Stress and afflictions advice, please?

[Stallionista]

I'm new to the game and absolutely loving it. A successful quest has never felt so satisfying! However, one of my characters has come down with an affliction (masochistic) and other team members are bordering on high stress. I have no idea how to get the stress down during a quest, and I believe at the Estate stress is relieved via the Tavern/Abbey and I'd like to ask the following, please:

How can I reduce stress during a quest?

Is paying to relieve stress worth it early game? I can always throw in new recruits but it seems ultimately each member is going to be stressed with time. Do I wait a while longer and then when the gold is rolling in I pay to relieve my preferred members and keep them on?

Is upgrading the Abbey and Tavern worth it, and is it priority at all compared to other buildings? If worth it, is it worth paying a little bit extra (ie gambling over drinking, what I mean is does this decrease recovery time or increase recovery effect?)

Does stress recover between quests or anything if the member is left behind to rest? Or would I have to relieve them at one of the buildings?


I suppose the fun of the game is to suffer through it to learn the game mechanics and enjoy it in the end, but this stress mechanic is so unique to anything I've come across. I love it and I love the game, but I feel I need a bit of help please to understand how to manage it. Any other advice as well would be seriously appreciated as I can't wait to get a further grip on the game mechanics and pour so many hours into this. Thank you!

[Magni]

Feasting while camping, camping skills, having a Jester/Crusader/Houndsmaster/Arbalest with stress healing skills, certian curio interactions and criting things all heal stress.

Paying to relive stress generally isn't really worth it for heroes below resolve level 2, and evne then only rarely necessary if you have a decent bench, unless they're afflcited of course.

[Nara]

1. Feasting at camp, critting in battle, some heroes have de-stress skills, disarming traps and specific item based curio interactions, de-stress skills at campfire, and some virtues gives stress heals.

2. It's a priority from the get-go. Stressed out heroes will skip turns, act on their own, and shuffle around randomly. If some is afflicted and you wish to use them next quest, you stuff them into a de-stress facility and take someone else for next run.

3. Not right away, but as you accumulate more heroes you will need the extra space and lesss cost is a good long term investment.

4. It recovers slowly if left idle and moreso if the puppet theatre has been built.

Just try to focus down stress dealers before they can do anything.

[PalmTree]

1- Certain heroes, such as the Jester, have skills that can be used to heal stress mid-battle. You can also heal stress while camping through camping skills like Encourage. Certain curios can also heal stress with certain interactions ( for example, you can heal of 30 stress for a hero by having them use a Holy Water on a Confession Booth).

2- Whether or not it's worth curing stress on heroes early on is honestly up to you. Most here will tell you to just dismiss them if they get stressed and replace them to save gold, but I personally prefer to keep them and cure their despite it technically being the worse choice. It also depends on certain circumstances; for example, it's probably worth curing if they're your only hero of a certain class.

3- The abbey and tavern are second in priority. You want to upgrade the Guild and Blacksmith first so that you can get your heroes strong enough to take on the threats they will face. You should also prioritize the Stagecoach so that you have a steady flow of heroes and a decently sized roster.

4- Yes, idle heroes do get a small amount of stress healed if they're left behind. 5 stress is healed for every quest they're left idle, and it can be increased to 15 per quest through the Puppet Theater district if you have the Crimson Court DLC.

[Stallionista]

Thank you everyone for the replies so quickly! So I'll look into my current heroes/heroines and see if I can get any stress-relief going in future quests, and I may start looking to do medium-length quests rather than the same old short quests. The camp mechanic sounds really nice for stress whereas I feel right now with short quests that stress only goes up, until of course I start taking this advice and throwing in people with stress-relief skills. I'm aiming to keep the two starting characters with me for the whole journey (if they die so be it) so I'll likely pay for those two to relieve stress, even early-game, otherwise I'll leave the others to go ballistic and replace with new recruits unless they're decent.

[Magni]

You can generally get by up to resolve 2 without needing stress relief as long as you build at least 3 or so teams to rotate through and prioritize stress-dealers before other enemies during fights. Resolve 0 or 1 heroes really aren't worth wasting money on unless that have some seriously good quirks, so you're mostly better off just putting them on the bus if they get afflicted or develop really bad quirks/diseases.

[Stallionista]

Originally posted by PalmTree:

1- Certain heroes, such as the Jester, have skills that can be used to heal stress mid-battle. You can also heal stress while camping through camping skills like Encourage. Certain curios can also heal stress with certain interactions ( for example, you can heal of 30 stress for a hero by having them use a Holy Water on a Confession Booth).

2- Whether or not it's worth curing stress on heroes early on is honestly up to you. Most here will tell you to just dismiss them if they get stressed and replace them to save gold, but I personally prefer to keep them and cure their despite it technically being the worse choice. It also depends on certain circumstances; for example, it's probably worth curing if they're your only hero of a certain class.

3- The abbey and tavern are second in priority. You want to upgrade the Guild and Blacksmith first so that you can get your heroes strong enough to take on the threats they will face.

4- Yes, idle heroes do get a small amount of stress healed if they're left behind. 5 stress is healed for every quest they're left idle, and it can be increased to 15 per quest through the Puppet Theater district if you have the Crimson Court DLC.

I also looked through other threads posted lately and seen that you commented on some of them. You made a great point about preventing stress on one of them, not just relieving it, and gave some good advice on a different thread. It seems so tough to prevent stress early game but I suppose the best i can do is to hover over enemy skills and find the stress dealers and kill/stun/disorganise them to keep them from stress-damaging me. I am very liberal with torch use and torch/related skills to keep stress as manageable as I can, I may have to invest in my starting crusader as I'm reading that crusaders have access to stress-heal, and I'm going to eagerly await a Jester on the stagecoach!!

[Stallionista]

Originally posted by Magni:

You can generally get by up to resolve 2 without needing stress relief as long as you build at least 3 or so teams to rotate through and prioritize stress-dealers before other enemies during fights. Resolve 0 or 1 heroes really aren't worth wasting money on unless that have some seriously good quirks, so you're mostly better off just putting them on the bus if they get afflicted or develop really bad quirks/diseases.

Yeah that's something I'm having to think about, the person who's afflicted is my vestal and she's masochistic. I haven't played enough to know if masochistic becomes much worse if I leave it alone, but I'm enjoying using the vestal with my team right now so I'm in a dilemma as I don't even have a second vestal in reserve right now!!

I suppose these heroes are ultimately pawns to my chessboard and a stressed out vestal so early on really isn't worth the money when I'm still new to the various classes (I bought all the DLC so I have quite a few classes to get to know!) and can most likely find a better fit.

[Magni]

All afflictions are absolutely awful (okay, Abusive is THE ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ WORST, but they're all just really damn bad) and taking an afflicted hero onto a mission is just a really, really bad idea. They don't get worse over time, but you actually NEED to put the hero into the abbey or inn to get rid of it, and it's bad enough right from the start.

[Nara]

Plus it makes them only marginally worse people than the trolls who frequent the steam forums.
The vestal especially is the worst, sobbing like a baby, having a sexual urge for the blood (you will understand later), ranting in about gods and faith and being a general mess. Like wow, stay in the abbey if you can't take battle.

[PalmTree]

Originally posted by SWEDr Brobotnik:

Plus it makes them only marginally worse people than the trolls who frequent the steam forums.

Why do you feel the need to provoke people in every single thread?

Yeah, people can ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ here sometimes, but provoking them only makes it worse. It's better to just ignore them and say nothing than get into a 40-post long argument over something stupid.

[Nara]

Originally posted by PalmTree:

Originally posted by SWEDr Brobotnik:

Plus it makes them only marginally worse people than the trolls who frequent the steam forums.

Why do you feel the need to provoke people in every single thread?

Yeah, people can ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ here sometimes, but provoking them only makes it worse. It's better to just ignore them and say nothing than get into a 40-post long argument over something stupid.

There's a pretty big difference between provoking someone and calling them out on being trolls bro. So far, it's only been 2 guys, and the second one admitted to having fun goading people.
You know, like a troll would. I appreciate your candour and sentiment, but you really should direct it at the people who actually get their jollies out of provoking people.

Also, I've been on and off the steam forums for quite some time. This is easily the most vile and conflict filled forums that I have ever seen, and I have seen many. If that hasn't been your experience then good for you, slightly jealous. Have a good day.

[Mem]

If you want to reduce stress during a battle, bring a Jester using Inspiring Tune, which can heal 8/9/10/11/12 stress instantly (depends on level, which can be upgraded at the Guild) as well as applying a stress reducer buff (up to -20%).

As for campfires, there are many different characters with skills to reduce stress. Jester also has a campfire skill that reduces all allies stress by 15, as well as giving a -15% stress buff. Personally, I like Hellion's Revel skill, which heals -20 stress across the party, with a small ACC debuff. https://darkestdungeon.gamepedia.com/Camping_Skills

[Skinny Pete]

Originally posted by Stallionista:

I'm new to the game and absolutely loving it. A successful quest has never felt so satisfying! However, one of my characters has come down with an affliction (masochistic) and other team members are bordering on high stress. I have no idea how to get the stress down during a quest, and I believe at the Estate stress is relieved via the Tavern/Abbey and I'd like to ask the following, please:

How can I reduce stress during a quest?

KILL BACKLINERS.

This is not a joke, kill anything that causes stress IMMEDIATELY in the fight. These things are usually in the back rows. Killing them as fast as you can is the best thing you can do to preserve your party.

You may not immediately grasp this as you watch horrible creatures in the front rows dealing incredible damage to your front row party members, but do not be fooled by this. The stressers in the back are your real problem. Kill them. Immediately.

And then get used to just winning at this game.

[Stallionista]

Thank you everyone, I'm really appreciative for the responses!

Originally posted by Magni:

All afflictions are absolutely awful (okay, Abusive is THE ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ WORST, but they're all just really damn bad) and taking an afflicted hero onto a mission is just a really, really bad idea. They don't get worse over time, but you actually NEED to put the hero into the abbey or inn to get rid of it, and it's bad enough right from the start.

I suppose the 1k gold or so is worth it if the hero is decent, I've been weighing it up and I'll probably start utilising the stress-relief buildings more. For terrible heroes I'll just have to dismiss if they become afflicted.

Originally posted by Mem:

If you want to reduce stress during a battle, bring a Jester using Inspiring Tune, which can heal 8/9/10/11/12 stress instantly (depends on level, which can be upgraded at the Guild) as well as applying a stress reducer buff (up to -20%).

As for campfires, there are many different characters with skills to reduce stress. Jester also has a campfire skill that reduces all allies stress by 15, as well as giving a -15% stress buff. Personally, I like Hellion's Revel skill, which heals -20 stress across the party, with a small ACC debuff. https://darkestdungeon.gamepedia.com/Camping_Skills

Those all sound amazing! I'm still waiting to roll out the red carpet for the next Jester to roll through the stage coach.

Originally posted by Skinny Pete:

Originally posted by Stallionista:

I'm new to the game and absolutely loving it. A successful quest has never felt so satisfying! However, one of my characters has come down with an affliction (masochistic) and other team members are bordering on high stress. I have no idea how to get the stress down during a quest, and I believe at the Estate stress is relieved via the Tavern/Abbey and I'd like to ask the following, please:

How can I reduce stress during a quest?

KILL BACKLINERS.

This is not a joke, kill anything that causes stress IMMEDIATELY in the fight. These things are usually in the back rows. Killing them as fast as you can is the best thing you can do to preserve your party.

You may not immediately grasp this as you watch horrible creatures in the front rows dealing incredible damage to your front row party members, but do not be fooled by this. The stressers in the back are your real problem. Kill them. Immediately.

And then get used to just winning at this game.

Absolutely, I found this out the hard way. I now look at enemy skills and anything with stress-dealing damage I try to suppress or eliminate over the health-damage dealers. Health I can regenerate during these quests and between quests, stress I can't right now until I get the right party members and skills etc.

[Stallionista]

UPDATE: Started a new game and was more mindful about stress management, and I feel it is much better this time round. Using skills to target or suppress stress-dealers and even unlocking one of the Crusader skills to relieve stress mid-battle. Keeping well-lit torch status to ensure stress doesn't drop too quickly when roaming, and taking advantage of scout to disarm traps and using items on curios which sometimes relieve stress. I'm about six or seven quests in and only one guy has been afflicted and I may drop him anyway. STILL waiting for a jester! But the feedback here has been fantastic, thank you everyone. I'm going to start some of the tougher quests later, one of the boss fights has been unlocked.