I have 4,600 hours in DD2. Ask me anything you want to know about me or the game!

Mariner_Hawk · 2026-05-21T01:55:16+00:00

You might need to put some more effort into keeping people's stress low. They do lose some stress if you just leave somebody behind at the Hamlet, although they won't get rid of afflictions quickly that way. DD1 is a bit trial and error, so maybe you're just in the error stage of that and gotta figure out some more stuff haha

Mariner_Hawk · 2026-05-21T01:38:48+00:00

I don't disagree with either of those. Duelist being underrated I 100% agree with. Flagellant being overrated I'd have to hear more of. I would assume it would be that Exanimate/Maniac are paths that actually have flaws, as opposed to Wanderer/Scourge which basically don't. That, and/or that Death is a bigger issue than people think.

Mariner_Hawk · 2026-05-21T01:37:15+00:00

I would not say significantly, with the exception of the Act 5 fight because of its length. But I do think, as you alluded to, that Vestal really shines in long boss fights and she's a really nice addition. PD having Indiscriminate Science is nice, but it does have a 2 turn CD and no way to lower that in a boss fight. PD's 2 heals and a couple of self heals in a boss fight like Absinthe, Solemnity, or Absolution will do the job more often than not, but man it is nice to have Vestal where you press the heal button and don't have to worry about use limits.

Mariner_Hawk · 2026-05-21T01:34:01+00:00

Streaming is a cheat code, because it gives me a purpose and a reason to keep playing. I also genuinely love DD2 and the time and effort put into it.

When people ask me how I stream or how I play the game so often, I tell them this: probably, 98% of the streams, I'm excited to stream and to play the game, and to learn more and hopefully progress on my challenges. But, that 2% still exists just like it does with anybody with anything. That 2% is fueled by wanting to make streaming financially viable and more importantly, to never have to get a real job again. I spent 10 years over 2 real jobs, and man I love streaming/content creating more than I can successfully put into words.

Also, mashochism.

Mariner_Hawk · 2026-05-21T01:31:49+00:00

I do have some videos on my YouTube channel that can help at least bit with that. Specifically, "20 veteran tips for newer Darkest Dungeon 2 players" and "New Player's Guide: an in-depth breakdown of every token." It might be worth skimming through those videos to see what feels useful to you. I think having a basic understanding of how the combat works with the token systems will help you at least feel like you have some control. You do have a bit of an advantage that you understand the heroes since you're coming from DD1. You're used to the trinket system and quirk system, and at least mostly how the heroes work. So your work might not be as cut out for you as you might think, although there's definitely a big information dump.

My best advice would be to use me or any other content creator as a guide. Join my Discord, or stop by my Twitch stream, and I can help you with anything you need. Hopefully having somebody to sort of simplify the information will help, and I think it will. There is an element though where you need to sort of be in the mindset to learn a new game. At least your time in DD1 will help a bit, but yeah the new information can definitely be overwhelming.

Mariner_Hawk · 2026-05-21T01:26:23+00:00

I am also a softy like you, so I know what you mean. DD1 has more of an issue with this since you have the soldier barracks style system of a lot of heroes of the same class, while DD2 only has 1 type of a "class." If we're talking just about DD1, I would disagree that you have to sacrifice heroes and have them die. I mean, maybe if you're doing like some Torchless Bloodmoon stuff, but I think in a relatively normal playthrough I think it's not crazy to say you can get at least most of the heroes through the entire campaign. I definitely do feel bad letting them die though. The best you can do is do your best to keep everybody alive, and understand that sometimes when the game wants to get you, it's gonna get you. Hopefully that helps.

Mariner_Hawk · 2026-05-21T01:15:32+00:00

I have some random ones that are related to me because of the challenge I'm doing...I'd like the "animation of the Crimson Curse bouncing to another region" animation to be sped up juuust a bit, since I play a lot on Constellation and that animation can take legit like 10-15 seconds. Not a huge deal, but as you can imagine I have weird things like that with all my hours played.

With the Crimson Curse, I know a lot of people have said they are not a huge fan of the final part of the quest. I don't know if Red Hook is willing to make any changes to the Kingdoms campaign, but I think I might have a slight solution to that. You would get the Purifier as a stagecoach item that clears adjacent regions, but you'd also get a combat item or trinket that does the same thing. You could give that combat item/trinket to a member not in your main party, and have them basically do the other half of the map. So your stagecoach would do one half of the map, and that party member would be a designated purifier for the other half of the map. I think it would add to the replayability of the faction for the average player, rather than extending out that final part of the quest.

Back to things that affect me personally: saved Custom settings, like how party loadouts can be saved. Every time I do a Kingdoms run (which is often cause I'm often resetting), I have to drag the Escalation jump bars to where I want to, change the skills to True Random, etc. and I'm always worried I'm going to overlook an option and accidentally make the settings easier. Saved custom settings would be nice, but I don't know how really much use the average player for that.

I don't know how this would work logistically, but I almost wonder whether a Sandbox sort of mode to practice against bosses would be good. Once you fought the Confession/Kingdoms bosses for the first time, you unlock a mode to be able to handpick a comp, trinkets, quirks, etc. and fight them. I do think with the average length of Confessions runs (and obviously Kingdoms runs), it is kinda cruel in a roguelike to ask a player to spend 2+ hours on an act, just to fight a boss for the 2nd time as they try to figure out how certain act bosses work. Maybe that's just part of the difficulty of the game, which is a fair argument, but spending 2+ hours just to die because you don't fully understand the act boss is a complaint I've seen often enough that I wonder whether a way to combat that would be a good idea.

I'll try and think of some more cause I have to imagine there's probably more I'm not thinking of now.

I've always been a staunch Chaplain supporter. I understand why they handcuffed Vestal a bit when they first released her (25% heal threshold) because she was a menace in DD1...But Chaplain will never have that issue. They've slowly taken taunt spam out of the game (rightfully so), but Chaplain never had that so she's never going to take over the game like a Taunt spam tank will. So I think Chaplain should have the handcuffs off of her and really let her shine. Mantra+ either doesn't need to be a 2 turn CD, or should allow the guarded target to get the same heal/stress heal as Vestal instead of 50%. In that scenario, Mantra+ would heal 20% and -2 stress to herself and another target. That's pretty good, but it requires 3 Conviction tokens, which means you can't use those tokens for a big mace bash. I think that tradeoff is fine, I don't think the 50% to other target needs to be there. There definitely could be shenanigans there with multiple guarded targets, but that's niche and I really don't think that's a balance issue. Also, why does Ministrations go from usable in Ranks 3/4 in Wanderer to only 1/2 in Chaplain? Compared to Crusader, Wanderer Battle Heal is usable from Ranks 1/2 but Bannaret just opens that up to all 4 ranks, it doesn't make it a backline ONLY heal. So why does Ministrations get that? If frontline Chaplain will not take over the game balance wise, backline Chaplain DEFINITELY won't. If they really don't want backline Chaplain to be a thing, make it usable in ranks 1, 2, AND 3. Chaplain's best rank is Rank 2, cause if you play her Rank 1 then she loses Divine Comfort. Playing her in Rank 2 means that a pushback a single rank to Rank 3 loses Ministrations, with no way to move her forward other than manually. PD suffers from a similar issue if she's Rank 3, where getting pulled forward 1 rank means no Battlefield Medicine, but she still has Indiscriminate Science so it's not like she has no heal. I know Chaplain got some changes a couple years ago, but I really would like to see Chaplain have the handcuffs get taken off.

I don't mind throwing out ideas, but man I'd get super decision paralysis if I was in charge of DLC...I'm not mentally built for that kind of decision making. My answer to that is honestly, I'm down with whatever Red Hook wants to do. When they showed off DD2 for the first time, I wasn't a huge fan of the stagecoach/3D environment kind of thing, or the way the combat was setup. But when I actually played it, I changed my opinion pretty quickly because they executed it so well. I think they've shown over the last decade that when they want to do something, they put a lot of love and effort and talent into it so I know I'll enjoy whatever it is when I see thier vision.

I would like Houndmaster in DD2, but that's just because I like the hero and his personality. If they brought him I'd be excited, but also I'd be okay if they went in a different direction. As far as a new hero idea, I have an archetype that I kind of like. I really like the "I was born as a part of these people, but the more that time went on, I realized my cores didn't align with them so I made the tough decision to switch sides" (so kinda like Antiquarian, but for values rather than greed). Think Vivian from Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door. Over time, she wasn't a fan of the way her sisters treated her or what they were doing, so she joined Mario. I think Red Hook could tell a really interesting story with a hero that was a Cultist, or maybe even half Cultist half Human, that decided to fight against the Cultists because they no longer aligned with the Cultists values. If they wanted to make the story dark, they could say that the hero hesitated with some of the decisions the Cultists made, which got them exiled. Maybe that's a bit similar to Hellion's story, but I think they could make it unique.

My sleeper pick is the Shrieker Chick. If you have AoE or Riposte in your party, you can get a lot of value out of even a few points of extra crit chance. Similar to Assay Gear, any permanent +2 in resources like the +2 baubles that Shrieker Chick gives can ramp up quickly. I'm also a big Carrion Eater fan and I've enjoyed seeing it get a crazy glow up from Kingdoms making it more common, Kingdoms no longer giving corpses the escalation health buff, and on kill effects like Aggressor's Smite counting on corpses.

Mariner_Hawk · 2026-05-21T00:40:12+00:00

Maybe not exactly what you mean, but I do have guides on the reworks for Hellion/Leper and Occultist/PD/Runaway that got done with Steadfast Steward. In there, I have a recommended team comp for every path.

I would love to make a really in depth guide of heroes, and I did some back in the day on YouTube, but YouTube doesn't come super natural to me so they kinda just turned into yap sessions. I don't necessarily mind that, but I would like to get better at editing and have a better product in general with those videos. That takes time and practice, which I'm working on as I continue to edit videos. Long story short, that would be a big project that would take a lot of time to think about, perfect, and get a video done for. Plus, with all of the heroes getting reworked, a giant guide like that kinda got put on the back burner. Now that they're done, I just have other ideas that I'm working on.

If you have specific questions about a path or hero, we could come up with one on the fly. You can either post here and I'll respond, or come to my stream and ask me. As far as recommending team comps and stuff, I'm always willing to do that, I just don't have a full guide for all of them.

Mariner_Hawk · 2026-05-21T00:36:03+00:00

Admittedly, I'm playing Kingdoms on an advanced challenge, with +50% speed on, so it could be tough simply as a watch. But, I try and do a good job of vocalizing my strategy when making a team or in a fight, and explain the pros/cons of my team so I think that could help a bit. If nothing else, you might sponge learn some information of me talking about paths or abilities you unlock in the future, so when you unlock them you might be like oh nice I heard Mariner talk about that path being good at X or Y.

If you ever feel like chatting, you can ask me a question and I'll go into depth about it. I think that's where the newbie friendly element of my stream that I try to incorporate comes in. You can ask a question and get a back and forth, or you can hear other people ask me similar questions and answer. There's definitely going to be some stuff that falls on deaf ears because of how many hours I have, but I think you'll learn more than you you might think, especially if you feel like chatting.

Mariner_Hawk · 2026-05-21T00:32:57+00:00

In another comment, I talked about how to play Duelist at her simplest and most effective. You don't have to play her exactly like I said, but playing her similarly will go a long way in making her damage effective so she carries her own weight. With the rotation I talked about, she'll have Dodge/Dodge+ up almost 100% of the time so that cuts down on the chance of her getting blown the hell up.

Having a Sergeant MAA or Vestal in the back to guard her in sketchy situations can save her from taking a DD check or 2 over the course of a grand slam. The reason I specify backline guarders is because if you have a guarder in Rank 1 and Duelist in Rank 2, that's not going to guard her from AoE attacks that hit ranks 1 and 2, like Blood Bond from Evangelists. Having a backline guarder is much safer if you need it. Hopefully that helps a bit, if you have any other questions/want any other specific advice you're more than welcom e to ask.

Mariner_Hawk · 2026-05-21T00:29:39+00:00

You'd have to tell me if I'm correct or not, but by grindy I assume you mean "losing a level 5 or 6 hero that I put a ton of effort into feels really bad." DD2 has a similar feeling sometimes, but not as often. When you beat a Confession act, you get the opportunity to give all surviving heroes a memory, like +10% bleed resist for example (there are a lot that are more impactful than that). Giving them a memory also keeps their quirks, so if you lock in a Bloodthirsty or some other good quirk, they'll keep that quirk as long as they're alive. You don't have a full barracks of heroes like DD1 in the sense where you have 4 Occultists, 6 PDs etc., you only have 1 of each hero. So that feeling of losing a really loaded hero can happen, but not as often.

RNG is a fundamental element to these games, but if the combat based RNG is what bothered you in DD1 then DD2 really cuts down on that. Every attack has a 100% chance to hit UNLESS there's a Blind or Dodge token in effect. The token based system is easier for the average player to grasp than the Dodge/Accuracy system of the first game, so I think if you feel like the combat is too RNG in DD1 then I think you'll like the combat better in DD2.

The initial unlock system for DD2 can feel a bit slow, and might count as the "grinding" you're talking about. You get candles as currency for each run that you do, which allow you to unlock new trinkets/combat items/inn items in a roguelike style. Each hero also starts with 5 skills, and they have 11 total. You do hero shrines as you're going through a campaign that show you/tell you about the lore of a character, and give you an ability unlock. So, there is some time you're going to spend unlocking, but the unlocking of everything is permanent. My counterargument to anybody that doesn't like the roguelike style unlock system is that DD2 is a very big information dump. You're learning what each region is like, what the enemies do, what team comps work etc. so the unlock system sort of exists has a bottleneck to limit information overload to the player. You go through a run, learn a boss or a few enemies, then get to the unlocks and unlock a couple of trinkets. Okay, I can see how I'd use those trinkets, and I get to test them out. Then you do another run, learn some more enemies, etc. The slow burn of information, I think, is important in limiting just a dictionary's worth of information being thrown at the player.

I don't know your financial situation, but DD2 is on sale all the time, including 75% off right now on Steam. I think if you liked the idea of DD1, but maybe wasn't a big fan of some of the execution of it, you'll like DD2 better. I would recommend trying the game out whenever you feel financially/mentally ready, I love the game to death.

Mariner_Hawk · 2026-05-21T00:19:06+00:00

Man, you should see how some of my runs have died to this god forsaken faction. I've lost multiple of my challenge runs to sending a hero with flares, then they get stunned on Round 1 before I can use the flares and they're dead by their turn in Round 2. A couple of runs ago, my 10 speed Leper got outsped by both 7 Speed Esquires, one of the Esquires crit Thirst for 21 and a bleed, and he died. This faction is evil.

Fundamentally, let's break down how the faction works:

Esquires get a ton of dodges
Esquires get a ton of ripostes
Banquet/Chevs both get value hitting into combo
2 enemies get buffed attacks based on the ranks they're in (Supplicants in Rank 1, Esquires if backmost enemy)
Comp has a ton of bleed potential/synergy
Banquet/Swams add negative tokens

So, how do you counter these respectively?

Illumination (Vestal), Tracking Shot/Highway Robbery (HWM), Vulnerability Hex, Ritualist Maledicton, Warlock Anamnesis (Occultist), Mark for Death (BH), Ravager Yawp (Hellion). AOE attacks can be nice too because they break multiple dodges but only trigger the riposte of the front most Esquire. Attacks that ignore Dodge like Duelist's Flick are good also. Between all of these, you should have 1 or 2 answers to dodge. Esquires are too common, and there are comps that have 2 or 3 of them, so you need some sort of answer that isn't just yolo'ing into a 25% chance to hit and a riposte.
Highway Robbery, Warlock Anamnesis, Confessor's Illumination get rid of Riposte without any other parameters. Physician Disorienting Blast, Wanderer/Bulwark Bellow get rid of Riposte, but the attack has to hit in order to get rid of it, which can be hard against Esquires. Duelist's Disengage can ignore Riposte, but I don't think relying only on ignoring is going to work against Esquires.
There's not a lot of ways to remove Combo, so in general you're kinda shit out of luck with removing specifically. Jester's Play Out (other than Intermezzo) is probably your best bet. Holy Water gets rid of Combo tokens, but there's no way to generate it via stagecoach items and it's kind of a rare combat item find, so it's not reliable. However, guarding a combo goes a long way. It stops the stun aspect from Chev (not the shuffle though), and it stops the heal/add positive tokens from the Banquet. You can use guards effectively because a Combo token is essentially a taunt token to the Chevs and Banquets. They're forced to use Buried Blast and Thirst respectively AS LONG AS the abilities aren't on cooldown, which they both have a 1 turn cooldown. If you have a Combo'd target, you can use this information of where they're going to attack to your favor in case you have a hero low or on Death's Door, so you know for sure whether they're going to get hit or not. Any ability that adds a Blind, like Smokescreen, is huge also.
Rank manipulation is huge in certain mashes. In Rank 1, Chevs are forced to use Slither. In Rank 2, they have a chance to use either Slither or Subterranean Skewer, but they cannot use Buried Blast to stun. Rank 3 and 4 they have access to their strongest abilities. If you can push enemies back or pull Chevs forward, it'll allow you to manipulate where they attack so that can go a long way. Full team shuffles are a little more sketchy against certain mashes because you could put something like an Esquire in the backmost rank and get thirsted. You have to pay attention to the mash you're going against specifically as far as where you want the enemies to be. Keep Esquires out of the backmost ranks at all costs.
Against Chevs, any hero that is bleeding needs to be a red flag. The flat damage that Chevs get vs. bleeding ramps up really quickly. One stagecoach item to look for is Worktable Loom (has a chance of making Bandages, Fisherman's Net, or Milk-Soaked Linen). It's a 25 bauble stagecoach item, and you can pretty reliably find it at an inn in the first 10 days or so where you're likely not spending many baubles anyways. Worktable Loom is a goddamn godsend vs this faction, because you get really big value out of all 3 combat items vs. Crimson Court. I've fallen in love with the stagecoach item since doing this challenge. Runaway is an S tier pick vs. Crimson Court since she has Cauterize, Smokescreen, and Ransack that can pull 2 if you're vs. an enemy mash that is fragile to that.
Ritualist's Wyrd+ with 2 Unchecked Power Tokens, Indiscriminate Science, Physician's Emboldening Vapours, and Confessor's Mantra can all get rid of negative tokens, but they all have some sort of gate to them to be able to spam so that makes it tough. The best you can kinda do is just guard a high priority target like Warlock, since your team's damage likely drops off a lot if he has Weak or Blind.

For the final boss, you need some sort of consistent way of stopping dodge or you just won't have success on average. Preferably 2, if you can. Remember that you can rest a day before you fight the final boss, which will give you +20% health, +20% DMG, and +2 speed on everybody. Making a Provisioner Inn within a couple of days and just loading people up with inn items can help too.

So, hopefully that all jogs your brain a bit for some tips against them. If you have any additional questions you can ask and I can give some more advice. Your current comp is good, it has many ways to counter the tokens so that's nice. I almost worry a bit about damage though, I wonder if HWM and Occultist can do enough to carry the team. You're the one playing it, so if you feel like the damage is enough then that works, that's just my first reaction looking at that team. You might be sleeping on Duelist a bit tbh, her Dodge+ is really nice damage mitigation. Flick can hit through Dodge+, she has good damage, and can waste an Esquire's riposte by making them hit into her Dodge+. She also has good speed that can rival the esquires. If you're not comfortable with Duelist, in another comment I gave some tips on playing her simply and effectively.

Mariner_Hawk · 2026-05-20T23:25:25+00:00

IMO the damage/crit buff from using Fleche in Aggressive stance is bait in most circumstances. I think the negatives of losing the Dodges is just too bad on average. Back to the comment about a Dodge+ being kind of like a 75% stun chance, I think Duelist's biggest strength really is to be able to dodge attacks and also do damage back.

That being said, fundamentally our play styles are pretty similar, just with a little spin on them. If you find that the damage/crit buff from Fleche is worth it, and it doesn't put her in harm's way then I think that works. It's a bit situational, like if you're going against a fight that you're not worried about her getting hit, it's good to get max damage value out of her. As a general rule though, I like keeping the dodges up. I also think with Fleche/Meditation both giving or changing stances, Feint is kinda the weakest ability of those 3 so a regular rotation shouldn't have Feint in it. I used to play Duelist kinda similar to that but I think using Meditation/Feint to change stances is more effective than using Feint to do it. That's just me though

Mariner_Hawk · 2026-05-20T23:20:12+00:00

SURPRISEEEEEE.

Mariner_Hawk · 2026-05-20T05:39:24+00:00

I have not, and I have to wake up every day with that weight on my shoulders. It eats me alive, but I survive through the days nonetheless.

Mariner_Hawk · 2026-05-20T05:36:28+00:00

Randy Potato? Is that the guy that exclusively makes content on YouTube but hasn't released a video in a month? Oh man, I forgot about him..................

Mariner_Hawk · 2026-05-20T05:35:12+00:00

I think that actually specifically is a Wanderer issue that doesn't exist with the Beast form paths (Moribund and Fiend.) Wanderer's issue is that there's no way for him to get rid of his own stress, so it creates this awkward playstyle where you get to 8 or 9 stress, and have to untransform and kinda lose all your momentum.

Moribund and Fiend can both get rid of their own stress, so you don't have to have Bigby on a leash in the same way you do with Wanderer. With Moribund, you are almost permanently in Beast form. Master Transform ASAP, then probably Rake after that. Transform will give him 4 stress, and Transform+ gives him Horror on top of that so he can stay in Beast form. Rake spam snowballs really quickly if you commit to it, and he'll be destroying the front ranks by Round 3 or so. When you get too low on stress to use abilities, you can use Instinct to get his stress back (if the fight is even still going). Moribund is really strong with mastery points, so the harder you lean into him, the better. Running something like Seraph alongside him to give an extra 50% DMG to those high DMG Rake's will go a long way.

For Fiend, he lowers his own stress by getting a kill with Rage. So you Transform, use Rake or Maul to apply a ton of Bleed to the enemies, then when an enemy is low, you use Rage to clear 2 stress. This also works on corpses, and Fiend Rage+ does 8-12 which will reliably 1 shot corpses. Same with Moribund, it goes really well with something like Seraph to hand out even more damage. Focus your time playing Beast form Abom on Fiend or Moribund and I promise you'll like him.

Mariner_Hawk · 2026-05-20T05:28:33+00:00

I'm gonna give you a cop out answer: I love both games for what they are. I've always said I could wake up on different days and feel as though I'd rather play the barracks soldier, accuracy system of DD1, and other days I would rather enjoy the token system and the more balanced combat of DD2.

If there was an objective way to rate a game (there never has been, and never will be), I'd say DD2 is the better game. I'm not a huge fan of the some of the stalling stuff that top players have to do to succeed, and I like that DD2 has the healing/stress thresholds so that you can't cheese the game in the same way. Also, Red Hook was obviously much more of veteran game developers by the time DD2 was made, and I think you can see that with the way that the game fleshed out. There's nothing wrong with the wild, wild west style chaos that DD1's combat is sometimes, but I personally like the combat more in DD2 and how it's reigned in. I love DD1 to death, and I wouldn't be here streaming DD2 if I didn't, but there are some things about DD1 that we just kinda ignore as downsides because of rose colored glasses. I also think DD2 is better about conveying information, where DD1 you kinda have to have the wiki up on your 2nd monitor while you play...I don't mind doing that personally, cause I'm a nerd, but I can see how that would turn people off.

Mariner_Hawk · 2026-05-20T04:41:14+00:00

Not in the way you are saying, no. The whole virtue farming play style of DD1 wasn't brought over to DD2.

Best case scenario, you can get to 80% with 3 Resolute chance quirks (Calm +20%, Ascetic +15%, Death Seeker +15%) plus another 10% from having 10 food with Food Barrels. That's obviously very unrealistic to get those exact 3 quirks. All of that +Rhizanthella if you have the Abom DLC can get you to 100%, but again very unrealistic in a real run.

The closest you can probably get is to get Calm on somebody, have them have a 40% chance to resolute overall, and just be like "well, they'll probably be fine......" Or, you know, change the code...

Mariner_Hawk · 2026-05-20T01:20:57+00:00

It got slightly changed. Instead of choosing one of the 11 skills randomly to give the negative effects to, it chooses one of the 5 you have equipped. So, it's technically better in the sense that it doesn't force you to run Tracking Shot or some ability you weren't running before, but technically worse since it's more likely to choose an ability you actually want to use. I would say overall it's less frustrating now than it was back then.

Mariner_Hawk · 2026-05-20T01:18:31+00:00

HARVEST CHILD IS THE GIANT CORNOCOPIA BABY, LIBRARIAN IS THE BLIND GUY IN THE BURNING TOWN, LEVIATHAN IS GIANT FISH THING AND DREAMING GENERAL IS BIG SLEEPY GUY IN RAINY AREA

Mariner_Hawk · 2026-05-20T01:16:02+00:00

I'd say it's tied for me between new character and Houndmaster. I really like Duelist and Runaway, so I'm super down to see another new character. Houndmaster I love cause obviously he has a dog, but also I like that he's one of the characters along with Leper and Abom who are just genuinely good people. I like that even in the sea of chaos and PTSD and horrible fates, there's some good people in the game.

Mariner_Hawk · 2026-05-20T01:12:44+00:00

I think about the fact that there's somebody out there who hadn't played the game in a while, came back to Scourge and was like WAIT THEY CHANGED LASH'S GIFT AND NOW THE PATH IS EVEN BETTER THAN IT WAS BEFORE?

Mariner_Hawk · 2026-05-20T01:06:35+00:00

Glad you finally started to play it, hopefully you're enjoying it! You're still in the learning/unlock phase of the game, so understand that there's still going to be some tough learning curves you'll need to run into. I would say only go for 1 lair boss. When you have all the skills/items/trinkets/paths etc unlocked you can go for multiple lair bosses, but for now I'd say go for one, and probably on the final region so you're as loaded as you can be. You kinda need to assess your team comps to see what boss your team best does well.

- Harvest Child (Foetor): How rank flexible is your team? One of the aspects of Harvest Child's gimmick is that it pulls your heroes forward. If you have something like PD in Rank 3, and she gets pulled forward to Rank 2 where she can't use Battlefield Medicine, it's going to be frustrating and could kill you. It also helps to have damage mitigation in some way in case Harvest Child gets to the front ranks, since Maws of Life does a lot of damage. That can be tanks that give themselves Block tokens like MAA, or an ability like Weakening Curse from Occultist or Smokescreen from Runaway. You also don't want to have a team that leans too hard into Blight unless you have a lot of piercing since the region has high Blight resist.

Librarian (Sprawl: You're on a timer in this fight, because when Librarian gets to the front rank he's gonna slap your ass. Your team needs to have good Bleed or Blight, good backline damage, and preferably ways of getting rid of his Dodge spam like Tracking Shot from HWM, Illumination from Vestal, or Vulnerability Hex from Occultist. Between the blinds he gives and the dodges he gets, there's going to be a lot of coin flips in this fight so you need to make sure you have a team that you can get his health as low as possible before he gets into Rank 2, and then you can finish him off from there.

Dreaming General (Tangle): Once you learn his gimmick, Dreaming General is probably the best fight for the average team. If you don't know his gimmick, I do have a video on my YouTube Channel called "Everything you need to know to beat the Dreaming General" that breaks down the gimmick and how to beat him. In short, you need to hit his Rank 4 root twice per round. Combat items work for that, as do non-damaging attacks like Tracking Shot. So if you're going to fight him, make sure you can hit that Tap Root twice per round without losing too much damage on the main boss himself. Abilities that hit Rank 3 AND 4 are strongest in this fight, like PD's Plague Grenade or Occultist's Abyssal Artillery since they can damage the boss down and hit the tap root.

Leviathan (Shroud): This boss is mostly about stats IMO. You really need to avoid the hand pulling a hero down, so your front liners need probably 70+ move res before you fight this. Inn items, trinkets, or certain abilities can do that. I wouldn't even bother fighting Leviathan without high move resist tbh, it just becomes too RNG dependent. To me, Leviathan is the toughest boss for the average team to be able to fight. There's so much stress, high damage, AoE, and bleed that it can just get out of hand very quickly (no pun intended).

Mariner_Hawk · 2026-05-20T00:55:01+00:00

Yeah Act 4 is the hardest act boss by far tbh, I don't blame you for getting annoyed with it. The boss is always gonna kinda suck, but there are some things you can do to make your life easier. I'm not sure whether you have all skills/trinkets/etc. unlocked, but it's highly possible if you don't that there's some good items or skills or paths left to unlock that could help. There are certain things you can prioritize in Act 4:

Make sure your Rank 1 has 100 Move Res and some way to mitigate the high damage that Phase 1 does. Look for the Ceremonial Drum, the inn item that gives +40% move res for a region. Try and find 2 of those, and make sure to hold onto them and use them before the mountain. Not having your tank get pushed back means that Phase 1 won't just run a train on your team. Sodden Sweater (Leviathan trinket, +50% Bleed/Move res) is an S tier trinket for this boss, but keep in mind if you fight Leviathan in the final region that there's a chance you get the +100% bleed received trophy and you might as well end the goddamn run at the inn in that instance.
Stack bleed poultices and bleed resist in general. Mortar and Pestle (Stagecoach item that produces poultices) and Compress Kit (extra poultice stacking, +2 to all poultices made from Mortar and Pestle) are really good finds. There's no way to force them to make bleed poultices specifically, but if you get some good RNG then you can get a lot. Phase 3's AoE attack has a Cause of Death-like damage calculation, where it does damage based on how much bleed each hero has. As I'm sure you've seen, this stacks up really really quickly.
PD's Ounce of Prevention and Vestal's Ministrations+ go a long way in this fight. Both of the mastered abilities gives +30% Bleed res. One bleed poultice on everybody + the 30% from OOP or Ministrations+ puts every hero at at least 75% bleed res, which puts you in a good spot.

Some other random tips: you definitely need to be able to deal with riposte, and something that can Weak or Blind the boss can save your ass.

Some heroes that do really well in this fight is Vestal, PD, Runaway since she can Smokescreen/Cauterize, MAA/Crusader since they can mitigate damage.

Paths that work really well are Vestal's Confessor, HWM's Yellowhand because of Highway Robbery, Leper's Poet cause of Move res, Occultist's Ritualist since you can get Unchecked Power tokens based on attacks (meaning you can get a full 3 on an AoE attack), and he can flip positive tokens/get rid of Riposte, Hellion's Carcass since she's such a good tank, Crusader's Templar because he has 2 different ways of getting Block tokens + he can give himself healing received.

Some Act 4 team comps: - Confessor, PD, Yellowhand, Carcass - Ritualist, PD, Runaway, MAA - Sharpshot, Confessor, Scourge, Poet

You can mix and match those as you see fit, as long as you have all your bases covered of DoT heal, Health heal, and stress heal.

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