Game Modes

Darkest Dungeon features different game modes to allow players to customize their playing experience.

## Features of Darkest Mode

The "Normal" mode of Darkest Dungeon. Not as difficult as Stygian Mode but takes more time to complete than Radiant Mode. It is recommended for players who want a prolonged experience.

## Features of Radiant Mode

Radiant Mode is meant for players who want to keep their playtime low, but it is still designed to give the player just as much challenge as Darkest Mode.

It is intended to take less time overall to complete than normal (“Darkest”) mode. The mode is still challenging — monsters have the same stats and nothing about permadeath has changed. But some gameplay rules have been flexed or altered in ways that reduce some of the more time consuming mid and late game elements.

 Tweaks to Stagecoach:
* Added another upgrade tier to Experienced Recruits (Lvl 4 Characters will now appear, increased chance of upgraded recruits appearing)
* Changed Experienced Recruit requirements. (Lvl 1 now only requires Lvl 1 Blacksmith and Guild)
 DLC: The gold costs for most districts are greatly reduced.

\* The changes to Never Again are the following: gain 80 Stress when entering the Darkest Dungeon, decrease Virtue Chance by 25%, effectively making it a 1% Virtue Chance.

## Features of Stygian Mode

Stygian is a game mode which gives you a more difficult and more challenging campaign. Unlike other modes, Stygian has instant failure conditions that, when met, will result in a "Game Over" and ***permanently delete your save.***

*This article or section may contain **spoilers** about the final boss. You might want to avoid reading further if you don't want to spoil the surprise for yourself!*

 Unlike the regular campaign - where your victory can be as long and bloody as it needs to be - you will immediately fail if either of the following things happens:
* You take 86 weeks to finish the game (if you are in the week 85 you have to kill the hearth in that week).
* 12 or more of your heroes are killed.

 Once the Heart of Darkness is dead, the game over conditions are removed and you can continue playing your file without fear of it being deleted.

## Features of Bloodmoon Mode

Bloodmoon is a Stygian game mode combined with Crimson Court DLC. While all Stygian loss conditions persist in Bloodmoon, some have been adjusted to fit the new features.

*This article or section may contain **spoilers** about the final boss. You might want to avoid reading further if you don't want to spoil the surprise for yourself!*

 Time limit has been raised to 100 weeks instead of 86 to account the new bosses.
You still only need to beat the Final Boss to remove these limits.

## Achievements

These are the achievements specifically related to the game's mode.

## Trivia

* Stygian Mode was originally New game+ and could only be unlocked after the first time you finish the game.
* When Radiant was first introduced, there was a different hunger system in place. The random Hunger Checks did not occur and instead Food Provision cost increased to 125 and stack size decreased to 6 to compensate.
* "Victory, such as it is..." achievement is described as "Complete the game" when in reality the player has to complete the game on Darkest difficulty or higher.
* When you defeat the final boss, you receive the achievements associated with easier difficulty settings in addition to your current one. If you complete your first game on Stygian/Bloodmoon, you can receive "World End", "Victory, such as it is...", "Entry level", "Strict Mode", and "In such haste..." all at once.
* In Radiant Mode, Darkest Configuration settings are overall turned off, but nothing inside is changed. This prevents the player from receiving the Strict Mode achievement for playing on Radiant Difficulty.