Line #83 YMMV/DarkestDungeon


1	* AccidentalInnuendo: Much fun has been had with the fact that [[spoiler:The Heart of Darkness' SadisticChoice attack is called "Come Unto Your Maker", which obviously has an intended nonsexual meaning of "Return to the one who created you", but those with dirtier minds can easily simplify into "[[PowerDynamicsKink come on your daddy]]"]].
2	* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
3	** The final dungeon brings up a ton of this for the Ancestor. [[spoiler:Did he truly regret his actions, or was it all an act so that the Heir would come and sacrifice more souls to the Heart of Darkness in their crusade? He claims that he killed himself to both deny the villagers justice and become the Heart's avatar, but it might not really be the Ancestor speaking — it's possible that the Heart just assumed his form, or made him its puppet, or is creating an illusion to try breaking the Heir's mind before it's killed (which [[DrivenToSuicide does succeed]], albeit a bit too late). And on that note, ''is'' the Heart the source of humanity and as invincible as the ending cinematic claims, or is it an alien corruption that could someday be utterly destroyed? As mentioned on the main page, there does seem to be some level of genuine divine power bestowed by the Light, and perfectly ordinary guns and swords can damage the Heart.]] In short, it's UnreliableNarrator to the max.
4	*** In another bout for the Ancestor, [[spoiler:serving the Blood from the Countess to the aristocrats has been up for debate]]. Was it truly a shining example of the Ancestor being an idiot and tampering with things he didn't know? Was he subconsciously tempted to [[spoiler:serve it as a sick joke towards his social circle of "bloodsuckers"]]? Or was [[spoiler:the Countess showing her true colors during his murder attempt giving him, as the opportunist he is, a perfect chance and means to eliminate the aristocracy of the Hamlet in one fell swoop to claim their assets as his own?]] It doesn't help that his attitude towards the other aristocrats has a hint of EvenEvilHasStandards.
5	** Due to the nature of the backstory comics' lack of dialogue and ambiguity, this raises a few questions for the classes:
6	*** Did the Highwayman undergo a HeelFaceTurn because [[TheAtoner he couldn't stand the guilt]] over [[EvenEvilHasStandards shooting a mother and child]], or was it because he shot his own family?
7	*** At the end of the Antiquarian’s comic, it isn't shown whether the Antiquarian chooses to save the captive woman or not. Is she an AntiHero who frees the woman and lets her go, or an OpportunisticBastard who sacrificed her after killing her own master? One of her unique Crimson Court trinkets implies the latter. However, WordOfGod, by stating that the master's essence is in the censer, implies the former, since in that instance she wouldn't have ''needed'' to kill her, as the censer had already been given a sacrifice.
8	*** Did the Grave Robber fall into her titular career out of genuine desperation or was she was more selfishly trying to keep up her lifestyle? What did she really think of her deceased husband? Speaking of him, how much of her straits is really his fault?
9	*** Is the Hellion a coward like she truly believes she is for hiding from a fight that perhaps could have been won, or did she make a perfectly logical decision in avoiding a hopeless battle that her warrior upbringing makes her blame herself wrongly?
10	*** What broke the Man-at-Arms? The unfortunate demise of the younger man he was carrying combined with him being the SoleSurvivor? Or was it really his choice of going to the green standard that caused them both to be targeted by the cannons, thereby leading to his need of atonement? Was the standard a signifier of safer ground of some kind, or just a unit standard that the Man-at-Arms refused to abandon for whatever (probably not logical) reason?
11	*** Due to the Bounty Hunter seemingly being OnlyInItForTheMoney and the Plague Doctor's ForScience attitude, how much of their choice in traveling to the Hamlet and aiding the Heir is out of genuine heroism?
12	*** Is the Vestal a woman who's genuinely a bit overly dirty-minded and, unfortunately also in the wrong job, or is her no-doubt strict lifestyle giving her unrealistic expectations of her own mind that she's stressing herself over?
13	*** Is the Flagellant truly a man of astute faith, with self-sacrificial intentions; or is he a man who seeks to be worshiped by others, through the use of awe with sadistic masochism?
14	*** Was the Jester just a court entertainer who [[TheDogBitesBack snapped at his mistreatment by his king?]] Or was he actually an assassin who was out to kill the king and who just so happened also to be a court jester? [[spoiler:His backstory in the sequel points at the former.]]
15	*** Was the Abomination transformed into one by cultist experiments or was he always one and killed the people trying to deal with him?
16	*** Why does the Crusader leave his family? Is it because he realizes he has changed too much ever to be a family man again? Or perhaps he is so far gone that he either no longer cares for them or even recognizes them.
17	*** The Hound Master is implied to be the only truly heroic character in the game and a competent officer to boot, but then how was he oblivious to the corruption of his own police force? Is he a hero jaded by the corruption of his peers or a "good" cop who ignored the corruption of his peers until it became too great for his conscience to bear? In either case, he abandoned his duty to his town and the law.
18	** How much of the Narrator's voice is the Ancestor and [[spoiler:the Heart of Darkness]], and how much of it is simply the Heir's own slowly-failing sanity, hopes, and desires? And on top of that, there's the interpretation that some of the Narrator's lines are commentary by the divine forces supporting the religious heroes in their struggles.
19	* AluminumChristmasTrees: A man whipping himself into religious fervor, smiling and laughing through anguish and agony, may seem like the hopeless grittiness of the setting taken to extremes, but he has as much real-life precedent as crusaders and plague doctors. Self-mutilation rituals are not unheard of in various religions. Flagellation as penance in particular, was widespread in the dark ages and medieval Christianity, with multiple brotherhoods and orders ''dedicated'' to the practice. They were seen to wander the land in periods of great crisis, such as plagues and famines, whipping themselves before crowds while explaining that God was punishing the world with hardship and they needed to repent in order to appease Him.
20	* AntiClimaxBoss: [[spoiler:The Heart of Darkness]] is a long, 4-stage fight with several unique gimmicks that, while a fitting battle in terms of spectacle, is not very hard to deal with. Though it can deal a lot of stress damage, it deals very little actual damage to your heroes, has only one action per turn each phase, and the fight becomes easier in the later phases, with the last phase not even having any attacks that can hit your entire party. The only thing to really worry about is [[spoiler:the OneHitKill attack that it does twice during the last phase, but even then, you can choose which one of your party members the attack hits, allowing you to hold on to your damage dealers]].
21	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The soundtrack is a suite of brilliantly dark orchestral work, peppered with strange background instruments, low choruses, and distorted industrial sounds. So much that it now has its [[AwesomeMusic/DarkestDungeon own page]].
22	* BreatherBoss: After the [[ThatOneBoss abject nightmare]] that is the Countess in the Crimson Court DLC, the Garden Guardian is slim pickings, particularly for a team that revolves around marking. Good thing, too, as the player is meant to fight it over and over again to farm the unique trinkets it drops. While it can rack up bleed damage rather quickly with Feed The Soil and its Plummeting Doom can hit hard too, breaking the spear is honestly a matter of [[GlassCannon marking it with something and nailing it with an Arbalest]]. Once that's taken care of, the boss has almost no real way to kill your party unless you break the shield: without a spear, the Guardian is left with Plummeting Doom, which hits once every other turn, giving the player plenty of breathing room to heal up in preparation.
23	* ComeForTheGameStayForTheMods: ''VideoGame/DarkestDungeon'' has a collective seven years of mods ready for the player to download, some of which are high-quality enough to be unofficially labelled "free [=DLC=]" by the fanbase. Especially noteworthy are ''VideoGame/TheSunkenCityCollection'', since it's on par with the base game in terms of quality and was good enough to [[PromotedFanboy get its creator Marvin Seo a job at Red Hook Studios]]; ''Vermintide'' and ''Sunward Isles'', which add entire new dungeons with their own unique enemies, curios, and bosses, the former based on ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'''s lore and the latter based on Japanese folklore; and ''VideoGame/BlackReliquary'', which is effectively "''Darkest Dungeon 1.5''" and is an entire separate campaign equivalent in length and difficulty to the base game. One of the more contentious aspects of [[VideoGame/DarkestDungeonII the sequel]]'s switch to TwoAndAHalfD was that it basically killed any chance of that game having a gigantic modding scene like the first, since 3D models are much harder to work with than 2D sprites.
24	* ComplacentGamingSyndrome:
25	** The strategy of killing all enemies save one that's vulnerable to stuns, stun-locking that enemy, and using the damage-free rounds after that to heal up the party with minimal threat has been going around, mainly because longer quests tend to be hard [[NintendoHard even by the game's standards]], especially if the RNG has not been going your way. This has since been patched so that enemies ''and'' your own characters will gain additional stun resistance after being stunned once, making this strategy much more hit-or-miss. This is also compounded by the devs making the characters gain stress if the fight drags on for too long (the characters will say something akin to "Let's finish this fight and move on", which will give everyone stress). Eventually, additional monsters can join the encounter, worsening bad situations.
26	*** Can be restored with the Xmas update, which allows disabling those penalties.
27	*** Can also still be exploited to some degree — size 2 enemies cannot trigger the battle delay stress or the reinforcements that come from the stun-locking tactic, and certain size 1 enemies won't trigger those penalties either.
28	** The other tactic that became popular was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1QNyN8aDCY The Pain Train]]: stacking a team of 4 Hellions and having each one use Breakthrough, a multitarget attack that hits the first three spots of the enemy formation, can be used from anywhere in your position, and has naturally high accuracy and crit chance, at the cost of leaving the Hellion exhausted to keep it from being spammed. Having 4 Hellions use it one after another got around the exhaust penalty and was usually enough to kill any enemy encounter in a single round, while the consistent criticals kept stress levels down. Breakthrough was nerfed soon after.
29	** A similar tactic grew around teams of 4 Crusaders using Holy Lance, a charge attack that targeted the rear positions of the enemy formation and moved the Crusader one space forward. Intended for use as a repositioning tool, it allowed a team of tanky melee fighters to consistently and effectively pummel the enemy's backline while maintaining a powerful frontline.
30	** In the ''Butcher's Circus'', some classes are easy favorites and get seen very frequently. Examples include the Man-At-Arms for his Dodge buff and Stress-inducing damage debuff, the Bounty Hunter for his movement skills and high Deathblow chance, and the Houndmaster, who has a Stress-inducing area attack, [[RegeneratingHealth self-healing]], and Guarding skill.
31	* DifficultySpike:
32	** The jump to Champion-level Dungeons hits hard, as even the lowliest mobs get great boosts to their combat capability, the large creatures you were already facing before reach their true killing potential, the stress flow ''skyrockets'', making stress healers a must, and [[EliteMooks Elite mobs]] start showing up, which will utterly destroy you if your backline damage is lacking. The shift in difficulty is bound to end in at least one failed expedition if you're not ready.
33	** The Darkest Dungeon is also a large step up from even the Champion-level dungeons despite the one-level difference between them. Much of the difficulty lies in the unique mechanics, as the layout is not revealed in advance, Scouting is automatic and only shows adjacent rooms without revealing what is inside, there are no helpful curios to take advantage of, and retreating results in the death of a random hero. The enemies are also rather deadly, throwing out powerful bleeds and high amounts of stress damage.
34	* EnsembleDarkhorse:
35	** Bone Courtiers, an otherwise common stress-dealing mook and the first to be encountered, seem to be the most popular. This is likely because of the usual skeleton obsession the net can have, the fact their Tempting Goblet is usually the first introduction players get to the Stress system and its intricacies, and just the fact there's something both hilarious and great about a posh, aristocratic skeleton that throws wine at people.
36	** The Collector is a random encounter boss that has surprisingly little lore going for it. Aside from a [[BodyOfBodies fascination with his design]], he has an infamous reputation of showing up randomly in any run for unprepared parties thanks to his particularly rough FlunkyBoss nature. As such there's a fair amount of fanart and memes regarding him. [[LegacyBossBattle He even proved popular enough to be one of only two boss enemies from the first game]] to make it into [[VideoGame/DarkestDungeonII the sequel]].
37	* FanNickname:
38	** The Occultist's Abyssal Artillery is occasionally referred to as "Ceiling Spaghetti", due to the visual being eldritch tentacles from above (usually inside roofed caverns and ruins) slapping the enemy around.
39	** Ambrosius to the Ancestor, which means "immortal." He is dead by the time the adventures take place, yet he continues to narrate. To a lesser extent, [[MemeticMutation "Local Man"]] is also thrown around, and there's also "(Crazy) Uncle Wayne", in allusion to Wayne June, his voice actor.
40	** No matter how many Highwaymen and Crusaders are gone through, you'll always find someone who refers to ''all'' Highwaymen and Crusaders as "Dismas" and "Reynauld", after the starting ones.
41	** Due to his crazed grin and BadassPreacher design, fans of ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}'' or [[WebVideo/HellsingUltimateAbridged the abridged series by Team Four Star]] call the Fanatic "Alexander Anderson".
42	** Shard Dust is unsurprisingly frequently called space crack, due to being [[ICantBelieveItsNotHeroin an addictive, mind-shattering stimulant]] [[RecycledWithAGimmick FROM SPACE]]!
43	* {{Fanon}}:
44	** Fanworks tend to use the preset names of the heroes when referring to them, at least if its only one of each hero.
45	** Many fanfics assume that the story takes place in Renaissance/Victorian England, despite many hints that the world only generally looks like our own.
46	** The Heir is common portrayed as female. While there is fanart that of the Heir as male and even ones that stick to the AmbiguousGender trait of the game, they're pretty few and far between compared to female Heir fanworks.
47	* FountainOfMemes: The sheer [[LargeHam over the top hamminess]] of the Ancestor's comments and [[PurpleProse their overwrought verbosity]], done in the style of classic H.P. Lovecraft narration and voiced by Wayne June's distinct voice, has made virtually every line by the Ancestor into a meme of its own.
48	* FriendlyFandoms:
49	** ''Videogame/DarkestDungeon'' fans get along well with fans of ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'', due the dark aesthetic and storylines of both settings, not to mention the focus on difficulty and death as an active mechanic. Because of this, this spills over into the ''VideoGame/ForHonor'' fandom as well, due to the latter two being on friendly terms and the visual aesthetic of certain classes matching ''Darkest Dungeon'' counterparts.
50	** There's also a lot of overlap with ''Literature/GoblinSlayer'', especially since the first episode is a textbook example of an underprepared party getting destroyed by monsters in a dungeon, and how both game and anime emphasize overpreparation to counter how nasty and brutal your typical fantasy dungeon-delving would really be.
51	* GameBreaker:
52	** Around the time of the Inhuman Bondage update, the Plague Doctor's blight got a buff causing, at its base, four damage a turn. On top of that, it could be stacked to do huge amounts of damage a turn — even later-level enemies would melt under such an onslaught. This made the Plague Doctor a must for any area that wasn't infested by Fungi. This is normally counterbalanced by the fact that Blight only does damage on the enemy's turn, but when it does over half their health, that's hardly a problem for long.
53	** Stuns in general. With the right trinkets on characters like The Hellion, Plague Doctor, and Man-At-Arms, you can trivialize most encounters simply by [[CycleOfHurting chain-stunning enemies]] while the rest of your party does the hard work. Hell, you can even trivialize the ''Darkest Dungeon'', bar none the hardest area in the game, with a couple heroes with a stun equipped with trinkets that increase stun chance. This was reduced by later giving all combatants (heroes included) a stacking 50% bonus to stun resistance for a turn after recovering from being stunned, which made stuns a still very reliable tool while preventing [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome just doing them repeatedly]].
54	** After the release of ''The Crimson Court'', the Jester became an extremely effective boss killer, and his Finale skill was able to cut through most of the new bosses with relative ease almost single-handily, which Red Hook emergency patched a few days after release. Finale's current state is that it ''can'' deal a lot of damage, especially with a critical hit, but it takes enough setup that you will, at the very least, need to endure the boss's tender mercies for quite a while before you can finish it off.
55	** In the interval between ''The Crimson Court'' and ''The Color of Madness'', the Flagellant could, with a bit of luck, perform successful solo runs of Champion-level dungeons thanks to his unique near-death-focused mechanics.
56	** In the Butcher's Circus, the Arablest's Rallying Shot is by far the best support skill in the mode. It is able to clear stun/daze, debuffs, removes marks, and unstealths any enemies should it connect. This can outright trivialize several teams should the opposing player not know how to work around it.
57	* GoddamnedBats:
58	** To make a long story short, almost ''any'' enemy designed to deal stress damage can be an exercise in frustration to deal with. Common traits among them include high speed and evade, tendency to target party members already high on stress to bring them closer to affliction, and usually starting in the back rows to limit the ways you can attack them. On top of this, stress damage is more difficult to heal than health, and negative quirks often cause units to take more stress damage when fighting certain enemies or when deployed in certain areas. All of this makes it quite difficult to take them out before the damage has been done.
59	** Bone Courtiers and their upgraded versions. Not only are they almost always the first to attack in a turn, they also have incredibly high accuracy and dodge rating, plus their normal attack, Tempting Goblet, increases stress. The fact they almost always hide at the end of the enemy formation doesn't help. The one saving grace is that dragging them to the front line stops their use of Tempting Goblet dead in its tracks, and they're forced to use the non-stressful Knife In The Dark. Even then, they're still annoying in that they can still hit like a middle ground between a Bone Rabble and a Bone Soldier, the latter of which does deal respectable damage, and being in the front doesn't affect the Courtier's speed and dodge chance at all.
60	** Bone Arbalests. They're a lot like Courtiers, with the one difference being that their normal attacks deal a shitload of damage instead of increasing stress.
61	** Swine Wretches in the Warrens. Much like Bone Courtiers, they're incredibly fast and evasive, but in addition to their attack, Vomit, piling up stress very quickly, unlike Courtiers, moving them to the front doesn't affect their attack disposition at all, and Vomit also has a possibility of inflicting a variety of diseases, such as Tetanus, Syphilis, The Runs, The Yips, and Creeping Cough. Like Rabies, these are permanent unless cured at the Sanitarium. Unlike Rabies, they don't provide any positive side effect and only serve to to make the infected hero borderline useless. Made somewhat less irritating as of the Inhuman bondage update, which separated Quirks and Diseases and made treating the latter cheaper and easier (there's a small chance all diseases will be cured, instead of just the selected one).
62	** Cultist Acolytes will rarely do more than 1 damage in a given turn; instead, they'll either use Stressful Incantation to harm a party member's morale, or Eldritch Pull/Push to force your frontline fighters to the back and your ranged fighters or support to the front. As one might guess, they have high dodge and a tendency to stay in the back row.
63	** The Crones in the Weald are like Cultist Acolytes on crack. They're even faster and dodgier, and their stress and debuff attacks hit two party members simultaneously. Bring her to the front, and she'll use an [=AoE=] Blight attack on your two frontliners. This Blight attack can even inflict diseases, similar to the attacks of Swine Wretches.
64	** Gargoyles are extremely speedy with a high prot stat and immunity to bleed, and will tank most parties like champs. Their claws and tail lashes never break single-digit damage, but the former has a very high crit chance and the latter has a high chance of stunning.
65	** The Madman. Possessing possibly the largest speed and dodge stats of an ordinary enemy in the game, he stands at the back of the opponent's formation and does nothing but increase your heroes' stress with his gibberish. He is the one enemy you don't want to appear towards the end of a run when tensions are running high because there is no avoiding taking significant stress damage from him. Additionally, while his AOE attack stresses out all four party members, his single-target attack can inflict Horror, a Stress-over-time effect that can only be cured by Laudanum (which has so limited uses that you probably didn't take with you) on top of a Stress-increasing debuff that ''lasts until your next camp''.
66	** The Pelagic Shaman is a weak rear-formation stress-causing enemy of the Cove, similar to other ones seen in other dungeons. However, they can also buff one of their allies to increase damage, accuracy, and critical chance, or ''heal'' them. Like Courtiers, this is only mitigated by dragging them to the front line, upon which they're forced to use weaker melee attacks. Failure to deal with an encounter with them present will almost certainly put the odds against you. Things get especially bad if they're paired with a tank enemy, who can protect them while they buff and/or heal the tank
67	** The Rapturous Cultists are annoying despite having no actual attacks. They typically start turns by using Flesh Wall, which makes them absorb the damage given to whomever they're protecting. They typically do this to the far more dangerous Eldritch Priests, meaning you'll have to chew through their solid health bar or give them a good stunning hit before being able to get a whack at the Priests. They can also use Flesh to Flesh, making them heal other party members. Basically, until they're dead, any enemy formation with them in it is impenetrable if you don't have a stunning attack. Bonus points if there's two of them, because they can heal ''each other'' with Flesh to Flesh.
68	** Ectoplasms. They tend to be weak even when the whole party consists of Ectoplasm, but they can multiply quickly, dragging unlucky parties into a long game of whack-a-mole. To make matters worse, they drop no items if there are no other enemies.
69	** Sycophants are giant mosquitoes and are about as difficult to hit as a real one due to their high speed and dodge. They can induce Stress with Maddening Whine, and just when you've got one on the brink of death, it uses The Thirst to heal itself and spread the Crimson Curse.
70	** The regular Farmhands in the Farmstead deal more damage than {{Mooks}} in other areas (except the Pelagic Groupers, which are [[DemonicSpider Demonic Spiders]] in their own right) and can inflict heavy Stress damage with Sow the Seeds, which also has a chance to Blight your heroes. Thankfully, they have low HP, low resistances, and relatively low speed, making them fairly easy to kill.
71	* GoodBadBugs:
72	** A bug included in the first release of the final game added the special boss trinkets (which you get from killing the level 5 version of the bosses) to the list of trinkets your characters could win in the gambling hall. [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments The fandom responded appropriately to the implication of Wilbur going boozing in the Hamlet and gambling away his flags.]]
73	** For a while, all attacks at least had to do 1 ScratchDamage, hilariously allowing a Bounty Hunter to kill an enemy by pointing at them with his Mark Target ability or a Hellion and Man At Arms to ''scream'' multiple enemies dead. This was patched out with the game being re-coded to allow attacks to do no damage.
74	** Heroes used to be able to start with diseases right off of the Stagecoach... like as a Vestal with syphilis.
75	** It's possible to earn the "In such haste..." achievement completely at random, where it would normally be awarded for completion of the game within 99 weeks.
76	* HilariousInHindsight:
77	** Brigand Vvulf's unique quest has your chosen party traversing a ravaged Hamlet set ablaze into a gigantic fiery conflagration by Vvulf's Brigands. All you have to do is replace the Brigands with fanatical iconoclasts and add some BookBurning and you essentially have the Sprawl from ''VideoGame/DarkestDungeonII'', over seven years before the sequel's release.
78	** A modded hero called the Duelist was introduced to the Steam Workshop in 2021. Two years later, the ''The Binding Blade'' DLC would officially add a completely unrelated hero called the Duelist into ''II''.
79	* IronWoobie:
80	** The Gibbering Prophet. He constantly preached against the ancestor in the Hamlet, and as a result the Ancestor tried to have him starved, drowned, and stabbed to death. [[ImplacableMan Not only did none of these work]], they did nothing to deter the Prophet. Tragically subverted when the Ancestor showed the Prophet the portal, revealing the truth of their world, which finally caused the Prophet to snap.
81	** Any hero that gains a virtue, considering what they went through only to be able to NoSell being stressed for so long.
82	** While most of the heroes seem to at least put on a brave front, the Arbalest consistently looks haunted and terrified like all she wants to do is run away. And yet, she keeps fighting.
83	* JerkassWoobie:
84	** Given just how horrible the dungeons can be, anyone who happens to ''develop'' the [[{{Jerkass}} abusive]] affliction while in a dungeon has probably earned a pretty fantastic FreudianExcuse for turning into an unlikable asshole. This also applies to heroes who acquire manias or phobias while in the dungeons.
85	** The Highwayman was a merciless bandit, but [[spoiler:in one robbery, he killed a woman and her child by accident, something that had a massive impact on him and most likely drove him to the Hamlet. What's more, while under the influence of the paranoia quirk, he will sometimes say "Your face, how can you have her face!" implying that he has massive guilt issues over the matter. Some fans have even theorized that they were his lover and child.]]
86	** The Siren, The Drowned Crew, and The Necromancer [[WasOnceAMan were all once people]] [[EtTuBrute that admired or at least trusted The Ancestor]] , with the latter two providing him assistance in his endeavors, before he stabbed them in the back for his own purposes. When you read their backstories, it can be easy to pity them.
87	* {{Jossed}}: WordOfGod jossed a popular fan theory that the woman and child the Highwayman shot and killed in his backstory comic were his family, and revealed [[https://twitter.com/BourassaArt/status/1002710406207496192 he was set up to rob the wrong stage coach]]. Similarly, the lesser-known fan theory that the Highwayman killed the Crusader's wife and child was also [[https://twitter.com/bourassaart/status/781187090201600000 jossed]], although he gave this one his {{approval\|OfGod}}.
88	* LoveToHate: The Ancestor commits so many heinous actions with such casual indifference that most players find themselves ''mesmerized'' by how evil he is rather than disgusted.
89	* MemeticBadass:
90	** Wilbur is the REAL Swine King.[[labelnote:Explanation]]The Swine King's target spotter, Wilbur, has the highest Accuracy of any enemy in the game, to the point of having attacks that are completely impossible to dodge. When the Swine King is defeated, Wilbur will begin spamming an ability called Squeal, which deals minor damage to your entire party with a chance to stun. Given the party-wide stun, Wilbur's accuracy, and the fact that you will likely have at least one party member on the brink of death after fighting the Swine King, it's entirely possible for your band of adventurers to be [[TotalPartyKill wiped out]] by [[UndignifiedDeath a piglet screaming at them]].[[/labelnote]]
91	** APEX PREDATOR [[labelnote:Explanation]]The [[NeverSmileAtACrocodile Crocodilian]], introduced in the Crimson Court DLC, quickly became infamous for being ridiculously strong despite being available to encounter as soon as your fourth expedition. He'll give a lot of trouble even for veteran players and high level heroes [[spoiler:and ''will'' be encountered more than once]]. Few would expect one of the most dangerous enemies of the vampire-themed dungeon to be a [[GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere crocodile with mosquito legs]], but there you go.[[/labelnote]]
92	** The Crusader, thanks to his legendary "[[http://i.imgur.com/NtBU4rd.jpg Zealous]] [[https://orig00.deviantart.net/94ac/f/2016/115/d/5/sneak_peek_02_by_francoyovich-da06qm4.jpg Accusation]]" ability giving him the power to kill skeletons, vampires literally, and [[CosmicHorrorStory mind-shattering Lovecraftian horrors]] by ''showing them a really mean letter he wrote.''
93	--->'''IT SAYS YOU'RE A ''HERETIC!!!'' '''
94	** When it comes to combat, the Antiquarian is probably the weakest class of the game. So of course there are numerous videos dedicated to showing a team of Antiquarians (or a lone Antiquarian) [[CherryTapping defeating the hardest bosses of the game.]]
95	** The Leper, in spite (or perhaps because) of his [[MemeticLoser memetic terrible accuracy]], is often portrayed as a powerful unstoppable juggernaut. It helps that he is canonically badass, since he can fight and slay horrifying beasts with only a broken sword ''while'' crippled by a terrible painful sickness. The fact that he actually takes any hit with open arms probably helps. (Plus, for additional humour, it almost looks like he's t-posing when tanking the hits.)
96	* MemeticLoser:
97	** The first boss you'll likely face in the game, The Necromancer, is often regarded as a joke of a boss battle and at best is only considered to be a very mild challenge. Fanart usually depicts the BlackSpeech speaking, ominously shrouded being responsible for the abundant amount of undead skeletons terrorizing the region as a wimpy loser who is constantly being hunted down/bullied by [[AchillesHeel The Crusader (or 4 Crusaders).]]
98	** Additionally, the Occultist's rare tendency to [[EpicFail heal 0 damage and cause bleed]] gives the community plenty of joke fodder at their expense. Similarly famous was his former potential to ''crit'' for 0 healing and cause bleed.
99	** While it's plenty possible to play around it, the Leper is infamous for missing considering his main skills for causing damage are PowerfulButInaccurate.
100	** The FinalBoss itself, the [[spoiler:Heart of Darkness]], ironically sometimes gets this treatment. It's telling that some of the most seen videos about the game are the ones featuring players one-shotting it with one character (a Jester with Finale, a Leper, or a Musketeer are prime candidates). Or defeating it with Dismas and Reynauld. Or with one Leper. Or with four [[SupportPartyMember Antiquarians]]. Or with ''one'' Antiquarian.
101	* MemeticMutation: [[Memes/DarkestDungeon Has its own page]].
102	* MoralEventHorizon: ''Practically everything'' [[AbusivePrecursors the Ancestor]] did before the start of the game, including [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil selling a young woman into what is practically sexual slavery to the fishmen]], [[UngratefulBastard stabbing his arcane tutors and curio suppliers in the back]] [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder after everything they've done for him]], hiring the [[BanditClan Brigands]] to terrorize the Hamlet into submission, attempting to murder the only person who is rightfully speaking out against him then driving him insane when that doesn't work, feeding civilians to the demon-possessed swinefolk, and ultimately [[spoiler:becoming the herald of [[EldritchAbomination The Heart of Darkness]] and manipulating his own heir into a ThanatosGambit that would give said abomination the strength to [[EarthShatteringKaboom destroy the planet]]]].
103	** Finally, he may have reached it as soon as the beginning when he started the Crimson Court. [[spoiler:He planned on killing the Countess because she seemed power hungry. While it was badass that he was able to fight her off, it also shows how good he was at fighting even back then. Had she been innocent, he would have absolutely butchered her without remorse.]]
104	** The Color of Madness DLC is especially noteworthy, not least of all because for the first time, his memoirs of the events display [[BeneathTheMask open and outright malice]], revealing that even in death, he has zero remorse for what he did to the innocent Miller, and in all likelihood all of his other atrocities:
105	--->'''The Ancestor:''' The poor Miller. Thrice a victim: the seasons took his livelihood, I took his land, and now, uncountable years later, the comet has taken his humanity. My only regret is that I did not live to see that shoddy mill smashed to pieces by the miraculous bounty I reaped from beyond the void!
106	* SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound:
107	** Every time you make a CriticalHit or kill an enemy.
108	---> '''Narrator:''' Executed with impunity! / A singular strike! / Prodigious size alone does not dissuade the sharpened blade.
109	** The Narrator as a whole, really. He speaks with just the right amount of flair and ham to make your actions and victories seem even more epic than they are.
110	---> "These nightmarish creatures ''can'' be felled, they ''can'' be beaten!"
111	** The brief fanfare that plays when a battle is won is always a relief, especially if it comes after an exceptionally gruelling fight.
112	** The faint chime of stress damage being reduced. Bonus points if it's after a OneHitKill from a CriticalHit, which means it spreads to the adventurers that didn't make the kill.
113	** On a similar but much better note, the loud and proud sound when your tremendously stressed-out hero gets a positive Resolve check and becomes Virtuous. No matter what virtue you get, a character becoming virtuous is reason to celebrate.
114	** The "quest complete" music, especially after a really harrowing outing where you barely manage to keep everyone alive and sane.
115	* {{Narm}}:
116	** While a lot of the setting's grim tone can fall under NarmCharm or simply being balanced out with AWorldHalfFull, the description of some of the precious gems in the game are just downright too edgy to take seriously. For example, Sapphires are "Blue, like strangled dreams" and Emeralds are "Green, like molten envy".
117	** The Cove's "Sea Maggot" which is marked as eldritch despite clearly merely being a giant sea snail. Between the [[UndergroundMonkey recycling of an existing creature name]], clear mislabeling in multiple ways, and the creature itself not being remotely threatening, it is practically a mockery of the association of deep sea creatures with the eldritch.
118	** Any time one of the Narrator's hamtastic lines pops up at a frankly inappropriate moment qualifies. "A ''singular'' strike!" when all that happened was a 4 damage crit on a debuff or waxing poetical about great amounts of treasure when all you did was open an abandoned backpack to find twenty coins or a supply item(the latter can also prompt his warning that "Packs, laden with loot, are often short on supplies") are some common examples. Then there's "Inspiration... and improvement!" from gaining a 40% stun resist buff that you're guaranteed to get once you lose the stun status.
119	* NarmCharm: The grim darkness of the setting is almost relentless, and overplayed to a parodic degree. Top this off with the narrator's hammy PurpleProse and alliterative jaunts. It's all so comically overwrought that there's virtually no chance it's by accident. The crusader can ''kill'' people via ''showing them an accusing scroll'' for crying out loud! But when the player is feeling the stress as their party lingers on the edge of {{Permadeath}}... it all ''works''.
120	--> "In the salt-soaked crags beneath the lowest foundations, we unearthed that damnable portal of antediluvian evil."
121	* NintendoHard: It's a roguelike, so this is to be expected; if you don't know what you're doing, the dungeon will be your grave. Some of the more prominent examples:
122	** Healing outside of battle is very limited, healing abilities are either reliable or powerful (not both), and [[AllDeathsFinal any character who dies is lost forever]] outside of a rare town event. Trying to squeeze more healing and stress relief in-battle is penalized by "stalling" skills quickly causing enemy reinforcements after a few turns.
123	** Stress is difficult to deal with when inside the dungeon and can snowball into a colossal catastrophe if it goes out of control, adding very harmful quirks or making the characters break down when they would need to keep their cool the most.
124	** Stress effects are completely random. Your hero might shrug off his stress and become courageous, inspiring the rest of the party… or your tank could [[DirtyCoward become Fearful, fleeing to the back of the formation]], your healer becomes a {{Sadist}}, [[LeeroyJenkins bum-rushing the enemy with her dinky club]], and your damage dealer turns into a Masochist [[SelfHarm and gleefully turns her knives on herself]]. God help you if you get an [[DisasterDominoes Abusive]] hero…
125	** Your inventory is incredibly limited, leading to the dilemma of [[ResourcesManagementGameplay bringing enough torches and food to move through the dungeon and having enough space to gather the treasure from the dungeons]]. And if the lights go out, then your party will take constant stress damage, while both friend and foe gain high critical chances. [[HardModePerks On the other hand, treasure rewards are greatly increased…]]
126	* OneTruePairing: Reynauld and Dismas, the Crusader and Highwayman are overwhelmingly, almost unanimously paired together for being FireForgedFriends and TrueCompanions that you can potentially have survive the entire game from getting ambushed on the Old Road to [[spoiler:slaying the Heart of Darkness]]. The pairing only got more solidified after the ''The Binding Blade'' DLC for ''VideoGame/DarkestDungeonII'' added a StarCrossedLovers element into the mix, with Reynauld being kidnapped and imprisoned by the Warlord and Dismas having to track him down and rescue him. Not to mention they can literally develop an [[BattleCouple Amorous relationship]] in ''II'' like any other potential pair of heroes, to the delight of shippers everywhere.
127	* ParanoiaFuel: If you didn't get lucky and scouted ahead, it's impossible to tell if you won't run into a group of {{Demonic Spider}}s the very next second. It's enough to make one try and keep the torch lit at all times, except even then there's a chance, however slight, of your party running into a group of monsters and getting surprised.
128	* PortingDisaster: The [[Platform/PlayStationVita PS Vita]] version of the game has some serious control issues relating to adapting a PC game for a handheld system like this. In addition to this, the UI hasn't had many changes from the PC release, which makes for a tough time reading all of the fine print on character and menu screens. Has since been fixed, however.
129	** Averted in the iPad version, with the control scheme switching nearly seamlessly from mouse to touchscreen.
130	* ScrappyMechanic:
131	** Originally, if your heroes level up their resolve to levels 3 and 5, they'll refuse to go back and do quests of the previous levels. This can be a real kick in the pants if you were getting a well-trained group for, say, the Necromancer Apprentice and they decide that doing so is beneath them. The Radiant Update in February 2017 eased the requirements with the Radiant difficulty, where heroes of level 4 or below will do Novice dungeons, and all heroes will traverse Veteran and Champion dungeons.
132	** Heroes only being able to venture into the Darkest Dungeon ONCE is especially annoying for newcomers. You might inadvertently use up all of your most-powerful heroes on the first attempt... and there are still 3 more, potentially more-difficult conquests left. A February 2017 update changed it so that on Radiant difficulty, heroes will run Darkest Dungeon subsequent times, albeit with significant disadvantages.
133	** All heroes were originally recruited at level 0 no matter what point in the game you were at, until an "experienced recruits" upgrade was added to the stagecoach. This was a huge problem if you lost a high-level hero and wanted to train a replacement, because you'd have likely moved beyond the ability to do level 1 (or even 3) dungeons. Taking a low-level hero into a dungeon that is "beyond them" will give them massive stress at the very start as well as much more stress damage in general, making them next to useless and having to be carried by the rest of the party. Getting a new hero back to the resolve level of your old one was a huge test of patience and, more often than not, downright luck.
134	** The Crimson Curse, a "disease" added in the Crimson Court DLC. While having it makes heroes immune to all other diseases and gives them a decent suite of buffs via the "The Blood" item used to treat it, the high chance of infection, ability to spread to other heroes while infected ones are idle in town or in stress-relieving activities, and the fact that they'll end up dying if they're left without The Blood for long enough, it's more often than not a complete pain to deal with, and most of your infected heroes will more often than not end up becoming liabilities. Mods that reduced the infection chance quickly shot up as a result even among the more hardcore players, due to the facts (as of this writing) it's essentially impossible to leave a mission without getting half your party vampirized every time, and it takes a ''long'' time and chain of quests until the Curse becomes treatable at the Sanitarium.
135	** Hunger. It's not a meter, not even a hidden one. Hunger is based on random event tiles on hallways, which you can sometimes encounter just after starting a quest. This turns bringing enough food for your party into a complete guessing game. The Color of Madness DLC lets you build the Mill, which prevents heroes from experiencing hunger checks, but that's restricted to DLC and requires you to beat either [[ThatOneBoss the Thing From The Stars]], [[LuckBasedMission who drops Memories inconsistently]], or The Sleeper, who comes at [[spoiler:the end of [[MarathonLevel The Farmstead]]]] and is a force to be reckoned with.
136	** Before the ''Color of Madness'' expansion, The Abomination was unable to be partnered with religious classes (ie. the Crusader, Vestal, Leper, and Flagellant). This disappointed a sizable chunk of the playerbase that thought his skills would synergize well with theirs, and it also meant that the only healers who could be in a party with an abomination were the Occultist, who, as shown above, is memetically unreliable, and the Antiquarian, who has the worst heal in the game. Many were concerned that because the Abomination was [[OfficialFanSubmittedContent created by a fan as a crowdfunding reward]], it is unlikely that it will be removed. It was only changed long after the class was first introduced, both because of fan outcry and because many people modified the game files to remove the restriction anyway.
137	** The limited inventory space, while adding an element of resource management to the game, also means the player has to make the constantly irritating decision of whether to keep their supplies or discard them to get treasure. This is especially problematic in medium-length or longer quests in which the player must interact with items, resulting in the player having one or more logs for campfires and three quest items, even before purchasing essentials. As the narrator sometimes notes when you pick up treasure, "Packs, laden with loot, are often short on supplies."
138	** Whenever you enter the Embark menu, the game displays a random available quest each time. So, for instance, if a quest strikes your fancy but you decide to double back to the Hamlet to manage your idle heroes, the game will not remember what you had your cursor on last time when you return to the Embark menu. It's a minor inconvenience, but there are instances of players rushing too quickly that they go on the wrong quest.
139	* SignatureLine: "Remind yourself that overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer." Memes aside, it's a short and memorable Ancestor quote that perfectly sums up the game's overall philosophy of never assuming that victory is guaranteed because of the overwhelming number of variables that can influence the outcome of a quest, and that being CrazyPrepared will always have a better outcome than taking huge gambles.
140	* SpiritualAdaptation:
141	** The plot, the atmosphere, the look of some monsters, and the quirks-afflictions system basically make the game ''Franchise/CthulhuMythos: The {{Roguelike}}'' in all but actual name. The devs even admitted that Lovecraft's works and their themes heavily inspired the setting!
142	** It could also be considered a spiritual cousin to the ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasyRoleplay'' universe: a human civilization roughly equivalent to the European Renaissance, dogmatically religious characters that include a warrior-priest and a flagellant, as well as antagonists that include necromancers and the undead, aristocratic vampires, tribes of savage beast-men, and psychotic cults dedicated to cosmic horrors. It helps that the playable cast is easily replicated, [[RagTagBunchOfMisfits classes and all]], in most editions of ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasyRoleplay''.
143	** [[http://venturebeat.com/2015/02/26/darkest-dungeon-designers-really-arent-sadists-were-realists/ According to the developers themselves]], "the central idea was to try to bring Lovecraft into the Middle Ages, to get him out of the 1920s". They also note that the game may have unconciously been inspired by ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}''.
144	** Mike Mignola of ''ComicBook/{{Hellboy}}'' fame is noted as an influence in some of the concept art on the site, and it shows in both the art and the setting — a very GothicHorror yet pulpy atmosphere informed strongly by Lovecraft.
145	** The setting and gameplay mechanics can easily make the game eerily reminiscent of a ''ComicBook/SuicideSquad'' chapter.
146	* {{Squick}}:
147	** Thanks to the wonders of the RNG, it's possible for your party to include a Nymphomaniac Leper, which is actually a lot less bad that it sounds, as "Nymphomania" isn't an affliction forcing a hero to randomly molest his fellow party members, but a ''positive'' quirk which grants a better stress decrease when visiting the brothel. The true Squick is to imagine the Leper going to the brothel...
148	** The other disturbing quirk is 'Deviant Tastes', which prevents the hero from using the brothel. They'll mention they've never been welcome there after a certain... [[NoodleIncident incident]].
149	** Used against your party, as well. Many enemies will attempt to invoke this, such as an undead courtiers throwing tainted, acid wine at your heroes, Swine Wretches will vomit on them, and the Hag will [[ImAHumanitarian sample her stew]], all of which will both damage your party and stress them out.
150	** Several of the bosses are ''disgusting'' to look at, especially the Swine. The Swine Prince/King/God is a morbidly obese humanoid torso with a pig's head, shambling around without legs and spilling its intestines out on the ground. The Formless Flesh is ''even worse'', a horribly misshapen BodyOfBodies made from dozens of pig corpses [[BodyHorror hideously mashed together]] into one disgusting blob, and one of its attacks (judging by the stumpy little legs sticking out of the top) involves shooting a fanged tentacle at you out of what clearly used to be a [[NauseaFuel pig's anus.]]
151	* ThatOneAttack:
152	** "Arterial Pinch" of [[GiantEnemyCrab Uca]] enemies. Deals minuscule damage but inflicts ''heavy'' bleeding (between 8 and 10 bleed). Unless you are ready to cure it immediately, it will drop the character to 0 HP in two to three turns, and probably outdo any healers you might have in damage per turn. And heaven help you if it hits the same character more than once before it wears off. Made less scary if you always bring the Plague Doctor to the Cove, who has a skill that cures bleeding for any character.
153	** "Treebranch Smackdown" of the giants. It's the attack they're actually least likely to use, despite always carrying a uprooted tree with them. You'll be thankful for that, because when they get around to swinging it, one hit will do so much damage that an average non-buffed non-tanky character will be instantly dropped to 0 HP (and a crit will bring ''anyone'' barring a buffed Leper down to 0). And stunned for good measure. And they may be already poisoned by another of the giant's attacks (which targets multiple characters), meaning they could die before you get a chance to do something about that. Oh, and did we mention that the giant can shuffle your entire party, so your buffed Leper won't get hit by it, but anyone else will?
154	** "Revelation" is used by the Templar mini-bosses in the second quest of the Darkest Dungeon. They guard the Iron Crowns, your quest objectives, so you will have to fight your way through them. This attack is so strong (around 20 damage and 40 Stress) that you're given special trinkets explicitly designed to render a character almost immune to it. However, you've only got three, so unless you're Guarding the last unprotected hero, expect them to snap after 2 exposures to it. Or if you're unlucky, your sole unprotected hero can be targeted on the first turn before they can be guarded. Mercifully, the Templars that show up in the third quest don't have this attack.
155	** [[spoiler:The [[FinalBoss Heart of Darkness]]]] has "Come Unto Your Maker", a horrifying move which it can use only twice in the battle; otherwise it would be unwinnable. Whenever it loses a third of its health bar, it will [[spoiler:instantly kill a character, [[UnblockableAttack no questions asked]]. And [[PlayerPunch you]] get to [[SadisticChoice choose]] the target. The only other option is to stack enough buffs in the right way to OneHitKill it before it drops to the point to use it or bring only two heroes so the attack doesn't activate, both of which aren't exactly easy.]]
156	** "The Thirst" is a shared one among all Bloodsuckers. Hits fairly hard, spreads the Crimson Curse, heals the user, and transforms them into a more dangerous form you'll need to deal with right after.
157	** "Apex Predator", used by [[ThatOneBoss The Crocodilian]], can hit anywhere between one to three targets, doing absurd amounts of damage and has an incredibly high crit rate. Your one solace is that this skill is telegraphed with the Crocodilian using Submerge to become nigh-untouchable, giving you a brief moment to heal and buff to brace for the oncoming strike... because if you don't, it will make a mess of your party.
158	** The Miller boss from the Color of Madness DLC moves from "irritating but manageable" to "[[ThatOneBoss utter bastard]]" thanks to "The Reaping", an attack that combines high damage, high critical hit rate, spammability, and the ability to hit your entire party at once to form a ridiculous barrage of damage and stress. Did you fail to put down his endless minion spam quickly enough? Bucketloads of damage to the face for everyone!
159	** "Bellow" from enemy Men-At-Arms in the Butcher's Circus DLC applies a damage debuff on your entire team and inflicts some Stress along the way. It can be used from any point in the formation so movement can't disable it, it deals no damage so it can't provoke [[CounterAttack Riposte]], and the Man-At-Arms himself is [[StoneWall very tanky]] with a high Stun resistance so you can't shut him down reliably or kill him quickly. If your opponent is running a Stress team, then you can expect a long, agonizing fight as your team deals little damage and succumbs to Stress.
160	** "Finale" from enemy Jesters in the Butcher's Circus DLC has the ability to [[NoSavingThrow bypass Death's Door checks]], essentially deleting one of your weakened fighters. That can cause a strategy to go completely awry, and so strategies against enemy Jesters are focused on avoiding this attack to the best of your ability.
161	** The Bounty Hunter's "Finish Him" in the Butcher's Circus. If the player has The Finisher trinket equipped, it is almost always accurate at base level and is a one-shot on any hero on Death's Door.
162	* ThatOneAchievement:
163	** "Sentimental relics from our forefathers" requires finding all fourteen of the Ancestor's trinkets. While the majority of them are fairly difficult to acquire, usually being rewards from long Champion-level missions, and in the Color of Madness DLC, an Endless Harvest past round 100, the ''real'' problem is that five[[note]]the Ancestor's Tentacle Idol, Scroll, Map, Candle, and Bottle[[/note]] out of those fourteen trinkets exclusively drop from [[ThatOneBoss the Shambler]], a boss who's capable of mowing down even well-rested and heavily-buffed parties. Killing a single Shambler is a hell of a feat on its own, and they will only drop one trinket out of that aforementioned five that you don't have, so you're expected to hunt down and kill at least ''four more''[[note]]three if you kill the Shuffling Horror beforehand, due to it sharing the same loot pool as the Shambler and being the first Darkest Dungeon quest's boss[[/note]] in order to secure the remainder of the Ancestor's trinkets, and this is all with the assumption you actually get out with it. [[TotalPartyKill Your whole party dies later on in the quest]], or you accidentally ditch your freshly acquired ancestor's trinket from that Shambler you just killed a minute ago? [[ThisIsGonnaSuck Get ready to hunt down yet more Shamblers]]. Your only saving grace is that the Shambler's trinket drops are not tied to quest difficulty, so you thankfully have the option of going after Shamblers exclusively in Apprentice-level quests.
164	** "Blocked From Life" requires you to lose an ally to an obstacle, which means having them be at Death's Door and at high enough stress that the stress caused by clearing the rubble by hand triggers a heart attack. To make matters worse, some players have reported that the Color of Madness DLC has caused a bug that prevents this achievement from triggering.
165	** "In The Mouth of Madness" requires you to defeat the Sleeper with two Afflicted heroes and two Virtuous heroes. Obviously, this means defeating the Sleeper with all your heroes alive, which is easier said than done, and the specific combination of heroes makes this a LuckBasedMission.
166	** "Shouting Match" requires winning a match in the Butcher's Circus multiplayer mode using only stress damage. It can be difficult to find a human opponent who's easy enough to win against while handicapping yourself to this extent.
167	* ThatOneBoss: Has [[ThatOneBoss/DarkestDungeon its own page]].
168	* ThatOneDisadvantage:
169	** Of all the negative quirks, Kleptomania and Curious are ones that players learn to avoid or remove on sight. Kleptomania imposes a chance of the hero stealing loot that you would have gained, while Curious can cause a hero to interact with ''any'' curio without using a supply item that guarantees their safety, denying potential upsides and exposing them to avoidable harm.
170	** The Color of Madness DLC added "Imposter Syndrome," which gives heroes with the Quirk a 4% chance to pass their turn. This may not sound like a lot, but it can trigger at inopportune moments.
171	* ThatOneLevel:
172	** The Weald can be somewhat tougher than the Warren and Ruins because it has a higher than average chance of having thorn thickets obstruct your path. Clearing them by hand inflicts damage, stress, and darkens your torch, but shovels are expensive and take up a lot of space. Even without thickets, its rooms are spaced by long and winding passages that will wear down your torch and raise the likelihood of hunger checks. It also contains a lot of the most annoying enemies, including the [[GoddamnedBats rabid dogs]], [[MightyGlacier corrupted giants]] and [[EnemySummoner slimes]].
173	** The Cove is filled with a lot of enemies that are either fast, can dish out tons of damage, cause heavy bleed, or any combination of the three. Not to mention some of them can even heal and protect their teammates. It also has the thralls, who explode for party-wide damage in their second turn. The thralls themselves aren't the problem, but them being shielded by guardians, being healed to full by the priests, or hiding behind a wall of tough mobs is likely to give you fits.
174	** The Darkest Dungeon itself has incredibly strong enemies, befitting what is expected of endgame levels. However, it also imposes a few other rules that make it stand out from the previous levels. Retreat from the Darkest Dungeon forces you to sacrifice one random hero from the expedition party, amplifying your losses if a quest goes awry. And if you do succeed, the heroes you used will refuse to re-enter, forcing you to train up another team for the next Darkest Dungeon quest.
175	*** Of the Darkest Dungeon levels, the second seems to be the point where most people hit a wall. The first level might as well be a tutorial for this one. On top of facing hordes of the scary new Darkest Dungeon monsters, you have to complete not one, but ''three'' (mini-)boss encounters fighting against [[spoiler:[[ThatOneBoss Templar Warlords]].]] They'll be accompanied either by enemies that push and pull your party, or by a [[spoiler:Templar Impaler]], which is basically the same thing, except it can ''stun''. They have pretty massive hit points (around 140), moderate dodge, and ''two'' moves a turn. In addition, they have access to [[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow Revelation]], a skill that inflicts absolutely ''massive'' damage and stress damage. You ''will'' be needing those Trinkets you got from the earlier mission to render your heroes mostly immune to that attack, which leaves you operating at half efficiency as each member can only access one other Trinket. Also, [[SadisticChoice you only get three of them]], leaving a party member completely exposed to Revelation unless you come prepared with guarding skills. [[FromBadToWorse On top of this]], because of the way scouting works in the Darkest Dungeon, the first time through, you won't even get to see ''where'' the boss encounters are. Even if you do know, you only get two campfires to prepare for the three fights, leading to either having to battle unbuffed or a painful amount of backtracking.
176	** The Brigand Invasion town event that can happen once you've met a certain set of requirements. It's short, but hellishly difficult (the game even gives it the difficulty rating of "Darkest", something that it only shares with the Darkest Dungeon missions) and filled with beefed up brigands that can bring your party to both the brink of death and insanity very quickly. At the end of it all is Vvulf, the boss of all brigands. He tosses highly damaging bombs at your team that blow up if you don't destroy his bomb barrel (which has innate Riposte, so any attack that doesn't destroy it will hurt the hero), summons those brigands mentioned earlier, has an attack that stresses your whole party out, and can guard his summons. This short mission event also adds to the difficulty, as you have fewer provisions to take into the level and cannot benefit from camp buffs. And, like the Darkest Dungeon, abandoning the mission forces you to sacrifice one of your heroes so the other 3 can escape. And last but not least, if you ignore the mission when it comes up or you abandon it, two of your town facilities will be ''destroyed'', chosen at complete random, which brings its upgrade level down by one. Thankfully, if you complete the mission, you won't have to deal with it again on that playthrough. Plus, it doesn't count as ignoring it or abandoning it if you get a party wipe, so you can stave off destruction by sending in [[RedShirt trash, just-off-the-wagon teams]] to get slaughtered.
177	%%* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: Expect each update to bring another VocalMinority portion of the fanbase to complain about the game, usually about it adding yet another RNG factor into the game.
178	* UnderusedGameMechanic: Stumble is a movement status effect which Shuffles a hero in a specific rank every turn. It is ''only'' encountered in the entire game in the form of the eggs [[Characters/DarkestDungeonDLCMonsters the Countess]] deploys onto your party during her fight, and is part of the reason she's so [[{{Superboss}} infamously difficult]]. It's very common as a result to see [[GameMod modded monsters]] use Stumble some which way to make them more tricky to deal with, as well as modded heroes who use it as a more-complicated-than-normal and unpredictable rank shuffling mechanic.
179	* ViewerGenderConfusion:
180	** The Plague Doctor wears layers of loose-fitting clothing, a beak mask, and a hood combo, leading some to believe she is a man. The only leads that the Plague Doctor is a woman are being referred to with female pronouns in some in-game descriptions and having visible breasts in her afflicted portrait. In August 2017, Red Hook unveiled her backstory comic, showing her without her uniform.
181	** The Houndmaster's Irish Wolfhound suffers a similar fate. Only being referred to as she in a few voice lines, and Red Hook making a ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'' ShoutOut with the Houndmaster's announcement doesn't help.
182	* TheWoobie:
183	** The caretaker has remained behind by himself ever since the narrator died, and judging by his frequent visits at the village facilities, this has taken its toll. Considering all the horrors now lurking at and around the estate, and that he has been in the middle of them for months or perhaps even ''years'', all the while nearly everyone else abandoned the area, it is not difficult to feel sympathy for the poor guy.
184	-->'''Narrator:''' "The poor caretaker. I fear his long-standing duties here have... affected him."
185	** The Leper, who well crossed the line into Woobie territory before he ever set foot in the Hamlet. He has such a NightmareFace that he can't ever take his mask off without causing agony to people around him. He has worn this mask for so long that he considers air on his face, even air in a place as horrid and foul as The Warren, to be intoxicating. And as one of his quotes would indicate, he has spent his entire life in pain from the disease that is wrecking his body, to the point where he tells the other heroes to not waste medical supplies on him, which may also be the result of DeathSeeker tendencies. It's even worse after his backstory was revealed in a comic: he was a beloved king who exiled himself after he contracted his disease to protect his people, much to their sorrow.
186	** The Abomination's previous life before the game is depressing based on the [[http://www.darkestdungeon.com/wp-content/uploads/Abom_final_logo.jpg comic]], which the priests gave him ColdBloodedTorture at the penitentiary that he would escaped when he transformed into the [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent beast]] after he was branded with MarkOfShame for his lycanthrophy. Not to mention shunned by religious characters (Vestal, Crusader, and Leper) for his status.
187	** The Arbalest's background. She lived in a shack in the woods with her father (no mention of a mother), when the father came back badly wounded, chased by a mob with TorchesAndPitchforks. He forced her to run after gaving her a crossbow. The last panel shows a crying little girl alone in the wood, with nothing else than a nightgown and a crossbow as tall as her, and her home in flames behind her.
188	** The FeaturelessProtagonist to a certain degree, an heir of a damned family having to redeem their birthright and stop the madness an older relative unleashed. All while keeping the heroes, a RagtagBunchOfMisfits, in check. It doesn't help that updates allow the heroes to run amok with his/her money. [[spoiler:And then at the end of the game, they discover that they were manipulated all along and that everything was pointless, leading them to take their life as well (and possibly be trapped in some kind of GroundhogDayLoop as a spirit).]]
189	** The Shieldbreaker's background and journal reveals that she was a famous dancer that was [[MadeASlave forced to be a vizer's sex slave]]. She decided to overthrow her captors right off the edge of a cliff. She was then pinned under the wreckage of the caravan as a venomous snake prepared to bite her. Ultimately, [[LifeOrLimbDecision she decided to cut off her own hand rather than die at the hands of the snake.]] Even though she's survived the experience her life as a dancer is over, she fears that the vizer's men are still after her, and [[PastExperienceNightmare the snake still haunts her in her dreams.]]
190	** [[http://www.darkestdungeon.com/darkest-dungeon-presents-the-jester/ The Jester]] long suffered under a DecadentCourt, [[KickTheDog having been routinely mocked, spat on, and even having swords thrown at him.]] Eventually, the abuse became too much for him to bear and [[TheDogBitesBack he slaughtered the entire court.]] This may sound like a happy ending at first, but if you notice in the last panel, [[spoiler: the door he exits stage from bears [[ArcSymbol the stress symbol]] [[DrivenToMadness hangs over his head]]]]...
191	** Let's face it -- most if not all of your general cast have their moments. No one comes to the Hamlet because of a happy lot in life.
192	* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds:
193	** Even some of the ''bosses'' qualify. The Siren was just a young village girl with a crush on the Ancestor before he offered her to the Pelagics, who transformed her into a hideous BreedingSlave who may or may not be aware of what has happened to her.
194	** The ''Color of Madness'' brings us the Miller, a poor farmer who made the mistake of going to the Ancestor seeking aid for his crops, and ended up trapped in time as a crystalline abomination forever separated from his family for his trouble. His enemy type is even listed as "Poor Soul".

Context YMMV / DarkestDungeon