Darkest Dungeon

[Scipio]

Playing this game reminds me of my sophomore year of college, when my roommate would drunkenly recite lines from American Psycho (the novel, not the movie); and I would respond with David Mamet or Boethius.

[Grey Fox]

Recruiting 4 random heroes, getting 2000 gold, abandoning the quest & then dismissing all 4 to do it again until I have enough money to relieve the stress of my healer seems so... Evil.

[PRC]

Bounty Hunters are awesome!

[Martinus]

I have a feeling this game has a potential to beat CK2 in "the most disturbing game reports when taken out of context" competition.

[Solmyr]

I've had no knowledge or experience of this game until I watched a few streams by SirTwiggy a few days ago. So, I'm a complete noob. Yet, so far this game does not seem nearly as hard as everyone says. I got it yesterday, hired a bunch of adventurers, and killed two of the first three bosses, each on first try and without any difficulty. I've done a bunch of other apprentice-level quests and almost never felt any pressure. Only two characters died, and only a total of three so far reached 100% stress (and one of them got a positive trait from that). Now, granted, I had level 2 characters when I killed the bosses, and I spent most of my resources upgrading the guild and the blacksmith so I got better gear and skills. Still, so far the game is a breeze. Maybe it gets harder at higher levels?

[Valmy]

I've had no knowledge or experience of this game until I watched a few streams by SirTwiggy a few days ago. So, I'm a complete noob. Yet, so far this game does not seem nearly as hard as everyone says. I got it yesterday, hired a bunch of adventurers, and killed two of the first three bosses, each on first try and without any difficulty. I've done a bunch of other apprentice-level quests and almost never felt any pressure. Only two characters died, and only a total of three so far reached 100% stress (and one of them got a positive trait from that). Now, granted, I had level 2 characters when I killed the bosses, and I spent most of my resources upgrading the guild and the blacksmith so I got better gear and skills. Still, so far the game is a breeze. Maybe it gets harder at higher levels?

Well nobody has gotten past level 6 yet so nobody knows.  But yes there are plenty of people out there who do not think it is hard enough, specifically vets of other games of this type.  Simply not being able to load your saved game after you got stomped by the Pig King is something that shocks most people these days though.

[Grey Fox]

Don't over spend on provisions. You ain't getting back what you don't use.

[Valmy]

Don't over spend on provisions. You ain't getting back what you don't use.

Yet you sort of have to.  The money for winning the mission would be terrible to lose out on because you tried to save a bit on torches and food.

[Martinus]

I think the game is pretty dependent on RNG. So you may have just been lucky.

[Valmy]

I think the game is pretty dependent on RNG. So you may have just been lucky.

At first,yes.  But over dozens of missions it all evens out.

[PRC]

Played a bunch last night, few things i've noticed:

Upgrade the town.  Getting your weapons upgraded and your armour upgraded along with the other stress reducing elements in town is key to being able to bring out a balanced party each time you embark.

Use the sanitarium.  Those negative traits can be punishing when you get a few of them working against you.

Regarding the characters, i've still yet to get a Helion, Grave Robber or Leper.  As I said above I love the Bounty Hunter.  Being able to pull those backline support classes forward to get them up front where your heavy hitters can smash them is super handy.  All the classes i've come across so far have been good.  The Occultist is probably the weakest but his healing ability is great and worth risking the bleed for.

Don't open every chest / bookshelf / backpack.  It seems like a 50/50 chance of being positive / negative so if you're in rough shape just blow past it and forget about opening it.

[Valmy]

Bags and chests yes.

Books no.

Unless you have a key never open a locked thing.  You always get something bad.

[Scipio]

Upgrades are important. I recommend equipment upgrades as the way to go. They are the easiest to encheapen, and have the most immediate effect. The quantum leap from 1 to 2 in equipment is huge.

[Martinus]

Gotta say the party composition makes a lot of difference. I replaced the highwayman and the plague doctor with a bounty hunter and a grave robber and this became much easier. Grave robber has this cool attack called Lunge which almost always crits and moves him from the back to the front of the group.

[Valmy]

Who does the healing in that bunch?  Lots of heavy hitting there though.  The Bounty Hunter annihilates anything stunned or marked, great single target attacks.