Tag: Darkest Dungeon

Let’s Play – Darkest Dungeon Field Report 8a

Tackle some easy level 1 missions in the Ruins, though the Prophet is not to be underestimated.

I’ll be peppering my live Let’s Plays with some offline gameplay. To help remember what happened, and to regale you of any drama, I’ll be writing these Field Reports between Episodes.

Support my YouTube channel via Patreon!

Darkest Dungeon Episode 09 will air Monday, Nov. 12 at 9:30p Central US.

Since reaching my Patreon goal of two Let’s Play live streams per week, I haven’t had time to fit any offline sessions in between. But my Roll20 Review of Dungeon of the Mad Mage took much longer than expected, and I was unable to stream last Friday.

So I made some time this weekend to play a bit offline in preparation for Monday’s stream.

Week 23

Everyone’s looking good going into Week 23. I did finally see a Hound Master in the Recruitment Camp and brought him on board. Unfortunately he’s level 0, and my next missions would involve the Ruins, where bleed-focused heroes fare poorly.

I decided to tackle a level 1 mission in the Ruins, and the first that had an actual objective other than killing a boss or just exploring every room. I had to find three specific curios and purify them, which meant three of my precious few inventory slots were taken up by special potions, ugh.

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I wanted to include some level 1 heroes since this was a relatively easy mission. At this point half of my team are lvl 4 or 5!

Mission: Ruins, Purify the Altars, Level 1, Medium

Squad:

  • Tabraham, lvl 1 Vestel
  • Chatwood, lvl 1 Plague Doctor
  • Fitzherbert, lvl 4 Grave Robber
  • Lynom, lvl 4 Leper

I knew that bleeding is no good in the ruins so I went with a blight team. Plague Doctor grenades plus Fitz’s poison needles stacked blight beautifully.

The mission was a breeze, though I realized that Scouting is even more important here as finding where the curios are (whether in a room or hallway) can complete it that much quicker.

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Week 24

Completing the previous mission gave me a nifty week event: Silence in the Crypts, bolstering my XP gain by 33% and damage by 15% for my next mission – provided it’s in the Ruins. What better time to take on the next Ruins boss?

I’ve ran into a tricky conundrum, however. Level 5 heroes will refuse to go on level 1 missions! And the Sonorous Prophet is the first form of the second boss of the Ruins, a level 1 mission.

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While I’ve done a decent job leveling a bunch of heroes up, I need to make sure I’m spreading the XP out even more. My only worry at this point is if the first two bosses of the Cove are also level 1 (I assume so), which could be very tricky to handle by the time I unlock them, as most of my veterans are either level 5 or at the top end of level 4.

On the other hand, the overall goal is to simply get a level 6 squad together to tackle the final Darkest Dungeon. Does that mean actually beating all the bosses in each other location is simply optional?

With a huge payout of deeds and crests I was able to snag the level 4 weaponsmithing upgrade at the blacksmith. I’ve been prioritizing these upgrades over any others and they seem to pay off quite well.

For my squad I tried to once again use a balance of lower level heroes, yet also make sure I was strong enough for a boss I hadn’t fought before.

Mission: Ruins, Kill the Sonorous Prophet, level 1, Medium

Squad:

  • Vane, lvl 4 Arbalest
  • Chatwood, lvl 1 Plague Doctor
  • Paris, lvl 2 Abomination
  • Briqueville, lvl 3 Man at Arms

The map required me to loop around a bit. None of the fights were particularly difficult thanks to the buff from the weekly event. Vane in particular does extra damage against unholy, so she was one-shotting everything on her turn. I never even had to transform my Abomination, as his 2-hit Bile was doing fine work.

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I did have to manage a bit of stress upon camping. I got unlucky and the boss was in the last possible room furthest from the starting point. Everyone was decently healthy though hovering around 30-40% stress.

The Prophet didn’t so much as cause stress as just tear me up.

There’s only one of him and he’s in the back slot behind some study walls. Thankfully most of my damage, Vane’s attacks and the blights from Chatwood, could hit him (Paris was useless, though). I had to use the Man at Arms to Guard my backline as both Chatwood and Vane came dangerously close to death, near about 20% health!

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Thankfully the boss didn’t have any real defenses and had 0% resistance to blight and bleed, so he only lasted a few rounds.

Everyone survived and I got a huge payout of nearly 50 Crests! Can’t quite get the next level of armor upgrades but with almost everyone in fighting shape I’m feeling pretty good about going into my first level 3 boss fight, the Swing King, for Monday night’s stream.

Darkest Dungeon Episode 09 will air Monday, Nov. 12 at 9:30p Central US.

Look for more Field Reports throughout the week. Watch my Let’s Play live streams every Monday.

Let’s Play – Darkest Dungeon Episode 07: Secret Treasures and Brigand Cannons

Weeks 19 and 20. Looking good after my last stream. Headed for another new boss in the Weald, the Brigand 8 Pounder, which is a big ass cannon. It’s still a level 1 boss so not too terrible. After that it was a short jaunt into the Ruins with a Level 3 mission that yielded some very nice treasures.

Weekly video game adventures. Streamed live twice a week.

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Let’s Play – Darkest Dungeon Episode 06: The Inchoate Flesh

I get really lucky on a boss run in the Warrens, then try my first level 3 mission in the Weald.

I stomped the second boss of the Warrens thanks to a lucky Scouting map that took me right to the boss. That saggy bag of flesh didn’t stand a chance against the blight-stacking powers of my Plague Doctor and Grave Robber.

Afterwards I tried my first Lvl 3 mission in the Weald. I saw new enemy types that hit much, much harder. But at this point my best heroes are level 4, and health isn’t a problem with my super-star Vestel around.

Since the first mission went so quickly I had time to squeeze in a third, a short lvl 1 mission back in the Warrens. I rotated in some lower level heroes, including an Occultist for the fist time, whom I wasn’t terribly impressed with. Not a hard run but everyone ended up diseased, ugh! Stupid Warrens.

Weekly video game adventures. Streamed live twice a week.

Support the channel at https://www.patreon.com/Roguewatson

Let’s Play – Darkest Dungeon Episode 04: The Wizened Hag

My second boss fight, against The Weald’s wizened hag, is my most harrowing mission yet.

Darkest Dungeon Episode 05 will air Friday, Oct. 26.

It’s time for my second boss fight, The Weald’s Wizened Hag in week 12.
I went in with a powerful squad, all level 3, of some of my best heroes. But the Weald is stressful as hell, with long hallways that sap my torchlight. The boss room was in one of the last rooms I found (far different than the Swine Prince), though I was able to rest and recuperate somewhat beforehand.
My awesome Grave Robber was saddled with a Paranoid Affliction early on, and everyone was a bit stressed going into the boss.

The hag was awful. She could grab someone and throw them into her pot, taking them out of my lineup and doing 4 damage/round. I was forced to use my attacks on the pot to free them, which meant hardly ever attacking her. And messing up my lineup order was a huge pain.

At one point near the end I made the cortical decision to attack the hag instead of the pot, putting my poor stalwart leper Lynom at death’s door. But it worked out, I was able to kill her, and everyone survived – barely! Nearly everyone had to immediately get some stress relief and disease treatment afterward. Definitely my most harrowing mission yet.

Afterward I did a Short mission in the Weald, trying out the Man-at-arms class. He’s got some nice support buffs but once again the Weald caused me all kinds of stress, afflicting my Jester. I’m glad I have a deep roster as things are definitely getting more challenging…

 

Weekly video game adventures. Streamed live every week.

Let’s Play – Darkest Dungeon Field Report 3a

Weeks 10 and 11 bring more stress and disease, but also a gigantic treasure haul with my first secret room.

I’ll be peppering my live Let’s Plays with some offline gameplay. To help remember what happened, and to regale you of any drama, I’ll be writing these Field Reports between Episodes.

Darkest Dungeon Episode 04 will air tonight, Monday Oct. 22.

Week 10

The stress-relieving Abbey was free this week, but I actually passed The Swine Prince boss fight with such flying colors that everyone was stress-free, though my awesome Grave Robber Fitzherbert needed to be treated for disease. Stupid Warrens.

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Mission: Warrens, Medium, Explore 90% rooms

Squad:

  • Reynauld, lvl 2 Crusader
  • Paris, lvl 1 Abomination
  • Bonneth, lvl 1 Vestel
  • Vane, lvl 1 Arbalest

This was my first time using an Abomination (who received a free level up in one of the weekly events). It’s an interesting class with the ability to transform into a monstrous werewolf-like form, which grants powerful melee abilities at the cost of stressing everyone out a bit. His human form has a really solid stun ability that came in very handy as well.

Thanks to some luck with scouting I found my first secret room, and it was fairly close and easy to reach. A good reason to always carry a key, as it provided a gigantic haul of treasure.

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With the secret room plundered I received my biggest payout yet, about 12k, nearly doubling my money!

Unfortunately while I was never in danger of dying (Bonneth is a stellar healer) I did get saddled with lots of stress. I was able to reduce quite a bit from some camping skills but both Vane and Reynauld ended up with stress in the 50s by the end. Worse, Vane got two diseases and Paris one, ugh. Stupid Warrens! Poor Vane will be out for awhile.

Week 11

Another big recruiting week with 6 bonus heroes. I was able to afford the bigger roster upgrade, so now I can hold up to 16 different heroes at a time!

Unfortunately the only new class available was a Man-at-Arms named Briqueville. I recruited him then stuck him in treatment to get rid of his kleptomania.

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It’s interesting that recruiting heroes is completely free. Since some of my heroes will be out for multiple weeks, it’s going to help having a big roster that I can rotate between, provided I keep them all decently leveled.

Mission: Weald, Short, Explore 90% of rooms

Squad:

  • Lynom, lvl 2 leper
  • Engerrand, lvl 3 Bounty Hunter
  • Bonneth, lvl 2 Vestel
  • Fitzherbert, lvl 2 Grave Robber

This is one of my best teams, and with a short mission I expected very little resistance. The Weald’s defining feature is its very long rooms, resulting in lots of needed torch light. Bonneth comes in handy with her attacks that restore torchlight during combat.

For some reason the damn enemy forces seemed to know how useful that was, and targeted her in nearly every fight! Despite using Lynom’s Protection to Mark himself.

Poor Bonneth ended up with nearly 100 stress! I sent her to the Abbey for meditation. I also remembered I could purchase different camping skills, including having a fourth available for each hero. That should come in handy during longer missions.

The next week brings a +15% Virtue Chance, so I think it’s time to take on my next boss, either the first of the Ruins or the Weald (have yet to even enter the Cove).

Darkest Dungeon Episode 04 will air tonight, Monday Oct. 22.

Look for more Field Reports throughout the week. Watch my Let’s Play live streams every Monday.

Let’s Play – Darkest Dungeon 03: The Swine Prince

Emboldened with a team of veterans, I take on my first boss, the Warrens’ Swine Prince.

My first boss battle was a breeze thanks to a map that lead me right to the boss room, where I was able to camp just outside.

The boss himself was immune to stun but weak to blight, so it was a simple matter of stacking massive blight stacks and hacking away with my Leper and Bounty Hunter. Down goes piggie!

My heroes have started reaching level 3, and I went on another successful Medium-length mission, this time in the Ruins, and opened up the first Ruins boss. No deaths and no major calamities or stress to worry about – feeling pretty good so far, but it’s still fairly early….

Weekly video game adventures. Streamed live every week.
Support the channel via Patreon.