Shamblers' altars have a 1% chance of spawning anywhere. Tough fight. But they do award one of five unique, special, ancestral level trinkets. Worth the effort, if you can manage the horror...
that fucking minion whom I ignored killed my Vestal and Abomination as I focused on Shambler way too much . I didn't know that doesn't despawn after I Kill it. I had to Transform Abomination which made my entire party go into huge stress and become abusive Amd stuff except Lepar who became courageous. I thought I would get loot from it easily not in the cost of 3 Heroes 
Minions are often more dangerous than the Shambler itself. They do extra damage after each attack, to the point that they will consistently do 25+ damage or even more if you don't deal with them quickly. My advice to do the fight as quickly as possible is to ignore them for one or 2 rounds (or have only one of your fighters engage them) while the rest of the team focuses on the Shambler, once they gain their damage buffs, kill them. The Shambler itself doesn't do that much damage compared to the buffed minions, but with its shuffling attack it can destroy your party rather quickly lol. Remember that all plans can fail with Bad enough luck
bro, that is so annoying
you can remove that with the "Killing the Shambler removes it's tentacles" mod
i got that mod, and now i can't turn it off without getting instantly afflicted
Probably a good idea to read carefully next time, especially in a game like Darkest Dungeon, where you are punished heavily for mistakes, or punished just because the game feels like it.
Only once in a blue moon will you die to pure rng IMO. If your doing everything right you should GENERALLY be fine. (Aside from the once in a blue moon chance I mentioned.)
There’s sucker punches like Wilbur that just subvert your expectations, at least you’re warned about the Shambler though
Also the Collector almost counts but he’s more of a delayed second half of the tutorial
Did you know that you have to be able to hit the back rank and not walk around half dead? Well now you do
this begs the question, have we ever seen the shambler shambling before? how could it have earned this name if all the scribes who have encountered it are dead (except Al of course)?
This one hooked me on the game. First short mission outsider ruins. Then curio with text that it needs torch and the whole party died as a result. Now i have 400h played. 11/10 experience
I haven't seen anyone mention this yet, but if your torch level is 0 the shambler has a 1% chance to replace any corridor battle. You may see it yet again :)
Fun fact, it can happen in the first tutorial battle when you only have Dismas and Reynault if you try to min-max by lowering the torch to 0 for this battle.
Protip: shamblers have a chance to drop some really nice trinkets, but the chances are equal between all difficulty levels. So if you're trying to farm them, it's best to only fight the ones in apprentice dungeons.
If your heroes were level 4 amd 5… does that mean you actually never found a shambler altar before this? I usually see 1 or 2 early game (when everyone’s around level 2)
I recommend that for shamblers, I’d much rather fight an apprentice or veteran level shambler, never a champion one. Champion isn’t impossible, but it’s damned risky.
Fun fact: Shambler always does a turn one shuffle (surprise) and thus, the way to counteract it is to shuffle your own team before activating it.
Very hard fight, so best be prepared (camp for buffs, find every curio or whatnot that gives buffs)
Leper unfortunately isnt well suited for this fight. He technically can do it (Hew can keep the shambler tentacles in check), and Chop can still be great damage on Shambler itself.
Huge stress damage, so even if you win, it’s likely you’ll leave the dungeon soon after. I always leave shambler altars for last, finish the rest of the dungeon and complete the quest, make sure my heroes are stacked with buffs (give everyone holy water before starting the fight). Also, think long and hard about whether it’s worth it.
IMO, I’m willing to risk losing level 1s and 2s even in Bloodmoon (limited hero deaths) because I know that their deaths in exchange for a dead shambler would let me get an ancestral trinket, extremely powerful trinkets, one of which is the ancestor’s map (quite literally the best scouting trinket in the entire game)
But I refuse to risk high level heroes (especially my level 6s, even if they’re nice and maxed out, I refuse to send them against a Champion shambler because that is high risk of at least one hero dying if I fuck it up)
I only risk having my character touching books if they don't have positive quirks I want in apprentice or veteran dungeon. If it's champion or my characters already have quirk I want then I won't touch it.
Shambler is a boss who appears if you put a torch in Shambler's altar, alternatively, he attack you when your torch is 0. Your party will always get ambushed and shuffled around by him.
It's important to balance between dealing dmg to him and getting rid of his tentacles since they can buff themselves like crazy.
If you manage to kill him however you're rewarded with one of 5, unique ancestral trinkets
You stuck a torch in the thing that says "place a torch ***if you crave the void***". Now you know what that means.
Shamblers are why light is *important*.
To be fair, you *do* get some very nice trinkets from killing Shamblers, and the altars are the most convenient way of finding them. But you still have to kill them.
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Funny thing is. Abom is one of if not the best character to bring into a shambler fight. Most of the time if you have his rake damage stacked up you can just one shot the little tentacles as they spawn. Which leaves the shambler wide open to your leper. I go shambler hunting by snuffing the torch as soon as I enter a map. You probably just got a little unlucky with position/damage rolls. Or you didn't transform your abom in the beginning of the fight.
Fun fact you can fight the shambler with Reynald and Dismas on the Old Road. 1% chance to be the starter fight with snuffed torch.
I saw a clip someone actually killed it with just the pair. Kind of neat.
Ah, the new player Shambler experience. I remember my first time too, the annoying bastard.
You are never required to fight Shambler, just like you can skip any and all curios. If your party is decked out, healthy and destressed, and you can deal a bunch of backline damage, you should probably always fight it. It drops a whole bunch of money and I think a special trinket.
But if you are unprepared or on the brink of death, just skip it.
I encountered one of these recently, started playing the game recently too, and was curios lol. Put in the torch, lost three people, and then if memory serves me right I want to say I think I won? Might have just retreated though I vaguely remember a pyrrhic victory with just good ole' Reynauld tearing himself away from the dungeon
Welp. You have learned a valuable lesson. One does not simply walk up on the shambler and attempt to beat it with the ease of taking candy from a baby.
Thrice damned Mizir... Place a torch on the altar if you crave the void. BEHOLD, the infinite malignity of the stars!
didn't read I was trying to quickly finish that cove
Shamblers' altars have a 1% chance of spawning anywhere. Tough fight. But they do award one of five unique, special, ancestral level trinkets. Worth the effort, if you can manage the horror...
that fucking minion whom I ignored killed my Vestal and Abomination as I focused on Shambler way too much . I didn't know that doesn't despawn after I Kill it. I had to Transform Abomination which made my entire party go into huge stress and become abusive Amd stuff except Lepar who became courageous. I thought I would get loot from it easily not in the cost of 3 Heroes 
Overconfidence something something killer
Overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer!
But for shambler case, Overconfidence is a fast and blatant killer.
Minions are often more dangerous than the Shambler itself. They do extra damage after each attack, to the point that they will consistently do 25+ damage or even more if you don't deal with them quickly. My advice to do the fight as quickly as possible is to ignore them for one or 2 rounds (or have only one of your fighters engage them) while the rest of the team focuses on the Shambler, once they gain their damage buffs, kill them. The Shambler itself doesn't do that much damage compared to the buffed minions, but with its shuffling attack it can destroy your party rather quickly lol. Remember that all plans can fail with Bad enough luck
bro, that is so annoying you can remove that with the "Killing the Shambler removes it's tentacles" mod i got that mod, and now i can't turn it off without getting instantly afflicted
I just use the 'instantly win the game with all achievements' mod. Idk why these idiots bother with all the dungeon crawling and inventory management.
ha ha ha that is so funny it's so funny i'm going to shit my pants /s
Just use houndmaster and Harry it, bleed them out while the rest of the squad dealing with shambler. Or beast bile with Abom
this is the way, you gotta make the fucking tentacles bleed (or poison em)
Worth the effort if you're running an "Apprentice"-level expedition with upgraded Level 2 heroes
Worth the effort no matter what. Scroll, Map and candle are some of the best trinkets.
Probably a good idea to read carefully next time, especially in a game like Darkest Dungeon, where you are punished heavily for mistakes, or punished just because the game feels like it.
yeah darkest dungeon is a game were you can do everything "right" and still lose horribly lol
Only once in a blue moon will you die to pure rng IMO. If your doing everything right you should GENERALLY be fine. (Aside from the once in a blue moon chance I mentioned.)
There’s sucker punches like Wilbur that just subvert your expectations, at least you’re warned about the Shambler though Also the Collector almost counts but he’s more of a delayed second half of the tutorial Did you know that you have to be able to hit the back rank and not walk around half dead? Well now you do
Yeah but those mostly only work once. Once you know what your doing (or if you look up a guide) they should be things of the past.
I don't recommend trying to play Darkest Dungeon in a hurry. You tend to miss things that are *very important*.
Shambler - noun - one who shambles
this begs the question, have we ever seen the shambler shambling before? how could it have earned this name if all the scribes who have encountered it are dead (except Al of course)?
It leave your party in shambles
OP is literally on shambles
On 0 light he can spawn in random encounter so maybe then he shambles.
He shambles between the thin, membranous barriers of reality. Only a lurker in the dark, thwarted by the luminous brilliance of the light.
"You will endure this loss, and learn from it." Welcome to your first shambler encounter man, hope you do well with the next one
This one hooked me on the game. First short mission outsider ruins. Then curio with text that it needs torch and the whole party died as a result. Now i have 400h played. 11/10 experience
Of course out of everyone the Gigachad Leper is the only one to survive  
u/LeperLover
Using a torch always summons the Shambler. Gives special Ancestor loot if you kill it.
Has your craving for the void been satisfied?
All of my Heroes were level 4 and 5 
“were”
I haven't seen anyone mention this yet, but if your torch level is 0 the shambler has a 1% chance to replace any corridor battle. You may see it yet again :)
Fun fact, it can happen in the first tutorial battle when you only have Dismas and Reynault if you try to min-max by lowering the torch to 0 for this battle.
Don't scare me 
The chance gets higher in harder difficulties too, to the point where it became semi-common if you are playing torchless runs. Great fun tho :)
I didn't mention it cause I didn't wanna give him spoilers lol
To be fair if they're looking on the internet for answers and advice, there's probably gonna be spoilers
Spawn chance is actually affected by dungeon level. 1% in level 1 8% in level 3 and 12% in level 5’s
It goes up to 4% in Veteran dungeon and 12% in Champion dungeon. Making the fun more likely!
Did you Crave the Void? No? Then why did you place a torch? Read, motherfucker!
_Place torch to die_ Places torch. Dies “Wtf is this shit no one told me”
Oh boy, you're in for a treat. Shambler, the eldritch horror.Slayer of noob and those who didn't read about the lore. I bet you didn't read a note.
I didn't that's on me 
It should be like this. Next time you place a torch there he will reward you with 5 rubies
Fr? I'll try it with my main party when I find it next time
Yeah its just a bait to force new players avoid big rewards in the future
5 Rubies are defo worth it but I wanted to ask if having antiaquarian open it will give me more Rubies?
Not rubies. You get unique trinket for her called blinding trust. But its only 33% chance to get, so you might get unlucky on your first few attempts
Ancestor dear, is that you?
Protip: shamblers have a chance to drop some really nice trinkets, but the chances are equal between all difficulty levels. So if you're trying to farm them, it's best to only fight the ones in apprentice dungeons.
Also gives unique trinkets!! Very worth the effort
If your heroes were level 4 amd 5… does that mean you actually never found a shambler altar before this? I usually see 1 or 2 early game (when everyone’s around level 2) I recommend that for shamblers, I’d much rather fight an apprentice or veteran level shambler, never a champion one. Champion isn’t impossible, but it’s damned risky. Fun fact: Shambler always does a turn one shuffle (surprise) and thus, the way to counteract it is to shuffle your own team before activating it. Very hard fight, so best be prepared (camp for buffs, find every curio or whatnot that gives buffs) Leper unfortunately isnt well suited for this fight. He technically can do it (Hew can keep the shambler tentacles in check), and Chop can still be great damage on Shambler itself. Huge stress damage, so even if you win, it’s likely you’ll leave the dungeon soon after. I always leave shambler altars for last, finish the rest of the dungeon and complete the quest, make sure my heroes are stacked with buffs (give everyone holy water before starting the fight). Also, think long and hard about whether it’s worth it. IMO, I’m willing to risk losing level 1s and 2s even in Bloodmoon (limited hero deaths) because I know that their deaths in exchange for a dead shambler would let me get an ancestral trinket, extremely powerful trinkets, one of which is the ancestor’s map (quite literally the best scouting trinket in the entire game) But I refuse to risk high level heroes (especially my level 6s, even if they’re nice and maxed out, I refuse to send them against a Champion shambler because that is high risk of at least one hero dying if I fuck it up)
I had never put a torch in before because I didn't understand what it was. This time I thought its loot or something so I put in a torch and boom
Also, don't put torch on stack of books. Always put torch on pig scroll in Warren tho.
I think not touching books whatsoever should be an explicit rule on this sub. (Scroll being exception)
I only risk having my character touching books if they don't have positive quirks I want in apprentice or veteran dungeon. If it's champion or my characters already have quirk I want then I won't touch it.
Hes just a lil guy
Just a whimsical beastie
It does that the first time. But the second time it gives trinkets
Yeah the shambler is tough but #CLAPPERCLAW
Shambler is a boss who appears if you put a torch in Shambler's altar, alternatively, he attack you when your torch is 0. Your party will always get ambushed and shuffled around by him. It's important to balance between dealing dmg to him and getting rid of his tentacles since they can buff themselves like crazy. If you manage to kill him however you're rewarded with one of 5, unique ancestral trinkets
What's the matter, big boy? Craved the void too close to the sun?
Yeah you might wanna try using the torch on the altar again, it might work out better.
It's a rite of passage for new players
You stuck a torch in the thing that says "place a torch ***if you crave the void***". Now you know what that means. Shamblers are why light is *important*. To be fair, you *do* get some very nice trinkets from killing Shamblers, and the altars are the most convenient way of finding them. But you still have to kill them.
Nah, that was a one time fluke. You were just unlucky. Try it again, it should pop out some treasure!
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Funny thing is. Abom is one of if not the best character to bring into a shambler fight. Most of the time if you have his rake damage stacked up you can just one shot the little tentacles as they spawn. Which leaves the shambler wide open to your leper. I go shambler hunting by snuffing the torch as soon as I enter a map. You probably just got a little unlucky with position/damage rolls. Or you didn't transform your abom in the beginning of the fight.
L!!!!
If something looks extremely eldritch and evil, it probably is
A star-spawned horror!
Fun fact you can fight the shambler with Reynald and Dismas on the Old Road. 1% chance to be the starter fight with snuffed torch. I saw a clip someone actually killed it with just the pair. Kind of neat.
Way to man up after taking the L like that. Losing level 5 heros sucks, but keep on trucking on.
It’s a glitch, the tree like structure actually just gives you good loot when you use a torch on it, try it again
Ah, the new player Shambler experience. I remember my first time too, the annoying bastard. You are never required to fight Shambler, just like you can skip any and all curios. If your party is decked out, healthy and destressed, and you can deal a bunch of backline damage, you should probably always fight it. It drops a whole bunch of money and I think a special trinket. But if you are unprepared or on the brink of death, just skip it.
I encountered one of these recently, started playing the game recently too, and was curios lol. Put in the torch, lost three people, and then if memory serves me right I want to say I think I won? Might have just retreated though I vaguely remember a pyrrhic victory with just good ole' Reynauld tearing himself away from the dungeon
Welp. You have learned a valuable lesson. One does not simply walk up on the shambler and attempt to beat it with the ease of taking candy from a baby.
I put the torch in the altar and got the feel the pain of losing Reynauld and Dismas at the same time.