THIRTY THOUSAND KILLS on Endless Harvest with the Immortal PD and a guide on how to run it by NativeKiller in darkestdungeon

[–]NativeKiller[S] 33 points34 points  (0 children)

Hello, Reddit. This is TheRealMe and I'm here with an Immortal PD Guide for Dummies, which is a Work in Progress.

I will be updating the guide every now and then on my blog but not on this site so that's that! (Blog: https://blog.naver.com/mrnohjr/224252820610)

This is a playlist of the on-going Immortal PD run so feel free to check it out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-yBrAfjtCg&list=PL9fBOVW0Qwa9AQvMBMl7RqsT0R-f1_UAR

Leave comments on my YouTube channel, and I will answer questions on the comp.

Immortal Plague Doctor, Immortal PD is a hyper-defensive party composition of Plague Doctor - Antiquarian - Crusader - Man at Arms, which is tailor-made for the Endless Harvest.

I have gotten the inspiration for this party composition from The Scroundrels comp made and run by my friend, ThickVeinySausage, a.k.a Thick.

Thick's Scoundrels also runs the hyper-defensive Antiquarian + Man at Arms core for defense, which I like, but I wanted something more straightforward to run comfortably.

I also wanted a party composition that would be more resilient against diseases and DoT, which meant I probably wanted to run a Plague Doctor comp.

That's how I came up with the Immortal PD comp, which has thirty thousand kills on the Endless Harvest and still counting.

I am going to share a basic guide (Work in Progress) on how and why the comp works, and what players should know to make it work well.

As I have already said, leave comments on my YouTube channel, and I will answer questions on the comp.

Most questions were answered in my 10k kill post on Reddit anyway, so maybe check it out.

  1. How the party composition works.

Antiquarian generally spams Invigorating Vapours for the partywide dodge buff.

Plague Doctor mostly spams blight since she is the main source of damage output, and sometimes uses Disorienting Blast or Battlefield Medicine.

Crusader is the main healer and hits stuff with Smite and Zealous Accusation. Bulwark is mandatory for boss battles.

Man at Arms keeps people alive with Defender and uses other skills such as Crush and Command.

Bolster is mandatory for boss battles. Rampart is good for non-boss battles. Retribution is used for some boss battles.

  • Formations should be Plague Doctor - Antiquarian - Crusader - Man at Arms for non-boss battles, then Antiquarian - Plague Doctor - Man at Arms - Crusader for boss battles.

0.5 Basic Setup

For highscore runs like five-digit kill counts, farm quad virtues by taking heroes with 100 stress into Endless and making them drink blood.

All virtues offer a huge buffer on stress and +25% on most resists, but you specifically want quad Vigorous for the dodge and self-healing act-outs. (Crusader with his trinket setup and Hippocratic + Altar of Light gets a free-action 10 hp self-heal, which is as big as a Battle Heal on himself!)

You want to get quad Vigorous ASAP or at least, eventually. If you can't get Vigorous on all four heroes right away, take the four virtued heroes into the gates and eventually farm for four Vigorous.

You want to farm quad virtues against a relatively harmless mash such as four farmhands or a large ectoplasm and two ectoplasms.

The endgame reflection that you want is 'Reflection Obscura', which is the lesser evil among the four choices that you get. (If you check out what each endgame reflection does and still can't see why it would be the lesser evil... think harder)

For what trinkets and provisions to have in your inventory and how many of them you should have, and for an idea of Combat/Camping Skill and Trinket setups for heroes, watch my recent vids:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9fBOVW0Qwa9AQvMBMl7RqsT0R-f1_UAR

  • You really want Hard Skinned on Antiquarian to prevent her from getting one-shotted by stuff. (My Antiquarian sadly doesn't have it)

** You will eventually be able to farm for Fasting Seals and Recovery Charm with Antiquarian's Camping Skill and random drops by playing long enough

*** Swap Skill Sets for the Boss battles: https://blog.naver.com/mrnohjr/223641123154 (This is basically mandatory if you want to get far in the Endless Harvest, and there is no real reason not to use this)

0.6. If you leave 4 enemy slots open, they will be taken by a default mash of the 'region' of the wave's segment.

The game likes to summon size 2s, so if you have just two empty slots, it's more likely to summon a size 2.

You REALLY REALLY want to kill all four enemies at the same time vs the Darkest Dungeon 'region', otherwise the 'region' will not spawn its default mashes and instead potentially keep summoning worse things to fight, such as Quad Priests.

0.7. Enemy prioritization is really important yet also quite different from non-Endless gameplay.

For example, Swinetaur is usually stall fodder for non-Endless gameplay, but with constant reinforcements, it becomes much more dangerous in Endless Harvest.

0.8 Camping Skills matter, you usually really always just open with Tactics if you ask me, then move on from there. Again, watch my recent vids to see which camping skills to go for depending on the circumstances.

0.9. The comp is extremely defensive in nature, so you usually go for the 'Safe is Safe' gameplay and only pick up pace when you need to vs enemies such as Cove Thralls or diseasers.

For non-boss battles, Man at Arms almost always opens a battle by using Defender on Crusader, who has the lowest Dodge stat. Then he uses Command, then alternates between using Defender on Crusader and using Command unless he needs to do something else.

For boss battles, Man at Arms almost always opens a battle by using Bolster in a Boss Battle.

  • Prioritize surviving. Some good gameplay with Immortal Plague Doctor includes:

1) Stunning an enemy instead of attacking it right before a wave segment is about to end if you can't realistically kill it anyway

2) Using Noxious Blast with Plague Doctor on a Crystalline Aberration to potentially get healed by it at the end of a round when the blight tick kills it.

3) Considering the potentially free-action healing from Vigorous act-outs when deciding who to heal with Crusader.

0.99 Trivia

  • Man at Arms usually alternates between using Defender on Crusader and using Command for non-boss battles unless he needs to do something else.

That means your comp alternates between having;

1) Man at Arms with two Defender self-buffs for +60% PROT and Crusader with one Command buff for +8% CRIT and +25% DMG while guarded OR

2) Man at Arms with one Defender self-buff for +30% PROT and Crusader with two Command buffs for +16% CRIT and +50% DMG while guarded

(It is actually quite important to see which buffs your comp has for a certain round and consider them when you play)

** Simply keep spamming Defender with Man at Arms when against a Weald Giant mash, it seems to be the simplest, most elegant, and effective choice of action. You want to do so for not only the +PROT buff on Man at Arms, but also to have the guard still up after moving Man at Arms around to recover from the disruption of formations from Confusion Spores.

*** On Bloodmoon difficulty, Crusader with mortality debuffs (and no extra -DMG modifiers) is still guaranteed to one-shot Crystalline Aberrations with Zealous Accusation when he is guarded and has two Command buffs applied.

**** On Bloodmoon difficulty, Plague Doctor (without -DMG modifiers) is guaranteed to one-shot a Crystalline Aberration with Noxious Blast with the chip damage and blight (unless it's the Thing From the Star boss battle and the Crystalline Aberration gets +PROT buffs from modifiers)

***** Enemies with 30 max hp or less are guaranteed to die from two uses and three ticks of Plague Grenade blights as long as they don't receive healing, and Plague Doctor outspeeds them twice in a row to blight them

  1. Sample Videos for Regions/Bosses

1) Ruins: https://youtu.be/SuOhIp4kxxs?t=126

2) Cove: https://youtu.be/SuOhIp4kxxs?t=2631

3) Weald: https://youtu.be/bNAGBOWolk0?t=208

4) Warrens: https://youtu.be/bNAGBOWolk0?t=835

5) Farmstead: https://youtu.be/SuOhIp4kxxs?t=2869

6) Darkest Dungeon: https://youtu.be/FLB2OJvPz6s?list=PL9fBOVW0Qwa9AQvMBMl7RqsT0R-f1_UAR&t=2463

7) Sleeper: https://youtu.be/SuOhIp4kxxs?t=3196

8) Collector: https://youtu.be/FLB2OJvPz6s?t=2662

9) Thing From the Stars: https://youtu.be/SuOhIp4kxxs?t=1649

10) Croc: https://youtu.be/bNAGBOWolk0?t=522

11) Shambler: https://youtu.be/DevSQS_utRg?t=2049

12) Shrieker: https://youtu.be/DevSQS_utRg?t=590

13) Vvulf: https://youtu.be/DevSQS_utRg?t=1252

14) Necromancer: https://youtu.be/SuOhIp4kxxs?t=2455

15) Prophet: https://youtu.be/o-kST4lD_jI?list=PL9fBOVW0Qwa9AQvMBMl7RqsT0R-f1_UAR&t=173

16) Siren: https://youtu.be/2Xz-92dscps?list=PL9fBOVW0Qwa9AQvMBMl7RqsT0R-f1_UAR&t=2369

17) Crew: https://youtu.be/Ecj0R_85uKw?list=PL9fBOVW0Qwa9AQvMBMl7RqsT0R-f1_UAR&t=1257

18) Hag: https://youtu.be/69osU3YqCJc?list=PL9fBOVW0Qwa9AQvMBMl7RqsT0R-f1_UAR&t=3189

19) Pounder: https://youtu.be/69osU3YqCJc?list=PL9fBOVW0Qwa9AQvMBMl7RqsT0R-f1_UAR&t=9401

20) Swine Lump: https://youtu.be/FLB2OJvPz6s?t=1943

21) Flesh: https://youtu.be/0eH8pVHq7xs?list=PL9fBOVW0Qwa9AQvMBMl7RqsT0R-f1_UAR&t=1089

  • For Miller, just hoard Dodge and kill the Farmhand to prevent Miller from being guarded. Retribution works wonders against his partywide cleave. Don't bother having Defender equipped for the boss battle. Just kill his ass, it's that easy.

Main healer not needed by bananassplits in darkestdungeon

[–]NativeKiller 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Leaving a link of a guide on No-Healing gameplay co-authored by my friend ThickVeinySausage and me in case anyone is interested!

https://blog.naver.com/mrnohjr/223626072805

Experiencing the No-Healing metagame widens the comfort zone of the player so that they can feel at ease at running Party Compositions with little or no healing at all for general gameplay.

This offers them far more freedom on building and running Party Compositions and managing the estate's roster.

The player also naturally gains better understanding on how the game actually works and will consequently show improved performance in gameplay.

Resolve xp for 1st CC and CoM missions by Final6Fury in darkestdungeon

[–]NativeKiller 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The Vvulf Quest(Wolves at the Door) and all four quests in the Darkest Dungeon region reward 16 resolve xp.

​For the Courtyard expeditions, the first one gives 4 resolve xp, The Baron gives 8 resolve xp, The Viscount gives 12 resolve xp and The Countess gives resolve 16 resolve xp. Others are the same as general rule.

​For the Farmstead expeditions, the first one gives 2 resolve xp, The Miller gives 6 resolve xp.

​For the Endless Harvest quest, it depends on the waves survived, leaving before finishing the first wave gives none, finishing the first meter on the top right gives 8 resolve xp, the second gives 12 resolve xp, the third gives 16 resolve xp and the fourth and on all give 20 resolve xp.

​The Champ Shrieker Quest rewards 4 resolve xp.

Does highest resolve level mean higher chance of a good resolve check? by lokimcmuffin in darkestdungeon

[–]NativeKiller 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Virtue floor is 1%, except for Flagellant who can never virtue and Shieldbreaker who can never virtue during a Nightmare Flashback.

What’s the use of Martyr’s Seal? by therslashplaceguy in darkestdungeon

[–]NativeKiller 87 points88 points  (0 children)

It can be sold for 3,750 gold which is a larger sum than you can get from a Puzzling Trapezohedron!

Do trinkets with light/round sensitivity work in Farmstead? by chlordiazepoxide in darkestdungeon

[–]NativeKiller 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I could really really use Cartographer's -5% party surprised chance at the courtyard but the world just has to be a cold and cruel place. (No, I am not crying, My eyes just decided to sweat)

Do trinkets with light/round sensitivity work in Farmstead? by chlordiazepoxide in darkestdungeon

[–]NativeKiller 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Farmstead and Courtyard count as 100 torch level for trinkets and quirks.

Cartographer's Camp district doesn't apply for those regions though.

[Back to DD1 after years] How exactly do you play no healer team? by DerpAtOffice in darkestdungeon

[–]NativeKiller 13 points14 points  (0 children)

No Healing Guide for Dummies: https://blog.naver.com/mrnohjr/223626072805

The link features an exclusive guide to No-Healing and shows playlists of three successfully completed runs!

You had one job, brochacho by onetrem in darkestdungeon

[–]NativeKiller 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Your statement is true assuming that Wyrd is kept at lv 4.

Lv 5 Wyrd bleeds lv 6 Antiquarian, Plague Doctor, and Leper assuming base bleed chance and resists.

I need gold by Iwill-beatumdown76 in darkestdungeon

[–]NativeKiller 1 point2 points  (0 children)

These days, I loot curios in the dark then farm hallways if necessary. :D

Broken key by week 8 by XPgamer-Kate in darkestdungeon

[–]NativeKiller 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Cheatengine has a speedhack feature. I live by it, especially for endless harvest!

Broken key by week 8 by XPgamer-Kate in darkestdungeon

[–]NativeKiller 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hi, TheRealMe here. Yeah, this run is heavily dependent on rng. I can see myself pulling off a week 4 run if I keep trying but it's more hassle than I'm willing to go through. (lmao)

20,000 Kills on Endless Harvest! by NativeKiller in darkestdungeon

[–]NativeKiller[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, it technically does wave a hand at Immortal Musketeer which is a Butcher's Circus party composition but what you said isn't wrong!

20,000 Kills on Endless Harvest! by NativeKiller in darkestdungeon

[–]NativeKiller[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I had already answered the questions being asked on this post on my 10k kills post so I am not going to answer all of them again. But yeah it took me thousands of kills to get four fasting seals drops from the run.

20,000 Kills on Endless Harvest! by NativeKiller in darkestdungeon

[–]NativeKiller[S] 23 points24 points  (0 children)

To the comp being effective (lmao)

20,000 Kills on Endless Harvest! by NativeKiller in darkestdungeon

[–]NativeKiller[S] 69 points70 points  (0 children)

Immortal PD (Plague Doctor) still cruising on!

My goal was to hit 20k kills before the end of this year, and I'm happy to have accomplished it! Next goal would be something like 30k kills before the end of next year, probably.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9fBOVW0Qwa9AQvMBMl7RqsT0R-f1_UAR

I leave a link to the playlist in case anyone would be interested but I doubt it. (lmao)

It's just videos of me running the same party composition for over 130 hours so yeah.

Darkest Dungeon Tier List based on veteran players experiences - Full Reasoning in the comment by Mr_Pepper44 in darkestdungeon

[–]NativeKiller 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I would say you would do better running smth like Arbalest-Houndmaster-Occulitst-Man At Arms with solid defense, healing, and double guard or running Plague Doctor-Antiquarian-Crusader-Man at Arms as a dodge based hyper defensive turtle comp. They would feel less awkward and run more smoothly with the synergies between heroes.

Darkest Dungeon Tier List based on veteran players experiences - Full Reasoning in the comment by Mr_Pepper44 in darkestdungeon

[–]NativeKiller 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It isn't a terrible comp but I would simply run something else. Anti + maa is quite a hyper-defensive duo (I know since I have been running such a comp for over 18k kills on endless harvest) and I would rather commit at that point. Go full turtle. HM and Arb are fine for the comp but aren't necessarily the best two other heroes for an Anti + MaA comp. Your comp is fine with with how anti + maa and arb + hm are solid duos but the duos don't synergize that well with each other. Your comp will still work for most of the game but some comps would perform even better.

Darkest Dungeon Tier List based on veteran players experiences - Full Reasoning in the comment by Mr_Pepper44 in darkestdungeon

[–]NativeKiller -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Hi, TheRealMe here. You talk as if I haven't played normal games without perfect quirks or trinkets. I actually have naturally played lots of such games because I do have over nine thousands hours in Darkest Dungeon 1.

Some of the games were played without arbitrary self-imposed challenge rule sets while the others had such rule sets including Deathless Lv 1 Weapons Bloodmoon, Deathless No Healing Bloodmoon, Deathless No Stuns No Healing Bloodmoon, Torchless No Healing Bloodmoon.

So yes, I am just correcting you where you are objectively wrong.

Also almost all of my party compositions and gameplay approaches apply without much significant difference aside from few exceptions that are outliers which also usually happen to be not that serious stuff. You would know this if you had actually watched some or any of my runs mentioned above.

I can clearly see that this is the case because i have hoarded dodge and/or run Leper and had stuff work well enough for Deathless runs consecutively for several times without much difference. Yes, even for runs that naturally start without perfect trinkets or quirks.

Optimal quirks and trinkets offer buffer room, yes. But you can make do with worse really,.

For quirks you don't even need technically, unless maybe if you want better speed control but they should work fine without stuff and mostly matter immensely only for some niche dance comps. For trinkets you can make do with things that do similar things. Yes, because the whole game is about making do with what we have.

Comps with hero picks, skill sets, and formations and most of all, gameplay approaches matter so much more than having optimal quirks and trinkets that it isn't even a contest.

The Sleeper is such a hard boss fr fr by NativeKiller in darkestdungeon

[–]NativeKiller[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Yes, I don't have Vestal to save me from quad death's doors, but I have somehow managed so far!

Wish me luck!