So during the last GOG sale, I bought the whole shebang - the base game and all DLCs.

I took Lexor's advice, and have been playing in Radiant mode with none of the DLSc installed. I'm about 30 weeks in, and I feel like I've got the basic hang of it. I've mostly been puttering about without making a concerted effort to advance the main storyline so I can learn about different classes, effects, etc. I did kill one boss (and had my only character death doing so), but I think it's time to figure out the best way to play the game moving forward. As such, I have a few questions.

1) How much more difficult is "Darkest" mode vs. "Radiant"? Radiant is already pretty difficult, as there's never enough money or heirlooms to go around, and I frequently have to quit dungeons before completion in order to conserve sanity. I'm not a big fan of frustration in my video games, and there have already been a couple of battles where the RNG just ****ed me severely. On general principle I'd rather not play only on "easy", but if Darkest mode is a great deal more difficult, I probably won't enjoy it.

2) Is there any way to get better information about what the skills do? The tooltips are just awful. There is zero information about how much damage skills do, or even if they do damage at all. Same for the monsters. They have skill names, but no information about them.

3) Are there really no healing items in the game? This is the first dungeon crawler I've ever seen with no way to recover health from items (excepting the pitiful +2 HP you get from food, if you waste it by eating it outside of necessity).

4) Grinding. Since money and heirlooms are so scarce, I don't mind a bit of grinding to get more. Thus far, the only way I've found to do this is to recruit a party of level-0 (or slightly better) heroes, throw them in an easy dungeon with zero provisions, and go as far as possible while still intentionally failing the objective. Then throw those heroes away, get new ones, and start all over. It doesn't seem sustainable, though, as doing that doesn't always advance the calendar a week and refresh your stagecoach. Is this a viable strategy in "Darkest" mode? Is this the way the game is intentionally designed? Am I missing something?

5) How on earth does the leveling work with the quirks? They're positive; they're negative, they're there; they aren't... there's no rhyme or reason to it. I basically just ignore them completely because they flip around so much, and paying to remove a negative quirk seems useless when you just get a new one after you beat the next dungeon. Why you get rewarded for victory with a kick to the groin I simply do not know. Is there some way to predict or deal with it?

6) Should I re-start with all the DLC added? "Crimson Court" sounds like a sonofabitch if my guys all get infected with an incurable plague on top of all the other diseases and quirks that get piled on them. Will it radically change the game if I add all the DLC in right away?

...


So lots of questions, a few complaints, but the core gameplay is very fun. The art is fantastic and it gives me that "just one more dungeon run" feeling. Thanks in advance to anyone who can check out this thread and offer some advice.

1. https://darkestdungeon.gamepedia.com/Game_Modes

2. https://darkestdungeon.gamepedia.com/Characters - click on description of every class

3. No.

4. Yes, you can use this as well, also check https://darkestdungeon.gamepedia.com/Antiquarian (Minor / Rare Antiques)

5. Finishing and aborting the mission gives different chances for acquiring good and bad quirks. Quirks can be perma-locked (for good or for bad). https://darkestdungeon.gamepedia.com/Quirk

6. If you are going to restart for only Darkest mode then no, restart for Darkest with no DLCs, finish the game on Darkest and then restart it again with DLCs added.

Thank you!

I guess I'm looking for some more impressions, rather than just links to the wiki - although that was useful too! I had no idea you could put various items into curios to keep them from being deathtraps.

How much more difficult does the game feel when upping the difficulty to "Darkest"?

Radiant, after 10 starting weeks, was "too easy" for me.

In what way? I listed all the differences between modes earlier (wiki) and now I said how I feel.

Stay on Radiant. Darkest doesn't feel THAT much harder, but after playing both I now just play Radiant, because I find it more fun. But I have no qualms about playing games on easy mode. I never feel that Radiant is "too easy" for me, just more forgiving of mistakes.

I would not call it "more forgiving" as in terms of fights, Radiant is not so different (afaik the only difference is more dodge). I called it "easier" because on Radiant you gain more of everything (like more XP, cash / reduced costs of upgrades).

The biggest difference between Radiant and Darkest mode is that there are fewer restrictions in Radiant, allowing you to take higher level heroes into lower level dungeons. On Darkest mode, heroes will refuse to go into lesser dungeons, thus it requires a bit more careful planning to avoid overleveling your heroes and losing their services. In short, Radiant is only easier in the sense that you have more freedom to choose your party.

Thanks guys.

After 30+ weeks in my first run, I took an optional boss quest... that dropped me directly into a boss fight with an unkillable monster with "retreat" disabled. It killed one of my top guys and then... I think it retreated. It let me go, anyway.

I was a little pissed off. A little warning, maybe?

So I've decided "Radiant" is good enough for me. This game is difficult and frustrating enough as it is.

I've restarted with all DLCs installed on Radiant, and first glance tells me this is going to be 10 x harder...

From your description I think it was The Shrieker - this boss is harder.

Yes, it will be harder. My opinion is you shouldn't have done that.

I guess by "more forgiving of mistakes" I meant that you can recover from your mistakes more easily. Losing your top guy isn't as soul crushing because it's (slightly) easier to build a replacement.

In my opinion: Radiant Mode = more convenience, less grind. As the game is already grindy enough, I prefer radiant. On both difficulties you'll beat the game eventually, on radiant it just takes less time. Stygian is a different story though, as you're actually able to lose a campaign.

Wow, the two major expansions really mess with the balance of objectives. I'm a bit overwhelmed.

But I shall persevere!

When they added Color of Madness, they also rebalanced basically the whole game. Class skills got changed, especially how stun works, and then how many points of poison and bleeding damage various attacks do. Trinkets got overhauled... a lot of changes.

I have really really liked the changes. I think the overall balance is now much much better.