Darkest Dungeon - Boss Guide [The 10 Core Bosses]

[@txt5220]

5% chance... Awesome, I so glad fighting random encounter Collector and random encounter Shambler in a single run is so rare. Awesome. I'm such a lucky boi. I miss my plague doctor.

[@whatintheactualkentuckyfri6603]

I've fought collector at least 5 times one my 56 week account

[@ogre589]

huh...how is it I haven't had to fight it? I haven't fought or even found the collector even once and my bag is perpetually full cause I'm just that greedy.

[@GO-kf6vu]

@@ogre589 RNG i guess, didnt encounter it as well, although I'm a greedy boy, too xD

[@derrilazkia1002]

Hell yeah i face The collector twice in 4 hours interval

[@GO-kf6vu]

@@derrilazkia1002 I face him almost every single time... :/

[@markreeves2756]

I didn't know 0 light had a chance to spawn the shambler. I've been on so many 0 light antiquarian runs...thank you RNJesus.

[@t3chn0dr0n3]

Oh, yes, it can :D And when he spawns he stays in that corridor so if you're in no position to fight him you're fucked. The Collector, while being regarded as "easy", only spawns if your inventory is rather full, which means towards the end of your crawl, which means your team is very likely to be in bad shape.

[@Rabbit-o-witz]

Wait really? That explains a lot.. it was like my 3rd dungeon when it spawned, and I had to run. came back there thinking that it would be gone but nope. still there. Lost 2 members

[@OwenKoenig]

A wee bit late, but what the hell. If you have the right teambuild, the antiquarian coupled with a man at arms or highway man can be surprisingly effect, especially against the shambler when you use her "protect me" skill in conjunction with one of their reposte attacks. This allows you to deal passive damage to the both the shambler and his tentacles, and in the case of the latter can potentially kill them before their protection and attack buff applies. This allows you to clear the field faster and focus primarily on the shambler itself.

[@munithekid3496]

i got the collector fight in the first hallway cause i bought a lot of stuff

[@ceeagelevair3630]

@@Rabbit-o-witz 12% if you play master and have 0 torch only 1% if you play apprentice... dont do no light runs ;D

[@turntapeover5749]

I've seen BOOOOOOOOOOM! multiple times, though my party always dodge it every, single, time. I have never seen that attack hit. Ever.

[@Kirokill1]

Lucky you, the pounder was only ignited once and my party got hit hard

[@deltawarrior2323]

Thank the gods,when that thing actually hits... It does about 40 or 50 damage,I almost wanted to retreat the first time it hit me but I was somehow able to beat the first boss...2nd one was NOWHERE as difficult because I kept killing the match man The 3rd one...man I can’t even GET to the 3rd one! The damn weald forced me to retreat every time I try to get there..

[@paleface171]

@@deltawarrior2323 I can imagine how painful it would be if the match man was stealthed when the cannon calls for reinforcements.

[@Intestine_Ballin-ism]

BOOOOOOOOOOOM! has like 80 acc on lvl 1

[@OneBiasedOpinion]

I have. You are very fortunate.

[@UnUsualGreature]

For those who didn't know, there is also another way to essentially break the Drowned Crew apart from shuffling the Anchorman: You can stack virtue change increasing trinkets on a hero and let the stress build up on purpose. If the hero becomes virtuous and you move him to the front row in the boss fight, the said hero will deflect the anchor attacks and cannot be bound by them. This means that you can flail on the Crew while the Anchorman fruitlessly tries to heave the virtuous hero. Of course this requires some good RNG and the ability to keep the hero in front despite the shuffles, but It's pretty neat when it works.

[@Razor4884]

Cool advice. Sounds like a hero that can get to the front easy like a jester or Grave-Robber would be the best choice.

[@Cyberw4y]

Crest of the 1100/ Ancestor Tentacle Idol and Hero Ring brings the chance up to 75%... Bring a Jester(rank 3) and a Crusader (rank 1), get the Crusader virtuous. If he gets afflicted instead, heal him back to 0 stress with the Jester, either in battle or in camp. Jester is useful because, with bleed skill trinkets, he can input some nice DoT in the Crew.

[@benbrown7941]

This happened to me last night with my hellion and i just wrecked the crew with crits after that

[@angrygnome44]

Of note: when fighting The Crew, if you have a hero who has become virtuous, put them in position 1, as they will be immune to the anchor.

[@cecilandblues]

Today I learned something new.

[@undeniablySomeGuy]

But you still have to deal with the buff (+50% PROT) the anchorman puts on the crew and the healing after every action

[@junthemaledicted]

What are the different types of virtues

[@sirhasslich536]

Jun there's a Wiki on this game, the link is in the description, it is all well described out there

[@paulovictorsilvaferreira7824]

"Extremely low chance to replace a random encounter if torch is at 0" Try two in a row. Yup. Meet shambler, get destroyed, run for dear life with 4 afflicted heroes, flee from de mission, start a different mission, shambler is in the first fucking corridor.

[@HassouTobi88]

''thought you'd ran away huh?''

[@pencrash9289]

Didn't know collector was random, found the collector right before the necromancer apprentice the first time I played

[@Uriakatos]

227 people don't know how Darkest dungeon works apparently.

[@OneBiasedOpinion]

My first Champion run through the Weald resulted in a Collector fight in the very first hall. I miss my Flagellant.

[@AnimeHDEvolution]

I fought the Shambler in the beginning. It was my 3rd Dungeon and I fought him. Was pretty mad when I actually summoned him.

[@paulomachado7328]

AnimeHDEvolution I remembere finding the altar and being like "Sounds fun. What's the worst that could happen?" No one made it out alive.

[@kamilabelohradova6925]

Exactly XD Serves my party the credit, though, that only Man-at-arms got killed by the beasts... The rest got heart-attacked :D That stress is really a serius bussiness...

[@GrigoriFederov]

I had the same reaction, but I had the opposite outcome. No one died, and I camped afterwards and dumped a ton of stress. Went on to kill the Sonorous Prophet. I've yet to be able to replicate such a feat. Wipe every time. Ignorance is bliss I guess.

[@masterblaster2678]

My experience: It's like, around 4-5th dungeon my team was exploring. I was doing fine and had quite an amount of loot. Then I came across this funny looking altar, thinking "Woah, it wants me to use a torch on it? I've got plenty, I will just use one, what's the worst that can happen? Maybe there will be even more treasure for me to return!" No one survived. Ragequit and deleted my save. I resent the Shambler since then. Maybe I'll get my revenge someday.

[@sirhasslich536]

Joining the club. It killed not one but two of my saves. First one is the standard "what's the worst that could happen story", the second one is me forgetting that he likes to shuffle stuff and taking on a Champion Shambler with Hellion and Leper(Hellion with only Bleed Out, Swan, Yawp and Rush). Those were my only 4 level 6 heroes. Now I am killing it from time to time, the worst thing is: usually first you find the Collector and quickly realize that focusing the summons is not the way to go. And then you run into the Shambler and applying the same strategy is, well, detrimental to say the least, and it is often too late when you figure that out.

[@DaneDimension]

I'll never forget the first time I hit Wilbur... Lost my whole party. Never again! I carry that swines flag as a trophy now.

[@petrusion2827]

me too, I remember it clear as day, "his damage is quite managable, I can kill that annoying guy" I fkin *killed* him, *not only* hit him... hah, after that, swine king fucking obliterated my whole party, having like 4 moves a turn and some abilities like "raging blow" or something like that

[@twiceisworst]

I lost everyone but one. got the fuck outta there with Reynauld.

[@adamsilverman2]

newbies! I killed Wilbur first, and still managed to kil the swine prince (althrought 3 of my heroes died, and one (houndmaster) was on deathdoor and afflicted

[@ThePointlessBox_]

Eddie Silverman you lost 3 men and you call that a victory

[@adamsilverman2]

They were on 2nd level merely, so the casualties were relatively small.

[@travelerperson33]

"when the butt acts it will use undulating invasion"

[@JACR--Atlas]

Literally summoned the Shambler during my first 90 minutes of the game, but somehow (probably by the grace of our lord RNGesus) was able to beat it. My team composition was: Houndmaster | Plague Doctor | Highwayman | Hellion Didn't lost a single one of them (only Highwayman reached at Death's Door). I guess I was extremely lucky.

[@meme-th4pe]

you right you are lucky

[@drakonlegend4452]

“Overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer”

[@banjo5224]

Same I didn't lose anyone but was freaking out because it was in the corridor right before a boss

[@augustday9483]

"Prodigious size alone does not dissuade the sharpened blade."

[@hernanspengler1185]

That's honestly a pretty nice DMG team, tho XP

[@kevintoma7194]

Just a tip for the Swine. If you kill Wilbur he gets his free move as said in the video. This free move completely ignores DoT that would normally kill the Swine, DoT applies on his turn while his enraged attack just counts as some sort of counter-attack/riposte move. RIP Arbalest, I should have just waited one more turn.

[@michaellatner975]

You think that is bad? MY ENTIRE PARTY WAS WIPED OUT BY WILBUR. the king barely did any damage, FUCKING WILBUR KILLED MY ENTIRE PARY

[@Razor4884]

That dodge, though... Funny enough, I actually killed Wilbur before killing the prince my first time. My entire party was on death's door at the end of it, but I managed to push through.

[@hoovenschmooven]

Being killed by Wilbur unlocks a hidden achievement, that's the bright side!

[@michaellatner975]

HE KILLED MY BEST 3 GUYS, MY LEVEL 5 PLAUGE DOCTOR, MY LEVEL 5 HIGHWAYMAN (i usually do the riposte pointblank shot combo), AND MY FUCKING KNIGHT (forgot the name of class)

[@hoovenschmooven]

x x Crusader.

[@walterwright1085]

This is some great stuff mate! I came here just looking for The Siren and ended up watching the whole thing.

[@cecilandblues]

thank you! glad to see folks are still getting value from it.

[@madbloodgod9442]

oh collecter can use the collect at 3 too. the only place it cant use it is 4. As long as one collector is down it can summon another one. Im too scared of this thig to fight it again to show it.

[@kirasternenfeuer6198]

collector isn't that hard at least right now semms they nerft him a bit ^^ got 2 heads allready. My advice even the highwayman deals significant amountsof damage concentrate ure damage on the collector and use multitargetskills for the summoned heads. Also the guard will not protect the collector by default anymore he often protects the other heads so win win ;)

[@YukoValis]

I didn't know that was a butt... I didn't know... I didn't want to know.... why?!?!

[@dragonslayermasterornstein83]

YukoValis Sword and the creature that comes out of it to attack looks like a tapeworm.....even more reasons why I am afraid to even use the toliet

[@deathserpent9747]

It deals blight damage too. I think the developers were having fun

[@allanredhill8682]

@@deathserpent9747 "fun" - should we be concerned for the poor artist that was tasked with looking up reference material for designing this stuff? xd

[@deathserpent9747]

@@allanredhill8682 i mean, its easy to make something look like a butt

[@allanredhill8682]

@@deathserpent9747 but this is an eldritch tapeworm infested butt that could defeat you in a staring contest lmao

[@duesalbladesinger7900]

Thanks for the time stamps. You have no idea how helpful that is for the average viewer.

[@VintageBR231]

imo the best way to kill the prophet and get all of his pews is to take two occultists and give them debuff trinckets. 2-3 turns in he will have -100% damage, making the fight almost impossible to lose. The only down sides are that it makes the fight much longer and his aoe blight can still kill you if you ignore it.

[@buttahXD]

3 years late, but I tend to go Leper and Crusader with the dual hit moves to get rid of the pews, a PD to bring him down over time with blight, and Vestal/Occultist to stay off death's door

[@justsomerandoontheinternet3147]

5 years late but getting flagellant, houndmaster, arablast and musketeer killed the prophet in 4 rounds

[@insertnamehere6659]

"Me must keep our courage up despite this bleakness." "Me must."

[@terradraca]

Prophet strat I used that worked nicely. Bring a man at arms, a healer and two good damage dealers who can hit the back rank. (plague doctor and grave robber are my faves as they can stack blights on him) Every turn, have them attack the prophet while the Man at arms uses bolster every turn. The prophet's rubble of ruin CAN miss and it's a huge setback for him if it does. With good dodge, you've just near eliminated the prophet's biggest trump card. Without that, most of his other attacks are pretty harmless. Keep your party healed and keep up the damage and you got the old fool.

[@lluisrodriguez2212]

Lord Hawkeye my strategy involves double occultist, since they apply the damage debuff rubble of ruin ends up dealing no damage after 2 turns. It makes the fight longer but impossible to lose

[@lacijuhos7613]

Is antiquarian good,too for dodge?

[@haidomo5251]

thebalisa mine is MAA/Vestal/Crusader/Leper. The MAA for dodge and guard, vestal for well healinh and some stuns, the crusader and leper for well damage. I had to destroy all the wood (for gold) adnd the rubble of ruin became a joke. easily dogde

[@Shaggy87781]

you can also just man at arms block whoever is gonna take the boulder

[@user-ut4tk4ph5z]

Jokes on u Take 3 antiquarian Get the highest dodge possible Win

[@Darluk]

This guide was very helpful, glad its around.

[@cecilandblues]

+Darluk Glad I could help.

[@vantablacc3264]

Necromancer - Bring blight and corpse clearing units. Prophet - Guarding units and units with high dodge are viable. Swine - Mark and Stun clearing units are important. Flesh - AoE units especially with DoT skills are effective. Hag - Use Marking, long-ranged units and those with high dodge. 8 Pounder - Use armor piercing units and long-ranged units. Siren - Bring Holy Water and make a shuffling party (Party that moves alot). Crew - Equip Movement resist for the back and Virtue Chance for the front.

[@vangeskatsaros3178]

for everyone that doesnt trust his point on the swine prince tip of not hittin wilbur here i say this-enetered this boss fight will full health all squad got swine to half health still all 4 remaining close to full health,then with plag doc i poisoned wilbur-in 3 turns all members died each time he stunned and dealt at least 10 dmg to each and everyone of my heroes...fcking ragequit

[@joshm2417]

Very good video! I’d love to see a updated version including all the new bosses and possible character meta and composition, and also the boss loot! Good presentation!

[@Klaital1]

One thing you didn't mention about the flesh boss is that the bone zephyr cannot be used in position 4, so whenever you have bones in position 4 it will just pass its turn.

[@jakoblindstrmjensen6821]

Against the flesh, i would really recommend having 2 occultist in position 3 and 4. They have an ability called Abyssal artillery or something, that hits the 2 in behind. This deals increased damage to ELDRITCH type enemies. Stack some ELDRITCH killing trinkets, and each abbyssal assault can deal 15ish points of damage, time that by 2 since you hit it twice because of AOE, then its 30ish dmg a turn. Double that number again because you have 2 occultists: 60 damage a turn. Also their heal is nice when stuck in a bad spot

[@afmghost1759]

The match man has another rattack: Hot shot. It's an attack that deals low damage, nothing more. It only does this when the pounder is dead

[@MrTetrisz]

12:44 deep sea nami really let herself go

[@sarvashaktimaan7106]

I still remember my first pounder fight. I figured that the guy with the fuse was a priority, so I killed him continuously until the pounder was very low. Then I didn't kill him once and the cannon missed (not sure if missfire or just normal miss), so I thought it wasn't as dangerous as I thought and went full greed, dropping it to less than 10 hp and ignoring the brigadiers. Needless to say, it instantly dropped my entire party to death's door with a highroll, and two of them instantly died to blanked fire. Never again.

[@NN-ru9md]

You learnt so many DD players learned the same way you did that day. That overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer.

[@josephmay852]

All of the cove hints are massive. Thank you.

[@jazaniac]

Tip for any boss that doesn’t rely on mobs for its damage output that will make it incredibly easy for you: bring the occultist and use weakening curse. Since usually it’s only the boss that’s attacking you, you can basically gimp his entire damage output by spamming weakening curse and then just shuttle him down with the rest of your party. It’s actually hilarious watching the prophet’s rubble do like 3 damage every time it hits because you’ve been weakening his ass off the whole time.

[@chaos3088]

Hell yeah, I dam agree with you, I tooked the shot once from the canon, I never ever let the fuse man live again every time I see him pop out

[@Andi-zg8po]

Houndmaster anihilates the prophet. simply put him in position 3 and use its guard ability. After triggering two times, the dodge is almost guaranteed and your healer can bring the other guys back from deaths door. Before Shambler, shuffle your party manually to have a chance to counter the initial shuffle. The collector should always be the primary target since he will often respawn his guys. Its a damage race. Heroes like the Leper are very good against the Siren. When he gets charmed, there is a good chance he uses solemnity or withstand, simply healing him or reducing stress, which is actually good for you. Vestal is the best healer gainst all bosses since most have area of effect dmg. Crew or prophet can be defeated with the occultist as well. On the prophet, he might be even better since his mark synergyses excellent with houndmaster hounds rush and grave robbers dagger. They also deal single target dmg. Darkest dungeon area is complete garbage and a disgrace to the game. Its a pure rng fest, mostly depending if your heroes hit heroic or not. After dungeon one, the enemys are vastly overpowered, and i havent figured out any strategy or combo that helps. I ended up alt f4ing out of the game every time someone died. Fun level was lower than 0.

[@vinayssusman4540]

Welp. Some of these are done well, others not. A better approach for the Prophet is double Occultist on the back, since you can simply use weakening curse to decrease his attack below 100% if you get them some debuff chance trinkets. His stones will be reduced to pebbles. Shambler should be met with 2 things: A party that either has move skills or that can attack from any position. The second thing you need is riposte. Having a Highwayman and a Man-at-arms crushes a Shambler, since his entire team attacks will net you two ripostes at the same time. The collector is easy. 'Nuff said. That will only work if you used his camping skill to increase his resistances, and popped some holy waters to strenghten your party's debuff resistance(which is what Siren's song attacks). Vestal is a very good and solid healer, but if you usually attack with the Vestal only when it's a pretty good chance or when everyone's fully healed. The Occultist is indeed very useful, since he can catch up with the damage your heroes take(52 on a crit heal!). Or not. A Ancestor's Pistol does wonders for his Abyssal Artillery. DD is not so tough bub. The enemies may be tough, yes, but try taking trinkets that increase your damage to certain enemy types, take heroes that do more damage to these types and try to find places when you can cheese in some healing. On a enemy party with two Rapturous Cultists, kill everyone else and leave those two. All they do is guard and heal each other, providing zero problems for your team, and since there's still 2 enemies in the battle, you won't get reinforcements or stress for taking too long, so cheese in some heals and stress reliefs. Polyps work well to cheese too. Leave two alive. The one on the first rank can only use a pathetic attack that moves it back, but the second can use it's skills. Stun the one on Rank 2 so it can't use his skills, the one on Rank 1 will move back, and then you stun him, letting the previously stunned one use his weak attack. Take all provisions, heal bleeds and blight right away, take some stun skills, focus on number advantage. You can do it.

[@Andi-zg8po]

Vinicius Leite Godeiro tl dr

[@vinayssusman4540]

Andi Keucher You lazy one.

[@undeniablySomeGuy]

Darkest dungeon dungeon isn't even hard; I finished each one side from the second in one go. Use a powerful healer and leave time to stress heal + heal at the ends of encounters.

[@pyromania2667]

1 room away from the Flesh boss, I decided to camp, i knew there was a fight in the path to the boss, and what do you know? IT'S THE FREAKING COLLECTOR I had an antiquarian with really good healing trinkets with a vestel, so i barely managed to outheal them surprised the antiquarian didn't die though, but it was totally worth the loot

[@cesarromerabenavente8963]

Nikki Topp collector is ez bruh

[@DinnerForkTongue]

Wilbur can also be targeted by Disorienting Blast for a shuffle to the front. If the Pounder is destroyed but the Matchman is still alive, he will use Hot Shot, a low-damage party-wide attack that's only really a threat if you have someone on Death's Door.

[@Ranylyn]

Thanks for this video! I've been too cowardly to go after any of the bosses after losing a lot of good people against the Brigand 10 Pounder because my luck with stuns and RNG is terrible. This showed up in my reccommended videos, I watched it, and I feel better about fighting some bosses.

[@mysterio952]

Good audio, videoquality and explanation!!!

[@druvik2052]

i just recently started playing darkest dungeon and i've chosen to try to finish the game, for the first time, with no more heroes mod enabled and i gotta say watching this video has me absolutely terrified. Thank you.

[@lucaslorena2372]

Your tips make the Collector and the Shambler sound easy breezy!

[@auro637]

Since this video, I believe the Siren’s song of desire was changed. It can no longer be resisted by stacking debuff resistance. It’s instead, a random chance (70%). That said, she still prefers to target the hero with the lowest debuff resistance. (After first charmed hero comes back she’ll target the second lowest debuff resistance hero) Makes the antiquarian actually good for this boss since she has naturally the lowest debuff resistance of all classes and low damage output. Also, one of her camping skills boosts debuff resistance for one party member.

[@keithkania3810]

It is important of note that the siren will mainly target the party member with the lowest rebuff resist, so if you bring an antiquarian it has the potential to make the fight a joke.

[@TheUntamedNetwork]

Omg, no wonder I've thought the Swine was the hardest boss in the game for such a long time ahaha, focused Wilbur from turn one, he died around turn 3 with taking both of my backline down with him. But even in psycho mode he couldn't get through my Flaggelant-Man at arms front line, since they just full healed every turn. Chipped him down over like 20 minutes ahaha.

[@D00M3R_MAVS]

awesome dude, all this info in 1 place. probably in my top 5 games of the last 10 year, in fact it definitely is.

[@Xanthosis012]

First time encountered the Swine Prince, won it on my first try, killed wilbur and i didn't know it was ill-advised to kill him first instead of the Prince...i didn't find it difficult but my second playthrough (first playthrough quit half way because almost all of my heroes is cursed by the crimson curse, with no blood in inventory) was life changing...

[@thewolfofthestars1847]

Fsr I've always had great luck with the Siren. I swear, whenever she took one of my heroes, that hero would never actually damage the rest of the party. My nearly-dead Vestal just healed herself twice and then returned to my team, and another time my Hellion was stolen, proceeded to buff herself twice, and then came back. IIRC a Man-At-Arms also just self-buffed when he was stolen away, as well. That's true loyalty right there

[@JulieLamia]

Regarding the Collector, if you have a stun that can hit position 1 on the first turn, use it - the Collector has middling Stun resistance for a boss, and only one action per turn. If you're lucky and/or happened to stack Stun Chance trinkets, it's worth fishing for a second stun in a row, allowing the rest of your team to wail on the poor sod.

[@munkaccino]

"when the butt acts..."

[@RealParadoxBlues]

This may be obvious, but it caught me by surprise: if the Hag kills your other heroes and there's one in the pot, that hero will NOT be released from the pot - instead, the hero will die and you will fail the quest.

[@RealParadoxBlues]

Also, a late update raised the Crew's movement resist to 200%, nixing the movement strategy.

[@cecilandblues]

Yeah, I know what you're saying, it's an immediate loss, same will happen with the Siren if someone is Mind Controlled and the rest of the party goes down.

[@cory6266]

So many interesting bosses, with such a wide array of abilities, yet Quadsader is the answer to all of them.

[@BonnieBoestar]

In case anyone is looking at this in 2019, the Antiquarian is extremely good for the Prophet fight. While her blight isn't good enough to justify using a turn on it, her dodge buff gets so great at higher levels that she trivializes the fight, making it so that more often than not Heroes just dodge the Rubble of Rain attack and basically ignore the fight's main gimmick

[@xMrDJ254x]

I swear that damn Shambler spawns when I'm running a less than optimal team. After my first, unexpected run in...not today Satan!

[@HeartlessNinny1]

Great tips, no nonsense. Thank you.

[@justunnam3d]

I once had 3 suicide money runs, and all 3 of them ended with me abondening them due to the collector, since it was 3 times at the very end, so my characters were to battred, but now that I can beat him he does not spawn, and the 2 times he did spawn while I'm ready he dropped one head, and its the protection head, I want the heal head, give it to a vestal with a sacred scroll and its 83% stronger party wide heal, shits op, get a jest with a bright tomburine and the increased stress is neglectable

[@Fallout_Survivor]

Here is a story that I got about The Shambler that happened today with me Jan 5, 2021: I was in the red/hard quest dificulty in the middle of a mission where I had those 3 objectives that need to be activated, I had found 2 of them close to spawn lucky me and in the other side of the map I found a Shambler altar, so I thought ''well is not a boss run and the map is almost done +i got a camping to buff my party what could go wrong?'' I did the camping go fully buffed and after a long ass fight I killed the damn thing, my party was FUCKED in stress and hp but I thought ''well I just need to find a fight where I can stun enemies and keep healing'' guess what? cause The Shambler makes light goes to instantly 0 and I had no torches left I was walking in the darkness... and fuck me I hate this part, MY FIRST FUKING COMBAT ENCOUNTER WAS ANOTHER SHAMBLER(random fight cause light was 0%), at this point you are like thinking ''oh your entire party died, didn't it? The funny thing is... I manage to kill Shambler number 2, multiple characters on death's door stress skyrocketing to the point of 1 more hit could kill anyone a real miracle my characters didn't die, that moment I realized ''I ain't a noob anymore I killed 2 Lovecraftian space devils in a row'' man I was a combination of proud and fear cause I may have won but words can't explain how much FUCKED my party was, them like an answer to my praying happened right next to the Shambler number 2 in the same corridor objective number 3 was standing I was so darn happy and the moment I finished the main objective I said ''fuck the other rooms and loot I am out'' LMFAO. So here is the lesson kids: don't walk in darkness you may be thinking ''but we get more loot'' and for that I say: ''well in a short mission yeah that may be a good thing to do, but medium to large maps you get so much stuff you don't even have inventory space for it so don't walk on darkness for those''. Welp this was my story I hope you liked I only need to re-kill 1 more boss before having nothing to do besides heading the actual darkest dungeon... welp wish me luck, I know I am gonna need it lol.

[@DiploRaptor]

Got too say throwing back to this well doing out lets play of the game has been fairly helpful in general

[@blitzboy2934]

My champion Reynauld died to the Swine God, but as usual, Dismas domed his ass with point blank and won the fight. Dismas hit Deaths Door like 4 times since he kept getting marked, and Reynauld actually died from the double mark attack from Wilbur after taking a crit obliterate. I accepted that he was gone, only to get the revive event and came right back. He wasn’t about to leave Dismas like that after he went down swinging. That’s typically how Dismas dies in my DD2 runs, he’s the last alive and goes down swinging as his friends die around him.

[@anwd8646]

Has anyone else noticed that practically EVERY boss we fight in the entire game is caused by the ancestor?! This includes the DLC! The guys one hell of a bastard, not cleaning up his own messy mistakes.

[@mothbaby4867]

"The Crew is an Unholy type enemy" The Last Crusade/Holier than Thou: Unholy, you say?

[@CynicBlaze]

once fought a shambler and a collector on my way to fight the necromancer, was interesting to say the least

[@dawnmathieson]

A very helpful Darkest Dungeon guide. Thans very much for making this.

[@garrettreven5144]

I had my 3rd collector pop up on the last tile before I scouted the last empty room to end my quest, with 1 hero dead. He healed faster than I could focus it down

[@madbloodgod9442]

I finish the fight wit the brigrand pounder n come here to watch this. The pounder n prophet r 2 most diffcult fight in the game especially at champion level. It was so brutal a fight i almost cry after i beat the thig. Only through sheer luck that i managed to score 3 crit in a row to kill the fuse man. When it alsmot die it summon a big bandit. Luckily it was already at death door at the time so I tried to finish it. Good god. All the fights became so hard at champion. Not to mention u have to crawl to the boss room through numerous random fights. This game is just so damn brutal. N I LOVE IT!

[@petrusion2827]

you needed 3 crits to kill a fuse man? Wat...

[@lucapiemonti3584]

There is a guy making videos, named literally "Darkest Dungeon New Game +" (or along those lines). His party control is top tier, to the point where he can heal almost all HP and Stess damage of every fight. He's by far a better, more insidious (and slower) killer than even overconfidence can be.

[@madbloodgod9442]

oh it means i kill the fuse man 3 times in a row with 3 crits, should've clarified that.

[@petrusion2827]

162013 NP that suddenly makes 100% more sence, hah

[@madbloodgod9442]

Just Petrusion yeah it gives me extra damage on the other bandit n the cannon since the fuse man is dead in one hit, god im glad the brigand is not the final boss, it would've been a really brutal fight.

[@warhammer90000]

Once I was ambushed by Shambler it mowed down my whole party. I said fuck it and deleted the game. No regrets

[@cecilandblues]

I've always seen Darkest Dungeon as a game that the comebacks are inevitable, there's always a fresh set of level 0's waiting to farm more gold for you, but I totally get that terrible feeling like the game just cheated you.

[@warhammer90000]

Exactly. I don't mind playing difficult games that punish the player more often than grant some goodies but damn, I felt bullied and frustrated that time. Nonetheless its a great game.

[@willnash7907]

The reason most people feel that way is because they usually don't bother with high level tactics and specific counters, you can counteract most things if you put your mind to it.

[@hoteltrivago.3034]

On my second level in the ruins, before I even fought a boss, my entire party was slaughtered by the Collector, as I missed 5 times in a row, and each team member was killed on their first death's door...

[@madbloodgod9442]

Seriously though, for ppl who said "u r mad cause u suck" is like the DS community "git good" catch phrase. U can prepare for the end of the world but one wrong rng move n ur whole pt got mowed down. There will be effing cheap deaths in this game, that is a fact. U cant change it. Sure strategy n team structure can mitigate that, but wat happened if ur pt got surprise, got deal multi crits n keep missing all the time? The rage is valid n justified, especially with deaths that make no faking sense. The usual put down "Git good" is just so childish nowadays that i just roll my eyes whenever I hear some1 said that.

[@jodyrappin]

I found that the collectors life steal crits all the damn time.

[@Ohtrin]

One more information about the marksman on the second weald boss. If the cannon has been taken down, he will use a 4 targets AoE attack that deals low damage. So if you have multiple heroes at death's door and need to choose between the knife thug and him, choose him. I lost 2 heroes tjat way (I didn't know what he could do and I underestimate him, thinking the bleed or the 2 front targets AoE from the knife thug was more dangerous...)

[@wjones28]

The collector made me panic so hard and I had to retreat cuz I was playing so dumb, glad to see that mechanically it's so freakin easy

[@RamRam.720]

Its worth noting if you pull the collector into position 3 and have one of the heads at position 4 the vestal and MAA will buff the head in position 4 instead of the collector.

[@Eziosomnus]

Very detailed boss guide. Thanks for the info!

[@RaptorsVevo]

On my first try against the Swine Prince, I killed Wilbur, and then won without any deaths. That just goes to show that AoE healing is stupidly strong

[@themiskatonicorder9595]

fought the god swine with two ocultists in back... it was kina a joke when i debuffed him to -180 damage

[@christhechilled]

This video is so underrated

[@berserkerciaran]

My first (and only so far) battle with the shambler earned me quite the achievements... got my first heart attack Death there, my Bounty Hunter survived 5 (I guess...) hits while at death's door, killed the shambler, and then died from a tentacle, getting me my first TPK.

[@23gameoverlord]

love this Boss guide, i was wondering could you do a very detailed Class guide. that has gameplay of each class in combat using all their Abilities & showing which ones are the best.

[@cecilandblues]

I had a script for Curios when my microphone fried, i'd need to do some research on changes and additions with recent patches. a useful combos guide is a good idea to follow that. I will write a post-it note.

[@catalinasteiner314]

Thanks a lot for this useful video, I really enjoyed it.

[@piipiipoopoo]

very informative video! Hope this saves some of my heroes in the future.

[@Kodiac]

beautiful video very well made, helped a lot thanks for sharing !

[@chri_pierma]

This is fantastic

[@yaboylemon9578]

Very good guide, well thought out, and full of information

[@devilbowser253]

Holy plague docters this guide is VERY USEFUL thank you

[@lukemorgan2197]

its funny seeing all of these comments about the time they fought the shambler. like, bro, the altar says something along the lines of "only put a torch in me if you want your team to die" or something.

[@HighLanderPonyYT]

I don't even play any more but this is a nicely done guide! Thanks! :D

[@elim9054]

The Collector's easy to prepare for: You just need to be able to hit rank 4 hard, and optionally stun the heads. If your party can't do that then it's going to struggle in basically any dungeon whether or not you encounter the Collector.

[@dgrunklesamiii4615]

A tip for players using modded games: If looking to destroy a Brigand Pounder, do not bring the Cannoneer. His self buff ability "Light the Fuse" which increases damage by 300-350% will activate the Brigand as if the fuseman lived to use his ability. This is likely a result of a coding issue, as the aforementioned ability goes by the ID "light_fuse" which is also used by the fuseman. Use a Arbalest or Musketeer for this encounter, as believe me, it doesn't feel good losing half your party to a bug.

[@KopperNeoman]

The modder couldn't call it "light_fuse_player" or something? Nice job.

[@lagstabbingscrublord1603]

I have a nice cheese against the Prophet. You need two Cultists with two debuff-strengthening trinkets. Then just debuff the bosses' attack until he deals 0 damage. Then just keep debuffing him again and again. Only works later in the game, since you probably won't have many debuff trinkets early in the game.

[@Nana-ye6wp]

Just as an FYI about The Collector, he can use other moves in position 1. He will generally use Collect Call, but I have seen him use his Show Collection ability multiple times as his first action.

[@cecilandblues]

Nana8901 good feedback. the sources I verified that fact against must have been incorrect, or they may have change the collector's behavior since launch. either way thanks for the correction.

[@Nana-ye6wp]

cecilandblues No problem, and thank you for responding positively! This is a good video guide as well. It doesn't include some of the more recent updates, like the bandits or the Darkest Dungeon bosses, but those didn't exist when you made this, so not your fault. Have you thought about making a video for those?

[@cecilandblues]

I get stuck in a loop with Darkest Dungeon. I don't have time to record/edit because of job+life but I don't want to corrupt my impressions off camera so it sits collecting dust. One my my top games this year and I haven't played it since February. Must fix that.

[@Nana-ye6wp]

Wish I could help with that. It still is a good game, and I'm looking forward to what Red Hook plans for it.

[@outfield243]

this game is crazy difficult

[@diamondsrule1699]

collector spawned in the hallway DIRECTLY OUTSIDE OF THE BOSS ROOM on my run today

[@WoWisdeadtome]

A few pointers not covered here. 1) Against the Siren consider taking an antiquarian, the AI of the encounter means the siren will often target mind control at lower health characters assuming their threat to be greater. The antiquarian has low health AND is virtually harmless to you. 2) In all cases the boss is in the room that is at the end of the farthest path from your spawn location. Use this to your advantage to head straight to the boss and use your camp to get powerful buffs for the encounter. 3) As a general rule don't use Lepers except against the cannon. You should literally only have one Leper on your roster, ever, specifically FOR the fights he's good on and should not be used at basically any other time. To make this game easy it is important to know that reinforcements will not be called unless there is only a single size one enemy remaining. As a general rule stress is harder to recover than health and stress dealers and high damage dealers generally occupy ranks 3 and 4. So your strategy should be to dispense with ranks 3 and 4 as quickly as possible then keep stunning and slowly damaging ranks 1 and 2 giving you rounds to recover health and stress. The Leper does not fulfill this strategy at all, he can only hit ranks 1 and 2 and worse, he hits them very hard (assuming he hits at all, as he has low accuracy) meaning they don't last as long reducing your recovery phase. He has no stuns, no party support or ability to move himself forward with abilities should he be shuffled and he only moves forward one rank when forced to move. The crusader at least can holy lance out of ranks 3 and 4, has a stress heal (that is also a non zero health heal and can therefore save death's door checks) and a stun making him a C- class to the Leper's F (Leper is the only F tier class). The video used Lepers against the Necromancer and Prophet but his complete inability to project damage beyond rank 2 means he's often wasting turns bashing skeletons or pews which extends the fight and greatly increases the chance you will lose characters. Man at Arms (A tier) is the frontliner of choice almost always as he can guard against the prophet's collapsing ceiling and the prot he gains in doing so makes the damage trivial and he can attack and stun rank 3 normally. If you're thinking of using movement skills and/or accuracy buff skills to make the Leper more effective remember opportunity costs are involved, because you are using a movement skill to pull a priority target to the Leper you are not doing something else that will be more efficient in terms of damage dealt and you're adding in further RNG as the move skill can be resisted even if it hits. Furthermore, priority targets will almost always act before the ponderously slow Leper and many priority targets if dragged into the front ranks will use ability that move them backward before the Leper can swing and miss them. Just leave the Lepers at home folks or better yet, on the stage coach. 4) The swine can be very quickly dispatched by a group of Bounty Hunter, Houndmaster, Occultist, Arbalest. Give the Occultist a quickdraw pendant so he goes first in the first round of every encounter then mark the swine, now use all your +damage vs. marked skills which conveniently have +dmg vs. human and beast (which the swine is) and your very high crit chance from the arbalest and he will generally drop by the end of round 2. Multiple critical hits (assuming you used proper camping skills) in excess of 70 damage are the order of the day not the exception, the boss won't last under that assault.

[@PunkerWithABoner]

Song of desire is a debuff based ability, so bring an antiquarian (worst debuff resist in the game) to the fight so she takes a worthless hero of her side.

[@framerate269]

"The swine is a slow unit", attacks 3 times while only 2 charaters from my party attacked; my favorite crusader is dead.

[@cecilandblues]

That sort of thing will happen if you deal damage to Wilbur.

[@Dovahnoredraws]

Once I was fighting the pounder i wasn't able to kill the match men and he lit it and I yelled BOOOOOOOM startling my mom

[@cmc178]

For the drowned crew, if the hero in front is virtuous, he will be completely immune to heave to, and break any chain that they have on themselves.

[@newindika849]

8 Brigand are one of the easiest bosses. There is a safe but slow way to kill it. Bring a plague doctor, vestal, hound master and a damage dealer. PD double stun on back, blackjack on the first mob. Next turn plague grenade and make sure you kill the matchman. Spare free hits to the cannon. It may take 30 turns but it works on every difficulty. With proper trinkets you can "safely" double-stun mobs.

[@madbloodgod9442]

man i forgot the plauge doctor double stuns. damn. Still the fight i have with it at champion is still pretty epic. got hit by the cannon once, retreat n fight it again, although this time i dont allow the fuseman to live. My whole pt only have 1/3 hp but i managed. Great fight. All the fight turned pretty epic at champion level n the sastisfaction u get out of it is supreme.

[@dr.brightsamulet.3157]

so, party leaving without killing wilbur is canon now

[@TheTSense]

The first time i went to the swine prince i also had the first time of bringing a bounty hunter. Yeah well trying out that new pull move i never saw before worked nice on the trash mobs, but Wilbur wasn't the zelda-like weakspot as it turned out. I also remember how i killed my first Shambler after NOPEing past 15 Altars over the corse of my game. I run out of torches and was done with the dungeon, was just picking loot. Well turns out in total darkness the Shambler can spawn without his Altar, just as a random battle.

[@zackrasphodos.2305]

I literally thought that the collector was just a dick of an enemy that will annoy you till the ends of time

[@arieldawn3452]

Very helpful, thanks. I can't believe how stupid I was at my first play through when I summoned the shambler.

[@garretwoeller7669]

to make things easy for the prophet use this tactic a hound master in the back a high dodge or around 30 dodge highwayman and a lep and you will hit a dps tank equilibrium as long as you have a occultist in slot 3

[@Alex90680]

Nothing more ominous than the way he says “that unit will die.” 😱😦☠️

[@rkade1486]

Swine God can also be killed by running a riposte team and then you kill Wilbert. I also remember I killed the Hag in 2 turns, just gonna say Hellion is op af. 10:33, This made me have vietnam flashbacks. 19:56, It will alwayse suprize your party, even if it doesn't suprize you. (this hit different)

[@miloskaluznik48]

How True man defeats Cannon boss: Take 3 antiquarians, stack that sweet dodge 5 buff, never hit fuseman. Profit.

[@walterraschenbach4068]

First time I fought a Champion Flesh, round one, I got undulating invasion twice, both of which scored crits and hit both back ranks each time, instantly putting both on death's door. Then my front liner got hit with a crit Maws of Life twice, putting him on death's door. But I take it from this that the odds of the two-target critical undulating invasion is actually pretty unlikely. Maybe I'll give it another go.

[@philipa.3147]

He didn't say it in the video but in The Flesh fight, Maws of Life can hit both two people in the front at once and Undulating Invasion can hit both two people in the back at once.

[@cecilandblues]

I refer to it as a percentage chance of hitting a 2nd target. the chance it hits 2 goes up at higher ranks of the encounter.

[@philipa.3147]

+cecilandblues I didn't know that. Thanks for the info!