12 Hours In : Too Much Stress.

[Kama Nightfire]

I'm starting to dislike this game more and more as I force myself to play and obtain the $10 worth I've spent.

My biggest complaint is the build-up of Stress. Despite my best efforts to heal and manage it, I'm always forced to send my higher ups into recovery at least every two dungeon runs, Short or Medium. I spend my time taking out the mobs that stack this effect first in my encounters, yet even so the build-up far exceeds what is normally managable. My light-sources are always capped at 76+ during these runs as well.

I don't think it's fair for Stress hits to exceed 15-20 per hit when you only need a buildup of 100 to completely demolish your entire team and forfeit a run due to the nature of one member spoiling the rest. The mechanics to fend of Stress are meager, many skills focused on mending this build-up do not even dent it. The only worthwhile activity outside of docking them into Taverns or Abbys is the campfire, a limited resource only available in larger dungeons, and with the high possibility of an ambush as well.

Stress should be something one keeps under control over time, and not something used to force a slow-down in gameplay. I understand Darkest Dungeon is short, and you needed to impliment something to slow progress, but the numbers do not match up to what is available to recover from it. I do not think one skill that recovers +6 stress is aimed to be balanced on a group that takes 15+ every turn. Manage to take a critical hit in a turn, Stress-wave for everyone, yet doing so on your end only nets 25% of the return in stress-removal.

The amount of " waiting " in this title is also a bit overwhelming. Nearly half of the features in town require a waiting period to make use of. The ease of catching diseases as well as the lack-luster gamble of getting negative quirks after a successful dungeon run make this game more-so about fixing up the damage than an actual " RPG ".

This is just my view on things, I don't mind a proper challenge, but the reviews for this game all dwindle down to the same thing, unfairness. I do see why the voices are there.

[Disgracefull]

The stress mechanic is definitely my biggest problem with this game. And it NEVER goes away. Even if you have a character that has sat on the side lines doing nothing for the past 4 weeks they still have the stress. I don’t think asking for a passive stress reduction is that big of a stretch or imbalance. I’m not saying a huge reduction, but at least something that is noticeable. Like, 10 a week or something if all they were doing for a whole week is chilling in town.
I don't care if the theme is some kind of lovecraftien horror. It's a game. The characters are supposed to be the ones getting driven mad, not the player.

[robgordo]

Originally posted by Nowhere Man:

The stress mechanic is definitely my biggest problem with this game. And it NEVER goes away. Even if you have a character that has sat on the side lines doing nothing for the past 4 weeks they still have the stress. I don’t think asking for a passive stress reduction is that big of a stretch or imbalance. I’m not saying a huge reduction, but at least something that is noticeable. Like, 10 a week or something if all they were doing for a whole week is chilling in town.
I don't care if the theme is some kind of lovecraftien horror. It's a game. The characters are supposed to be the ones getting driven mad, not the player.

Ever hear of the abbey or the tavern? And you clearly have barely played this game or you would know that there is passive stress reduction.

[youtoo]

I think characters are throw away. I think the grind isnt about building up characters early. Save your gold. Its about getting your buildings up. Let your characters die off and save your gold for later. That is what I am going to try.

[NCDarkness]

Sending charactersin every two runs is pretty standard, sometimes I send mine in after every run depending on how bad they got hit. A character's resolve level also helps them mitigate stress damage taken, as does the light level. Are you upgrading equipment, skills, and town buildings as well? I'm in week 42 now and not had any major problems with stress; even when someone hits 100 and loses it they're typically only out for a week in town before they're abck on their feet again, and with a roster of over 20 heroes there's no real reason that's unmanageable.

[geepope]

If you view the game as an "RPG" in the sense that you have a fixed party of 4 choice characters that you carefully groom and tailor, I can see why you would be frustrated. The game does a lot to encourage you to run a wide roster and it's a lot more enjoyable if you just roll with it instead of trying to fight it. You say that the game involves a lot of "waiting" but you don't actually have to let sending someone off for treatment slow you down any.

[Nostromo]

Biggest stress counter while exploring is camping. The thing is, I've had way too many bad experiences in Long Champ dungeons getting ambushed and finishing my camping worst that I started it. I even shuffle my party before camping so the ambush shuffle doesnt screw me up, but it never works. My party always gets shuffled the worst way possible. I had to retreat plenty of times because of camping and then managing a crippled party wasting tons of money and weeks + random negative quirks + diseases.

Even bringing -X% stress trinkets/quirks you can easily get tons of stress in a single battle and don't forget about the 100 light CPU crit galore (which happens way too often).

There's a huge zombie in the ruins that adds a crap ton of stress in a single blow and it happens to crit quite often. Leaving your character with 30+ stress easily + extra 5-10 stress to the rest of your party. Then you crit and only heal for 4 stress :/ and not every time your party gets lucky enough to heal as well.

One thing that would help would be dodging healing some stress. Or buffing a little bit stress heal from crits. I think the skills we got heal enough stress for a single skill but that's not enough most of the time.

[h0b0king]

Build your roster, reduce the cost of stress relief, actually kill the stress dealers first. If you keep throwing traumatized heroes into the dungeon they will do badly and die - don't do it, even if they are your favorites. Build alternate teams, shuffle heroes around so that heroes with too much stress can go into treatment. Once you get the hang of it you'll likely find stress is far less of a problem.

[HoneyDrake]

Originally posted by Noga:

Biggest stress counter while exploring is camping. The thing is, I've had way too many bad experiences in Long Champ dungeons getting ambushed and finishing my camping worst that I started it. I even shuffle my party before camping so the ambush shuffle doesnt screw me up, but it never works. My party always gets shuffled the worst way possible. I had to retreat plenty of times because of camping and then managing a crippled party wasting tons of money and weeks + random negative quirks + diseases.

Even bringing -X% stress trinkets/quirks you can easily get tons of stress in a single battle and don't forget about the 100 light CPU crit galore (which happens way too often).

There's a huge zombie in the ruins that adds a crap ton of stress in a single blow and it happens to crit quite often. Leaving your character with 30+ stress easily + extra 5-10 stress to the rest of your party. Then you crit and only heal for 4 stress :/ and not every time your party gets lucky enough to heal as well.

One thing that would help would be dodging healing some stress. Or buffing a little bit stress heal from crits. I think the skills we got heal enough stress for a single skill but that's not enough most of the time.

trinkets and/or camping buffs to provide you a "safety bonus" are the best idea for your problem.

i got the game for some hours, had 2 deaths (well, i HAD to go further, but at least it was my first real dungeon) and i got into having 6 lvl 3 characters and i still have no issues with stress beyond the first dungeon.
i am always using my torches right before i hit 75 "light", so no stress is building up, i make sure to swap out my team every time i get back (seems they get a penalty when going somewhere again right after 1 run) and if i get high stressed out, well... i just use the tavern or use a campfire.

maybe you need to check if there is no additional stress build up while fighting against someone unfavored/you have a bad quirk against?

ohh, and objects like altars, etc are helping me a LOT, though i need to figure out what certain do (not using any kind of wikia, etc)

[Nazenn]

I pretty much came here to post this exact post after I ran into three fights in a row, all with that one enemy that targets every person on your team and was hitting them for 22 stress.

[holy-death]

Originally posted by Kama Nightfire (Sleeping Kama):

My biggest complaint is the build-up of Stress. Despite my best efforts to heal and manage it, I'm always forced to send my higher ups into recovery at least every two dungeon runs, Short or Medium.

You're supposed to send your men for some R&R to recover... I find it perfectly normal to send heroes there to recover after every run if they need that, just so they will be ready for the upcoming week.

Originally posted by Kama Nightfire (Sleeping Kama):

I don't think it's fair for Stress hits to exceed 15-20 per hit when you only need a buildup of 100 to completely demolish your entire team and forfeit a run due to the nature of one member spoiling the rest. The mechanics to fend of Stress are meager, many skills focused on mending this build-up do not even dent it. The only worthwhile activity outside of docking them into Taverns or Abbys is the campfire, a limited resource only available in larger dungeons, and with the high possibility of an ambush as well.

You can get trinkets that increase chance for a positive effect of stress. I suspect this is not very popular, but I like it.

There are anti-stress skills you can use. Yes, they aren't effective enough to outstress all damage you take, but they can help keep stress somewhat manageable. As long as you don't reach 100 stress too soon (or do so when you complete the quest) then I would say you're doing a good job.

Originally posted by Kama Nightfire (Sleeping Kama):

Stress should be something one keeps under control over time, and not something used to force a slow-down in gameplay. I understand Darkest Dungeon is short, and you needed to impliment something to slow progress, but the numbers do not match up to what is available to recover from it. I do not think one skill that recovers +6 stress is aimed to be balanced on a group that takes 15+ every turn. Manage to take a critical hit in a turn, Stress-wave for everyone, yet doing so on your end only nets 25% of the return in stress-removal.

Stress is supposed to mount. If it doesn't, then stress is not an issue and that's one of the crucial parts of the Darkest Dungeon. Sanity plays a huge role not only on mechanical level, but on lore level as well. Try to approach it from more lovecraftian standpoint and it will make sense.

Besides, it's entirely possible to manage stress to a degree. I do it. I saw a plenty of people doing it.

[IHaveLigma]

Imagine if this game is not designed to let you outheal and outstress all the mechanics? Have you even considered that?

If you could always stabilize/control stress and health, there would be 0 challenge. You are supposed to be wittled down, and try survive long enough before you succumb.

[Nazenn]

For me its less about being able to counter all of it, and more of it actually being apart of the strategy. Right now using stress healing moves is practically redundant because you heal for ten, and the new two enemy attacks give fourty all up. Theres no real balance in that as far as a reason to use them. I want stress to be a challange yes for for it to build up over time and not be able to counter absolutely everything, but I would like it to at least give leeway as far as actually making those moves useful, making enemies not have that as practically their main attack, and make it so that its apart of the strategy rather then just something you put up with.

[Gwumpy Fwog]

Stress is annoying yes, how i deal with it is bring vestial with her stun and crusader with the stress heal and on fights leave the last person alive (hopefully a weaker mob) and try to keep stunning them and use warcry, easy way to reduce stress on ppl as well as keep torch lit.

[Chris]

stress doesn't go away?

[madracc00n]

Get some heroes with good speed(+quirks/trinkets) and dmg to burst stress enemies first.Ur full team is too slow thats why u have hard time(get at least 1-2 fast guys to stun/burst dangerous enemies first).