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[okiemok]

If you are having trouble with level 1 quests, make sure you keep your torches burning bright. This appears to be an in game difficulty setting.

Wipes are devastating, in the immediate loss of unrealized stuff, in the week lost, and in the loss of investment you put into the chars you lose (if you have distressed them or they have developed skills). So keep those torches burning.

 

[Fallout-NL]

Accuracy.

Thanks. Thought maybe it had something do with action points or the their turn order, but yeah, makes sense.

(This is my one complaint, stuff like that could be explained a bit better.)

 

[Sarcasm]

Well, yes. You of course always take quests. Btu part of burning through heroes is to abandon them, no? Otherwise you can just finish them and keep your people.

Accuracy.They don't want to anymore and refuse to go in.

Ah so you accept quest and than do it with throw away heroes than abandon?

 

[Visceir]

Game is cool but I've come to the conclusion that there's too much RNG going on and is lacking some vital battle information, makes the whole thing too hard and not fun...or atleast not worth my time.

I ended up beating the first apprentice boss, but I think I'm done with the game as it is right now.

Prefered using Occultist as my healer as his skill that recovers up to 10+ hp was well worth the bleed effect it occasionally caused. Jester seemed rather useless to me as his mental heal buff wasn't nearly enough to offset all the stress damage.

Edit: Another thing I would occasionally do is just use camping right away if I had a run with Leper and instantly buff him at the beginning of the dungeon. Give him his own +10 acc buff and someone else's +10 acc buff as well. Makes the character actually quite good when he is able to hit stuff.

 

[Volodja]

Ah so you accept quest and than do it with throw away heroes than abandon?

Pretty much.
Both times I tried it I actually ended up finishing the quests, however.
I got really really lucky.

Game is cool but I've come to the conclusion that there's too much RNG going on and is lacking some vital battle information, makes the whole thing too hard and not fun...or atleast not worth my time.

I ended up beating the first apprentice boss, but I think I'm done with the game as it is right now.

Prefered using Occultist as my healer as his skill that recovers up to 10 hp was well worth the bleed effect it occasionally caused. Jester seemed rather useless to me as his mental heal buff wasn't nearly enough to offset all the stress damage.

The Bleed effect also gets resisted a lot by your party, I noticed, I wonder if it has a lower chance.

As far as the Jester goes I used him as a spearhead a bit for his missing chance song.
But enemies didn't seem to give a shit, a lot of them resist the effect and then they just hit me anyway even when they are debuffed and he has 20 Dodge.
I mean he got hit about as much as my 5 dodge Vestals.

 

[Chariot]

If you are having trouble with level 1 quests, make sure you keep your torches burning bright. This appears to be an in game difficulty setting.

Wipes are devastating, in the immediate loss of unrealized stuff, in the week lost, and in the loss of investment you put into the chars you lose (if you have distressed them or they have developed skills). So keep those torches burning.

You should generally keep your torch alight. It improves the loot you can find, improves your chance of surprising the enemy, don't let your guys loose mental health from darkness, improves chance of scouting and may let you see traps.

Thanks. Thought maybe it had something do with action points or the their turn order, but yeah, makes sense.

(This is my one complaint, stuff like that could be explained a bit better.)

SPD influences turnorder, although there is some random element in addition.

Ah so you accept quest and than do it with throw away heroes than abandon?

Yes. You can exploit the endless free flow of heroes. But I wouldn't recommend that. It is doable with out doing so.

 

[zoukka]

Game just sounds badly designed if you need to heal by derping with one weak enemy and pass time by saccing characters. How did they fuck this up?

 

[Volodja]

Yes. You can exploit the endless free flow of heroes. But I wouldn't recommend that. It is doable with out doing so.

Sometimes it isn't. You basically find yourself with only 1 Medium Apprentice dungeon and you can't field any decent squad so you have a run that you can't really expect to win.
But it hasn't been that common for me. And I actually ended up winning those runs anyway.
But I wouldn't rely on the string of luck I got in those cases.

Game just sounds badly designed if you need to heal by derping with one weak enemy and pass time by saccing characters. How did they fuck this up?

I've done the keep enemy alive to heal strat just a couple times.
Basically you end up exchanging Toch light and the risk of getting Stress for heals.
It felt really exploity.

In general in a game where you have characters that can heal but can't use those skills outside of battle, it encourages exploiting the battles to get free heals you wouldn't get otherwise.

That said the game just entered Early Access, they have a lot of time to rebalance things.

 

[Visceir]

Some of the stress statuses and their effects were just simply annoying. Trying to change the order of characters outside of battle and it not letting you do it the first 2 times around and then finally letting you do it the third time.

+the constant halting of the whole party movement because some character felt the need to say something again they had said multiple times before already.

 

[antennaehead]

Game just sounds badly designed if you need to heal by derping with one weak enemy and pass time by saccing characters. How did they fuck this up?

Well it's in Early Access and not finished, so they didn't fuck this up, at least yet.

 

[Lanrutcon]

Sometimes it isn't. You basically find yourself with only 1 Medium Apprentice dungeon and you can't field any decent squad so you have a run that you can't really expect to win.
But it hasn't been that common for me. And I actually ended up winning those runs anyway.
But I wouldn't rely on the string of luck I got in those cases.


I've done the keep enemy alive to heal strat just a couple times.
Basically you end up exchanging Toch light and the risk of getting Stress for heals.
It felt really exploity.

In general in a game where you have characters that can heal but can't use those skills outside of battle, it encourages exploiting the battles to get free heals you wouldn't get otherwise.

That said the game just entered Early Access, they have a lot of time to rebalance things.

I don't consider it exploity. The game disables your heals outside of combat. It practically screams 'milk combat for all it's worth or suffer!'. There aren't even healing potions in the game. I mean. What.

 

[foamdino]

You can eat food to heal out of combat - I think it heals 1 point, so not great but moves you off deaths door in a pinch.

 

[Chariot]

I agree, they should penalties dragging non-boss fights out too long. But as people said, it's Early Access, it will be easy for the devs to look at common complains and exploits and to fix the mechanics.

 

[Lanrutcon]

You can eat food to heal out of combat - I think it heals 1 point, so not great but moves you off deaths door in a pinch.

1 hp to 1 character, literally, the worst healing item they could have implemented

No wait. I guess it could add 20 stress when you use it?

 

[Volodja]

You can eat food to heal out of combat - I think it heals 1 point, so not great but moves you off deaths door in a pinch.

You sure can.
And you sure don't want to.

I don't consider it exploity. The game disables your heals outside of combat. It practically screams 'milk combat for all it's worth or suffer!'. There aren't even healing potions in the game. I mean. What.

I mean, I think it is quite exploity, I don't think they intended it to work like that (even if it should be pretty obvious that it would come to that); what you are saying is just that it is an exploitation that is a direct consequence of their design choices and I agree, and it's not like I think people shouldn't use it. When a game is really difficult, you use whatever you can.
It's just that, while doing it, it felt kind of weird.

 

[Omnicent]

Man I was getting wrecked and then I got 2 Hellions. Oh boy Hellion, Hellion, Vestal, and a fourth wheel (Jester, Plague Doctor, a second Vestal), just runs through things early on.
Also since I have 2 front row stuns, get to the last two enemies and stun lock till I'm at full health.

 

[Altima]

Those Bandits with AoE cross bow and a big ass with bleeding whip are too extreme.

 

[Visceir]

Those Bandits with AoE cross bow and a big ass with bleeding whip are too extreme.

You need a character with a skill that can pull the gun bandits to the front or you're pretty much fucked.

 

[Chaos17]

Some of the stress statuses and their effects were just simply annoying. Trying to change the order of characters outside of battle and it not letting you do it the first 2 times around and then finally letting you do it the third time.

+the constant halting of the whole party movement because some character felt the need to say something again they had said multiple times before already.

You understand that's the main feature of the game ?
You shouldn't have bought it if you disliked that idea. That game is just not only a dungeon crawler otherwise you shoud've bought instead Wizardry.

 

[Zingerale]

Anyone knows what others modes the game will have other than campaign mode?

 

[Chariot]

Those Bandits with AoE cross bow and a big ass with bleeding whip are too extreme.

If you have a Bounty Hunter or an Occultist pull the gunners to the front (or push the others back). Or stun them with an Plague Doctor or an Vestal.

Anyone knows what others modes the game will have other than campaign mode?

Well, there will be a NG+, but the campaign is the game.

 

[Sinatar]

I've done the keep enemy alive to heal strat just a couple times.
Basically you end up exchanging Toch light and the risk of getting Stress for heals.
It felt really exploity.

If you have a jester you don't even need to get stress. You can end every battle with max health and empty stress bars.

 

[Ooccoo]

Game is cool but I've come to the conclusion that there's too much RNG going on and is lacking some vital battle information, makes the whole thing too hard and not fun...or atleast not worth my time.

I ended up beating the first apprentice boss, but I think I'm done with the game as it is right now.

Prefered using Occultist as my healer as his skill that recovers up to 10+ hp was well worth the bleed effect it occasionally caused. Jester seemed rather useless to me as his mental heal buff wasn't nearly enough to offset all the stress damage.

Edit: Another thing I would occasionally do is just use camping right away if I had a run with Leper and instantly buff him at the beginning of the dungeon. Give him his own +10 acc buff and someone else's +10 acc buff as well. Makes the character actually quite good when he is able to hit stuff.

I'm in the same boat. I hate it when RNG gets in the way of my fun. Seriously I had a messed save, restarted and lost a hero IN THE TUTORIAL because of a crit. That is just plain stupid.

 

[Arken2121]

this game feels like Dark Souls and which gives you a small bit of hope but then just tears you down.

 

[Visceir]

You understand that's the main feature of the game ?
You shouldn't have bought it if you disliked that idea. That game is just not only a dungeon crawler otherwise you shoud've bought instead Wizardry.

Those things I described take place outside of battle and have no other purpose other than annoying the gamer and hindering the movement. Instead of issuing a command and the character following it I have to do it three times. It has no other impact on gameplay.

this game feels like Dark Souls and which gives you a small bit of hope but then just tears you down.

Except in Dark Souls it's all up to you and how good you are.

 

[Neoweee]

Except in Dark Souls it's all up to you and how good you are.

And you never get deeper in the hole due to the way SL progression works.

 

[Zingerale]

How often does the game 'auto-save'?

 

[Chariot]

How often does the game 'auto-save'?

Basically after every action, even within a fight.

 

[Volodja]

If you have a jester you don't even need to get stress. You can end every battle with max health and empty stress bars.

True.
Incredibly slow and boring process, however.

 

[we.are.the.armada]

Man. What is up with the Jester. Only class with decent stress management. Complete ass otherwise in the only spot where said stress management can be used.

Meh.

Totally agree, I love the Jester but damn that dude needs something mechanically different. Like what if songs applied twice so long as the Jester didn't get hit that round: once when using the song and once more at the end of the round. It would be a cool reward for the risk involved. If he's gonna be the only one with that capability, he might as well shine in it.

 

[Neoweee]

Game just sounds badly designed if you need to heal by derping with one weak enemy and pass time by saccing characters. How did they fuck this up?

It's Early Access. There's still a lot of mechanical tweaking that needs to be done.

Right now, the game too strongly promotes strategies that feel cheesy, such as:
- Suicide runs with new characters to loot, run, and then kick them out of your party (if they're alive).
- Prolonging combat for the sake of healing, because there is no out-of-combat heals.
- Prolonging combat for the sake of sanity restoration, because there is no out-of-combat restoration (made worse by the giant disparity of resto skills between classes).

And even if it isn't cheesy, it isn't fun. Poor restoration mechanics were what ruined any tension that P3/P4 dungeons would have had due to their time constraint mechanics.

The resource mechanic needs to be revised as well. You can waste your limited supply of specific resources before you get access to the buildings that use them, which is long before you can readily do the dungeons that give said supplies. Caravan competing with Guild/Blacksmith is brutal, and promotes suicide-run-recycling, which is lame.


STILL, the game is absolutely worth supporting at $20. The creators have clearly played a shitload of RPGs, and it is great to see such an interesting take on the genre. But, like all rogue-likes, the balance and replayability tuning will determine its real success.

 

[MrCompletely]

Watched some Let's Plays of this, and some Twitch streamers and I'm sold. Looks like its one of those Early Access games that feels complete, which I love, because then it feels like a fully featured game where you're just getting constant updates (similar to Prison Architect, Invisible Inc.)

I'm purchasing this tonight as soon as I get home from work!

 

[Chariot]

Totally agree, I love the Jester but damn that dude needs something mechanically different. Like what if songs applied twice so long as the Jester didn't get hit that round: once when using the song and once more at the end of the round. It would be a cool reward for the risk involved. If he's gonna be the only one with that capability, he might as well shine in it.

That's no risk though, since he could get hit anyways and there is no additional repercussion.

 

[Beckx]

Okay, what am I doing wrong here? I start the game, the movie plays, and then it goes to logo/main screen, and that's it. I can't start a game. Hitting esc brings up the menu for options, controls, etc.

I feel dumb.

 

[Chariot]

Okay, what am I doing wrong here? I start the game, the movie plays, and then it goes to logo/main screen, and that's it. I can't start a game. Hitting esc brings up the menu for options, controls, etc.

I feel dumb.

Do you see "Campaign"?

 

[Chaos17]

Game just sounds badly designed if you need to heal by derping with one weak enemy and pass time by saccing characters. How did they fuck this up?

No mana bar so skills allowed outside of battle.
So I can understand people healing themself as much as they can since eating food don't heal you much.
Put a mana bar and people won't be exploit this since they won't have infinte mana.
Or allow buying woodfire sor people can camp whenever they want.

Unless this is intended by the dev.

If players have to exploit something it's because something is groing wrong in the progresion of the dungeon and they can't progress well enough.

 

[hobblygobbly]

Okay, what am I doing wrong here? I start the game, the movie plays, and then it goes to logo/main screen, and that's it. I can't start a game. Hitting esc brings up the menu for options, controls, etc.

I feel dumb.

Is the resolution correct? You should have a "Campaign" button at the bottom like mine:

 

[Beckx]

Do you see "Campaign"?

No, my screen only has the Darkest Dungeon logo and the background. Well, at least it's not me. I'll try re-installing.

Is the resolution correct? You should have a "Campaign" button at the bottom like mine:

I'm fullscreen, didn't mess with the resolution options from the default, but I'll play around with those too.

 

[Neoweee]

No mana bar so skills allowed outside of battle.
So I can understand people healing themself as much as they can since eating food don't heal you much.
Put a mana bar and people won't be exploit this since they won't have infinte mana.

Unless this is intended by the dev.

Some mechanic/points that caps out at a few after each battle, like a "residual action", might be justified.

 

[The Crimson Beast]

No, my screen only has the Darkest Dungeon logo and the background. Well, at least it's not me. I'll try re-installing.



I'm fullscreen, didn't mess with the resolution options from the default, but I'll play around with those too.

are you playing on a res higher than 1080? i got the same issue and it fixed after an alt tab

 

[Chaos17]

Some mechanic/points that caps out at a few after each battle, like a "residual action", might be justified.

One other potential solution is that the DEV balance the game well enough to avoid any need to exploit the healing but I doubt this will be 100% possible because of RNG side of the game.

 

[Beckx]

are you playing on a res higher than 1080? i got the same issue and it fixed after an alt tab

Will check this as soon as I get home.

Thanks everyone! Never occurred to me to try. I'm a bad PC owner. :/

 

[Volodja]

No mana bar so skills allowed outside of battle.
So I can understand people healing themself as much as they can since eating food don't heal you much.
Put a mana bar and people won't be exploit this since they won't have infinte mana.
Or allow buying woodfire sor people can camp whenever they want.

Unless this is intended by the dev.

If players have to exploit something it's because something is groing wrong in the progresion of the dungeon and they can't progress well enough.

I sincerely doubt it's intended, it would be a terrible terrible design choice.
It is a really unfun thing to do.

Allowing to buy woodfire would be pretty nice not only for recovery but because as it is campfire skills are pretty much pointless to me, I haven't used them once to actual good effect. And when I tried to I just had to use the recovery ones exclusively (either hp or stress) so the buffs just sat there.
Maybe add some other restriction to the process.
Things may change in long dungeons, but I imagine even there recovery skills would be the only ones I'd use.

 

[Chaos17]

I sincerely doubt it's intended, it would be a terrible terrible design choice.
It is a really unfun thing to do.

Allowing to buy woodfire would be pretty nice not only for recovery but because as it is campfire skills are pretty much pointless to me, I haven't used them once to actual good effect. And when I tried to I just had to use the recovery ones exclusively (either hp or stress) so the buffs just sat there.
Maybe add some other restriction to the process.
Things may change in long dungeons, but I imagine even there recovery skills would be the only ones I'd use.

Nerfing too much player will lead to exploit or bring hate toward the game.
Maybe only veterans won't have any issues with a lot of restrictions but a beginner might won't be able to overcome it.

That's why I favor more that the dev balance the game so even new comers will be able to get in the game more easier.

 

[Professor Lich]

Oh, wanted to add how great this was starting off. I had a Vestal, the lady healer, who was God Fearing, can only Pray to relieve stress. Sent her off to pray then came back. Turns out it went horribly and she became a Witness, won't Pray for stress relief, so now she's stuck as being permanently stressed out forever. I guess dumping heroes and getting new ones is actually a huge part of the game, which is great, since not only is that not done a lot, it's hard for most people to do.

 

[Chariot]

Oh, wanted to add how great this was starting off. I had a Vestal, the lady healer, who was God Fearing, can only Pray to relieve stress. Sent her off to pray then came back. Turns out it went horribly and she became a Witness, won't Pray for stress relief, so now she's stuck as being permanently stressed out forever. I guess dumping heroes and getting new ones is actually a huge part of the game, which is great, since not only is that not done a lot, it's hard for most people to do.

Can't you take any of her traits via Sanitarium?

 

[Begaria]

Jester got a second song that can buff the party. Also usable at the back position.

Only lasts 2 turns, and later on you can't have any of your party members not be able to contribute damage. Jester needs a ranged attack of some sort.

Totally agree, I love the Jester but damn that dude needs something mechanically different. Like what if songs applied twice so long as the Jester didn't get hit that round: once when using the song and once more at the end of the round. It would be a cool reward for the risk involved. If he's gonna be the only one with that capability, he might as well shine in it.

Jester's party buff shouldn't be underestimated. Giving your characters more acc/crit ups the chance of proccing crits that help to reduce stress.

The party buff stacks up to three times, though the third stack doesn't last long, but I use it a third time only if I don't need stress relief. You can consistently have x2 Buff on your entire party, which at the second rank is +2 Speed/+2 Crit/+6 Accuracy which is pretty sweet.

GOAT party is Jester, Vestal, Bounty Hunter, Hellion. Manages stress, heals, and can stun lock an enemy to allow you to refresh your party and keep them healthy.

... It probably needs to be better balanced because that's almost a mandatory strategy for getting anywhere decent with the game.

That's my main team as well. However, I do not stun lock a single enemy to restore health and stress. First of all, that takes way too long when you can just camp and restore health/stress easily enough with the right skills. Proper CC during battles will keep you healthy and stress free anyways. Always go for the back row enemies first since typically they're the stress hitters, and CC the front if you can. If you're consistently having to do the cheap method of health restoration, then you went into the dungeon with the wrong set up of classes or skills. Yes, I realize bad RNG can just devastate your party, in which cheesing with the stun healing could counter balance it, but generally it's all about using your skills correctly and watching your accuracy.

 

[A Sentient Keyboard]

What does the bounty hunter's 'collect bounty' skill do? It's description says '[deal damage], self: (monster tagged+) + 100% DMG'. What does that mean?

 

[Begaria]

What does the bounty hunter's 'collect bounty' skill do? It's description says '[deal damage], self: (monster tagged+) + 100% DMG'. What does that mean?

Bounty Hunters have another skill which Marks their target. If you use the Collect Bounty skill on a marked target, it will double the damage of their attack. A Bounty Hunter with a high crit rate and good accuracy can absolutely destroy their targets. My highest crit so far is 53 damage which straight up killed a Rank 3 dungeon Large enemy that had 48 HP

Bounty Hunters are basically the best class in the game in my opinion. They can deal double damage, knock back or pull enemies out of place (two different skills), hit any enemy from any spot and if that enemy is stunned it will deal 40% more damage...they're just fantastic. They're definitely a bright spot on any team.

Best skills that I use: Collect Bounty (double damage on Marked), the Marking ability, and either the knock back or pull forward skill (I like pull forward better), if you have another stunner use Finish Him (ranged to any spot) for that extra damage on the stunned, of if you don't have a stunner use Flashbang for stuns.

 

[Professor Lich]

Can't you take any of her traits via Sanitarium?

I can, but I'm broke. As well, she has another negative trait which has to get taken out first, or at least I think so. I only played for two hours, I'll have to see what happens after an extended period.


Edit: Kind of surprised no one has mentioned an Occulist, the dark caster dude. He can mark targets for the Bounty Hunter and I'm a big fan of his risky heal. Works amazingly on a Hellion since they have a skill to remove bleeds. I feel a few classes have that.

Also a fan of a Jester / Grave Digger combo. Grave Digger has a really strong forward moving attack and the Jester kind of does as well. Allows for some cool strategies. Probably my favorite part of the game. I just wish it was easier to grind.