Darkest Dungeon - What took so long?

**Lucavi** · 2016-02-02 02:38

Seriously, why the fuck has there been no thread on Darkest Dungeon yet? If this quality of indie game keeps up, its going to completely change how I feel about them.

20 bucks has gotten me over 25 hours of sublime joy and teeth-grating frustration and fear on this old school dungeon-crawling RPG about making hard choices to continue the mission, sometimes at the expense of characters you've formed a bond with.

Plus, the soundtrack is tits. Fucking absurd tits.

<3 This game right now. Hard as shit. Stressful as fuck at higher levels, but so good.

Edit: I'm sleepy. I'll post .gifs and links to vids and streams and vids later. Someone on this goddamn forum has had to have played this game by now.

**Uzor** · 2016-02-02 05:05

I bought this a long time ago during early access, quite enjoyed it myself. Didn't think of making a thread about it back then XD

**tyven** · 2016-02-02 06:43

I've had this on my wishlist forever, just noticed it actually released rather recently. Didn't realize it was in early access for all that time. Looks so fun. I need to buy it for sure and pwn some dungeons

**Kaelan?** · 2016-02-02 07:17

I tried this game out for a bit during the holiday break. Hard as fuck but tons of fun to play.

Edit: If you're in doubt about getting this:

**Charismatic** · 2016-02-02 07:25

Don't know much about it but a buddy was streaming it the other day and when I asked about it, everyone said the RNG just tries to fuck you at every possible turn.
They seemed to like it but that doesn't sound at all fun to me.

Anyone here care to explain why a Bad Number Generator is good?

**Lyall** · 2016-02-02 07:52

I'm about to restart for the third time because RNG destroyed my party entirely and my options are start over, or go into a dungeon, have everyone die, and start over.

It's fun. Haven't touched it in a few weeks (just before it left EA) and felt it was WAY too simple to have the negative traits lock in, but it was a fun diversion.

Originally Posted by Charismatic

Don't know much about it but a buddy was streaming it the other day and when I asked about it, everyone said the RNG just tries to fuck you at every possible turn.
They seemed to like it but that doesn't sound at all fun to me.

Anyone here care to explain why a Bad Number Generator is good?

It gives way to a lot of clutch situations. Your tank is bleeding out, dodges an attack that would kill him, and then lands a critical to end an encounter. Ten feet later, you find a corpse and he panics, then has a heart attack and dies. It's got a lot of peaks and valleys, usually one right before the other. If you go into it knowing that everyone in your group is going to die and you're just showing how they meet that end, it's a lot easier to not mind when shit goes south.

**synistar** · 2016-02-02 07:57

This game is full on RNG and you try and make the best decisions to minimize the RNG. But fuck if you're rolling an oracle healer. Can be a bro with a huge heal when you don't need it and not make your target bleed. Can be a fucking dick and get you consecutive 0-2 heals and bleed your crippled low hp character who goes on death's door on the next hit. Sucks when you want to run Abomination.

And the sanitarium is one huge money pit. And I don't have enough heirlooms to make that place cheaper.

**Charismatic** · 2016-02-02 08:10

Hm.
I guess I may try it if I can get it for free or at a heavy discount.

I'm skeptical about this being something I would enjoy but it might surprise me in a good way. Who knows?

**synistar** · 2016-02-02 08:35

Also I remember seeing a stream of someone in the Darkest Dungeon. Full party wipe except for the hero helion that tanked hits for days while on death's door. Must have knocked at least a dozen times before he was able to hit the retreat button on his next turn because he was so slow after the 5th Death's Door debuff. RNG can be a blessing sometimes, a curse more often than not though.

**Lucavi** · 2016-02-02 09:22

Originally Posted by Charismatic

Don't know much about it but a buddy was streaming it the other day and when I asked about it, everyone said the RNG just tries to fuck you at every possible turn.
They seemed to like it but that doesn't sound at all fun to me.

Anyone here care to explain why a Bad Number Generator is good?

Live by the sword, die by the sword. Your front-liner Crusader has a crisis of faith after your bounty hunter is abusive as hell towards your own party from stress overload (causing even more stress to everyone else) during a dungeon you're ass-deep in and thought you prepared for, but got wrekt. The stress piles upon your Crusader and he has a resolve test (RNG event) that could spell doom and gloom for your party when he... stands the fuck up, straightens his shoulders and sternly proclares to the enemies that he will "never, EVER give up to evil", immediately cutting his own stress in half, regenerating some of his health and reducing the stress of his teammates. You then proceed to win some lucky ass dice rolls on dodging a few critical enemy abilities and turn the tables on them, abusive Bounty Hunter or no. Everyone makes it out alive (this time) and suddenly you've got that memory in your head of that time your fucking Crusader put on his big boy pants, nutted up and saved the goddamn day instead of giving way to despair and insanity.

This time.

The game is just thrilling. While getting fucked in the RNG department hurts you sometimes (a lot of times), getting boosted by RNG is equally as devastating... for the enemies. Dodging a roof collapse from the prophet that would have 2-shot your backline, then critting the fucker in the eye with the Arbalest for half his health... there isn't anything much more satisfying.

The biggest thing for me is the realistic-ish focus on combat. There are no stalwart, infallible high-fantasy trope heroes. No one is perfect, everyone can get stressed out and anyone's will can falter and break when you're ass-deep in some tainted woods in the pitch black because your torches are gone and someone stepped on a trap and your food is so low that you're failing hunger checks and people are starting to starve. Even if you make it out of there, people are going to be stressed as fuck, may have diseases that need to be taken care of, nasty quirks to remove from the character (clastrophobia, lazy eye, nervous, unquiet mind, ect.) and will need time off away from combat to reduce their stress.

The greater the challenge, the sweeter the victory, they say, and some of the clutch wins you'll pull out of your ass by mixing careful preparation and a little RNJesus luck are so much fun.

**Lyall** · 2016-02-02 12:20

I think I'd be enjoying it a lot more if my early party compositions weren't so ass. I've only got one tanky guy and then it's all fucking clothies and arbalests from there. Can't send my tank in because his stress is way too high, don't want to mulch 4 people to give him a week off, and can't get more people to camp until I complete a quest.

**Zzsark** · 2016-02-02 14:59

Did they fix it where you can no longer go into a dungeon with trash and let them die (or just retreat) to get some new people and stress removed from the people in town (i.e. have to complete the quest)?

I remember doing full dark runs with Helions back in EA when they were OP, I miss those days. Glad this finally got released it's was in EA forever.

**Kaelan?** · 2016-02-02 15:53

The atmosphere of this game is also something that really helps sell the gameplay. The music, sound effects and the fantastic narrator really put you in the right mood for the game.

Also, while there is a lot of RNG, I think a lot of the fun is trying to set yourself up so you're not as vulnerable to bad stuff happening. You're never going to be able to completely ignore it, but it's not like you'll just randomly lose any fight no matter what either. Setting up a good party and preparing for the dungeon you're going in goes a long way. To me, the difference between good RNG and bad RNG is how much you can do to mitigate risk and shift the chances in your favor. There's definitely a lot of that in this game. I think that's what makes the game fun, even with how wildly things can swing sometimes.

**Lucavi** · 2016-02-02 17:16

Originally Posted by Lyall

I think I'd be enjoying it a lot more if my early party compositions weren't so ass. I've only got one tanky guy and then it's all fucking clothies and arbalests from there. Can't send my tank in because his stress is way too high, don't want to mulch 4 people to give him a week off, and can't get more people to camp until I complete a quest.

If you have to restart again, upgrade the wagon first >> blacksmith second. Let me know what kind of characters you wind up getting and I can go over some potential builds. One that I'm enjoying right now is a Hellion/Bounty/Occult/Arbalest. Barb yalps for stuns, marks to rape the back lines, plenty of heals and big damage. If you swap the Arb for a plague doctor and throw the occult in the back for quad stuns on the enemy, allowing the BH to fucking clean up with "Finish Him".

Biggest tip I can think of is to pay attention to where you're going, and build your party around that. Don't bring plague doctors to a bleed fest, and don't stack a bunch of bleeding effects in the runs unless you're going for a boss run.

The more I talk about party formats, the more I wanna play it again. So much fun, and please wear headphones, people! Some good ones. The music and sound effects when running around torchless are... unsettling.

**Lyall** · 2016-02-04 13:48

I gave it a shot two nights ago and my party of scrubs ended up encountering... The Collector? Giant spooky ghost skeleton that summoned heads every time I killed one. Ended up running away with no deaths, but so much stress.

In other news, apparently exiting a dungeon partially completed DOES advance the week counter, so my tank's in better shape and I got 3 new bodies at the wagon: Two more arbalests and a plague doctor. Tanks plz.

Right now I've got 12 people in camp but only 5 classes:

Knight and Thief bro from the opening, then just a gaggle of plague doctors, arbalests and occultists.

**Mrbeansman** · 2016-02-04 13:59

Havent played since early in EA last year. I remember doing well till that fucking boss that throws your party members in her cauldron wiped out my best guys.

**Deadgye** · 2016-02-04 16:34

Oh yay this finally has a thread. I also was too lazy to bother making it. :3 This game is awesome, and I rage alt+f4'd three times in the first 11 hours of gameplay.

Every single death I've experienced so far has been avoidable. Overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer.

**Kachiko** · 2016-02-09 20:31

Picked this up today and had a blast, in the third dungeon. I went in as more of a farming run, as two of my better units were kind of rocked, by my second run, so I picked up two others, and went on a Middle quest, that had a pretty damn good reward, if I made it. Unfortunately, I didn't really take the right Back-row damage, so things were rough the whole time. Lots of stress due to back enemies staying alive, and eventually, the Crusader became afflicted, and Jester was knocking on Deaths row while Paranoid. However, the Jester just would not die and must have taken 5-7 hits; meanwhile my Vestal was the complete opposite as she stressed out but went virtuous instead, healing her stress every round. My Highwayman also became virtuous, but didn't really affect things.

In the end, I just didn't have enough to pull through for the quest, and had to stop one room short. By then, my Jester finally died, the rest were low on HP, and there wasn't a chance I could get through a hallway fight and a room fight, so I had to bug out. Over-all, a solid win though.

**Lucavi** · 2016-02-10 12:26

Never be afraid to leave a dungeon before people start getting killed, and never place too much focus on the individual. Treasure the gold you have and the trinkets in your possession; you can and always will have more warm bodies to churn through the meatgrinder.

Oh. And learn. A lot. Learn from everything you experience.

**Kachiko** · 2016-02-10 17:11

Well, first party wipe, on my first boss fight, and the witch had 3 HP left. I had full HP and a fuck-ton of loot(secret door proc) and now down to one healer again, because the wagon won't give me anything but arbelest, which can't really heal at lowest level.

Game is no joke.

*Edit*

Also, it's coming to Vita/PS4 as well, eventually. New Classes and Town events on March 8thish as well as Kickstarter Backer trinkets.

Thread: Darkest Dungeon - What took so long?

Thread Tools

Darkest Dungeon - What took so long?

Latest Threads

Up & Coming Threads

Hottest Threads