Stress is a critical gameplay mechanic inDarkest Dungeon 2that tests the mental fortitude of heroes as they face off against all sorts of horrors on their treacherous travels. High levels of stress can break heroes' resolve and reduce their combat effectiveness, making it essential for players to master stress relief if they want tobeat Death inDarkest Dungeon 2.
From learning how to reduce stress during expeditions to equipping the best stress heals and items, the following tips ensure that players have an excellent understanding of keeping their party members sane and healthy. Prepare a torch. The road to the Mountain lies just ahead.
The Only Sustainable Way to Survive
The first key tip to remember when playingDarkest Dungeon 2is to prioritize stress management over healing. Constantly trying to heal heroes is not a winnable strategy, especially when facing tough enemies on higher-difficulty chapters.
Unlike inDarkest Dungeon 1, healing health is more manageable in the sequel. However,maxing out stress can lead to Meltdownsthat significantly reduce a hero’s health andimpose negative quirks, making it much harder to recover. Keeping stress in check is far more crucial to survival.
9Eliminate Stress Dealers
Take Down Key Threats to Regain Control
Some enemies inDarkest Dungeon 2primarily focus on inflicting massive stress rather than physical damage. Ignoring them can be costly because they keep stacking stress damage on heroes (or the entire party with Horror) every round. This can quickly spiral out of control, forcing heroes to have Meltdowns.
Hence,stun or disable stress-inducing enemieslike Ghouls, Drummers, Cherubs, and Deacons in the first round to stop them from applying stress. Do not worry too much about taking physical damage from other enemies. Use front-line heroes ortanks like Man-at-Armsor Leper to taunt and mitigate damage while the damage dealers eliminate stress dealers.
Taunts are overpowered!Always have a tanky hero on the first rank who can taunt enemies.
8Land Crits to Heal Stress
Restore Composure and Boost Morale
In addition to dealing massive damage, critical attacks heal small amounts of stress inDarkest Dungeon 2. Heroes like Highwayman, Duelist, and Hellion have a good chance of stress-healing themselves multiple times during a fight. Hence, when building damage dealers,prioritize upgrades or items that increase their critical hit chance.
7Choose the Least Stressful Paths and Choices
Check What the Heroes Prefer
Whenever the Stagecoach reaches a crossroads, carefully evaluate the available routes and choose the path that the majority of heroes prefer. This will not always be unanimous. Check the speech bubbles over the heroes to see their preferred path. Taking a route ahero likes or dislikeswill cause them to take or heal stress damage. That said, players shouldavoid dangerous routesif their heroes are suffering from high stress.
Scout ahead to find an Oasis inDarkest Dungeon 2. These node locations contain a rejuvenating fountain that heals 5 stress points from a hero and also rewards Minderal-Rich Spring Water that heals both physical and stress damage.
Additionally, when given dialogue choices after reaching specific locations such as creature dens, refrain from choosing the ones that induce stress points.
6Visit Field Hospitals to Remove Negative Quirks
Remove Negatives, Lock in Positives
Field Hospitals are rare location nodes that restore health, cure diseases, sell healing items, and importantly, manage quirks. They are the only places where players can lock in orremove quirks inDarkest Dungeon 2.
While most negative quirks can be ignored, some like Boisterous, Cowardice, Needler, Pacifist, and Hemophobia can make stress relief pretty difficult. Hence, remove them from Field Hospitals provided that players have enough relics to spare.
Field Hospitals can be expensive. Focus only on removing negative quirks that hurt relationships or force heroes to take stress damage.
5Bring Stress-Healing Combat Items
For Critical Stress Heals
Heroes canloot and purchase combat itemsfor various effects, including stress heals and stress resistance.Laudanum is the best consumablein this regard, removing Horror and reducing 1 stress point from an ally. It is typically useful against tough enemies or bosses that continuously inflict Horror. It also allows stress healers to use their other skills instead of being bound to giving stress relief in every round.
4Equip Stress-Resistant Trinkets
Boost Resilience With Shiny Ornaments
There are a few trinkets that grant stress resistance or stress heals. While not thebest trinkets to have inDarkest Dungeon 2, they can be useful if players are running heroes without major stress-reducing skills.
Found randomly.
Skeleton’s Sight
-2 Stress if the hero is afflicted by bleed, blight, or burn.
3Have the Best Stress Healers
Easiest Way to Deal With Stress
The Jester is the best stress-healing hero inDarkest Dungeon 2. While a bit difficult to play for beginners, agood Jester buildtypically follows theVirtuoso hero path with Inspiring Tune. The former increases stress resistance for the entire party at the start of each round, and the latter removes Horror while reducing three stress points for any hero.
However, the Jester is not the only one with strong stress-healing skills. Several other heroes also have powerful skills to keep them or the party from losing their sanity.
2Gain Positive Relationships at the Inn
Foster Bonds to Unlock Powerful Synergies
Focus on buying Inn items thatimprove relationships between heroesinstead of improving their combat capabilities. This is one of the easiest ways to gain stress relief. Heroes with positive relationships inDarkest Dungeon 2are less likely to cause stress to each other by bickering on the road. They also remove more stress points from each other during combat.
The Orphan Wolf Cub is the first and one of thebest Pets inDarkest Dungeon 2to deal with stress. It increases positive relationship chances and stress resistance.
Whiskey Bottles and Barrels are excellent Inn items to reduce stress for multiple heroes while improving their relationship. Other Inn items to consider for drastically reducing stress include Poetry, Whittling Tools, Meditative Totem, and Roast Pig.
1Do Not Get Hit!
Avoid Damage at All Cost
Each hit taken from an enemy carries a significant chance of causing minor stress damage. The more stress points heroes stack, the higher the chance of taking more stress damage with the next hit. Hence, avoid taking damage inDarkest Dungeon 2, or try tominimize taking damage or subsequent hits. Utilizing tanks to draw enemy attacks through taunts can help mitigate the impact.
