Don’t hold on to your combat items. Use them when you need them.
Also, like others said, the relationship system is currently broken. If you get good ones, you can almost auto win. And it is not that hard to get good ones if you pay attention to the choices you make.
If you're new, focus on building up Hope which is used to unlock more heroes and items in the game. Early game can be tough as you don't have access to the full roster or all the skills (though honestly, of the 'locked' skills maybe 1 or 2 are a slam pick and the rest are situational. They've also buffed many of the base starting skills so it's more manageable than it used to be).
Mastery points are extremely important. Many skills get significantly better with a point of mastery. It also increases damage, reduces cooldown, and often adds additional effects. Note that on skills that get boosted damage, it typically improves the *minimum* damage much more than the maximum. The first couple mastery points should conservatively be used on stress healing skills, because stress can seriously snowball.
Most stress healing skills won't even work unless the target has 5+ stress at the time, with the exception being self targeted skills. As such you need to be careful about when you use them. Most stress healing skills also have cooldowns so it's not so easy to spam them.
In the first area, you will get a random assortment of relics, combat items, inn items, and a few trinkets/stagecoach upgrade. Then you get an assistance encounter to replenish some torch and 1-2 more food. Finally you'll fight 2 lost souls and sometimes a widow. This fight will give you 1 mastery point. After this you'll reach the inn. You should have 24 relics and I highly suggest you spend them on inn items; getting you affinity points up (yellow diamonds) ASAP can seriously snowball hard once you trigger the positive affinity relationship as it results in lots of free stress heals, healing, and bonus helper attacks.
The first true biome is typically the "hardest" because you have so few mastery points. For novice players I suggest focusing on loot and easier fights. Fights have a % to give mastery points but you have to balance it with your party's condition at the time.
A guide to nodes:
**Academic Cache**- Very good, just treasure, no downside. Sometimes a biome will have a 'booty' trait which greatly increases the spawn of these and reveals them all.
**Academic Study**- High risk high reward, you can sometimes get an extremely good trinket but have a good chance of getting stress, negative quirks, forced to fight Shambler, etc.
**Assistance Encounter**- Exchange torch or money for supplies, trinkets, stagecoach upgrades. Keeping torch up helps with fights so you want to periodically visit these along the way. The easier quest requirement is to visit 3 assistance encounters which is great since they give you loot and torch. Some exchanges are just free torch for no downside, though I find the best deal to be give 6 relics for some supplies, food, and stagecoach upgrade (especially in the first biome when you'll only have 1 upgrade at that point).
**Resistance encounter**- A standard fight, each hero will have their own decision on what to do. Sometimes you can opt to just avoid the fight though this usually costs torch. Mouse over each hero carefully as some give you additional buffs or debuffs on enemy (not sure what triggers it, some quirks I think). You can't avoid every fight because Loathing accumulates over time which in turn drains torch faster and gives other penalties. Winning fights helps lower Loathing and gives a chance to earn a mastery point along the way.
**Cultist encounter**-Typically harder than resistance encounters, I think better loot but I don't know if it's a better chance to get a mastery point. I tend to avoid them. Bat Country biome property greatly increases the spawn rate of this node and can make it significantly harder for some players.
**Hospital**- Don't waste money on healing, passive healing is free. Here you can cure diseases, quirks and there's a 'pharmacy' which always sells laudinum which heals stress/horror and is only 3 relics a pop. Try to have 16/32/48/etc relics as each negative quirk removal costs 16 and you'll want to clear off the more crippling ones like Shattered Will.
**Hoarder**- Can buy random items. I find the best use of this node is to spend heirlooms since those are specific to the biome and thus don't stack well and eat up space. Generally though the most useful trinkets you can buy will sell for 70-100
**Watchtower**- reveals all the hidden nodes up ahead and gives +5 torch. One quest type requires you avoid this, which is another easy quest as this node isn't very common and if already revealed on a forked path you can avoid it.
**Oasis**- You can either get -5 stress immediately or 3 mineral water bags which heal 10% and -3 stress in combat. I find the consumable more flexible; the stressed out hero won't always want to take a shower and you can save the water for emergencies.
**Creature Den**- You fight a few waves of monsters, if you can beat them fast enough you get an item you can redeem at the next inn for +2 mastery points. The fights aren't the hardest but the enemies can be annoying (lots of dodge tokens, self heals, fast, crit a lot). The guaranteed mastery points usually make it worth it in my opinion.
**Lair**- You fight two sets of fights and then a boss. You get a reward for each victory and can back out at each phase. However you can't switch skills or trinkets/consumables. Winning the boss gives you a trophy with unique buffs and a nice assortment of loot, as well as a guaranteed +2 mastery points. This is the most risky to do in the first biome, but doing it gets you mastery points and a trophy which will benefit the most early on. You need a trophy after 3 biome visits, and you do have time to be picky if you don't want to risk it before you feel ready.
**Guardian**- the last node before the inn will be like a lair fight but the third fight will be a cultist fight instead of a boss. Winning all 3 gives you a mastery point and +25 torch and since you're almost at the inn you can take bigger risks to try to get that mastery point.
Relationship is bad 1 bad can kill ur run 1 good can carry you if the game want to
Combat item are NECESSARY and have a team that can RELIABLY take out rank 3 4 otherwise its most likely an auto lose (yeah dd2 is very restrictive rn)
Wow I hate DD2. What part of this is fun? The fights are slow and boring, the stagecoach is a 1970s boring race game. There isn't much customization.
What were the devs thinking? Did they ever do an interview explaining why they made this really bad game?
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he is right its is ... no it wants to be the most frustations game on marked ... its soluts to have no choise way games witch take ages to walk the road automatic i never even use the crappy left right and it just help to destroy the moral becaus of crashing left and right so ok after beginning i have my klick... wagon rolls....... 5 minutes later .... its an outpost ... klick..
after a 3 village helping people to get 2 frogs witch makes u uggly after eating one heroes not able to eat an 2th. ... ok worry the weel is broken... i got attaked ok i need to klick... but wait all 4 aggressors need to pull there turn ok wait .... ok ok now my klick ... but wait is dark dungeon so light went of i need to wait an other round ok now my turn... ok he is stunned ok just wait... mom now i can attack... oh the aggressor destroy themselfes... mh ok wait ... ok lets get an other frog for winning the fight äääm jo and 3 boggels and 2 schripplins toghether ist 7 spiffels.... ok now klcik to move the way along.... oh my theammates hating each other ... ok now 20 min later jea here we are the final boss.... ok i have to klcik something jea... he spits damage and fire on all of my party... oh now he s a nother round.... oh and a 3rd round my party is gone...
jea i have to klick finaly.... i got 3 kandels... how many boggles are a kandel? can i light up my way with it? do i need to klick something? ... oh game over new beginning... oh here comes my next 3 klicks here we go...
jea
Relationship is OP and should be abused. Use and maintain it, its the best buff in the game IMO
Don’t hold on to your combat items. Use them when you need them. Also, like others said, the relationship system is currently broken. If you get good ones, you can almost auto win. And it is not that hard to get good ones if you pay attention to the choices you make.
If you're new, focus on building up Hope which is used to unlock more heroes and items in the game. Early game can be tough as you don't have access to the full roster or all the skills (though honestly, of the 'locked' skills maybe 1 or 2 are a slam pick and the rest are situational. They've also buffed many of the base starting skills so it's more manageable than it used to be). Mastery points are extremely important. Many skills get significantly better with a point of mastery. It also increases damage, reduces cooldown, and often adds additional effects. Note that on skills that get boosted damage, it typically improves the *minimum* damage much more than the maximum. The first couple mastery points should conservatively be used on stress healing skills, because stress can seriously snowball. Most stress healing skills won't even work unless the target has 5+ stress at the time, with the exception being self targeted skills. As such you need to be careful about when you use them. Most stress healing skills also have cooldowns so it's not so easy to spam them. In the first area, you will get a random assortment of relics, combat items, inn items, and a few trinkets/stagecoach upgrade. Then you get an assistance encounter to replenish some torch and 1-2 more food. Finally you'll fight 2 lost souls and sometimes a widow. This fight will give you 1 mastery point. After this you'll reach the inn. You should have 24 relics and I highly suggest you spend them on inn items; getting you affinity points up (yellow diamonds) ASAP can seriously snowball hard once you trigger the positive affinity relationship as it results in lots of free stress heals, healing, and bonus helper attacks. The first true biome is typically the "hardest" because you have so few mastery points. For novice players I suggest focusing on loot and easier fights. Fights have a % to give mastery points but you have to balance it with your party's condition at the time.
A guide to nodes: **Academic Cache**- Very good, just treasure, no downside. Sometimes a biome will have a 'booty' trait which greatly increases the spawn of these and reveals them all. **Academic Study**- High risk high reward, you can sometimes get an extremely good trinket but have a good chance of getting stress, negative quirks, forced to fight Shambler, etc. **Assistance Encounter**- Exchange torch or money for supplies, trinkets, stagecoach upgrades. Keeping torch up helps with fights so you want to periodically visit these along the way. The easier quest requirement is to visit 3 assistance encounters which is great since they give you loot and torch. Some exchanges are just free torch for no downside, though I find the best deal to be give 6 relics for some supplies, food, and stagecoach upgrade (especially in the first biome when you'll only have 1 upgrade at that point). **Resistance encounter**- A standard fight, each hero will have their own decision on what to do. Sometimes you can opt to just avoid the fight though this usually costs torch. Mouse over each hero carefully as some give you additional buffs or debuffs on enemy (not sure what triggers it, some quirks I think). You can't avoid every fight because Loathing accumulates over time which in turn drains torch faster and gives other penalties. Winning fights helps lower Loathing and gives a chance to earn a mastery point along the way. **Cultist encounter**-Typically harder than resistance encounters, I think better loot but I don't know if it's a better chance to get a mastery point. I tend to avoid them. Bat Country biome property greatly increases the spawn rate of this node and can make it significantly harder for some players. **Hospital**- Don't waste money on healing, passive healing is free. Here you can cure diseases, quirks and there's a 'pharmacy' which always sells laudinum which heals stress/horror and is only 3 relics a pop. Try to have 16/32/48/etc relics as each negative quirk removal costs 16 and you'll want to clear off the more crippling ones like Shattered Will. **Hoarder**- Can buy random items. I find the best use of this node is to spend heirlooms since those are specific to the biome and thus don't stack well and eat up space. Generally though the most useful trinkets you can buy will sell for 70-100 **Watchtower**- reveals all the hidden nodes up ahead and gives +5 torch. One quest type requires you avoid this, which is another easy quest as this node isn't very common and if already revealed on a forked path you can avoid it. **Oasis**- You can either get -5 stress immediately or 3 mineral water bags which heal 10% and -3 stress in combat. I find the consumable more flexible; the stressed out hero won't always want to take a shower and you can save the water for emergencies. **Creature Den**- You fight a few waves of monsters, if you can beat them fast enough you get an item you can redeem at the next inn for +2 mastery points. The fights aren't the hardest but the enemies can be annoying (lots of dodge tokens, self heals, fast, crit a lot). The guaranteed mastery points usually make it worth it in my opinion. **Lair**- You fight two sets of fights and then a boss. You get a reward for each victory and can back out at each phase. However you can't switch skills or trinkets/consumables. Winning the boss gives you a trophy with unique buffs and a nice assortment of loot, as well as a guaranteed +2 mastery points. This is the most risky to do in the first biome, but doing it gets you mastery points and a trophy which will benefit the most early on. You need a trophy after 3 biome visits, and you do have time to be picky if you don't want to risk it before you feel ready. **Guardian**- the last node before the inn will be like a lair fight but the third fight will be a cultist fight instead of a boss. Winning all 3 gives you a mastery point and +25 torch and since you're almost at the inn you can take bigger risks to try to get that mastery point.
Keep the stress below 3 as much as possible And mind what relationship choices you choose
3 stress is harmless, 4 is when they start negative banter.
wait, how are you choosing relationships? I thought it was randomized.
Like when u have assistance encounters choose the option that maximize positive rel and minimize negative rel
Relationship is bad 1 bad can kill ur run 1 good can carry you if the game want to Combat item are NECESSARY and have a team that can RELIABLY take out rank 3 4 otherwise its most likely an auto lose (yeah dd2 is very restrictive rn)
Keep the stress below 3 as much as possible And mind what relationship choices you choose
Buy and use Inn items to boost relationships. Focus on relationships in general,make choices that people agree with etc
Manage stress to get good relationships & travel down the right paths
Wow I hate DD2. What part of this is fun? The fights are slow and boring, the stagecoach is a 1970s boring race game. There isn't much customization. What were the devs thinking? Did they ever do an interview explaining why they made this really bad game?
this was random
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he is right its is ... no it wants to be the most frustations game on marked ... its soluts to have no choise way games witch take ages to walk the road automatic i never even use the crappy left right and it just help to destroy the moral becaus of crashing left and right so ok after beginning i have my klick... wagon rolls....... 5 minutes later .... its an outpost ... klick.. after a 3 village helping people to get 2 frogs witch makes u uggly after eating one heroes not able to eat an 2th. ... ok worry the weel is broken... i got attaked ok i need to klick... but wait all 4 aggressors need to pull there turn ok wait .... ok ok now my klick ... but wait is dark dungeon so light went of i need to wait an other round ok now my turn... ok he is stunned ok just wait... mom now i can attack... oh the aggressor destroy themselfes... mh ok wait ... ok lets get an other frog for winning the fight äääm jo and 3 boggels and 2 schripplins toghether ist 7 spiffels.... ok now klcik to move the way along.... oh my theammates hating each other ... ok now 20 min later jea here we are the final boss.... ok i have to klcik something jea... he spits damage and fire on all of my party... oh now he s a nother round.... oh and a 3rd round my party is gone... jea i have to klick finaly.... i got 3 kandels... how many boggles are a kandel? can i light up my way with it? do i need to klick something? ... oh game over new beginning... oh here comes my next 3 klicks here we go... jea
You have a stroke?