40 Week Completion

Disclaimer: This is not ng+, and it's not quite done, but I am doing this with a crusader as my main healer.

Progress & Week 37 results

The group was already hurt fairly badly when they were hit with a fourth hunger tick right before the final room with 2 templars and of course used the last of the food on the last hunger tick, just two hallways before. They fought hard, but lost my first death's door check of the file as the Crusader falls to a crit and hit back to back. This drove the good Doctor to be abusive. Another Crit later and MaA 2 - 1 went fearful. This was short lived, as he failed his first Death's Door check a couple rounds later after refusing a heal. However, Retribution really carried the fight. The first templar fell the round before the MaA died and we only had half a templar to go. The Plague docotor survived two Death's door checks, but couldn't get the blight to connect. Finally, with the templar at 28 health, the good doctor finally came through, but not after 2 - 3 is put to death's door. With a chance to end it, MaA 2 - 3 comes short putting the templar to 12. The doctor couldn't withstand a third check and fell as the templar acts first. The templar then explodes in his next action and 2 - 3 survives unchecked on death's door, a hero.

This group, (Plague doctor, MaA, Crusader, MaA), was built around a dodge focus. It did very well in my testing in champion level missions and did just as well during the one champion level mission in this file (hero's were level 4). However, the Darkest Dungeon has shown to have much more accuracy than the champion level, or I was extremely unlucky (I did go 0 for 10 in virtue checks and 2 for 5 on death's door checks this file). Even at 100 dodge, priests and brawlers were still hitting effectively. Fortunately the witches seemed to struggle, so I was able to alter my focus to the melee damage and recover while the witches were up. The Shuffling Horror was laughably easy, though. He didn't hit the group once and retribution did a ton of work.

I included a chart of my progression as well. I know a lot of people feel that they bottle neck on gold, and it doesn't have to be that way. With proper hamlet progression, good group compositions, proper fight mechanics, and good quest selection the game can flow smoothly and quickly. I did make a big mistake not fully upgrading the treatment library. I really underestimated how much I would use it. Also the heirlooms are slightly off because I forgot to put in the reward in week 34 and I upgraded the abbey and tavern a little at some point late in the file. After the Blacksmith and Guild were finished I quit caring about heirlooms.

If I were to do this run over, I would definitely change out my groups to be more standard. I am not sure how the 3rd level will go, but the second was much more stressful than it needed to be. Dodge can be useful in the champion level missions in an extreme amount (80+), but it probably isn't worth it for the Darkest Dungeon.