Master Darkest Dungeon boss fights with this spoiler-filled strategy guide. Learn optimal hero compositions, skill usage, and trinket choices for Brigand Vvulf, Drowned Crew, Fanatic, Flesh, Hag, Necromancer, and Pounder.
IMPORTANT NOTES FOR BOSS FIGHTS
I'll provide a boss name, a type, then strategy ideas against them. Use type to have advantage by using proper trinkets and heroes!
Keep an eye on "Action Points": For example, you shall use your stun once it got only one action point (unless you can do stun for more rounds). "Man, this app is cheating", or not. Count these AP usages as turns - yeah, you MAY fail with your counting on the turns, so keep an eye on this value as well.
Use Camping before boss battles: Use your camping skills to buff your teams, that's all.
Switch orders and skills if you have to. A nice formation against simple enemies might not be as cool against a boss!
Brigand Vvulf
Type: Human.
First things first: You'll have high stress damage. You gotta work out something to lower it, so the control be in your hands.
Hence the bombs, you shall bring someone to buff the aimed hero against attack. I guess You really need high PROT values here on your Man-at-Arms (use Defender on the aimed hero, unless the bomb aimed your MaA: then use Ripost).
I'd suggest bringing Houndmaster into fight and the first very pure reason is to remove the high stress. Houndmaster and Man-at-Arms shall be mandatory for this dungeon run (imo, so you just need to pick another two chars).
Hence you already got a Houndmaster, you may want to go the bleed it away way, but you can also choose blight skills, as i guess Shieldbreaker will be another nice choice (his damage will ignore the guards).
Notes: Avoid hitting the Barrel, it got ripost ability. I don't think you shall kill all the guards, as Vvulf can easily summon another ones.
As the last character, you may want to bring in either a healer (time for a Vestal?).
I'm not quite sure whether it is worthy to give a try on a Jester. You'll be a bit limited in range, as you shouldn't hit the Barrel (hence the riposte).
Drowned Crew
Type: Unholy.
Kill its minion asap (better chances until it go no PROT buff) and try to stun it (not easy, got somewhat high resistance), then use blight on it. The minion can heal it, so you'd waste your hits/rounds if you let it live. You can also try to use stun on the minion and just hit the boss - as it got no PROT value at all. The minion, on the other hand, got a rather high value.
As the enemy can use skills to replace unit order in your party, you may want to have some kind of protection against this. Imo. you shouldn't try any kind of pull tricks, as both enemies got high move resistances :(.
The stress level of the anchored (the one which is immobilized, spot 1) hero will rise every turn.
So much told, but basically you'll need some heroes with stun skills and maybe someone to heal (including stress removal on immbolized hero) your team.
(Atm thinking about Riposte, whether it can be efficient on a way.)
Fanatic
Type: Human.
Ripost, bleed. It can remove debuffs and can cast defensive buff.
Flesh
Type: Eldritch.
Clearly a boss for the Plague Doctor and heroes who can use blight skills. On the other hand - since the boss takes all 4 spaces - you can bring any other heroes with you with AOE damage types, just check resistances first (it is weaker against blight, a bit stronger against bleed). The Heart part of this "waving flesh" is a bit weaker, as it got no protection at all.
The boss can debuff you with bleeding, blight and stun effects, so you may want to empower your heroes against these effects (with items, trinkets or by hero skills).
You shall use a heavy tank on your 1st slot with protective items, buffs, trinkets.
Hag
Type: Human.
Use the right trinket Types and range heroes (against spot 3-4, leave that Cauldron alone) or maybe one healer (you can switch skills before battle), aim the Hag, you are done. The boss got no PROT value at all (but DODGE). As you can see from the resistances, bleed skill is much more efficient on it than any other skill types, so you can use this to your advantage, too (but as i said, simple DMG got impact on it, which can be faster).
Don't over-worry if your hero is in the Cauldron, you might finish this battle in ~3 turns (hence the low hp). To ensure safety, you can use a healer.
Necromancer
Type: Eldritch and Unholy.
Why he is also Elritch? No clue, but can help you to use better trinkets and heroes.
I think this boss is not too difficult. Kill the really annoying spawned minions and - hence the relative low resistances - use bleed and blight. Someone with a pulling (move skill) ability can be also nice. As move resistance is also low, you got the idea to use one or two nice dd on the front (especially if got good damage on Type), then someone with bleed/blight effect, maybe a healer (stress).
Pounder
Type: Ironwork.
Ouch... Nothing about type, too bad. Soon as you look over a Pounder's stat you will shake your head. Nothing usable against this Type, nor it is too weak. I guess it is time to figure out how that Shieldbreaker work.
This, like a Crimson Court boss dungeon, will be a way too long fight.
Let see an AOE way. You'll need to take out the Brigand Matchman (whatever low SPD it got) to avoid killing blows, then either the rest of the "Human" types or hit the cannon (you got better survival chances against a solo canon, fyi). I guess a Houndmaster can be nice here to do AOE dmg and maybe a hero with Riposte as well.
Shieldbreaker got armor piercing skill, AOE dmg, so it is a good idea to bring him into the party (you might finish this battle before midnight).
So, for example, you shall have a Man-at-Arms (Retribution, Buff Target), Houndmaster (AOE dmg and gives buffs to a hero by giving guard MaA did his Buff Target) and a Shieldbreaker. You can choose a 4th champion for another purposes, but always stun or kill the matcman dude.
I'm not quite sure how you'd survive with a Highwayman, but that would be nice (imagine the marked target while having guard and the extra guard buff). Maybe worth a time, you can even do a Tracking Shot just to i
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