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[MjFrancis]

Maybe this guide can help you : http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=385431020

This guide was very helpful, thank you.

I was fortunate to have upgraded the Stage Coach Network immediately after arriving to the Hamlet. I can't stress enough to new players that your party members are disposable. At least they are at the lower levels of the game. That seems to be the biggest mental obstacle to new players. I'm reading a lot of people restarting after losing a guy or two, and at Level 0-2 that just seems like you'll be spinning your wheels and hating your experience.

My first Crusader, Reynauld, could only relieve stress through prayer. Then he apparently looked too deeply into an Armoire of Lovecraftian Despair and got the negative trait of only being able to relieve stress through flagellation. Well sorry Reynauld, I'm not going to spend 1500 gold so that you could possibly get better at the Sanitarium. He was eventually left at 100% stress before he hit level 2 and so I dismissed him as soon as I got another Crusader from the Stage Coach.

After a few hours I've only upgraded the Vestal's healing abilities. Everything else has gone into the Hamlet. I am starting to separate the wheat from the chaff so there are characters I'd rather keep alive for a while but so much more that don't matter so much.

I also like the touch that it's impossible to be left in a Game Over state. Just keep filling that graveyard and sending new recruits to the dungeons to rebuild your funds. Hopefully you invested in the Stage Coach Network. You can dig yourself out of any hole the game throws you in.

 

[Ophelion]

I had something amazing happen to me the other day.

I was running a dungeon with a party of fresh meat, just looking to see what could be done. I wasn't really expecting anything out of these guys. If I lost them, I wouldn't be troubled in the slightest. The stress came down heavy on them and three ended up being tested back to back due to an enemy crit.

And you know what? All three of those crazy bastards became inspired. All three! It was like witnessing a digital miracle. After that, the other party members were so optimistic, the last guy just could not take enough stress damage to come even close to breaking. Then they proceeded to curb stomp the dungeon with a smile on their faces.

I mean...what?

 

[Mother Green]

Crit after crit after crit. Played my first round and got my ass handed to me. Wow! Need to step away from that game for a while or my keyboard might suffer.

 

[Neoweee]

Crit after crit after crit. Played my first round and got my ass handed to me. Wow! Need to step away from that game for a while or my keyboard might suffer.

Crits are the single biggest issue with the game balance right now.

Getting a Stress penalty is enough. You don't also need crits to do 500% bonus damage.

I can do the second tier of dungeons... as long I don't get crit by all-party attacks in subsequent terms.

What a load of broken bullshit. Double damage plus stress reduction/damage would be completely suitable, but 500%+ (1~2 damage vs ~10) bonus damage in a game with permadeath and a giant penalty for fleeing dungeons is bonkers.

 

[jim2point0]

Just started playing this game. I've completed 2 dungeons so far (after the tutorial).

It's pissing me off how much I miss compared to enemies. Especially with my big hitters.

It also seems REALLY hard to heal people. Luckily I've had 3 people on death's door so far by nobody has died.

 

[-tetsuo-]

This game is already really fucking good. Very boardgamey. Glad I was able to be part of the funding.

 

[FoxSpirit]

Just started playing this game. I've completed 2 dungeons so far (after the tutorial).

It's pissing me off how much I miss compared to enemies. Especially with my big hitters.

It also seems REALLY hard to heal people. Luckily I've had 3 people on death's door so far by nobody has died.

Heroes are free. Heroes are free.

Get your stage coach to lvl2 and ruthlessly swap out isane people. If you try investing from the start you are doooooomed. No, seriously.

 

[Begaria]

Darkest Dungeon is definitely one of those kinds of games that starts out balls hard but becomes easier over time. While player skill and comprehension increases while playing allowing for better sessions does decrease the difficulty, this game is completely designed around getting those town upgrades so your heroes get beefier. Having Rank 4 vets with Rank 4 weapons/armor/skills means my accuracy is very high, even against high dodge targets. I'm crushing the game far more than it was crushing me at the start. I've stopped bringing in new heroes since I've got about 8 Rank 3/rank 4 vets, and about 4 Rank 1/2 heroes for low level runs.

 

[jim2point0]

Heroes are free. Heroes are free.

Get your stage coach to lvl2 and ruthlessly swap out isane people. If you try investing from the start you are doooooomed. No, seriously.

Can you be doomed? Is there a point in this game where you actually can't continue?

I'm a bit further now. I've probably compleated 6 or 7 short dungeons. The only thing I invested in is upgrading the gear of 2 dudes, and the healing skills of my main healer. I figured I'd try and make them stick around. Armor upgrades seem particularly useful.

 

[Chariot]

Can you be doomed? Is there a point in this game where you actually can't continue?

No.

 

[Begaria]

The only thing I invested in is upgrading the gear of 2 dudes, and the healing skills of my main healer. I figured I'd try and make them stick around. Armor upgrades seem particularly useful.

Armor upgrades are SUPER important. Higher health and dodge is essential. The weapon upgrades are actually kind of underwhelming. You get 1 point of damage per upgrade, maybe 1 crit per upgrade as well. I think the best part of upgrading your weapons is the speed boost at one point.

 

[Dr Dogg]

Well I said no more games this year but fuck it I caved after all the impressions in here. Surprisingly runs half about on a 1st gen Surface Pro.

I am thinking about getting the EA-version to play on my tablet. Is has 4 Gigs of RAM, Win 8.1 and an core-i5 3337U with integrated graphics.

Do you guys think this will run well? And is the interface touch-input-friendly?

Stupidly late but on a 3317U with a HD4000 iGPU it runs quite well. Does kicked down to 30fps occasionally but it's hardly touching the CPU. Touch wise it's not too bad so far as most actions like left and right clicks as well as hover are supported very well in Win8.1. You do need some keyboard input and I find the on screen keyboard a pain in the arse to deal with at the best of times in game but as far as mouse controls go, double taping, press and hold, move over and double tap and move have all worked perfectly fine for menu navigation and in game.

Edit: Hmmm right clicking actually isn't registering but other than that no really issues with touch.

 

[Draft]

Seems like a balance adjustment is probably needed. For the first few hours it's too easy saccing newbie heroes for profit. Maybe recruiting needs to cost money, or get more expensive the more heroes die.

 

[Dr Dogg]

Well after a torrid time of back to back party wipes I finally got a good party together and cleared out a few dungeons before taking on Necromancer Apprentice. Got a bit of good fortune as I managed to scout ahead and see he was only 2 rooms away and I still had my camp left so was well preped before going in. Then I proceeded to stun lock him in place for 7ish turns with barely taking a scratch. Kind of felt like I was cheesing it but hey it's all part of the mechanics.

 

[Knuckleruckamus]

Seems like a balance adjustment is probably needed. For the first few hours it's too easy saccing newbie heroes for profit. Maybe recruiting needs to cost money, or get more expensive the more heroes die.

Then I think you need to balance a bunch of other things, or the game is just way too unforgiving. I really like the disposable hero system, it feels very...capitalist to me. Sort of like a reflection on the global workforce, how large corporations can exploit their employees because there are always more and more around the corner to take their place. Considering you're the caretaker and own all the funding, etc, it feels oddly fitting.

The issue I'm hitting up against is that some of the lower dungeon runs vanish after awhile it seems. For example, I can no longer grind the Ruins for explore 90% rooms or clear room battles--now I've got to go kill the necromancer, or take on either the veteran or champion level'ed activities, regardless of how scrubby my party is.

 

[Technoweirdo]

Crits are the single biggest issue with the game balance right now.

Getting a Stress penalty is enough. You don't also need crits to do 500% bonus damage.

I can do the second tier of dungeons... as long I don't get crit by all-party attacks in subsequent terms.

What a load of broken bullshit. Double damage plus stress reduction/damage would be completely suitable, but 500%+ bonus damage in a game with permadeath and a giant penalty for fleeing dungeons is bonkers.

Having a team of Lv. 6 Lepers and Jesters, soon-to-be Lv. 6 Vestals and Crusaders, and having killed eight of nine bosses, wat?

The fleeing penalty is also nowhere near as big as you think. A little extra stress damage, but by the mid-point, de-stressing should be cheap.

Just started playing this game. I've completed 2 dungeons so far (after the tutorial).

It's pissing me off how much I miss compared to enemies. Especially with my big hitters.

It also seems REALLY hard to heal people. Luckily I've had 3 people on death's door so far by nobody has died.

Though it goes against the spirit of the game, you can abuse stuns when one enemy is left so you can heal off any damage accrued in a fight.

Alternatively (and not going against the spirit), go pure offense 'cause healing is boring. You start thinking about how to end fights as quickly as possible, who's the easiest to take out, who's the most dangerous, etc. and overall making the most of the combat mechanics.

Seems like a balance adjustment is probably needed. For the first few hours it's too easy saccing newbie heroes for profit. Maybe recruiting needs to cost money, or get more expensive the more heroes die.

All the recruits being newbies, I imagine they aren't paid up-front, instead getting a cut from the quest rewards plus beer at random intervals. It's also, y'know, the beginning. Make use of cheap labor, I say.

The issue I'm hitting up against is that some of the lower dungeon runs vanish after awhile it seems. For example, I can no longer grind the Ruins for explore 90% rooms or clear room battles--now I've got to go kill the necromancer, or take on either the veteran or champion level'ed activities, regardless of how scrubby my party is.

It's random. Right now, you have to enter a high-level quest then immediately abandon it. Feel the entire difficulty range should be available at any time.

 

[Altima]

Some people are lucky. Some people are not.

Swine boss crit for 30 damage on my team members and Wilber finished one of them in one turn.

It is unavoiable. I cannot get healing priority. It is pure RNG. Someone on youtube can finish the boss without the boss landing a single critical strike.

 

[jim2point0]

The Swine Prince chain-stunned my healer. Ended up killing her, my highwayman and my Leper with some stupidly massive damage.

My Crusader though was somehow managing to stay alive. I was taking off about 10 HP a turn (with 39 on a crit), but the Swine kept missing or only doing a few bits of damage at a time to him. So I eventually won.... with 1 guy left. I wasn't expecting that

 

[DigitalHitmann]

Heroes are free. Heroes are free.

Get your stage coach to lvl2 and ruthlessly swap out isane people. If you try investing from the start you are doooooomed. No, seriously.

It took me awhile till I came to this realization too.

I also didnt realize that resources expire per entry and I used all my money the first one to bulk up on supplies. Then when I got back an had nothing I mother

Spoiler

fuck

ed the game for a few hours then came back to it. I still enjoy the game alot though.

 

[Technoweirdo]

Some people are lucky. Some people are not.

Swine boss crit for 30 damage on my team members and Wilber finished one of them in one turn.

It is unavoiable. I cannot get healing priority. It is pure RNG. Someone on youtube can finish the boss without the boss landing a single critical strike.

This I can relate to. The Swine God crit my Vestal for 48 damage. That is more damage than -any- character designed to fight from the rear can take, even with the best armor. Now, I got lucky and Wilbur didn't mark her a second time for a potential death blow, but as-is, he is indeed unbalanced.

I'm not too mindful of crits from regular enemies. They can be a little scary to see happen, but they won't instantly end a run. Keeps things exciting and has you preparing for a 'long war'. Game's about enduring a series of battles rather than just one. Crits from bosses throws that idea out the window though. Doesn't really fit the game.

Edit: Uh oh. My life's about to get harder. Boss fights maybe easier though?

NEW BUILD LIVE! Tougher L5 dungeons, bye-bye stunlock exploit, hero & monster tuning. Patch notes coming soon! #gamedev

Source

 

[jim2point0]

I'm guessing the stunlock exploit is chain-stunning an enemy and healing up?

 

[Begaria]

I'm guessing the stunlock exploit is chain-stunning an enemy and healing up?

That's exactly what it means.

From the twitter feed:

The exploit, where you lock one guy down and heal to full has been addressed. Stunning is fine
There is now a stacking +20% resist buff on all mobs after a successful stun.
Heroes too

So you'll still be able to use stuns, and stun/heal lock for a little bit, but not infinitely. Also it works in reverse, your heroes also get increasing stun resistance on consistent stuns.

 

[scy]

Edit: Uh oh. My life's about to get harder. Boss fights maybe easier though?

Source

Here's the full notes:

This is the first patch to have some focused gameplay changes, but it will not be the last! Remember that the game is in Early Access, and we'll be experimenting with mechanics and balance for the foreseeable future. Strap in and come along for the ride!

These changes are based upon consistent feedback and observed results from the game's first week and a half of play:
Champion (L5) Monsters: increased difficulty across the board.
Grave Robber needed a little somethin': increased Speed, added stacking Accuracy buffs for Thrown Dagger and Poison Dart
Hellion is an absolute wrecking machine. This is intentional, but she still needed dialed down a tiny bit: Reduced starting HP, restricted Iron Swan to position 1 only, added Exhaust to Breakthru and slightly reduced crit, but increased dmg buff of Bleed Out
Plague Doctor: Increased Blight and Disease Resistance, increased Blight damage of Noxious Blast and Plague Grenade, Added a small heal to Battlefield Medicine. Now she's the hero we deserve, not just the hero we need.
Ghoul, Swinetaur, Unclean Giant: increased HP to make them even a little more menacing.
Gargoyles: increased dodge, reduced dmg, increased crit. Focus up your Accuracy to hit these beasts!
Bone Arbalist: reduced Bayonet Jab crit. Should be less threatening at the front.
Heroes don't like it when you prolong combat unnecessarily
Added 'Clear Head' moderate Stun Resistance buff to heroes and monsters after clearing an existing stun. Stacks for consecutive stuns.
No heroes are truly immortal

Other fixes and changes:
Fixed crash at end of dungeon raid caused by incompatible quirks
Added threshold for health bar display based on actor scale
Improved backup save file handling
Fixed purge result announcement

 

[Neoweee]

Looks good.

Now, what exactly is the algorithm for Crit damage? It feels like some multiplier and ignores armor, which is easily in the ballpark of 500% sometimes. It's a hell of a lot more than Double or Triple damage, that's for sure.

Overall the patch changes seem good. I still think the crit mechanics need to be changed. Double-to-triple damage like most games would be enough.

 

[Nordicus]

Here's the full notes:

Heroes don't like it when you prolong combat unnecessarily
Added 'Clear Head' moderate Stun Resistance buff to heroes and monsters after clearing an existing stun. Stacks for consecutive stuns.

These two were pretty needed changes

 

[Altima]

Ghoul, Swinetaur, Unclean Giant: increased HP to make them even a little more menacing.

Fuck.

 

[MjFrancis]

Heroes don't like it when you prolong combat unnecessarily

This will be the most interesting change. I can't wait to see how this was implemented. No more stun/heal loop?

 

[DrROBschiz]

Cant wait to play this on my Vita

Looks incredible. Love the art and the mechanics!

 

[Neoweee]

This will be the most interesting change. I can't wait to see how this was implemented. No more stun/heal loop?

People noticed this before the patch notes went live. Characters will complain and take stress bonuses when BS is detected.

 

[scy]

Overall the patch changes seem good. I still think the crit mechanics need to be changed. Double-to-triple damage like most games would be enough.

Damage in general seems a bit too high, honestly. All-out damage comps with food / camping as healing tend to work better as you progress through the game compared to just using a Vestal. Damage prevention through killing things faster is better than trying to heal it off.

These two were pretty needed changes

Closed the stunlock loophole and I guess tried to address Hellion setups. Not really sure it'll matter, though. Like, torchless runs with Hellion/Hellion/Highwayman/Jester or Occultist will one-round most encounters still. The stacking -20% Damage / -15 Dodge from Breakthru doesn't matter too much when you only go once.

Well, we'll see.

 

[Neoweee]

Damage in general seems a bit too high, honestly. All-out damage comps with food / camping as healing tend to work better as you progress through the game compared to just using a Vestal. Damage prevention through killing things faster is better than trying to heal it off.



Closed the stunlock loophole and I guess tried to address Hellion setups. Not really sure it'll matter, though. Like, torchless runs with Hellion/Hellion/Highwayman/Jester or Occultist will one-round most encounters still. The stacking -20% Damage / -15 Dodge from Breakthru doesn't matter too much when you only go once.

Well, we'll see.

Yeah, it feels wrong that low-light Rank 1 runs are way easier and wildly more profitable that the higher-risk, higher-difficulty "regular" Rank 3 runs.

 

[Technoweirdo]

Grave Robber buff is welcomed by me. Plague Doctor finally doing damage (and being able to live up to the doctor part) is great. Never used the Hellion. Less stun abuse is good.

Deadlier large enemies and tougher Lv. 5 quests in general though...

Looks good.

Now, what exactly is the algorithm for Crit damage? It feels like some multiplier and ignores armor, which is easily in the ballpark of 500% sometimes. It's a hell of a lot more than Double or Triple damage, that's for sure.

Hm, now that I think about it, I scored a crit with the Bounty Hunter's Mark Target once. Don't remember what it did, but it was certainly more than 2 damage.

I'll get back to you on that. Have a little testing to do, but my guess is it's not a multiplier, it's an additive. For example, moves that have a -100% modifier now deal normal damage on crit. Multi-target moves, ranging from -40% to -75% end up doing +60% to +25%. Damage buffs might work in the same way.

 

[scy]

Off-hand, all the resists, damage modifiers, etc. are all additive, not multiplicative. No extensive testing, though.

 

[Neoweee]

Off-hand, all the resists, damage modifiers, etc. are all additive, not multiplicative. No extensive testing, though.

Yup. So I guess if crits are 100% more damage, then it could be many times that in practice. The multi-hit ranged attacks have a high damage penalty, so a crit could easily be many times that. It explains crits going from 1~2 to over 10., i.e. 5~6x.

It should probably get fixed, because otherwise it completely works against every other knob they could be using for balance.

 

[FlyinJ]

How do you go about upgrading your pledge from $15 to $20 so you can get the early access build?

 

[Technoweirdo]

Critical hits are a strict 2x multiplier for the player. Should work the same for enemies, but the game doesn't tell you their normal damage range and will require me getting shot by musketeers a lot. I seem to be really, really lucky so far on that front as I've met only maybe two so far in my Lv. 5 escapades. lol

Damage modifiers from skills and buffs are indeed additive as scy said.

And that time I had a Bounty Hunter hit for more than 2 damage with a Mark for Death crit, I forgot I had him buffed. <.<

How do you go about upgrading your pledge from $15 to $20 so you can get the early access build?

From the Kickstarter comments:

2) If you backed at $15 (Nomad), this does not include Early Access. Early Access is an unfinished product ("Beta"), and many backers don't want to take part in that. The $15 tier existed for those that wish to wait until the game is 100% done. However, if you'd like to upgrade to Early Access, send $5 via PayPal to biz@redhookgames.com. Then email backersupport@redhookgames.com with your confirmation and reference your original Kickstarter or Humble order email address. We'll get you manually upgraded. Please be patient as we are currently inundated with requests!

 

[Lanrutcon]

Here's the full notes:

Why nerf stuns AND nerf stunlocking? Like, pick one?

 

[FlyinJ]

From the Kickstarter comments:

Awesome, thanks.

 

[scy]

Why nerf stuns AND nerf stunlocking? Like, pick one?

It's half a buff since it makes one fight not a potential RNG lock. There's also the possibility of them later lowering base Stun Resists across the board to compensate for the stacking resist. Make it easier for the first stun but harder for future ones.

Besides that, you could also have just raised Dodge to the point of doing nearly the same thing as stunlocking so they might as well also just penalize playing with your food.

 

[jim2point0]

Matt Lees did a video going over whether or not he thinks this is a game worth buying right now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kY3rY786X8w

He made some good points about things they should add. Such as some kind of end-game and possibly a failure state. As of right now there's no impetus to press forward. You can take your time grinding up some money with completely expendable heroes.

I'm still pretty new to the game and so far I'm enjoying it. I just hope I don't ruin the final product for myself like I did with Starbound. I played a lot of that early on. By the time they had patches that improved or added a lot, I felt like I'd seen and done it all. But I think Darkest Dungeon offers a bit more replayability.

I also know the game is doing well on Steam. I hope the devs don't get satisfied with the money it's made and stop supporting it. That's always a risk with early access games, I feel.

On another note, what does "in rank 1" mean? Is that the level of the hero?

 

[neogaffer1]

Watched the Quick Look today. As someone who's never really cared about RPGs or dungeon crawler type games, this looks really fun. Might give it a try.

 

[FlyinJ]

How do you leave a dungeon before completing all the rooms?

 

[jim2point0]

That wizened hag fight was really annoying. I only won because I had 2 really good crits with a pistol shot and iron swan. None of my other dudes could hit her, and it seemed like the cauldron couldn't actually be destroyed.

Luckily nobody was killed, but 2 people were on the brink of death. I also suffered a ton of stress in that fight

 

[Nordicus]

On another note, what does "in rank 1" mean? Is that the level of the hero?

When we think about it as a sniper's ring, I'd guess Rank 1 just means the first position in a formation.

If it meant hero level, then I think the ring would be too good compared to most other trinkets when your character's leveled past 1. They all tend to have some inescapable penalties, and having sucky accuracy when you're in front seems like a logical one, although it seems bit minor in this case

 

[Begaria]

I also know the game is doing well on Steam. I hope the devs don't get satisfied with the money it's made and stop supporting it. That's always a risk with early access games, I feel.

On another note, what does "in rank 1" mean? Is that the level of the hero?

They won't stop supporting it. This game will definitely hit a v 1.0. They seem pretty committed to the game. Also, Nordicus nails what the Ring's Rank 1 means:

When we think about it as a sniper's ring, I'd guess Rank 1 just means the first position in a formation.

If it meant hero level, then I think the ring would be too good compared to most other trinkets when your character's leveled past 1. They all tend to have some inescapable penalties, and having sucky accuracy when you're in front seems like a logical one, although it seems bit minor in this case

Mmhmm, it means when you're not in the very front of the battle formation, you get +15 accuracy. That's really damn good.

 

[Lanrutcon]

It's half a buff since it makes one fight not a potential RNG lock. There's also the possibility of them later lowering base Stun Resists across the board to compensate for the stacking resist. Make it easier for the first stun but harder for future ones.

Besides that, you could also have just raised Dodge to the point of doing nearly the same thing as stunlocking so they might as well also just penalize playing with your food.

Yeah, that was my first thought as well: stuns are now pretty damn useless in rank 5 dungeons. The brutal stuns resists + the stacking buff means you're way better off just going for massive damage.

In fact, a lot of the support skills and mechanics are scale really badly. You'd think a level 5 healer would heal much more than a level 1 healer. You'd be dead wrong.

 

[Technoweirdo]

How do you leave a dungeon before completing all the rooms?

Top-left corner. If the quest isn't complete, there should be a white flag.

Yeah, that was my first thought as well: stuns are now pretty damn useless in rank 5 dungeons. The brutal stuns resists + the stacking buff means you're way better off just going for massive damage.

In fact, a lot of the support skills and mechanics are scale really badly. You'd think a level 5 healer would heal much more than a level 1 healer. You'd be dead wrong.

That's what I've always been doing since Lv. 3 quests! Enemy stun resistance would go up while your base stun chance would stay the same. The large enemies in particular would have stun resistances nearing or exceeding 100% so I never bothered bringing stuns again.

And then as it turns out, there was a tooltip issue. Your stun chance was actually going up as you level your stun skills. It just always displayed as 100% for most skills. Stuns were always viable, even in Lv. 5 quests. You just can't stun-lock enemies anymore.

 

[Neoweee]

My guess after more testing is that Crits are always 2x, ignoring any armor (?) and using the highest value in the damage range, and sometimes +1 beyond that. Crusader Scroll-thing hit for 5-8, but crits were 17. Enemy gunners were hitting my team for 1-2, and crit everyone for 7. Likewise, dogs would hit my team for 1, crit for 7.

I don't know if I've ever seen a crit for 2, 3, or 4, so that supports the "Double the highest value in the range" notion.

 

[FlyinJ]

Played a couple hours last night.

This game is pure polish all around. Everything about it screams quality... the animations, the interface, the awesome writing and voiceovers.

The dev is on here, right? Great job! This is how you deliver.

My only request is controller support so I can comfy couch this thing. I'm assuming there will be controller support eventually, as there are going to be console/portable versions? Are there any plans to get controller support in the PC SKU?

 

[Draft]

When we think about it as a sniper's ring, I'd guess Rank 1 just means the first position in a formation.

If it meant hero level, then I think the ring would be too good compared to most other trinkets when your character's leveled past 1. They all tend to have some inescapable penalties, and having sucky accuracy when you're in front seems like a logical one, although it seems bit minor in this case

Terminology needs to be cleaned up. The bounty hunter has a move that does extra damage to "tagged" monsters, which I assume means "marked" monsters.