Thread of Dark Dungeons

[soup]

http://store.steampowered.com/app/262060/



Darkest Dungeon is a great turn based RPG with a lovely gothic lovecraftian aesthetic and challenging gameplay that forces you to think, plan and budget. I highly recommend it. The devs update quite often and listen to the fans, though most of them are filthy casuals who keep complaining that everything is too difficult.

You will grow to love your heroes (though the term "heroes" is debatable, they all start with flaws and vices) and as soon as you think you've found a winning strategy everything goes to hell and you lose them all.

I'm interested to know if anyone else has actually played, how far they got and what their strategy was.

I've been making use of a tactic where, to prevent running out of gold and losing my high ranking adventurers, I'll send out expendable teams hired fresh from the stagecoach to pick up as much gold as possible. Then when most of them are dead or insane ill back out to the hamlet and disband the survivor(s). If I'm lucky they might even survive the run but it's highly unlikely sending them in with no food or torches. You can repeat this process as often as you like as long as the stagecoach has been upgraded to provide 4 new recruits each turn (which really isn't hard).

[rtil]

this statement

brutally unforgiving (verging on unfair) game

makes me want to avoid it at all costs

i find no joy in games that deliberately attempt to frustrate you

[soup]

i wouldnt say it was a deliberate attempt in any way, just the luck of RNG. im sure that the devs set out to create a challenge and it certainly is fun and rewarding.

you have a 90% to hit. you miss and die. its gonna happen in any game that features that element of chance. its the xcom experience

[Bamyasi]

Any tips for neophytes?

Hoping this game will quench my Lovecraftian thirst until I can afford a PS4/Bloodborne.

[rtil]

oh.. rng    now i really don't want to play it

[soup]

Any tips for neophytes?

Hoping this game will quench my Lovecraftian thirst until I can afford a PS4/Bloodborne.

yeh immediately upgrade your stagecoach, roster diversity is the key to success considering the variety of heroes and the combinations that do and dont work. also if a hero picks up a ton of nasty afflictions and diseases (examples being really annoying shit like DODGE-10 and WILL ONLY PRAY FOR STRESS RELIEF) just dismiss them. its not worth the money or time trying to cure them they are sadly a lost cause

also the leper is fucking amazing. tanky dude, looks radical. can heal and relieve stress in dungeon what a champ 10/10

oh.. rng    now i really don't want to play it

RNG was probably the wrong term to use its pretty much just bread and butter turn based RPG stuff. high chance to hit low chance to hit, debuffs and items ect. im not sure how you can cast out every game to feature some element of random chance doesnt that just leave you with gears of war

[rtil]

RNG was probably the wrong term to use its pretty much just bread and butter turn based RPG stuff. high chance to hit low chance to hit, debuffs and items ect. im not sure how you can cast out every game to feature some element of random chance doesnt that just leave you with gears of war

uh nah there are plenty of games with pure strategy, i mostly play starcraft 2 which has 0 rng mechanics and relies purely on skill. now i don't mind small rng mechanics like bullet spray or chance to miss while target is moving as these involve balance or some kind of risk/reward, but i don't like games based largely around rng like binding of isaac, hearthstone, risk of rain.. basically any game that leaves your fate almost completely out of your hands and forces you to react to random events. i understand why other people like them but i just find them frustrating and i'd rather rely on my own gambles rather than the computer's.

[valiums]

I want to play this game so badly. I'm not a fan of hard games but the particular way this one is difficult just seems very right to me.

[Bamyasi]

leaves your fate almost completely out of your hands and forces you to react to random events.

This is exactly why I like RNG.

It's just like real life.

[rtil]

leaves your fate almost completely out of your hands and forces you to react to random events.

This is exactly why I like RNG.

It's just like real life.

life isn't completely random in fact it's extremely predictable

a game that was just like real life would probably be incredibly boring

as a form of entertainment games are escapism, although some aim to be realistic the truth is we don't play them because they remind us of real life

[Bamyasi]

Dice rolls aren't completely random either though.

I prefer art that mimics some aspects of real life. This case being apparent and unforgiving pseudo-randomness (to align with its Lovecraftian theme).

It's the difference between an ego trip like GTA or Half-life and something like Nocturne or Demon's Souls (which employs considerably less RNG but is still hard). It's still systems mastery even if the system has a degree of unpredictability.

I can't really defend it beyond that though. I also haven't played a game with this much RNG so I might end up agreeing with you. I'm more just defending it in the context of RPGs in general.

[slack]

i've been wanting to play this game but i wasnt sure

this post made me jump the fence and i bought it

[soup]

i should get some kind of dev reward i made a sale, nice

theres a game on steam about surviving in a mars rover or something and i thought neat ok that sounds cool

its all dice actual literal dice every element of the game is rng i agree at that point you arent even really playing a game youre just experience a series of random events play out

at least with darkest dungeon if you know how the characters work and prepare well you should be ok, but you never know!

[slack]

what is your favorite hero/team so far?

i think my favorite team is vestal/highwayman/leper/crusader but i think vestal/vestal/leper/crusader is more effective

i just spam heal/torch moves with the vestals and dps with leper/crusader

[Binary_2]

oh.. rng    now i really don't want to play it

[crackers]

this is a really good game, I've watched soup play it, it's just the please organise another civ tournament right balance of challenge and reward

[soup]

what is your favorite hero/team so far?

i think my favorite team is vestal/highwayman/leper/crusader but i think vestal/vestal/leper/crusader is more effective

i just spam heal/torch moves with the vestals and dps with leper/crusader

i had a team that lasted 4 dungeon runs without needing to relieve stress they were steamrolling through everything it was occultist/highwayman/highwayman/crusader

the two highwaymen both had grapeshot blast and my crusader could stress heal with inspiring cry. plus the occultist kept getting critical heals. honestly though yeh a super meaty team is just vestal/occultist/leper/crusader everybody is healing each other, you have access to some good debuffs and the damage output is high.
i would love to include the newer character, The Abomination but i find it hard to combo him into groups considering none of the other religious characters will travel with him.

---

And for anyone that is remotely interested there are official backstory comics that give "a hint of some half-remembered horror from each of the playable character classes in the game". Here are links to the few that have been uploaded so far ->

Abomination http://www.darkestdungeon.com/wp-content/uploads/Abom_final_logo.jpg

Highwayman http://www.darkestdungeon.com/wp-content/uploads/Hwy_final_logo.jpg

Man at Arms http://www.darkestdungeon.com/wp-content/uploads/Maa_final_logo.jpg

Leper http://www.darkestdungeon.com/wp-content/uploads/Lep_final_logo.jpg

Arbalest http://www.darkestdungeon.com/wp-content/uploads/Arb_final_logo.jpg

this is a really good game, I've watched soup play it, it's just the please organise another civ tournament right balance of challenge and reward

how dare you.

[Bamyasi]

How did you have so much luck with the Occultist?

Also those comics are neat.

I'm glad they emulated cool Lovecraft in this game instead of that which has been beaten to death. I guess their naming the studio Red Hook was a giveaway.

Getting this game as soon as my next paycheck arrives.

[soup]

well his luck eventually ran out because hes dead now lol

the new dream team is these dudes



they powered through a few medium length dungeons. they managed to kill The Collector there and i was freaking out when he popped up because yeh the next room is the Apprentice Necromancer boss. they beat the boss easily too, horrid luck though

yeh lovecraftian horror is something i really enjoy, id hope to create some kind of meaningful tribute to it when im a more competent artist. ive seen a few films recently adapted from or inspired by lovecrafts work (Castle Freak, The Resurrected, In the Mouth of Madness plus a few other). most of them are pretty damn good but a lot of the time they end up getting schlocky, castle freak was a fucking mess of a film

[Gladius]

Arbalest http://www.darkestdungeon.com/wp-content/uploads/Arb_final_logo.jpg

nice klan/lynching narrative in a fantasy fiction setting