How to Reduce Stress While In Dungeon?

[Rambo]

I know that you can do this in town, but what about in the dungeon? Is it only the campfire...? I'd love de-stress potions or something.

[LaserGuy]

Some heroes have abilities that reduce stress--Jester has Inspiring ballad, Crusader has Inspiring Cry, Houndmaster has Cry Havoc. Others like Grave Robber and Arbalest get so many crits that they reduce a lot of stress that way. Successfully disarming traps reduces a bit too.

The best way to deal with stress is not to get it in the first place though. A fast team with good damage/stuns to the back row enemies won't take much at all.

[BlooMood]

There are various classes that can heal stress with certain abilities. The Jester, Crusader and Houndmaster have stress heals that can be used on other party members and the Leper has one that can be used for himself.

There are also some curios that can result in a positive stress relief...most of which I believe can be found in the Ruins although I'm sure there are probably a couple others in other dungeons.

[LurkerintheVoid]

As others have said some classes remove stress. Crits do as well. I've noticed disarming a trap removes a little. And there are curios that remove stress.

http://darkestdungeon.gamepedia.com/Curio

The best bet though is to avoid stress. Learn which enemies are giving it (usually the back row) and make them high priority targets for killing or stunning. You can also stop some by dragging them out of the back 2 rows but that doesn't work for evey enemy.

Unfortunately a potion is unlikely as stress is a major factor in the game intentionally. If allowed to build up it handicaps you with resolve checks and prevents you from using the same couple of characters in every run. Plus it's an additonal death risk even if you bring a healing heavy party.

[Icedfate]

informative website...too bad its absolutely flooded with ads...

[zerogear5]

Originally posted by FeMaiden:

informative website...too bad its absolutely flooded with ads...

ad blocker is your friend

[h0b0king]

Your goal isn't to remove stress, it's to avoid it. With camping, crits and trap disarms you should be able to leave a dungeon run with 2-3 boxes of stress per hero. Ocassionally one hero wil get it bad or you'll mess up a bit and have to put someone in the chapel or tavern, but that's generally not too much of a problem. Most of your heroes will need a week or two of rest (why you have 20+ heroes) to have thier stress go down by 5 points a week, and 0 level heroes will likely gain more stress.

In dungoen the best ways to avoid stress are:

1) Kill stress dealers fast. Yeah focus down those cult witches, puke pigs and madmen - especially madmen! You will need to be able to hit the rear ranks to do this, and having someone who can stun damage dealers (or debuff - but then the occultist sky tentacles are pretty good at hurting stress dealers) as well is a nice addition - mostly though it's about killing them fast, and not being methodical about killing one monster throughly before moveing on the the rest. Some points are not using an AOE attack unless it will kill one monster or assure a kill by another hero on one or both monsters. Don't waste attacks smacking into enemy damage dealers unless you can one-shot them or all the stress dealers are dead.

2) Stop touching curios. Yes there are some curios that have rewards about 30% of the time and penalties 70% when you don't use supplies on them (confession booths say)- still don't touch them. Learn your curios and pack the right supplies - just grabbling at everything will increase stress. Eventually you'll know what curios cure stress - and you can use them effectively, but should never depend on them.

3) Disarm traps. Spot them with scouting and disarm them, not doing so means getting a random hero a big chunk if stress, doing so will keep your trap disarming hero at low stress.

4) Keep light high - bring enough torches, don't backtrack. Backtracking often triggers more food events and increases stress - it's sometimes unavoidable, but generally look at the dungeon map and think of a plan. If you are having trouble with stress in full light, don't think you're such a tough guy that you can handle a dark run.

5) Camping cures a lot of stress 10 points with a full 8 food meal, and additional amounts from many skills. The stress resist skill is rather more useful if you have content left to clear on the level. If one hero is super stressed at camp the skills that cure that heroes stress and give a smidgen to everyone else are pretty useful.

[Rambo]

When you say that some curios cause stress, I've seen that, of course. Like investigating a caracass or chemistry lab that causes stress to go up. BUT is that true always when investingating these item types or is it random? I'm assuming it's random and you can't predict which curious will be good or bad, otherwise where's the fun?

[DJTron]

generally, what's helped for me is having an order of when you kill enemies. Stress enemies are the first priority, followed by the heavy normal damage dealers, an lastly, the meat shields. obviously due to stuns and dodges you won't be able to do this all the time. but it's a good place to start

[h0b0king]

Curios effects are consistent - though they have a fixed percentage for doing things. Interactions with a supply item will always occur. i.e. a locked chest has like a 70% of being treasure without an item, 30% of being a trap (maybe 50/50?). With a key it's always better treasure.

[LurkerintheVoid]

I posted the curio page of the wiki above. It has all the results for curios, both which items do what and just opening them blindly. If you use the correct items almost all curious are harmless. There's a few I still won't touch but most are harmless or even extremely helpful.

If it has ads I was unaware. AdBlock is a good friend.

[Zanaxal]

Crusaders seems the best way to reduce stress guaranteed and has a good heal aswell while doing high damage to, houndmaster is decent with cry havoc but is a weak class overall. Ive done most of this game already and back in the early version crit was very good and stackable but they have nerfed all the trinkets and resting abilities together with crit classes raw damage output abilities so its not viable anymore. Crusaders seem on average the best support characters for this now just have some decent range damage doers behind them and you have a very strong lineup.

[LurkerintheVoid]

I find jesters good too. Even if you don't want to do a moblie party they have very good bleed to hit positions 2 and 3. Attacking postion 3 really helps avoid getting the stress and with bleed kills likely position 4 may end up in range. After the first attack or two depending on needs you can have them sit back and heal stress or continue to stack on bleed.