Darkest Dungeon The Color of Madness: Shard Dust - Enhancing character Darkest Dungeon Guide

The Color of Madness expansion set in Darkest Dungeon introduced a lot of new features and variety to the game, especially considering its very low price. One of them is a new type of provisions, called Shard Dust. It works quite like the blood in the previous add-on of the game, The Crimson Curse, which allows you to buff the hero who will "use" it for a few rounds.

Pros and cons of using Shard Dust

This object is slightly different in action from other types of provisions:

1. Using it gives you a bonus for several rounds or fights, depending on how many times you use it.
2. Any activation of the Shard Dust has consequences. The first use cast a weakening on the character, increasing the amount of gained stress and reduces the chance of virtue (a positive action after the hero gets 100 per cent stress). Only the second use triples this penalty, so that the hero will accumulate stress at an expressive rate.
3. The action of the Shard Dust changes when the hero, after initial activation, reaches up to 100 stress points. When during the same mission the hero "calms down" and is not affected by the penalty for 100 points of stress, activating another Shard Dust will no longer cause multiple penalties - instead the hero will receive powerful doses of stress, up to 90 points at a single.

This item offers huge bonuses, but the side-effects must be considered - they remain on the character until the end of the mission, and the buffs last a few (or more) rounds, or a few fights and sooner or later they will be exhausted. It is better to use this enhancement for shorter missions.