History Characters / AmidEvil

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[[caption-width-right:200:A Spitter]]
[[quoteright:200:[[labelnote:Click here to see them in the first ''Darkest Dungeon'']]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/spi.png]][[/labelnote]]
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[[caption-width-right:200:A Webber]]
[[quoteright:200:[[labelnote:Click here to see them in the first ''Darkest Dungeon'']]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screenshot_2023_06_10_at_01_06_27_webber.png]][[/labelnote]]

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[[WMG:Pelagic Grouper]]

[[WMG:Pelagic Shaman]]

[[WMG:Pelagic Guardian]]

[[WMG:Ucas]]

[[WMG:Sea Maggot]]

[[WMG:Deep Stinger]]

[[WMG:Drowned Thrall]]

[[WMG:Squiffy Ghast]]

[[WMG:Ascended Brawler]]

[[WMG:Ascended Witch]]

[[WMG:Rapturous Cultist]]

[[WMG:Cultist Priest]]

[[WMG:Malignant Growth and Defensive Growth]]

[[WMG:Templar Warlord and Impaler]]

[[WMG:Flesh Hound]]

[[WMG:Polyp]]

[[WMG:Antibody]]
Stationary stalks sprouting from the walls of the Darkest Dungeon, functioning as a self-defense mechanism. Often paired with Flesh Hounds and Polyps, Antibodies are more annoyances than threats, only capable of spouting Stunning Secretions.

* MeaningfulName: Like real-life antibodies, they form part of a biological self-defense mechanism.
* PaletteSwap: Highly similar to the White Cell Stalk, shown below.

[[WMG:Mammoth Cyst and White Cell Stalk]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/teleports_you_away_heh_nothin_personelkid.png]]
Flesh walls that are scattered across the hallways in the belly of the Darkest Dungeon. These minibosses can be encountered at any time to block your progress to the center of the dungeon until they're dealt with. Their main source of danger comes from the unique enemy they can summon, though; the White Cell Stalk, who aids the Cyst by healing it and displacing heroes. Most importantly, though, it can Teleport the party into a random room in the Dungeon.
----

** The White Cell Stalk will never use Teleport the first turn to avoid possibly every encounter immediately opening up with a teleport. Instead, the chances for the move to be used gradually increases with every turn before the inevitable happens, if they're not killed.
** Teleporting will not reset the White Cell Stalk's health; if they were almost dead, they'll still be almost dead upon return.
* BossInMookClothing: There are multiple Mammoth Cysts in the dungeon, yet they're built like boss battles in each and every encounter.
* BigGuyLittleGuy: For a loose definition of 'guys', but the Mammoth Cyst takes up 3 spaces while their support Cell Stalk takes up only one.
* EnemySummoner: The Mammoth Cyst will summon new White Cell Stalks as they're killed, who support the Mammoth with healing when they're not teleporting your party away.
* {{Expy}}: Visually very similar to the beholders from ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', they can even attack your party by gazing at them with their large central eye.
* MeaningfulName: The White Cell Stalk acts like a real White Blood Cell in a body, venting and wiping out intruders to protect the body. In this case, the party is that has to get past the White Cells to find and kill what came from the portal.
* MightyGlacier: As well as hitting like a truck, Mammoth Cyst sports a hefty protection stat that it can buff. Both it and White Cell Stalk can heal
* RandomTransportation: The White Cell Stalk's specialty, where it'll teleport the party into a random room in the largest dungeon in the game.
* ShootTheMageFirst: The White Cell Stalk should be killed as soon as possible, as it will teleport the party to a random location otherwise..
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Demons Of The Void]]
[[quoteright:284:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/e7logo.png]]
[[caption-width-right:284:"These demons inhabit the strange and twisted dimension of evil."]]
When the Ancestor finally managed to dig up the HellGate under his manor, he was horrified and DrivenToSuicide from the cosmic entity he unleashed. Others, though, saw this creature as a deity that’s to be worshiped and protected. Now devoted Cultists patrol around the estate, making a pilgrimage to join their much more powerful brothers and sisters in the manor. There, they give their lives to protect their God and its spawn of fleshy monstrosities.
----
* AntiFrustrationFeatures:

[[WMG:Fungal Scratcher]]

[[WMG:Fungal Artillery]]

[[WMG:Unclean Giant]]

[[WMG:Crones]]

[[WMG:Rabid Gnasher]]

[[WMG:Ectoplasm & Large Ectoplasm]]

[[WMG:Hateful Virago]]

[[WMG:Swine Chopper]]

[[WMG:Swine Drummer]]

[[WMG:Swine Wretch]]

[[WMG:Swine Slasher]]

[[WMG:Swinetaur]]

[[WMG:Carrion Eater]]
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[[quoteright:159:[[labelnote:Click here to see them in the first ''Darkest Dungeon'']]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/carrion_5.png]][[/labelnote]]
The Carrion Eaters were originally a meek, smaller scavenging species that lived in the Warrens. When The Swine occupied their home and started to leave a much more generous amount of scraps for them to eat and thrive off, they started to grow bigger and more predatory. Now The Swine has domesticated them into fighting alongside them, a partnership where both species get a share of the prey.

Following the introduction of the Crimson Court, they can now also be found in The Courtyard.

In ''VideoGame/DarkestDungeonII'', they are primarily found in Creature Dens, though they can sometimes be found alongside the Swine in the Sluice.

* AttackAnimal: Are these for The Swine, helping them spread blight and disease to any intruders.
* BigCreepyCrawlies: A very large lamprey with large, sharper teeth and capable of surviving on land.
* BigEater: In ''II'' they are capable of sucking down entire corpses in an instant.
* EvolutionPowerup: If a Carrion Eater eats a corpse, it will quickly transform into the larger and tougher [[Characters/DarkestDungeonIIMonsters Carrion Devourer]].
* TheGoomba: Are rarely expected to grant any problems on their own thanks to their average speed and modest health, though their blight damage and ability to single out a marked target when working with their Swine masters comes into play when it's time to attract your attention.
* LampreyMouth: Ring of teeth inside, bordered by a a much larger set of fangs that stick out, capable of secreting blight.
* TookALevelInBadass: Their transition from a small scavenging species to a predatory attack animal would be considered this.

[[WMG:Large Carrion Eater]]
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Carrion Eaters thrive off of eating the deceased, so when their Swine masters die, it's only natural for them to capitalize on the opportunity for more meals. The Swine, though, no matter how many generations down they go, are still the products of demonic blood ritual summons, meaning their flesh is possessed with eldritch things from the unknown. As a result, the Carrion Eaters that have a wholesome meal on the Swine will grow into something much bigger and more horrifying.

Following the introduction of the Crimson Court, it can now also be found in The Courtyard.

* BodyHorror: One for the Carrion Eaters, who have turned into something completely unnatural and tentacle-ridden.
* CombatTentacles: The tentacles surrounding their jaw are there to snare prey, as in your heroes, and weaken their ability to fight back with massive debuffs to their damage output and accuracy.
* CombinationAttack: Large Carrion Eaters are usually accompanied by their smaller, regular Carrion Eater brethren, who join in the effort to focus a single target down after the Large Carrion Eater has both marked them and hindered their ability to fight back as effectively.
* EyesDoNotBelongThere: They've grown eyes all along the ends of their heads, but also around the base of their NestedMouths, which reveal themselves when they decide to start feeding.
* NestedMouths: What they primarily use to attack your heroes with, a hidden bloodied jaw that'll try to take a huge bite out of their victims.
* SequelNonEntity: Despite being the large versions of Carrion Eaters, which do appear in ''VideoGame/DarkestDungeonII'', Large Carrion Eaters are instead swapped out with [[Characters/DarkestDungeonIIMonsters Carrion Devourers]], which metamorphosize out of Carrion Eaters.
* SmashMook: Compared to normal Carrion Eaters, Large Carrion Eaters are capable of reducing hero health bars to dust with a single Tentacle Devour. Their whole thing is softening up your party with Weaken Prey and then obliterating them, while letting their smaller allies finish them off.


[[WMG:Swine Skiver]]
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[[quoteright:250:[[labelnote:Click here to see it in the first ''Darkest Dungeon'']]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/skiver.png]][[/labelnote]]
The Swine Skiver is the result of The Swine taking the time to acknowledge their slow, lumbering nature when it comes to chasing down intruders. To alleviate this, they've breed and trained members of their kind into mastering the art of the javelin, and how they can be used to cripple their prey from a distance. Experts of impaling targets and fond of tipping their weapons with poison, they're ready to end conflicts with just the throw of a javelin.

* FullBoarAction: Rather than looking like a farm pig crossed with a human like most of the other Swine, the Skivers resemble bipedal boars with their tusks and hairy bodies.
* HeroKiller: One of the deadliest enemies in the game: fast yet durable, with highly accurate, high damage attacks that hit multiple ranks at a time, inflicting crippling debuffs. Their only weakness is that their mediocre front row attack, which nevertheless helps them relocate.
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: Are very fond of their javelins, and are capable of doing huge amounts of damage with them.
* JavelinThrower: What they were born for.
* LightningBruiser: A stark contrast to their Swine brethren, the Skivers are sturdy, capable of outpacing a good portion of your roster, and can deal horrendous amounts of damage in the process.
* LongRangeFighter: Their best move, a multiple target attack called Cripple Them, is exclusive to their back rows. Unlike other long-range fighters in the game, though, they'll actually move forward every few turns to use Spit To Roast, a single-target attack that deals a massive amount of damage before moving back to the back rows.
* NonIndicativeName: A skiver is British slang for a person who avoids work or personal responsibility. Needless to say, Swine Skivers are the ''opposite'' of lazy or irresponsible and are probably the hardest workers in the Warrens and Sluice concerning the business of killing your heroes.
* PoisonedWeapons: The tips of their javelins have been tipped with poison, meaning they can blight 3 heroes at once.
* RainOfArrows: The attack animation for Cripple Them is a flurry of javelins landing on the heroes. True to the move's name, the attack hinders the heroes ability to outpace the Swine and their ability to dodge.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Foes Of The Forges]]
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[[caption-width-right:284:"The Forges are inhabitated by living machines created by their long lost creators. They still go about their business maintaining the dark machinery of the Forges. Yet now the Evil Force has corrupted The Forgemaster who has created new, bizzare machines."]]
The Ancestor once used the Cove as a means to deliver some of his more controversial artifacts, as well as a location to perform his pacts with the ancient beings in the water when money was scarce. The ancient Pelagics that lived there were roused by the activity around their home, making it a habit to sink and kill any sailors that come near their domain, making them a threat to the marine shipments of provisions that the Hamlet relies on.

* AchillesHeel:
** Occultists have several skills and trinkets which make them a lot more effective against Eldritch enemies.
** While the fish folk are resistant to bleed, they're vulnerable to blight, so a Plague Doctor or Shieldbreaker can work their magic, especially against the heavily-armored enemies.
** Almost all of the Grave Robbers abilities help her fight against the fishmen, and her high dodge attribute takes advantage of their generally lower-than-average accuracy.
* {{Expy}}: Of the Deep Ones from ''Literature/TheShadowOverInnsmouth''. This would make the Ancestor into an analogue of Obed Marsh, since he dealt with the Pelagics for treasure. Of course, the Ancestor didn't willingly copulate with them in order to consolidate power over his coastal hamlet, choosing instead to exchange a young girl to them which they used as their [[MarsNeedsWomen breeding slave]].
* FishPeople: They come in two variations, from piranha-like swordsmen and shaman to shield-bearing Cephalopods. The odd members out are the Ucas, who are {{Giant Enemy Crab}}s.
* HellIsThatNoise: Let the torchlight fall too low, and the gurgling of the very agitated Pelagic society will replace the ambiance.
* HumanSacrifice: If sailors and trespassers aren't killed on the spot, they're captured and sacrificed for the Pelagics' own purposes.
* TheRuntAtTheEnd: They are the one enemy faction that the Ancestor's narration doesn't describe as being created or summoned by him. They were already there, and he engaged in less-than-ethical business transactions with them. The only reason the game gives for why you're fighting them is a brief mention that the territorial jerks are sinking merchant ships trying to bring the hamlet much-needed supplies.
* SeaMonster: Various tentacled beasts reside in The Cove, ranging from man-sized trappers residing under the water to leviathans dragging down sea craft. Thankfully, [[AttackOfTheMonsterAppendage you'll only ever see the tentacles of a smaller monster trapping your heroes in the hallways for a moment to give them a long-lasting and serious debuff.]]
* TerrestrialSeaLife: The Pelagic and the sea creatures trailing are this, minus the [[GiantEnemyCrab Ucas]], who have the justification of being crabs.
* WasOnceAMan: According to some notes left behind by a previous expedition, one of the members was attacked by a sea creature and slowly turned into one of the Pelagic horrors overnight, which suggests that some of the Groupers were once human.

[[WMG:Pelagic Grouper]]
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These green FishPeople act as the Pelagics' soldiers; armed with a sword in one hand and a harpoon ready to be drawn, they're The Cove's most versatile fighters.

* BoringButPractical: One of the more dangerous enemy formations in The Cove isn't a balanced team of supports, defenders, and attackers, but instead a 4-fish party of Groupers capable of attacking from any position for a considerable amount of damage.
* JavelinThrower: If they're not slicing up your front rows with their swords, they'll be throwing harpoons and [[YouWillNotEvadeMe dragging your back row heroes forward]].
* JackOfAllStats: The Groupers have a mixture of stats that allow them to do well in any composition you'll find. They're not damage sponges like the Guardians, but they're definitely not frail. They're not as fast as a Deep Stinger, but they aren't slow. Their main show is that they will always deal damage compared to the others' status debuffs, stress attacks, and damage-over-time abilities.
* PiranhaProblem: They're bipedal piranhas, who are just as ravenous and capable of [[MeaningfulName grouping]] up in packs to tear up intruders as their Hollywood counterparts.
* YouWillNotEvadeMe: An effect that the move Spearfishing can have, as in they'll pull a hero in the back of the party towards the front and disrupt the synergy or pull them in range of their stronger Seaward Slash.

[[WMG:Pelagic Shaman]]
[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shaman_7.png]]
The spiritual leaders for the Pelagics, they perform the human sacrifices and deep-sea rituals for their kin. In battle, they'll use their magic to terrorize intruders, heal and augment their allies' combat capabilities, and if the need arises, [[EmergencyWeapon stab an intruder]] that's gotten too close for comfort.

* BlackMagic: What they'll be using for their benefit and your suffering.
* EmergencyWeapon: If they find themselves in the front rows of the formation, they'll use their sacrificial knives for a Ceremonial Cut.
* PiranhaProblem: Like the Groupers, they're piranhas that have gone upright, and are extremely vicious and territorial over their salty homes.
* SanitySlippage: They're capable of making your heroes experience this with the move Stress Wave.
* ShootTheMageFirst: They have massive utility for the Pelagics with their magic, making them high priority targets in any fight. Also, unlike most other enemy supports in the game, [[ShootTheMedicFirst they're actually capable of healing.]]
* SquishyWizard: As usual, they can employ magic to their side's benefit but have low health.
* SupportPartyMember: Most of their abilities are designed to help their allies directly.
* WitchDoctor: Resembles one, though with an undersea theme.

[[WMG:Pelagic Guardian]]
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The protectors for the Pelagics, these octopus-like creatures will make their priority to guard their allies with their shields so that they can decimate the intruders in safety.

* AchillesHeel: Like all high-protection characters, DamageOverTime is great for ignoring their protection in favor of stacking damage. Blight in particular works well since they're fairly resistant to bleeding.
* LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe: Capable of guarding an ally and themselves for a great damage reduction.
* RedEyesTakeWarning: Has blood-red eyes, though they're serving for the slightly more noble role of protecting their allies.
* StoneWall: Like the Bone Defender, they make up for their lack in damage and speed with a huge shield capable of giving considerable protection through a move called Barnacle Barrier to both themselves and an ally.
* TentacledTerror: They're hostile octopuses standing upright.

[[WMG:Ucas]]
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/uca_9.png]]
Among the society of the Pelagics are the Ucas, a race of gigantic crabs who adorn themselves with the pieces of shipwrecks. In battle, they trade their direct damage capabilities for a more defensive approach, preferring to play a long waiting game filled with stunning blows so their enemies can bleed themselves out while they desperately try to damage their sturdy shells.

* AchillesHeel: Their shells ensures some of the best protection in The Cove, but they can't protect themselves from DamageOverTime. A team that can stack blight damage on an Uca has little to worry about while they watch its health bar drain for potentially 20 damage every turn.
* ArcSymbol: The broken ship's wheel they wear around their necks takes the form of the stress symbol.
* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: Weaker Ucas come in red, while tougher Ucas come in a blue/purple tint.
* DamageOverTime: The Ucas specialty. The move Arterial Pinch will have them pinch a hero and inflict 10 bleed damage every turn, [[OhCrap which can stack if they feel like targeting a specific hero.]]
* GiantEnemyCrab: ''Darkest Dungeon's'' brand of crab enemy.
* MightyGlacier: Big, slow, and tough. However, unlike other examples, they favor [[DamageOverTime a terrifying amount of bleed damage per attack]].
* WoundThatWillNotHeal: Inflicts a debuff that reduces the effectiveness of healing, making it more difficult to recover from or mitigate bleeding.

[[WMG:Sea Maggot]]
[[quoteright:187:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/maggot_8.png]]
Either the society where the Pelagics come from has different creatures from our own, or the sea life around The Cove has taken a more eldritch form as a result of the corruption. The Sea Maggot exists to absorb damage while spitting out slime at the heroes to issue speed and dodge-lowering debuffs with a chance of a debilitating disease.

* AchillesHeel: They have the highest protection level of any enemy in the game but no more than 10 hitpoints in their strongest incarnation. This makes them disproportionately vulnerable to an ArmorPiercingAttack as well as damage-over-time, which will usually get them in no more than two turns. This is not helped by their very slow speed.
* NonIndicativeName: Sea Maggots are giant sea snails.
* ScratchDamage: Don't be surprised to see attacks dealt to it deal 1 damage at most, though this is mitigated by their low HP.
* StoneWall: A ridiculous amount of protection thanks to their shell, but unlike other Stone Walls, they lack the HP to make the best use out of it.

[[WMG:Deep Stinger]]
[[quoteright:128:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/stinger_6.png]]
Floating, giant jellyfish that roam around The Cove, they attack and immobilize their prey with paralyzing stings and then drain them of their blood with spiked appendages.

* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: Tougher Stingers will be colored differently, with green and blue being weaker than their violet counterparts.
* CombatTentacles: Inevitable since they're massive jellyfish, though they hold a spike in the tips of their tentacles to give a surprise to prey.
* ElectricJellyfish: Though their main damage comes from retractable spikes that bleed targets out, their other attack, Shocker, is also there to administer a stunning shock to targets.
* FragileSpeedster: Boasts a high speed and dodge chance to compliment their role of stunning heroes and bleeding them out for their allies, but tend to be easy to take out.

[[WMG:Drowned Thrall]]
[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thrall.png]]
Sailors and adventurers that die in The Cove risk being reanimated by the Pelagics to serve as another soldier for their wicked goals. These particular victims were drowned in the ocean, and then revived mid-decomposition. They walk among their fish allies, ready to detonate themselves in one gory burst over any intruders.

* ActionBomb: They'll always use the move The Revenge on their second turn, exploding all over your party for a huge amount of damage and stress.
* BodyHorror: Whatever the Pelagics have done to these corpses, it has turned them into shambling, bloated, exploding horrors. Close examination during their attack animations shows that their ribcages have been pushed down into their stomachs and are visible through large, gaping holes in their sides.
* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: The more dangerous Thralls tend to be shaded blue and purple, over their less sturdy green-shaded relatives.
* DeadWeight: While probably not overweight in their time while alive, time spent decomposing in the water has made them big and bloated.
* GlassCannon: They have very little-to-no protection to their HP, which means that getting rid of them is an easy sword swing or two away. They also explode and deal massive damage if they aren't taken care of for whatever reason.
* OurZombiesAreDifferent: A drowned corpse reanimated through the fish-men's magic to serve them.

[[WMG:Squiffy Ghast]]
[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/squiffy.png]]
A new enemy added in the Radiant Update, the Squiffy Ghast is a ghostly being cursed with undeath, similar to the Drowned Crew. In the deepest and darkest parts of The Cove, the Ghast wanders around the caverns, constantly playing its fiddle accompanied by a limitless liquor supply. Any adventurer who encounters the Ghast risks being driven to insanity by hearing its cursed music, and it's said that those who dance to its tune [[InvoluntaryDance are doomed to dancing with it forever.]]

* TheBard: They have no offensive ability, but their drunken music is fully capable of stacking a horrifying amount of stress damage to heroes.
* BrownNote: The music they play is this in its entirety.
* ChillOfUndeath: Their breath lets out a blue, ghostly cold air.
* DreadfulMusician: Dreadful enough [[BrownNote to induce insanity and heart attacks]], but also the names of their moves implies that they're playing rather poorly.
* EvilCounterpart: To the Jester. Both have extremely high mobility, play stringed instruments and spend much time changing the party's stress levels. As if to recognize this, there's an achievement called "[[Film/ThisIsSpinalTap Mine Goes To 11]]" for killing a Squiffy Ghast with a Jester attack. It's even written into the game's code: If there is a Jester in the party and the Ghast uses Maddening Shanty, it is guaranteed to target the Jester. This is the ''only'' attack in the game programmed to target a specific class.
* GhostPirate: Of the shanty music-playing variety.
* GlowingEyelightsOfUndeath: Like the Drowned Crew, their eyes are missing in favor of a blue light coming from their sockets.
* ShootTheMageFirst: The Squiffy Ghast should be killed first as it can inflict stress and the Horror status effect.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Beings Of The Expanse]]
[[quoteright:284:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/e6logo.png]]
[[caption-width-right:284:"The Evil Force found its way into the Arcane Expanse due to the mages meddling with dimensional experiments. The Archmage of Chaos was so corrupted he exchanged his soul to summon two deadly beings of the Void."]]
When the Ancestor finally managed to dig up the HellGate under his manor, he was horrified and DrivenToSuicide from the cosmic entity he unleashed. Others, though, saw this creature as a deity that’s to be worshiped and protected. Now devoted Cultists patrol around the estate, making a pilgrimage to join their much more powerful brothers and sisters in the manor. There, they give their lives to protect their God and its spawn of fleshy monstrosities.

* AntiFrustrationFeatures:
** In the Darkest Dungeon, Enemies will never perform a nighttime ambush on camping heroes, meaning that camping in the Darkest Dungeon is risk-free of waking up to a mob of enemies surprising the party.
** Hunger checks are much less frequent than in other dungeons, meaning more food is available for camps.
** The Darkest Dungeon has scripted encounters in both hallways and rooms. This means that someone can memorize the spots where they encountered trouble and what kind of enemies populate those locations and build their team accordingly if they were wiped out the first time.
** The third Darkest Dungeon is the largest in the whole game and is the only dungeon classified as Exhausting. Four campfires are given for this dungeon.
* BodyHorror: The Cultists who patrol the halls of their temple are not quite human anymore. The Cultist Priests aren't even classified as Humans anymore, but as Beast and Eldritch.
* DamageOverTime: The enemies here adore inflicting heavy bleed damage, with ''6'' being the average amount inflicted for most attacks.
* DemonicSpiders: A whole dungeon filled with them, done intentionally to drive the point home that this is TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon.
* EldritchAbomination: The Cultists that pestered your party in the regular dungeons are now this. Other hellish non-human creatures can also be found in the deeper parts of the Dungeon.
* EyesDoNotBelongThere: Most of the creatures have multiple, smaller black eyes scattered across their bodies.
* LovecraftianSuperpower: People who give themselves to protecting and worshiping whatever came from the portal are rewarded with grotesque new forms and terrifying powers.
* MoneySpider: Averted. Unlike the usual twisted wildlife in the other dungeons, the encounters in the Darkest Dungeon, barring the Shuffling Horror, yield no loot on defeat.
* TookALevelInBadass: Those Cultists that liked to annoy your party with their bleed and stress damage? Their Ascended siblings are far more terrifying with their much more potent movesets.

[[WMG:Ascended Brawler]]
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/brawler.png]]
A Cultist Brawler who was rewarded with a powerful new form for his loyalty by his eldritch god. Their attacks are identical to the regular Brawlers that can be found in any dungeon, save for the fact that they've been given new names and were given a huge power boost to fit in with the difficulty of the Darkest Dungeon. In battle, they'll inflict heavy bleeding with a swipe of their claws, specifically targeting any hero marked by their Witch allies.

* ArcSymbol: The symbol of their god is their headdress.
* BodyHorror: Their bodies have been augmented with a fleshy profusion that forms into a serrated scythe appendage when they attack.
* CombinationAttack: The move Rend For The New God has a good chance to inflict a +20% stress damage debuff on targets, a great opening attack to compliment their Witch allies' Fate's Reveal, a sanity-draining attack.
* LightningBruiser: Is packed with a passable speed stat, good HP, and a dangerous ability to cause heavy bleeding for your party so as long as they're on the front rows.

[[WMG:Ascended Witch]]
[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/witch_9.png]]
A Cultist Acolyte who was rewarded with a powerful new form for her loyalty by her eldritch god, like the Ascended Brawler. Also like the Ascended Brawler, their attacks have been powered up and renamed to fit with the difficulty of the Darkest Dungeon. In battle, they prioritize in driving party members to insanity, preferring to target the heroes who have taken more stress damage than the others. They'll also attempt to ruin formations by dragging heroes forward or pushing them backwards with the usage of BlackMagic.

* ArcSymbol: Wears the symbol of their god as a headdress.
* BodyHorror: Their bodies were augmented with tentacles that seep out from their robes and wrap around their arms.
* CombinationAttack: Heroes hit with Fate's Reveal will be Marked in addition to taking heavy stress damage. The Brawlers that accompany the Witches will then capitalize on the increased damage with powerful hits from the move Rend For The New God.
* GoMadFromTheRevelation: Will try to inflict this on your party with enough usage of the move Fate's Reveal.
* TargetSpotter: In addition to stressing heroes out, the move Fate's Reveal will mark its targets so the Brawlers can deal increased damage against them while targeting them in particular.
* YouWillNotEvadeMe: The move Fate's Pull will have the Witch summon a tentacle through a portal to drag a hero to the front of the party.
** Inversely, Fate's Push will do the opposite, by [[BlownAcrossTheRoom pushing targets away from the front rows with one hard push from a summoned tentacle.]]

[[WMG:Rapturous Cultist]]
[[quoteright:150:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cultist_5.png]]
Deranged worshipers of the thing under the manor, they'll give their lives away to protect their fellow Cultists while healing them, acting as the Darkest Dungeon's dedicated support unit.

* BrokenSmile: Has their mouth agape in fanatical devotion to their god.
* EyesDoNotBelongThere: Multiple black eyes are scattered on their chests and legs.
* FragileSpeedster: They have an impressive speed stat, but are lacking in HP, and are especially devoid of dodge and protection.
* HumanShield: Rapturous Cultists will use the move Flesh Wall to provide a turn of protection to the target.
* ShootTheMedicFirst: Any turn not spent on getting rid of these Cultists is a turn where they make their much more dangerous allies immune to direct damage or possibly even undo your progress with a heal. Thankfully, they have nonexistent stats to protect themselves with, so it's fairly easy.
** On the other hand, though, bearing through their heavy healing and protection and leaving one Rapturous Cultist alive means a few turns to heal risk-free, thanks to their complete lack of fighting power unlike other supports.
* SupportPartyMember: Has no offensive capabilities whatsoever, only the abilities to protect their allies or heal them.

[[WMG:Cultist Priest]]
[[quoteright:150:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cultist_priest_8.png]]
Some of the most devoted and righteous Cultists in the temples are blessed by their god with a new form that ascends them beyond humanity, with increased durability, speed, and ferocity. These Priests rank highest in the Cultist hierarchy, which in turn makes them the most dangerous of the non-boss enemies in the first two Darkest Dungeon missions.

* BodyHorror: [[https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/549807312816154876/5AE2702175E903957CC260807266A49D6F382C09/ And how!]]
* TheFaceless: Their hoods completely shadow whatever counts as their face.
* HighPriest: They serve as these for the Cultists.
* LightningBruiser: Is possibly one of the toughest standard enemies in the dungeon, sporting a good amount of HP, high damage and heavy bleeding, and a speed that ensures they can move first against most of the damage dealers in your party.
* WasOnceAMan: The Priests were apparently once human, but a granted favor from their god has turned them into something nearly unrecognizable. Notably, they're the only Cultist who aren't classified as a Human in any way.

[[WMG:Malignant Growth and Defensive Growth]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/growth.png]]
The fleshy spawn of the Darkest Dungeon tend to grow on anything they can latch onto. Unlike the growths that'll haunt your party in the background, these growths will take the initiative to attack your party while supporting their own. The Malignant Growth dedicates itself to the offensive, stunning and bleeding your party dry. The Defensive Growth, meanwhile, will protect, heal, and buff their allies with the occasional stress attack against your party.

* ArcSymbol: The growths have attached themselves to broken parts of the arc symbol.
* AntiFrustrationFeature: A rare one for the game, but the Defensive Growth will only ever use the move Grand Guard once every 3 turns, which is understandable as they're capable of absorbing a ridiculous amount of damage for their allies.
* DesperationAttack: When the Defensive Growth is the last unit standing, they'll use the move Unbearable Tremors to deal a party-wide stress attack against your team.
* EarlyBirdCameo: The Growths appear only once as encounters in the first Darkest Dungeon mission before they become common enemies in the second mission.
* MightyGlacier: The Malignant Growth is a powerful and sturdy unit thanks to the statue it's attached to, and capable of inflicting heavy damage and stuns.
* NoSell: Being made mostly from stone, they have a bleed resistance just barely behind the skeletons in The Ruins, making bleed-reliant attacks next to useless on them.
* ShootTheMedicFirst: It's difficult to pull off on the Defensive Growth without the usage of blight damage, though, meaning that either stun-locking them or killing off the rest of their allies can be more worthwhile than wasting turns hitting a stone statue.
* StoneWall: The Defensive Growth is exceptionally sturdy, even more than the Malignant Growth, making them perfect for defending their damage-dealing allies.
* SupportPartyMember: The Defensive Growth, contrary to the Malignant Growth, are dedicated protectors, damage buffers, and healers for their parties, and are deceptively fast enough to pull their tricks off before most of your party can move.

[[WMG:Templar Warlord and Impaler]]
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/265px_templar_warlord.png]]
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/281px_templar_impaler.png]]
The Templars are monstrosities commonly found guarding important ritual sites in the deeper parts of the Dungeon. Though significantly stronger than the usual mobs scattered around the Dungeon, their number usually has them classified as mini-bosses.

* AchillesHeel: [[SignatureMove Revelation]] may hit like a truck on both physical and mental fronts, but the Talisman of the Flame trinkets from the first Darkest Dungeon mission near-totally nullifies their impact. However, there's only enough for three party members, so one is left vulnerable.
* ArcSymbol: The Stress symbol forms the frame of their golden headdress.
* DegradedBoss: The third Darkest Dungeon mission also contains Templars -- the Templar Gladiator and Sniper. These lack the minibosses' headdress, cannot use Revelation, and take only one action per turn.
* DualBoss: One of the Iron Crowns is guarded by the Templar Warlord and Impaler, which means one must deal with two rounds of Revelation each turn.
* EyesDoNotBelongThere: Besides the usual numerous black eyes typical to Darkest Dungeon enemies, they have a particularly large one beneath their human torso, which they use for their Revelation attack.
* ScaryScorpions: They have a general scorpion motif throughout their design and their manner of attack.
* SignatureMove: The Templars are scripted to use Revelation on the first of their two actions each turn, which deals massive physical and stress damage.
* TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow: It is implied their Revelation attack exposes the target's awareness to incredibly stressful things.

[[WMG:Flesh Hound]]
[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fleshy.png]]
When the Cultists fail to stop the intruders in the first two sections of the Dungeon, the animal-like monstrosities found in the deeper sections will take over. The Flesh Hound is one of them, who specializes in biting into heroes for a damaging Gnash, and lashing out at heroes in the back to Fetch them all the way to the front with their long tongues.

* AnimalisticAbomination: Vaguely resembles a dog with its form and attack names.
* EarlyBirdCameo: Flesh Hounds make an early appearance in the second Darkest Dungeon mission to accompany the Templars, before they become the standard enemy in the third mission.
* YouWillNotEvadeMe: The move Fetch has the Hound lash their tongue out to try and yank a targeted hero to the front of the formation. As an added bonus, it also has a chance to stun the same hero.

[[WMG:Polyp]]
[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pol.png]]
Vaguely bat-like spawn of what's hiding under the manor, these flyers dedicate themselves to spreading their Venomous Phlegm to your party and using Banish to toss heroes to the back rows.
----
* BlownAcrossTheRoom: Their specialty and main source of drawing hatred from you, if they manage to get a front-row hero away from their position.
* EarlyBirdCameo: Polyps can be encountered fighting alongside the Templars in the second Darkest Dungeon mission before they become regular enemies later on.
* LongRangeFighter: From a distance, they can easily spread blight and ruin formations, but they're incapacitated for a turn should they find themselves in the front, as they'll have to use Violent Hack to push themselves back to their preferred spots.

[[WMG:Antibody]]
Stationary stalks sprouting from the walls of the Darkest Dungeon, functioning as a self-defense mechanism. Often paired with Flesh Hounds and Polyps, Antibodies are more annoyances than threats, only capable of spouting Stunning Secretions.
----
* MeaningfulName: Like real-life antibodies, they form part of a biological self-defense mechanism.
* PaletteSwap: Highly similar to the White Cell Stalk, shown below.

[[WMG:Mammoth Cyst and White Cell Stalk]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/teleports_you_away_heh_nothin_personelkid.png]]
Flesh walls that are scattered across the hallways in the belly of the Darkest Dungeon. These minibosses can be encountered at any time to block your progress to the center of the dungeon until they're dealt with. Their main source of danger comes from the unique enemy they can summon, though; the White Cell Stalk, who aids the Cyst by healing it and displacing heroes. Most importantly, though, it can Teleport the party into a random room in the Dungeon.
----

[[WMG:Madman]]

[[WMG:Maggots]]

[[WMG:Spitters and Webbers]]

[[WMG:Bone Rabble]]

[[WMG:Gargoyles]]

[[WMG:Ghouls]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screenshot_2023_05_23_at_15_43_31_ghoul_dd2webp_webp_image_873_778_pixels_scaled_96.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:]]
[[quoteright:350:[[labelnote:Click here to see it in the first ''Darkest Dungeon'']]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ghoul.png]][[/labelnote]]
Huge, bloodied undead monsters that are said to have been men transformed into something horrible after an unfortunate encounter. They can be encountered everywhere both in the Estate and on the road to the Mountain, preferring no single location.
----
* BallisticBone: Their Skull Toss skill involves them hurling a skull at the target, which does damage, stress, and has a chance of stunning.
* GlowingEyelightsOfUndeath: Their wide eyes glow bright yellow.
* ImAHumanitarian: Judging by the amount of [[SkeletonsInTheCoatCloset human bones they wear]], this is probably the case. This may explain why they are never encountered with Brigands or Pillagers.
* LightningBruiser: Quite fast and durable and can eviscerate heroes with a few swipes of their claws.
* OurGhoulsAreCreepier: Ghouls in ''Darkest Dungeon'' are towering, stringy-haired, blood-soaked undead humanoids who gorge themselves on human flesh wherever it is found(including the Courtyard), possessing lethally sharp claws and a blood-curdling scream. They are far more durable than many other types of ghouls, being able to dish out serious damage to your party while taking a lot of punishment.
* SkeletonsInTheCoatCloset: They wear a necklace of human skulls. ''II'' gives them a full bandolier made of skulls and tibias to wear.
* SuperScream: The move Howl has them roar at the heroes to snuff out their torchlight, stress them out, and spread disease all at the same time.
* WasOnceAMan: Whatever happened to them, it turned them into towering monsters that want nothing more than to tear prey apart.

[[WMG:Bone Soldier]]

[[WMG:Bone Defender]]

[[WMG:Bone Courtier]]

[[WMG:Bone Arbalist]]

[[WMG:Bone Captain]]

[[WMG:Bone Spearman]]

[[WMG:Bone Bearer]]
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bone_bearer.png]]
A Champion leveled enemy added in the Radiant Update, the Bone Bearer acts as the Ruins' deadliest support unit. Their mere presence alone is enough to inspire the undead army to hit harder, which can be bolstered even further with an empowering blow through their bugles. If their allies still die, even with a nearly 50% boost in damage aiding them, the Bone Bearer can bring them right back to life and on duty again.
----
* ArcSymbol: The game's stress symbol is decorated upon the flag they carry into battle.
* TheBard: With their military bugle, they can use the move Wicked Surge to empower an ally with a 25% boost in damage.
* EmergencyWeapon: They carry a sizable dagger to slash at their foes if they find themselves too close for comfort, allowing them to retreat back to their supportive positions if there's other skeletons or corpses to hide behind.
* ShootTheMedicFirst: ''Brutally'' enforced if the enemy has a Bone Bearer. Not only does the enemy party have a sizable damage boost so as long as the Bearer is alive, but killing any of the units will just result in [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard the Bone Bearer getting a free turn to revive them back to full health.]] You'll either need to focus all damage on the Bone Bearer itself, or get really good at erasing dead bodies one by one.
* PullingThemselvesTogether: Can help their party do this with the move Unholy Rally. This includes Human-type enemies.
* WearingAFlagOnYourHead: A flag with an eye that's constantly surveying the battlefield and grants unholy powers to the bearer, specifically.

[[WMG:Applying to the faction as a whole:]]
Eventually, the Ancestor's reputation got to the ears of the people of the Hamlet. When rumors of his experiments and rituals stopped being fascinating and became heretical, they started to rebel against him. To ease the pressure on him, the Ancestor hired bands of mercenaries, killers, and bandits to suppress and cut down the population, most terrifyingly with the help of their [[{{BFG}} giant cannon]] and [[OptionalBoss commanding leader]]. Now that the Ancestor is dead and there's no one to pay them, they've set up camp and are there to milk the Estate for all it is worth. These bandits can be encountered most commonly in the Weald, but they're capable of popping up anywhere.

For more information about the [[DegradedBoss Brigand Bloodletter]], see the Boss Folder.

->"''Twisted and maniacal, a slathering testament to the powers of corruption.''"

->''"Far below, life-laden shadows pulse to the unrelenting rhythm of a beating heart."''

->''"Far below, life-laden shadows pulse to the unrelenting rhythm of a beating heart."''

[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/moon_guardian2.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:250:"Our leader, guardian of the moon.
He now dreams of death and pain..."]]

[[caption-width-right:250:some caption text]]

[[caption-width-right:250:some caption text]]

->"''The mad man hides there, behind the pews, spouting his mindless drivel.''"

[[caption-width-right:250:some caption text]]

->"''It is a travesty, a lumbering mountain of hatred...and rage.''"

[[caption-width-right:250:some caption text]]

->"''Squirming, contorting, and ever expanding, this horror must be unmade!''"

[[caption-width-right:250:some caption text]]

[[caption-width-right:250:some caption text]]

[[caption-width-right:250:some caption text]]

The [[BigBad main antagonist]] of the game is not the person or a creature controlling the evil forces - it's the evil itself!

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/peegs.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"They breed quickly down there in the dark, but perhaps we can slay them even faster!"'']]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pelagic.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"The smell of rotting fish is almost unbearable!"'']]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fungal.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"Nature herself, a victim of the spreading corruption, malformed with misintent."'']]

[[quoteright:340:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gibberingprophet.jpg]]
''[[caption-width-right:340:[[WhyWontYouDie "How had he survived the stockades, the icy waters, and the knives I delivered so enthusiastically into his back...?"]]]]''

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_swine_king_and_wilbur.png]]
''[[caption-width-right:350:"The great thing I had managed to bring through was brutish... and stupid."]]''

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_flesh.png]]
''[[caption-width-right:350:"A mountainous mass of misshapen flesh, fusing itself together in the darkness..."]]''

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_hag.png]]
''[[caption-width-right:350:"As time wore on, her wild policy of self-experimentation grew intolerable."]]''

''[[caption-width-right:350:"WE KNOW WHO YOU ARE."]]''

[[quoteright:306:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sans_titre_11.png]"We are born of this thing, made from it. And we will be returned to it, in time."'']]

->''"Monstrous size has no intrinsic merit, unless inordinate exsanguination be considered a virtue."''
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/375px_brigand_bloodletter.png]]

->"''Towering. Fierce. Terrible. Nightmare made material.''"
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_necromancer.png]]
''[[caption-width-right:350:[[ViciousCycle "The dead, reviving the dead, on and on, down the years. Forever."]]]]''

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/skeleton_6.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"The fiends must be driven back. And what better place to begin, than the seat of our noble line?"'']]

[[WMG:Brigands]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cutt.png]]

[[/folder]

[[folder:Huntress]]

Along your adventure to clear up the Ancestor's loose ends, your heroes will be facing the hostile monsters and corrupted beasts that have taken over the Estate, most of them exclusive to the dungeon they call home, and others that wander around.

[[quoteright:306:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sans_titre_11.png]]
[[caption-width-right:306:''"We are born of this thing, made from it. And we will be returned to it, in time."'']]

The true BigBad, and the thing responsible for the horror plaguing the Hamlet.

The Heart of Darkness is the source of all the horror and corruption plaguing the state, an eldritch god of unknown origin. Through the shade of your Ancestor, it claims it created humanity, then went to sleep in the depths of the world until it was roused during the Ancestor's foolish quest for knowledge. It is a slumbering, ethereal, and omnipresent deity manifested through your Ancestor's misdeeds, whose form became a vessel for the creature to cross over, and is revered by the cultists and priests of the Darkest Dungeon who have, under the influence of its cosmic power, became distorted entities of multiple mouths, eyes, and tentacled appendages. Just as a kicker, it takes some resemblance to humanity to try and prove its point.

[[/folder]]

[[quoteright:306:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sans_titre_11.png]]
[[caption-width-right:306:''"We are born of this thing, made from it. And we will be returned to it, in time."'']]

Being a send-off to the *Heretic*, Amid Evil has a huge number of different characters and foes belonging to various factions.

Note: the current list is a placeholder used for example.

[[folder:Recurring Enemies]]

[[folder:The Ruins]]

[[folder:The Weald]]

[[folder:The Warrens]]

[[folder:The Cove]]

[[folder:The Darkest Dungeon ('''SPOILERS''')]]

! The Bosses

The greatest evils of the universe the Champion must vanquish to restore order, residing in the sanctuaries in the heart of each world. Be it brainwashed leaders of factions, terrible beasts or otherwordly beings, they present a much greater threat than your usual foes.

[[folder:Moon Guardian]]
->''"Monstrous size has no intrinsic merit, unless inordinate exsanguination be considered a virtue."''
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/375px_brigand_bloodletter.png]]
A huge bandit serving as a boss during the tutorial, he recurs later in the game as one of the more powerful members of the Brigand faction.

* BadassNormal: Like all the Brigands, the Bloodletter has no supernatural powers, just size, gunpowder, and a mean streak.
* DegradedBoss: Guys like the Blooodletter occasionally appear as a regular enemy after the tutorial.
* DentedIron: His bare chest is covered in scars.
* GiantMook: A huge brute of a man, he fills two spaces and looms over all the other Brigands and the party alike.
* InTheHood: Wears a green hood, like his fellow bandits.
* LargeAndInCharge: He is noticeably taller and larger than any other humans, to the point that he occupies two positions in the formation system.
* NoRangeLikePointBlankRange: Like the Highwayman, he carries a flintlock and sometimes uses it at point blank range.
* OutsideGenreFoe: A heavily armed highway robber isn't high on the list of bosses one expects in a game about eldritch horrors and other supernatural beings.
* ATasteOfTheLash: Two of his attacks, ''Punishment'' and ''Rain of Whips''. One is single-target, the other hits your whole party, and both inflict bleed.
* WarmupBoss: He first appears in the second fight of the game, during the tutorial. Generally speaking, he's not all that gimmicky compared to other bosses later encountered.
* WalkingShirtlessScene: Wears nothing above his belt, except a hood on his head.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:The Scrounge]]
->"''Towering. Fierce. Terrible. Nightmare made material.''"
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_necromancer.png]]
''[[caption-width-right:350:[[ViciousCycle "The dead, reviving the dead, on and on, down the years. Forever."]]]]''
The Ancestor invited several scholars to study with him, only to [[SlainInTheirSleep murder them in their sleep]]. To show off his newfound powers, he had them brought back through necromancy, with their skills and knowledge intact to boot. This proved to be yet another of the Ancestor's grievous mistakes, as the undead sorcerers began raising the dead themselves of their own volition. The Necromancers now lurks within the ruins among their ever-growing army of corpses. As long as they live, the dead will never know peace. Hunt the leaders of the growing horde, destroy them, and ensure the reclamation of your Ancestral home.

* AchillesHeel: A Crusader with an Unholy Slayer's Ring trinket trivializes the skeletons he summons at Apprentice difficulty and leave the rest of the party free to wail on him, and two will probably achieve a similar result even at harder difficulties. Four Crusaders are actually a pretty good method to kill him [[labelnote:Explanation]]The front two Crusaders use Smite, which has a 15-35% damage boost against Unholy enemies like the undead, to chop through the skeletons summoned by the Necromancer then tear into the Necromancer's health pool. The back two Crusaders can either use Holy Lance to hit the Necromancer and move forward to take the pressure off the front two, or use Inspiring Cry/Battle Heal to deal with the Necromancer's stress-inducing attacks and damage. Repeat until he goes down.[[/labelnote]].
* ArcSymbol: His robe's collar is identical to the stress symbol.
* BlackSpeech: Hisses in a horrible, hoarse voice whenever he takes a hit or delivers one.
* ChainedByFashion: The Necromancer has a giant steel collar around his neck, and his belt looks like chains wrapped around his waist.
* FlunkyBoss: Summons undead minions to support him with every blow, while shuffling back and forth between their ranks.
* GoneHorriblyRight: They are one of the few, if not the ''only'' things, that the Ancestor managed to get right in his pursuit of the dark secrets of the world, as he brought them back completely intact. Unfortunately, their resurrection came back to bite him later on.
* InTheHood: Has his face completely covered by one.
* TheLeader: Of the Undead faction, as they're the ones constantly summoning new undead to replace those slain by your heroes.
* MonsterProgenitor: They are the source of all the unholy undead haunting the ruins and the Hamlet in general.
* {{Necromancer}}: [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Goes without saying.]]
* OurLichesAreDifferent: While never referred to as one, they do fit the trope -- they're intelligent undead with enough magical power to raise other, lesser undead and were well-learned in necromancy before being killed and brought back as undead.
* UndeadAbomination: Whatever he is, between the claws and hidden tentacles, he's definitely not human any more.
* WarmUpBoss: Will most likely be the first boss you face in the game, and is fairly straightforward. His fight doesn't have any gimmick beyond summoning enemies with every attack, and his lack of ContractualBossImmunity means pretty much any skill will work on him. The biggest problem is keeping on top of this summons, since he will always conjure up a new minion with every attack, and on higher difficulty dungeons he may summon stronger undead or they'll start off in stealth. Some of his attacks do inflict stress across the entire party, so he'll need to be killed fast.
* WasOnceAMan: The Necromancer was one of the many scholars and visiting sorcerers that came to the estate at the Ancestor's invitation. He later killed them and raised them as the creatures they are now.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Corrupt Spirit]]
->"''The mad man hides there, behind the pews, spouting his mindless drivel.''"
[[quoteright:340:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gibberingprophet.jpg]]
''[[caption-width-right:340:[[WhyWontYouDie "How had he survived the stockades, the icy waters, and the knives I delivered so enthusiastically into his back...?"]]]]''
Once there was a man, a homeless lunatic who dwelt in the Hamlet, who decried the Ancestor as a harbinger of doom. Nothing the Ancestor did could stop this prophet, and all murder attempts failed as well. Drowning, poison, blades; seemingly nothing could kill the maddened prophet. So the Ancestor gave the man exactly what he wanted; he told him everything. ''[[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow Everything.]]'' The prophet's mind snapped, and he tore out his own eyes and fled into seclusion. He continues his apocalyptic ravings in the darkness of the Ruins, as the leader of the cultists there, and it is the task of your heroes to do what your ancestor could not — kill him.

* AchillesHeel: The Man-at-Arms guarding and shooting him with mark-benefiting attacks. The former will make his normally-fearsome rubble little more than an annoyance ([[OhCrap aside from the instances when he decides to mark two heroes that aren't the Man-at-Arms at once...]]), and the Prophet is otherwise fairly simple to kill outside of being immovable way back in the last rank. To a lesser extent, put some stun resistance on the Man-at-Arms to limit him being stunned when you really don't want him to be (which is always) and bring a Plague Doctor or antivenom to deal with the other most threatening attack he provides — blighting ''everyone''.
** Another possibility is bringing at least one Occultist with Curse of Weakness, as the damage debuff will enormously reduce the danger posed by the collapsing rubble. Two Occultists with a well-trained Curse can quickly destroy his offensive capability entirely.
* ArcSymbol: The knives protruding out from his hunched back combined with the stocks he is locked to form the shape of the game's stress symbol -- five spikes embedded through an arc.
* BlindSeer: He clawed out his own eyes, but still receives visions. He also [[{{Squick}} holds them in his hands while he fights]].
* BrokenSmile: Possesses a rather deranged grin and is utterly, hopelessly insane.
* CassandraTruth: Averted; he was a threat precisely because the people of the hamlet believed him. Only the Ancestor ignored his warnings.
* CollapsingCeilingBoss: One of his attacks causes two large blocks of stone to fall on the party from the Ruins' ceiling, dealing heavy damage to two heroes.
* CrazyHomelessPeople: He wasn't the picture of mental health to begin with, and the Ancestor's BreakingLecture broke him completely. Perhaps he had some contact with eldritch forces in the past...
* CrosshairAware: He marks two character positions with red light via one of his attacks. The following turn, rubble will drop on those positions for huge damage. And getting someone tough to take the hit will either damage your formation or take up their turn to set up their guard skill.
* EyeScream: Tore his own eyes out during his revelation.
* FallenHero [[HeroAntagonist Antagonist]]: He repeatedly risked death to warn the Ancestor against his excavations. He was then exposed to the portal, [[GoMadFromTheRevelation went insane]], [[EyeScream tore his own eyes out]], and began ''serving'' the horrors beyond the portal, which is [[ShootTheDog where you come in...]]
* GoMadFromTheRevelation: How the Ancestor [[RasputinianDeath finally disposed of him]] — he showed him the excavations, "The Thing", and told him everything he planned. The prophet promptly tore his eyes out and ran away, screaming and blind. Now he is the leader of the cultists, seeking only to hasten the end.
* ImplacableMan: The ancestor tried to murder him multiple times, and each time he miraculously survived. He still carries the stocks and knives in his back as taunting mementos.
* ImplausibleDeniability: The Ancestor, even in death, claims his warnings are 'mindless drivel'. Despite the fact the Prophet was ''one hundred percent right'' and the evidence is... well, the entire plot of the game.
* TheLeader: Of the Cultist faction, serving as the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin prophet]] of their master's cause. This notably marks the cultists as *not* a KeystoneArmy, as they continue to serve the Darkness well into the depths of the Darkest Dungeon itself and [[MyDeathIsJustTheBeginning what comes after]] even stronger than before.
* MonsterProgenitor: The source and spearhead for the unholy cult which stalks the surroundings of the Hamlet in search for sacrifices.
* PuzzleBoss: Relatively straightforward, as bosses go... but protected by three ranks of tough wooden pews. [[MoneySpider They're worth a lot of money chopped up]], and doing so exposes him to your melee heavy hitters... but it ''also'' causes your party to be subject to the collapsing ceiling for that much longer.
* RasputinianDeath: He was locked in the stocks to die of thirst or exposure, plunged into icy waters to drown or freeze, and in a final act of exasperation, the Ancestor repeatedly stabbed him in the back with several different knives. Each time the Prophet returned, and even now he clings to a twisted facsimile of life in death.
* StockPunishment: Is restrained this way, although his left arm is free to hold his eyes in his hand.
* TheUndead: He's marked as an Unholy enemy, so either he's undead or being kept alive by dark magic. Notably, the cultists he leads are all still marked as Human.
* TheUnintelligible: Makes gurgling sounds when he attacks or as he gets hit.
* WisdomFromTheGutter: He quite accurately predicted what the Ancestor's digging would lead to despite being, by all appearances, just a random homeless person.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Solar Saint]]
->"''It is a travesty, a lumbering mountain of hatred...and rage.''"
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_swine_king_and_wilbur.png]]
''[[caption-width-right:350:"The great thing I had managed to bring through was brutish... and stupid."]]''
The Ancestor attempted to summon beings from the "outer spheres," with his initial attempts failing. He decided to try using pigs as vessels, resulting in the creation of the swinefolk. He eventually managed to summon a particularly powerful entity, and the pig it possessed grew to a gargantuan size. While the entity was indeed powerful, it was also brutish and stupid. The Ancestor moved the resulting abomination into the Warrens, where it now rules over the swine due to being larger and stronger than the rest of them. The threat of the swinefolk was bad enough before they had a guiding ruler. The King must be dethroned before his actions form them into an unstoppable horde.

To see Wilbur's tropes as an EliteMook and the miniboss of the Sluice in ''II'', look [[Characters/DarkestDungeonIIMonsters here]].
----
* AchillesHeel:
** Ripostes, due to Wilbur having multiple actions and the King generally using multi-target attacks. Note, however, that this is ''not'' necessarily a good thing, as Wilbur tends to get himself killed very quickly against a riposte-heavy party, and [[UnstoppableRage the Swine King takes that poorly.]]
** The Arbalest and Musketeer with their ability to clear marks render the Swine King far more manageable, since he relies on Wilbur's marks to deal a large amount of damage.
* AsskickingLeadsToLeadership: The swine unanimously declared it their king because it was the biggest and strongest among them.
* BerserkButton: Attacking his minion, Wilbur, will cause him to retaliate with a very powerful strike that hits everyone in the party and has a high chance to stun. Killing Wilbur outright will enrage the King
* {{BFS}}: Wields a giant blade the size of one of the heroes. [[OneHandedZweihander With one hand, no less.]]
* BigEater: According to the Ancestor, the King required prodigious amounts of meat to sustain itself after being summoned. It's heavily implied that he solved this issue by feeding Hamlet-dwellers to it.
* BodyHorror: He's covered in open sores, his brain is exposed, his bones have torn through his flesh in places, and he sits in a massive pile of his own viscera.
* CherryTapping: Wilbur only causes 2 damage per hit, but this can still kill heroes, especially if he uses the Bit O' Squeal skill [[CycleOfHurting to stun the entire party into another use of it]]. One of your heroes ignobly dying to a small pig child squealing at them [[AchievementMockery is even a secret achievement]].
* CombatAndSupport: The Swine King is the Combat, using direct attacks on your party for huge damage. Wilbur acts as the Support, marking characters for the Swine King to attack, while also causing them to take increased damage from his already-powerful attacks.
* DemonLordsAndArchdevils: It's heavily implied that the Swine King is a demon lord or other powerful hellish entity, bound to Earth in the form of a pig.
* DumbMuscle: It needs Wilbur to direct its attacks for it and lacks many tactics beyond "Swing at the Marked". The Ancestor even derisively notes how stupid it is during his narration of the King's backstory.
* EldritchAbomination: The Swine King is the result of ''something'' from another plane of existence [[DemonicPossession taking over the body]] of a common pig.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: While it does need to rely on Wilbur's directions to be able to do anything other than just attack wildly, it does seem to care for him, as shown by him going ''utterly ballistic'' if Wilbur goes down first.
* HalfTheManHeUsedToBe: He's nothing but intestine from the waist down, though it's questionable whether he ''ever'' had more.
* HandicappedBadass: The hulking giant appears to be eyeless and blind. This is probably why Wilbur directs its attacks. Notably, using the Arbalest's Rally Flare to clear the marks from your party causes the Swine King's attacks to be aimless and far less effective, as it loses its direction and swings blindly.
* HopeSpot: Wilbur's Bit'o Squeal skill can still ''stun the entire party'', turning a narrow victory into a frustrating defeat due to the party getting [[CycleOfHurting stunlocked]] by a small pig child [[CherryTapping squealing at them]].
* TheLeader: Of the Swinefolk faction, if the name didn't give it away.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Like other bosses, his title changes depending on the difficulty level, from Swine Prince, to Swine King, until it escalates to Swine God.
* PigMan: Like all the Swinefolk, the King resembles a humanoid pig, though he's much more deformed and disproportionately built than the rest.
* RedEyesTakeWarning: It normally seems eyeless except for when a bright red glow shining out its left socket whenever it attacks. If Wilbur dies, however, the glow instead comes from his arm and starts slaughtering the party.
* ShootTheMageFirst: [[AvertedTrope For once, this is actually a terrible idea.]] If Wilbur falls first, [[TurnsRed be prepared]] for a TotalPartyKill unless the Swine King itself is close to death.
* SuperScream: In addition to his role as TargetSpotter for the Swine King, Wilbur will sometimes use Bit O' Squeal, which has a chance of stunning one or more of your heroes. Once the King is dead [[DeathWail he starts spamming it until he's dead as well]].
* TargetSpotter: On his turn, Wilbur will either use End This One or End These Two, Marking one or two of your party members respectively with his flags and allowing the Swine King to Obliterate them.
* TrickBoss: Do not kill Wilbur first. [[UnstoppableRage This will enrage the King]]. In a rare case of AntiFrustrationFeatures for this game, the first time Wilbur's hit, one of the heroes will shout that it's a bad idea, explicitly warning not to do this.
* TrueCompanions: The Swine King is very fond of Wilbur. It's ill-advised to slay him before the king.
* TurnsRed: Killing Wilbur enrages him, changing his single-target attacks to [[TotalPartyKill party-killing]] multi-target attacks. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9l4kDYcXx4 Unless you're particularly]] CrazyPrepared to do so, that is.
* WeaksauceWeakness: He has a rather crippling weakness to the Arbalest's Rallying Flare, which clears all marks and stuns from the party. Given that his fight revolves around him dealing massive damage to whichever heroes Wilbur marks, it's easy to spend the entire fight with him ineffectually flailing.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Forgemaster]]
->"''Squirming, contorting, and ever expanding, this horror must be unmade!''"
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_flesh.png]]
''[[caption-width-right:350:"A mountainous mass of misshapen flesh, fusing itself together in the darkness..."]]''
The Ancestor eventually got tired of his disastrous attempts at demonic summoning, with his most successful creation being the uselessly stupid and ravenous Swine King. He was left with the problem of a massive amount of demon-possessed pig flesh that couldn't easily be disposed of. The Ancestor found the solution to this problem once his excavations broke into a vast, ancient system of tunnels and aqueducts. He poured the nightmarish, shape-shifting flesh into the Warrens and promptly forgot about it as it mutated together into increasingly-hideous and deadly forms. It must be destroyed, utterly and completely.

* AchillesHeel: The Formless Flesh's forms are nigh-impossible to debuff or stun effectively with them constantly shifting, have powerful attacks that can inflict bleed or blight, and are usually highly resilient to damage; aside from that, it can ''heal'' itself. But because it is mechanically treated as four separate enemies that share one health bar, multi-target attacks are particularly effective against it, and multi-target DamageOverTime attacks are ''supremely'' effective. Special mention goes to the Houndmaster's "Hound's Harry", which can potentially inflict bleed on every segment of the flesh at once every turn.
* AIRoulette: How it transforms is entirely random, so what you're fighting shifts to something with different resistances each turn. It's by no means certain it will generate a weak spot. At the same time, it has been known to put a given component in a position where it cannot actually attack.
* AssKicksYou: One of its body parts is the backside of a hog... with multiple tentacles sticking out of it. Which it will then fire at your heroes as an attack.
* AttackItsWeakPoint: It is possible to harm the flesh at any point, but all but one of its spots are armored and will absorb some of the damage thrown at it, with many being armored quite heavily. The only non-armored point are the gigantic heart-shaped lumps it uses to heal and regenerate, so it's advisable to attack them whenever they show up.
* BarrierChangeBoss: Its four different parts shift into different forms randomly, each of which has different resistances to different statuses. Only one "form" has no protection, however.
* BodyHorror: The Ancestor himself says it is more horrible than he can describe.
* BodyOfBodies: The Formless Flesh is formed from countless half-living demon-possessed pigs fused into one unstable, shape-shifting nightmare.
* CombatTentacles: The main form of attack from its rear end involves firing a Blight-dripping tentacle from what remains of a hog's backside. It also has a toothy mouth on the end, just in case that wasn't disturbing enough.
* EldritchAbomination: A beast with a pig's head, multiple eyes, a spine jutting out from its back, and a body composed of a single large tentacle. Sometimes. Sometimes it's one, none, or all of those things. [[MeaningfulName Clue's in the name.]]
* HeavilyArmoredMook: Each of the individual parts has a different level of PROT - except for the heart-like blobs, which are completely unarmoured.
* SharedLifeMeter: It's technically made of four targetable enemies, with all of them sharing a health pool.
* StatusInflictionAttack: All of the Flesh's attacks inflict either Bleed, Blight, or stun.
* TooManyMouths: Every last one of its parts has at least two mouths on or in it, giving it over half a dozen mouths at any one point. And those are just the ones we can see.
* TransformationHorror: Spread across the whole of the enemy formation, it is a many-mouthed pile of diseased, mutant pig-flesh that shapeshifts every round so that something different but equally abhorrent is in each rank. [[BodyHorror It's actually even worse to look at than that sounds.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Twin Terror]]
->"''Twisted and maniacal, a slathering testament to the powers of corruption.''"
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_hag.png]]
''[[caption-width-right:350:"As time wore on, her wild policy of self-experimentation grew intolerable."]]''
Once, a young woman came to the Ancestor, offering him mastery of alchemy and medicine. However, the woman was prone to experimenting on herself, and said experiments twisted her into a cannibalistic monster. [[EvenEvilHasStandards Disgusted]], the Ancestor exiled her into the Weald, where she continues her experiments. Since then, she has amassed many Eldritch abonimations raging from infested corpses, some mushroom beasts and even getting a family of witches along the way.

* AchillesHeel: Because she has relatively low health, piling on rapid high damage or high DamageOverTime backline attacks can rapidly deplete her limited health. She is also vulnerable to area-of-effect attacks that hit both the front and the back, as this damage both the Hag and the Pot and can knock it over to free the trapped hero. The Hellion, in particular is very effective against her by combining her Breakthrough, Bleed Out, and Iron Swan skills. Having multiple Hellions is a viable strategy in this instance.
* ArcSymbol: The antler crown she wears bears a similar resemblance to the stress symbol.
* CrownOfHorns: She sports a deer skull with attached antlers as a hat, giving off this look. Her minions, the crones, are also fond of this trope.
* DropTheHammer: Her main attack, aside from the pot, is to smash the party with a giant meat tenderizer.
* EvilMakesYouUgly: Played entirely straight. The Hag's constant experimenting turned her from an attractive young woman into a fat, hideous cannibal. The change was drastic and horrifying enough to gross out the ''Ancestor''.
* FatBastard: Not only is she a depraved cannibal, but she's also quite large. She takes up two spaces in the enemy formation.
* GlassCannon: While she can disable one of your heroes and does a lot of damage to the others with her meat tenderizer, the Hag has significantly lower health overall than most bosses, to make up for the fact that she'll be cooking — or trying to cook — one of your party members, leaving only three heroes available to fight her. A legitimate strategy against the Hag is to just blitz her as fast as possible with high-damage backline attacks.
* ImAHumanitarian: Her M.O. is to toss your heroes into her cooking pot and [[StewedAlive try and turn them into stew]]. One of her attacks is her tasting the stew while a hero boils inside, which will understandably stress a hero out, and the multiple turns she can take at once will stack it up fast.
* ImprobableWeaponUser: Fights with a ladle, a meat tenderizer, and seasoning.
* IWasQuiteTheLooker: According to the Ancestor, she was quite attractive when she was still human. Her hideous transformation was what drove him to exile her.
* MadScientist: Much like the Ancestor, though her fields of expertise were botany, alchemy, and chemistry.
* NonStandardGameOver: Normally, the cook pot spits out its victim when they reach Death's Door. But if there's a character in the pot and the rest of the party is dead, the mission is lost — presumably because the Hag finishes cooking the last one.
* ProfessorGuineaPig: The Ancestor mentions that she had a penchant for self-experimentation, which is likely the cause of her current appearance and diet.
* PuzzleBoss: Requires very careful planning and specific team composition to defeat her. In particular, teammates who can only attack the front ranks will have trouble pulling their weight.
* StewedAlive: She does this to the heroes during the battle; if the party flees while someone's in the pot, they're dead.
* WakeUpCallBoss: The Hag is requires a very different strategy compared to the other dungeons' bosses. The party's ranks are constantly shuffled from being thrown into the pot and then dropped into rank one when freed. The Hag sits behind her pot, both fully immune to being moved, making it impossible for classes that can't target the back ranks to hit her. The pot itself invokes a SadisticChoice on whether to free its hapless victim or focus on the Hag herself.
* WasOnceAMan: The narration before the mission to kill her mentions a comely young woman who constantly sought your dead relative's attention. It's implied that this "young woman" is now the Hag.
* WickedWitch: Goes without saying. She's also a fan of throwing whatever character is in front of your party into her pot to cook them alive.
[[/folder]]


[[folder:The Final Boss ('''SPOILERS''')]]
!!The Evil
[[quoteright:306:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sans_titre_11.png]]
[[caption-width-right:306:''"We are born of this thing, made from it. And we will be returned to it, in time."'']]

->''"Far below, life-laden shadows pulse to the unrelenting rhythm of a beating heart."''

The true BigBad, and the thing responsible for the horror plaguing the Hamlet.

The Heart of Darkness is the source of all the horror and corruption plaguing the state, an eldritch god of unknown origin. Through the shade of your Ancestor, it claims it created humanity, then went to sleep in the depths of the world until it was roused during the Ancestor's foolish quest for knowledge. It is a slumbering, ethereal, and omnipresent deity manifested through your Ancestor's misdeeds, whose form became a vessel for the creature to cross over, and is revered by the cultists and priests of the Darkest Dungeon who have, under the influence of its cosmic power, became distorted entities of multiple mouths, eyes, and tentacled appendages. Just as a kicker, it takes some resemblance to humanity to try and prove its point.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Secret Boss ('''SPOILERS''')]]
!!Wee John Clan
[[quoteright:306:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sans_titre_11.png]]
[[caption-width-right:306:''"We are born of this thing, made from it. And we will be returned to it, in time."'']]

->''"Far below, life-laden shadows pulse to the unrelenting rhythm of a beating heart."''

The true BigBad, and the thing responsible for the horror plaguing the Hamlet.

The Heart of Darkness is the source of all the horror and corruption plaguing the state, an eldritch god of unknown origin. Through the shade of your Ancestor, it claims it created humanity, then went to sleep in the depths of the world until it was roused during the Ancestor's foolish quest for knowledge. It is a slumbering, ethereal, and omnipresent deity manifested through your Ancestor's misdeeds, whose form became a vessel for the creature to cross over, and is revered by the cultists and priests of the Darkest Dungeon who have, under the influence of its cosmic power, became distorted entities of multiple mouths, eyes, and tentacled appendages. Just as a kicker, it takes some resemblance to humanity to try and prove its point.

Note: the risk of rain character list is a placeholder.

[[WMG:[[center: [-''VideoGame/DarkestDungeon'' '''[[Characters/DarkestDungeon Main Character Index]]'''\\
[[Characters/DarkestDungeonHeroes Heroes]] ([[Characters/DarkestDungeonHeroesAToF A-F]], [[Characters/DarkestDungeonHeroesGToL G-L]], [[Characters/DarkestDungeonHeroesMToZ M-Z]]) | [[Characters/DarkestDungeonNPC NPCs and Merchants]] | '''Darkest Dungeon Monsters''' | [[Characters/DarkestDungeonIIMonsters Darkest Dungeon II Monsters]] | [[Characters/DarkestDungeonDLCMonsters DLC Monsters]] -]]]]]

->''The darkness contains much worse than mere trickery and boogiemen.''
-->--'''The Ancestor'''

[[foldercontrol]]

! The Bosses and other Creatures

Brought into existence or [[WasOnceAMan turned into horrors]] by the Ancestor's meddling, these villains, monsters, and cannons [[MonsterProgenitor lead and create the lesser monsters]] to do their bidding, making them the biggest threats to the Hamlet's safety.

[[folder:The Brigand Bloodletter]]
->''"Monstrous size has no intrinsic merit, unless inordinate exsanguination be considered a virtue."''
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/375px_brigand_bloodletter.png]]
A huge bandit serving as a boss during the tutorial, he recurs later in the game as one of the more powerful members of the Brigand faction.

* BadassNormal: Like all the Brigands, the Bloodletter has no supernatural powers, just size, gunpowder, and a mean streak.
* DegradedBoss: Guys like the Blooodletter occasionally appear as a regular enemy after the tutorial.
* DentedIron: His bare chest is covered in scars.
* GiantMook: A huge brute of a man, he fills two spaces and looms over all the other Brigands and the party alike.
* InTheHood: Wears a green hood, like his fellow bandits.
* LargeAndInCharge: He is noticeably taller and larger than any other humans, to the point that he occupies two positions in the formation system.
* NoRangeLikePointBlankRange: Like the Highwayman, he carries a flintlock and sometimes uses it at point blank range.
* OutsideGenreFoe: A heavily armed highway robber isn't high on the list of bosses one expects in a game about eldritch horrors and other supernatural beings.
* ATasteOfTheLash: Two of his attacks, ''Punishment'' and ''Rain of Whips''. One is single-target, the other hits your whole party, and both inflict bleed.
* WarmupBoss: He first appears in the second fight of the game, during the tutorial. Generally speaking, he's not all that gimmicky compared to other bosses later encountered.
* WalkingShirtlessScene: Wears nothing above his belt, except a hood on his head.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:The Necromancer]]
->"''Towering. Fierce. Terrible. Nightmare made material.''"
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_necromancer.png]]
''[[caption-width-right:350:[[ViciousCycle "The dead, reviving the dead, on and on, down the years. Forever."]]]]''
The Ancestor invited several scholars to study with him, only to [[SlainInTheirSleep murder them in their sleep]]. To show off his newfound powers, he had them brought back through necromancy, with their skills and knowledge intact to boot. This proved to be yet another of the Ancestor's grievous mistakes, as the undead sorcerers began raising the dead themselves of their own volition. The Necromancers now lurks within the ruins among their ever-growing army of corpses. As long as they live, the dead will never know peace. Hunt the leaders of the growing horde, destroy them, and ensure the reclamation of your Ancestral home.

* AchillesHeel: A Crusader with an Unholy Slayer's Ring trinket trivializes the skeletons he summons at Apprentice difficulty and leave the rest of the party free to wail on him, and two will probably achieve a similar result even at harder difficulties. Four Crusaders are actually a pretty good method to kill him [[labelnote:Explanation]]The front two Crusaders use Smite, which has a 15-35% damage boost against Unholy enemies like the undead, to chop through the skeletons summoned by the Necromancer then tear into the Necromancer's health pool. The back two Crusaders can either use Holy Lance to hit the Necromancer and move forward to take the pressure off the front two, or use Inspiring Cry/Battle Heal to deal with the Necromancer's stress-inducing attacks and damage. Repeat until he goes down.[[/labelnote]].
* ArcSymbol: His robe's collar is identical to the stress symbol.
* BlackSpeech: Hisses in a horrible, hoarse voice whenever he takes a hit or delivers one.
* ChainedByFashion: The Necromancer has a giant steel collar around his neck, and his belt looks like chains wrapped around his waist.
* FlunkyBoss: Summons undead minions to support him with every blow, while shuffling back and forth between their ranks.
* GoneHorriblyRight: They are one of the few, if not the ''only'' things, that the Ancestor managed to get right in his pursuit of the dark secrets of the world, as he brought them back completely intact. Unfortunately, their resurrection came back to bite him later on.
* InTheHood: Has his face completely covered by one.
* TheLeader: Of the Undead faction, as they're the ones constantly summoning new undead to replace those slain by your heroes.
* MonsterProgenitor: They are the source of all the unholy undead haunting the ruins and the Hamlet in general.
* {{Necromancer}}: [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Goes without saying.]]
* OurLichesAreDifferent: While never referred to as one, they do fit the trope -- they're intelligent undead with enough magical power to raise other, lesser undead and were well-learned in necromancy before being killed and brought back as undead.
* UndeadAbomination: Whatever he is, between the claws and hidden tentacles, he's definitely not human any more.
* WarmUpBoss: Will most likely be the first boss you face in the game, and is fairly straightforward. His fight doesn't have any gimmick beyond summoning enemies with every attack, and his lack of ContractualBossImmunity means pretty much any skill will work on him. The biggest problem is keeping on top of this summons, since he will always conjure up a new minion with every attack, and on higher difficulty dungeons he may summon stronger undead or they'll start off in stealth. Some of his attacks do inflict stress across the entire party, so he'll need to be killed fast.
* WasOnceAMan: The Necromancer was one of the many scholars and visiting sorcerers that came to the estate at the Ancestor's invitation. He later killed them and raised them as the creatures they are now.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:The Prophet]]
->"''The mad man hides there, behind the pews, spouting his mindless drivel.''"
[[quoteright:340:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gibberingprophet.jpg]]
''[[caption-width-right:340:[[WhyWontYouDie "How had he survived the stockades, the icy waters, and the knives I delivered so enthusiastically into his back...?"]]]]''
Once there was a man, a homeless lunatic who dwelt in the Hamlet, who decried the Ancestor as a harbinger of doom. Nothing the Ancestor did could stop this prophet, and all murder attempts failed as well. Drowning, poison, blades; seemingly nothing could kill the maddened prophet. So the Ancestor gave the man exactly what he wanted; he told him everything. ''[[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow Everything.]]'' The prophet's mind snapped, and he tore out his own eyes and fled into seclusion. He continues his apocalyptic ravings in the darkness of the Ruins, as the leader of the cultists there, and it is the task of your heroes to do what your ancestor could not — kill him.

* AchillesHeel: The Man-at-Arms guarding and shooting him with mark-benefiting attacks. The former will make his normally-fearsome rubble little more than an annoyance ([[OhCrap aside from the instances when he decides to mark two heroes that aren't the Man-at-Arms at once...]]), and the Prophet is otherwise fairly simple to kill outside of being immovable way back in the last rank. To a lesser extent, put some stun resistance on the Man-at-Arms to limit him being stunned when you really don't want him to be (which is always) and bring a Plague Doctor or antivenom to deal with the other most threatening attack he provides — blighting ''everyone''.
** Another possibility is bringing at least one Occultist with Curse of Weakness, as the damage debuff will enormously reduce the danger posed by the collapsing rubble. Two Occultists with a well-trained Curse can quickly destroy his offensive capability entirely.
* ArcSymbol: The knives protruding out from his hunched back combined with the stocks he is locked to form the shape of the game's stress symbol -- five spikes embedded through an arc.
* BlindSeer: He clawed out his own eyes, but still receives visions. He also [[{{Squick}} holds them in his hands while he fights]].
* BrokenSmile: Possesses a rather deranged grin and is utterly, hopelessly insane.
* CassandraTruth: Averted; he was a threat precisely because the people of the hamlet believed him. Only the Ancestor ignored his warnings.
* CollapsingCeilingBoss: One of his attacks causes two large blocks of stone to fall on the party from the Ruins' ceiling, dealing heavy damage to two heroes.
* CrazyHomelessPeople: He wasn't the picture of mental health to begin with, and the Ancestor's BreakingLecture broke him completely. Perhaps he had some contact with eldritch forces in the past...
* CrosshairAware: He marks two character positions with red light via one of his attacks. The following turn, rubble will drop on those positions for huge damage. And getting someone tough to take the hit will either damage your formation or take up their turn to set up their guard skill.
* EyeScream: Tore his own eyes out during his revelation.
* FallenHero [[HeroAntagonist Antagonist]]: He repeatedly risked death to warn the Ancestor against his excavations. He was then exposed to the portal, [[GoMadFromTheRevelation went insane]], [[EyeScream tore his own eyes out]], and began ''serving'' the horrors beyond the portal, which is [[ShootTheDog where you come in...]]
* GoMadFromTheRevelation: How the Ancestor [[RasputinianDeath finally disposed of him]] — he showed him the excavations, "The Thing", and told him everything he planned. The prophet promptly tore his eyes out and ran away, screaming and blind. Now he is the leader of the cultists, seeking only to hasten the end.
* ImplacableMan: The ancestor tried to murder him multiple times, and each time he miraculously survived. He still carries the stocks and knives in his back as taunting mementos.
* ImplausibleDeniability: The Ancestor, even in death, claims his warnings are 'mindless drivel'. Despite the fact the Prophet was ''one hundred percent right'' and the evidence is... well, the entire plot of the game.
* TheLeader: Of the Cultist faction, serving as the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin prophet]] of their master's cause. This notably marks the cultists as *not* a KeystoneArmy, as they continue to serve the Darkness well into the depths of the Darkest Dungeon itself and [[MyDeathIsJustTheBeginning what comes after]] even stronger than before.
* MonsterProgenitor: The source and spearhead for the unholy cult which stalks the surroundings of the Hamlet in search for sacrifices.
* PuzzleBoss: Relatively straightforward, as bosses go... but protected by three ranks of tough wooden pews. [[MoneySpider They're worth a lot of money chopped up]], and doing so exposes him to your melee heavy hitters... but it ''also'' causes your party to be subject to the collapsing ceiling for that much longer.
* RasputinianDeath: He was locked in the stocks to die of thirst or exposure, plunged into icy waters to drown or freeze, and in a final act of exasperation, the Ancestor repeatedly stabbed him in the back with several different knives. Each time the Prophet returned, and even now he clings to a twisted facsimile of life in death.
* StockPunishment: Is restrained this way, although his left arm is free to hold his eyes in his hand.
* TheUndead: He's marked as an Unholy enemy, so either he's undead or being kept alive by dark magic. Notably, the cultists he leads are all still marked as Human.
* TheUnintelligible: Makes gurgling sounds when he attacks or as he gets hit.
* WisdomFromTheGutter: He quite accurately predicted what the Ancestor's digging would lead to despite being, by all appearances, just a random homeless person.

[[folder:The Swine King]]
->"''It is a travesty, a lumbering mountain of hatred...and rage.''"
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_swine_king_and_wilbur.png]]
''[[caption-width-right:350:"The great thing I had managed to bring through was brutish... and stupid."]]''
The Ancestor attempted to summon beings from the "outer spheres," with his initial attempts failing. He decided to try using pigs as vessels, resulting in the creation of the swinefolk. He eventually managed to summon a particularly powerful entity, and the pig it possessed grew to a gargantuan size. While the entity was indeed powerful, it was also brutish and stupid. The Ancestor moved the resulting abomination into the Warrens, where it now rules over the swine due to being larger and stronger than the rest of them. The threat of the swinefolk was bad enough before they had a guiding ruler. The King must be dethroned before his actions form them into an unstoppable horde.

To see Wilbur's tropes as an EliteMook and the miniboss of the Sluice in ''II'', look [[Characters/DarkestDungeonIIMonsters here]].
----
* AchillesHeel:
** Ripostes, due to Wilbur having multiple actions and the King generally using multi-target attacks. Note, however, that this is ''not'' necessarily a good thing, as Wilbur tends to get himself killed very quickly against a riposte-heavy party, and [[UnstoppableRage the Swine King takes that poorly.]]
** The Arbalest and Musketeer with their ability to clear marks render the Swine King far more manageable, since he relies on Wilbur's marks to deal a large amount of damage.
* AsskickingLeadsToLeadership: The swine unanimously declared it their king because it was the biggest and strongest among them.
* BerserkButton: Attacking his minion, Wilbur, will cause him to retaliate with a very powerful strike that hits everyone in the party and has a high chance to stun. Killing Wilbur outright will enrage the King
* {{BFS}}: Wields a giant blade the size of one of the heroes. [[OneHandedZweihander With one hand, no less.]]
* BigEater: According to the Ancestor, the King required prodigious amounts of meat to sustain itself after being summoned. It's heavily implied that he solved this issue by feeding Hamlet-dwellers to it.
* BodyHorror: He's covered in open sores, his brain is exposed, his bones have torn through his flesh in places, and he sits in a massive pile of his own viscera.
* CherryTapping: Wilbur only causes 2 damage per hit, but this can still kill heroes, especially if he uses the Bit O' Squeal skill [[CycleOfHurting to stun the entire party into another use of it]]. One of your heroes ignobly dying to a small pig child squealing at them [[AchievementMockery is even a secret achievement]].
* CombatAndSupport: The Swine King is the Combat, using direct attacks on your party for huge damage. Wilbur acts as the Support, marking characters for the Swine King to attack, while also causing them to take increased damage from his already-powerful attacks.
* DemonLordsAndArchdevils: It's heavily implied that the Swine King is a demon lord or other powerful hellish entity, bound to Earth in the form of a pig.
* DumbMuscle: It needs Wilbur to direct its attacks for it and lacks many tactics beyond "Swing at the Marked". The Ancestor even derisively notes how stupid it is during his narration of the King's backstory.
* EldritchAbomination: The Swine King is the result of ''something'' from another plane of existence [[DemonicPossession taking over the body]] of a common pig.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: While it does need to rely on Wilbur's directions to be able to do anything other than just attack wildly, it does seem to care for him, as shown by him going ''utterly ballistic'' if Wilbur goes down first.
* HalfTheManHeUsedToBe: He's nothing but intestine from the waist down, though it's questionable whether he ''ever'' had more.
* HandicappedBadass: The hulking giant appears to be eyeless and blind. This is probably why Wilbur directs its attacks. Notably, using the Arbalest's Rally Flare to clear the marks from your party causes the Swine King's attacks to be aimless and far less effective, as it loses its direction and swings blindly.
* HopeSpot: Wilbur's Bit'o Squeal skill can still ''stun the entire party'', turning a narrow victory into a frustrating defeat due to the party getting [[CycleOfHurting stunlocked]] by a small pig child [[CherryTapping squealing at them]].
* TheLeader: Of the Swinefolk faction, if the name didn't give it away.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Like other bosses, his title changes depending on the difficulty level, from Swine Prince, to Swine King, until it escalates to Swine God.
* PigMan: Like all the Swinefolk, the King resembles a humanoid pig, though he's much more deformed and disproportionately built than the rest.
* RedEyesTakeWarning: It normally seems eyeless except for when a bright red glow shining out its left socket whenever it attacks. If Wilbur dies, however, the glow instead comes from his arm and starts slaughtering the party.
* ShootTheMageFirst: [[AvertedTrope For once, this is actually a terrible idea.]] If Wilbur falls first, [[TurnsRed be prepared]] for a TotalPartyKill unless the Swine King itself is close to death.
* SuperScream: In addition to his role as TargetSpotter for the Swine King, Wilbur will sometimes use Bit O' Squeal, which has a chance of stunning one or more of your heroes. Once the King is dead [[DeathWail he starts spamming it until he's dead as well]].
* TargetSpotter: On his turn, Wilbur will either use End This One or End These Two, Marking one or two of your party members respectively with his flags and allowing the Swine King to Obliterate them.
* TrickBoss: Do not kill Wilbur first. [[UnstoppableRage This will enrage the King]]. In a rare case of AntiFrustrationFeatures for this game, the first time Wilbur's hit, one of the heroes will shout that it's a bad idea, explicitly warning not to do this.
* TrueCompanions: The Swine King is very fond of Wilbur. It's ill-advised to slay him before the king.
* TurnsRed: Killing Wilbur enrages him, changing his single-target attacks to [[TotalPartyKill party-killing]] multi-target attacks. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9l4kDYcXx4 Unless you're particularly]] CrazyPrepared to do so, that is.
* WeaksauceWeakness: He has a rather crippling weakness to the Arbalest's Rallying Flare, which clears all marks and stuns from the party. Given that his fight revolves around him dealing massive damage to whichever heroes Wilbur marks, it's easy to spend the entire fight with him ineffectually flailing.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:The Formless Flesh]]
->"''Squirming, contorting, and ever expanding, this horror must be unmade!''"
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_flesh.png]]
''[[caption-width-right:350:"A mountainous mass of misshapen flesh, fusing itself together in the darkness..."]]''
The Ancestor eventually got tired of his disastrous attempts at demonic summoning, with his most successful creation being the uselessly stupid and ravenous Swine King. He was left with the problem of a massive amount of demon-possessed pig flesh that couldn't easily be disposed of. The Ancestor found the solution to this problem once his excavations broke into a vast, ancient system of tunnels and aqueducts. He poured the nightmarish, shape-shifting flesh into the Warrens and promptly forgot about it as it mutated together into increasingly-hideous and deadly forms. It must be destroyed, utterly and completely.

* AchillesHeel: The Formless Flesh's forms are nigh-impossible to debuff or stun effectively with them constantly shifting, have powerful attacks that can inflict bleed or blight, and are usually highly resilient to damage; aside from that, it can ''heal'' itself. But because it is mechanically treated as four separate enemies that share one health bar, multi-target attacks are particularly effective against it, and multi-target DamageOverTime attacks are ''supremely'' effective. Special mention goes to the Houndmaster's "Hound's Harry", which can potentially inflict bleed on every segment of the flesh at once every turn.
* AIRoulette: How it transforms is entirely random, so what you're fighting shifts to something with different resistances each turn. It's by no means certain it will generate a weak spot. At the same time, it has been known to put a given component in a position where it cannot actually attack.
* AssKicksYou: One of its body parts is the backside of a hog... with multiple tentacles sticking out of it. Which it will then fire at your heroes as an attack.
* AttackItsWeakPoint: It is possible to harm the flesh at any point, but all but one of its spots are armored and will absorb some of the damage thrown at it, with many being armored quite heavily. The only non-armored point are the gigantic heart-shaped lumps it uses to heal and regenerate, so it's advisable to attack them whenever they show up.
* BarrierChangeBoss: Its four different parts shift into different forms randomly, each of which has different resistances to different statuses. Only one "form" has no protection, however.
* BodyHorror: The Ancestor himself says it is more horrible than he can describe.
* BodyOfBodies: The Formless Flesh is formed from countless half-living demon-possessed pigs fused into one unstable, shape-shifting nightmare.
* CombatTentacles: The main form of attack from its rear end involves firing a Blight-dripping tentacle from what remains of a hog's backside. It also has a toothy mouth on the end, just in case that wasn't disturbing enough.
* EldritchAbomination: A beast with a pig's head, multiple eyes, a spine jutting out from its back, and a body composed of a single large tentacle. Sometimes. Sometimes it's one, none, or all of those things. [[MeaningfulName Clue's in the name.]]
* HeavilyArmoredMook: Each of the individual parts has a different level of PROT - except for the heart-like blobs, which are completely unarmoured.
* SharedLifeMeter: It's technically made of four targetable enemies, with all of them sharing a health pool.
* StatusInflictionAttack: All of the Flesh's attacks inflict either Bleed, Blight, or stun.
* TooManyMouths: Every last one of its parts has at least two mouths on or in it, giving it over half a dozen mouths at any one point. And those are just the ones we can see.
* TransformationHorror: Spread across the whole of the enemy formation, it is a many-mouthed pile of diseased, mutant pig-flesh that shapeshifts every round so that something different but equally abhorrent is in each rank. [[BodyHorror It's actually even worse to look at than that sounds.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:The Hag]]
->"''Twisted and maniacal, a slathering testament to the powers of corruption.''"
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_hag.png]]
''[[caption-width-right:350:"As time wore on, her wild policy of self-experimentation grew intolerable."]]''
Once, a young woman came to the Ancestor, offering him mastery of alchemy and medicine. However, the woman was prone to experimenting on herself, and said experiments twisted her into a cannibalistic monster. [[EvenEvilHasStandards Disgusted]], the Ancestor exiled her into the Weald, where she continues her experiments. Since then, she has amassed many Eldritch abonimations raging from infested corpses, some mushroom beasts and even getting a family of witches along the way.

* AchillesHeel: Because she has relatively low health, piling on rapid high damage or high DamageOverTime backline attacks can rapidly deplete her limited health. She is also vulnerable to area-of-effect attacks that hit both the front and the back, as this damage both the Hag and the Pot and can knock it over to free the trapped hero. The Hellion, in particular is very effective against her by combining her Breakthrough, Bleed Out, and Iron Swan skills. Having multiple Hellions is a viable strategy in this instance.
* ArcSymbol: The antler crown she wears bears a similar resemblance to the stress symbol.
* CrownOfHorns: She sports a deer skull with attached antlers as a hat, giving off this look. Her minions, the crones, are also fond of this trope.
* DropTheHammer: Her main attack, aside from the pot, is to smash the party with a giant meat tenderizer.
* EvilMakesYouUgly: Played entirely straight. The Hag's constant experimenting turned her from an attractive young woman into a fat, hideous cannibal. The change was drastic and horrifying enough to gross out the ''Ancestor''.
* FatBastard: Not only is she a depraved cannibal, but she's also quite large. She takes up two spaces in the enemy formation.
* GlassCannon: While she can disable one of your heroes and does a lot of damage to the others with her meat tenderizer, the Hag has significantly lower health overall than most bosses, to make up for the fact that she'll be cooking — or trying to cook — one of your party members, leaving only three heroes available to fight her. A legitimate strategy against the Hag is to just blitz her as fast as possible with high-damage backline attacks.
* ImAHumanitarian: Her M.O. is to toss your heroes into her cooking pot and [[StewedAlive try and turn them into stew]]. One of her attacks is her tasting the stew while a hero boils inside, which will understandably stress a hero out, and the multiple turns she can take at once will stack it up fast.
* ImprobableWeaponUser: Fights with a ladle, a meat tenderizer, and seasoning.
* IWasQuiteTheLooker: According to the Ancestor, she was quite attractive when she was still human. Her hideous transformation was what drove him to exile her.
* MadScientist: Much like the Ancestor, though her fields of expertise were botany, alchemy, and chemistry.
* NonStandardGameOver: Normally, the cook pot spits out its victim when they reach Death's Door. But if there's a character in the pot and the rest of the party is dead, the mission is lost — presumably because the Hag finishes cooking the last one.
* ProfessorGuineaPig: The Ancestor mentions that she had a penchant for self-experimentation, which is likely the cause of her current appearance and diet.
* PuzzleBoss: Requires very careful planning and specific team composition to defeat her. In particular, teammates who can only attack the front ranks will have trouble pulling their weight.
* StewedAlive: She does this to the heroes during the battle; if the party flees while someone's in the pot, they're dead.
* WakeUpCallBoss: The Hag is requires a very different strategy compared to the other dungeons' bosses. The party's ranks are constantly shuffled from being thrown into the pot and then dropped into rank one when freed. The Hag sits behind her pot, both fully immune to being moved, making it impossible for classes that can't target the back ranks to hit her. The pot itself invokes a SadisticChoice on whether to free its hapless victim or focus on the Hag herself.
* WasOnceAMan: The narration before the mission to kill her mentions a comely young woman who constantly sought your dead relative's attention. It's implied that this "young woman" is now the Hag.
* WickedWitch: Goes without saying. She's also a fan of throwing whatever character is in front of your party into her pot to cook them alive.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:The Brigand Cannon]]
->"''A marvel of technology - an engine of destruction!''"
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/brigand_cannon.png]]
''[[caption-width-right:350:"These mercenaries brought with them a war machine of terrible implication."]]''
When word of the Ancestor's experiments reached the ears of the locals, they became infuriated. In order to keep them in check, the Ancestor hired a band of brigands, who brought a great cannon of immense power along with them. Now that the Ancestor is dead, they continue to use it to terrorize the hamlet. Although the leader of the brigands doesn't use this hulking piece of siege equipment, it is never unguarded. Nonetheless, as long as they have this machine of terror at their disposal, the hamlet will suffer from losing the supplies it needs to survive.

* AchillesHeel: The Matchman is the most obvious example of this out of all of the bosses. Killing the Matchman renders the cannon itself powerless except to summon reinforcements, leaving the party to only have to contend with the damage dealt by a pair of brigands... at least as long as they can keep killing the Matchman whenever he spawns.
* AndThenWhat: The brigands and their cannon were hired by the Ancestor to keep [[TorchesAndPitchforks the increasingly restless townsfolk]] of his estate in line. What a heavily armed group of psychopaths might do after achieving that [[MadScientist didn't interest him.]]
* AttackBackfire: Rarely, the Brigand Cannon may use the move "MISFIRE!" instead of the catastrophic stress and damage-dealer that is "BOOOOOOOM!", if your party fails to stop the Matchman in time. This gives your heroes a party-wide stress heal and essentially wastes the Cannon's turn.
* BadassNormal: An ordinary cannon, crewed and defended by ordinary men, and yet it's every bit the match of the other, more-occult horrors in terms of the danger it poses to the hamlet (and the heroes, who can easily suffer a TotalPartyKill if it fires).
* {{BFG}}: It's a gigantic cannon that can deal a lot of damage and stress to the party if it's allowed to fire. Killing the Brigand Matchman prevents it from going off.
* BiggerStick: The most sophisticated piece of technology in the setting, it's a match for the various supernatural beings who serve as the other bosses.
* EpicFail: Sometimes, the cannon may misfire, causing it to deal no damage while giving stress relief to the party.
* FlunkyBoss: Constantly uses "Reinforcements!" to call brigands to its side; it cannot attack on its own.
* LogicalWeakness: Without someone to operate it, the Cannon cannot fire, so taking out the Matchman is the fairly obvious way to keep it from shooting.
* MadeOfIron: Literally and figuratively. In addition to the unique Ironwork enemy type, the Cannon has a huge protection stat and is [[AntiDebuff immune to any status effect]].
* MechanicalMonster: Needs a Brigand Matchman alive to attack, but by itself can summon more if you've killed them.
* OutsideGenreFoe: A colossal cannon, callously crewed by cruel, combative cutthroats. It's a very different flavor of enemy from the witches, demons, undead, and other supernatural foes that comprise most of the other bosses in the game.
* PsychoForHire: The Brigands manning it brought it with them when the Ancestor hired them. The money's long since dried up, yet the Brigand Cannon crew continue to terrorise the region.
* SecretWeapon: It served as one for the Brigands at first, being deployed when resistance from the townsfolk became too much for them.
* ShootTheMageFirst: If the Brigand Matchman is alive, it will allow the cannon to fire and deal heavy damage and stress damage to your entire team. Thus, he needs to die every time he appears.
* SquishyWizard: The Brigand Matchman has low health and is very easy to take out. he's also the one who operates the cannon, so he should be dealt with first.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:The Siren]]
->"''The aquatic devils have remade the poor girl in their image. She is their queen, and their slave.''"
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_siren.png]]
''[[caption-width-right:350:"A fearful stirring at the edge of the torchlight betrayed a familiar witness and gifted me with malign inspiration."]]''
Before he went fully off the deep end, a young village lass had a crush on the Ancestor and followed him everywhere he went. While he originally found it charming, she eventually became a nuisance when his darker and more secret experiments went on. When he needed extra money, he gave her to the Pelagic fish-men who infested the Cove. Now, she is their queen... and their slave. Who knows how long she had suffered or if she retained anything of her original personality? Perhaps she will find better peace in death than the fate given to her.

* AchillesHeel:
** Debuff resistance and bleed cures. Unlike the Necromancer or Brigand Cannon, she can only summon a minion as one of four specific attacks instead of constantly every turn. Her other two attacks are rather low in damage aside from one inflicting bleed.
** The Antiquarian, oddly enough. Due to prioritizing characters with low debuff resistance, chances are the Siren will waste plenty of turns charming someone whose offensive capability is an utter joke and who is more likely to pass damage on to ''her'' than anything else.
** Besides summoning a Cove minion and charming a hero, her only other attacks are low-damage AOE effects. Bringing a few heroes who can riposte will turn that against her. This can also backfire if she has a captured hero attack someone who can counter.
** Low damage Stun attacks can prevent your charmed heroes from hurting your party, and Pull skills can immediately break the charm effect if they land a critical hit.
* BrainwashedAndCrazy: She inflicts this upon your heroes, enthralling them to fight by her side. Thankfully, the effect is only temporary, and the hero rejoins your side after a few turns.
* BreedingSlave: The Ancestor's description of the Siren ''heavily'' implies her to be this; she's referred to as a "matriarch" to the Fishmen, as well as being a slave.
* CuteMonsterGirl: How she appears when brainwashing people. At all other times, ''[[AvertedTrope NO.]]'' (At least not by ''human'' standards...)
* HeroicWillpower: Her mind control has a fixed chance to land on a hero, only for them to resist her call.
* EvenTheGirlsWantHer: Fittingly for a Siren, ''Song of Desire'' works on all heroes, regardless of sex.
* FishPeople: Has a fish tail below her waist and an anglerfish for a head.
* FlunkyBoss: On top of her CharmPerson powers, she can use "High Tide" to call a pelagic monster to fight for her. Thankfully, she can't summon more than one at a time.
* GetAHoldOfYourselfMan: Low-damage skills with a high stun chance are very valuable in the fight, since they have a chance of locking down any charmed teammates until they come to their senses. Alternately, a critical hit with a Pull skill will instantly beak the charm and bring the affected hero back to your side.
* HeKnowsTooMuch: Right after the Ancestor finished bargaining with the fish-men, he noticed the village girl had been watching. His response was to chain her to an idol and throw her to the Pelagics to prevent her from talking.
* InstrumentOfMurder: The whelk-shell horn she uses to summon minions and tides holds a nasty surprise.
* TheLeader: Both the leader and the slave of the Pelagic faction.
* MakingASplash: She can also summon a tidal surge that damages and stuns the entire party.
* MixAndMatchCritters: She used to be human, and now has traits of sailfish, anglerfish, and sea monsters as well as a starfish in her hair.
* MercyKill: Considering the [[BreedingSlave rather nasty]] implications of her new state, it’s not hard to think that the prospect of killing her is more or less euthanasia.
* {{Necromancer}}: Not as much as the actual Necromancer, but still present. There are enemies in the cove called Thralls, people that were so enthralled by the Siren that their bloated bodies continue serving her even in death.
* NonhumansLackAttributes: ZigZagged. She used to be human, but now she's covered with scales that conceal her skin. Her brainwash-induced CuteMonsterGirl form has what seems like [[NippleAndDimed the outlines of her nipples]] under her scales.
* NonStandardGameOver: As with the Hag's cookpot, if three of your heroes are dead and the last is under Song of Desire, her boss quest fails.
* PrecociousCrush: She had one on the Ancestor. Obviously, this did not turn out well.
* SirensAreMermaids: She has the lower body of a fish.
* StalkerWithACrush: The Ancestor describes having noticed her watch him make a deal with ancient things in the waters during a specific phase of the moon... that is probably not a location or time of day that someone would happen upon it accidentally.
* TragicMonster: The Ancestor repaid her crush by giving her to the Pelagics. As he states, she is now their queen — which is the same thing as being their slave. And the fact that she is repeatedly called a "matriarch" has [[BreedingSlave horrific implications]].
* WasOnceAMan: She used to be a young girl with a crush on the Ancestor. Then he handed her over to the Pelagics as part of a deal, who transformed her into her current state.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:The Drowned Crew]]
->"''They are cursed to float forever, deep in the swirling blackness, far beyond the light's reach.''"
[[quoteright:295:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/darkestdungeoncrew.jpg]]
''[[caption-width-right:295:"While the greedy dogs slept off their revelry, I hexed their anchor with every twisted incantation I could muster, imbuing it with the weight of my ambition and my contempt for their crude extortion."]]''
Once the roads got too dangerous and busy, the Ancestor would have his more exotic materials and artifacts shipped in by smugglers. A particular crew were his favorites, until they began asking for too much money to keep quiet. [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness He arranged "alternative" payment]]: a cursed anchor that dragged them under the sea. [[OhCrap But they didn't stay dead:]] now they cluster atop the flotsam of their ship, ready to drag in chains any who cross their path to Davy Jones' Locker. The Crew's predations are strangling the lifeline of trade that sustains the Hamlet by sea. Send them back to the depths and ensure the survival of your home once again.

* AchillesHeel: A party that is able to act or move around with their skills easily from any rank, stun the first rank, and apply blight. The anchorman isn't particularly hard to stun and the crew is rather dependent on him grabbing a hero to heal and protect themselves. The crew will constantly pull someone forward as they summon an anchorman, but that isn't much of an issue if the party's skills are chosen with knowledge of this. Blight will ignore the main crew's protection while someone is grabbed. The Shieldbreaker can also bypass the anchorman's PROT bonus.
** They are also, for some reason, unable to anchor someone who has virtued, so placing trinkets that enhance virtue chance on the person in the front will trivialize the fight as well. The Highwayman is particularly good for this, since his Crimson court trinket set boosts his virtue chance to ''75%'', and because he has a repositioning skill that will help move him back to the front should the captain shuffle someone else forward. The Abomination is a close second, since he also has a forward-moving skill and virtue chance-boosting trinkets.
* AndIMustScream: Due to their anchor being hexed, they have been sent to drown forever at the bottom of the sea.
* ArcSymbol: The crew's anchor that cursed them into drowning forever is designed exactly like the stress symbol.
* AIBreaker: The anchorman was always immune to movement skills before he throws the anchor, but his crewmen were not. Using pull skills to drag them in front of him would break the encounter, since he doesn't have the ability to move in front of them and must pass every turn, leaving the crew vulnerable to being blasted to death by the heroes as they ignore the battle's core mechanics. [[ObviousRulePatch An update changed both the crew and the puller to have 200% resistance to shuffle]], which prevents this from happening now.
* AnchorsAway: If one isn't out, they always lead by summoning the anchorman, which binds up and immobilizes the first hero in line with the cursed anchorline, [[MindRape forcing them to experience the crew's horrible death]]. While the hero is free to attack, his or her stress will increase rapidly over time, and the crew will feed on their terror and regenerate health every round. And the same attack that calls up the anchorman pulls a random hero into the front rank.
* TheDividual: The main boss is three undead smugglers that fight as one unit, with one health bar and three actions per turn. They also summon a fourth.
* DisproportionateRetribution: When the crew was running errands for the Ancestor, they asked for a raise as the tasks got more difficult. The Ancestor paid them with a cursed anchor that dragged them and their ship to the bottom of the ocean and [[AndIMustScream doomed them to drown forever]].
* EmotionEater: While someone is tangled in the anchor and suffering through the horrific experience they did as they first drowned, the undead crew will feed on their terror and despair to regenerate health every time someone takes a turn of any kind.
* GhostPirate: Technically smugglers and of the undead corpse persuasion, but they fit most of the tropes anyway.
* GlowingEyelightsOfUndeath: Combined with their equally-glowing GhostlyGape to give them an ominous atmosphere.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: The anchorman's attack builds up stress as it forces heroes to relive the Drowned Crew's last moments. If a hero reaches 100 Stress but becomes Virtuous instead of Afflicted, they immediately throw the anchor off, and [[NoSell all subsequent attempts to use the anchor on them will fail]], denying the Drowned Crew an opportunity to heal using the anchor.
* JacobMarleyApparel: [[ChainedByFashion Swaddled in the chains that killed them,]] they each use attacks appropriate to what they were in life.
* MindRape: The Drowned Crew specialize in building up stress, whether via using the anchorman to inflict visions of how they died, or one of the crew members coaxing a member of the party to "drink with the dead." The captain's main attack, Mutiny!, deals a heavy debuff without directly affecting stress unless it crits.
* NighInvulnerable: While the anchorman can be taken out before it gets a chance to throw the anchor, doing so is a tricky task, since it comes into play with a powerful buff that gives it high armor and makes it very resistant to other sources of damage. Even stunning it is a chancy proposition. And after throwing the anchor, that same effect transfers to the rest of the crew while it's still alive.
* StoneWall: They don't have much in the way of inflicting physical damage. However, their Anchorman gives them RegeneratingHealth and confers a sizeable PROT and Blight/Bleed resistance. Either way, it's a fairly long fight, giving them more time to pile stress on the frontline.
* VengefulGhost: They're rather unhappy that the Ancestor condemned them to a terrible fate, and are taking their anger out on anything unfortunate enough to enter the Cove.
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: When the crew demanded higher payment for their services, the Ancestor decided to kill them by enchanting their ship's anchor to drag them underwater. Unfortunately for the heroes, they still stalk the Cove as monsters.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Brigand Vvulf]]
->"''Flames on the horizon, sulfur in the air, the wolves are at the door!''"
[[quoteright:295:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/600px_vvulf.png]]
''[[caption-width-right:295:"The Vvulf has rallied his men! Push through the Brigand hordes, defeat him!"]]''
Vvulf is the leader of the Brigands who plague the land surrounding the Hamlet, and has long been planning an invasion of the town itself. He is a dangerous and versatile foe, and can easily stand toe-to-toe with your hardest warriors. Armed with his Tower Shield and a barrel full of bombs, he can deal massive damage and guard his men from any attacks your heroes try to dish out. When he and his Brigands decide to invade the Hamlet, prepare for war.

* AchillesHeel: The Man-at-Arms guarding. The Man-at-Arms can easily ensure Vvulf will never hit his bombs on anyone but the Man-at-Arms himself, and the protection it will grant him will make him shrug it off. To a lesser extent, a Vestal specializing in healing will probably be necessary to keep the Man-at-Arms going, and stress heals are probably vital to get to Vvulf at all, since the Brigands and Madmen in his dungeon will otherwise definitely build up stress to your party before ever fighting him.
* AnimalMotifs: Wolves. He wears a wolf's pelt over his back, and his forces are like a pack of wolves hunting down their prey, with him as their alpha. The mission to fight him is appropriately named "Wolves at the Door".
* ArcSymbol: Vvulf painted the game's stress symbol over a skull on his massive shield.
* ArcVillain: Of the Brigand Incursion event. He has no relation to the horrors beneath the manor and instead uses the opportunity of the party being away from the Hamlet to sack it of its riches.
* BadassNormal: Like the rest of the Brigands, he's human. A very formidable human, but a human nonetheless. A human boss fought on Darkest difficulty, which means that he can stand on the same ground as the hellish monstrosities in the Darkest Dungeon itself.
* BeardOfEvil: He's got a pretty big beard and is also the leader of a band of brutal, butchering brigands battering the badly-beaten Hamlet for blood and bounty.
* BigBadEnsemble: As the leader of the Brigands, Vvulf is the one enemy in the game who has nothing to do with the Heart of Darkness, competing with it to destroy the heroes and the Hamlet.
* BigBadWannabe: An interesting case of the Wannabe not deliberately ''trying'' to be a Wannabe. While Vvulf is a threat to the hamlet and a very formidable boss, he's also just a human with the misfortune of being put in a CosmicHorrorStory. It's hard to view him as having the same threat level as the EldritchAbomination that's currently poised to destroy all of creation; he's just a local problem, and the real enemy is more apocalyptic.
* CrosshairAware: Not unlike The Prophet, he'll place a bomb on a character spot in your formation at the beginning of the round that will blow up at the end of the round, dealing massive damage to the character in that spot unless they destroy the Barrel of Bombs that accompanies him on each round.
* EliteMooks: Leads his own personal cohort of outlaws, identifiable by their wolf pelts. Better-equipped and better-trained than your average bandit, they cannot only take a lot of damage but dish out a ton.
* EvilLaugh: Lets one out when he's encountered, and more if he gets a CriticalHit on your heroes.
* FlunkyBoss: He'll summon beefed-up versions of Brigand Cutthroats to assist him in the battle.
* KilledOffForReal: Unlike most bosses, Vvulf can only be killed once. Doing so will prevent the Brigand Incursion from happening again for the rest of the current playthrough.
* LargeAndInCharge: The leader of the Brigands and far larger than the average man, at least in appearance. Gameplay-wise, he's actually Average-sized and only takes up one enemy slot in the field.
* LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe: Carries a ''massive'' tower shield as his primary weapon, which humorously is dwarfed by his own size in comparison. Works both for him [[ShieldsAreUseless and against him]]. On one hand, the [[DemonicSpiders Brigand]] [[EliteMooks Raiders]] he summons can become nearly untouchable with his skill Tower Shield, where he redirects the damage meant for them towards himself instead. On the other hand, though, this gives your front-line heroes a way to deal damage to Vvulf still reliably, as he'll move backwards and away from the frontline as he summons more Raiders.
* MakeMeWannaShout: Aside from throwing Bombs, he only directly attacks the heroes through his battle shouts. One skill named Get Them! has Vvulf shout at the heroes for ScratchDamage, but it summons a Brigand to join the fight to add to the damage he can deal. His other skill, War Cry, has him roaring at the heroes, intimidating them and dealing stress damage.
* OutsideGenreFoe: The only faction leader to be a regular human being, albeit a heavily armed one. In a game filled with eldritch horrors, cults of the old gods, cannibalistic witches, undead sorcerers, demonic pigs, and fish people, the bomb-throwing bandit chieftain is a decided oddity.
* PsychoForHire: He was a notorious mercenary, hired by the Ancestor to keep the townsfolk in line. Now he's turned bandit and plans to burn the Hamlet down and take what little the townspeople have left for his own profit and amusement.
* TacticalSuicideBoss: Though he generally remains in the back ranks, he'll frequently use a Guard ability on his minions in the front ranks, making it much easier for close-range heroes (like the Crusader and the Leper) to hit him.
* ThrowDownTheBomblet: His primary form of attack is tossing bombs at your heroes. Destroying his Barrel O' Bombs will temporarily disable the attack, but he can summon a new one on his next action.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:The Collector]]
->"''The twisted faces of the damned, piled high, and cloaked in malice.''"
[[quoteright:295:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/collectorpic.jpg]]
''[[caption-width-right:295:"The sparkling eyes of youth — twisted and made merciless!"]]''
An elusive being with a hobby more sinister than gathering harmless trinkets, it travels through the corridors of the dungeons, collecting the severed heads of fallen heroes he comes across. A tall and terrifying figure – a King in Yellow, Desecrator of Graves and Bodies, Beheader of Corpses. The Collector is shaped like a man, dressed as a man, has the skull of a man, but the similarity ends there. What is hidden underneath that yellow cloak is an inhuman monster, a horrid amalgamation of severed heads and torn-out spines twisted together into a nightmarish mass of flesh and skulls. He's a rare encounter in any given dungeon once the party's pack is more than 85% full.

* AchillesHeel: Stuns. Because of the Collector's low stun resistance, it is very easy to get him down to half his health or below before he is able to summon his heads for support, particularly if he's surprised.
* BodyOfBodies: Body of Heads, to be precise.
* CollectorOfTheStrange: Of Human Heads, which he uses as {{Mooks}} during battle and occasionally drops when beaten.
* DemBones: Downplayed, his head is only a skull, but his body is composed of his collection of severed heads. Fittingly, he lacks the Unholy enemy classification.
* FlunkyBoss: Summons the severed heads of the Vestal, Man-at-Arms, and Highwayman to fight by his side. The heads float with their spines dangling down, and create a body out of blue energy when they act. Its own offensive ability is lacking, but the heads will gladly compensate.
* FromNobodyToNightmare: [[https://i.redd.it/eypvrj75uyd71.jpg The origin comic]] included with the Darkest Dungeon board game offers at least a possible beginning for the Collector. Namely, it got its start as a lowly Bone Rabble skeleton, one of the weakest mooks in the game. Things changed when it got its hands on a wealth of the Ancestor's artifacts and came into contact with a Red hook idol, giving it the physical strength to [[OffWithHisHead rip a Highwayman's head clean off.]]
* GhostlyGlide: Levitates off the ground with his body hunched forward.
* GlassCannon: Compared to other bosses, he really can't take that much punishment, easily going down in two-three turns if he's surprised or stunned. However, his heads can bring a lot of pain if left alive.
* GlowingEyelightsOfUndeath: The Collector himself gains them when he uses his Life Steal attack, and all the heads he's collecting have glowing blue eyes.
* HumanoidAbomination: It's got the general shape of a human, but that's where the similarities end. Even the human skull that acts as his head may not have originally been his to begin with. Fittingly, it is of the Human/Eldritch type, rather than the [[TheUndead Unholy]] type.
* HurricaneOfPuns: Almost all of his and his minions attacks' names are puns. ("Collect Call", "Gnawing Sensation", "Head Games"...)
* LifeDrain: His aptly named Life Steal attack damages a hero and heals him.
* MetalSlime: A rare and powerful enemy, though not quite as much as the Shambler, who drops one of three powerful trinkets or a very valuable gem each time he's beaten.
* OptionalBoss: A random encounter in dungeon hallways, he has about as much health as a Shambler and can summon some fairly potent Mooks, but killing him gives some fairly powerful trinkets.
* ShoutOut: [[Literature/TheKingInYellow He wears a crown and tattered yellow robes.]]
* TheSpook:
** Compared to all the horrors in the Estate. Even though the Shambler has some documentation, the ritual for its summoning is known and mostly related to what's beneath the Manor. The Collector is just something ''else'', and from his appearance, fighting style, and everything involved in his existence, it's not clear what his connection is to everything happening in the Manor, or even if that connection exists. The Ancestor has nothing on it, and the Hamlet's denizens and the missions never bring it up. It's just something from Beyond that caught wind of the misery in the Estate and wanted in, having no stake in the entire battle between the heroes and what's beneath otherwise. Barring, perhaps, the ever-growing number of corpses in the vicinity, and thus the opportunity to add to its collection...
** Commentary from [[https://www.reddit.com/r/darkestdungeon/comments/7fzkjc/ama_chris_bourassa_cofounder_of_red_hook_studios/dqfjmv1/ one of the developers]] suggests that the Collector [[HorrorHunger sustains himself by using the heads he's collected]], and without them, he'll crumble away.
* WakeUpCallBoss: Can be randomly encountered literally on the first expedition after the tutorial level. The tools for reliably beating him (stunning him, moving him forward, and being able to hit him while he's in the back line) are ones that not every possible party might have. They are ones that any solid party probably ''should'' have.
* YourSoulIsMine: It's implied that he collects not only the heads of his victims, but their souls as well.

[[folder:The Shambler]]
->"''Behold the infinite malignity of the stars!''"
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/darkestdungeon2_shambler.png]]
''[[caption-width-right:350:"The space between worlds is no place for mortal men."]]''
[[quoteright:350:[[labelnote:Click here to see it in the first ''Darkest Dungeon'']]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shambler.jpg]][[/labelnote]]
A primeval nightmare summoned from the darkest recesses of the unknown, a star-spawned horror, an infinite malignity of the stars that inhabits the Void between Worlds that was never meant to be seen by mortal men. The Shambler is a truly nightmarish beast that lurks in the shadows, waiting until all forms of light are extinguished so that it can enter the world to hunt its prey and feed its spawn. It is guaranteed to drop an [[InfinityPlusOneSword Ancestral Trinket]](or a unique trinket in ''II'') upon defeat. As long as one keeps ample torchlight, however, it will never be encountered this way. Instead it can be found by holding up a torch to randomly occurring Shambler's Altars, which can be found in random hallways in ''VideoGame/DarkestDungeon'' and certain Academic's Studies in ''VideoGame/DarkestDungeonII''.

* AchillesHeel:
** Parties that can move around a lot won't have an ''easy'' time, but they'll definitely have an easi''er'' time. The Shieldbreaker is particularly notable for this; both the Shambler and its Spawn can gain quite high Protection ratings, and the Shieldbreaker can bypass it. The minions are also vulnerable to DamageOverTime; their stacking PROT doesn't help against bleeds and blights.
** The Shambler's skills hit the entire party at once, which makes it vulnerable to a party rife with Riposte skills. The counterattacks it triggers will allow the party to maintain the offensive on its Tentacles without needing to worry about using extra turns to damage the Shambler.
* BrownNoteBeing: This being's existence causes stress damage on the heroes. In one [[ApocalypticLog journal]], it merely showing up is enough to drive at least one hero completely insane, and the survivors react with horror at merely remembering the battle.
* CastingAShadow: If summoned from an altar, the Shambler will automatically immediately snuff out the torch and cannot be relit while fighting it.
* CombatTentacles: Summons them to attack the party; it also uses the many slithering ones on its body to inflict high stress on any heroes unlucky enough to be touched by it.
* DarkIsEvil: Heavily associated with dim lighting and darkness in general. The creature itself is bathed in shadow, and coloured like the night itself.
* DarknessEqualsDeath:
** Utter darkness signals the Shambler's appearance, which more often than not heralds death for the heroes. The implication is that ''it's been hunting the party the entire time'' but can only come out when there's no light.
** With a snuffed torch, no place is safe from the Shambler. ''Not'' snuffing the torch out ''during the tutorial'' should go without saying.
* DifficultButAwesome: In both games, beating the Shambler offers some truly stellar rewards, but it's not by any means going to be easy, even with a heavily buffed party that just rested. In ''VideoGame/DarkestDungeon'' it drops [[InfinityMinusOneSword Ancestral Trinkets]] and some other high-value goodies. In ''VideoGame/DarkestDungeonII'' it drops one of its own unique set of indelible Shambler Trinkets, as well as rewarding two Mastery Points and giving a full Torch refill.
* TheDreaded: Heroes facing the Shambler do ''not'' like facing the Shambler, suffice to say.
* EarlyBirdBoss: Snuffing the torch means it's possible to face the boss at the ''start of the game''. While not impossible to defeat it at that state, it is still immensely difficult.
* EldritchAbomination: The Shambler truly is a creature of nightmare. A being from the elder days that continues to haunt humanity from the shadows, the Shambler is a multi-tentacled horror, that constantly delivers endless stress damage on the heroes by simply ''existing''. It also has the most obviously Lovecraftian inspired creature design in the game.
* {{Expy}}: Its design is highly reminiscient of descriptions of a [[Literature/AtTheMountainsOfMadness Shoggoth]], although instead of being an amorphous, ever-shifting mindless BlobMonster it's some kind of [[SuperPersistentPredator hyper-predatory]] LivingShadow being that lives in a realm between the dark places humans cannot see.
* EyesDoNotBelongThere: Absolutely ''covered'' in many glowing red eyes, all visible like any other eldritch creatures, despite the game's otherwise HiddenEyes artstyle.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: The battle against the Shambler teleports the party to a cosmic realm, hinting at the true nature of the [[spoiler:FinalBoss and the game's true CosmicHorrorStory]].
* HeroKiller: Already has a reputation for ruining thousands of runs, but the true qualifier for this trope is all the heroes it's devoured in InUniverse diary entries.
* IncreasinglyLethalEnemy: The Shambler Spawn/Shambler Tentacles only have one move, Clapperclaw, which [[BoringButPractical does a lot of damage]]. The catch is that every time they use this, they get a PROT buff/Armor tokens, a damage boost, a speed boost and a boost to their crit rate, until they're [[UnwinnableByDesign critting your heroes every single turn before they can react and are nigh-unkillable]].
* KaizoTrap: Unlike the Necromancer, the Shambler Tentacles are not considered Minions that disappear when the Shambler is killed, meaning you can ''still lose after killing it'' if you're unlucky.
* MagikarpPower: Not the Shambler itself, but the Shambler Spawn it creates gain powerful buffs every time they attack, and they can radically stack horrifying PROT and damage capabilities if left to their devices.
* MamaBear: Bringing the Shambler’s Spawn pet into the fight results in the Shambler gaining a +4 speed and ''100% damage'' buff. Defeating it in this state nets you the "[[WesternAnimation/TheLionKing Circle Of Life]]" achievement.
* MetalSlime: A rare and powerful monster that drops high-tier trinkets when killed; indeed, it's the ''only'' drop source for a handful of Ancestral trinkets.
* MookMaker: Can summon Shambler Tentacles that do both stress damage and blight, but the worst part is they get more powerful as the fight progresses.
* OptionalBoss: It's a random encounter at complete darkness, but it can also be summoned at its altars if a torch is used. There is a ''very'' good reason why it's optional. It will also always catch the party by surprise, disrupting formations.
* OutsideContextProblem: {{Implied}} by the existence of the Shuffling Horror below, which appears to be a Shambler that was corrupted by That Which Came From The Portal, which means that regular Shamblers ''aren't'' connected to it.
* PrimalFear: Much of the FlavorText surrounding it talks about how humanity has always feared the dark and offers the suggestion that ''this thing is the reason for that fear''.
* RushBoss: Killing it quickly is a great way to avoid three of your heroes being on Death's Door due to repeated Clapperclaw crits, only to get wiped out all at once by an Obdurous Advancement. High-DPS parties are great for this reason, but beware if they require specific ranks and get shuffled around, as you'll be wasting precious time putting them back in order.
* SuperPersistentPredator: If it's summoned bu the party runs away, it ''will'' appear again as the next encounter; your only means of escaping at that point by returning to the Hamlet. Don't summon it unless you're ready to kill it.
* VolumetricMouth: Its mouth opens surprisingly wide, suggesting a jaw system similar to that of a snake.
* WeaponizedOffspring: {{Implied}}. "They are its larval offspring." is one of the first possible explanations that comes to mind for the Shambler Spawn.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:The Shrieker]]
->"''This feathered fiend is still a raven at heart.''"
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/800px_shrieker.png]]
''[[caption-width-right:350:"Like the Noble Raven depicted on our family's Coat of Arms, this poor creature has seen better days."]]''
Deep within the heart of the Weald stands a gigantic tree that towers above all other trees, and hidden within the gnarled and twisted branches of this tree is the Shrieker's Nest. Like the Noble Raven depicted on the Heir's family’s coat of arms, this poor creature has seen better days, for the corruption that plagues the estate has twisted this feathered bird into a {{feathered fiend}}. Despite being corrupted, this feathered fiend is still a raven at heart and has an eye for everything that glitters and shines. The Shrieker scavenges corpses of your fallen heroes for trinkets and may even directly steal from the Hamlet's Trinket Inventory on occasion. It can be pursued it in a town event quest to retrieve them.

* AnimalisticAbomination: It was previously a normal raven, but the corruption of the Weald has twisted it into a hulking, multi-eyed otherworldly monster. Fittingly, it's of the Eldritch/Beast type.
* BrownNote: The Shrieker's cries are explicitly described as maddening to human ears, and the huge shriek it belts out when it flees the battle is terrible enough to inflict upwards of ''50 stress'' on each hero.
* BrownNoteBeing: The Shrieker's stress-damaging cries are an innate part of its being, and not a voluntary choice.
* CollectorOfTheStrange: Collects Trinkets. Justified, since as a raven, it is attracted to shiny objects. It has its own hoard of stolen trinkets, which it stores within its nest.
* CreepyCrows: A mutated, thieving raven, who will attack you if you try to retrieve the trinkets it stole from you. Can also summon a whole murder of the things to [[ZergRush mob]] your party.
* DirtyCoward: While the Shrieker is horrifying, it still has the mentality of a crow; if it knows it can't win ([[TimeLimitBoss or gets bored]]), it'll fly away, screaming.
* FeatheredFiend: An avian monstrosity that wants nothing more than to feast on your heroes' cadavers, and steal their glittering baubles from their corpses. And if they're not already dead, it'll be all too happy to correct that little issue when confronted directly.
* HoldTheLine: Although the Shrieker is a difficult boss that can turn up before you have a party capable of defeating it outright, completing the quest only requires that you outlast the Shrieker. After four turns, it will simply fly away, allowing you to retrieve the trinkets it took as long as at least one of your heroes survived.
* LightningBruiser: The Shrieker has a ridiculous Dodge attribute, making even laying a glove on it a challenge. Meanwhile, it can inflict all manner of mischief to your party, including the ever-popular method of disease-laden projectile vomit.
* MakeMeWannaShout: Has three skills of this nature that all deal massive stress damage: Caw, which is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin; [[StealthPun Call the Murder]], a loud caw that summons a horde of ravens to swarm your party; and [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere Shrieking Flight]], which makes the Shrieker let out a deafening caw while fleeing from the battle.
* ScrewThisImOutOfHere: Once the fight turns against it, the Shrieker will fly away from the battle, ending it immediately.
* ThievingMagpie: While it's a raven and not a magpie, once per playthrough it can steal from your Trinket Inventory, forcing you to engage in a boss battle against it if you want your valuable trinkets back. It will also scavenge trinkets from dead heroes and collect those lost in town activities too.
* TimeLimitBoss: Downplayed; to complete its related quests, you have to [[HoldTheLine survive for four turns]], after which it flees the battle, and you can reap the rewards. However, if you want even better rewards, the trope plays itself in full — in these four turns, you have to destroy its nest. If you can manage that, you'll gain valuable treasure.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Shuffling Horror]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shuffle.png]]
A boss battle encountered in the first Darkest Dungeon mission. It is a corrupted version of the Shambler. Despite their relation, it has a different fighting style than its healthier relative, preferring to inflict bleed damage and [[MeaningfulName shuffle party formations]]. This is living proof that nothing is safe from the Corruption of the Darkest Dungeon.

* AchillesHeel: A party that can attack from multiple positions can easily overcome the Shuffling Horror's main gimmick of scattering your formation. Highwaymen, Jesters, a Crusader with Holy Lance in his moveset, Hellions, any character that isn't bound to a single spot can do well against it.
* DamageOverTime: What the Shuffling Horror will use primarily to harm targets, since by itself it isn't terribly damaging with its direct attacks, relying mostly on the Cultist Priests it summons to do the damage.
* EldritchAbomination: Slightly more of one than the Shambler, this one has fleshy growths with extra mouths and eyes scattered on its body.
* EnemySummoner: Will summon either a Cultist Priest or a Defensive Growth to assist it in the fight whenever possible.
* KeystoneArmy: {{Averted}}. Defeating the Shuffling Horror doesn't cause the Cultists to vanish; the party can still die afterward. The game will still identify it as a completed quest, since [[ExactWords you defeated the Horror]], even [[PyrrhicVictory at the cost of your party]].
* PunnyName: As stated in the character description, "shuffling" could refer to both its movements and the way it "shuffles" your party members around.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:The Final Boss ('''SPOILERS''')]]
!!The Heart of Darkness
[[quoteright:306:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sans_titre_11.png]]
[[caption-width-right:306:''"We are born of this thing, made from it. And we will be returned to it, in time."'']]

->''"Far below, life-laden shadows pulse to the unrelenting rhythm of a beating heart."''

The true BigBad, and the thing responsible for the horror plaguing the Hamlet.

The Heart of Darkness is the source of all the horror and corruption plaguing the state, an eldritch god of unknown origin. Through the shade of your Ancestor, it claims it created humanity, then went to sleep in the depths of the world until it was roused during the Ancestor's foolish quest for knowledge. It is a slumbering, ethereal, and omnipresent deity manifested through your Ancestor's misdeeds, whose form became a vessel for the creature to cross over, and is revered by the cultists and priests of the Darkest Dungeon who have, under the influence of its cosmic power, became distorted entities of multiple mouths, eyes, and tentacled appendages. Just as a kicker, it takes some resemblance to humanity to try and prove its point.

* AchillesHeel: Since status effects transfer between its different forms, the right team can give it a ridiculous amount of Blight and Bleed.
* AlwaysAccurateAttack: "Come Unto Your Maker", an unavoidable, [[UnblockableAttack unblockable]], [[NoSavingThrow can't be Death's Door'd]] OneHitKill. At least it only uses this twice, and you get to choose who dies to it.
* TheAssimilator: It absorbs other beings and/or makes them more like itself, and might have been the shade of the Ancestor all along, goading you into feeding it with dead heroes and accelerating its resurrection. Its cultists also come to resemble it more and more in the final dungeon. From its perspective, after all, it is only recalling something [[PiecesOfGod that used to be a part of it]].
--> ''"You still foolishly consider yourself an entity separate from the whole, but I know better. [[PunctuatedForEmphasis And I. Will. Show you.]]"''
* ArcSymbol: What's in all likelihood ''its'' symbol, it also fits in one more subtle representation with its bony forehead.
** [[spoiler:The sequel reveals that it is actually the symbol of the [[GreaterScopeVillain Iron]] [[AnthropomorphicPersonification Crown]].]]
* BigBad: Its existence is why you're here in the first place.
* BreakThemByTalking: Gives a BreakingLecture at the beginning while disguised as the Ancestor. The appropriate response is listed below.
* BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu: Even if you defeat the Heart of Darkness, it will almost certainly cost you two of your party of four in the process, unless you manage to deal ''tremendous'' damage to the monster before "Come Unto Your Maker hits", or ''only'' fight it with two heroes so the attack goes unused.
* DeadPersonImpersonation: Takes the Ancestor's form during the first two phases of the final battle. It may or may not be his voice guiding you throughout the game.
* DidntThinkThisThrough: On the Heart's side, having given the Occultist character class eldritch powers, only to have them aid in its defeat possibly. Justified, the Heart probably knew any defeat [[AsLongAsThereIsEvil would never be permanent]].
* DoNotTauntCthulhu: A number of the heroes will attempt to taunt it when about to be sacrificed to its "Come Unto Your Maker" attack. Naturally, it [[OneHitKill won't end well for them]] if they're chosen.
* EldritchAbomination: An unspeakable nightmare from the earliest days of the universe, awakened from its eternity of slumber because the Ancestor DugTooDeep. Its unique enemy type is ''Cosmic'', and it's implied that, even assuming some other fool doesn't wake it, the "stars will align" and cause it to [[EarthShatteringKaboom explode from the earth like an egg]], destroying humanity one way or another. [[UnreliableNarrator Assuming that it's telling the truth.]]
* EvilVersusEvil: [[spoiler:The thing in the Comet is an infant of the same tier of EldritchAbomination as it, and if it were to mature, the two would fight for dominion of the planet. Humanity likely wouldn't survive.]]
* FinalBoss: Its existence is why you're here in the first place.
* FinalExamBoss: Bosses in this game are generally best defeated by specific strategies and precautions that you wouldn't use for normal battles. This one being a SequentialBoss, the ideal team is ready for ''anything'': hero shuffling, enemy shuffling, morale damage, health damage, blight effects, multiple targets, single targets. The difficulty level is not that high compared to what has come before, but the wrong team makeup can get completely stonewalled.
* AGodAmI: Claims to be the god of the world, and the Ancestor mentions that it's the creator of humanity.
* GodIsEvil: Claims it created humanity and is all too willing to try to wipe it out. Whether this is true or not [[UnreliableNarrator is up for debate]].
* GreaterScopeVillain: Your ancestor might be the reason everything went to hell in the estate, but this being is the reason things kept getting worse without him.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Was the one who brought The Heir to the estate, who was the cause of its (possibly temporary) demise.
** Double points if it's the Occultist who deals the killing blow.
* IHaveManyNames: The Ancestor gave it at least four names. In its own case, it refers to itself both as "The black-beast" and "C'THOGUS".
* ImAHumanitarian: It refuses to feed on anything but the flesh and blood of humans. This is also important in [[HarderThanHard Stygian Mode]]: If 12 of your characters die, the Heart will awaken prematurely and destroy the world.
* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: Assuming it sent the letter drawing you to the estate. It ate the ancestor, demonically possessed his spirit, and then goaded you on this wretched journey; not for the sake of redemption, but because all the slaughter and sacrifice you caused to defend your home made it stronger.
* TheMaker: According to the Ancestor, it created the human race. For what reason, or even if it was voluntary, nobody knows.
* MindRape: The final phase has an attack called "Know This", which causes no physical damage, but does tons of stress, presumably by overloading the victim's mind with [[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow eldritch truths]].
* MookMaker: Its first phase focuses on spawning reflections, both perfect and imperfect, which are the things that actually attack you, as well as healing them. The boss himself is immune to all sources of damage, and the only way to harm him is by destroying the imperfect reflections.
* NoSavingThrow: There's no way to protect from "Come Unto Your Maker"; no amount of avoidance, defence, or [[LastChanceHitPoint Death's Door]] will save a character from suffering a OneHitKill when it's used. The only way to survive it is for the attack to simply ''not happen'', which is done two ways, neither of them easy: to nuke it with a single attack[[labelnote:*]]"Come Unto Your Maker" triggers at HP thresholds, specifically at 2/3rds and 1/3rd HP remaining, but it can't cast it on the turn it dies[[/labelnote]], or to fight it with only two characters[[labelnote:*]]an instance of "Come Unto Your Maker" is skipped if a party member is not present (or is already dead) when it would go off[[/labelnote]].
* NoSell: The first form displays "IMMUNE" if hit with any attack. The only way to injure it is to destroy its reproductions -- when enough Perfect Reproductions are destroyed, it has no choice but to create Imperfect Reproductions, which are bound to its health.
* OneHitKill: The bad news: The final phase has an attack that will insta-kill one of your heroes without fail. The not-so-bad news: It uses it only twice, once when its hit points reach 2/3 and 1/3 each; and you are at least given a choice of who's going to face it.
* OurGodsAreDifferent: If the Ancestor is right, this is the creator, this is ''[[GodIsEvil God Himself]]'' staring you in the face.
* PlanetDestroyer: A potential one. If it breaks free, it will destroy the Earth.
-->'''Heart of Darkness:''' '''I WILL SMASH THIS PATHETIC CELL AND RETURN TO THE STARS.'''
* SadisticChoice: When its hit points reach the 2/3 and 1/3 mark, it will perform the attack "Come Unto Your Maker", which forces you to choose a hero who will be devoured, killing them instantly.
* SequentialBoss: It has a whopping ''four'' phases.
** At first, it takes the form of the Ancestor and is, for the most part, a MookMaker.
** After you defeat the Ancestor's first form, he takes a second form that is more of a direct attacker, paired with non-attacking, perfectly-dodging mobs to try and reduce your ways of hitting him.
** After that, it takes the shape of a fleshy cocoon that has no ways of causing direct damage, and in fact heals whoever hits it, but also has a chance of inflicting them with blight, and possesses a party-wide blight attack.
** Finally, from the cocoon emerges the Heart of Darkness's true form, and the true final battle begins.
* ShutUpHannibal: Apparently it never considered the idea that mere mortals could strike it down. The fact you managed to defeat it somehow seems to enrage and confuse it.
* TheTopicOfCancer: If the Polyps, Malignant Growths, and Large Cysts are really part of its body, this thing's not very healthy.
* UnreliableNarrator:
** It and the Ancestor's claims of it being the setting's god (which may in fact be the same thing) would fit the CosmicHorrorStory setting, but the Prophet receiving visions trying to ''prevent'' it from being released, several classes having holy based powers, and even HolyBurnsEvil being in effect (especially the case with the Vestal) does raise questions about if it's as all powerful as it seems. This makes it even harder to tell whether or not it's telling the truth when it claims that [[spoiler:its birth is inevitable and will result in [[TheEndofTheWorldAsWeKnowIt the destruction of the planet]]]].
** ''Color of Madness'' reveals this to be [[spoiler:most likely a lie. With the existence of the Sleeper, an alien EldritchAbomination of the same level as the Heart, and something the Heart actually fears, it turns out the Heart is just another fish in a cosmos-wide pond. It may be the creator of humanity, but it isn't the father of the universe. This throws everything else it says into immense doubt]].
** The sequel not only reveals the malign influence of the Iron Crown exists elsewhere in the world, but the Confession bosses [[spoiler: are all other eldritch entities themed around parts of the human body leading an even more powerful evolution of its cult, suggesting it may simply be a single piece of something ''much'' greater, both adding more ambiguity to the situation and deepening the eldritch horror of the setting.]]
*** [[spoiler:As well, the fact that the Iron Crown is the AnthropomorphicPersonification of everything negative in the human psyche or even a SentientCosmicForce, and is also a GreaterScopeVillain to both the Heart and the Sleeper, casts doubt on its claims of having created humanity. In fact, since the Iron Crown may have sprung from the human psyche, and the Confession Bosses appear to have been the result of the Scholar's actions, that potentially means that humanity created the Heart]].
* WalkingSpoiler: This being is, literally, a [[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow Thing Man Was Not Meant To Know]].
[[/folder]]

! Dungeon Enemies
Along your adventure to clear up the Ancestor's loose ends, your heroes will be facing the hostile monsters and corrupted beasts that have taken over the Estate, most of them exclusive to the dungeon they call home, and others that wander around.

[[folder:Recurring Enemies]]
These foes don't stick to one dungeon, instead preferring to wander around the Estate, and as such can be encountered pretty much anywhere except the Darkest Dungeon. Bandits, Cultists, giant bugs, the undead, they can all be found stalling your progress in between hallways.

Look in the Darkest Dungeon folder information about the Cultist Brawler and Acolyte, as their upgraded versions are [[MovesetClone Moveset Clones]] to the ones you can encounter normally.

[[WMG:Brigands]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cutt.png]]
Eventually, the Ancestor's reputation got to the ears of the people of the Hamlet. When rumors of his experiments and rituals stopped being fascinating and became heretical, they started to rebel against him. To ease the pressure on him, the Ancestor hired bands of mercenaries, killers, and bandits to suppress and cut down the population, most terrifyingly with the help of their [[{{BFG}} giant cannon]] and [[OptionalBoss commanding leader]]. Now that the Ancestor is dead and there's no one to pay them, they've set up camp and are there to milk the Estate for all it is worth. These bandits can be encountered most commonly in the Weald, but they're capable of popping up anywhere.

For more information about the [[DegradedBoss Brigand Bloodletter]], see the Boss Folder.

* BadassNormal: They're not cultists blessed with dark magic, undead warriors, or even eldritch things from the far beyond, just bandits who can lay down the pain just as effectively as everything else plaguing the Estate.
** Taken a step further with the upgraded Brigand Raiders and Hunters that show up in the Wolves At The Door quest, which has the same difficulty rating as the Darkest Dungeon itself.
* BanditClan: The hired thugs formed one to more effectively steal from the region when their payroll ended.
* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: A Brigand's toughness can be determined by the color of their attire. Weak Brigands wear green, tougher variations wear brown, even tougher ones wear a dark blue, and the strongest of them all wear wolf pelts and coats in dark blue.
* CombinationAttack: The Bloodletters and Cutthroats assist each other, where the Cutthroat will issue multi-target bleed debuffs while the Bloodletter will deal a multi-target bleed attack.
* GlassCannon: The Brigand Cutthroats don't sport a whole lot of health or protection, but their swords are capable of inflicting huge amounts of damage thanks to their increased critical hit chance and good bleed damage.
* LongRangeFighter: The Brigand Fusilier wields a blunderbuss, but rather than taking precise and damaging shots, they prefer to lay down some Blanket Fire to cause minor damage to everyone in the party, as well as debuff their dodge skill. It's normally not very dangerous until their debuffs stack up, allowing their Bloodletter and Cutthroat allies to put multiple heroes on Death's Door with their multi-target attacks, giving them a high chance to deal killing blows on several characters at once.
* OutsideGenreFoe: The other factions contain the undead monsters, pig-demons, fishmen, fungal monstrosities, and cosmic horrors one would expect from a game like ''Darkest Dungeon''. The Brigands, as a heavily armed goon squad of highwaymen, thugs, and hired guns, go decidedly against the grain. Tellingly, they're the one faction in the game that the Cultists will not work alongside.
* PsychoForHire: They were an army of brutal mercenaries, in it for the pay and the chance to lord it over the townsfolk. They've now gone rogue, and are as mad as the rest of the enemies around the Estate.
* SupportPartyMember: Oddly enough, the Fusilier are this for the Brigands, who are there to debuff your chances to dodge stronger incoming attacks with Blanket Fire, and at the highest levels act as their stress dealer with each Blanket Fire having the ability to stress the entire party out.

[[WMG:Madman]]
[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/madman6.png]]
Madmen driven insane by the thing in the manor, they shamble around the Estate spouting apocalyptic ravings and accusing the sane of terrible things. Madmen can appear randomly with other monsters in any dungeon. Though physically unimposing, their crazed rants deal massive stress damage, and they're infuriatingly evasive. It's worthwhile to fight them; they always drop loot, and, once in a blue moon, intricate music boxes of uncanny power...

* DamageIncreasingDebuff: His "Accuse" move will make its target take more stress damage until the next camp, or if you have no camp, the whole quest!
* InstitutionalApparel: He wears a straitjacket with its straps ripped apart, freeing his arms that will be clutching his head while he's not shouting at your heroes.
* MadOracle: He shouts terrible revelations and accuses your heroes of their deepest, darkest sins.
* RareRandomDrop: They have a 4% chance to drop one of three music box trinkets (Aria, Overture, and Crescendo), which grant your heroes powerful buffs.
* TheUnintelligible: Constantly shouts in panicked gurgles and moans.

[[WMG:Maggots]]
[[quoteright:150:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/magg.png]]
Giant Maggots that have grown large from the corruption, they will show up in the hallways of the Weald, Ruins, and Warrens between rooms to nibble at your heroes for stress damage and a chance to spread disease.

* BigCreepyCrawlies: Maggots about the size of a torso who love to leap up for a bite out of their targets.
* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: A Maggot's difficulty depends on its shade, the weakest being white, the Veteran dungeon Maggots being shaded yellow, and the toughest being orange.
* TheDividual: Two Maggots take up one space and act as one unit.
* FragileSpeedster: Very quick, but it's not uncommon at all for them to be taken out in one hit from most attacks.
* TheGoomba: Very easy to take out in one turn and weak in their attacks, though encountering them runs the risk of mounting stress and disease that can hinder you later.

[[WMG:Spitters and Webbers]]
[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screenshot_2023_05_24_at_16_01_41_spitter_darkest_dungeon_ii.png]]
[[caption-width-right:200:A Spitter]]
[[quoteright:200:[[labelnote:Click here to see them in the first ''Darkest Dungeon'']]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/spi.png]][[/labelnote]]
[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screenshot_2023_06_10_at_01_04_29_webber_darkest_dungeon_ii.png]]
[[caption-width-right:200:A Webber]]
[[quoteright:200:[[labelnote:Click here to see them in the first ''Darkest Dungeon'']]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screenshot_2023_06_10_at_01_06_27_webber.png]][[/labelnote]]
Giant spiders that mutated from the corruption, they are encountered in hallways in Warrens, Weald, and Ruins where they'll ambush your heroes, and Creature Dens in ''II''. the Spitters attacking with blighted spit and the Webbers with their movement-slowing webs.

* AllWebbedUp: Webbers will try to do this to make targets more vulnerable by slowing their speed down or even stunning them for a turn.
* BigCreepyCrawlies: Giant fanged spiders.
* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: Spitters and Webbers distinguish themselves by being colored either green or orange, Spitters as the former and Webbers as the latter.
* CombinationAttack: The move Web will stun and mark targets for the Spitters to focus down with blight attacks. Individually weak, the two combined can quickly down heroes on higher difficulty levels.
* CreepyCamelSpider: Their redesign in ''II'' makes them look like a cross between regular spiders and this.
* FragileSpeedster: The spiders are fast, have high Dodge, but have so little health that they can get squashed in one hit.
* GlassCannon: Spitters definitely more so than Webbers, but still. If the Webbers manage to apply [[DamageIncreasingDebuff Marked/Combo]] on your heroes, they will take some serious damage, and you'd better hope it doesn't crit. That being said, high-damage party members can often one-shot them if they can actually hit them.
* LongRangeFighter: Spitters are especially deadly at range when striking a marked target, as their attacks will deal double damage with a high percentage chance of a critical hit. Against unmarked targets or up close (where they are forced to use their weak bite attack), not so much the case.
* SuperSpit: Spitters can do massive damage and inflicit serious Blight on heroes with Marked/Combo on them. In ''II'' their spit gains a high chance to apply Blind tokens, making them even harder to hit if they keep spitting at your damage dealers.
* TargetSpotter: Webbers function as one for a Webber-Spitter combination. They mark a target, stunning them, increasing the damage of spit attacks, and encouraging the whole spider group to gang up on the helpless hero.

[[WMG:Bone Rabble]]
[[quoteright:281:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rabb_8.png]]
A skeleton come to life again, they're common encounters in the Ruins but can show up in the hallways of the Weald and the Warrens. Unlike their soldier counterparts, though, they're not very well-armed or protected in the slightest.