how do torches work

[Damo Martin]

im still new to the game but how do you handle light sources?

[Narrowmind]

If your torch level is above 74 percent, it's mostly a good thing. The lower it gets, the more critical hits will occur, on both sides, I believe. Your chances of being surprised are also higher at lower light levels. Stress also rises quicker. The only good thing about low torch light is that your chances of finding treasure are increased.

[Damo Martin]

Originally posted by Narrowmind:

If your torch level is above 74 percent, it's mostly a good thing. The lower it gets, the more critical hits will occur, on both sides, I believe. Your chances of being surprised are also higher at lower light levels. Stress also rises quicker. The only good thing about low torch light is that your chances of finding treasure are increased.

how do i better mange always having torches or light levels

[Narrowmind]

You need to keep your backtracking to a minimum and bring characters with traits that are able to boost the light level. If you do those things as well as bringing as many torches as you could potentially need for your runs, you should have plenty of light. But discretion is the better part of valor, and light isn't everything. You have to know when to drop your extra torches or when to turn back, or push on if you're desperate. Try not to take unnecessary risks.

[Tritol]

I usually bring all the food I can from vendor and all the torches, short expeditions 1 stack of torches + whatever you find as you go.

It gives you 25+ light, so every time your light drops to around 75+- just burn one.

Vestal is really helpful early game support, she can heal both whole group or single target, she can stun, remove stealth from enemies and 2 of her abilities increase light.

You can lower the light yourself by interacting with the light bar on top of your screen, I sometimes drop my light to 0 during my final fight in dungeon, or before I camp, or when I go to loot some big chest.
Lower light increases your chance to loot more/better stuff.

But early on, before you learn how the game works, its usually better to keep it up.
Lower light gives more chance to be ambushed, your heroes shuffled out of position, and has chance to spawn miniboss at 0 light.

[Justice]

Hover your mouse on torch to see full info, depending on the light level ( thresholds: 0% 25% 50% 75%)

Originally posted by Narrowmind:

If your torch level is above 74 percent, it's mostly a good thing. The lower it gets, the more critical hits will occur, on both sides, I believe. Your chances of being surprised are also higher at lower light levels. Stress also rises quicker. The only good thing about low torch light is that your chances of finding treasure are increased.

There is a lot big negatives that you wanna avoid. Low torch light is bad when fighting enemies, especially if you are new to this game. You will absolutely get demolished.
- enemy less likealy suprised, while your team oposite will get surprised more often
- No bonus dodge from the light
- less scouting chance
- enemy dmg and accuracy is higher
- more stress recieved
- A lot of positive quirks and trinkets that depend on high light won't work
- Enemy higher crits chance is absolutely not worth the trade off for your team having higher crits. Their attacks hurt more and cost more for you to deal with than if it was normal above 75% light. And also you will get death's door situations so much often.

[Macdallan]

Originally posted by Tritol:

But early on, before you learn how the game works, its usually better to keep it up. Lower light gives more chance to be ambushed, your heroes shuffled out of position, and has chance to spawn miniboss at 0 light.

Absolutely, and once you learn how light works you'll be tempted to start letting it get darker once in a while for better loot.

When you get used to that then you'll begin to contemplate doing dark runs for loot.

Eventually you may feel a desire to embrace the darkness... and if you do you may find yourself taking a group of antiquarians, all with the trinket finding camping ability, into a medium or long dungeon for a dark run and coming out brimming with trinkets and loot.

[Damo Martin]

Originally posted by Macdallan:

Originally posted by Tritol:

But early on, before you learn how the game works, its usually better to keep it up. Lower light gives more chance to be ambushed, your heroes shuffled out of position, and has chance to spawn miniboss at 0 light.

Absolutely, and once you learn how light works you'll be tempted to start letting it get darker once in a while for better loot.

When you get used to that then you'll begin to contemplate doing dark runs for loot.

Eventually you may feel a desire to embrace the darkness... and if you do you may find yourself taking a group of antiquarians, all with the trinket finding camping ability, into a medium or long dungeon for a dark run and coming out brimming with trinkets and loot.

what should I keep in mind for managing light early game to balance how mucn i have

[Macdallan]

Originally posted by Damo Martin:

Originally posted by Macdallan:

Absolutely, and once you learn how light works you'll be tempted to start letting it get darker once in a while for better loot.

When you get used to that then you'll begin to contemplate doing dark runs for loot.

Eventually you may feel a desire to embrace the darkness... and if you do you may find yourself taking a group of antiquarians, all with the trinket finding camping ability, into a medium or long dungeon for a dark run and coming out brimming with trinkets and loot.

what should I keep in mind for managing light early game to balance how mucn i have

If you're new to the game it is probably best to just keep the light above 75% all the time if you can. Torches aren't free but they are fairly cheap. 8 should be enough for short runs but if you find it isn't then start bringing 12 and see if you use them all or not. Adjust as needed. I can usually get by with 12-16 for medium runs, and 16 to 20 for long runs. Depends partially on where I'm heading and what the mission is. You sell unused torches (and all other supplies) back to the shop at a lower price than you paid when you finish a run with them in your inventory so don't skimp on light until you have a good feel for how many you personally need. This is also a game where bringing a bit too much isn't a bad thing, you can always use or drop stuff if you need to pick up loot.

Generally I won't use a torch until the light level is at or slightly under 76%, any excess light over the maximum of 100 that is provided by using a torch is wasted. Being careful about when to use torches lets you maximise the amount of light you can generate throughout the run.

Dungeon length and layout matters. Do you need to backtrack a lot? You can often backtrack with lower light levels and refresh so it's above 75 when you get to a new section where it's more dangerous.

General things to keep in mind are how many torches you brought or have left, the mission objective, if characters have any +light abilities that can boost your light level during combat, and what trinkets you have - do you NEED to keep the light at 76+ to be effective in combat due to your trinket selection or characters or can you let it drop a bit?

Do you expect a fight ahead because your group did some scouting? If you are sure that no fights are coming up then you might be safe to let it dip below 76 for a while especially if you are about to camp because after you camp the light level goes up to 100.

The fights are often, but not always (thanks to RNG) easier with high light levels due to the low light debuffs for your team and buffs for the enemy that are noted above and because things can go wrong in this game very, very quickly. One enemy critical hit at the wrong time can kill a character. To be safe you're usually better off keeping the light level high.

The wiki has detailed info about light levels if you want to know more: https://darkestdungeon.wiki.gg/wiki/Light_Meter

[Ghoul Hunter]

Lower torch = much higher enemy damage, accuracy, stress damage, surprise rate, etc. Every bar on the meter increases the enemy strength.

You get some marginal benefits too, like a bit of crit rate, but it's not worth the tradeoff.

[Damo Martin]

Originally posted by Ghoul Hunter:

Lower torch = much higher enemy damage, accuracy, stress damage, surprise rate, etc. Every bar on the meter increases the enemy strength.

You get some marginal benefits too, like a bit of crit rate, but it's not worth the tradeoff.

How do you get more torches when exploring the dungeons

[Tritol]

Interacting with curious, torches can come randomly as loot from things.

There is also "sconce" curio that always give you torch.

Alchemy table curio gives you light, if you use herbs on it, it will give you loot, but burning it witch torch gives you 100% light.
So you "waste" torch but you can get more than 25 light from it.

You can also use some hero abilities to increase light, vestal, crusader, arbalest.

Camping on medium/long missions also resets your light to 100.
You can let your light drop really low and save few torches, if you know you are going to camp in 1 or 2 rooms anyway.

[Justice]

Originally posted by Damo Martin:

Originally posted by Ghoul Hunter:

Lower torch = much higher enemy damage, accuracy, stress damage, surprise rate, etc. Every bar on the meter increases the enemy strength.

You get some marginal benefits too, like a bit of crit rate, but it's not worth the tradeoff.

How do you get more torches when exploring the dungeons

You don't. Other than curio with single torch. But other than you start and end mission with amount of torches you start with. Experient yourself how much torches you would need for short/medium/long size dungeons. Some region would require more torches like Weald with big long hallways
There is heroes like Vestal, Crusader who have skill abilitites that include increasing torchlight. But you shouldn't relly on that. They are just a bonus to save some torches.

[Damo Martin]

Originally posted by Justice:

Originally posted by Damo Martin:

How do you get more torches when exploring the dungeons

You don't. Other than curio with single torch. But other than you start and end mission with amount of torches you start with. Experient yourself how much torches you would need for short/medium/long size dungeons. Some region would require more torches like Weald with big long hallways
There is heroes like Vestal, Crusader who have skill abilitites that include increasing torchlight. But you shouldn't relly on that. They are just a bonus to save some torches.

How long can I go between using a torch ?

[Justice]

Originally posted by Damo Martin:

Originally posted by Justice:

You don't. Other than curio with single torch. But other than you start and end mission with amount of torches you start with. Experient yourself how much torches you would need for short/medium/long size dungeons. Some region would require more torches like Weald with big long hallways
There is heroes like Vestal, Crusader who have skill abilitites that include increasing torchlight. But you shouldn't relly on that. They are just a bonus to save some torches.

How long can I go between using a torch ?

1 Torch give +25% to light, each square in hallways takes -6% of light. When backtracking from explored paths -1%

[rtgeorge]

You can usually go one or two hallways without needing to pop a new torch, if you're using them when you hit around 50 or so.