14 December 2021 Patch

The following patch was deployed on 14 December 2021 for Darkest Dungeon II.

## Torch and Trophy Experimental Release

### PLAYER PROFILES

Before we get to the main new features we added for gameplay, we also wanted to add the ability for players to have multiple profiles on their machines. Now when you boot up the game for the first time, you will be asked to create a profile by entering a name, selecting what language you want to play in, as well as taking a moment to opt-in to our data collection, before you hit the main menu.

If you already have a profile and have been playing since release, no worries! We will convert your existing profile and save to the new structure and you can keep on going where you left off.

Want a friend or roommate to try the game out, but don’t want them to tank your run? You can now have up to 10 profiles on a single install of the game, each with their own runs.

### IN GAME PATCH NOTES

We’ve added in-game patch notes! From now on, all patches, hot-fixes, and updates will have their contents documented in the client for the duration of early access. The feature is still in its nascent stages but we hope to continue to add small quality of life improvements to help us better communicate the changes that happen to Darkest Dungeon II throughout it’s life in early access.

To start you can see this little icon: and know that this change or fix came as a result of actioning some of the amazing feedback we’ve been able to collect on our Discord, web boards, or our in-game feedback tool!

So thank you for contributing and each time you see know that your input has helped us in our path to making Darkest Dungeon II the game we want it to be.

### TROPHY SYSTEM / MOUNTAIN ENTRY

* Starting with this patch, you must mount a TROPHY on your Stagecoach in order to enter the Mountain. TROPHIES can only be obtained by slaying a Region Boss. Remember that Region Bosses live in LAIRS.
* To help you hunt down the bosses, all LAIRS will now be scouted by default, which means they’ll always be revealed on the map.
* The choice of whether to attempt to slay a boss early in the expedition or later on is up to you. But you must successfully slay at least one boss in order to tackle the Mountain and win the run.
* Each boss has two different trophies that they can drop. These trophies can dramatically affect your heroes or the Stagecoach. We won’t spoil them here!
* What happens if you don’t have a Trophy when you reach the Mountain?
* First of all, if you enter the last region before the Mountain and you don’t yet have a Trophy, you’ll be given a pop up warning that you need to kill the boss in that region.
* But if you don’t kill that boss and approach the final Inn before the Mountain, your expedition will conclude and you’ll be shown the run over screen. Rest assured that all Hope earned will be accrued to your profile, as normal.

### NEW LOCATION TYPE: THE OASIS

* At the Oasis, you can pay Relics in order to relieve Stress from one hero. This provides another weapon to combat stress and keep your affinities trending in the happy direction!

### STAGECOACH LIVERY (SKINS)

* Ride out in style! As you advance your player profile, you will unlock new Stagecoach skins. You can toggle your livery by clicking a button on the Stagecoach Status screen.

### THE INFERNAL FLAME

Darkest Dungeon 1 has a long tradition of “Dark Runs”, which is the name for when players actively snuff out their torch on purpose in order to elevate the challenge of the game.

Enter: the Infernal Flame. This stagecoach upgrade unlocks at Profile Level 20. Once unlocked, it will show up in the Academic’s Cache in the Valley each time you start a new Expedition. If you choose to mount this as a stagecoach upgrade, the Flame will be pegged at 1 for the rest of the run and can never fluctuate. This will increase the difficulty substantially. On the plus side, you can never run out and therefore can never be ambushed by Cultists from behind. If you mount the Infernal Flame, you probably should not bother with Assist Encounters at all.

Be warned: once you mount the Infernal Flame, you cannot remove it during that expedition!

### Combat (General)

* Fixed an issue with stacking Buff/Debuff values (e.g. Clotting Powders and Ounce of Prevention) not displaying correctly on mouseover
* Fixed an issue where Taunt Tokens were incorrectly consumed by Riposte
* Fixed an issue with some resistance penalties (Stun, Move, Debuff) not being correctly calculated during a Crit

### Combat Items

* Pouch of Lye will clear corpses on a miss

### Heroes (General)

* Chance for a critical hit to heal 1 Stress has been raised to 50% from 25%
* Stunned Heroes that lose their turn will now receive a +40% Stun Resist bonus until the start of their next turn
* Fixed an issue with some Combat Items incorrectly consuming Crit Tokens, such as Pouch of Lye and Chalk Dust; Combat Items that deal no damage but apply a DOT/Stun/Debuff will still consume Crit as they benefit from the 20% resistance penetration granted by a critical hit

### Grave Robber

* Grave Robber's Dead of Night will now clear corpse on a miss but will only provide the additional bonuses on hit

### Hellion

* Wicked Hack/Wicked Hack+ damage slightly increased to better reflect her role as a damager
* Wicked Hack+ now applies a non-resistable 75% healing debuff to a target with Combo
* Iron Swan/Iron Swan+ damage slightly increased to better reflect her role as a damager
* Iron Swan+ now applies Combo

### Highwayman

* Tracking Shot will now prevent the target from gaining Dodge/Dodge+ Tokens for 2 turns
* Fixed an issue where Highway Robbery was not reporting the number of Tokens (2) that it destroys

### Man-at-Arms

* Man-at-Arms: Crush damage slightly reduced to better reflect his role as a defender

### Occultist

* Malediction/Malediction+ now applies DOTs when the target is damaged rather than hit; non-damaging attacks will not trigger the effect but DOT ticks will
* Malediction DOT damage increased to 2 points
* Malediction+ now also reduces the target's Bleed/Blight/Burn resistance values by 20%
* Wyrd Reconstruction & Wyrd Reconstruction+ have been reworked
* Base Crit value was removed from the Skill as this impacted both the Bleed's duration and chance to resist
* The Skill no longer uses Crit tokens; these also negatively impacted the Bleed as above
* The Skill still has a 5% (10% on upgrade) chance to critically heal as it did before; this is not reflected on the tooltip and is a known issue
* Critical heal bonus raised to +100% from +50%
* The Skill now has a +100% chance to critically heal when consuming 2 Unchecked Power

### Plague Doctor

* Magnesium Rain will now clear corpses on a miss, similarly to the Leper's Purge

### Monsters (General)

* Fixed an issue causing certain monster attacks  (e.g. the Hatchetman's Finishing Blow) to fail to respect Taunt Tokens
* Fixed an issue with Hard mashes potentially spawning in early Biomes

### Fanatics

* Ignited Flayer's Searing Lunge now correctly applies Burn to target

### Lost Battalion

* Minimum damage of many Skills has been adjusted, resulting in slightly higher average damage values across the faction

### Swine

* Fixed an issue where Wilbur's Shattering Squeal was sometimes not AoE
* Wilbur is now guaranteed to use Obliterate Body when he has a valid target for it

### Diseases

* Fixed an issue with the Brittle Bones penalty not displaying on the Conditions tab

### HWY Chap 1:

* Rock throw no longer does any damage
* Hwy dmg increased

### HWY Chap 2:

* Changed stagecoach buffing logic
* Stagecoach buffs now 2 instead of 1 per enemy
* Move skill removed

### Leper Chap 2:

* Advisor stab does more damage
* Stress rebalancing
* Whispered plots won't trigger when only 1 advisor is left

### Gameplay:

* Friendly Skills should no longer consume CRIT tokens when they are not supposed too.
* Trinket awarding and unlocking: Reduced trinket award rates due to "awash in trinkets" feedback. This should also help strengthen the trinket buying mechanic. Also revised trinket unlock levels to spread them out a bit more and also to ensure that there are no profile levels where NOTHING unlocks. Finally, moved Class trinket unlocks to ensure that they are always AFTER the Class itself unlocks, to stop the teasing.
* Ghoul is no longer missing its corpse occasionally.
* Fixed an issue with Inn Items that have a chance for +/- affinity, only giving negative if the relationship was at max positive.
* Fixed an issue with Act Outs not triggering a Meltdown correctly if the stress was created on Turn start.
* Stagecoach upgrade slots: they now unlock with profile level. A brand new profile will only have access to 1 upgrade slot.
* Progression tuning: stretched out lower levels a bit more because some first runs were unlocking too many levels at once.
* Pricing adjustments to Faction trinkets because for the same power they were half as pricey as non-faction Epics.
* Fix to cultist story scouting buff from Lute and Dagger Inn so it actually scouts Cultist Territories
* Lairs are now auto-scouted (part of the new trophy feature)
* Removed ambush chance from mountain biome.

### Interface

* The minimap and character sheet can now be opened in the story screen by either right clicking on their portraits or using the hotkey “C” or “M” respectively.
* The minimap is now toggleable in the store and hospital.
* Added Biome Progress Label to show how far in your run you are.
* Quirk flavor text is now italicized.
* Biome Progress, and Leagues to Inn UI elements are now hidden at the Mountain.
* Correctly using the plural of leagues when you have 0 leagues remaining.
* Reformatted DoT tooltips when it has a chance to apply or not.
* Fixed an issue with Hero route preference UI remaining active in Valley after a run abandon.
* Hidden Tokens should no longer appear briefly in combat.
* Fixed an issue with the target indicator link sometimes appearing in the wrong spot.
* CURED pop text should no longer play when locking quirks at the hospital.
* Fixed an issue with the Destroy Token effects tooltip to now show how many of them will be destroyed.
* ESC key should now work to close all UI elements and tabs across the game.
* Story Glyphs now correctly show losing Stress as good (gold) and gaining it as bad (blue).
* Fixed a softlock issue when selecting cinematic replay and confession at the same time.
* Various UI fixes
* Other / Miscellaneous
* Added more Hero Barks and edited/revised many of the existing ones.
* Various typos fixed and language edits for added clarity.
* Changing your language should now happen immediately and no longer require a restart.
* Fixed an error related to attempting to apply start round effects to a dead/dying actor.
* Added monitor number to selection dropdown text to differentiate identical monitors.
* Dungeon dialog scrolling should feel better.
* Fixed a visual issue with Hellion’s “If It Bleeds” making it difficult to see the enemy.
* Updated the art assets for The Academic’s Study node.
* Softlock fix for Man at Arms 2nd Hero Story combat.
* Fixed an issue with new quirks replacing and not respecting locked quirks.
* Various Animation and Visual Effects improvements and fixes.
* Various cleaning up around animation states for Hero Act Outs
* Performance optimizations across the game, particularly around the character sheet and relationship test screens.
* Fix stagecoach ink trail VFX positioning
* Fixed an issue with the character outline when viewing the model in the Alt Token View.

### Audio

* Add driving music bookmarking support. The music will now continue where it left off, rather than restarting. Get ready to enjoy all 25 minutes.
* Fix return-from-valley-combat narration playing in game results after defeating the mountain boss.
* Fix missing tooltip SFX for mastery point in driving UI biome goal reward.
* Fix missing tooltip SFX on combat mutator and actor health bars.
* Don't allow stagecoach upgrade screen close SFX spam while closing.
* Fix some minor missing SFXs.
* Fix enemy dying from DoT being counted by narration as a suicide.
* Fix boss battle narration condition so it plays on the first fight.
* The DoT narration should no longer play a second time if they have that DoT already.
* Fix for DoT narration playing for Heal Over Time effects.
* Fixed the Typewriter SFX for all bark cases (driving, combat, story choice, etc.)..

### The Academic Speaks!

* A variety of new narrator lines have been added, with an emphasis on situational combat triggers
* We will continue to add more over the course of Early Access!
* LOC text will come tomorrow or later this week