[Kickstarter] Darkest Dungeon

[LordMortis]

The "Rebalance" make the game much more difficult (at least early). That seems to be opposite of most.

I tried going to the farmstead early in radiant mode. Yeah, don't do that.

[Sepiche]

The "Rebalance" make the game much more difficult (at least early). That seems to be opposite of most.

I tried going to the farmstead early in radiant mode. Yeah, don't do that.

I'm not finding the early game noticeably more difficult. Slightly more misses all around, slightly more crits all around, but the extension of the buff time and the addition of crit buffs was a nice boost to the heroes. Looking forward to the later game where they supposedly nerfed champion level enemies a bit. I always thought the jump in difficulty in the later game was a little much.

My first run at the farm didn't end well either though. I got fairly unlucky with my first few hero that arrived. Only just got a second healer 5 weeks in.

[NickAragua]

Who am I kidding, I blew my bedtime playing this.

Lots of fun. Nobody died yet, although one of my priestess characters (the healer with the mace) took enough crossbow quarrels from skeletons that she went to "near death" status. Half my guys will now suffer increased stress from some place called "the weald", one of my guys can only relieve stress by praying, while another will not pray under any circumstances. Then, there's some "caretaker" asshole who keeps taking up spots in the stress relief structures in town.

Questions:

It seems like you can only have four active combat abilities when going into a dungeon, even if you've got more trained. Is that correct, or am I missing something?

Also, what's "camping", and how do I do it? [in-game, obviously]

[LordMortis]

I'm not finding the early game noticeably more difficult. Slightly more misses all around, slightly more crits all around, but the extension of the buff time and the addition of crit buffs was a nice boost to the heroes. Looking forward to the later game where they supposedly nerfed champion level enemies a bit. I always thought the jump in difficulty in the later game was a little much.

My first run at the farm didn't end well either though. I got fairly unlucky with my first few hero that arrived. Only just got a second healer 5 weeks in.

I'm finding sanity losses to be unforgiving early game.
When I went to the farm it was on week 4 I think because none of my 8 level ones nursing sanity losses, three of which were had vices (or whatever they're called) to recuperate from had the choice of 4 medium length runes quests, the first courtyard, or the farmstead.

One of my adventurers was an Antiquarian with no attack skills, my healer was I want to say the plague doctor, healing one point per and my two fighters I want to say were both shieldbearers(?). I had no idea what the farmstead was. I got 8 kills before my first guy died and the other three were all viced out and then I said fuck it and collapsed quickly thereafter.

I'm having fun though. Not doing well but having fun. I may need to change my approach an upgrade the stagecoach immediately to have more than two recruits a week and accept while also reserving more money for hero R&R.

[LordMortis]

Lots of fun. Nobody died yet, although one of my priestess characters (the healer with the mace) took enough crossbow quarrels from skeletons that she went to "near death" status. Half my guys will now suffer increased stress from some place called "the weald", one of my guys can only relieve stress by praying, while another will not pray under any circumstances. Then, there's some "caretaker" asshole who keeps taking up spots in the stress relief structures in town.

And this is the game!!!

It seems like you can only have four active combat abilities when going into a dungeon, even if you've got more trained. Is that correct, or am I missing something?

Correct

Also, what's "camping", and how do I do it? [in-game, obviously]

Anything other than a short trip will come with firewood in your inventory. I think medium is one firewood and long is two firewood. You can choose anywhere in a medium or long quest to use one of your firewood, consume some food and then use something like 12 camping points. These are primarily used heal and regain sanity but they can also do buffs find items and an assortment of other things. You can tell your skills and how much they cost my looking at the skills below your combat abilities.

Naturally medium quests have better rewards at the end than do short ones and they give you an opportunity to hoard a lot more wealth in a single week than you afforded with short ones.

[Sepiche]

I'm having fun though. Not doing well but having fun. I may need to change my approach an upgrade the stagecoach immediately to have more than two recruits a week and accept while also reserving more money for hero R&R.

Yeah, you might be right about the stress being a little more difficult. I did lose a jester to a heart attack, but that was mostly because when I ran the farm mission, for some reason time didn't advance when I left the mission, so most of my characters were still getting rid of their stress, and there were no new heroes, so I had to send an already stressed out team in to do a mission.

[ColdSteel]

I bought this at release after really looking forward to the game but bounced off of it pretty hard, initially. It was just such a grind and didn't seem all that balanced or fun. With the new expansion and the big accompanying update, I finally decided to give it another go. I also bought the Crimson Court expansion since it was on sale in order to get the Flagellant and the Districts. I turned off the dungeon part of the expansion for now since I don't want to deal with the Crimson Curse and the big changes to mob composition throughout the other dungeons that it brings.

So far I'm liking it MUCH better this time around. I'm on week 12 and have upgraded my stage coach to 5 recruits per week and I have a stable of 25 heroes now, none of which is higher than level 2. I've got about 30,000 gold and I'm taking my time and leveling a lot of heroes instead of just a core set, which was a mistake I make the first time I played it. I still haven't killed the Necromancer in the Ruins yet.

The Flagellant is just insanely good. Well worth the expansion just for him. I'd like to get the bank as my first District building but it requires 55 Portraits and they are hard to come by. I just got though with a run with an Antiquarian in my party hoping I'd get more portraits but she just boosts other types of loot, it appears. She did bring in 10,000 gold on a short run though with a Man at Arms, Hellion and Jester. I was THAT close to a complete party wipe on the last battle but pulled it out thanks to her guard on the MAA and his riposte. She had to repeatedly pull him off of deaths door with her paltry heal. I definitely need to remember to bring more healing next time I use an Antiquarian.

[NickAragua]

Heh, how many freaking classes are there anyway? I've got 17 slots, and I only have maybe two or three doubles.

[Paingod]

Heh, how many freaking classes are there anyway? I've got 17 slots, and I only have maybe two or three doubles.

I'm seeing 15 in total on a Wiki. I really need to get back into this one. I haven't played in ages, and just bought all the new content on sale.

[LordMortis]

Heh, how many freaking classes are there anyway? I've got 17 slots, and I only have maybe two or three doubles.

I'm seeing 15 in total on a Wiki. I really need to get back into this one. I haven't played in ages, and just bought all the new content on sale.

Quite a few. My memory is that when you fully upgraded the statecoach you could have two of all of the characters and 3 of 2 or 4 of them. That was before I had access to the Musketeer and I haven't learned if the Musketeer is re-skin of an existing character or not yet.

I still keep getting hammered in the opening phases of the game even on radiant when I play. It might just be that I need to re-evaluate how aggressive I am in dim lights and such. It had been a while since I played and i was pretty deep in to the game before I reset.

[NickAragua]

I still keep getting hammered in the opening phases of the game even on radiant when I play. It might just be that I need to re-evaluate how aggressive I am in dim lights and such. It had been a while since I played and i was pretty deep in to the game before I reset.

So far, I make it a rule of thumb to bring 8 torches for a short run and 16 for a medium. If I'm heading into the unknown, the light level goes back above 75 as soon as it drops below 75. On places where I've scouted, I tend to hold the torches.

It seems to me like doing any run over medium in length is a waste. Even on mediums, I don't have the backpack space to carry out all the loot. There's a "district" upgrade that ups the stacking limit for gems and such, but it costs a bunch of "crystal", and the only way I can see to get crystal is to do this endless battle farm mode. Only time I tried so far, I got one of my guys killed and decided that was enough.

Also, confession time, I play with the "curio" page on the darkest dungeon wikia open in the browser, and look up the curio any time I run into one. I just don't have the desire to experiment with and memorize the best items to use on each random doodad you encounter in the dungeons.

Last night I took out the Siren, on a second attempt. First time, she sent me packing after killing one of my dudes. Revenge is sweet!

[Sepiche]

Also, confession time, I play with the "curio" page on the darkest dungeon wikia open in the browser, and look up the curio any time I run into one. I just don't have the desire to experiment with and memorize the best items to use on each random doodad you encounter in the dungeons.

FYI, as of the last update, the game keeps track of what items you've tried on a curio, and which ones worked. When the curio window is open, and it's asking what you want to do, look for the little symbols that appear below each item. IIRC it has question marks under the one's you haven't tried, and little coins under ones that worked.

[Paingod]

FYI, as of the last update, the game keeps track of what items you've tried on a curio, and which ones worked. When the curio window is open, and it's asking what you want to do, look for the little symbols that appear below each item. IIRC it has question marks under the one's you haven't tried, and little coins under ones that worked.

That will certainly make it more palatable to tinker with them without a cheat sheet. Not knowing and having to track it by hand was the reason I kept the Curio Wiki page open as well. I typically only do that sort of thing when a game makes a certain thing either a chore or really hazardous.

[LordMortis]

So far, I make it a rule of thumb to bring 8 torches for a short run and 16 for a medium. If I'm heading into the unknown, the light level goes back above 75 as soon as it drops below 75. On places where I've scouted, I tend to hold the torches.[/quot]

When you get better (or your characters get better) you will want the dimmer light, as equipment gets expensive and you get better rewards in lower light. I can't figure out if the game got harder or if I got worse at playing but I am likely to start bringing a full complement of torches early game. Keeping the cost of expeditions down begins to matter when you want to upgrade skills and equipment like mad.

It seems to me like doing any run over medium in length is a waste. Even on mediums, I don't have the backpack space to carry out all the loot. There's a "district" upgrade that ups the stacking limit for gems and such, but it costs a bunch of "crystal", and the only way I can see to get crystal is to do this endless battle farm mode. Only time I tried so far, I got one of my guys killed and decided that was enough.

I haven't seen that yet, so you yeah, that's got to be part of the new expansion. With regard to the backpack on medium, that's also a yeah. You get about 2/3rd of the way through and you start to debate which starting stuff to dump and if it's better to dump money or low reward gems that may or may not exceed gold you collect in one of those inventory spots.

Also, confession time, I play with the "curio" page on the darkest dungeon wikia open in the browser, and look up the curio any time I run into one. I just don't have the desire to experiment with and memorize the best items to use on each random doodad you encounter in the dungeons.

Ditto, I'm not a teenage who enjoys taking notes on games any more. That part of discovery is not for me, nor is finding undocumented hidden player characteristics in games. Is the antiquarian bonus, for example of DD hidden attributes, spelled out anywhere? How her very nature increases treasure finds and amounts you can hoard in your inventory?

FYI, as of the last update, the game keeps track of what items you've tried on a curio, and which ones worked.

I was ecstatic when I reinstalled the game a couple of weeks ago and this was the case.

[NickAragua]

Did not realize about the improved loot due to low torchlight. I wonder exactly how improved it is, though.

Plowed through the first farmstead level yesterday. It's pretty annoying how the corpses turn into explosives after a turn. Next time, I'm bringing an Occultist with the tentacle ability that wipes corpses out to clear them out a little faster.

Also made it through the first courtyard level. That one's annoying, and pretty much everyone who went there has Crimson Curse now. We fought the crocodile boss and emerged victorious after my Occultist pulled him out from the grass repeatedly using the tentacle ability. It's great, pull the jackass out of cover, then whack him with the Leper's two handed sword. Also works on other monsters that like to hide in the back of the formation and use annoying abilities.

I initially thought the Occultist wasn't that great (what, why would I want to make one of my guys bleed?), but he's got the biggest healing punch of anyone else.

I still don't quite understand how some of the stats work, e.g. "PROT". Seems like a percentage reduction to damage, but I could be wrong?

[LordMortis]

I still don't quite understand how some of the stats work, e.g. "PROT". Seems like a percentage reduction to damage, but I could be wrong?

I think you are right because dodge is a different skill and characters (and creatures) take different damage levels from the same hits. I think one of tool tips where the water area is, is to go high and bleed and blight to do more damage to characters with high protect.

The stress thing I am having a problem is with bigger than stress. I don't think I linger but last night 3 dungeon in hit the Collector and ran. 4th dungeon in I hit the Collector again. This time I had high light and surprised him. Only being a level 1 dungeon, with surprise I managed to stun him, bleed him, bleed him, blight him, bleed him, bleed him before he took his first action and took him down his 70 life before all hell broke loose. I think he got one strike and his minions got two before he went down. It really felt like a victory but I don't want to be facing the collector constantly, as I apparently I habitually linger too much for the new game settings.

And yet, I still dig this game.

[ColdSteel]

I don't think I linger but last night 3 dungeon in hit the Collector and ran. 4th dungeon in I hit the Collector again. This time I had high light and surprised him. Only being a level 1 dungeon, with surprise I managed to stun him, bleed him, bleed him, blight him, bleed him, bleed him before he took his first action and took him down his 70 life before all hell broke loose. I think he got one strike and his minions got two before he went down. It really felt like a victory but I don't want to be facing the collector constantly, as I apparently I habitually linger too much for the new game settings.

From what I've read, the Collector's appearance chances are based on how full your inventory is, not how long you're in the dungeon. It looks like you've just been unlucky.

The Collector is an Eldritch/Human miniboss who has a 3, 4, or 5% chance, depending on difficulty, to spawn if your inventory is over 65% full. It carries with it the Puzzling Trapezohedron, a gem worth 3500 gold, or one of three unique trinkets: Barristan's Head, Dismas's Head, or Junia's Head.

[LordMortis]

Weird. I almost never saw the Collector before and since the update new DLC it's been three times in a very small sample size. Crazy.

I've always played for packed inventory. Running my party is expensive. I never even buy trinkets but I'm always low on cash.

[LordMortis]

I'm up to about 17 characters. Two per week plus two from events minus one death = week 7, I think. And still the stress is hard core. I think I need to invest in stress relief.

At 18 characters, the only ones who can provide stress relief are two Crusaders and a Flagellant and for whatever reason when the Flagellent heals stress from someone else to cause stress to himself, he'd actually doing more stress to himself than he does when healing others.

And still no Antiquarian.

They have really changes the game. I'm bound and determined to get "a good" start but the game is much more true to the premise than it was before, or at least it is for my playing style. Once I found the rhythm of the game, I never had to learn to accept losses or cut losses and run.

So now it's hard not play a bit more compulsively, trying to find a better optimal playing style. I'm not second guessing not heavily utilizing the abbey and tavern and building on it early, so as to essentially rotate two groups of adventurers in hopes of leveling them to mentor levels for more efficient future cash grabs.

The game is getting its hooks in my again.

[ColdSteel]

At 18 characters, the only ones who can provide stress relief are two Crusaders and a Flagellant and for whatever reason when the Flagellent heals stress from someone else to cause stress to himself, he'd actually doing more stress to himself than he does when healing others.

If you can get a Jester, he's the king of stress relief. The Flagellant is good too. It's okay if he gets stressed. If he breaks under stress he gets a special affliction (Rapturous) that gives him +25% damage, +3 speed, and -20 dodge. That's the only affliction he can get. The -20 dodge is actually good because you want him with low hit points. Once you get him back to town just slap him in the sanitarium and let him self flagellate his stress away.

Edit: Also, it's key to get your stagecoach up to 4 recruits a week as soon as possible.

[LordMortis]

If you can get a Jester, he's the king of stress relief. The Flagellant is good too. It's okay if he gets stressed. If he breaks under stress he gets a special affliction (Rapturous) that gives him +25% damage, +3 speed, and -20 dodge. That's the only affliction he can get. The -20 dodge is actually good because you want him with low hit points. Once you get him back to town just slap him in the sanitarium and let him self flagellate his stress away.

Edit: Also, it's key to get your stagecoach up to 4 recruits a week as soon as possible.

I'm used to having three Jesters in my stable of heroes at different levels of advancement over time. For some reason, I'm not getting them.

I did not know the flagellant always becomes virtuous after stressing out. I may need to go read some guides. These non explicit attributes are something I don't care to either miss or eventually get an "ah ha" moment over.

I don't tend to upgrade my recruits per week as it feels like a waste or heirlooms. I just buy whatever two are available at the time to fill my roster and then make the stable of heroes more to my liking over many many weeks. Again, I may to re-align my playing style with the way I am grinding heroes now, quite in a manner unlike how I did before.

[Sepiche]

I feel like the crit changes do result in the occasional death that I might have dodged before, but I think I'm about 15 weeks in, and I've only lost 3 heroes so far. One was completely due to me being tired and mis-clicking, the other two were legit deaths, even if they could have been avoided if I were a little more cautious.

[NickAragua]

There was one hero I lost where I legitimately couldn't have done anything about it (other than better manage prior fights I guess). One of my dudes got the "hopeless" affliction. Then he got knocked down to "death's door". Then, when I go to heal him, he says "no, save it" or whatever, then gets whacked by a random fishman and dies. Hopeless indeed. At least you don't lose the casting characters turn if the target of a healing spell goes hopeless.

On the plus side, the guy had Blood Curse anyway, so it's just as well, he was eating up a little too much blood.

The other four guys I've lost, well, I don't really even remember any more.

Now that I've got dudes up to level 3, I see the problem with upgrading weapons and skills. That stuff is *expensive* even in middle tier.

And the jerkwads keep leveling up and refusing to go on lower-tier dungeon runs.

[ColdSteel]

I did not know the flagellant always becomes virtuous after stressing out.

No, he doesn't exactly become virtuous because he can also randomly do stupid bad stuff like attack his own party members. It's a split between good and bad stuff. A lot of folks think the good outweighs the bad though and don't mind it so much if their Flagellant goes Rapturous.

I'm used to having three Jesters in my stable of heroes at different levels of advancement over time. For some reason, I'm not getting them.

Well, at only 2 recruits a week, the odds of you getting one aren't the best.

[LordMortis]

For my own benefit form the wiki (and now outdated but probably still accurate)

While the Antiquarian is a liability in combat, she makes up for it with her ability to detect treasure. Having an Antiquarian in your party increases the amount of gold you can stack in each inventory slot, allowing you to carry more loot out of the dungeon. Furthermore, she can find Antiques when she is searching for loot or whenever a battle is won, which can be traded in for even more gold.

On top of these powerful skills, he also gains passive bonuses the closer he is to breaking. When afflicted from stress, the Flagellant becomes Rapturous, gaining a damage and crit boost at the cost of dodge. His attacks become more powerful when his health gets dangerously low, and reaching Death's Door only empowers him, and its normal penalties become buffs instead. But should he fall in battle, his martyrdom heals the entire party and stuns all enemies.

https://darkestdungeon.gamepedia.com/Rapturous

Do not want.

[ColdSteel]

The game still seems to be a major grind. I'm at week 14 now and still haven't accomplished all that much. I've opened up the boss missions for the Ruins and the Warrens. Should I send only level 2 characters on those or will level 1 characters do?

[LordMortis]

The game still seems to be a major grind. I'm at week 14 now and still haven't accomplished all that much. I've opened up the boss missions for the Ruins and the Warrens. Should I send only level 2 characters on those or will level 1 characters do?

I don't feel the grind. The leveling pace feels right to me in my slow games... Except last time where the courtyard made me feel rushed, even at week 88.

I don't have an answer for the bosses. My philosophy had always been to hit them with toughest characters I could.

[ColdSteel]

I ended up taking out the Necromancer's Apprentice with a party consisting of Vestal, Jester, Plague Doctor (all level 1) and a level 0 Leper. He went down easily thanks to the insane damage from the Leper. Revenge plus the 20% damage buff from the PD is no joke. The mission reward was the very rare Martyr's Seal which looks perfect for a Flagellant.

[ColdSteel]

And I took down the Swine Prince this evening with a party of Plague Doc, Jester, Occultist and Leper. This seems to be a pretty effective party. The Occultist has massive heals and the Plague Doc cures any bleeding caused by that. The Jester buffs everyone's speed and accuracy and heals stress as needed. The first Revenge hit by the Leper on the Swine Prince was a crit for 77 HP, which was more than half of what he had.

I came back from that run with no stress damage to any of them and full HP on all of them as well. Pretty nice.

[LordMortis]

Farmstead spoiler based on wiki misunderstanding

Spoiler:

Wiki said characters that die in farmstead don't really die but get lost in a void for a while. Well, that might be the case on the endless battle but is most definitely not the case against the miller. I would have cut bait once I realized how horrible my fight against was going if I had known. Lost all my best guys and their equipment in a test run. That hurts.

n the endless mode, death is temporary. If a character dies, they become lost in time and space, only to eventually reappear after a week or two - This is functionally identical to the way adventurers can go missing after participating in Stress Relief.

I only did the experiment because I had a week of all free supplies. Temptation got the best of me and not understanding the consequences properly did me in.

[Paingod]

I haven't played this since before it got the first DLC and grabbed it all on sale last week.

Last night I started up again and am now on something like Week 13. Playing on Medium difficulty (Darkest). No use for Blood yet, but I haven't touched the Crimson Court areas. I don't know if I need to 'trigger' blood issues, of if they'll just happen (don't tell me). I've got one level 3 character, a few level 2's, and a few level 1's. Only one death so far, a Healer, due to Blight. She was toxic and already on Death's Door and just couldn't heal herself before it killed her.

It's funny how sometimes enemies just all gang up on one person. Funny as in not funny at all.

I have been reminded of the awesome of the Jester. Stress management and great buffs, plus a little side-bleeding. Between him and a Flagellant, the Necromancer's Apprentice was bleeding out 25 points per turn before he died. Thanks to the Jester, stress isn't a huge deal unless we're fighting enemies that induce it. He's great at keeping everyone even-keel on a normal run.

I'm only a little annoyed that the Flagellant will only flagellate himself for stress relief, but I suppose it makes sense. The Caretaker knows this, though, and parked himself there for three weeks when I really needed that room for my own use.

Note to self: Always pack 4 or 5 shovels for a Weald mission. Ugh.

[NickAragua]

Yeah, this game is pretty great. I can fire it up for a half an hour, do a dungeon run, then send my guys to flagellate themselves (or whatever) and go do something else. One of my guys has been banned from the brothel for "making... strange... requests".

I also got a pretty awesome event where the hospital (sanitarium?) was free for a week. Sent a bunch of guys in there to both get rid of obnoxious negative quirks and make permanent some really good positive quirks. Pro tip: you can do both at the same time on a single guy. Still costs money, but is a good time saver.

I've stuck to mostly "one of each" class because I like the variety, but I've been having to hire on multiples of Vestals and Occultists, because those are the only healer classes, and on longer dungeon runs, there's only so much food you can stuff into your dudes to heal up those multiple stab wounds before they say "I'm full". Speaking of Occultists, I wonder if there's a trinket that reduces bleed skill chance for the user? That'd be pretty useful.

Also, I've grown to dislike camping. Sure it's a chance to heal up and reduce stress, but then you get ambushed half the time unless you waste almost half the camp time on some ability that prevents nighttime ambushes. And those dumb camping supplies take up an inventory slot, too.

[Paingod]

My camping gear is the last thing I'd toss out. It's not a bad heal to use before a boss, and consuming it opens the slot for whatever the boss drops. I agree with the annoying ambushes. That was new to me, and I wasn't amused.

I also had the Sanitarium event, but not enough upgrades to really take advantage of it. I hope it comes around again.

Side note: I thought traits were permanent unless removed in the Sanitarium. I'll have to dig into this one. I've got a couple characters with awesome Positives that I'd like to keep.

[NickAragua]

Yeah, I wouldn't necessarily *toss* the camping gear, but it makes medium+ length dungeon runs less lucrative.

Side note: I thought traits were permanent unless removed in the Sanitarium. I'll have to dig into this one. I've got a couple characters with awesome Positives that I'd like to keep.

They are, sometimes. Normally, a quirk can be displaced by a different quirk through the various random processes. However, the ones with a little graphical symbol next to them cannot be displaced randomly, they can only be removed in the sanitarium (and it's damn expensive, too).

[LordMortis]

It's funny how sometimes enemies just all gang up on one person. Funny as in not funny at all.

Two spiders and two slugs managed outspeed me and kill my cherry 1st level Jester accompanied by a level 4 and two level 3s all capable of healing before I took a turn. This was on a run timed to to kill a level 1 boss timed to get the very rare class boost piece of equipment and I got lucky and triggered a town event to make the run favorable. Two spiders and a slug put him death's door and the second slug killed him and I had to bail from the dungeon in shame.


I was like wahappened?

Also, I've grown to dislike camping. Sure it's a chance to heal up and reduce stress, but then you get ambushed half the time unless you waste almost half the camp time on some ability that prevents nighttime ambushes. And those dumb camping supplies take up an inventory slot, too.

Spoiler:

I rarely get ambushed except for the shieldbearer storyline and that I hate. You get all healed and bam, you're screwed. You're not just ambushed but ambushed by overwhelming forces. I never take the shieldbearer on important runs. Though if the notes are correct there should only be ambushes before the story is finished, whatever it may be.

I also seem to have a houndmaster or highwayman a lot and I like to use their surprise spoiler buff which prevents ambush as well. Preventing the ambush is after thought. I hate being surprised. I rarely plan for my part to get discombobulated and when it happens, it can be disastrous.

My camping gear is the last thing I'd toss out. It's not a bad heal to use before a boss, and consuming it opens the slot for whatever the boss drops. I agree with the annoying ambushes. That was new to me, and I wasn't amused.

I try to camp early or late. I will often camp early if I am running something that requires me to place three of something or when I see curio that will buff me until I camp. I camp and then hit curio so I can be buffed for the rest of the dungeon.

I try to camp late when I am going to hit a boss and want to make sure he's one of the last four monsters, so I can stack buffs.

[Paingod]

So we're in the Cove and doing pretty good. I was doing a milk run with a Flagellant, Antiquarian, Jester, and Occultist. In that order. A good Bleed team, but weak with the Antiquarian in there. She just can't fight. So I'm just trying to bulk up the coffers a little. This was short run, and I kept the Torches burning strong until we were maybe 2/3 through the map and still in really good shape. So I snuffed them. The rest of the run stuffed my pockets with loot to near-brimming. The Antiquarian brought in an extra 10,000 gold just for being there (doubling my gold piles, 10 x $500 relics, 2 x $1,250 relics). Feeling really good.

One empty room and one hallway encounter left. Everyone's still in good spirits, with an average of like 15-20 stress. I figure one more encounter can't hurt.

What do we bump into? The Shambler. The game has been putting his Curios in my way for some time, almost once every other map it seems. I've been steadfastly avoiding them. So now that I'm running an Apprentice mission, and I've got a 1% chance for this to happen, there he is.

Since I started one fighter down - the Antiquarian hardly counts - I had to rely heavily on Bleed damage. I ignored the Tentacles and just worked for all I was worth at chiseling down the 77 health it started with. Three times someone fell to Death's Door, and three times I was able to recover them. The Flagellant was marvelous at low health in helping to keep the Occultist from being overwhelmed with healing. Bleed damage ensured we had some kind of damage going on every turn. My Antiquarian proved somewhat useful by repeatedly forcing the Flagellant to Guard her, buffing his Protect and blocking her from damage.

In the end, we prevailed and walked off with a Ancestor's Map for it (+25% Trap Disarm, +25% Scouting Chance, +10% Stress Damage). We crawled out of that dungeon with everyone at 80-140 stress - but still alive.

[LordMortis]

So we're in the Cove and doing pretty good. I was doing a milk run with a Flagellant, Antiquarian, Jester, and Occultist. In that order. A good Bleed team, but weak with the Antiquarian in there. She just can't fight. So I'm just trying to bulk up the coffers a little. This was short run, and I kept the Torches burning strong until we were maybe 2/3 through the map and still in really good shape. So I snuffed them. The rest of the run stuffed my pockets with loot to near-brimming. The Antiquarian brought in an extra 10,000 gold just for being there (doubling my gold piles, 10 x $500 relics, 2 x $1,250 relics). Feeling really good.

One empty room and one hallway encounter left. Everyone's still in good spirits, with an average of like 15-20 stress. I figure one more encounter can't hurt.

What do we bump into? The Shambler. The game has been putting his Curios in my way for some time, almost once every other map it seems. I've been steadfastly avoiding them. So now that I'm running an Apprentice mission, and I've got a 1% chance for this to happen, there he is.

Since I started one fighter down - the Antiquarian hardly counts - I had to rely heavily on Bleed damage. I ignored the Tentacles and just worked for all I was worth at chiseling down the 77 health it started with. Three times someone fell to Death's Door, and three times I was able to recover them. The Flagellant was marvelous at low health in helping to keep the Occultist from being overwhelmed with healing. Bleed damage ensured we had some kind of damage going on every turn. My Antiquarian proved somewhat useful by repeatedly forcing the Flagellant to Guard her, buffing his Protect and blocking her from damage.

In the end, we prevailed and walked off with a Ancestor's Map for it (+25% Trap Disarm, +25% Scouting Chance, +10% Stress Damage). We crawled out of that dungeon with everyone at 80-140 stress - but still alive.

Short of the Antiquarian, if your Flagellant can bleed in back that's a great Shambler crew. And the antiquarian can still blight, at least... The problem with the shambler (and collector) is stumbling in to them when your squeaking out the end of dungeon and your trying to lick wounds as you go or hitting them before a boss.

I just learned today that the buffs stack, so the Antiquarian can be quite nice in that regard. Guard me. Guard me! GUARD ME!!!! works great with riposting man at arms or highway man.

[Paingod]

Short of the Antiquarian, if your Flagellant can bleed in back that's a great Shambler crew.

Yeah. The Jester can hit the middle two, and I gave the Flagellant the ability to bleed the back two. Both could hit the Shambler, and just about any other boss. They were stacking Bleed on the Shambler as often as I could, but it kept wearing off and I got a little worried near the end.

I do stack my buffs - and debuffs as much as I can. It does help. It's just not a huge effect when the Antiquarian is doing it.

[NickAragua]

I honestly wish I hadn't started that crimson curse area. I killed the Baron a while back, figuring I could just wrap up the next area pretty quick. Nope, need another "invitation". How do I get an "invitation"? By doing more courtyard stuff, of course. I don't want to take in guys who aren't cursed, but it takes time to de-stress them.

Meanwhile, killing the Baron let all the goddamn mosquitoes out, so they're running around the other areas infecting my guys with blood curse. Goddammit!

[Paingod]

Meanwhile, killing the Baron let all the goddamn mosquitoes out, so they're running around the other areas infecting my guys with blood curse. Goddammit!

Sounds like my plan of "No way, nope" on the Crimson Court is working. I've avoided it, am on Week 22 or so, and doing really well.

I have two dead rat trinkets - "Prevent death by Crimson Curse" - and a case of blood in storage.

I'm also staring at an "opportunity" to kill a Miller. Having looked that up, I'm not at all tempted to get slaughtered by him just yet.