20 Best Darkest Dungeon Tips for Beginners (2024)

Darkest Dungeon is a hard game that requires strategic thinking and an understanding of its mechanics. The game poses numerous challenges, particularly to new players or someone not familiar with the roguelike genre.

If it’s hard for you to play Darkest Dungeon – it’s a normal thing. However, there are some tips to make your gaming experience easier.

So, I’ve collected 20 useful Darkest Dungeon tips to help you improve your skills and speed up your progress.

Table of Contents

1. Try the Radiant Mode
2. Invest in the Stagecoach
3. Spend Your Gold Wisely
4. Don’t Forget About the Stress
5. Prepare the Provision
6. Use the Additional Items
7. Use Scouting Heroes
8. Remember About the Light
9. Upgrade Camping Skills
10. Choose the Right Heroes
11. Use the Synergies of Abilities
12. Protect the Back of the Team
13. Remember the Targeting Priority
14. Use Stuns and Debuffs
15. Don’t Hesitate to Retreat
16. Use Curios Wisely
17. Don’t Overload Your Inventory
18. Deal with Heroes Death
19. Collect Heirlooms
20. Prepare Before the Boss Fights

By upgrading Stagecoach you increase your hero pool and have more options to form a well-balanced team. Upgrading it early can make your progression through the game easier.

Moreover, when you hire level 3-4 characters, their weapons, and armor are already upgraded to the appropriate level. So, you do not need to spend gold on upgrading. The abilities are also already learned to the same level.

Gold is necessary to upgrade the gear, skills, and cure your heroes of negative quirks. But it’s always not enough gold to do all the required staff.

So, prioritize necessary upgrades and healing for your main heroes. For example, you don’t need to cure all the quirks of the characters. Or if your hero has only 20 street points, there is no necessity to send him to the Tavers or Abbey.

Save some coins for future needs. You can also use some tips for easier money farming.

Heroes accumulate stress during expeditions, and when it reaches high levels, they can get afflictions, making them harder to control and potentially threatening the whole party.

It’s important to control your heroes’ stress and use various methods to reduce it. For example, you can use camping to reduce stress. Skills like the Jester’s “Turn Back Time” or the Houndmaster’s “Hound’s Watch” can help with that.

You can also use stress-reducing trinkets like the Book of Sanity or the Aria Box.

And don’t forget to reduce the stress level of your heroes in the Abbey or Tavern.

The provision you bring to the expedition can help keep your party healthy. My advice is to pack for the worst.

Take some extra food and torches, so you will be sure that you can keep going to the very end of the dungeon. Better to buy some more, then less.

Be sure to buy a Shovel (one or more) to get through the rubble. Buy Antivenom, Bandage, and Medicinal Herbs to heal your characters or unlock curios with a 100% chance. In turn, the Skeleton Key will help you get a lot of rewards from the chests.

Holy Water and Laudanum will also help to increase your hero’s resistance or manage stress.

Scouting provides advanced knowledge about upcoming battles, traps, and curios, allowing you to better plan your approach.

I recommend taking one party member with increased scouting chance to every expedition. It will help you to play your way and avoid unnecessary fights.

Moreover, it will help you not to be surprised at the beginning of the battle.

Try to keep your light level above 75 all the time. This increases your heroes’ accuracy and improves your chances of scouting ahead.

If your light level drops below 75, your heroes are likely to take more stress damage. If it dips below 50, the monsters become more accurate, and deal more damage, and there’s an increased chance they’ll surprise your party. My advice to you: always keep a stash of torches handy.

The camping in Darkest Dungeon provides an opportunity to heal and reduce stress during the expedition. It is really important to take full advantage of camp skills to strengthen your party before big fights.

For example, you can buff your damage dealers before the boss fights. Or if you have some problems with stress, you can cure it using some camping skills of your characters.

In Darkest Dungeon, you’ll have access to a wide variety of hero classes. You need to know all the Darkest Dungeon characters and understand each class’s strengths and weaknesses to create a balanced team.

Generally, I suggest taking 1 tanky hero, 2 damage dealers, and one healer. However, each location is inhabited by different monsters. So, some characters will be much more useful in certain locations than others.

For example, the Houndmaster is good in battles against animals, and the Crusader against the unholy.

To create a better team take into account the Darkest Dungeon heroes tier list. It will help to choose the best characters for the expedition.

Not all the heroes play well together in Darkest Dungeon. Look for classes that can boost the abilities of each other.

For example, the ability of Plague Doctor to stun enemies may let Bounty Hunter finish them with a Finish Him skill. Or you may use Occultist to mark the enemy, and Houndmaster to deal significant damage with his Hound’s Rush ability.

The backline characters are often seen as less important, but that’s not the case in Darkest Dungeon. Classes like the Vesta or Jester typically stay in the back ranks and can have a huge impact on the outcome of a battle.

These heroes may heal your tank or damage dealers, buff the entire party, or stun enemies.

Just like in chess, targeting the right pieces in Darkest Dungeon can determine the outcome of the battle. Some enemies pose more threat than others and need to be dealt with first.

For example, stress-inflicting enemies in the back ranks might not deal much physical damage, but their stress attacks can cause a lot of troubles. So, it’s better to deal with them first.

Don’t be afraid to retreat from a fight if things get bad. Sometimes retreat can save you a strong hero and rare trinkets, which is much better than losing someone.

Each battle is a learning experience, and each victory or defeat provides valuable lessons that will help you become a better player.

Darkest Dungeon is a game that teaches you that death is often just a step away. Despite your best efforts, not everyone makes it back from the dungeon.

Always remember, when a hero dies, it’s not the end. The Stage Coach in your Hamlet will provide new heroes. So, keep your roster diverse, and don’t hesitate to recruit new faces.

Heirlooms are the main currency for upgrading your Hamlet, which in turn helps you prepare better for future quests.

For instance, upgrading the Stage Coach increases the number of available heroes, giving you a broader choice. Meanwhile, investing in the Blacksmith allows your heroes to equip better weapons and armor. It’s a balance – strategize where to spend your collected heirlooms wisely for maximum efficiency.

Finally, one of the most challenging aspects of Darkest Dungeon is the boss battles. Each boss requires a different strategy and team composition.

Make a research before a boss fights. Learn the attack patterns, strengths, and weaknesses.

• Darkest Dungeon Best Skills
• Darkest Dungeon Curios List
• Darkest Dungeon Best Quirks
• Darkest Dungeon Tier List
• Darkest Dungeon Money Guide
• Darkest Dungeon Camping Guide
• Darkest Dungeon Afflictions