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this week's darkest dungeon post we get a surprise appearance from the one miniboss i wasn't expecting

←Previous Post -- Next Post→ Weeks Forty-Eight and Forty-Nine -- We Fight A Miniboss, But Not The One I Was Talking About We have two goals this week: progress towards another boss and getting more upper-tier trinkets ready for the Champion-level fights. That feather crystal featured above is one such example, an upgrade to our existing speed cloaks given its additional dodge chance. The stun resist debuff is absolutely manageable given not even every monster will stun you (even if the worst ones absolutely will). A smaller goal is to show off this Thing From The Stars miniboss, though, as you can probably infer from the subtitle there, that doesn’t get to happen. Here’s the loadout we do have, though: A synergy I didn’t actually realize while planning is the three adventurers behind The Goliath all have a small bit of Mark synergy. That was helpful to find out as I was navigating my way through the various rooms. Honestly, when I was putting the team together, I was just designating The Sisters as the healer to level her up and the rest as whatever Bleed synergy I could cobble together that wouldn’t level out of being able to fight the one remaining Veteran-level boss The Warrens has to offer. Another bit of synergy is having the tools to deal with this nonsense that the game decided to throw at us. I didn’t even realize an enemy lineup where everyone started off stealthed was possible, though I suppose it makes sense. Thankfully, both Quinn and Junjeong have abilities that destealth enemies, and they’re both slower than Ren and The Goliath also, so it’s not a huge problem, but it was a bit of a shock, especially for the first fight of the run. An anti-synergy is that I keep running Quinn and a Goliath who is Marked by the Flock in the same party, which means I also keep running into this nonsense. Thankfully, it’s a stress heal if you leave their hostage unharmed, and this party is pretty big on not wanting to deal with stress what with The Goliath who gets stressed every other time he suffers a hit and The Sisters whose every move will either stress them out or the rest of the party. But those are the two notable fights of this Warrens run. Between that stress heal, the campfire, and both Nammo and Ren having move that guaranteed a critical hit, even the stress wasn’t a big factor, so much so that I ended up bringing Ren along for a second run immediately afterwards. I probably don’t need to take Josephine on any more runs given we’re more concerned with heirloom acquisition than money, but if she’s going to slot into any party, its one with a buffed up heavy hitter like Yui on the front lines to make up for the lack of damage. And it’s not like she’s completely useless. Her kukri stab is getting to the point where it can reliably help clean up already injured foes, her blight is similarly meaningful, she can work as a secondary healer to keep people from Death’s Door, a trait she manages during this run, so she’s not a completely useless pick here. Was really scared she was going to get knocked by a tree branch though. That Blighted Giant isn’t actually that scary when Yui’s hunk of metal that can barely be called a sword can take it out in two swings. The real “Oh for fuck’s sake” moment comes later. We didn’t fight this guy last time, but then again, we weren’t as well-equipped as we are now. We outlevel him, for one, with all our adventurers at Level 4 in a Level 3 dungeon, and while our capacity to stun him and keep him from retreating to the backlines is limited, we have a second way of working around that part. Ren’s core feature is his ability to disrupt enemy lines, which in this case means pulling enemies forward into Yui’s chopping range. In a surprising bit of utility, Euryale can do this as well, so she’s not entirely useless to me once her stun attempt on The Collector fails. i showed you my collection please respond I touched on this when we retreated from this guy the first time, but this is another flunky-summoning sort of boss. He has three “heads” he can pull from his collection, corresponding to each of the three head trinkets: Dismas the Highwayman, Barristan the Man-at-Arms, and Junia the Vestal. Each of them does basically the same thing their alive counterparts do, which means you have to slog through a lot of damage, protection, and healing to get at a miniboss who’s adding an extra smattering of stress on top of that, just for him to summon more as soon as he gets the opportunity. Other options of dealing with this boss besides pulling him back to the front are outspeeding him from the outset and taking advantage of his lower-than-average stun resist to get two free turns of damage on him, or being able to hit the backline with, say, a Hellion. So yeah, a much easier time this go-around. I’ll call that revenge for week 4. Next time, we’ve unlocked another boss fight, so we’re going to go fight the Unstable Flesh and probably lose access to half our bleed teams until we start doing Champion-level dungeons in earnest. See you then, -r ←Previous Post -- Next Post→

Kess felt considerably better after a night's rest. She was still sore and aching in her muscles, but several hours sleep had done her good. But she was more than aware of the blazing eye that now oversaw her. Morgan was a demanding mistress, and her teeth ground as she looked over the scene and the- "Absolute metric fuckton of cops down there," she remarked casually, leaning on a knee that was hiked up on a bench, pensively string down at the kerfuffle. Her eyes traced up without moving her head to betray the subject of her glance; The winged man with the blade that stood atop the nearby building. "Not to mention Sephiroth up there." She already knew mixing it up with him was a lost cause; Morgan had been quite explicit with her "do not fuck with" warning on that regard. Tempest and Elita moving off under their cloak of shadows didn't put her at ease. The girl had been trying to save Stratford; She was soft, Kess could tell. "God, this is so BORING," she groused, stalking back and forth, choosing to direct her ire at Leo. "We're real shit for this pussyfooting around crap, huh? 'This is a stealth mission,' pffff, Stratford carved a miles-wide trench through this place yesterday, who CARES?" "What, you lookin ta scrap again?" Leo tapped the tip of his bat against the pavement, leaving a small crater that was hardly discernable for the ruination that surrounded them. "Pretty sure those pigs would be on us in a flash." Kess snorted. "I took on eighteen lamposts at once yesterday, a handful of paunchy cops doesn't scare me. Although..." Her eyes drifted up once again to the guy on the roof. "See that guy? Bit of a big deal around here. Bit of a narc, too." Her face arched into a sly smile. "Getting him to keep his eyes off things..." "You begging for my help, wrecking ball?" "I don't beg for shit," she tossed back casually, and she whipped around to swing a leg straight into his face. - - - - - - - Kaede had been following after Kiyoko since she had arrived. The other girl seemed so much more assured of herself than Kaede did, despite her resolution to see this through. She had slept poorly the night before, the specter of the Titan and the giant train serpents fresh in her mind's eye. But she had dragged her way here regardless, and now the thing that attracted her attention wasn't the giant pile of rubble. "Who do you suppose did that?" she asked, pointing across the way at the great mural depicting the Titan. "Do you think the one who compelled Stratford put that there? Scare people, maybe? I wish I could get a closer look at it. The Library's mentioned a few psychometry spells, I might be able to find out something about who put it there-" She was distracted then by the sound of utter chaos breaking out behind her. She looked over her shoulder just in time to see Kess diving at Leo with a feral glint in her eyes. She stumbled back, eyes wide. She didn't know much about the red-haired girl who had showed up late to the meeting, but she did know she was afraid of her. Kess somersaulted away from Leo, landing next to Kiyoko and Kaede. "Figure this shit out, dweebs, I can only fight this asshole for so long before I kick his ass," she spat quickly to Kiyoko, before she took off down the street, howling at Leo as they danced around the perimeter of the crime scene. "Oh... OH," Kaede gasped, realizing. "Um, Miss Kiyoko, I think we might have a chance now. Would you like to help me get a look at the mural? We'll have to move, and quickly!"

4th District, 8:50 PM The hustle and bustle of Neo-Kabukicho was always a pain to feel. He never seemed to be able to hide as well, but he never felt like he had to here, as strange as it seemed. Stratford’s influence didn’t matter here before, it was one of the few places that he felt reasonably safe from the Fount of Civilization, even if it came down to the fact that others could get him. Yet, he didn’t care about that. He had found a cheap room to stay in tonight, it was away from the mess of District 6, and it meant he could take an opportunity to gather his thoughts for real. That sudden hero appearance and her gift of the business card got his attention once more. His fingers plucked the card up from the nightstand he had left it on, giving it another look. The room had a phone, he could dial… And he did. He let it ring for a moment, waiting as the line tried to connect. He knew they were likely closing, probably wouldn’t answer… Sure enough, no response for the night, but that was fine. He turned the card over in his hands, just to have something to do as he sat down on the bed. The sparsely decorated room was perfect for him as he laid out, looking at the card once more... Dr. Hikan Self Image and Loss Counseling “Maybe later.” ___ 1st District, 11:15 AM Tempest had been lingering around the meetup spot for a couple hours now, he had seen one person arrive close to ten, another girl bump into someone, but he was waiting for Elita to show up this time. The favor she asked for wasn't really something he was excited about, but... Maybe it would help make sure no one was thinking about him being that rumored assassin, if he was caught helping people who were trying to find out what was going on. He definitely didn't want that rumor spreading too much, especially not to the point where anyone might actually look at him! Eventually, Elita arrived as well, scoping out the scene as well as she could. He snickered a tiny bit, he knew that look. The look of someone looking for blind spots to sneak in. He jumped down from his perch in an alleyway, a fire escape ladder that he had commandeered for his own comfort. The group had a moment to regroup, and after confirming with Elita that they wouldn't stay much longer than they had to, he set to work. The ruins of the tower had left enough cover for him to pull shadows from, it was just unfortunate that it was nearly noon. The shadows being cast weren't in the perfect spots, but he could see a path to the center of the crater slowly. His hand pulled a few of the shadows towards him, circling around him and Elita as he glanced back to the rest of the group, "We're heading in. This is a stealth mission though, so I can't really hide too many of us." His voice was oddly stern as he spoke up, but the shifty look in his eyes made it clear that he was just as flighty as always. "We go in, we listen, we gather what information we can. If you get caught out of spot, you run. I'll cover you if I can, but if you get too far away..." He didn't go into depth on that, but he didn't have to do that. Elita spoke up before he could. "The police may use force if they find us in there. It would be... Unwise for us to be caught, that is all I will say, but sometimes, a less than legal approach is necessary. I would prefer us to not all go in, so I'll be traveling with Tempest on this mission. I will report back anything of note that we find." Tempest pulled shadows from around them into a small ball, the duo starting to be obscured from the rest of the group as he nodded his head, "You all stay safe too! It's definitely less dangerous for you all, but like... You know, be careful!" He gave them a little finger salute as Elita and him dove underneath the tape, following the shadows into the crater. The shadows would obscure the outside from seeing them directly, but he had to be mindful to make sure he wasn't obscuring anything the people outside should be seeing. He couldn't move as fast as he normally would, but the two of them reached the crumbling remains of Samsura Tower's first floor, the shadow curtain starting to drop around them as they hugged the wall, quietly moving to tail after the police force. Elita quietly whispered to Tempest, his grip on the shadows starting to loosen as they ducked behind a corner of crumbled wall, the shadows positioned to block view of them, "There. Keep a grip on the shadows, we may need them any moment. I will be examining what we can find here as well..."