Occultist and You: Darkest Dungeon Guide

This guide covers Occultist in Darkest Dungeon and teaches you how to play him. It will cover what the character can do, what it's good at, what teams are good to start with, and other various analysis. The next hero in the guide series will be Houndmaster!
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[@TheCatholicZombie]

The remove mortality debuff camp skills are weirdly funny to me. The Occultist needs to reach out to an eldritch being , sacrifice torchlight, and stress himself out to remove a mortality debuff. Crusader just says, "Hey man, it's not so bad. Stand up straight." and bam, the debuff is gone.

[@JamJestKesh]

crusader taps into pure bro energy, stronger than any dark gods

[@lydiasteinebendiksen4269]

I love how you can crit heal someone for 0hp and bleed, it's like "oh, thanks that heal takes some stress of my shoulders!" *bleeds to death*

[@AntlionUncletruthin]

Occultist was my rank 1 against the final mission when I first played. He's my favorite character (tied with Dismas) because while Dismas is the posterboy for the game, Occultist is the character that mechanically represents this game. You gamble with your life or death when you rely on him, but he so often crits and pulls off impressive moves that drag you back from a losing battle. Such a fun character to use for big plays, but he can also just help out from behind the scenes and let other characters shine. Really really good character design.

[@ShuffleFM]

Great explanation!

[@t3chn0dr0n3]

"5 crit actually not that bad" Bounty Hunter: *snorts* Leper: "Petals must fall."

[@Michael-zl2iw]

I think you are underrating Daemon's Pull. There are many backline enemies that get completely shafted by being pulled to the front (and these enemies are usually some of the more dangerous and high priority ones, like pink fish and bone courtier). This has the added benefit of pushing the enemy frontline to the back, making it so you can somewhat often shut down two enemies with a single attack. Pull is also a different form of crowd control from stun so the enemies don't get the stun resist buff, which makes it easier to control them for multiple turns with a combination of stuns and pulls. Furthermore, pulling gets the enemies in range of frontline damage dealers, who would otherwise have difficulties reaching them. It also gives you a way to, at least sometimes, control the enemies in the fourth rank. The base move chance on Daemon's Pull is also high enough that you don't really *need* trinkets to further augment it (Vial of Sand, being as broken as it is, gives you some on top of the stun chance though). AND you get corpse destruction on top of all that.

[@NoName-md6fd]

yeah haha, bone courtier goes from spamming tempting goblet to knife in the dark. I'll take the HP damage over stress.

[@sgtjohnson49]

Great comment, ty for the tips. Still learning what works for me and didn't realize Daemon's Pull has corpse destruction. That's a really nice addition to the other possibilities with pulling backline to the front

[@AlexTTzer0]

Everything u said is true, however there are some places where the backrank enemies don't get a hit on their abilities when they move forward, in fact apart from the Ruins all other enemies can still be threatening both in back ranks or front ranks - especially in Warrens. It does wonders with the bandits though who don't appear often. All in all its a great move but it does seem more situational....

[@errmack3004]

Yea, the pull is definitely good.

[@The_OwO_Shogun]

Come hither Daemons pull. Bola And then my leper just chops the two stressers in half with hew!

[@LiIGremlin]

Have over 360 hours in this game now, but this series really helped me when i was new, keep up the great work 💜

[@ungabunga345]

I have the same amount of hours now and it still reaches me things about skills Ive been sleeping on

[@LunetoHa]

Ah yes, the one true hero of the game. Dabbling with the void, fighting unstable powers with unholy fire. (Great review!)

[@Stery0typical]

I love the flexibility of so many characters in this game; you can trinket and quirk most characters into being decent at something they were designed to be terrible at.

[@JamJestKesh]

Occultist and Crusader were always my favourite classes, for how you can pretty much slap them into any team at any position and do something pretty good

[@The_OwO_Shogun]

Crusaders order and junias head were just amazing! Heals, add the stress heal skill, holy lance, and zealous accusation! Just beautiful. The jester and the vestal just saltily sitting at the bar while Reynauld steals their job.

[@andregon4366]

I like Demon's Pull, the stun doesn't reach rank 4 and if you pull the Collector (and other back row enemies) you can reach him without having to kill his minions.

[@GeraltofRivia22]

Occultist is easily one of my favourite heroes. He's just so much fun to play. I know people meme on Wyrd Reconstruction, but damn if a 35+ heal doesn't set off the happy chemicals in my brain.

[@mhasemore]

Been a while since the last video - nice to see the uploads coming. Stunbot Occultist is one of my favourites to run.

[@ralseibestboi546]

I love Occultist as a support character. I run him with pull, wyrd, and his debuff and mark move. I also run him in a team with Bounty Hunter, Man at arms, and Arbalist (I totally spelled that wrong). My strategy typically involves debuffing and marking front line enemies so that Bounty Hunter and MAA can take care of them in typically 1-2 turns. Whereas my Arbelist takes care of backline enemies. Its a really effective team and can easily take down enemy teams without much issue. You dont have to worry about a bad heal roll if you kill everything before they can kill you-

[@t3chn0dr0n3]

I've tried stunbot occultist but he always just ends up dying to frontliners due to his miserably low HP. At rank 4 he often has turns where he can't do shit and he's honestly kinda boring there. So, my preferred rank for him is 3. I love Sacrificial Stab and I like Daemon's Pull, especially the corpse-clearing part of it.

[@ShuffleFM]

Rank 3 is still a great spot for him

[@GeraltofRivia22]

Daemons Pull is great for Leper. One of my favourite teams is Occultist-Jester-Leper-Leper.

[@secretname2670]

​@@GeraltofRivia22 ah another avid enjoyer of wood chippers, salutations!

[@Rudi4rius]

OCCULTIST MY BELOVED

[@mistercoolio9236]

lmao the sausage for thick's tip is a great visual 👍

[@Khrene]

7:30 I like Thick's Tip for using vulnerability hex to cover up for early game low accuracy.

[@dsagent]

I think I said this in previous video but my favorite team is a front occultist and 3 graverobbers. High dodge trinkets on everyone. Constant damage output with lunges. If the occultist gets shuffled it doesn't matter much he is ok from anywhere.

[@finempra8730]

I’m definitely going to try this team out when I play DD1 again. Thanks!

[@nichitacruceanu9540]

i love the idea, but i think its not that good because their speeds are the same, so in long fights one graverobber won't be lunging

[@doctordice2doctordice210]

What I adore about occultist is how despite being dynamic and flexible, he still maintains his role as a supportive class, honestly one of the games best designs

[@troyroot5273]

So cozy. Got that 2020-2021 content vibe. Thanks for the vod.

[@colossaltitan3546]

Agreed, his DD1 guides had that sort of cosy feel to them.

[@Harps0ng]

Watching the spin of bad rng into the thrall exploding around the 6:30 mark had me hurting

[@t3chn0dr0n3]

When I saw the pelagic guardian defending the thrall, I just went "oh god..."

[@warmwestwind]

Like you've been saying, the Occultist is NOT a main healer. The Occultist is a quirky support class!! Why is this so hard for people to realize?

[@ShuffleFM]

They see crit 42 and think that he's a healer lol

[@bigmonkey1254]

I've actually been using occultist for damage quite a bit lately. I tend to enjoy the cove quite a bit and I gotta say, I've been *noticing* that increased critical hit rate on sacrificial stab.

[@pavisepavisnt]

Occultist guide dropped let's gooooooooo

[@heartlessmushroom]

Hands from the Abyss is so accurate and crits so often I honestly tend to rely on it for damage more than Sacrificial Stab when doing Endless Harvest.

[@komrade_karma8220]

wait, this is the end of the guide playlist and i binged it in like 2 days 💀

[@secretname2670]

Obviously the best combat team is four occultists, because it's virtually impossible to run out of health even when you are hitting heart attacks every turn, tied for my favorite team with the best utility team which is three occultists and an antiquarian!

[@ATeamNinja124]

Occultist has probably become one of the characters I most rely on. In my bloodmoon run, he was probably the most valued character to me. The power of the stun (empowered by demon's cauldron), as we know, is immensely strong. Being able to reliably stun rank 3 and building a team that can kill rank 4 on turn 1 or 2 allowed me to prevent, probably, Thousands of stress throughout the entire bloodmoon run. On top of that, the heal and weakening curse are some of the best skills for stalling for after you deal with the backline. His camp skills are useful on the whole. Damage camp skill for hyper carries and to push through damage breakpoints sometimes, and ambush prevention allowing him to be flexible to add to any team. Really just wanted to reiterate and emphasize how strong the occultist is in DD1.

[@grin1602]

Hey thanks for the video ! I'm just a beginner at the game but i really like occultist and your video helps a lot !

[@jinnitachi]

i ain’t realize u were still making guide type vids on dd1, a quirk guide would be a nice watch

[@ShuffleFM]

I made one a couple years ago but maybe I can make a better one

[@jinnitachi]

@@ShuffleFM that guide was good actually, i meant to say tier list i’m just a dumbass, also couldn’t go wrong with a duo or trio style vid. cause u know we love those tier lists around these parts

[@aidenstone]

love your content super in-depth and great value! By any chance would you/have you done a playthrough where you go through optimal things to do on the regular darkest mode? I only ask about darkest mode because I understand for the harder mode a lot people say it plays differently.

[@Duchess_Van_Hoof]

Daemon's pull on cultists is fairly satisfying if nothing else.

[@akoskovacs6830]

It might be just my misunderstanding of the class but my problem with healing early is this: if we need sometimes 2 or 3 ability uses to get the heal we need, we basically self-stunned our character for 1 or 2 turns in a game where fights rarely last longer than 5 turn. For me (at least if I focus on healing) the Occultist kinda feels absent because he just tries and tries again to get that optimal healing on someone. At the same time with a Vestal I heal up the same character (maybe to a lesser degree), stun an opponent and kill someone with judgement.

[@PersephonevanderWaard]

Awesome video as usual Shuffle. Very informative guide that covers a lot of ground in a brisk, expert fashion. Clear, concise and informative! :)

[@codycomstock3260]

Everyone loves receiving a thick tip!

[@victorprati7908]

Use higher bleed chance trinkets on Occultist to int bleed Flagellant lol

[@KonoGufo]

You did it, you madman

[@goose7632]

I heard a lot of “it gets the job done” which is better than “it sucks in this scenario”

[@jaded7466]

could you make a guide for the farmstead?

[@ShuffleFM]

It's in the works :) I want to change the format a bit so it might take some more work to get out, but I look forward to it. I plan to start filming this week, and I have most of it written.

[@jaded7466]

@@ShuffleFM Thats amazing to hear! Can't wait to watch, dude.

[@mylesaquino]

ITS HERE

[@sebastiangibson9671]

I often run him in rank 4 bc I often have a PD and double leper and I don’t like reducing my torch with hands from the abyss

[@TheGunslinger44]

My "best" Occultist with the Hippocratic quirk consistently healed my Leper between 0-6 health six times in a row and got him killed, even though he got two crits between those two heals. What an awesome character.

[@Tp-ce7di]

Don't rely on occultist alone for healing pair him up with others that can heal I prefer flag or arb

[@TheGunslinger44]

@@Tp-ce7di I don't rely on him. I literally started healing at 50% HP as you should on top of a little bit of Solemnity spam and he still got fucked in the Weald. My Occultist definitely fucker over my Leper.

[@Azrael178]

I like occultist flagellant on lower level expeditions when I'm leveling up characters because on it they can reliably kill both backline species turn 1 outside of ruins

[@gregorioricouz6612]

how do you use it with flagellant to kill in turn 1?

[@BoshShouldSit]

Much love ❤

[@matiasmorales073]

LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[@DownBadDonk]

I love to run quad occultist unironically

[@PRO100SashaX]

Ancestor's pistol is insane value for tentacle occultist in case you don't run jester, you almost always go first and hit reliably everybody but most dodgy enemies. It would be his personal trinket if houndmaster wasn't needing same stats lol. I actually do enjoy full mark team just because how it can just shred any high health enemy out there. His mark isn't the best for sure, but he'll stun this enemy like 90% of the time, and then mark from either bh or hm and two-to-four attacks is pretty much enough for the enemy to go down without any of their turns. But this kind of team falls down when there's 4 enemies, and this is where the pistol shines. If I see ghoul I usually just sight out of frustration (and fury, unfortunately doesn't help destruction), as he literally always either crit skull or scream at me, but not for this team. Not today. There is like no teams stunbot occultist can't work with provided you have space for him (i.e. not double leper) and the pistol. Just don't forget that his knife can't be thrown lmao.

[@victorprati7908]

Ancestor's pistol is insane value for tentacle occultist in case you don't run jester, you almost always go first and hit reliably everybody but most dodgy enemies. It would be his personal trinket if houndmaster wasn't needing same stats lol. I actually do enjoy full mark team just because how it can just shred any high health enemy out there. His mark isn't the best for sure, but he'll stun this enemy like 90% of the time, and then mark from either bh or hm and two-to-four attacks is pretty much enough for the enemy to go down without any of their turns. But this kind of team falls down when there's 4 enemies, and this is where the pistol shines. If I see ghoul I usually just sight out of frustration (and fury, unfortunately doesn't help destruction), as he literally always either crit skull or scream at me, but not for this team. Not today. There is like no teams stunbot occultist can't work with provided you have space for him (i.e. not double leper) and the pistol. Just don't forget that his knife can't be thrown lmao.

[@veidosaco3550]

As known as: Mr.Crowley

[@tor3699]

What went on in your head? Did you talk to the dead?

[@burrito4332]

I think you meant to complement the Ancestor's Scroll specifically with the Occultist camp healing skill, but his capacity to roll randomly/roll zero with Wyrd Reconstruction effectively nullifies battle heal chance boosts from trinkets, right?

[@RanVor]

No, because it still helps when you roll anything other than zero. I don't know why people act like he rolls zero all the time, it's not actually that common.

[@Snake1993a]

Oh dude, its been a while since good Darkest Dungeon. Really miss those series, but to be honest I miss more the hype of waiting for DD2 while watching your videos. And then DD2 comes with such a disapointing system, atleast for me...

[@Ironsuaba]

Relationships in their current iteration are, in fact, hot garbage and make DD2 borderline unplayable

[@Snake1993a]

@@Ironsuaba Nah, I coudl play the game with it and handle it. The strategic aspects of the game that they cut off makes me mad. No more planning, no more combo parties. Now you play rogue-lite like Hades or so. Jump, try to complete, die, repeat. But hey, this video is not about if DD2 is a bad game or not! Lets enjoy Shuff new DD1 video!

[@modernwarhero8447]

Luckily dd2 is in early access and still has a lot of room for improvement

[@Snake1993a]

@@modernwarhero8447 Sadly on 99% there wont be micro magaging the resources, upgrading the town, etc...

[@gabrielsanandres537]

My Occultist Alhazred nukes the backline Bone Courtiers and Ascendes witches lol

[@NoName-md6fd]

I think you are slightly downplaying how good sacrificial stab is. Me too I was like : well, yeah, it's a melee attack with high crit. Nothing fancy. But here is the thing : If it crits, usually a target is out of the board, it stress heals, and wyrm reconstruction gets buffed by 30% because of his buff on crit. And that's what is so ironic with occultist. sacrificial stab and hands from the abyss, just because of how high crit is on those moves, makes him ironically a good stress healer while being offensive.

[@finempra8730]

For the algorithm!

[@komrade_karma8220]

shuff, its been 2 months and there is no hm guide yet :(

[@Detector1977]

I just can't deal with this character. Rolling 2 zeroes in a row with a bleed makes your blood boil. BUT it is the unpredictability that is the worst. There are already so many unpredictable things in DD so why voluntarily add one more by bringing the occultist? His low health and poor accuracy does not help either. You could argue the vestal is boring and predictable, which is true, BUT I'd take that any day over unpreditable and frustrating. And hippocratic isn't really that good on the occultist. On a vestal it means you heal for 12 instead of 10 to a character. On an occultist it means you're healing 30 instead of 25 BUT also means you heal 0 when you roll a zero. Spare yourself the grief and avoid him like the plague...

[@RanVor]

Shows you didn't watch the video. If you're using your Occultist mainly for healing, you're using him wrong. There's so much other stuff he can do that's just invaluable.

[@Detector1977]

@@RanVor He's the jack of all trades and master of none. Healing: Unreliable and gets you killed Stuns: Well, you have to keep him in the front row and I like other characters there and he is has WAY too low hp for that role imo Mark: His mark isn't that great Debuff skill: No, not good enough And I do not like his move skill as it wastes a turn. The Occultist is just an unnecessary risk you don't need.

[@RanVor]

@@Detector1977 Suit yourself. I'm not the one missing out. I use the Occultist frequently and I'm hardly ever disappointed.

[@Detector1977]

@@RanVor That's the fun part of the game. There are so many ways to play it and so many different characters that suits everyone differently 🙂

[@OmniPeasant]

That a cute name your Occultist have :*)

[@gamesmash9859]

220% is the highest eh? So does that mean it's literally impossible to stun the hateful whats her name in the Weald?

[@ShuffleFM]

I believe so, yeah.

[@monkiplatts9224]

0 crit heal

[@letmekill11]

How to upgrade the rooster to 71 ?

[@ShuffleFM]

I have an increased roster size mod. Makes it easier to have extra heroes for content :)

[@meeklynobody3230]

Occultist is probably my least favorite hero. Always letting the party down if not a stun bot.

[@darknephilim3248]

I've used this guy as healing, I've used him for debuffs, I've used him for movement and positioning... I'd rather have an Antiquarian. A would rather turn my run into an escort quest than use this unreliable, weak prick. At least they offer dodging and not 0-1 healing and barely useful debuffs.

[@catspoons]

Occultist sucks in this game

[@Tp-ce7di]

Nah

[@ShuffleFM]

D: