The Easiest Hero Guide

I suggest a ranking of heroes that are easy to use, and generally ♥♥♥♥ around entertaining myself. You maybe learn something.

Introduction

This is a guide for new players to try and sort out which heroes are relatively easy to get decent results with.

Many guides attempt to rank the heroes or assign them to tier levels based on how powerful they can be when used properly.

In this guide, I'm going to develop a top 9 based not on which are "best", but which are "easiest". Don't worry, we're not going to be talking about your mom.

There will be some discussion at the end of which heroes are "hardest" (not your dad), and possibly better avoided until you have some more experience.

We'll also go over positioning and skills, possibly some discussion of trinkets, and if I'm feeling super motivated by the end there might be some bonus content. Like... uh... I don't know. Would you believe me if I said I'll end with my Arbalest fan fiction?

Also, this guide will contain spoilers. I can't think of what, specifically, but I'd rather warn you that I'm going to spoil something than have to censor myself, so consider yourself warned.


Darth Vader is Anakin Skywalker, Luke's father.

I assume in this guide that you will be playing high torch (buying torches for every mission and keeping the torch above 75% at all times). This will make your Darkest Dungeon experience much easier.

Basic Summary of Combat

Also, I should say that, in this guide I'm assuming that we're going to take a fairly "textbook" approach to combat. Specifically, combat is broken down into a couple of distinct phases:

• Combat has just started and it's a 4v4. We're looking to pick off dangerous targets as fast as possible, with a particular emphasis on enemy stress casters. Usually these targets will be on the back lines, so our focus will often be on putting as much damage as possible on enemy positions 3 and 4. At the same time, we will either make some minimal effort to control the front line with stuns, or maybe ignore it altogether.
  
• Now we're sure that all of the high priority targets are dead, and only non-threatening enemies are left. The fight should be a 4v2, or maybe a 4v1 against a double wide. We're confident we can out heal the damage, and the remaining enemies should not include a stress caster. At this point, we stall the fight.
  
• Stalling is basically the practice of having your heavy hitters attack corpses, noodle around, and spread damage across the living enemies in the most inefficient way possible to draw out the combat. Ideally, there will be some way of stunning the remaining target(s) so that they are basically incapacitated for a couple of turns. In this window, our healer and stress healer are casting away like mad to repair any damage that was done in combat.

A word of caution, the game is designed to try and detect stalling behavior. This will never happen against a double wide, but otherwise you will eventually reach this point. You will know that this is being triggered when one of your characters says something about finishing the last enemy off quickly. At this point, it's usually best to finish the remaining enemy off that turn while maybe getting in a couple of last heals.

Mouse Overs and Decision Making

I'm also going to take a brief detour to talk about mouse overs, especially as they apply to combat.

Using mouse overs is probably by far the most important fundamental game skill, yet many people seem not to absorb the level of information available. In the game's defense, the tutorial does talk about mouse overs, but I'm going a little more in depth, because a lot of the mouse over menus are an absolute must read for decision making.

Consider the first enemy in the entire game, a Brigand Cutthroat from the tutorial level. Looking at his image on screen reveals that his arms are longer than his legs and his knives are longer than his arms, but the mouse over menu tells us so much more.

I'm not judging your appearance... I'm judging your terrible stat line.

By mousing over the enemy and reading the menu at the bottom of the screen, we can see that the enemy type is Human, health is 12/12 HP, enemy PROT, dodge is 2, speed is 3, a full list of resistances, and that there are no special skills or attacks.

We can also mouse over our character skills to see what they do, but, perhaps most importantly, if we select an attack and mouse over an enemy, we can see hit probability and damage range for the attack. Let's say that in that same tutorial combat, we decide to use Dismas's Open Vein, but before we click on the enemy to confirm the attack, we try mousing over with the attack selected to find out what will happen.

Now you can see how likely it is for your attack to hit, making you that much angrier when it misses.

It's good to try and get in the habit of doing this to figure out what all of your attacks will probably do before you make them. You can compare different attacks on the same enemy, or the likely outcome of attacking different enemies. Once you have a good feel for the enemies and skills, this will come more naturally, but while you're figuring the game out, you can compare all of your options on every combat action.

We can also mouse over our own heroes, quirks, upgrades in the village, the torch level, items we pick up in the dungeon, items we buy in shops... when in doubt, always mouse over. Unfortunately, not all mouse over information was created equal. Quirk descriptions, for example, are often vague or difficult to parse without more game experience.

Vestal

Starting out with the easiest, and moving down to the fiendishly difficult, the easiest hero is:

I'm not starting here because of the origin comic... OK, I'm not just starting here because of the origin comic.

Back line Vestal. There are other ideas for Vestal builds, but they're honestly not as good, so why over complicate? Back line Vestal is a dedicated healer who occupies position 3 or 4, and always builds around the same 4 skills:

Judgement. Damage plus self-heal. Only heals if it doesn't miss, so don't rely on this if Vestal is on Death's Door (use Divine Grace for a self-heal instead). The damage probably won't kill on its own, but it's good for finishing off enemies who are already almost dead. Usually used at the start of a fight against positions 3 and 4 if your other heroes can't quite finish off the baddies.

Dazzling Light. Stun attack that can target enemy positions 1-3. In the early rounds of a fight, if you can't potentially kill something with Judgement, it's often best to stun something instead. And often that something is located in enemy position 3. Stuns stack well with damage over time (DOT) effects like blight and bleed, and taking away an enemy turn is usually a good trade for Vestal's turn unless your party needs the heals.

Divine Grace. Single target heal, usually best to use on a hero who has suffered a critical hit or has been ganged up on a little bit by the enemies. With a healing trinket or two, it's totally possible to out heal single target damage from weak enemies when you're stalling at the end of a fight (important note: if you don't know what stalling is, look it up -- super important part of the game).

Divine Comfort. And, finally, we get to the main event. Heals the entire party. This one skill can take every hero in the fight off of Death's Door. It's important to remember that, in Darkest Dungeon, a hero with any amount of health left cannot be killed. They must first be reduced to 0 health, and then suffer additional damage. Which is what makes Divine Comfort so incredibly good. It can also typically heal more total damage stalling at the end of a fight than weak enemies can dish out, provided that your entire party needs healing.

Vestal has decent camping skills. Sanctuary prevents night time ambush, and will also stress heal characters with mortality debuffs. Pray and Chant can be good party stress-heals, for religious parties.

Trinkets: I like a Junia's Head lategame, plus maybe a Book of Sanity to reduce stress. Earlier, other +heal, or +stun can be good. Dazzling Charm or Chirurgeon's Charm, for example, might turn up early.

Vestal can follow a pretty simple decision tree in combat:

• Are one or more heroes on low HP or Death's Door? If yes, use single or multi-target heal as needed.
  
• If no, are you stalling to recover HP at the end of combat? If yes, use single or multi-target heal as needed.
  
• If no, is it likely that Judgement will pick off a high-priority target? If yes, cast Judgement.
  
• If no, use Dazzling Light on best available stun target.

Don't be a total slave to this. If it makes sense to use a torch, or bandages or anti-venom item, do that. If your party has been shuffled out of position, it might make more sense to reposition. Etc.

[EDIT: I realized when I was playing recently that there are a few things that might be unclear or oversimplified in the decision tree above. 1. If Vestal is the character who needs healing, Judgement is probably the right option, unless Vestal is on Death's Door. That's noted in the section on the skill, but maybe should have been included in the decision tree. More importantly, 2. Sometimes it's going to make more sense to repeatedly cast Judgement to chip away at an enemy than to use Dazzling Light. Usually, this is going to be when there is something much worse in the back line than the front line, that might take more than a couple of other hits to die. A Crossbow Skeleton in the Ruins, with just two club skeletons on the front line. Or maybe, later on, a Hateful Virago in the Weald, with pretty much anything else in the front line.]

Houndmaster

Is he way too close with the dog? Yes. Should we dig into that more? Probably not.

Coming in second, the Houndmaster. It is absolutely ridiculous how easily this hero can fit into a team. I'm going to recommend back line Houndmaster. Why? Houndmaster is a little bit low on HP for a front line hero. He can definitely do work in position 2, but in the interest of absolute simplicity, I'm going to recommend keeping him in the 3 or 4 slots. This is also going to make picking skills easier:

Hound's Rush. OK damage, can apply a Bleed. Hits any enemy position. Good stuff.

Hound's Harry. Generally speaking, you'd rather burst down a specific target than spread damage out over a group. But, if you're just a couple damage away from finishing off a target, or shuffled out of position, this can have its uses. Also, pretty damn good against Wall of Flesh.

Cry Havoc. Group stress heal. Very useful when stalling at the end of combat.

Lick Wounds. Self heal. This isn't anything special, but it can come in handy to have it in your back pocket.

Houndmaster has some decidedly above-average camping skills. Hound's Watch is a good way to prevent nighttime ambush and also keep surprise on your side. Therapy Dog can be a good party stress heal, and Release the Hound boosts the all-important chance of scouting ahead.

Trinkets: If I'm using something like an Ancestor's Map (or the much more common Survival Guide early on), I'm likely to throw it on Houndmaster. Ancestor's Pistol is nice, as the Houndmaster can use some additional accuracy. Other accuracy trinkets like Sun Ring (for high torch play) are also welcome in the early game.

Dog Treats: That dog loves the bone. +15 ACC and +50% damage for 3 rounds of combat is pretty game changing. It probably goes without saying you should save one (or both) of these for the boss if you're on a boss fight mission. Otherwise, try and save them for when the real big bad monsters show up. You don't want to be burning through these when you're in a hall fight against spiders.

In combat, start off by using Hound's Rush to rush down high-priority enemy targets in positions 3 and 4. Once you're stalling, Cry Havoc to stress heal the party. Throw in a Lick Wounds if HP is dangerously low or if Houndmaster needs HP more than the party needs a stress heal at the end.

Abomination

Oh, good. This game definitely didn't feel goth enough already.

Number three, the Abomination. A lot of people might think this is a controversial pick, because deciding when it's the right time to Transform and using the Transformed Abomination skills well can be very tricky indeed. Fortunately, I have some very simple advice for that: never Transform. In this guide, we will be looking at human-only Abomination. In human form, Abomination belongs in positions 2 or 3. He has solid HP, and decent Dodge, so a lot of times, position 2 is going to make sense. Also, the skill breakdown is pretty easy, because there are only three of them:

Manacles. Relatively high accuracy stun, hits enemy positions 1-3. It does pretty good damage for a a stun. If you're not sure what to do, Manacles.

Beast's Bile. Blight DOT to enemy positions 2 and 3. More situational than Manacles, but plays well against armored targets in the Ruins and Cove, as well as some bosses.

Absolution. Self-heal plus self stress-heal. It can definitely be good to have some additional recovery on the front line.

The camping skills here are genuinely bad. The Quickening is +4SPD on self for 4 Battles, but you can probably find something better to do with 3 camping points.

Trinkets: The Abomination's main role is to go first and stun something, so trinkets that give +stun% or + SPD are generally what your'e looking for. The class trinket, Padlock of Transference, is reasonable. Some additional accuracy never hurts, so something like Ancestor's Signet Ring can work. Early game stun trinkets like Stun Amulet and Dazzling Charm also fit the build. Try to avoid trinkets that give -SPD.

In combat, the dream is to use Manacles to stun lock something nasty in position 3 until it's dead. If that doesn't seem likely, it's probably time to use Manacles to stun something in position 1 or 2. Keep it simple, and don't Transform.

Hellion

She is... totally wearing a baby's skull as a belt buckle. I don't even want to know what the necklace is made of.

Hellion belongs in one position, and that is position 1. From position 1, Hellion can hit any enemy position, and hit them hard. Whichever threat needs to be dealt with first, Hellion can help.

Wicked Hack. Basic attack, decent damage, hits enemy positions 1 and 2.

Iron Swan. Don't sleep on the ability to put front line damage on to enemy position 4. Against low-HP, low-armor back liners, this is often a one shot kill, or close to it.

Barbaric YAWP! Stuns attack vs enemy positions 1 and 2. This is very good later in the fight, when stalling becomes an option. Early on, focus should be on taking out the back line quickly.

If it Bleeds. Hits enemy positions 1-3 and has a chance to apply a bleed. This hits pretty hard for a DOT attack, and the ability to hit position 3 is a definite plus.

Other Hellion skills can also work, but this is my preferred set. The ability to strike at any enemy is a definite asset in Darkest Dungeon, and these skills make it easy.

Hellion has a decent set of camping skills. Battle Trance can take her damage to the next level setting up for a boss fight, and Revel can be a great way to end a dungeon. If you've been properly managing your party's stress, -20 is going to leave everyone ready to go for the next dungeon. Until they get sick or develop a nasty quirk, of course.

Trinkets: Like many damage dealers, Hellion benefits from trinkets that give accuracy and damage bonuses. The class trinket Heaven's Hairpin is nice for high torch play, and Focus Ring is also good tech. Also, Sun Ring, Ancestor's Pen, Eldritch Slayer's (or other enemy type Slayer. Plan accordingly depending on which Dungeon your'e going into) Ring, Surgical Gloves. You get the idea. You want to make sure that you're hitting consistently and hard.

Hellion's one downside is that her HP is slightly low for a front liner, and Dodge is an unreliable way to keep your characters alive. Hellion wants to go into every fight with full health, and benefits from having a powerful healer to keep her out of trouble. Take advantage of her strong offense to make sure your enemies aren't around long enough to cause problems, and stall at the end of fights to recover HP if necessary.

Bounty Hunter

He has never once caught someone and returned them into custody alive.

Bounty Hunter has pretty good HP, so he can stand in the front line without problems. He has easy damage, a stun with a knock back, and if he can't reach a target in enemy position 4, he can just drag them to the enemy front line.

Collect Bounty. Hits enemy positions 1 and 2 from positions 1 through 3, with massive damage bonus vs marked. I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time on marking and marking parties in this guide, but it's something I recommend looking into once you've mastered the basics and you're ready to build more complicated and interesting parties. Although... always remember that complicated things are more prone to falling apart.

Come Hither. Hits enemy positions 3 and 4 from any position, pulls the target forward two positions and applies a mark for two turns. Disrupting the enemy position can be very useful, for a couple reasons: 1. Most of the time, low HP, high priority targets are hiding in the back, and bringing them in range of your front line attackers can spell almost instant death for those characters, and 2. Many enemies have weaker attacks when they're out of position. This can be true of both the back line target you pulled forward, and the front line enemy that now finds itself in enemy position 3.

Uppercut. Stun attack that hits enemy positions 1 and 2 from positions 1 and 2, and can knock the enemy back one position. Knocking the position 2 enemy back against a full enemy party will have the effect of advancing the position 3 enemy to position 2. Stuns are good, see above about why disrupting the enemy position can be good. This is great utility.

Finish Him. It was important to the developers that we get the reference material. You know, because dragging the enemy in with a hook was possibly too subtle. Anyway... Hits enemy positions 1 through 3, +25% damage vs stunned. Many parties have a few stunners on board, so this is pretty easy synergy that doesn't have to be forced.

Decent-ish camping skills, but limited in that they can only be applied to himself. Bounty Hunter is somewhere between a utility character and a damage dealer, so self damage buffing feels a little suspect. Scout Ahead might be worth it, because scouting can have huge payoffs.

Trinkets: Boost accuracy, boost stuns, etc. Dazzling Charm, Focus Ring, Stun Amulet, Surgical Gloves, Ancestor's Signet Ring, Sun Ring.

Bounty hunter is a versatile character with a broad skill set, and tanky enough that you're not overly worried about keeping him safe. Relatively easy to fit into a lot of different teams, he can provide damage, utility, or a combination of the two. He is most effective from friendly position 2, but can find things to do from a variety of positions with slight tweaks to the build.

Crusader

Over time, I've become convinced that this is actually an empty suit of haunted armor.

The Crusader is a solid hero who makes it really difficult to establish a time period the game is supposed to take place in. The Hellion is also pretty out of place in time but I'm giving her a pass because she clearly died and then fought her way out of literal hell by killing demons with a spear. Anyway...

Smite. Decent damage, which hits enemy positions 1 and 2. Gets a damage bonus against unholy, which makes Crusader something of a heavy hitter in the Ruins.

Stunning Blow. Stuns enemy positions 1 and 2, with decent damage for a stun. This makes it easy to control the enemy front lines.

Holy Lance. Can only be used from positions 3 and 4, moves Crusader up one positions and damages enemy positions 2-4. There are teams built around dancing Crusaders, because this skill is extremely good, but also useful on front line Crusaders to give some options in the event of team shuffles.

Inspiring Cry. Heals a little bit of damage, stress heal, and increases the torch by 5. The damage heal can be used to pull someone off of death's door in an emergency, but generally this is used as a stress heal. Crusader isn't as good at stress healing as Jester or Houndmaster, but outside of boss fights this can cover all of your party's stress healing needs. Well... this, some camping skills, good crits, and some smart use of the dungeon.

Crusader may not be the best stress healer in combat, but his camping stress healing is pretty great. Zealous speech is -15 Stress to the entire party, Zealous Vigil is a self stress heal that prevents night time ambushes, and Stand Tall is a -15 Stress heal that removes the mortality debuff. Ideally, your heroes shouldn't have mortality debuffs, but, hey, ♥♥♥♥ happens.

Trinkets: Crusader is generally good for stuns and recovery, so good trinkets usually focus on stuns (which can also benefit from accuracy) and recovery. Paralyzer's Crest is a good class trinket, Surgical Gloves, Dazzling Charm, Sun Ring, and Ancestor's Scroll are all good picks.

I like to park Crusader in position 1 or 2 to take advantage of his high HP to tank some damage. Your front liners get hit more than your back liners, so having a front liner who can soak up damage is often good. Start fights using Stunning Blow to control one or (both) enemy front liners. You're often going to leave one front liner alive for the end of the fight to stall, but there's nothing wrong with killing the other, and sometimes you'd like to take out both, so Smite can also be useful. At the end of the fight, Inspiring Cry is Crusader's tool to help out with stress healing.

Highwayman

Who robs people with a gun and a knife? Pick a lane, dude.

The Highwayman may be the most one-dimensional character in Darkest Dungeon. He is here to dish out damage. Every one of his skills deals damage to the enemy, and the only questions to ask are where do you want to put the damage and what type of damage do you want to do? When it's Highwayman's turn, all you need to know is which enemy needs to die the most.

Duelist's Advance. Moves Highwayman 1 position forward and hits enemy positions 1-3. The damage that keeps on giving, this gives Highwayman Riposte. A typical trick is to start Highwayman one position back in the lineup from where you'd like him, say position 3, and then start the fight with Duelists Advance to get Riposte up and advance into position 2.

Pistol Shot. Hits enemy positions 2-4 from positions 2-4. This skill is a good reason to keep Highwayman out of position 1, as it's useful for taking down the enemy back line quickly. After starting a fight with Duelist's Advance, the next turn or two are probably going to be spent firing off Pistol Shots.

Open Vein. Hits enemy positions 1-2 with damage and a bleed effect. Decent vs bosses and other large/heavily armored targets.

Point Blank Shot. Moves Highwayman back 1 position from position 1 and damages enemy position 1. I wouldn't go out of my way to set up Point Blank Shot, but the ability to get Highwayman out of position 1 without hitting the move back button is worth something. In most fights, taking out enemy position 1 isn't a priority, so try not to find yourself in a situation where you have to use this.

There are some good camping skills here. Bandit's Sense prevents nighttime ambush,makes it less likely that the party will be surprised, and makes it more likely that enemies will be surprised. This is all extremely good stuff. Unparalleled Finesse pairs well with Duelist's Advance. And Gallows Humor works out to be a very decent stress heal, on average. Possibly worth using at the end of a dungeon where the town can be used for stress relief as a backup plan.

Trinkets: Many of Highwayman's class trinkets buff his melee attacks at the cost of ranged attack, or buff his ranged attacks at the cost of his melee attacks. Obviously, with my chosen skills, that's not a very good idea. Like most damage dealers, Highwayman wants more accuracy, but unlike some other damage dealers he also benefits from Dodge and PROT because of Riposte. Sun Cloak, Sun Ring (high torch play), Ancestor's Signet Ring, and Ancestor's Pistol are all reasonable picks. This is a rare damage dealer where I would avoid Focus Ring.

I've seen Highwayman described as a glass cannon, which confuses me, because his HP is squarely in the middle of all heroes. The damage output is high, and he is a little squishy for a position 2, but I wouldn't recommend him if I thought it would be a real struggle to keep him alive. Like many heroes, he can benefit from taking Vestal along to provide reliable healing. Also, like many heroes, I'd recommend stalling at the end of the fight to fully heal him up so he's not going into the next fight at low HP. As a last resort, he can be shuffled into position 3 for safety, where he can still hit the enemy back line.

Jester

His comedy is way more intense than what you're used to.

There's a more complicated way of playing Jester that involves some shuffling around, but I'm going to recommend a simpler approach. Position 3 Jester, back line support and stress healer. This plan does not involve any of his skills that move him around being used.

Inspiring Tune. This is what the character is all about. Highest single-target stress heal in the game. Don't stress the small stuff. Or the big stuff. Or anything.

Battle Ballad. Buffs your entire team's accuracy, crit and speed for four rounds. This can be good in boss fights, or in combination with specific other characters. Most of the time, you're going to want to skip this and get some damage in instead.

Slice Off. Every good comic brings a deadly sickle to the show, and the Jester is no exception. Hits a single target in enemy position 2 or 3 and can apply Bleed. Often, single-target damage is the way to go, as you're going to be focused on killing one high-priority target at a time. However, there is still some room for...

Harvest. Hits enemy positions 2 and 3 and applies a Bleed. Less accurate and less damage per target than Slice Off, but this can be good if you're just finishing off one of the targets, or if the target you really want to hit is stealthed, making it untargetable. Also, monstrously effective against Wall of Flesh.

There are some good camping skills in here. Every Rose Has its Thorn and Turn Back Time are good as stress heals. Tiger's Eye can be a helpful set up for big fights if you're camping on the way in to set up combat buffs.

Trinkets: Jester doesn't need anything to be effective at managing the party's stress, which is good, but goes against the general method of selecting trinkets (make the character better at what you want them to do). One idea is to give him scouting tech like Ancestor's Map or Survival Guide. Another is to work on survivability. Jester has the lowest HP of any character I included in my top 9, so trinkets that give Protection or Dodge can help out. Barristan's Head, Ancestor's Signet Ring, Wilbur's Flag and Ancestor's Coat can all fit the bill.

Jester is best in areas where Bleed is important (Warrens and Weald), but the stress healing plays everywhere. Usually start fights with Slice Off on whatever target is nastiest in enemy position 2 or 3, and then use Inspiring Tune to heal up whichever hero is most stressed when you're stalling at the end.

Plague Doctor

When I learned in school that medieval doctors often killed their patients, I'm not sure this is what we were talking about.

Described as the Queen of Stuns, Plague Doctor is known for locking down enemy back lines and acting to preempt damage and stress. Also described as Darkest Dungeon's waifu, she has the power to really make you wonder what the community thinks it's looking for in a woman. Most effective from the far back of the line, she will often monopolize position 4, but can also work from position 3.

Noxious Blast. Applies a Blight DOT to enemy position 1 or 2. Most of the time, there's no real reason to apply a Blight to the enemy front line, so this skill is kind of just here so Plague Doctor can stay busy after the back line is gone. It can work out in some boss fights, as well.

Plague Grenade. Applies a powerful Blight to enemy positions 3 and 4. Wherever Blights are good (Ruins and Cove), this can virtually guarantee that the enemy back line is cleaned up by turn 3. The only drawback is that casting this would prevent you from using....

Blinding Gas. High accuracy, high percentage stun against enemy positions 3 and 4. In theory, your team is built to put damage on to enemy positions 3 and 4, so the only thing left to do is make sure they don't get any attacks off while they're still alive. Blinding gas is very good at doing this, and plays in every area in the game. Most combats will see Plague Doctor casting Blinding Gas to stun the enemy back line turn 1, and casting it again (assuming a high enough stun percentage) turn 2. Ideally, after that, the enemy back liners are on their way out, and there's no further need to stun their corpses.

Battlefield Medicine. Heals a small amount of damage, and also cures bleeds and blights. Removing DOT effects can be huge preventative healing, so don't sleep on this hugely useful skill. Many higher level enemies will be Blighting and Bleeding, especially in the Cove, Weald and Warrens.

Plague Doctor also has some useful camping skills. Experimental Vapors can heal 50% of a character's HP, if they've somehow gotten themselves into a lot of trouble, and Leeches, while not as powerful healing-wise, can also remove blight. The Cure is very situational (situation: the Plague Doctor has a disease), but has great value.

Trinkets: You really want to get your hands on the class trinket Blasphemous Vial. Many of the very rare class trinkets aren't that great, and certainly haven't made it into my recommendations, but this is perfect for Plague Doctor's style. Witch's Vial is also good. Otherwise, you're looking to boost stuns and speed, using the usual suspects. The Tempting Goblet, Dazzling Charm, Stun Charm, Feather Crystal, etc.

Generally speaking, park Plague Doctor in position 4 and use Blinding Gas to lock down enemy back lines. If one of your heroes gets a DOT, it may be better to use Battlefield Medicine to remove it. Once the back line is gone, switch over to Noxious Blast, or maybe just spam Battlefield Medicine if you can see that Noxious Blast isn't really going to help.

Hard Heroes

Now that we've covered heroes that I think give good results for minimal effort, I'm going to take some time out of my busy schedule to throw shade. Although, not really, because I'm not saying that any of the heroes I'm about to talk about are bad. In fact, when properly used, they can be very good. I'm saying that they're non-intuitive and too damn complicated for this guide.

Occultist.
Is he... using a baby skull as a candle holder??

If you've looked into the Occultist, you've probably heard that he has the highest single target heal in the game. But, really, there are many complications with the Occultist as a healer. The foremost among them being that the heal is not reliable. The classic newbie mistake with Wyrd Reconstruction is to wait until a hero needs to be healed for almost all their health, and then get sad when Wyrd Reconstruction rolls a series of 3s, and you watch your unfortunate hero suffer a deathblow a few enemy actions later.

The only sensible strategy is to assume that Wyrd Reconstruction is going to low roll, and try to get your heals in relatively early. But then, you get none of the benefits of having the highest single target heal in the game. You also don't have the benefits of a whole party heal, which significantly out scales single target heals in the late game.

Some ideas for using Occultist as a healer include bringing along a secondary healer (Plague Doctor works well for this, as Battlefield Medicine can even cure the Bleed), bringing along a party of self healers, keeping Wyrd Reconstruction at a lower level than your hero's level until you reach Champion... it's a complicated mess, and that's why I'd recommend steering clear if you're struggling with the game's difficult learning curve already.

Occultist also has a stun that lowers the torch level, and one of the lowest HPs in the entire game. It's the opposite of the easy to use.

Grave Robber.
You gonna die.

Ok, I can't say with any certainty that new players can't figure out how to keep Grave Robber alive. But it's kind of a delicate dance. She has very low HP, to a large extent relies on Dodge to stay alive, and is constantly moving herself up into positions 1 and 2.

And, assuming that she does stay alive, she is going to be constantly changing positions. Which means that your other heroes will be constantly changing positions. Several heroes can benefit from being in a dancing line up, but only Grave Robber truly requires the player to build one.

Fragile HP, needs a team built around her, needs good combat awareness (or maybe an extremely specific quirk and trinket build) to keep alive, and every turn has the potential to change with skills your other party members have access to? Again, this is the opposite of the easy to use game play this guide attempts to promote. And, again, I'd recommend that new players keep their distance.

The Antiquarian.

Yeah, I can't even be arsed to dig up an image. The Antiquarian's gimmick is that she finds rare and valuable loot, at the expense of not doing a whole lot in combat.

Sort of, because it turns out that there are perfectly viable teams that can be built around Antiquarian, using very specific skills, and other very specific Heroes.

But, my main issue with Antiquarian is that gold isn't that limited as a resource. Play high torch and find the secret rooms. Learn the curios and walk away from any dungeon loaded down with loot. Sell the trinkets you're not going to use, which is the majority of trinkets you get as early dungeon rewards. If you're feeling truly desperate, round up whatever heroes show up in the stage coach, don't provision them, and send them on a suicide mission to collect as much loot from the dungeon as possible until they're forced to run. The Antiquarian's loot is completely unnecessary to achieving your goals.

So, to sum up, the only way to make Antiquarian a real participating member of your team is to build something very specific and sort of non-intuitive, and her money-making gimmick isn't needed at all.

And the Rest

We've reviewed heroes I like for ease of use, and heroes I actively recommend new players stay away from because they're too damn complicated, but what about the rest of them?

Briefly, here are the rest of the heroes and why they didn't make my cut:

The Leper: Big tanky front liner who puts out massive damage to enemy positions 1 and 2, although he struggles with accuracy. Didn't make the cut because generally you don't want massive damage against enemy positions 1 and 2, so it's not straightforward to use Leper to make combat go the way we want it to. Also, struggles mightily when out of position. There is literally no skill Leper can use from position 4.

Man-at-Arms: High HP, tanky support/utility. Man-at-Arms is great, but it would be a joke to say he's easy to use. He has a skill set for positions 1, 2, 3 and 4. There's an argument for using almost all of his skills in different situations, he can be used in multiple ways, and every turn of combat is going to raise questions about which skill would be best to use. Rampart, his stun skill, has the added complication of moving him around in your party. It probably wouldn't do much harm to pick this guy up and play around with him, but my guess is most new players aren't going to figure out how to use him to full potential.

Arbalest/Musketeer: The Musketeer is a re-skinned Arbalest, so they don't get independent sections. Arbalest basically has to be played in position 4, which is a hotly contested spot. Arbalest is best in a marking team, which the astute reader will notice means building a team around them. And... how to put this? I just don't care. Working through Arbalest's various issues to finally get them into a team doesn't feel like it's really worth the effort. On the plus side, they can put up big damage numbers, so if you like seeing big numbers on the screen, feel free to try them out.

Example Teams

There really isn't much point to me suggesting easy to use heroes if I couldn't also suggest some easy to use teams to put them in. Don't get me wrong, many good teams do use the other heroes, and easy isn't always the same as fun. I intended this guide as a starting point for new players to branch out from, not as the final stop on the Darkest Dungeon journey.

Lets look at some "easy" hero teams using the skill builds we looked at earlier.



This is the first team that everyone gets in Darkest Dungeon, but here I'm assuming we have all of the skills we want (which makes the team much, much easier to work with). Also this Crusader isn't a kleptomaniac like Reynauld. The reason Highwayman starts in position 3 is that we want to start the fight with Duelists Advance, which will put him into position 2, like so.



Now all the heroes are in the proper positions (front line Crusader, Highwayman in position 2, back line Vestal, back line Plague Doctor). Also, notice that we have a healer, a stress healer/support, a damage dealer, and secondary healer/stun bot in Plague Doctor. Not all teams need to have all of these things, but it's usually useful to have a healer, a stress healer, and a damage dealer, and some sort of stuns.

It can be helpful to think about heroes in terms of filling a role, or look for good hero pairings to use as building blocks when putting teams together. For example, Jester and Vestal are a classic back line pairing. The best healer and a fantastic stress healer, these two can bring almost any team back from the edge during the stalling phase of combat. New players can become overly reliant on this pair, because it's very forgiving of mistakes as long as you stall properly for recovery at the end of the fight (but let's worry about that problem later, or possibly never).

If we do start building the team with Vestal and Jester, we know we want Jester in position 3, and Vestal in position 4 (because it's the only back line slot left). We also know that we have a healer and a stress healer, so we probably want some sort of stun/utility and at least one damage dealer in positions 1 and 2. Looking through our list of heroes, we might notice that Abomination is basically a stun bot in position 2, and Hellion is a position 1 with fantastic damage output.

So, now we have a team:


This team doesn't have the most amazingly thought out synergies or anything, but I bet it would work pretty well for getting through most dungeons.

Now let's say we're in the game, and the Stage Coach hasn't brought those exact heroes to us. Maybe we don't have a Jester to work with, but we realize that Houndmaster can fill that position 3 and the role as a stress healer. Or we don't have an Abomination, but the more we think about it, the more we realize that maybe we'd rather have a Bounty Hunter in position 2 anyway. Then we could wind up with this:



Again, the team isn't really designed around super tight synergies or a unifying theme, but it looks perfectly workable to me.

Now, to keep going with this example, let's say we take the team into the dungeon, and everyone makes it out reasonably intact, but we notice that Cry Havoc isn't doing as much as we'd like as a stress heal, and sometimes our Hellion's health is getting lower than we're really comfortable with (I don't know that this would actually happen, but let's say that's what you think after you try the team out). Maybe we think part of the problem might be that we substituted Houndmaster for Jester, but the Stage Coach still hasn't brought us a Jester. Then we'd try to get in extra stress healing, or maybe a secondary healer. Crusader is a stress healer, and his stress heal could pull someone off of Death's Door in a pinch. He usually goes in position 2, and he can do some of the same stun stuff that Bounty Hunter was doing. And then we might try this:



The point I'm trying to make is that there are different ways of filling the same roles. Don't be afraid to swap heroes in or out of different positions until you're happy with the team you're playing. And don't feel like you have to throw out the whole idea for a team, when maybe switching one position around a little would help fix whatever problem you're having.

Branching Out Team Examples

One way to start growing and branching out from the starting point I tried to provide here would be to look at a hero and think about different ways of using them than what we've already looked at.

Let's say you've been liking Crusader, but it kind of bothers you that you don't get to use Holy Lance unless your team gets shuffled. Then you might think, the "starting" team has a Highwayman who moves around, maybe I could do something with that:



Right now, Highwayman is moving into position 2 with Duelist's Advance at the start of fights, and moving Vestal back into position 3. Maybe we could get Crusader into position 2 instead, and then when Highwayman advances, Crusader will be in position 3, ready to break out the Holy Lance.

That seems like the start of an idea, but we need to be a little bit careful about how we execute it. We probably don't want to just switch the Vestal and the Crusader, because then the Vestal winds up in position 1 where she can't really do anything.

Put the Vestal into position 4? But then what about the Plague Doctor? Plague doctor is a stunner, and secondary healer. Is there some other hero who could fill that role from a different position?

Eventually, we might stumble on what I think is a reasonable solution:


We don't know a hero who works as a good party healer from position 1, but we can replace
Plague Doctor with another Crusader, who is going to have some of the same stun utility, and, at the same time, using Holy Lance to take down the enemy back line quickly will have a similar effect to using Blinding Gas to stun lock it the first couple of turns.

This team uses shuffling and movement intentionally to set heroes up for specific moves. In this case, Highwayman uses Duelist's advance to move up to position 2, and knocks Crusader back to position 3, where Crusader is set up for Holy Lance, which will put Highwayman back in position 3. Then in the next round of combat, Highwayman might use Duelist's Advance again to set up for the same thing, or Highwayman might use Pistol Shot on the back line while Crusader does position 2 Crusader things.

I also used this example because I wanted to point out that you shouldn't be afraid to have more than one of the same hero on a team. Several heroes have decent synergy with themselves, including Bounty Hunter, Houndmaster, and Plague Doctor.

To take another example, if we wanted to use another hero in a different position, we might have to rebuild their skills a little bit. When I talked about Houndmaster before, I looked a back line build, and steered away from the position 2 build. But position 2 Houndmaster can be quite good, we just need to replace Cry Havoc with his Stun to account for the new positioning.

And then, since we're going to move him up to the front line and try to use his stun skills, we should also re-trinket for the new build. The Houndmaster class trinket Cudgel Weight has a nice stun bonus, and maybe an Ancestor's Signet Ring to give accuracy and a little PROT for his new position:


Then we might take a team from before, like this one:


And swap out that Crusader with a Houndmaster:


And, if we wanted to get really fancy, we could then try to set up one of our Houndmasters with Marking Whistle in place of one of the other skills to work in some sort of marking synergy for the team.

The possibilities for team building in Darkest Dungeon are basically endless. Tweaking a characters skills a little bit can often lead to a surprising change in what position they occupy, and what role they fill in a team. Feel free to experiment.

Extra Credit

I wrote this, and then apparently some people read it and liked it, which I wasn't really sure would happen. Sometimes, when you're writing a guide for a game that came out in 2016, and it's 2023, you doubt that it's actually going to have an audience.

I also realized that the guide had a pretty bad oversight, which is that someone who follows it without taking the initiative to learn about other heroes on their own will probably struggle to beat the game. This is because the second Darkest Dungeon basically requires the player to have a hero with the Guard ability, and the best hero Guard skill comes from Man-At-Arms. So, here is a guide for a fairly simple Man-At-Arms build, and possible team build for the second Darkest Dungeon. The team also works fine in normal dungeons, so there won't be problems getting everybody leveled up for the final challenge.

Also, in case this isn't obvious from the subject matter, this part of the guide is going to be generally more advanced and have more spoilers than other parts of the guide. So, if that's not what you're here for, feel free to skip it.

He's actually only 25. Sometimes it's the miles, not the years.

Man-At-Arms actually has the third highest health in the game, but I am still going to award him the title of tankiest tank, because he can protect your other characters, which is so useful you probably shouldn't try to beat the game without it.

Crush. Basic attack, hits enemy positions 1-3. It's useful to have a basic attack to finish off enemies or just get some damage in, but this is kind of situational. Works well particularly in short fights, where you're just crushing a few bugs before you move on, or to try and burst down an enemy position 3.

Defender. This is the Guard skill. Any single target damage at the character being Guarded gets redirected to Man-At-Arms. Also provides +15% PROT on Man-At-Arms, which is nice because he is basically here to be a damage sponge. Do be aware that Guard can be bypassed by group damage skills. If both Man-At-Arms and the character being Guarded are targeted by a single enemy attack, the game will assign damage as if Guard is not in place. Also, the Guard only lasts for three actions, so you want to be in the habit of checking up on it and recasting as needed.

Retribution. This gives Man-At-Arms Riposte, which is nice with Defender. Also, unlike Highwayman's Riposte, this does gain accuracy with levels. It's probably better to Crush low-level enemies in short fights, but this typically does more damage over several enemy actions in longer engagements and boss fights.

Command. Gives the party bonus ACC and CRIT, and also a nice damage bonus to any character that's being Guarded. Generally, this isn't going to be as good as just hitting low-level mobs with your hitting stick, but definitely has its place in boss fights, and maybe even some Champion Level dungeon encounters.

With this build, Man-At-Arms is good in Positions 1 and 2. Also, as a tank/support with high HP, Man-At-Arms is good in Positions 1 and 2. As mentioned in the skill descriptions, the way you're going to play Man-At-Arms really changes depending on what kind of fight you're in. In a hallway fight against Larva, you're probably just going to hit Crush a couple times. Throw in Defender if another hero gets ganged up on or takes a CRIT down to low HP. In boss fights, get Retribution up and/or start buffing the party with Command, again throwing in Defender as needed. In the second Darkest Dungeon boss fights, get Defender up to Guard whichever character doesn't have a Talisman of the Flame right away and keep it up throughout the fight.

Man-At-Arms has great camping skills to set up for fights. These skills aren't good for recovery, but they're meant to be used mid-dungeon, or on your way in to the boss fights. Tactics boosts the entire party's Dodge, and Weapons Practice gives all companions bonuses to damage and CRIT.

Trinkets: Man-At-Arms is pictured above with a Talisman of the Flame, which is absolutely necessary for the second Darkest Dungeon. In general, I like trinkets that give added PROT, Dodge, and stress reduction. Ancestor's Signet Ring, Book of Sanity, Barristan's Head, Aria Box, Heavy Boots, etc.

And the team I'm going to suggest is:



Everyone is skilled and trinketed as described in their section of the guide (except that in the second Darkest Dungeon, Vestal and Houndmaster are going to have Talisman of the Flame trinkets equipped).

The plan for the second Darkest Dungeon boss fights is to camp on the way in, and use Man-At-Arms for Tactics and Weapon Damage. At the same time, Hellion is going to use Battle Trance. Then, in the fights, Man-At-Arms will Guard Hellion (who doesn't have the Talisman of the Flame), and stack Command whenever Defender doesn't need to be refreshed. The idea is to take Hellion from a damage dealer who hits every position and turn her into a damage dealer who hits every position like truck and also Crits a lot.

I also like the team for Champion Level dungeons in the Weald, where a lot of the room encounters can have dangerous enemies that feel like bosses. Man-At-Arms gets good use out of Defender against Unclean Giants, who can really hit hard with Treebranch Smackdown.

While we're talking about boss fights, this might be a good time to mention skill switching. You may not have noticed this or had reason to think about it too much, but anytime you're not actually in a fight, even while you're walking through the dungeon, you can bring up the hero's character menu and completely switch around what skills they're using.

I mention this because in a lot of boss fights, it makes sense to go in with a slightly different skill set than normal dungeon fights. In particular, I find that Hellion's Barbaric Yawp! doesn't see a lot of use in many boss fights (bosses typically have very high stun resist, and there generally isn't a stalling phase to a boss fight, and Hellion is too busy hitting things), but Bleed Out is a nice skill to switch to for bosses. So the idea would be to go through the dungeons as normal, but switch Bleed Out in as you're going into the boss room (did I say that you should probably look up maps for the Darkest Dungeon levels? Entirely up to you, but you probably have to be a very specific type of person to enjoy mapping them out yourself).

And, while we're talking about Hellion skills, Medicinal Herbs can be used to remove debuffs. It's kind of a costly strategy, and I probably wouldn't use it outside of boss fights, but you can stock up herbs to remove self-debuffs.

More Extra Credit - Fast Leveling Replacements

One common complaint about Darkest Dungeon is that the cruel and unfair RNG can undo hours of work leveling up a character, destroying all of the effort the player put into their beloved hero in an instant of bad luck. And while these tears are both salty and delicious, perhaps I can offer some solutions (that don't involve modding).

Firstly, Darkest Dungeon is a game that wants the player to develop a minimum of 16 heroes (although 20-24 is probably going to be a more realistic target for most players), to maximum level. So, if you start the game with the goal of developing a robust roster, and understanding the hero roles, individual hero losses are probably going to matter less simply because you are following along with the game's strategy instead of just getting super attached to a single four hero team.

Secondly, you should be developing all of your buildings to maximum level as you go, starting with some investment in the Stage Coach to expand the available pool of potential heroes, as well as the overall size of your barracks. Then, the Guild and Blacksmith, as heroes level up and need upgraded skills and equipment to keep up with level requirements for various dungeons. The Sanitarium should also be upgraded to reduce the cost of treating quirks and increasing the patient cells in the affliction area.

Most of the heroes are unlikable criminals you met at a medieval bus stop, and they could die at any time, but those buildings are with you til the end.

However many people had to die, it was totally worth it for a well-thatched smithy.

Another thing to consider is maybe starting out on the Radiant difficulty setting, as this will allow you to adventure in lower level dungeons with higher level heroes. This is going to make leveling and overall game play much easier to manage as you're learning.

And, finally, if you have the right characters and trinkets, and maybe a Darkest Dungeon win under your belt, leveling up new heroes doesn't have to take much time at all (side note, clearing the first Darkest Dungeon with your first Champion level heroes may be slightly advanced, but it can definitely free up roster space and help enable leveling new heroes. I usually play this way).

As an example, for some reason, there's a Level 3 Houndmaster lying around the roster in one of my old save files. I don't remember why, and it doesn't matter. Let's say we want to level them up the rest of the way quickly.

First, upgrade their skills, weapons, and armor to the maximum extent allowable (which is level 4 for a level 3 character). This is going to make them as prepared as possible for the next step of the plan, which is to put them in a party of Champion level heroes and throw them into a Champion level dungeon (if they were a Level 0-2 hero, maybe recruit some other Level 0-2 heroes to build them up to this point, or use existing level 3-4 heroes to take them into a Veteran level dungeon). They're also going to be equipped with an Ancestor's Mirror and a Book of Sanity, instead of the usual class trinkets.

Cry all you want, we're going into the scary high-level dungeon anyway.

Next, we build a team, with an eye towards a few critical criteria. The team will include Man-At-Arms, because we use the defender ability to keep the low-level hero alive. At least one of the heroes in the team will have been through a Darkest Dungeon level, as this will provide a +50% experience boost to any other heroes on the team. The team will also need a good damage-dealer, and maybe a healer for recovery. Stress healing takes a back seat in this specific late game situation, where we can just use extra gold and town upgrades to heal off stress if needed.

Although, by happy coincidence, Houndmaster is a stress healer, so the example team will have some of that as well:



Just to review fundamentals, the Highwayman is here for damage, the Vestal provides recovery healing in case things go wrong at some point, and the Man-At-Arms defends the low-level character (Houndmaster) and probably sets up Riposte at the same time.

Then, we pick a medium length Champion level dungeon, ideally in the Ruins.

The final prep here is going to be when we get provisions. The hero we're leveling isn't going to have proper blight or bleed resistances for the dungeon we take them into, so we should max out on bandages and anti-venom, and maybe bring some extra food for food healing.

And, one dungeon later, we have a Level 5 Houndmaster to work with:



Obviously, this is a slightly more advanced tactic, and bringing a lower level hero into a more advanced dungeon can be risky. But, if you're willing to accept some additional risk, this can make leveling up new characters relatively fast and painless in the lategame.

Final Thoughts

We made it through to the end. I wrote the entire guide, and if you're reading this, someone out there read it all. Hopefully, you are now consumed with overwhelmingly positive feelings about the guide and its author, slightly tempered by a hint of regret that it is coming to an end and there is no more guide to read.

I tried to simplify the game a little by focusing on some of the more basic heroes with solid standalone skill picks, but there are all sorts of fun and complicated builds as well. So, I hope you learned some things you can use here, but I also hope you continue learning and play with the hard heroes as well.

Also, sorry if you were sticking around for the Arbalest fan fiction. That was just a dumb joke. I want to be very clear that there is no Arbalest fan fiction.

[Just]

Really helpful I wish I had read guides like this before I started playing.

[Wesker]

Lovely guide idk.anything. Wish there were more quality guides like this for this game. You are doing great work.

[idk.anything]

@Tamasari, glad you liked the guide, and I have spent a good few hundred hours, so probably more time than is actually reasonable to play the game for.

[idk.anything]

@Booper, I agree that spamming vapors is a late-game play that probably would not replace another party healer in the early game. Also, building a dodge team would suggest that characters with already high dodge are being selected for the team (requires specific heroes), that the team might require obtaining a high number of dodge trinkets to work well (more than I think could reasonably be collected in vanilla Darkest Dungeon early game), and that some of the best Dodge/Antiquarian class trinkets would probably come from CoM or CC. And using dodge spamming in place of a party healer feels like more of an advanced or non-intuitive idea. So, although I am not dismissing Antiquarian as a fun character to play later on, I am sticking to my guns that they don't meet my easy criteria.

[Tamasari]

I already have a decent grasp on most of the easy and hard hero's, but this guide really helped me make some slight tweaks that really made quests smooth, so thanks, and I love the easy explanation, and treating your audience like they have the capacity to understand and grow. Loved the guide, have a great day! Also, how many hours have you put into the game to be able to explain this to others so well?

[Booper]

Good guide. My one disagreement might be about the Antiquarian actually, who has a wonderful dodge skill that stacks with each application. It's possible to make your squad almost impossible to hit with her in the 4th position. Add in some healing trinkets and she makes for a solid fourth on a team that already has all the damage you need (Crusader or Hellion in slot 1, Man-at-Arms in slot 2, Houndmaster in 3, or something like that). I've used her to great effect on a lot of long dungeons and not felt myself missing the Vestal, though this is usually later in the game and not early on.

[idk.anything]

@Alex Darkcrowne, I suspect you may not be the intended audience for this guide. Also, in spite of your comments, I still don't believe that position 2 Occultist has the same ease-of-use as my other selections, or that spamming Invigorating Vapors with Antiquarian brings the same utility as a more functional fourth party member. Thanks for the feedback, though.

[idk.anything]

@Laharal, glad the guide helped get you into the game, that's what it's meant for.

[Alex Darkcrowne]

With all due respect, I disagree on the "Hard Heroes" segment, ESPECIALLY regarding the Occultist.

Hands from the Abyss has a 150% Stun Chance at level 5, and can go up to 190% with trinkets.
OCC can literally just spam his stun and it'd still be a massive contribution to the party.
He also has a mark, can debuff PROT, pull, and has an attack available at 1-3 that hits 1-3.

Anti doesn't actually need to be in a riposte comp. It helps, but you don't NEED it.
Flashpowder is -10 ACC at level 1 (-15 at 5) and is the one of the few de-stealths in the game.
You can just spam dodge vapours on her, if you wanted to. Dodge is just that good.

Grave Robber, though. Yes, Lunge is tricky to use, all dance comps tend to be, but her ranged kit is actually respectable. Self ACC buffs, -Blight Resist, -Bleed Resist, decent DMG mods, some mark synergy.
Don't sleep on Poison Darts .

[Laharal]

Thanks for the guide. Came into the game late and the guide helped figure out how some of the roles and heroes work together.