History VideoGame / DarkestDungeon

* AnimalisticAbomination: The Crocodilian, the result of a crocodile getting infected with the Crimson Curse, serving as a recurring mini-boss for the [=DLC=].

* HolyBurnsEvil: Heroes under the Crimson Curse will be blighted and debuffed if they consume Holy Water.
* HorrorHunger: Heroes affected by the Crimson Curse will thirst for The Blood like they hunger for food. As their cravings mount, they may become increasingly erratic, to the point of potentially attacking their allies. Actually consuming The Blood when craving sends them into "Bloodlust", a temporary affliction-like state unrelated to stress that'll make them act erratically in exchange for a number of buffs.
* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: Played straight. All the aristocrats were human sadists well before the events of the crimson curse started. Its heavily implied the curse itself did nothing to their personalities other than guide their focus.
* LockedDoor: One of the new features exclusive to the Courtyard is that sometimes, the way to the end is locked by an iron gate, whose key you must retrieve in one of the far rooms.
* MarathonLevel: Moreso than every other dungeon, the Courtyard offers the possibility of exploring a level literally made of dozens of corridors and room in order to access the bosses of the level, while most dungeons barely go above twenty rooms. The levels are so vast that the game offers you the opportunity to leave the mission unfinished and return at the exact same spot and in later levels, you can even loot firewood to set up camp multiple times. [[https://darkestdungeon.gamepedia.com/File:Baron_map.png See]] one of such levels for yourself.
* MoneySink: The new Districts feature allows to have new buildings in the Hamlet, which give various positive effects (free food each week, faster stress reduction for idle heroes, permanent buffs for specific classes...). Building them requires a blueprint (you get a free one at week 10; the other ones are dropped by bosses) and ''lots'' of heirlooms. And then there's "The Red Hook", which is totally useless and has an obscenely high cost of 50000 gold and 750 crests.
* MuggingTheMonster: The first cinematic for the [=DLC=] shows a young Ancestor trying to stab one of the ladies partying at his home. But as he approached for the kill, the Countess revealed her monstrous nature. [[spoiler:He actually managed to wound her enough that he could harvest her blood, which he then fed to the Court.]]
* MustBeInvited: Inverted. After you complete the first Courtyard mission, the heroes' access to the Bloodsuckers' lair is forbidden until you obtain an invitation from killing Gatekeepers.
* MysticalPlague: The Crimson Curse has elements of this - upon infection it [[CurseThatCures immediately uproots any other diseases suffered by the victim]], and upon defeating one of the Court's major nobles, it will suddenly vanish from any heroes currently infected with the disease, indicating that it's supernaturally linked to to powerful Curse-born creatures. [[spoiler: Furthermore, it's ''very'' heavily implied by The Crimson Court cinematics that the disease is somehow connected to the [[EldritchAbomination Heart of Darkness]].]]
* NintendoHard: Even more so than the base game — The Crimson Court causes new enemies to be introduced which can spread the Crimson Curse about your party, and the Curse in itself will add another layer of resource management. Its own dungeons are large enough to require several sessions to complete, and the bosses are suitably difficult. When choosing to activate the DLC, the game gives an additional prompt to confirm if you're sure, while also discouraging you from activating it if you're new to the game.
* NonIndicativeDifficulty: Melding the Crimson Court with the Stygian difficulty rules gives Bloodmoon mode, which operates almost exactly like Stygian, except you have a more generous time and death limit to accommodate the Crimson Court. However, because your ultimate goal is still to clear The Darkest Dungeon, you can ignore the Crimson Court entirely to enjoy the easier GameOver conditions. The drawback is that you're settled with a persistent overriding town event that slightly reduces Stress relief from town activities, which is very negligible if you're very good with Stress management.

* OurVampiresAreDifferent: In a clever piece of originality, their AnimalMotif is the mosquito rather than the bat, and they also wear clothes reminiscent of 18th century nobility, including elegant dresses and powdered wigs. They are apparently the end stage of the Crimson Curse, a disease that if untreated will eventually turn the subject into a hybrid of human and insect, but even its early stages induces a vampiric hunger and greater ability if well fed. On another note, it's not just any regular blood that sates the cursed's thirst – it has to be ''The'' Blood, with capital letters, which appears to be a combination of both blood and wine, as it can only be acquired from crates of Winemaker's Reserve, the Sanguine Vintners district, or random loot.

* ShoutOut: The Fanatic's outfit looks like it was ripped straight out of [[{{TabletopGame/Warhammer40000}} both versions]] of ''{{TabletopGame/Warhammer}}''. Specifically, the costume resembles a cross between an Inquisitor and a Warrior Priest. And when his staff is held onto his back, it takes on the appearance of an Iron Halo from ''40,000''.
* SplashOfColor: The Crimson Court cinematics are portrayed in monochrome, the only color being vivid red.
* StealthPun: The nobles are described as being depraved and plagued with vice even before their vampirification; even before the curse, they were blood sucking parasites.
* SwampsAreEvil: The Courtyard has been overtaken by the swamp as time passed, and its wildlife has also been infected by the vampiric curse.

** While the Chipped Tooth is undeniably good for the Flagellant, the Shard of Glass has a questionable reduction in his Bleed resistance and can spell an untimely death if he takes too much bleed at once. The Set bonus of a raised Deathblow resistance can already be provided by the Eternity Collar or Martyr's Seal, which each offer more upsides to boot.
** The Tyrant's Fingerbone for the Jester only kicks in while he's at the forefront of the party, usually to help his survival right before he fires a Finale. The Tyrant's Tasting Cup is comparable to his Bright Tambourine in amplifying his Stress relief skills while ironically increasing the Stress he takes. The set bonus only amplifies his camping skills, so no matter what the Jester is losing out on at least one of the set's perks.

* TheVirus: The "Crimson Curse" acts as one. It has a chance to be contracted when a hero is attacked by a monster of the "Bloodsucker" category and decreases the hero's resistances while slightly increasing their speed and making them immune to any and all diseases (it also does away with any that the Cursed hero might be bearing before). In addition, the Crimson Curse can pass onto other heroes if they are sharing the same Hamlet facility at the same time. If the hero goes too long without drinking The Blood, they will perish, requiring your estate to have a constant supply of The Blood for heroes with the Crimson Curse. Thankfully, it's treatable: defeating a Courtyard boss automatically cures all afflicted, and after defeating the Countess, the Sanitarium develops a method for treating Cursed heroes like they're a normal disease.

* AscendedMeme: Redhook Studios took notice of the "Dankest Dungeon" meme and made a Twitch notification spoken by Wayne June himself in their release day Twitch notification pack for a donation of [[FourTwentyBlazeIt 4 dollars and 20 cents]] in American currency.
* TheAtoner: If [[http://www.darkestdungeon.com/darkest-dungeon-presents-the-highwayman/ the backstory comic]] for the Highwayman is anything to go on, he joined up with you on your mission because of this.

* TheAlcoholic: A hero can become afflicted with the "Dipsomania" or "Tippler" quirks. "Tippler" forces them to only reduce their stress by drinking at the tavern and can be randomly acquired by heroes spending time at the bar. "Dipsomania" can force an interaction with curios that contain anything drinkable. (Yes, the hero is so desperate for a drink that they'll drink from a ''tide pool'' in the vain hope that it might contain alcohol.)

* ArcWords: "Ruin has come to our family." They're the first and last spoken words of the game, firstly as the opening to the Ancestor's letter begging you to return home and right his innumerable wrongs, [[spoiler:and lastly as a grim condemnation that mankind is doomed to a ViciousCycle due to the nature of the Heart as both our progenitor and our inevitable destroyer.]]

** [[WordOfGod A Tweet from one of the game's developers]] states that [[CrystalDragonJesus The Light]] is "Humanity's faith in delusions of their own making."

* DeathIsCheap: Averted! With extreme prejudice! The game even comes with a disclaimer stating “Your heroes will die.” It also does a really good job of keeping your save file updated, so it's extremely difficult to have a ‘redo’ if a character dies. There’s a rare event where a character can spontaneously come back to life in town, but a lot of their stats get reset.

* DownerEnding: "Victory. A hollow and ridiculous notion." If you [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness believe what the ending depicts]], [[spoiler:mankind is naught but an aberrant growth of the flesh of the Heart of Darkness, meaning as long as we exist, it will be free to feed and reform from us forever, until it ultimately "hatches" in earnest, shattering the planet like an egg. Faced with this knowledge, the Heir appears to commit suicide like those before them, taking up a pointless vigil as another ghost trying to turn away the next "heir" from [[EternalRecurrence coming to the Estate to start all this again]]]].

** In the launch trailer, the Ancestor claims that the Heir and their heroes will soon become "a part" of the Darkest Dungeon "as [he has]." [[spoiler:As it turns out, the BigBad ends up using the Ancestor's body as its vessel during the final battle.]]

** The in-game description for the event doesn't help: "... As one man put it, "Somethin' ain't right with them shadows - movin' and twistin' as they do." Residents are advised to stay indoors until daybreak."

** At the end of the tutorial there's a chest clearly labelled "Bandit's Trapped Chest." You can guess what happens when you open it. Thankfully it's at the end of the mission so it doesn't actually matter, and you can also open it safely if the miniboss fought beforehand happens to drop a key.

** There’s some bitter pragmatism in the early game, when the mortality rates are at their highest, to just send random teams into the dungeons, grab loot, escape, and then discard the heroes you don’t plan on paying to heal afterwards. You can easily slide into “traumatized vet production plant.”

* WhamLine: [[spoiler:"The great family of man." Turns out when The Ancestor was talking about how [[ArcWords "ruin has come to our family"]], he was thinking a little bigger...]]
** When you start a game on Stygian, the tent is replaced by a new curio called the "Transcendent Terror." It consists of a ghost with its arm ominously outstretched towards Dismas and Reynauld, as though it's beseeching them to turn back. [[spoiler:As interacting with it reveals, the ghost is warning the heroes that [[StableTimeLoop the horrors of the estate have happened before]] and that [[HereWeGoAgain they're about to happen again...]]]]

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: The Miller asked for help when the harvest came in blighted. Unfortunately, the person he asked for help was the Ancestor, personal motto "[[WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer When All You Have Is Things Man Was Not Meant To Know]]..."

** Generally speaking, diseases don't ever progress or get worse, and they're not contagious.

** The Hellion: A [[BladeOnAStick glaive.]][[note]]Or that's [[MisidentifiedWeapons what the game calls it]] at least.[[/note]]

* AnachronismStew: 14th century crusaders, knights, crossbow archers, and flagellant monks stand shoulder-to-shoulder with 17th century highway robbers and plague doctors, and clothing fashions run the gamut between early medieval to the 18th century. The nature of [[EldritchLocation the Hamlet]] may have something to do with this.

* ShoutOut:
** Shieldbreaker to House Martel in Game of Thrones.
** Many a party nickname can be seen as a veiled reference to something of pop culture if it isn't descriptive of how the party functions. Similarly, backer hero names may involve pop culture references.

* SkillSlotSystem: All heroes have seven potential skills to unlock and upgrade, but only four slots to use them in combat. It allows for some flexibility in strategy when choosing heroes for a expedition.

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: The Miller asked for help when the harvest came in blighted. Unfortunately, the person he asked for help was the Ancestor, personal motto "When All You Have Is Things Man Was Not Meant To Know]]..."

* ExposedEyeballsAsEyes: One of the bosses is a {{Doomsayer}} who kept showing up at the estate's hamlet to turn the population against your ancestor, because the latter was about to unearth [[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow something unspeakable]]. Said ancestor gave him one RasputinianDeath after another, but the doomsayer [[UnexplainedRecovery kept returning]] to rile up the population. The ancestor finally showed him that he wasn't about to unearth the unspeakable thing, but already ''had'' unearthed the portal to summon it. The doomsayer [[GoMadFromTheRevelation Went Mad From The Revelation]], [[EyeScream tore out his own eyes in madness]], and became the prophet of the {{cult}} worshiping the thing. When you get to fight him, he still holds his disembodied eyes in his hand: they are still alive, and he supposedly sees through them. (And, inversely, peering into them stresses out your dungeoneering party for obvious reasons.)

The {{sequel}}, ''VideoGame/DarkestDungeonII'', [[https://www.gameinformer.com/2019/02/19/red-hook-studios-returns-with-darkest-dungeon-ii was announced]] in February 2019.

* ExclusiveEnemyEquipment: Defeating the hardest difficulty of each boss yields a special trinket called a [[https://darkestdungeon.gamepedia.com/Trinkets#Trophies Trophy]] that often comes in the form of something they wore or wielded in battle, with a select few being body parts like the Prophet's Eye. The Madman and Bone Courtier also have their own specific drops revolving around stress defense, with special mention for the latter, since the heroes pilfer his Tempting Goblet wholesale. The Collector also has associated trinkets, though those can sometimes be found in secret rooms. [[BonusBoss The Shrieker]] also has [[https://darkestdungeon.gamepedia.com/Trinkets#Shrieker_Trinkets its own trinkets]], which are simply [[CraftedFromAnimals its own body parts]]. Finally, there is a set of special trinkets associated with the Thing from the Stars.

** Ancestral trinkets are also one-of-a-kind, usually obtained either by completing long Champion-tier dungeons or by defeating a certain BonusBoss. They also confer incredible bonuses, counterbalanced with a slight increase in Stress taken by their user, and can also be sold or lost.

* AntidoteEffect: Because of the InventoryManagementPuzzle and the secondary use of basic supply items to "unlock" curios, ''Darkest Dungeon'' takes the Antidote Effect to new levels. Not only will you wonder, "Might I need this later?", you'll sometimes find that you know for a fact that you ''will'', and you still have to make a hard choice. Are the consequences of discarding a supply item worth the loot that replaces it?

* InventoryManagementPuzzle: You have a limited amount of space for loot in dungeons. Your starting supplies count against this; this can force you to decide between, for instance, leaving behind a valuable treasure or that antidote you were hanging onto just in case (and you can't return for anything you left behind later). Items and treasure do stack, but only to a limited degree.

** Heroes who have finished a mission in the Darkest Dungeon will refuse to enter it again. However, they will not take space on your roster, leaving you with extra space to train up another team without forcing you to delete them.

** Dungeons have three different difficulty levels (1, 3, and 5), which correspond roughly to a difficulty intended to match the stats of a party of the same average level. To avoid the player gaining easy experience, estate items, and money by farming low-level dungeons over and over with an overpowered party, a level 3[=/=]4 hero will refuse to venture inside a level 1 dungeon, and a level 5[=/=]6 hero will only accept entering a level 5 dungeon. This can cause serious problems if the early dungeon bosses are not killed in a reasonable timeframe — if all your heroes are level 3 or above and you don't have any space in your roster, the only way to progress in the game is to dismiss some of your higher-level characters so you can recruit more cannon fodder to try and do it before they too outlevel the boss! The only ways around this are playing on Radiant mode, which allows heroes up to level 4 to enter Apprentice level expeditions and anyone of any level to go on a Veteran level mission, and the Helping Hand town event that completely removes level restrictions for one dungeon foray.

** Level design encourages the player to avoid combat as much as possible and spend very little time in dungeons. A completed quest will always give the same amount of resolve XP regardless of how many enemies the heroes fought, and simply walking around the dungeon causes gradual stress buildup, wears down the torch, and may trigger more hunger checks. The temptation of more loot becomes the remaining factor to convince a player to stay in a dungeon, and there's only so much loot that the player can carry.

** The Brigand Cannon boss summons brigands to fight alongside it and a special "matchman" who will fire the cannon to devastating effect [[ShootTheMageFirst if he's not taken out]] by the end of the round.

*** If [[TooDumbToLive you're particularly stupid]] and [[spoiler:intentionally extinguish your torchlight]], you can encounter [[spoiler:[[ThatOneBoss/DarkestDungeon the Light-damned]] ''[[BonusBoss Shambler]]'']] '''during the tutorial''', [[CurbStompBattle which will almost certainly crush your small, unprepared party]]. [[PressXToDie You have to do this on purpose]], of course, but it certainly shows that death is never more than one bad decision away.

* ExperienceBooster: The Ancestor's Portrait multiplies the experience earned by a hero by 50% at the cost of an increase in stress damage. [[spoiler:Failing a quest in the Darkest Dungeon will cause your next quest to give double Resolve experience. Taking a hero who's completed a quest in the Darkest Dungeon into another expedition will give the rest of the active party a 50% experience boost.]]

* BonusBoss:
** The Shambler, which can normally be fought by using a torch on a randomly-appearing altar which clearly says that bad things are going to happen if you interact with it. The battle is brutal, mainly because it's rather bizarre compared to normal bosses, requiring different tactics for survival, and prone to spiralling out of control if you make any misplays:
*** It ''always'' begins the battle by surprising your party, forcing heroes out of ideal formations and forcing you to waste a turn or two re-positioning them.
*** The Shambler's attacks deal very little damage — but they all target the whole party and afflict them with very high levels of blight, bleed, and stress, which stack very quickly. And thanks to the shuffle, this makes it very difficult to apply party-wide heals.
*** It also summons minions, which start very fragile and weak, but get stronger with each turn. If you decide to ignore them and go after the boss, you'll soon find they're one-shotting your characters, while you can barely scratch them. Leaving them alive also allows it to shuffle your party again, potentially ruining your hard work repositioning them.
** The Shrieker only shows up in its own quest, and is a TimeLimitBoss to boot. [[HoldTheLine Simply surviving long enough until it flees completes the quest]], which either yields your lost Trinkets or some very rare ones, on top of bestowing the combatants with unique quirks. Breaking its nest within the turn limit yields high-value treasures. The only reward for killing the Shrieker is an increased chance at getting its related positive quirks.
** Brigand Vvulf only shows up during the Brigand Incursion mission, in which he acts like a strange hybrid of the Prophet and the Brigand Pounder. Confronting him is completely optional, though he will destroy three of your Hamlet upgrades if you don't at least try the mission, and [[KilledOffForReal killing him ensures he will never re-appear during that playthrough]], whereas the other {{Bonus Boss}}es can be refought.

** If you leave one of the [[spoiler:Iron Crown rooms in the third-to-last mssion, Lighting The Way,]] without using a HandOfGlory quest item on it, you won't be able to get back, and you'll have to retreat from the quest. Given how [[spoiler:retreating from the Darkest Dungeon]] works, it's especially painful.

* BodyArmorAsHitPoints: None of the hero classes have any inherent PROT; heavily armoured classes like Crusader and Leper have more hit points.

The {{sequel}}, ''VideoGame/DarkestDungeon2'', [[https://www.gameinformer.com/2019/02/19/red-hook-studios-returns-with-darkest-dungeon-ii was announced]] in February 2019.

* MarathonLevel:
** The penultimate quest in the Darkest Dungeon is the only level marked "Exhausting". You get ''four'' Firewood for this quest; long ones usually give you two.
** The Crimson Court DLC also has this for boss missions, with maps even bigger than the Darkest Dungeon mission noted above. However, unlike all other missions in the game, you aren't actually intended to finish the dungeon in a single attempt. Progress is saved between runs, but if you are forced to retreat without beating the boss you will have to get another invitation item to continue the mission.

** With the release of the [[http://www.darkestdungeon.com/darkest-dungeon-presents-the-highwayman/ backstory comic]] for the Highwayman, he's not only this, but TheAtoner as well due to [[spoiler:accidentally murdering a woman and her son during a robbery who may well have been the Crusader's wife and child]]. It is shown in the other comics that several other characters have done unsavory things in their pasts as well: no one comes to the Hamlet a saint.

* Catch22Dilemma:
** It's possible to get the "Gambler" quirk (will only gamble to relieve stress) and the "Known Cheat" quirk (not allowed to gamble). If you're really unlucky, it can happen to Dismas, who starts with the "Known Cheat" quirk, immediately after you finish the introductory "Old Road" quest.

* MeaningfulName: One of the two starting characters is a Highwayman named Dismas. This is the traditional name of the "Penitent Thief" from [[UsefulNotes/{{Christianity}} Christian]] church tradition who was crucified alongside Jesus. The other character is a crusader named Reynauld — this is most likely a reference to Raynald of Châtillon, a controversial crusader knight who was eventually executed by Saladin himself.
** With the introduction of the Highwayman's backstory comic, this takes an additional level of meaning, as he really is seeking redemption after one of his stagecoach robberies accidentally ends the life of a young boy and his mother, who are heavily hinted at being ''his own family''.
** Reynauld having the Kleptomania quirk is likely a reference to Raynald's habit of pillaging Saladin's supply caravans before the Third Crusade.

* [[NotUsingTheZWord Not Using the "V" Word]]: It's pretty clear that those infected by The Blood are vampires, but instead the game refers to them as "bloodsuckers".

For tropes related to Marvin Seo's custom classes and other mods, [[VideoGame/TheSunkenCityCollection see this page]].

For tropes related to the total conversion overhaul, the ''Black Reliquary'', [[VideoGame/BlackReliquary see this page]].

* MeaningfulName: One of the two starting characters is a Highwayman named Dismas. This is the traditional name of the "Penitent Thief" from [[UsefulNotes/{{Christianity}} Christian]] church tradition who was crucified alongside Jesus. The other character is a crusader named Reynauld — this is most likely a reference to Raynald of Châtillon, a controversial crusader knight who was eventually executed by Saladin himself. The fact that both historical characters met untimely ends is of course [[BlatantLies purely coincidental…]]

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome:
** What kind of people volunteer to explore dangerous, desecrated places? Glory seekers and fortune hunters that are not-quite-right at best, and ruthless nutcases at worst. At any rate, definitely not the well-adjusted average individual.
** Not everyone gets to be a 'legendary hero.' The mortality rate is incredibly high. At the lower levels, it's much easier to replace a broken hero than fix them. If one does manage to live long enough to become what would constitute a ‘living legend’ in another story, it's still easily possible for them to die, or barely limp their way to victory.
** It turns out GallowsHumor is a bit of a hit and miss way of getting people under extreme pressure to relax. Sometimes it works, as dark humor can help some people take the edge off things, but other people ''[[DudeNotFunny really don't need to hear that]]''. It doesn't help that the joke being told looks like it hits a little too close to home, being about adventurers dying.
** Getting your heroes drunk is a great stress reliever… except when you have to deal with the AlcoholInducedIdiocy and hangovers afterward.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: The game is a pointed deconstruction of the DungeonCrawler genre.

** Not everyone gets to be a ‘legendary hero.’ The mortality rate is incredibly high. At the lower levels, it's much easier to replace a broken hero than fix them. If one does manage to live long enough to become what would constitute a ‘living legend’ in another story, it's still easily possible for them to die, or barely limp their way to victory.
** Getting badly hurt in frantic combat is ''highly'' stressful and wears down on morale, eventually leading to SanitySlippage (or a possible HeroicSecondWind) that actively affects combat effectiveness. Not to mention that party members undergoing SanitySlippage are likely to stress their comrades out as well…
** Curiously, one for Lovecraftian tales as well, where the unfortunate souls go mad, and that is the end of it. While debilitating, insanity is not the end, and even if they snap under the pressure and horrors and lose their minds, they can get them back if they're cared for correctly. They'll still be affected, but they'll still be functional.

** The Fiends & Frenzy update added an extra dose of reality: if your adventurers' stress levels keep increasing beyond the SanitySlippage stage, eventually they will just keel over dead from a heart attack (unless you disable the option).
*** The Inhuman Bondage update altered this mechanic, so that heart attacks merely reduce heroes to 0 hp and impose a more punishing version of the Death's Door recovery penalty; heroes already at Death's Door, however, will straight-up die with a heart attack.
** Poking around fixtures in abandoned ruins and warrens is actually a dangerous idea; you are just as likely to have disaster strike as you are to get rich.
** The Corpse and Hound update added ''even more'' Reality Ensuing: if you don't treat a quirk in time, it becomes "permanent", which is a lot more expensive to remove. Enemies also now leave corpses, which allows them to retain formation until they are cleared (unless you disable corpses in the options).

** Heroes that acquire a [[HeroicSpirit positive affliction]] have a tendency to make them, sometimes even inspiring the other party members and giving them a buff.