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An quick guide to help you choose the right equipment for each dungeon type, and what party members to take.
The Basics
Darkest Dungeon is a zone-based RPG/RogueLite. That is to say that each different zone, or area of corruption in the case of DD, has a completely different strategy one needs to employ to survive. The higher the difficulty, the larger the differences get.
Don’t let Cthulu catch you with your pants down: Zone and Difficulty scaling
On the lowest difficulty, it would probably be possible to steam roll most tile sets, regardless of area variance, with only minor effects. However, once you go to normal + it will be impossible for you to ignore them. You will constantly be getting hit with Plague or Bleed procs, and the occasional disease thrown in for good measure. And that isn’t even mentioning the gigantic buff that enemies get in their ability to dish out Stress. The rarer and zone-specific an enemy is, the higher the chance the difficulty scale will effect them.
Dress for the job you want
Party compositionParty composition is key if you want to even hope to survive the Dark Dungeon. As we have already coverd, each zone has varience which makes some areas easier to cover with certain characters. Areas which have low damage/high stress, it will be to take party which specialises in Stress Management/Hard hitters. A dungeon with high damage, and a high percetage of bleed and plague procs, you’ll want to take 2 types of healer, at least one tank, and a damage dealer.
Buy more stuff to get more stuff: Provisions and pickups
Apart from pure stat boosts from quirks, trinkets and inventory items will be your main way to stay alive in the field, espcially on long or difficult dungeons. As already stated, each zone will have different enemies and thus, will require a different party compositon. It will also call for different items prior to going into the dungeon itself. As i’m sure you already know, Darkest Dungeon’s zones are litterd with objects which you can interact with, these are called ‘curios’. A lot of these objects will grant specific things depending on state percentage, and who touches them. Suffice to say however, the odds will not usually be in your favour if you go around grabbing or opening every single little thing you find. Your party will either be crippled with all manner of plagues or deseases, given new, unhelpful perks, or just cripple them with insanity; suffice to say, the odds are not in your favour. There is hope. To eliminate most threats objects can have on your team, simply interact with the object with the corresponding item.
For example: A Confession Booth, when touched without Holy Water (which you can buy from the Vendor prior to going in) with have a 50%chance of High Stress, a 25% of Loot, or a 25% chance to remove a Negative Quirk. These are not good odds. Learning what goes where is key to keeping your party healthy and more importantly, sane.
The Ruins
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The Warrens
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The Weald
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The Cove
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