Darkest Dungeon - Filthy's Combat Guide for Beginners

[@tolgabalci9828]

Listened to this alt-tabbed while i was playing Darkest Dungeon high af,just nod my head to show how i agree for 1 hour.It was an interesting experience

[@ethanlutz9726]

im about to do the same thing

[@justaguy899]

This guy is some inspiration!!!

[@seiban8455]

On some deep level, I feel like I always wanted a game that had me lose because three members of my party became masochistic at once.

[@greg77389]

One of my crusaders died to a collector, and another crusader who fought alongside him picked up the hatred of Eldritch quirk. I know it was probably just a coincidence but I love the realism in that.

[@saintpoli6800]

greg77389 He must avenge his brother

[@TwoFuzzyButts]

Such a terrible assault must not go unanswered!

[@marvelmaniac88]

You helped me so much with Civ 5 and now DD. I was trying to find a beginners guide that actually explained mechanics and icons and you nailed it. You have a great intuition for teaching step by step and recognizing what basics people may be confused or curious about. Thanks so much, just wanted to let you know that my gaming enjoyment greatly increased because of your detailed guides.

[@FilthyRobot]

I love to hear feedback like this, makes the time commitment of these guides so worthwhile!

[@teddyrasputin3850]

Thanks. Excellent break down. I enjoy the game more now that i understand some of the underlying mechanics. Nothing quite like knowing the rules.

[@FilthyRobot]

+Teddy Rasputin Right? I wish gaming companies would be more transparent with their rules =/

[@willnash7907]

Glad you enjoyed his guide, it is rather well made. Do keep in mind that you can always find additional information on our community-maintained wiki. :)

[@teddyrasputin3850]

@Rotten If only we were all so blessed in every aspect as you

[@michaelcoffey1991]

A huge help as someone who got this for my PS4 a week ago :) Thank you so much for these kind of guides and content they are done with the depth and understanding almost none of us far more casual can possess or fathom :) fun watch too.

[@botulum]

I thought that combat is about three things: burn the heretic, kill the mutant, purge the unclean. But your way is also acceptable ;)

[@botulum]

@Rotten You have absolutely no idea where this is from, do you? haha

[@Timmeister3000]

This guide and the town one are fantastic. By studying them I've gotten to the midgame on my first playthrough with many level 3 and 4 heroes now and very few losses. One tip I would add: Don't be afraid to retreat from battle and abandon a quest if things are going badly.

[@quibily]

Wow! I'm kinda embarrassed how much I learned from this video when I've played this game for about 30 hours! Thanks for making this.

[@nikolasversteeg]

I'm on my 5th playthrough and have over 300 hours and I'm still learning shit. I didn't know you could use items to interact with curios until this run which I have about 30 hours in lmao

[@dg19de]

you can indeed get rid of a negative affliction by reducing the heroes stress back down to zero; I managed to do that once in one of my runs, but its a rare occurence of course (had a jester and two crusaders, one was support, so a ton of stress heals available) glad I found your channel, robot; I really like your indepth guides; although I am a veteran of many games you play myself, I am still able to learn something new from you and I highly appreciate that

[@dustpan9876]

DD is a great game and this was a Great guide Filthy. I've been playing a lot of DD and I still found I learned a lot. Thanks

[@anthonyfasano4610]

I actually didn't know about the hidden speed role. I always wondered why some heroes or enemies went faster when the latter has a higher speed!

[@FilthyRobot]

I was annoyed when I found out too!

[@willnash7907]

You are really lucky you haven't gotten into modding, I thought it to be 6 rather than 8, had to re-balance half my content. You can find other info and similar cool stuff on the game's wiki.

[@OnlyZunkin]

The one thing I disagree with you on is high crit probability. I love maxing out my crit scores when possible, but not so much for the damage but rather for the stress heals. If you have a character that crits one in every four shots and they have abilities that hit multiple targets it's almost like having a dedicated stress healer in the party. I used to run mandatory stress healers in my parties but these days I will often completely forgo adding one if I have a party built around high crit values.

[@superresistant0]

thx for the tip

[@alicaido6616]

only problem is relying on the hit roll, then the crit roll. with an actual stress healer it's just 100% you're gonna stress heal. I do actually like not using the stress healer, but have been screwed over before because of the double roll chance...

[@sylvanasarsen]

@@alicaido6616 Well, if your stress healer is a hound - it's a 66% roll, so it is still choosing between 66% chance of mass stress heal without any damage output and damage output with 25% chance of crit on every single target (if hits), which will trigger stress heal. Yeah, a jester has a direct 100% heal of stress though, but still this leads to zero damage output. Honestly, I like to respect any opinion and approach to play this game, except something like 'JUST THROW F***ING LEPER AWAY' things - I personally don't like a too radical approaches because even if some things are situational and random (and unsustainable, for example leper accuracy rolls or occultist heal) they still have their uses and this means they have their purpose. I like this game cause it has (almost) no way of 'OP group, tactics and loadout, which could cut through anything'. You have a chance to twist numbers a lot and try to rely on different things. It still has base mechanics, which you will have to work around, but the ability to use a bit of your creativity to play it like you want to is so damn satisfying!:)

[@rvallekinloch]

Such a good guide. After finishing your video, I'm restarting my run! thanks for putting this together!

[@michaeltallsman2740]

Excellent breakdown of combat mechanics. Your videos, including the class reviews, have helped me tremendously. Thank you, Filthy.

[@nikolasversteeg]

Having the hound master having both black jack and howl never occurred to me. I always keep my vestal in the back and plague doctor in third, but vestal can still heal in second, so if you need to switch from stunning to stress healing MID BATTLE you can. I usually just do it in between rooms, that's crazy. Despite how much you think you know about this game there's always more to it.

[@BlackBinderGames]

I love your videos man. I've watched your class guide playlist for Darkest Dungeon 3 times now.

[@rogerfvb]

When I started out I felt confused and frustrated about skills being exclusive to certain placements. Now it's second nature and I enjoy building teams with people fixed on certain spots and teams with people that switch around all the time to get buffs (Grave Robber, Jester, Highwayman)

[@SeanGabrielMcClelland]

Super clear teaching, for a complex game, this is much appreciated.

[@respicio2990]

I found this game very compelling, thank you for such a great video

[@gui3145]

I learned Civilization and Darkest Duengeon with your guides, thanks!

[@SrSacaninha]

I got this game on sale and these guides are saving my ass. Top quality content as usually, Filthy. Makes me want to play the same games as you are, just so I can follow your guides.

[@markwhitmore4547]

I LOVE your guides and playthroughs! Keep up the great work. Having said that, three ad breaks in the first 16 minutes is pretty extreme and really takes one out of the teach. I know ads are necessary, but that level of saturation seems excessive.

[@FilthyRobot]

I don't choose how many and how frequently unfortunately. I basically have a "monetize" or not option.

[@markwhitmore4547]

@@FilthyRobot - Gotcha. Did not know that is how it works. :(

[@NocturnalNick]

"Some fights are race fights..." A race war, if you will

[@kwhitsitt1]

I feel like my IQ rises if I listen to Filthy!

[@adamsilverman2]

Me too!

[@Secret_Takodachi]

Got my first total party kill one room short of completing the objective. So I figured I'd look for a combat tips video to watch while I rounded up the next victims....um I mean "adventurers!" to go back and finish the job. Lucky for them I haven't lost another full team in a dungeon since, so thanks for the info!.

[@OnlyZunkin]

Thanks for the informative video. I had no idea that DOT wasn't an automatic death on a character on death's door. I've only ever lost two characters and in both cases they were on death's door with a DOT and both failed their very first saving throws for the DOT damage. I pretty much just assumed that DOT was an OP death sentence that basically circumvented all the death's door saving throws and this fallacy made me radically alter my party builds and play style to combat DOT at all costs. It turns out I just got unlucky those first two times. I wish the developers would be a bit more transparent about the game mechanics.

[@TimTimSalabim]

Great guide. Just started playing this game and the learning curve appears steep and I'm finding the in-game tutorial a bit lacking. Your guide is helping a lot.

[@fridarey]

I like your style, explaining stuff then showing us in action. This was really thorough and helpful. Thanks filthy o/

[@swelx-sk9yb]

Just got this on ps4 thanks so much for the tips filthy robot .

[@FilthyRobot]

No problem, it's a super fun game. Enjoy the hell out of it!

[@swelx-sk9yb]

Yeh im loving it but fuk its hard had 8 heart attacks first 5hrs of playing lool

[@motherlodegt3887]

SOoooooo helpful! And you caught me by surprise lol, the video is PG all the way through, then at 49:55 ''We just crit on that fucking stun''.Made me laugh so hard. Demonetized.

[@N0riab_Aliste]

ahahahah same here xd

[@Sashidar_]

If he beeps that part then would be monetised again I guess.

[@patrickbaitmen9290]

Thank you I just got this for the switch and I was baffled for 4 days lol this is the best walk through I’ve found. Cheers from London

[@FilthyRobot]

Glad to hear it's helpful. Cheers right back at you!

[@Xavier-kw4bm]

awesome video *6:05 - you can use from any rank to hit rank 2,3 or 4

[@spamrme1654]

Thanks for explaining how to stall for heals and stress heals. Almost gave up watching when you said this video was geared towards someone new to DD. And I noticed you were showing off ancestral trinkets (long champion dungeons, according to wiki) and heroes using level 5 weapon/armor. I only have one character at resolve level 3, so I was thinking how do I deck myself out in those kind of gears and still be new. I was glad I stayed and watched. :)

[@MrMoralesmario71]

Dude I just got the game and your guides are amazing. You need more subs... got one here 👍

[@FilthyRobot]

Glad you like them!

[@AndyChristX]

17:20 One day I brought an afflicted vestal to a dungeon with a jester and a crusader, and cured her stress down to 0. The aff dissapeared so yeah, you CAN stress heal in battle + camping but it's much more tedious and dangerous ofc .

[@VictusPrime]

Nice guide mate. I've been curious about this game but haven't picked it up yet because I just don't know anything about it and I doubt the in-game tutorial doesn't even come close to explaining the game's mechanics like your video does. Cheers.

[@bonogiamboni4830]

49:50 only in darkest dungeon critting an enemy could ever be negative.

[@elQueFaltaba]

I'm coming to this game very late, and with the DLC, but I still find this video really informative. Thanks!

[@MichaelLochowitz]

Great video. Thank you for taking the time to put this together.

[@Phidnok]

Nice tips man! I'm just starting to crack lvl 5 dungeons and you taught me some stuff! Super grateful, I didn't want to lose my A-team, although I'm sure I will eventually lol

[@fangkc]

Just started my second attempt at playing this game, your videos really helped, thank you :)

[@ViktorVonGhoulie]

Just started my first playthrough of this game! Thank you for the help!

[@FilthyRobot]

Good luck!

[@NauticalNiblet]

Dude I was playing Civ 5 (also watched your civ 5 videos) and I thought i wanted to get better at DD. Lo and behold I find your guide, awesome!

[@favorx183]

The chance of virtue is base 25% Also -5% per level difference between the character and dungeon. Ex: if i bring a level 0 to a level 3 dungeon he loses 15% virtue chance leaving you with a 10% chance. Max virtue chance is 60%

[@carp3tstain]

This is great! Thanks so much for your hard work in creating this video.

[@ecbrd8478]

Hellion really feels like a must for a stun-based party tbh

[@D00M3R-SK8]

am I right in thinking I should have a team of level 2's with level 2 skills before taking on the first boss? I'm a little unsure on how long I want to be recruiting and running short dungeons for? I have levelled up some of the things in town I need, but I locked in two skills on some heroes as they were ideal, not sure if I was doing this too early as I have heard conflicting info, some people seem to think you want to be focussing on getting a team levelled up asap, whle others say you should not care about the heroes till you have a lot of gold saved, so just release them rather than cure them or fix traits like klepto.. I think I'm gonna re-roll anyway as I know a bit more than I did, it;s just a shame as I was doing alright, I am just really confused now about stuff.

[@willnash7907]

You can find information about DD in our community maintain wiki ;). The first boss is extremely easy, if you have some experience and a good teamcomp you can theoretically take it down with lvl 0's and no trikets.

[@D00M3R-SK8]

yeah I'm way past that now. thanks for reply though.

[@pushyrummble8625]

Herald Of Nurgle I just took down the first boss with luck, I got in to the fight with 1 character above 100 sanity and other were around 70. But luckily I had on of them that go to 100 sanity and he went courages and help keep sanity for everyone else down and my other character got focus. 👌😂 I had the worst luck and the best. I have a video of it, that's explains it better.

[@hugooo1]

Hello there you Filthy Robot! I just started DD a few days ago, and was totally lost. Started to watch a few of your starter guides and they explained a lot, thanks! Can you please consider doing an update to them, please? Seems like some stuff is outdated: just yesterday I was trying the stall part of the combat, and even having 2 enemies alive, there were reinforcements.. Either way, great content man!

[@Puckanm]

Just got this on my Nintendo Switch! Thanks For the Videos Filthy! This game is HARD for simple minds like me! but I love the grind/challenge!

[@thijsdeboer389]

this guy made it possible for my PC to survive battle brothers and darkest dungeon XD

[@equay1990]

Late bloomer to this game but I’ve put in close to 40 hours so far. Figured I’d give a look at your videos to see maybe how much someone is playing differently than I am. Andddd maybe, quite possibly hear a couple things I didn’t know. Bam! Not even nine minutes into your video, THIS blew my mind 8:55 🤯 I thought they were always random every run. I got pretty used to it actually 🤦🏼‍♂️🙄

[@DarkTF2Director]

Dude, the tip of rearranging your skills is insane... it always buggede why sometimes my finale would be at 1 and sometimes at 4

[@iluxa-4000]

I am currently playing with only 4 crusaders, and I have to say - lvl 1 and 3 dungeons are a breeze for pretty much any composition. For a level 5 - 4 crusaders can still easily clear Ruins, and ruins is probably the easiest area, because skeletons can only hit, they don't have blight/bleed to their attacks, so you can easily recover from death's door. And champion dungeons in every other place except Ruins can be dangerous even for great compositions. There is no safe from a double crit+bleed/blight combo P.S.: you never played with a Jester or what? :D Of course affliction disappears when you reach 0 stress again

[@1313CHORIZOMAN]

Im new to dd, great videos. learning a lot. Don't take it the wrong way but your videos help me go to sleep .

[@xdreadx_5025]

love the guide have about 90 hours logged and mainly cause of watching this about 20 hours in thank you filthy, also you excited for the new dlc?

[@TheZoobZoobs]

dude thanks for all your work, any chance you might cover Darkest Dungeon itself? That place is brutal...I went in with a full level 6 team and lost 2 of them within the first 5 rooms.

[@kdhlkjhdlk]

Such a weird metagame that arises simply because you can't use your heals out of combat.

[@taekwondoman2D]

Don't even play this game but love the thumbnail.

[@OnlyZunkin]

I was days into the game before I noticed the dashed dots and what they mean. It was so irritating running into new characters and not realizing that their useless looking skills often actually hit multiple targets making them great. There were all sorts of skills I avoided buying and using for this reason. Instructions would have been nice. Scouting was another mechanic I initially vastly underestimated.

[@casperinus]

I'm super late to this but bought the game on Ps4 and I cannot see what attacks enemies do. I have found no way at all to view their attacks so no way to know which ones to kill first. Anyone who can help?

[@typedeaf]

I don't know about bringing any group to lvl 1. I just had a Leper die in 1 round to 2 crits (15 and 14) from spiders --which is why I quit the game and am here now. He may have had a few points missing before. No choice but to abandon. Also, there is some strange wraith with a kings crown that summons spirits with just spinal cords and heads; it has wiped my groups many times. Finally, the thing that comes out of the crystal orb and makes you fight in pitch black has wiped my entire group twice. Couldn't abandon. All of these groups had an Occ or Vest + some kind of stress healer like Hound or self stress heal on Lep and Abom.

[@midtierjesus]

I couldn't get through 2 minutes of this since i just wanted to play the game as soon as i saw it

[@allfredopablo411]

best video ever, can you make this kind of mechanics breakdown for other games? it would be cool man.

[@darknight570]

Very helpful and not too much rambling.

[@OnlyZunkin]

Thanks for the heads up on dodge not scaling well. I already disliked relying on it and my only two deaths have been Grave Diggers that ate it after a couple of quick bleed crits during collector fights.

[@SG400E]

Just got this on PS4, excellent video, helped me a lot, thanks

[@tomaO2]

Oh, god damn, I've been playing for over 60 hours and this is some basic stuff I've been screwing up on. I thought that I had to be attacking something every turn, and thought the corpse also counted as a valid target to stop that stupid stress hit from happening. I also didn't know when that mechanic kicked in. I was confused because sometimes it would take awhile to kill something but I didn't get hit with the party stress thing. Did not know that you needed to reduce to a single, one hex, opponent.

[@FilthyRobot]

Glad it helped!

[@D00M3R-SK8]

so you run a lot of stuns then.. definitely learning from this... would be cool to see some other team synergies too.

[@Gh0st662]

I'd like to see you go through this without constantly stun locking. Sure, that strategy may be the end game, but most of us probably aren't there yet since we're looking at a guide.

[@paulomachado7328]

Jonathon Pucek I do that straight away. It's really the best strategy.

[@PedrovoriskAB]

What happen if you get to the 9th round?

[@bobbob5007]

Is it just me or does the torch light dim during the beginning

[@Nibas]

Will you do an updated version of this guide now that the stall mechanic has been changed in CoM?

[@TheSchmuck2]

this was great. Lots of good insight. Thank you!

[@sirrobbinthenotsobraveassi6196]

Hey filthy quick question when you say d8 do you really mean d9? the dice rolls on a d8 are 0 to 7 and a d9 is 0 to 8. just curious because you're 1 to 9 speed comparison is off slightly with the die rolls added in if it's a d8 but I get the jist of what you meant. great video though keep up the good work :)

[@FilthyRobot]

An eight sided dice rolls between a 1 and an 8. Dice aren't numbered from 0.

[@sirrobbinthenotsobraveassi6196]

FilthyRobot not entirely true there are dice numbered from 0 but that would be a d10 or higher. I do admit I got it wrong on the 8 sided die been awhile since I've played dnd so was calling upon that knowledge anyway I digress it is labeled 1 to 8 Haha oops.

[@FrankieMankie]

Great video, thanks for the tips!

[@confidential5743]

So annoying reading negative reviews where the OP thinks they played perfectly and died to RNG

[@Maeladriel]

Tfw you get 4 virtues in a dungeon :ok_hand:

[@nicolicachero3432]

Great :D I actually followed you back on Civ 5.. glad to see you playing another game i love... just a question? How do you feel about the game Endless Legend?

[@johnmclaughlin9674]

Very insightful thanks

[@lassehededalnielsen9167]

Great guide, really helped me out! :)

[@takogonikanetniukogo]

*me before this video* I feel like a competent player in DD, definitely above average level *me, after listening FilthyRobot for 15 min* I do know nothing and my shame has no bounds.

[@chadashton7029]

CPU or console? One better than the other?

[@singed420snowinit9]

Does this strat still work or has it been nerfed?

[@ElmersBoil]

I like to play this game and i think its fun but im having a hard time really getting into it. After one or two runs i feel burnt out and i have to take a break and this stops me from progressing much which further pushes me away. I like the game concept and i like grinding games but i just cant get into it like i want to. Any advice?

[@FilthyRobot]

Have some fun with it. Name some characters after people you dislike, and get amused when they do stupid things, fail their hits and the like.

[@atermondyolamda6971]

Had the same issue here, it was one of the very few games I couldn't understand until my fourth or fifth run. My advice is simple. Go out and experiment as much as you can. Do weird stuff, try stupid things and don't give up immediately. Just prolong your run until you get a read on your group and the enemy's abilities and what works and what does not. Then go and do a legitimate run. Worked just fine for me.

[@ElmersBoil]

Ive been able to get into it more with some clever names and experiment party comps. I've killed the necromancer, swine prince, and the hag so far i think im week like 30/40? I know its not that good haha but its good to finally see some progress

[@riccardodepieri4582]

This is a great video, however I hope I will forget all these advices tomorrow because I feel they would make the game too easy. I love the variety of classes and abilities but it seems to me like certain abilities should always be selected over others, I hope I am wrong tho because it seems very fun to try and figure out the best party combos.

[@georgiababylon3160]

This was very helpful, thank you.

[@TrillKump]

Thanks. Just started today! What's NG stand for?

[@FilthyRobot]

It's the hard mode that is unlocked after you beat the game once. It's stands for new game mode.

[@TrillKump]

tysm ^^

[@khoado9495]

Ever thinking of modding ? It's a bit hard but after a bit of trials and erors, it's will work

[@tokiwartooth4404]

Just spent a few days increasing inv stack sizes, increasing inv size, nerfing bad quirks/diseases manually, improving trinkets, and going for a Waifuest Dungeon :) This game is quite easy to mod, but I've been doing self-mods for a quite a long time. Thankfully all Steam mods are mirrored on Skymods, or Nexus. Steam updates break mods. Steam Workshop subscribe feature ease of use is great for those who don't want to learn, but existing mod conflicts can be resolved by doing it manually. Really wish I could buy the game on disc. Without DRM plug-ins and forced game updates. Don't forget simple audio setting presets while playing any specific game. And of course GPU control panel for scaling and all the fine tuning.

[@oferasis1]

Very informative, thanks!!!

[@MCRAVENATOR2222]

so combat is basically shadowrun

[@troydumas8084]

awesome video!

[@Nemesis-wj7mk]

man how do you in the name of hell have all characters lvl 6?? i have only 1 crusader lvl 3 and when i want to send him to quest he says that he cant improve if he goes on a "weak quest" but i need him to beat a boss when i check his behavior he doesnt have anything like that help me man please :(

[@andrejbosiakov5726]

level 1 dungeons are only accessible for 0 - 2 level characters, other characters consider them "too easy".

[@willnash7907]

A certain town event will remove this restriction for a single run whenever it appears.

[@21innocentbystander]

Great stuff man, thanks!

[@TreeFolkDruid]

is it possible to get a "dead game" when you have no adventurers and money?

[@dmtdave207]

Just started yesterday. You can just take 4 new recruits on a dungeon run, with no supplies, get as far as you can and then retreat back to town, still keeping all the loot! Then you can repeat with fresh recruits OR keep building the ones that you sent on the suicide run. Often, Ive actually completed the mission with my expendable squad with NO supplies! Lol. My first several hours were spent in this way, Learning whilst grinding for loot.

[@dmtdave207]

But make sure and upgrade the stagecoach a couple times. (youll want to increase your roster size a bit AND, more importantly, youll want 4 new recruits per week..then youll never run out of meat for the grinder)

[@shiniselune399]

17:25 i was told it could happen in fights that last for 111 turns :p

[@21innocentbystander]

6:04 You meant 2-3-4 right?

[@pushyrummble8625]

21innocentbystander yes

[@addarrelstokes1000]

What about when you get at deaths door then your healer does a 0 heal!! Sick RNG

[@Owenlol100]

What does NG stand for?

[@Kassen777]

+Owen Xie newgame a game started after a complete game keeping stuff but harder

[@jawaddruion669]

dude i have been playing this for about a week and i have been a detailed guide like this but every fucking tips or beginners guide is just explaining the basics of the game without explaining how it works in debeth

[@FilthyRobot]

Hope this helped.

[@aubreynyiri9878]

Subbing. Amazing guide