Darkest Dungeon: Warrens Darkest Dungeon Guide

Last update: 20 April 2023

Warrens is the third location that is unlocked for the player, filled with Beast-type enemies. The characteristics of this place are the high resistances to blight, very low resistances to bleeding, and a lot of enemies dealing stress damage to the team. Enemies causing diseases and with a lot of protection are quite common here as well. There are two bosses here: the Swine and the Flesh.

Team selection

When venturing to the Warrens, you should choose:

• Hound Master - probably the best hero class for this location. His abilities cause bleeding, which enemies here are vulnerable to, his Whistle ability will mark and decrease the protection of an enemy, and his Cry Havoc has a chance to decrease the stress of your whole team.
• Hellion - another class which is extremely effective here. The ability to cause bleeding, and the Iron Swan, which will massacre the most dangerous threats on the 4th rank are the key virtues of her. Another useful ability is the YAWP!, which will stun the enemies standing in the front.
• Arbalest - together with the marking ability of the Hound Master, the Arbalest will be able to massacre enemies with a single strike. Additionally, she is extremely effective against enemies standing at rank 3 and 4, which are dealing the highest amount of damage, while their defenses are relatively weak. Remember about her Rallying Flare ability - you can remove enemy marks with it.
• Bounty Hunter - together with the Arbalest and / or the Hound Master, he will be able to deal immense damage to the marked targets. Additionally, he has an ability that allows him to pull the enemy from the back to the frontline, as well as one that stuns and shuffles the enemy.
• Jester - his songs will allow you to increase the effectiveness of your team, as well as decrease the stress of your heroes, and his bleeding attacks on 2nd and 3rd rank are extremely useful here.
• Grave Digger - immense speed will allow her to quickly deal with the enemies standing on the 3rd and 4th rank. Additionally, she has an increased chance for scouting (which can be further enhanced by using proper camping abilities) - the structure of the dungeons in the Warrens is very often complicated, and various traps punish the player with debuffs and blights. It's always worth to have someone who can scout those ahead.
• Crusader - a perfect class for the frontline, because he can increase his own protection, deal significant damage and is quite self-sufficient, as he can heal wounds and reduce stress.
• Vestal - the enemies here will deal a lot of damage, which is why you should always bring a powerful healer when venturing into the Warrens. The Occultist can replace a Vestal, but his healing has a chance to cause bleeding, which will happen often enough without his "help".

Heroes that you should not take here:

• Plague Doctor - enemies are resistant to blight, which makes her quite ineffective here.

Provisions

Type	Short mission	Medium mission	Long mission
Food	12	16-18	18-24
Torches	9-11	16-20	20-24
Skeleton Keys	2	2-3	3-4
Shovels	2	2-3	4
Holy Water	2	3	3-4
Bandages	1-2	2	2-3
Antivenom	0	0-1	1
Medicinal Herbs	2-3	4	5-6

The most important provision here are the Medicinal Herbs, which will help you get rid of numerous debuffs. Additionally, you should take a couple of extra torches with you, as the dungeons in the Warrens tend to be quite complicated, forcing you to backtrack a lot, wasting precious torches in the process.

Enemies you should watch out for

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

• Swine Wretch - the enemy deals almost no damage, but his every attack deals about 10 points of stress damage, and has a 33% chance to cause a random disease. You should take him out as quickly as possible, because a disease can significantly weaken your hero.
• Swine Drummer - the equivalent of the Madman, which can cause stress for your entire team. Additionally, it can mark your characters, reducing their dodge as well. One of the priorities while venturing the Warrens.
• Swinetaur - probably the most powerful "normal" enemy in the game. The Swinetaur is especially dangerous when standing on the backline (ranks 2, 3 and 4), where it can use its most powerful ability, the Bull Rush, which deals significant damage, knocks the target 3 ranks back, stuns him and has a high chance for a critical strike. The enemy is resistant to damage thanks to high protection and has a lot of health - you should try to pull the Swinetaur to the frontline, to decrease its effectiveness.

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.