Darkest Dungeon: Ruins Darkest Dungeon Guide

Last update: 20 April 2023

Ruins is the first location that the player gains access to. It's also the easiest of all of the places in the game - the enemies, aside from one inflicting stress, are relatively harmless, as they are primarily focused on dealing physical damage. Additionally, there are two bosses that await you here: the Necromancer, and the Prophet.

Team selection

When venturing to the ruins, you should choose:

• Crusader, or a pair of Crusaders - they deal increased damage to Unholy enemies, and all the foes you will stumble upon here are of that type.
• Hellion - her attacks, especially when she is standing in the front, allow her to reach every rank. Additionally, Hellion focuses on dealing brutal damage, and she is perfectly suited for this place as enemies here lack any protection.
• Vestal - Similarly to the Crusader, one of her abilities deal increased damage to Unholy enemies.
• Plague Doctor - enemies here have an insignificant (or outright non-existent) resistance to blight, making the Plague Doctor extremely effective against them. Additionally, thanks to her Battlefield Medicine, the only damage over time effect that they are able to inflict (bleeding) will be ineffective.
• Grave Digger - huge amount of speed allow this hero to take out the most dangerous threat, the Bone Courtier (who does a lot of stress damage), before the enemy can even move.
• Abomination - after the transformation he will be able to reach the 3rd rank of the enemy team, where the most dangerous enemies (such as the Bone Courtier) often stand.
• Occultist / Bounty Hunter - the ability to pull the enemy from the back rank right into the front will prevent them from using their stress abilities, making the encounter a lot easier.

Heroes that you should not take here:

• Hound Master - his damage revolves around bleeding, which the enemies in the Ruins are immune to.
• Jester - most of the encounters here end after 2, maybe 3 rounds, which makes the effects of his songs quite not worth the effort (and the amount of stress can be easily maintained, thanks to a lot of Curios reducing it). Additionally two of his attacks inflict bleeding, which the enemies are immune to.

Provisions

Type	Short mission	Medium mission	Long mission
Food	12	16-18	18-24
Torches	8-9	14-16	16-18
Skeleton Keys	1	2	3-4
Shovels	1-2	2	2-3
Holy Water	2	3	4
Bandages	1	2	2-3
Antivenom	0	0	0
Medicinal Herbs	1	1-2	2-3

The most important provision in the Ruins is the Holy Water, as it can be used on a large amount of Curios. You should also take a couple of bandages in case the enemies inflict a lot of bleeding DoT on your characters - there's no point to take antivenom here, as none of the enemies have blight attacks, and there are no curios here that require it.

Enemies you should watch out for

There's a number of enemies you should watch out for while in the Ruins, such as:

• Bone Courtier - this bone, weird-looking fella equipped with a dagger and a chalice is the biggest threat of the ruins. He has a huge amount of speed, making him almost always the first one to act and his attack increases the stress of the hero by 15 points. You should either get rid of him quickly, or pull him to the 1st or 2nd rank, where he won't be able to use his chalice for attack and be forced to depend on a miserable dagger stab.
• Bone Arbalist - the biggest threat from this enemy comes with his attack, Quarrel, which has a big chance for a critical hit, allowing it to take more than 1/3 of your character's health. If there are no Bone Courtiers on the battlefield, he should be your top priority.
• Gargoyle - Gargoyles aren't the heaviest hitters in the game, but they use some of the most annoying abilities in the game, which can either stun, or push two of your heroes to the backline. They have very little health points, but are extremely fast and have one of the highest protect values in the game. As they are basically immune to bleeding, the best way to deal with them is to use a Plague Doctor's blight attacks.

Enemies that you can stumble upon in any location, and who should be eliminated, or simply taken care of as soon as possible:

• Cultist Acolyte - an enemy which is very similar to the Bone Courtier from the Ruins. He deals relatively small amount of damage, but is able to inflict a lot of stress to a hero, and is extremely fast. He should be taken care of, either by eliminating him or pulling him to the first rank as soon as possible.
• Brigand Fusilier - an enemy characterized by a lot of speed and the ability to attack your whole team if he is standing on the 2nd, 3rd or 4th position. If there are no enemies dealing stress damage on the battlefield, you should take him out as quickly as possible.
• Madman - without a doubt the number one enemy you should watch out for. He has a minimal amount of health points, but he makes up for it with his dodge value, speed and the two attacks that he can perform from any position. Both of those increase the stress of your heroes, and the Doomsay allows him to attack your whole team at the same time. Madman should be taken care of as quickly as possible.
• Ghoul - similar to the previously described enemy, he is capable of dealing stress damage to the whole team, stunning or disease a character. He has a lot of protection, which makes stunning and inflicting bleeding and/or blight the best method to take him out. Additionally, you can use the mark of the Hound Master to decrease his protection, which makes him more vulnerable to your attacks.