A Ruler's Comprehensive Compendium To Adventuring Expeditions

A Ruler's worth is shown when making Tough decisions in a Difficult position against Improbable odds. Here's to helping you achieve Deification.

Welcome Sire

UPDATE: This guide is currently in the process of being updated, up to and beyond the last full DLC: The Colour of Madness..

Hard times have fallen upon us all Sire, and on you especially so. For it is upon your shoulders lies the responsibility of bringing light and life to your birthright.

Many have fallen, and many more shall fall in this dark infested place as they flail blindly from monsters to traps. Clawing through dirt, carcass, bad humours and madness. Praying for light and salvation, will you deliver them?

Fear not, with this tome of eldritch butt kicking, you shall learn how to manage a healthy, sane and surprisingly profitable Adventuring Expedition! Read on good SIRE!

Editors Note

Hi everyone, I have formally taken over this guide in order to pull it up to snuff, get everything updated to the newest DLC, and give it a nice shiny coat of paint. I have tried to keep everything in the tone of the original authors intent, so you shouldn't be able to tell who wrote what unless I want you too.

I hope you find this both informative and easy to follow.




My complete selection of guides

I would appreciate a follow. :)

Starting an Adventuring Expedition

I would also recommend my guide on provisions as an extra, and maybe quicker, source to help you with provisions. I made this so you favourite it, and quickly bring it up if you're running a party and need a quick breakdown of what stuff you need as per the requirements of the Dungeon.https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1688194336
Anyway, back to this guide. In hard times, lives are surprisingly cheap. In fact, they cost NOTHING AT ALL. That's right, you can hire and discard any number of wannabe adventurers as you feel like it without any penalties except maybe what guilty conscience you have. Never ever hire unhealthy adventurers ( rabies, and syphilis for example). Unless you are rich. Then you can do anything you want. Do note though, there is a DEATH limit and a TIME limit to beat the game before it expires. So feel free to dismiss crazy/afflicted hereos, but don't let too many die.

Still, a smart ruler should know to value of perseverance should progress be something he seeks. As such there are a few rules he must follow:

1. A healer in every party goes a long way.
2. Never rely on only 1 person or 1 team. Always have at least 1 back up team of adventurer. Infact have 3 teams!
3. Mental health is paramount. Sane adventurers live to go on more adventures. Insane ones not so much.
4. Know when to discard unworthy adventurers. After all, hiring new in/sane ones are free. For example, the first crusader you get, God of Thief Reynolds, should you be unfortunate enough to have his Kleptomania become "locked", it is way cheaper to just dismiss him and get a new crusader.

At the hamlet, upgrade your wagon to at least lvl 2, you don't need to upgrade it further than 3 in most cases. Upgrade barracks only as you hire more adventurers.


They are FREE. Feel free to get a few of them killed ( NOT TOO MANY, dismiss crazy ones if short on funds). And cry not should one or two of your favourites die.

Hire Vestals whenever you see one ( a minimum of 2 is healthy, no more than 3). Even insane ones. Occultists are awesome healers though you will want a team with high bleed resistance if you rely on his healing, they pair up well with arbalest and bounty hunters. While the hired blades will depend on their starting negative quirk. ( don't touch those with massive accuracy penalties)

Skills and positioning matters a lot. Some adventurers have little to no skill at all for certain position. For example, a team of 4 Lepers borders on madness. Because the 2 lepers positioned behind will not be able to do anything at all. Including wiping their own butts. While a team of 4 crusaders can still work as long as rear crusaders have Holy Lance, Battle Heal and inspiring cry. Go on give it a go. 4 crusaders is seriously fun.

Proverbial Provisions

Since Death RUNS are now unviable ( time and death limit), never ever start a serious expedition with less than 2000 gold. It is BAD LUCK. Your adventurers will be struck with affliction beyond count, hunger, madness, and untimely death. Game over sire, game over...

When you start off on your virgin expedition, you are limited to carousing in the Ruins. Over time, you will be able to explore the Warrens, and Weald. You will need Provisions to fit the dungeon! The provision are used on interact-able items, failure to procure said provisions will result in slow and untimely death. Or early dismissal should they survive and you can't afford to cure that loony Antiquarian with syphilis.

Food: Starvation is a wonderful way to lose adventurers to madness and death. Unless negatively afflicted ( stress eater and such) each adventurer requires 1 food during meal times, and will only feast when there is enough for all. So a team of 4 will eat 4. If you have 3 food, and 4 living folks, they will all starve... Also, though it restores health, ''eating'' to restore health of an adventurer doesn't count as ''eating''.
If you want to be safe:
Short expeditions = 8 food minimum.
Medium Expeditions = 16 food minimum. ( can be 12 if you don't plan to camp with double rations)
Long Expeditions = 24 food minimum.

Torch: Helps scouting, surprise monsters, disarms traps, slows stress build up when bright. Increase loot, difficulty and surprise your team when dark. You get a whole lot more loot from defeating monsters in the dark than light. Once confident, Dark running is a good fast way to earn loot with minimal expenses. Or an early grave. Can be used for a few interactions so always bring a few along.
Have at least one for = Shambler altar! Awesomely thrilling boss fight with great loot. Appears everywhere, more so in ruins in my experience. Sometimes you even get to meet a random shambler! Without a torch activated altar! What thrills sire!

Secret Rooms: There are present in all regions that are discoverable only via a successful scouting check. Inside there will be a chest that SHOULD be opened using a skeleton key. Without the key, it gives crap loot. Unlocked, more treasure than you can carry sire! So always, always, try to have a spare key until you scouted the whole map.

Important curio found in ALL areas:
Eldritch Altar - Holy Water - stress relieve. - Torch - buff. - nothing - stress/positive/negative quirk
Heirloom Chest - Skeleton Key - loot.
Secret Room - Skeleton Key - Super loot!
Shambler's Altar - Torch - Boss fight!

Ruins: Minimum required Provisions

Don't need: Anti Venom. Bandage.
Need: 8 Food. 1 Torch. 2 each Shovel. Medicinal Herbs. Holy Water. Skeleton Key.
Interaction list. Hard to find food here. Have 12 or more if going for a deep exploration. Don't Shovel the Decorative Urn, or burn Stack of Books. You were warned SIRE.

Alchemy Table - Medicinal Herbs - loot. - Torch - full light (who needs it?)
Altar of Light - Holy Water - Stronger buff than without.
Confession Booth - Holy Water - Stress relieve. - nothing - stress/loot/remove negative quirk.
Decorative Urn - Holy Water - loot.
Holy Fountain - Holy Water - heal and stress relieve.
Iron Maiden - Medicinal Herbs - loo
Locked Display Cabinet - Skeleton Key - loot. - Shovel - partial Loot.
Locked Sarcophagus - Skeleton Key - loot.
Sarcophagus - nothing - loot/negative
Suit of Armor - nothing - Bu
ff/positive quirk.

Warrens: Minimum required Provisions

Don't Need: Anti Venom.
Need: 8 Food. 2 Torch. 2 each Bandage. Shovel. Medicinal Herbs. Holy Water. Skeleton Key.
Interaction List. Food is USUALLY plentiful if you bring Medicinal Herb, but I have done warrens runs that didn't have a single Dinner Cart and Makeshift Dining Table. Don't sprinkle Holy Water on Occult Scrawling. You were warned SIRE.

Bone Altar - nothing - buff.
Dinner Cart - Medicinal Herbs - loot.
Makeshift Dining Table - Medicinal Herbs - loot.
Moonshine Barrel - Medicinal Herbs - buff.
Occult Scrawlings - nothing - positive/negative quirk/stress/nothing.
Pile of Bones - Holy Water - loot.
Pile of Scrolls - Torch - remove negative quirk. - nothing - stress/positive/negative quirk. ( burn it! free treatment! always have a spare torch or 2!)
Rack of Blades - Bandage - loot.
Sacrificial Stone - nothing - stress/positive/negative
quirk. (worth it)

Weald: Minimum required Provisions

NEED EVERYTHING: 8 Food. 1 Torch. 2 each Anti Venom. Bandage. Shovel. Medicinal Herbs. Holy Water. Skeleton Key.
Interaction List. You can get some food here, but have 8 at very least. or 20 if going for a long journey. No 'trap' provision interaction like Shovel on Decorative Urn. The yes/no interactions generally are positive.

Ancient Coffin - nothing - positive quirk/loot/nothing.
Old Tree - Anti venom - loot.
Beast Carcass - Medicinal Herbs - loot.
Eerie Spiderweb - Bandages - loot.
Lost Luggage - Skeleton Key - loot.
Mummified Remains - Bandage - loot.
Pristine Fountain - Holy Water - stress relieve +. - nothing - stress relieve. ( only use holy water if their life depends on it, better yet save it for Troubling Effigy.)
Shallow Grave - Shovel - loot.
Traveller's Tent - nothing - nothing/map/loot/stress.
Troubling Effigy - Holy Water - positive quirk. (drools) - nothing - stress/damage/positive/negative quirk ( buy some Holy Water for cow's sake...)

Cove: Minimum required provisions.

Don't Need: Bandages.
Need: 8 Food, 1 Torch, 4 Shovels, 2 of everything else. Cove has more interactive items that uses Shovel as well as blockages that have to be cleared. It also has little Food despite all the fish and escargot you kill. So in long runs, bring plenty of food, and up to 8 Shovels. Just because everything needs a good shoveling, please do not use SHOVEL on the Bas Relief!

Barnacle Crusted Chest - Shovel - Loot.
Bas Relief - nothing - positive/negative/disease. worth it.
Brackish Tide Pool - Anti Venom - Stress relieve/heal/cure disease. - nothing - buff/disease. (i risk the buff with high disease resist heroes)
Eerie Coral - Medicinal Herb - remove negative quirk. Yes please. - nothing - stress relieve/damage.
Fish Idol - Holy Water - Buff. - nothing - debuff.
Fish Carcass - Medicinal Herb - loot.
Giant Oyster - Shovel - Loot. - Dog Treat - Buff.
Ship's Figurehead - nothing - buff/stress heal.


Unfortunately there is a finite amount of loot you can carry, and as such if it seems like you have no more use for a provision and no space for loot, discard the provision. i.e. last few rooms left, discard Torch. Never discard food unless you are about to enter the last room. There is no set hunger meter, your Adventuring expedition may get hungry after just 2 rooms, or lasts for a good 4 rooms without eating. Nothing worse than losing health and sanity just as you are about to enter a fight due to starvation.

Note about the hero Antiquarian. With her interacting, you will be rolling in GOLD! You will earn 2 new loot called antiques and rare antiques, which is worth a lot of money. Additionally, your gold stack is increased from by 500 for every Antiquarian in party! WHOA! She must be the one that INTERACTS with the curios to drop the antiques.

Dungeon Crawling Made Simple. AKA. Cookies and Monsters

Adventurers - Check.
Provisions - Check.
Monsters - Uh oh.

There is only 1 rule, kill them as fast as you can. As Ruler, you have to watch both the physical and mental health of your Adventurers. While it might seem like a good idea to keep a low damaging monster alive so you can spam heals, this might work against your peons as it gives them more chance to get stressed. Monster Critical Hits, and certain skills induce not only STRESS but even DISEASES! Dashing Jester shredding beasties left and right? Wait till he gets rabies, syphilis and starts frothing in the mouth with what have you cause you know, that little piggy is left unattended. Them skeletons with a sense of fashion doesn't seem so painful? Wait till one of your folks lose his mind.

Kill off enemies 1 at a time instead of 'splash' damaging is a better option as it lowers the chance of all these nasty things happening to your Adventurers. Taking 10-20 stress damage doesn't seem like much, but if that happens every other fight, you will soon end up with bat crazed lunatics with weak bowel control. Or maybe they become Courageous, Stalwart champions. Though Darkest Dungeon being what it is, you will get negative afflictions 4 times out of 5.

So here's how we get your expedition as far as possible, or even, through it all.


The Element of Surprise/Scout

Have you entered a fight and either you or the enemy get SURPRISED? Well if it was you and it was a bad one with whole team shuffle, you are in for a painful fight. How do you SURPRISE them more than they do you?

Light: The brighter it is, the higher the chances of THEM being SURPRISED. It is the opposite when it gets dark, YOU get surprised more. But hey, that's where the loot is, in the DARK.


When they are surprised, your heroes ACT FIRST. An advantage you should have often.

Scouting: Scouted enemies CANNOT SURPRISE YOU!
. Ever found a map and the map starts to ping? Or enter a room and the map starts to ping? That's scouting for you. Positive quirks, trinkets and camping skills increase chances of scouting. Have this as high as possible. It will save you from traps and SURPRISES. In fact, maxing out scout is pretty much a requirement for Dark Running. Hell, you can SURPRISE enemies in the dark even as long as you have scouted them. Note that scouting quirks depends on dungeon, so Ruins Explorer only works for Ruins. Stacking multiple adventurers with the same scouting quirk work wonders.

Accuracy and Accuracy

Nothing is worse than swinging at empty air while the people around you are starting to froth in the mouth...

Every skill has a basic Accuracy, and upgrading said skill in the Guild improves accuracy. Upgrading your skills is the most important thing EVER. Higher to hit, critical and damage, is the first thing you should do when your expedition ends successfully and levels are gained. Check your skill's accuracy rate carefully, do not ever use a low accuracy skill without accuracy buffs ( jester's, camp skill or individual battle buff).

Though Positive quirks can add accuracy, it is more important to remove any negative quirks that lowers your combat capabilities ( RABIES!!!). Though with limited treatment rooms, be smart about it. i.e Lazy Eye lowers ranged attack accuracy. Doesn't matter if you don't use ranged attack skills. Additionally, heroes with high accuracy but LOW damage like Grave Robbers actually benefit from Rabies. hah!


Leveled up? Upgrade your skills! Better everything!

Stun, Pull and Push Skills. AKA Crowd Control

Why, those dastardly devils has support/ranged troops SIRE! How vexing that those over dressed skeletons are shoving goblets up your heroes yin yang while you have to go through their front row to get to them. Oh no, that big brute is going to skewer your Vestal a new ahem...

Though 1 hit kill is always in fashion, it is not always possible to do so. Hit/dodge rate, damage out put,a bad surprise can all work their tentacular magics on your expedition. Ranged monsters are often able to do great damage to an expedition if not removed quickly. Yet getting to them can be tough. What to do what to do when you know you can't 1 hit kill an enemy? Crowd Control them.

Push: Push is not that worth it usually due to it being available to heroes meant for punishing. Pushing a nasty front liners 2 rows behind usually disables his nasty signature skill or it will push the 3rd row ranged into 2nd row, usually disabling THEIR nasty ranged skill ( usually not all). Or at the very least, allows you to sucker punch that ranged unit by your melee front row.
Folks with punch: Bounty Hunter. Leper ( able to target 2nd row). Highwayman ( only targets first row. not useful for pushing but awesome damage).

Pull: Pull skills are high accuracy and highly useful by dint of fact they are available to back row fighters. Pulling a 3rd row ranged to the front DISABLES his dangerous ranged skill. While it means the front row enemy will have moved to 2nd row and still usually able to attack, the stress /debilitating ranged monster will die faster.
Attractive Folks: Bounty Hunter ( he is awesome). Occultist ( Heals, marks, combos well with Bounty Hunter!)

Stun: Low stun resist monsters you cannot take out quickly should be stunned especially if they themselves have stress/debilitating skills. Better yet, a few adventurers are able to stun 2 mobs at once! Also the Bounty Hunter gets a nifty bonus damage against stunned enemies. Though available to most heroes, it is a waste to use stun skill on high damage members.
Absolutely Stunning: Plague Doctor ( 2 enemy back row stunned at once? Thank you very much). Vestal ( fun thing to do when there is no one to heal). Grave Robber ( fun fun combo with Lunge skill). Occultist. ( high damage stun. If only he is meatier). Hellion (2 rows at once though not worth it unless higher skill as you get damage and dodge penalty). Crusader/Leper. swing to kill...

Special Mention need to be given to the Plague Doctor's Skill, Disorienting Blast. It is a high accuracy, shuffle, corpse clearing STUN. It works a frigging wonder disabling enemy back rows and messing up their formation.

Camping Funs

Camping buffs now only last until 4 fights. So be sure to max out scout and plan a camp especially against boss fights.

SCOUTING

It cannot be overstated how important scouting skills is. It is make or break as you WILL be surprised by un-scouted enemies even at +75% light. Be sure to either wear Trinkets that give scouting and heroes with dungeon specific scouting quirks and camp skills. You generally want at least 1 person with a scouting camp skill. If you don't ( a crusader team) be sure to have dungeon specific scout skill on one or more.


A 20% scouting bonus trinket, Weald Scrounger and Explorer quirks, A nice 50% scout bonus yes sir! Add camp skills and my team was scouting in 0 Light. Until you fight 4 enemies.

Many scout trinkets have severe penalties. They are awesome for Vestals!


Note that the Bounty Hunter is freshly recruited. He leveled 2 at the end of that dark run. If you don't have surprise skills at the very least scouted enemy encounters will not surprise you.

Some camping skills have PENALTIES, which can be removed by using a healing herb. For example the Arbalest's restring skill adds -2 speed penalty for the next 4 fights. It increases damage output significantly but is pretty terrible due to the -2 speed penalty. Going last, will get your team killed, so use a medicinal herb and remove the penalty DURING CAMP.



Money Camps
Low on cash? Have plenty of level 0 Antiquarians? There is a nifty trick you can do. Find a Long quest, use 4 antiquarians, be sure all of them has the camping skill Trinket Scrounge. Start the map, then straight away camp, you don't even need to bring for them food though half rations (2) is prefered. Use Trinker Scrounge on all 4 antiquarian, then Resupply on your remaining respite points.

Trinket Scrounge produces a RANDOM trinke, it doesn't matter what level dungeon it is, meaning long quests are prefered as you can camp twice. Every camp will allow you to produce 4 trinkets, and supplies, long quest will produce double!. Most are common trinkets, though you can get up to Very Rare non ancestral trinkets.

If you decide to starve and make them insane, you can as easily dismiss the antiquarians after the quest to minimise costs.

Skill and Combos (Veteran's Ahoy 2)

Skill Combo and Heroes



Some skills combination works really well either with said individual hero or with others. Allowing a huge damage spike that cycles every/other round. Skills of choice for damage dealers

Single hero choices:
Highwayman: Point Blank Shot + Duelist Advance. Front row start > PBS > DA > PBS. Or the reverse, 2nd row start > DA > PBS > DA. AWESOME. High accuracy, damage, crit, and riposte!
Leper: Focus + what ever. About the only way for Leper to be useful without a Bard. And even though you gain more accuracy as your skill level up, enemies gain more evasion...
Grave Robber: Lunge + Shadow Fade. 4th row start > Lunge > Shadow Fade> Lunge. Also Thrown Dagger has a nice crit chance. Use + crit trinkets to take down enemy support.
Jester: 4th row start Solo > Finale > Boost skills.


Folklore Combo: Some tried and tested adventurer combo. + the new awesome Antiquarian!

Antiquarian + Highwayman/Man at arms: Holy Eldritch Zombies! This combo is insane, INSANE!
You can finnish pretty much all non boss fights using this combo. Either 2 Antiquarians and 2 highwayman, or just a pair and what ever else you want to throw in.
Antiquarian : Protect Me on 2nd row Highwayman with Duelist Advance.
Will also work with Man at arms, but his slow starting speed usually means you get hit a few times first before you can do anything. You will be rolling in so much gold and dishing out so much damage while taking VERY LITTLE! In lvl 1/3 dungeons, you can even beat a dungeon with 1 highway man 2nd row start, and 3 Antiquarian. Just be sure to have the antiquarians interact with the curios to get the minor and rare antiques.

Bounty Hunter/s + Occultist/s Combo: One of the best Combo in the game. Takes down everything. Either have 1 each in team, 2 each, or 1 Occultist, 2 BH and 1 other support.
Never go one without the other. Occultist with Vulnerability Hex, Wyrd Recon, Daemon's Pull, one random what ever. Hex marks and debuffs a target, allowing BH to rip them apart. Wyrd Recons heals and bleeds, which your BH should have no problem with their rather high Bleed Resist. Daemon's Pull to mess up enemy back row. And all the BH needs to do is Collect Bounty.


2 Highwayman shuffling Point Blank Shot (+2 supports of course): You need Point Blank Shot, Duelist Advance, Wicked Slice/Open Vein (either one), and 1 random ( Tracking Shot is recommended at low levels).
Try to have the first row Highwayman 2 to 3 speed above the 2nd row Highwayman using trinkets/quirks. Very satisfying combo. Your first Highwayman will PBS, moves backward 1, allowing the 2nd one to PBS, moving backwards. Which leaves your first in the position to PBS on next round. Since there is a huge random factor, sometimes the 2nd row Highwayman starts first. Do NOT use duelist advance if that happens. Duelist advance should only be used if you get knocked back and/or your support get shuffled in front (it happens!) Wicked Slice/Open Vein is used when your 2nd row starts first, the enemy first row is really weak or you don't want to shuffle. Just add an occultist and an Arbalest, and bosses will DIE.


The Jester: What ever. ( Healer/Jester/Badass/random badass with scout camp skill) i.e (Occultist/Jester/BH/BH).
So you picked up that Hellion/Leper hoping to do badassary only to find they can't hit the broadside of a swine prince. Who do you call? The JESTER! With the best Buff Skill in game, 2 awesome bleed skill ( choose AOE/single target higher bleed or both) He is the leper's best friend, or any one equiped with + dmg/crit - acc trinket. Use the solo jester combo skill I wrote at the top. High level Inspiring Tune will help a ton with an Abomination in the party.

Training New Heroes

With upcoming updates promising new heroes some of you will balk
at the thought of bringing in level 0 heroes into level 5 dungeons. Do you have to make another team of level 0 heroes again? Fear NOT! There is a simple yet useful trick to do to help level up fresh meat into monster killing machines.

Though frankly speaking, it is usually more sensible to plow them through level 3 dungeon than 5.
First you need a team of 3 veterans. Your best and brigthest! Nothing less. Then you need TRINKETS! -resist affliction trinkets! Pile them up. The biggest problem is not them dying. It is them going crazy and making every one else in the team crazy too. So what you need to know is that THEY WILL go crazy, as dungeon crawling levels above the adventurer will cause him to start with increased stress, and get stressed even more. The only real viable way to get through is to make sure when he breaks, he get fixed...

So if you give him 2 ancient trinkets of resist affliction what will happen is that yes he will get stressed, yes he will hit 100% stress level, but damn it he won't break. 4 out of 6 level 0 runs I did, end up with positive affliction instead of negative. If he does get negative, just quit unless you like raving lunatics stabbing each other in the back or if you have just a few fights left to go.

Brick and Build

Welcome back SIRE from your exciting expedition into hell. I hope you have had earned some wonderful loot. If not, go back out there and get some. Limited resources and the job of keeping your soldiers sane may seem like a losing battle over time but is very doable.

Buildings are upgraded using Heirlooms, They are divided into 4, Busts, Portraits, Land Deeds and Crests. Each dungeon type has majority reward type Heirloom and Crests

Ruins: Busts
Weald: Land Deed
Warrens: Portraits

If you desperately want more of a single type go to said dungeon and kick slimy bony butts.

Right, we got heirlooms now, so what order should you build?



Upgrade the Church and Tavern at the start to remove stress. There is usually no need to get the 3rd slot upgrade. If managed well, you will never need the 3rd slot,
Upgrade Guild when it becomes available because skills are make or break.
Then Max out Sanatorium slots. It is the MOST important building ever. Lower the price or treatment reasonably (20 - 30% is good enough) and save up all your Busts and Crests for the 2nd then 3rd slot upgrade.
Upgrade black smith weapons first and what ever else you can without using up Busts and too much Crests.


See that little stone pillar thing in the middle? It is a statue of YOU! Will get better as you upgrade buildings and more megalomania.

Sanatorium and Sanity

So your expedition team are starting to show signs of PTSD? What you want to KEEP THEM? Time to strap them on the treatment table then SIRE.

You should be treating the especially virulent negative quirks every turn, especially those that directly affects combat, unless someone you wish to keep has Kleptomania. Get rid of that first as it will screw you so bad it ain't funny. Adventuring expedition with a kleptomaniac will cause you to lose valuable loot as they steal it for themselves. hard earned rubies? Kiss them goodbye. Your adventurers will gain negative quirks no matter what you do and having a claustrophobic, sick kleptomaniac is not very healthy.


A busy sanatorium means a healthy adventuring party!

Try to upgrade Sanatorium slots to 3 as soon as possible, it is expensive sure but you need it,
Negative Quirks Order of treatment:

Kleptomania. it is YOUR LOOT, not THEIRS DAMN IT. Chance to steal YOUR LOOT, the cur!

Combat Negative Quirks:
Anything that affects accuracy need to go ASAP. Then damage, resistance and health.
























Manias:
While kleptomania steals your loot, the other manias kills. So depending on what mania, the manic will force interact with interact able items. Can you imagine a Demonomaniac force interacting with an Unsettling Effigy when he already has high stress level? A Plutomaniac force interacting with a LOCKED chest (100% fail) when you have a Skeleton Key on hand? A Sitiomaniac force interacting with Beast Carcass and getting all sorts of sickness?

You get the point. About the only 'safe' mania is Ablutomania. As forced interactions with both Pristine Fountain and Holy Fountain will never yield a bad effect. Except you know, maybe when someone else badly needed it and the Ablutomaniac takes it instead.

Phobias
Phobias ain't so bad. I mean if you got zoo phobia, and Plutomania I will treat Plutomania first then zoophobia. After all you can just go fight in the ruins. Get rid of them eventually though as even in Ruins, beasts and humans do appear, and same thing in the other dungeons.


















Free Treatments! (small prints etc.)

Negative quirks can be cured by a few in dungeon object interaction.

Ruins:
Confession Booth. Just interact with it without provision and you have a small chance having a negative quirk removed, or get stressed.

Warrens:
Pile of Scrolls. Put a torch on it and it will remove a negative quirk.
Sacrificial Stone. Plain interaction can remove negative quirk. Or screw you.

Plague Doctor: Camp skill Leeches. Has a 33% chance of removing a disease! Rabies? STD? Is FREE! Restores Hp and removes blight too boot!


A sane and oh so healthy jester... This Joker has got no screw loose!

Conclusion

And there you have it, I hope this guide will help you keep your adventurers alive to fight another day. The better they come out of each dungeon, the more likely they will be to withstand the horrors of the The Darkest Dungeon *Insert spooky music here*. Remember, once a party finishes a stage of the DD, that party will no longer be able to access any other levels in the DD. They however be taken off the roster count, so they will not count toward your barracks limit - do what you will these poor broken souls.

I hope you found this guide both informative and entertaining. I found it very enjoyable to work on a guide I originally did not make. With the announcement of Darkest Dungeon II, we haven't seen the last of Red Hook studios!

[Optional] Donate!

If this guide helped you out, and you would like to say thanks,throw something my way.
Of course this is not necessary however; It just gives me a little more insentive to write and edit more in the future!

https://steamcommunity.com/tradeoffer/new/?partner=38602821&token=A3SrzMse

[Davr547]

There are some minor grammatical errors in the Starting an Adventuring Expedition section, aside from that, great guide!

[Flinks]

the shambler boss fight killed two in my party bruh goddamn it

[Hepcion]

I have been adventuring through the Cove and I've found an heirloom chest. Seems like Anti-venom removes the poison and lets you loot it as well. I got 12 crests. An old reddit post seems to have someone with the same heirloom chest+anti-venom situation happening.

[Trisn123]

Nice, good work dude.

[Psychedelic Adventurer]

Hi everyone, I am taking over this guide and will be updating accordingly. Stay tuned.

[Trisn123]

I don't think so. There has been huge updates and changes to the game and I haven't touched it for ages. I might get a weekend of crimson court, and maybe update some tips if I actually got anywhere with it. Forgot most of the mechanics and got some of my party killed when I played again 2 days ago. The courtyard epic quest definitely needs its own section.Thanks for the interests though guys.

[Lampros]

I started playing again, too - is this guide going to be updated ever, as the author promised? ;)

[Cyberslam8]

Hey so, Cove apparently should require bandages. My first battle put my Leper at Death's Door with only bleed damage.

[Trisn123]

Hi, sorry, I have been really busy with work and family. Just started playing from scratch again the whole game with the new additions and will update accordingly. Got some really awesome new combos too. And thanks Xunam

[Xunam]

Update:

Brachish Tide Pool: Antivenom
Fish Idol: Holy Water - buff (and not loot as i wrote)
Bas-Relief:
Erie Coral: Medicinal Herbs - Remove negative quirk
Fish Carcass: Medicinal Herbs - loot
Barnacle Chest: Shovel - loot
Giant Oyster: Shovel - loot
Pool: Antivenom - heal