Released in 2016, Darkest Dungeon quickly grew a strong following in fans of Lovecraft, strategic RPGs, and masochists alike. Its unforgiving difficulty and haunting aesthetic led to it becoming an instant classic in its niche.
With its sequel Darkest Dungeon 2 now released, many fans of the series are returning to test their mettle in the first game. Others are picking it up for the first time in anicipation of the second installment. The original Darkest Dungeon is a game with few locations, but each offers a unique challenge. When exploring the Warrens, players should know what enemies to beware, loot to prioritize, and heroes to bring for the ride.
7 Hellion
While Hellion is good just about anywhere thanks to her strong stats, her access to Bleed makes her a mainstay in the Warrens. She can pick off stress dealers in position 4 with Iron Swan, combining with her frequent crits to make her a decent, if unusual, stress healer. While some of her moves give debuffs, she can mitigate these (and cure bleed/blight) with Adrenaline Rush's damage and accuracy buff. Her camping skills also play around this buff-debuff dance, offering powerful buffs with lingering drawbacks.
Hellion is a hero with a learning curve. She offers high damage and good utility, but at the cost of frequent debuffs to play around. Her strongest Bleed skill, access to position 4, and +25% damage camping skill all rely on her being in position 1. She's a demanding hero to use at her fullest potential, but that potential is worth every setback.
6 Houndmaster
Houndmaster is exceptionally strong in the Warrens, almost regardless of the party he's in. His access to Mark, Bleed, Stress Healing, and Guard (among other things), makes him an easy choice for both damage and support. Hound's Rush is the only attack in the game to have bonus damage against Beasts, of which there are many in the Warrens, as well as doing bonus damage against marked targets. His camping skills are nothing to sneeze at either, preventing ambush, providing stress belief, and buffing surprise and scout chance.
Like Crusader in the Ruins, a party can safely have two Houndmasters without much trouble. His damage is middling and his guard is inferior to Man-at-Arms', but Houndmaster's versatility and straight-forward synergies makes him a staple in any Warrens party.
5 Jester
As with most jesters in games, Jester's a lot of fun. As one might expect, he's a hero with many tricks up his sleeve, categorizing him into three main groups: support, bleed, and nuke. Battle Ballad and Inspiring Tune help the party's stats and stress respectively, keeping everyone in top shape. Harvest and Slice off are both respectable bleed skills, and Dirk Stab can be nice with mobile teams. His camping skills are mostly stress-based, with Tiger's Eye giving powerful buffs to the party's DPS.
The most interesting thing about Jester, however, is Finale. All of Jester's skills buff Finale, which is only used in position 1. Once suitably buffed, Jester can use Solo to move into position and use Finale the next turn, dealing big damage to a single target. This damage can one-shot almost anything in the game if buffed properly.
4 Plague Doctor
Plague Doctor is a slightly unusual choice here, given that most of the Warrens is resistant to blight. However, while there are still enemies to blight, Plague Doctor takes more of a supportive role compared to the Ruins. Her access to stuns and clearing corpses is always useful, but her most notable usage in the Warrens is her healing. The Warrens are wrought with disease, blight, and bleed, and Plague Doctor's Battlefield Medicine and camping skills can easily deal with these. She can also give Disease Resist, though only to herself.
Aside from Incision, which deals okay damage with a notable bleed, Plague Doctor remains a support in the Warrens. Her ability to buff allies with Emboldening Vapors can assist more offensive teams, but her primary purpose is to be... well, a plague doctor.
3 Occultist
Occultist has some nice skills. His camping skills are double-edged like Hellion's, but generally solid. Sacrificial Stab has a high crit chance, his debuffs are nice, he has a stun and a great reposition. They're all okay – except one. Wyrd Reconstruction, much like Occultist, is a wildly unpredictable ability. One turn, might heal a Leper from Death's Door to full HP; then it'll heal 0 and kill the Plague Doctor the next. Using Occultist as a party's main healer is like playing in a casino at a 9-5 job and somehow doing okay at it.
Where Vestal has bonus damage against Unholy, Occultist has bonus damage against Eldritch. Neither are present in the Warrens, so Occultist wins out in having mark synergy. For players who prefer a more consistent form of healing, Vestal may be a better choice despite this. The Light is safer to pray to, but RNGesus certainly makes things fun.
2 Bounty Hunter
The Warrens have a decent amount of human enemies. It also her fewer high-PROT menaces like the Weald, and mark parties are somewhat frequent to see. As one would expect, Bounty Hunter appreciates this. He works best with mark parties, as mentioned, having a deadly follow-up with Collect Bounty. If the party's more stun-focused, that's okay; he has Finish Him for decent damage. If it's a Bleed party...well, he has Caltrops. It's like Houndmaster's Hound's Harry but with a debuff, so it's pretty nice. He also has some nice camping skills like Planned Takedown for killing size 2 enemies like the Swinetaur, but that's about it uniqueness-wise.
Bounty Hunter shines in parties that go all-in on marks. He doesn't have much damage without someone else setting it up for him. He can take a more supportive role, having a surprising amount of utility, but that's not where he shines. He shines in marking a human enemy and removing them from existence.
1 Honorable Mention: Flagellant
For those who own the Crimson Court DLC, Flagellant is far and away one of the best heroes to take into the Warrens. Half of his kit is all about Bleed, lowering Bleed Resist and healing himself while wearing down enemies. The other half of his kit is more supportive, making use of his martyrdom by taking others Stress, Bleed, and Blight for himself. His camping skills are entirely focused on himself, including a disease cure which can help in the Warrens.
The kicker with Flagellant is that the lower his HP and the higher his stress, the stronger he becomes. Affliction and Death's Door both benefit him, but even with buffs and trinkets, Death's Door is always a threat. Proper use of Flagellant is a constant game of risk and reward, and with how punishing it is to lose heroes is in Darkest Dungeon, it's a dangerous one to play.
Darkest Dungeon is available now on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, iOS, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One.