamus]

Ah ok, thanks for the tips. I thought he could shoot from the 4th position.

He should be able to shoot from the 4th position though

 

[Poodlestrike]

Ah ok, thanks for the tips. I thought he could shoot from the 4th position.

4th position is at the back.

 

[K.Jack]

Yeah and that was my issue, he only had Open Vein available from the back row and 3rd position.

But in the next dungeon he could shoot from the back, so I dunno.

 

[Vincent Alexander]

Had to pull out on a Long Quest, one room before it ended. All my guys were insane and bleeding, and I had no bandages left. Brutal. Encountered the fucking Collector after the first room. It wasn't a great run.

Damn, that sucks. I just had one like that and I took a huge gamble with 3 members left to do the final room. I ended up winning with my 3 just about wiped.

I'm loving this game. Way too stressful for me to play for long periods of time though. I feel like every single dungeon I make it out of should have the credits rolling and someone throwing me a ticker tape parade.

 

[kionedrik]

Do the Shamblers scale with the level of the dungeon?

 

[Szadek]

Do the Shamblers scale with the level of the dungeon?

Of course, fighting a champion level mini boss with a Apprentice Level party would make for a very short fight, wouldn't it?

 

[mjc]

I just lost an entire party of lvl 3/4 dudes fighting the second form of the Swine King. Totally realized how screwed I was when I loaded in without a healer. (I did manage to kill him though!)

 

[Gothos]

I just lost an entire party of lvl 3/4 dudes fighting the second form of the Swine King. Totally realized how screwed I was when I loaded in without a healer. (I did manage to kill him though!)

That fight was brutal for me too (that fucking smash aoe, lol) and I had all lvl4 characters. I think I made 4 or 5 attempts before I finally killed him but still it was veeeery close and I lost 3 people on the succesful attempt. It's understanding though, since for 4 rounds my whole party was on death door, hahaha.

I wish I had that very rare trinket that gives insane buffs on death's door - it would be perfect for boss fights.

Btw, is there any reliable way to farm Shambler/Collector?

 

[Szadek]

Btw, is there any reliable way to farm Shambler/Collector?

For the Collector your inventory has to be almost full or full.
You can randomly encounter the Shambler while exploring in pure darkness.