Runaway and You | Darkest Dungeon 2 Guide

[@verpine95]

If you’re on arsonist, there’s that trinket that heals you when you resist burn/bleed/blight and so that can be a free heal at the start of her turn

[@MrAlucinor]

She is also great support for Leper in two of her moves where she can mark enemies to provide the token for chop or use heartlight to remove his blind.

[@haowu6342]

In theory yes. But in reality it is not that good. Two action for one enemy is a fair not great trade. And it is only for front line which are usually tanks. And the enemy usually has been acted due to leaper’s low speed. After all, the game currently encourages quickly shutting down back lines. That is why I think leper is probably the most weak character right now(I really like Baldwin)

[@Nutamago]

@@haowu6342 no, Lepra, hellion, and damian plays the same. it's just different dmg type. Most frontlaners

[@Cataphract1236]

Hear me out: they add Reynauld as a (holy) fire damage tank

[@bryggel5926]

would be nuts

[@willmaier1250]

You called it dude

[@Cataphract1236]

Holy shit@@willmaier1250 I'm psychic

[@nou8830]

​@@Cataphract1236prophet

[@serenolopez-darwin1975]

3:28 I would also argue that Stealth in general kind of sucks for the player in DD2. Many enemies (especially the most dangerous ones) have cleaves, while they are far less powerful and more rare on player characters. Because of this, Stealth always feels way stronger on enemies than it does on your heroes.

[@lazerax9]

Stealth feels more like a condition to activate path/trinket effects than its own status most of the time

[@thegamer9302]

Plus the ai doesnt care if it loses enemies if i stealth and i got 2 deathdoor party members guess whose more likely to take a hit.

[@ThefamousMrcroissant]

Pretty sure cleave will not hit stealthed heroes in DD2. The issue with stealth is that it's a big "Why?". Stealth is one of those tokens that starts to pay off once you have a lot of them - i.e., enough so enemies have to resort to weaker abilities. The issue is that this never happens (nor is it a good idea in most fights).

[@HellecticMojo]

​@@ThefamousMrcroissant no, stealth just prevents initial targeting. I use ceiling spaghetti all the time against the music box zombie because of it.

[@ThefamousMrcroissant]

@@HellecticMojo HEROES, nto enemies. It clearly disallows targeting for the player. Take for example the Deacon; he has mulitple cleave abilities, but none hit stealthed units.

[@nuffsed1459]

Her and the grave robber are both my fav characters in the game it’s frustrating that they’re both in a bad spot

[@ThefamousMrcroissant]

Runaway isn't in a bad spot at all, she just doesn't seem to be a popular inclusion among these guide creators. Grave Robber has issues, but mostly because she's so awkward and unreliable. Her numbers are actually really impressive. Also stealth tokens are just so useless in this game.

[@nuffsed1459]

@@ThefamousMrcroissant They're both underperforming compared to other classes is what i'm saying

[@eloquence_4143]

⁠​⁠@@ThefamousMrcroissant I think it depends on how you define “bad spot”. Personally, I think that relying on paths just to have viable amounts of damage rather than just being good to begin with and then having 1 actively bad path is an issue. Past that, her kit is muddied with niche buttons like Hearthlight, Orphan can no longer do what it was designed to (backdraft no longer gets damage or crit modifiers), the game refers to her as front rank despite providing none of the value that front rank characters are meant to provide, and she’s hard to justify in DoT comps because Bleed and Blight have multiple characters with good application and multiple points of synergy for using that specific DoT. I expect many of these things to be changed over time, and I imagine every character pre-vestal will inevitably get reworked paths to match how they’ve been designing them more recently, so it’s definitely not the end of the world and Runaway is still definitely a viable option. However, it would be lying to say she isn’t riddled with issues, and I would argue that puts her in a bad spot.

[@jepasdenom7643]

​no actually Arsonist is just OK, and she's just good because of her smokescreen spam. She really needs some changes on paths and skills to be playable as 2-3 pos, she's not a good dancer worse than GR I'd say

[@haowu6342]

Grave Robber is not that bad. She is the top 1 dmg dealer if the team's rank is flexible. And you do not need to worry about her survive at all. I think Leaper and runaway are those really underperformed.

[@vumerion5481]

Shuffle is like, a doctor es Darkest Dungeon. He is gonna write a thesis about the grave robber one day.

[@afrosamurai3847]

Hellion with upgraded smoke is just mean. So much damage, and Runaway can even pull enemies to her to cut in half. Plus Hellion paths can have a lot of self bleed which is a very convenient heal dump target for cauterize.

[@gregtheegg7030]

4:14 a hidden benefit from it is the removal of dodge, in the creature area fight you can get 4 spiders with dodge and it really shows off its strength.

[@camtheman7654]

9:42, this here makes me want a class (either a new one or a revised one) that changes a bunch of her skills based on hope (torch). It's fitting for her because she's new to the series and so is hope (though torch itself isn't). She is also uses fire, like hope. Now imagine if her name was Hope and not Bonnie lol.

[@NotBamOrBing]

Hearthlight is also great at team wide dodge removal (which is less important since the patch that changed cultist fights to be more block heavy than dodge heavy, but still worth considering)

[@abathurx9500]

That was my main use of it too! Very helpful, combine with mag rain qnd those spooders are no longer so obnoxious to deal with.

[@pavelsoloway3675]

I really liked orphan path but that thing with dragonfly interaction when on position 2 is just sick!

[@stillwinston3765]

Idk why but Runaway's clothes and outfit makes me think of the hobbits, she kinda has that sort of design going for her.

[@AmazinglyScherzo]

Can't unsee this now.

[@pimpsterpidgeon4502]

It really sucks that there are no other consistent burn related characters, Plague doctor and vestal are kind of there but its too low to factor enough as there are cooldowns to consider. I kind of wish characters had more burn related moves to have a burn team. The fact that Dismas using a gun with gunpowder or some sort of fire/spark has no burn related moves is criminal.

[@lilhogfella]

I think this might be semi-intentional? Enemies are basically the least likely to have burn resistance out of all the DoTs, so Runaway's major strength is that she has the most reliable DoT in the game. A full reliable burn team could be the most effective DoT setup possible.

[@HellecticMojo]

I think the issue is that more burn characters just mean she's gonna have even less of a reason to exist in a team.

[@OperationOmegaOne]

Flag should have been a burn hero, change my mind.

[@willmaier1250]

Well now it’s solved

[@fitzviandraduivenab2790]

​@@willmaier1250Now the enemies can burn in holy fire

[@magni5648]

MaA now being able to yell at things so hard they catch on fire is almost as hilarious as him yelling things to death was back in the day before the Bellow nerf in DD1. Another good candidate for Firestarter is of course the PD. Supercharged Magnesium Rain, and then incinerate the backline with Blinding Gas/Plague Grenade. Also a decent way to make Backdraft work.

[@zackfake1253]

The only problem I really have with runaway is she is essentially dead weight in the sprawl but if she's on the team youre heavily incentivized to go to the sprawl so you can get good trinkets for her, so you basically have to hope for bounty hunter on the way in or its gonna be a rough time

[@attilatorok5767]

I think this is actually a great game mechanic. If you go to an area where your hero isn't good the game rewards you for it.

[@magni5648]

Hearthlight+ and Smokescreen are both still fantastic support skills in the Sprawl, Cauterize works with at least a couple Fanatics dropping bleeds and she can still do a little bit of damage and make burns stick in non-Fanatic fights. (Most fanatics also have just 40 burn resist, so a single resist pierce trinket or Arsonist are enough to make her consistently land the DoT on them, too.) She's not at her best in the Sprawl, but she's hardly dead weight.

[@ThefamousMrcroissant]

Depending on how you build her she is fairly versatile when it comes to trinkets. Dragonfly is a nice damaging cleave ability - which means she also synergizes with things that apply well... anything on hit. For example there is an item that applies a random 3x3 dot on hit which is excellent on her.

[@bluehex13x]

The Bounty Hunter has logged in.

[@presidentduckling]

Runaway can synergize with parties that tend to bleed themselves. Occultist heal and Ravager Hellion give easy ways to drop in cauterize.

[@ThefamousMrcroissant]

Right, but healing in DD2 is really a matter of "if I have to", so actively setting it up isn't that beneficial. Still kinda nice with Hellion indeed, but with Occultist... meh.

[@Nocure92]

Something I've found fun is to run firestarter, and use it on plague doctor with magnesium rain. And then you put the "apply on hit: burn" trinket on the plague doctor as well. Huge burn nuke for all 4 ranks

[@mannyvalerio6822]

Backdraft applies *remaining* Fire DoT to a target behind. If you hit once with Searing at base Path, you apply Fire 3 for 3 rnds. So next turn, assuming the enemy went before you, it's on Fire 3 for 2, so (6÷2 =) 3 dmg if you didn't apply mastery. But if you hit the guy your Highwayman attacked with your Firestarter, then Riposted, after it procced your Controlled Burn, the round after you Seared it? That's [3(3F×3rnds)+(3F×2rnds)]/2=17 Fire dmg. 33 Fire if you were smart and gave Backdraft Mastery, *to the enemy behind the one you wanted to have all that DoT*. It's like doubling your DoT dmg, every 2 rnds.

[@supersentaimexicano1967]

Thats a good strat in theory. Unfortunately, unless You get some Trinket to force the enemies to hit Highwayman, it's a really situational strat.

[@lucaswatts2141]

Runaway's probably my favorite character, been runing backline orphan and gunning for the sprawl with lane 3 surgeon pd with cod to absolutely melt through encounters (usually swap her out for bh if i can when visiting the sprawl just so she doesnt get hard coumtered especially by librarian). I also lile using firestarter on pd's mag rain and run the trinket that increases burn damage but reduces duration on pd to basically have a 9 damage party cleave which has been really helpful at times

[@benj3139]

Something to add with fire starter, it works really well on reposte, getting it on dismas or maa gets a lot of a value

[@Jopeth23]

Firestarter + MAA's Bellow skill = Walmart Magnesium Rain

[@supersentaimexicano1967]

Firestarter+Encore+Maa Riposte+another Maa attacks it's broken. U can get so much value thanks to riposte and thanks to Encore u basically do 2 Riposte attacks in 2 turns in a row

[@lazerax9]

Wow Shuff, I can't believe you forgot to mention the REAL best source of burn, *Malediction*

[@shiny9124]

Thanks for sharing that controlled burn isn’t affected by paths. It was annoying to test on survivor

[@samueltellesschiavowrubel3422]

If either Run and Hide or Hearthlight cured allies of burn then this god would be extremely viable. In the current state unless you get Librarian's items she's a B- tier hero.

[@CookaSoupNieceEH]

Gamerant is correct, dance characters are awful and so is Runway. Just kidding. Shuffle thank you so much for breaking my dance phobia, I would've never had discovered Jester's true potential without your helpful guides in DD1.

[@botep5529]

My first 50 or so hours of DD1 I slept on dance skills. Once I realized how powerful they are I've never looked back. Nothing more enjoyable than a shield breaker, crusader and grave robber dancing around like it's prom, smashing everything for massive damage

[@tossthegoats4280]

I'd love to see this video revisited now that the Crusader is live and can provide consistent burn support. Been meaning to try a burn centric team. Maybe Vestal, Plague Doctor, Runaway, Crusader? Vestal to help keep the party alive and toss out consecreations, Plague Doctor for Mag Rain and heals, Runaway to pile on the burn and cash it in, Crusader to tank with some burn as well. Thoughts?

[@ShuffleFM]

A good amount of burn synergy out there now. I'll remake these after a hero path balance hits the cast.

[@peterkorinek9881]

I tried to put the occultist into the most op team you mentioned instead of jester, and his burn killed him in the first region. Got runaway and she was very fun. Could use fire starter on man at arms or pd to add it to their whole enemy aoe attacks. And smokescreen+ is so op. Also controlled burn is so good against bosses

[@SciFiMangaGamesAnime]

Heartlight also removes dodge token from the enemy team.

[@Mordikay211]

Everytime put Runaway in a team I tend to use Flagellant in pos 2 with Maniac and upgrade Punish as the firs thing.

[@vumerion5481]

Is it normal that anytime i enter battle with the runaway, i hear : "Smokescreen everyday ay ay" in my head ? Or am i infected by memes ?

[@maxy7k72]

11:05 i think survivor is meant to be used in synergy with occultist... Maybe

[@dsghjksdgfgh1359]

Im shooketh that shuff didn't mention maa as a good teammate for her, like in every other vid lol

[@splank8053]

PD can output pretty good burn if she gets the right trinkets. Trying to figure out a comp with them where it works, not so easy.....

[@Royalgecko-zp8zd]

hearthlight removes dodge tokens on enemys I think Ive found it to be pretty useful

[@CryonideSponge]

How timely, I was just starting to unlock all of Runaway's skills for Act V.

[@TysonJensen]

Nerfing a trinket (pile of ash) for a single player game just feels like a bad choice on Red Hook's part. If a character is an auto-pick, maybe nerf a skill or something. But a trinket? There's no guarantee you'll even see it. Tweak down the spawn rate of the trinket and let the thing be awesome when you do find it. That seems more fun, which is the goal, right?

[@greenxintet1651]

imo shes only good as a backline as either orphan or arsonist, I prefer orphan. Firefly, Firestarter, Cauterize, Smokescreen, then either ransack or run and hide for movement. Your run her with heroes that can hit multiple times cause the effect of firestarter lasts for 3 turn not 3 hits. So things like magneium rain from plague doctor, riposte from HWM or MAA, anamneis from occultist, bellow from MAA also count and proc the effect (hes my go to target for this ability). Its not good to stack characters to abuse this as it has a 2 turn CD and 2 uses per battle. MAA is good in almost any composition tho so you usually have something to use it on.

[@andreysoares6203]

Finally!! The meme character, now I can properly troll my runs with her lol

[@AntlionUncletruthin]

Just waiting for another hero to release that complements her better. Hopefully she gets buffed before that, though.

[@WJAMSoares]

Can I use Control Burn at the Roots in the General fight to remove one stack of the debuff per turn?

[@pandorath2287]

If I recall correctly, no, it's immune to dots.

[@WJAMSoares]

@@pandorath2287 You are correct, it's immune to dot, but for each turn it would try to applu the DOT, woudlnt that count as an action? Beucase you can use anything on it, as long as it's target it removes one stack of teh root.

[@AccelEng]

@@WJAMSoares Necroposting, but no, the taproot only reacts to the initial application of Controlled Burn, not the subsequent attempts of this token to apply DoT :

[@Jackofalltrades114]

Will you re-do Arsonist now that Crusader exists in the game and cares about burn?

[@fihamahmed5574]

Do you have a quirk tier list for DD2?

[@awesomepork101]

Why does she always runaway from me 😔

[@Z-.869]

Does the new backdraft get effected by the arsonist damage decrease?

[@ShuffleFM]

Not anymore I think

[@Z-.869]

@@ShuffleFM if that's the case wouldn't you consider it to be a buff on arsonist, but little more worse on other paths? Would also like to see you do a run with it with frontline arsonist, im really interested to see how it changed.

[@fortheloveofking]

If I liked playing with fire for fun, I probably wouldn't like playing with a wooden toy for fun.

[@pavelsoloway3675]

Firestarter usage on pd is just too broken

[@shiny9124]

Orphan in rank 1 using fire starter into crit into backdraft was pretty fun. Ass ,but fun. Why did they have to nerf it, man.Other moves deal too little dmg

[@gorgeouszan]

Leper and Man-At-Arms pair best with Runaway. Smokescreen combo means Leper's blind doesn't matter and Chop will always hit while also blinding the enemy; amazing if you're Tempest or Monarch and building damage trinkets for massive chops. With Man-At-Arms you combo with Firestarter. Firestarter triggers with every move that targets enemies; this means if you Firestarter Man-At-Arms then Bellow he sets the entire enemy team on fire plus the status effects of his Bellow. Works great with Retribution was well as Burn DoTs will apply on enemies with every Riposte attack.

[@kidkd4495]

leper best character

[@MrZiva82]

I still think that using her is shooting yourself in a leg

[@NathanielSotero777]

I wanted to like her but the paths kind of sucks. She seems to be meant to play 2nd and 3rd row on average with orphan but contradicts firefly being niche back but not working forward with the pull? Then orphan/arsonist 4th row for all the burn bombardment yet having to go to the front for the powerful skill.... i think she needs a rework/patch up

[@giomongta6961]

She is only playable for spamming Firefly with Arsonist rank 3 or Orphan rank 4 and supporting with smokescreen

[@Marcerx1x2]

Am I the only one who read "Bum" instead of "Burn" at first on the list of her strengths? 😂😂

[@tenisokamuoliukas]

Oh, oh! I know this one! The answer is: don't.

[@grimm8528]

Team JESTER !!! plz

[@notb0tpejman559]

lez go

[@megalomaniac69]

Is this outdated?

[@ShuffleFM]

Nope! She hasn't had a rework yet

[@ayonmetar2301]

That's a pretty lame design for a class. I know this game is supposed to have flawed heros, but power hobo is pretty meh in comparison to basically any other class.

[@FaiDro]

18 seconds ago Pog

[@ThefamousMrcroissant]

This is the first guide that I consider actually kinda bad. I've no bias for any character, but Runaway is consistently underrated by many of the people who make guides on DD2 at the moment. And quite frankly I don't really know why as she's not that difficult to grasp. Look at the wiki: burn resist is the least common of all resistances in the game. It occurs primarily in 1 region, which can be actively avoided. With Arsonist, which clearly is her best path, she effectively guarantees fire to apply except maybe a 7% on some especially resistant enemies. It also feels that way: she just applies it unless you're stupid unlucky. If you were to aggregate resistances in comparison to e.g. blight, fire resistance is the rarest by far. Dragonfly is probably the most underrated ability in the entire game. It deals practically no damage, but enough to strip armor tokens, and applies 2x 4 burn. Since it applies damage it works with all "on hit" tokens - making her very versatile when it comes to trinkets. Jester + double Firefly is one of the strongest openers in the game. It strips the Evangalists of their armor tokens and puts them on deaths door with just a single hit from e.g. the MAA. It also works really well against the footsoldiers in the Sprawl, which will not only have their armor tokens stripped, but also have a nice dot applied that will kill them after death's door. Also works against many other common setups with tokens, like the double carrion eater. It also generates mark tokens, which are of course quite a bit better in DD2 than DD1. You do NOT want her constantly in the front rows, especially not with Arsonist. Following this advice will actually get her killed really easily, especially when you get an unlucky fire dot on yourself. She can START in the front, but she should never STAY there. Using things like Ransack, which is a really mediocre skill to begin with, to get her back to the front row is absolute trash advice. What do you hope to achieve doing that? Firefly again? Use her shitty melee options almost any other frontliner has better options for? She doesn't benefit from doing either as these abilities are too slow to use somewhere in the middle of the fight - those units in the front two rows are already dying to the dot as is. If you want to make Runaway work you need to accept what she does best: deal a large amount of slow damage. So get her to OPEN the fight and focus on the TANKIER enemies. Don't go around using her shitty melee abilities with minimal disruption just so you can get more slow damage in when it won't amount to anything anyway.

[@ShuffleFM]

I don't think you understand the point of my videos if you think this guide is bad. I want people to understand the whole kit and how to use it so they can have fun with the character. Yeah her melee skills are trash. Yeah it's better to shove her in rank 4 and spam firefly. I made a video saying that too. So please be more open minded about what I'm posting and feel free to ask questions. Saying "this guide is bad and the advice is trash" doesn't make me want to engage with whatever you're saying and I do my best to keep this community in a positive and open space for communication.

[@alext5497]

Why can no one say 'heartiest sucks'