Darkest Dungeon 2: Early game - first steps Darkest Dungeon 2 guide, tips

On this page of the guide to Darkest Dungeon 2, you will learn how to start your adventure with the game: how to choose a Confession, how to navigate the map, how to use the Inn or how to fight. Further, you will find some tips that can help you with your first Expeditions .

Darkest Dungeon 2 always starts the same (also when you start a new Expedition): with a fixed group of 4 unchanging heroes with the same skills. Over time, you'll be able to unlock new heroes and new skills to make the beginning easier. You can, however, complete the first stage of the game with the basic crew.

• Choosing the Confession
• The first stage - The Valley
• First fight
• Inn

Choosing the Confession

In the first step, you choose a Confession - otherwise a chapter. You will unlock more when you reach the Mountain and deal with the final boss. After selecting your Confession, sign below to venture out and proceed to the hero selection screen after traveling a few meters on the Stagecoach. By selecting the triangle next to the Confession , you will watch a short introductory animation.

The first stage - The Valley

You start by assigning positions to your companions from 1-4. Each hero has skills that can only be used in certain positions. In addition, the enemies also have their own skills - most of them target heroes in positions 3-4 - that is, the closest to their opponents.

In this window you can read about the character's characteristics and learn about their Habits: yellow and blue text. They are random and will be different with each new approach. Don't worry so much at first, as bad Habits can be cured.

Destroy all barricades and other objects along the way while driving the stagecoach, as you can occasionally find items that can be added to your inventory (more tips on the How to drive the stagecoach? page). First, you will encounter a chest with a radom set of items. Search them and see which items you can equip.

A bit further you will find another encounter: Assistance . During these events, you choose one of the options suggested by the characters with an exclamation mark. A yellow or blue border next to the other heroes visible after hovering the cursor over one of the options shows whether that hero's relationship will improve (yellow) or worsen (blue). At the bottom of the screen, you will see the benefits that this choice will give you (press Alt to see the description of the symbols). The first choice in an Expedition is always successful.

You will reach a barricade a moment later. The first fight starts here. Barricades always spawn on roads - they are marked in blue on the map. These fights cannot be avoided, but if you know that you won't win, you can try to wait them out - by increasing Block and Dodge of your teammates, you can end the fight with (possibly) minor damage after five rounds.

First fight

The first encounter usually involves two or three easy opponents. Before you attack, always check a few things:

1. What resistances does the enemy have - this determines what attack you should choose,

During your journey, you can change the heroes' positions by moving their icons.

1. Which turn do all the characters have - sometimes it's not worth attacking an enemy whose turn is right after the hero and who has full health; it's better to look for a target you can finish,
2. What Combat Items you can use.

Perform your first attacks once you've checked all these things. Pay attention to the Highwayman's Riposte, Man-at-Arms' Defender, and Battlefield Medicine of the Plague doctor; Grave Robber, on the other hand, has skills suitable for every occasion - he can attack enemies in any field on the right.

During the fight, pay attention to how the modifiers - the token - below the character change. Efeects appear above the health bar (DOT - damage over time), then the Stress bar below and effect token even lower. The screen above shows the Highwayman's Riposte token and the Dodge token (obtained from the Habit) from Plague Doctor. After hovering the cursor over each token, you will learn how many times you can use them (the dot below the token also helps, if there are more than 1 uses): i.e. the Plague Doctor can try to dodge twice during two attacks, and has a 50% chance for each attack to succeed (she will not take damage). The token will disappear even if the dodge is not successful .

1. Before making a move, always check whether you have some usable items that could help you at the moment.
2. Don't rush the healing process: if you can get rid of one of the enemies quickly, you won't lose health from hitting them.
3. Use debuffs: for example, Blinding two enemies instead of Blocking one has a better chance of reducing damage.
4. Try to activate the DOT status on enemies that use Block (e.g. Bleed) so that they can take damage despite the guard.
5. Use AoE attacks, even light ones, to destroy your opponents' Block and Dodge.
6. If an opponent with an active Riposte is Guarded by another, Riposte will not be activated (but of course the damage will go to Guard).
7. If the opponent has very little HP,you may try to finish them off with a DOT attack - if they don't die immediately, but rather stand at Death's Door, there is a chance that DOT will take them out during their turn.
8. To hit enemies who are far away, get rid of the closer ones first. Once you do so, you can destroy their tombstones. To make things easier, you can use a Combat Item: Pouch of Lye or a skill (like the one that Grave Robber has when you visit a Shrine to unlock new skills).

Inn

After a while you will finally get to the Inn. Look through all the tabs in the lower-left corner of the screen, one by one. These are:

1. Journal - a summary of the last Expedition,
2. Merchant ( Provisioner ) - a small shop where you can buy items for your next trip and those to use while resting at the Inn. Use the time at the Inn to regenerate and improve relationships (e.g. through Playing cards). Try to buy healing items for the Expedition, as well as Laudanum - it lowers Stress.

1. Mastery Trainer - this tab is where you upgrade the heroes' skills. You have now earned one Mastery point for which you can upgrade one skill of one hero. We recommend that you first use the Ounce of Prevention upgrade for the Plague Doctor - it will allow you to control the Stress level. When you use the skill (only in the Master version!), it will reduce the stress of all heroes by 1. In combination with Laudanum, it works wonders.
2. Stagecoach upgrades - here you can install stagecoach upgrades: increased capacity and item storage, scouting occasions and some other useful but rare modifications that you can find on the trail. You cannot modify the stagecoach during an Expedition!

1. Region panel - in the last panel you choose the region you want to go to. Each region has different enemies. They have inherent characteristics, especially in a group, that you need to learn in order to fight them effectively - for example, their DOT usage and resistance effects. This will allow you to choose the appropriate Trinkets and Combat Items. Effects present in the Region are marked in blue. Yellow color marks optional tasks, the completion of which will give you the rewards described below - they can include Mastery or Hope points, or a valuable item.

Click on the tab again to go back to the heroes screen. You will see an appropriate button at the bottom of the screen that will allow you to venture further. You need to select a region from the last tab beforehand, though.