Darkest Dungeonwas released in 2016 by Red Hook Studios, introducing a unique aesthetic and challenge that drew in fans of Lovecraft and strategy alike. With four primary areas, excluding DLCs and the titular Dungeon,Darkest Dungeonis a tightly packed game focused on careful planning, building teams, and taking caution with every step.
WhileDarkest Dungeon 2, soon toleave early access, is more forgiving with character death, its predecessor certainly isn’t. The wrong hero in the wrong area can lose hours of progress, so gamers are encouraged to think carefully with each decision they make.
6Hellion
Hellion is simply a good choice for the Weald, just as she’s agood choice for anywherethat needs high damage. She has ready access to bleed, a frontline stun, and access to position 4 with Iron Swan. The Weald has plenty of blight and bleed to watch out for, so Hellion’s self-cure can see plenty of use, and her high damage makes quick work of any weaker enemies. She also plays well into one of the Weald’s Champion enemies, the Hateful Virago, given her tendency to sit in the backlines.
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High-PROT enemies like the Fungal Scratcher can provide some difficulty for Hellion, but her bleed skills can cover that mostly. She is also notably squishy, which can make the Virago’s companion, the Unclean Giant, extremely threatening. Due to this, it’s recommended to have access to guard through either Houndmaster or Man-at-Arms to protect her.
5Houndmaster
Houndmaster can deal with an overwhelming majority of threats in the Weald. He has bonus damage against beasts like the Rabid Gnasher and Unclean Giant, for one. He also has good access to bleed for any tankier enemies, and he has a guard to mitigate attacks like Unclean Giant’s Treebranch Smackdown. He also has some mark synergy if players prefer that against larger enemies, and his camping skills are rarely bad to use.
Truth be told, there’s very little reason not to use Houndmaster in the Weald or anywhere wherebleed resists are low. He’s more reliant on mark than, say, Flagellant, but his support potential more than makes up for that.
4Man-at-Arms
While best in Champion dungeons, Man-at-Arms' sheer utility makes him avaluable addition to any party. Gamers can take a Man-at-Arms just about anywhere, even the Darkest Dungeon, and still find use for him. Man-at-Arms is soaked in utility, having a stun, a reposition, a knockback, mark synergy, aself-mark, a guard, buffs for allies, debuffs for enemies, stress resist, a riposte if players need it,andbeing extremely tanky in the process.
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His camping skills are more simple, offering versatile buffs for himself and his team, though his damage remains lackluster even then. He can land some decent hits with the right trinkets, but his job is ultimately to make his team unkillable. Combined with a healer like Vestal or Occultist, Man-at-Arms can happily tank a Treebranch Smackdown and then ask for seconds. He’s just a little weak to bleed, and blight since PROT doesn’t block it, so look out for that.
3Arbalest
Weald enemies can mark heroes for heavy damage if allowed to, with the Hateful Virago being the worst offender. Arbalest is one of the few heroes that can counter this, clearing marks as well as stuns and stealth in the same turn. She can also buff healers, make slippery targets easier to hit, and nuke anything that just so happens to be marked.
Her camping skills are respectable, with the highlight being Restring Crossbow which massively buffs her damage potential. She can’t operate in the frontline, meaning that if she’s shuffled by Unclean Giant’s Confusion Spores, the following smackdown will be a stern reminder ofwhat game is being played. Past that, Arbalest is a ranged Bounty Hunter, just with fewer repositions and more status clearing.
Also, owners of the Musketeer DLC should note that the two heroes are identical in all but visuals. As such, Musketeer is a perfectly fine substitute.
2Plague Doctor
Surprisingly, Plague Doctor remains a good choice in the Weald despite the abundance of high blight resist. Her ability to cure blight and bleed is useful, as is her easy access to stuns across the board. One of her more important uses, however, is Emboldening Vapors, which improves a hero’s damage and speed. It can be used on Hellion to take out the Crone before she debuffs, or Man-at-Arms to set up Bolster or Defender, or simply to let Leper focus on accuracy and become a total killing machine.
Truth be told, there’s little to say about Plague Doctor. Her camping skills are simple, but she can save on precious gold with her disease cures. Her stuns are consistent and useful, given Weald enemies' low stun resist; blight can still be useful against certain enemies; and corpse clear is undeniably great when the Hateful Virago can make use of corpses. There are simplyvery few occasionswhere Plague Doctor’s a bad idea.
1Leper
Leper has two styles of play: Revenge and Withstand. Revenge buffs his otherwise poor damage and accuracy, allowing for plain, big ol' damage numbers. Withthe right quirksand buffs, this can let Leper tear through just about anything. Withstand buffs Leper’s resistances and marks him, turning him into a more traditional tank. Mark-focused enemies like Fungal Scratchers can be a problem, but Solemnity lets him sustain himself while the healer focuses elsewhere. His moves are otherwise very simple, consisting of two attacks, a stealth clear, a corpse clear, and a self-heal for sustain.
His camping skills are interesting, offering two stress heals that cost either health or allied stress, but Reflection and Bloody Shroud are the mainstays. Reflection gives a generous stat boost for Revenge, while Bloody Shroud gives a swathe of resistances to complement Withstand. Leper is a simple hero, all things considered, but a hulking mass of HP and one-shot potential is not to be underestimated.
Darkest Dungeonis available now on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, iOS, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One.
