InDarkest Dungeon,an expedition can go from smooth sailing to a full team wipe, just with a bit of bad luck. This means that minimizing luck and controlling as much of the game as possible is the best way to succeed, especially on harder difficulties. One of the best ways to improve players' chances of surviving is to ensure their Heroes avoid the worst quirks and lock in thebest ones.
The worst quirks inDarkest Dungeoncan add massive amounts of stress to entire teams, or make a character nearly useless in combat. They can be removed at the Sanitarium, or by interacting with certain curios. To have a chance of making it through this dark andpunishing game, avoid these terrible quirks at any cost.
7Corvid’s Appetite
Hunger Can Be a Killer
Making sure to bring enough food is a crucial part ofpreparing for an expedition. Running out of food can be deadly, since characters take damage and stress if players force them to continue. Food is also not free and players will not have much free inventory space, so they cannot take too much. Therefore, anything that increases the amount of food a character needs is dangerous.
The worst of these effects is Corvid’s Appetite, whichincreases the amount of food a hero needs by 100%.Even though it only affects one character, it massively increases the chance of running out of food. This causes problems for the whole team as stress begins to rise. It’s one of the quickest ways to end up with a whole team of dead adventurers. Luckily, heroes can only get this quirk from the Shrieker boss fight, making it quite rare.
6Curio Quirks
Always Kicks In At the Worst Time
As the player explores different areas, they will come across several Curios. These interactable parts of the map can offer different rewards and penalties, ranging fromgood lootto being inflicted with more stress or a disease. Players can use items on Curios to reduce the chance of negative effects. Some of the most annoying quirks in the game are those that canforce characters to interact with Curios when they come across them,without letting the player use items first. Although players can get lucky with this and avoid major problems, the chances are that they will end up regretting leaving these quirks on their heroes.
In the later stages of an expedition, when characters are stressed and running low on provisions, this can be dangerous. Players will not want to risk touching any curios, and instead just complete the expedition. Walking past a curio, only for a character to shout out that they have to touch it, is a terrifying feeling. An even bigger problem is that they can then get more negative quirks from the curios. The Compulsive and Curious quirks are some of the worst of these, as they each have a 20% chance of forcing action with any type of curio. Corvid’s Curiosity curiosity is technically the worst in the game,with a 27.5% chanceto force interaction. Given how many curios there are in longer expeditions, this could end up being a death sentence.
5Impostor Syndrome
A Small Chance of Being Completely Useless
The Impostor Syndrome quirk can seem manageable, as it has a very low chance of activating. However, if it does so in the wrong situation, it can spell doom for an entire team. This quirk gives a hero a4% chance to pass their turn in combat.This may not seem like much, but given how many turns of combat each expedition can have, it may end up being more of a problem than players think.
Skipping a turn can mean missing a heal or not finishing an opponent. In some fights, it can also mean failing to save a party member from a condition, such as being in the Hag’s Cauldron. Taking the risk of this quirk activating during some of theharder boss fights inDarkest Dungeonis simply not worth it.
4Nervous
Added Stress For Free!
Stress can cause even the most powerful team of heroes to end up in the graveyard. Reaching 100 Stress can be the beginning of the end, as that character may then be afflicted, spreading Stress to the rest of the team. Heroes who get to 200 Stress then die from a heart attack. It is also difficult to manage, since there are not many sources of Stress healing.Jester is considered one of the best classespurely because of their Stress relief. This means that anything that increases Stress is something to avoid at all costs.
Some Stress quirks are dependent on a condition, such as low health or light. Players will want to avoid these, but the worst of the Stress quirks is Nervous. This simplyincreases all Stress at all times by 10%. In longer expeditions later in the game, this quirk can lead to multiple heroes having heart attacks and never making it back to the Hamlet.
3Light Sensitive
Weakness When They Should Be At Their Best
Learning to manage light inDarkest Dungeonis an important part ofgetting used to the game. Adventurers can quickly become extremely stressed in the dark. This means that bringing enough torches and remembering to use them is essential. At high light levels, players can surprise enemies and have a better chance of dodging attacks. Any quirk that punishes players for trying to make the most of their torches can therefore be a big problem.
Light Sensitive causes a character todeal 10% less damage when their torch is above 75,meaning players either risk running around at lower light levels, or accept a considerable decrease in their damage. Getting this quirk on the party’s damage dealer is especially painful.Corvid’s Blindnessis a similar quirk that reduces Accuracy by 10 when the Torch is above 50. This is a massive reduction in chance to hit, and encourages a stressful approach to expeditions. Just one of these perks can be dangerous, but having both on one team is an easy way to ensure that their next outing will be their last.
2Fragile
The idea it’s bad to have less health is not a complicated one.Fragile reduces a character’s HP by 10%, which easily earns it a place among the worst quirks in the game. Given how challengingDarkest Dungeoncan be, 10% can be a debilitating loss, especially on the tank classes that are supposed toprovide some protection for the rest of the team.
For other characters, this can be even worse, as they become even more at risk. Many enemies also have attacks that can move the team around, leaving squishier characters very exposed. If players notice this quirk on any of their heroes, they will want to head to the Sanitarium quickly.
1The Yipps
A Permanent Penalty To One Of the Most Important Stats
Although it may not have a menacing name, the Yipps is the quirk players will want to remove fastest. Itreduces a character’s Accuracy by 5 for all attacks.Although there are bigger accuracy penalties in the game, this one is active all the time and affects every combat encounter that character goes into.
Accuracy determines whether an attack hits, or whether that hero misses and is completely useless this turn. Any way to reduce the chance of wasted turns and increase a character’s reliability in combat is extremely valuable. This means that leaving this funny-sounding quirk on a hero is one of the riskiest things players can do in the whole game.
