Easy mode is too hard

[TrueBladeHC440c]

Many games have difficulty settings, and I always start on easy. When "easy" mode results in total party kills from impossible bosses and require me to read up on bulletin boards, I consider giving up on the game. Darkest Dungeon is too hard on easy mode. I can't kill the crocodile or the hag. I have level 2 characters with upgraded armor and weapons too. How can anyone play the harder difficulties unless they are uber-optimizer freaks? That's not fun to me; I don't wanna be that. Give me a game difficulty I can relax to and not loose all my favorite characters and equipment because I don't know the special trick to survive.

[EggSaladologist]

This doesn't especially answer your question, but you should probably keep the crimson court DLC off (or possibly make a new save since you can't disable DLC and then either come back to your old save or make a new one when you're ready to play with crimson court enabled) until you've got a good grip on the game, because it makes the game more challenging.

EDIT: As far as i know the other two parts of the crimson court DLC (districts and the flagellant), don't make the game any harder.

[Yeti.^^]

There is no ,,special tricks'' it's just learning on your mistakes.The game ain't THAT hard as you make it to be , unless the ,,special'' part is just someone.And yeah , as the person above said , keep crimson court off , it's kind of a pain to deal at the beginning.

[Pyromania]

The game has always been difficult, but a challenge can be exciting
Make sure you have a generally well rounded team, most team comps should have a vestal or occultist - i prefer the vestal due to her aoe healing, a good frontliner like man at arms or bounty hunter (stuns can go a long way), and a dps like the arbalest, who can dish out the juicy damage
The problem with bosses is how they're supposed to be played, you NEED to rush down the boss as fast as possible, but they'll do anything to slow you down, like massive hits or removing a hero from the fight entirely
you will make mistakes, but that's part of the game, while my advice may not be perfect, i hope this helped in some way
P.S if you're desperate don't forget to mod the game, they also give a lot of replayability

[No One]

Fractally wrong.
If you're this easily misled, then yes you probably should give up. The game is going to continue to kick your teeth in.

[Pizzza_box]

Originally posted by No One:

Fractally wrong.
If you're this easily misled, then yes you probably should give up. The game is going to continue to kick your teeth in.

Well that's hadly encouraging for the guy. We all struggle in games from time to time

[Python Jones P.I.]

Radiant isn't really easy mode it's just tweaked so the game is much shorter. You also don't need meta builds to be any good at the game you just need to learn what does what. I'm currently on a Stygian playthrough which so far has been my smoothest run yet.

As others have mentioned disable Crimson Court until you've completed the game at least once, you can leave the rest of the DLC on though as Flag and Shieldbreaker are great.

[Tacitus]

Originally posted by TrueBladeHC440c:

Give me a game difficulty I can relax to and not loose[sic] all my favorite characters and equipment because I don't know the special trick to survive.

(long post warning)
I know this may sound harsh... but how long have you had this game for? If it's past the refund grace period, then I hope you got it on sale, because you'll never find what you are seeking. There is no difficulty in DD at which you can relax and steamroll enemies. This is not that type of game: every fight is potentially dangerous, and the enemies are not just loot and XP pinatas, but potentially lethal equals to your characters.

Also, you shouldn't get attached to any of the heroes you have; individual heroes are essentially disposable assets, for you to hire and fire as needed in order to accomplish your goal. Have a Vestal who accumulated too much stress and negative quirks for her to be of any use (and that you can't afford to remedy)? Give her the boot and hire a new victim/hopeful from the stagecoach.

If you've played other turn-based tactics games like Xcom and Mordheim, you'll find that Darkest Dungeon is much more forgiving and less frustrating than either.
In Darkest Dungeon...
- Your characters don't miss on high-percentage rolls (you'll always hit with a 90% hit chance... the Memorial Wall at XCOM HQ would have a lot fewer names if this were the case in that game!) -Heroes don't have any hiring or maintenance costs (barring stress treatments, quirk removal/reinforcements, which are optional)
- Characters don't incur permanent injuries (negative quirks can be removed, but amputated limbs and missing eyes don't grow back)
- Characters don't have to get kills to level up
- You don't have to collect resources (i.e. Wyrdstones) that do horrible things to your heroes in order to prevent your employer from breaking your kneecaps all whilst demons and other unfriendly neighbourhood denizens are trying to kill, maim, and burn your party and acquire said resources for themselves

I'm not saying that DD is an easy game, or that you should feel bad for being frustrated. But I do suggest that you consider the following:

- Party composition. Avoid Lepers, unless you can back them up with accuracy-boosting buffs and trinkets
- Target stress-dealing enemies first
- Make sure your heroes' equipment and useful skills are 1 above the level of the dungeon, ideally
- Learn the game mechanics, learn the abilities of your enemies, and prioritise dangerous targets for prompt elimination

If you are still frustrated, ask for help with specific issues; the community is always willing to help. Also consider taking a break from the game, and trying it a bit later; that worked for me with Mordheim, which I hated at first, but came to love after a couple weeks hiatus.

[No One]

Originally posted by Tacitus:

There is no difficulty in DD at which you can relax and steamroll enemies.

There are difficulties where I can relax and steamroll the game, however. (Anything not torchless.)

[Brown]

I have played on hardest and that is just for those who like punishment. On easy settings the game takes some getting used to but then its not that bad. Once you figure it out you will be fine. I like the challenge even on easy.

[LaserGuy]

Originally posted by TrueBladeHC440c:

Many games have difficulty settings, and I always start on easy. When "easy" mode results in total party kills from impossible bosses and require me to read up on bulletin boards, I consider giving up on the game. Darkest Dungeon is too hard on easy mode. I can't kill the crocodile or the hag

I generally agree with the suggestion above that turning off the Crimson Court is a good idea if you're just starting out.

That said... Bosses in Darkest Dungeon are puzzles. Most of them are quite easy if you know how to beat them. They can be extremely difficult if you don't. So... if you're going to fight a boss for the first time, and haven't done any research on it... be prepared to RUN AWAY. Yes, you can run from bosses (as long as you aren't fighting with too many afflicted people). At worst, you might lose somebody (e.g. the person in the pot). But it's better than a wipe, and once you see the mechanics that the boss uses, you should be able to figure out how to beat them.

Importantly, this means you need to be flexible with your parties. If the only party you ever run is Crusader, Highwman, Vestal, and Plague Doctor... you're going to have problems now and then, because the game is predicated on the fact that certain characters are going to be good in certain circumstances. If there's a boss that is hiding in the back row and heavily protected by junk in front, then you want to build a team that can hit the back row and ignore the front row, for example. Skip the Leper and Crusader for that sort of fight. Having flexible parties that work well under most circumstances may allow you to survive all but the most pathological of boss fights anyway.

You don't need to be hyper-optimized to win at Darkest Dungeon. But you do need to think, plan and strategize. Most of the hard work is actually done in the Hamlet... picking the right team, the right trinkets, the right supplies, for the mission at hand is going to give you a huge advantage going in to every area.

[Sneep Snorp]

Honestly you're biggest problems seem to come from you not knowing the mechanics of individual fights. If you cant beat the basic hag with four decked out level twos, assuming you upgraded their weapons and moves you might not have a party that can beat her, look for different comps, understand who counters what and build around that, for the most part it's just knowing what items to bring to each quest and who thrives in each area. Also if you can trigger an event that makes the region easer, do it. Such as for example silence in the crypts happens after you complete a cleans the relics quest in the ruins, if you want to fight the necromancer or prophet, do a relic quest first and then go in for the kill. It also helps if you leanr the bosses mechanics since you can't burst most of them down, you have to counter their moves too. (Here's a free one, if you're against a crocodillian blight and bleed him alongside attacking him, when he goes underwater use that turn as a grace period to heal and activate buffs, hes going to apex predator one unlucky member so do as much as you can during that turn to ensure they survive and have things ready next turn, repeat until it dies)

[feeWAIVER]

I've found the crocodile to be exceptionally hard, among the bosses.

[Skinny Pete]

Originally posted by TrueBladeHC440c:

Many games have difficulty settings, and I always start on easy. When "easy" mode results in total party kills from impossible bosses and require me to read up on bulletin boards, I consider giving up on the game. Darkest Dungeon is too hard on easy mode. I can't kill the crocodile or the hag. I have level 2 characters with upgraded armor and weapons too. How can anyone play the harder difficulties unless they are uber-optimizer freaks? That's not fun to me; I don't wanna be that. Give me a game difficulty I can relax to and not loose all my favorite characters and equipment because I don't know the special trick to survive.

There's a two part plan to get over this immediate hurdle.

The first part is git.

The second part is gud.

Also you can't kill the hag? What's wrong with you? I'll agree the crocodile is a real pain in the ass but you should be able to figure it out if you are of normal functionality and not literally retarded.

Originally posted by feeWAIVER:

I've found the crocodile to be exceptionally hard, among the bosses.

I hate that ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ thing. If OP had just complained about that, I'd have agreed with him. But the Hag? That is the easiest, simplest boss in the game.

Anywhere you might meet the Crocodilian, you almost need a custom team for it, but luckily, the custom team is just the generic "be able to hit and stun any rank with at least 3/4 of your team."

It's a nasty mother, with its constant moving around and self-buffing, but while you can always expect damage, you can nearly always croak it. I still absolutely hate this thing.

[SunDrippedDevil]

But there is no easy mode? There is only shorter mode which allows higher levels to go to lower dungeons in some cases.

[Sir Francis]

"Radiant" shortens the playtime and thus takes the difficulty curve from steep to very effin steep.
Like that it is much harder for newcomers to adapt...