Steadfast Steward's Update - 2nd Build Live!

Welcome to the second build of our Steadfast Steward's Update. Over the next several weeks we will be deploying a new build with many experimental changes that will live on our public beta branches. Please use the in-game feedback tool or join our Discord to let us know your thoughts on these changes. We are trying out many changes and will be doing adjustments weekly.

In other, non-Steadfast Steward related news, we have something exciting to share with you - Hero Origin Skins are coming at the end of the month!

We'll be releasing the long awaited hero origin skins (the version of the Darkest Dungeon II heroes that you see in the Shrine of Remembrance) on PC and Mac June 26th. These skins will be released via a FREE DLC on Steam, Epic Games Store, and GoG. This FREE DLC will also make its way to consoles at a later date as well. 

After installing the FREE DLC you will still need to complete each hero’s set of shrines to unlock their skin in your cosmetics tab. 

Finally, our effort to bring the origin skins to life had the side benefit of laying the groundwork necessary to expand our modding tools, and allow for character modding. This means at the end of the month, character mods will be possible in Darkest Dungeon II. The ability to create custom character skins is currently on the coming_in_hot version of the Darkside tool. Our documentation is still in process as we develop the tool with our private mod testers. If you are interested in starting to test our character skin mods, head to our Discord and join the Darkest Dungeon II modding channels. Our private test group has been experimenting already and can be a resource for those looking to get started. 

We can't wait to see what you create!

And with that....here are this week's coming_in_hot patch notes!

HEROES

PLAGUE DOCTOR

Wanderer

• Indiscriminate Science and Indiscriminate Science+ cooldown increased from 1 to 2

  • Dev Note: token generation is generally high enough that this is more powerful than originally anticipated. Rather than reduce the potency of the heal we felt it more appropriate to match the larger cooldown of various other heals in the game.

• Fixed an issue with Disorienting Blast and Disorienting Blast+ not ignoring Guard

• Fixed an issue with Emboldening Vapours not correctly removing Daze/Stun before applying Speed

Surgeon

Dev Note: It's a well known issue that Surgeon felt fairly locked to rank 3 as the only intersection between Battlefield Medicine and Incision launch ranks. The Surgeon Path has been updated to retain some of the previous healing potency and Incision focus as a key element while freeing up her rank positioning and providing methods of generating self defense in order to operate closer to the front.

• This Path no longer reduces the efficacy of Blight skills

• This Path no longer increases the Plague Doctor's base HP

• Battlefield Medicine and Battlefield Medicine+ launch ranks changed from 3 4 to 1 2 3

• Battlefield Medicine heal reduced from 27% to 20% to match Wanderer

• Battlefield Medicine+ heal reduced from 33% to 25% to match Wanderer

• Battlefield Medicine+ no longer removes the Plague Doctor's Bleed, Blight, or Burn

• Battlefield Medicine+ gains +33% heal value per type of DOT on the target

  • Dev Note: we reduced the raw healing to match Wanderer but wanted to give it a way to retain some of the improved healing when necessary. The more DOTs, the bigger the heal provided when mastered up to double the value.

• Cause of Death is now a Path skill

• Cause of Death and Cause of Death+ launch ranks are 1 2

• Cause of Death and Cause of Death+ target ranks are 1 2 3

• Cause of Death and Cause of Death+ do not deal DMG based on the current DOT value on the target

• Cause of Death and Cause of Death+ have a single use per battle

• Cause of Death doubles the current Bleed amount on the target. This cannot be resisted

• Cause of Death+ double the current Bleed, Blight, and Burn values on the target. This cannot be resisted

  • Dev Note: We're getting a bit experimental with this one!  When used with surgical precision and timing, it has devastating potential

• Disorienting Blast is now a Path skill

• Disorienting Blast and Disorienting Blast+ have launch ranks 1 2

• Disorienting Blast and Disorienting Blast+ have target ranks 1 2 3

• Disorienting Blast & Disorienting Blast+ do not ignore or remove Guard tokens

• Disorienting Blast has a DMG value of 1-3

• Disorienting Blast replaces the Shuffle with a Knockback of 1

• Disorienting Blast grants 1 Block

• Disorienting Blast+ has a DMG value of 2-5

• Disorienting Blast+ CRIT chance reduced from 15% to 10%

• Disorienting Blast+ replaces the Shuffle with a Knockback of 2

• Disorienting Blast+ does not apply Weak

• Disorienting Blast+ does not Stun vs. Combo

• Disorienting Blast+ applies Immobilize on CRIT

• Disorienting Blast+ grants 1 Block

  • Dev Note: The Surgeon needed some additional front ranks punch, so we opted for a little crowd control, chip damage, and defense rolled into one.  It retains the classic Daze but sacrifices the Stun vs. Combo in favor of other effects.

• Emboldening Vapours is now a Path skill

• Emboldening Vapours applies 1 Strength to target

• Emboldening Vapours applies 1 Block to target

• Emboldening Vapours+ applies the same tokens to the Plague Doctor

  • Dev Note: As this Path doesn't have the "do unto others and unto yourself" effect that Battlefield Medicine does, we felt it would be appropriate to emulate that in Emboldening Vapours so the Plague Doctor can assist others while strengthening herself as well.

• Incision and Incision+ DMG have been returned to Wanderer values

• Incision and Incision+ no longer gain Bleed RES Piercing vs. Combo

• Incision and Incision+ now grant a +1 Bleed DMG dealt buff to the Plague Doctor when hitting a target with Combo. This buff lasts for the remainder of Combat

• Incision Bleed reduced from 3 to 2

• Incision+ Bleed reduced from 4 to 3

• Incision+ now grants a +1 Burn DMG dealt buff to the Plague Doctor when hitting a target with Combo. This buff lasts for the remainder of Combat

• Incision+ grants 2 Regen on kill

  • Dev Note: We wanted Incision to remain an important part of the Surgeon experience so it has some unique qualities to support itself and other skills / items / sources of DOT in a way that no other Plague Doctor Path does.

• Indiscriminate Science is no longer a Path skill

  • Dev Note: Blanket improved healing was a bit much, especially on a skill that's already as potent as this.

• Noxious Blast is no longer a Path skill

  • Dev Note: No more reduced Blight forcing you to focus entirely on Bleed.

• Ounce of Prevention is now a Path skill

• Ounce of Prevention and Ounce of Prevention+ no longer buff Bleed, Blight, or Burn RES

• Ounce of Prevention and Ounce of Prevention+ no longer buff Disease RES

• Ounce of Prevention and Ounce of Prevention+ launch ranks changed from 2 3 4 to 1 2 3

• Ounce of Prevention and Ounce of Prevention+ apply +30% Stun RES for 3 turns

• Ounce of Prevention and Ounce of Prevention+ apply +30% Move RES for 3 turns

• Ounce of Prevention and Ounce of Prevention+ grant 1 Block to the Plague Doctor

• Ounce of Prevention+ applies +10% Debuff RES for 3 turns

• Ounce of Prevention+ applies +20% Stress RES for 3 turns

  • Dev Note: We decided to try an experimental version of Ounce of Prevention that provided some self defense while buffing several RES stats that aren't typically seen in party-wide buffs.

• Plague Grenade is no longer a Path skill

  • Dev Note: No more reduced Blight forcing you to focus entirely on Bleed.

Alchemist

Dev Note: Alchemist has been reworked as a Path capable of wielding all 3 DOT types. We wanted to retain some of Alchemist's capacity to land Blight with great success but in ways that involved more active engagement, so her Blight skills (and some others) now gain additional bonuses against targets suffering from other DOTs.  Chip damage has been removed from some skills in order to balance for greater DOT output but other, formerly non-damaging skills have acquired that damage in their place.

• This Path no longer has reduced HP

• This Path no longer has increased Stun RES

• This Path no longer has increased Debuff RES

• This Path no longer has increased Bleed, Blight, and Burn RES

• Cause of Death is now a Path skill

• Cause of Death and Cause of Death+ are considered Melee skills

• Cause of Death and Cause of Death launch ranks are 1 2 3

• Cause of Death and Cause of Death+ target ranks are 1 2 3

• Cause of Death and Cause of Death+ have a cooldown of 1

• Cause of Death deals 5-8 DMG

• Cause of Death has 10% CRIT

• Cause of Death deals +3 DMG if the target has Bleed

• Cause of Death ignores Block if the target has Blight

• Cause of Death gains +10% CRIT if the target has Burn

• Cause of Death+ deals 6-10 DMG

• Cause of Death+ has 15% CRIT

• Cause of Death+ deals +4 DMG if the target has Bleed

• Cause of Death+ ignores Block and Dodge if the target has Blight

• Cause of Death+ gains +15% CRIT if the target has Burn

  • Dev Note: We wanted to experiment with a knife skill that benefits from DOTs in various ways, so the Alchemist now has a potentially high output skill on a short cooldown without interfering with Incision's necessary Bleed capabilities.

• Disorienting Blast is now a Path skill

• Disorienting Blast and Disorienting Blast+ retain their Daze and Stun effects from Wanderer

• Disorienting Blast deals 2-3 DMG

• Disorienting Blast+ deals 3-4 DMG

• Disorienting Blast applies 3 Burn

• Disorienting Blast+ applies 4 Burn

  • Dev Note: The Alchemist now has a stun grenade that dishes out some single target Burn as well!

• Magnesium Rain is now a Path skill

• Magnesium Rain and Magnesium Rain+ have launch ranks 3 4

• Magnesium Rain and Magnesium Rain+ have target ranks 1 2 3 4

• Magnesium Rain and Magnesium Rain+ target one monster

• Magnesium Rain and Magnesium Rain+ no longer clear corpses

• Magnesium Rain and Magnesium Rain+ retain the Wanderer Burn values

• Magnesium Rain deals 2-4 DMG

• Magnesium Rain has a CRIT value of 10%

• Magnesium Rain applies 2 Bleed if the target has Blight

• Magnesium Rain applies 2 Blight if the target has Bleed

• Magnesium Rain deals 3-5 DMG

• Magnesium Rain+ has a CRIT value of 15%

• Magnesium Rain+ applies 3 Bleed if the target has Blight

• Magnesium Rain+ applies 3 Blight if the target has Bleed

• Magnesium Rain+ gains +15% CRIT if the target has Burn

  • Dev Note: Magnesium Rain has been overhauled to provide a direct damage option that can also apply multiple conditional DOTs.  Yes, the Alchemist now has Hollow Vessel.  It's payback time.

• Noxious Blast and Noxious Blast+ no longer have +33% innate Blight RES Piercing

• Noxious Blast and Noxious Blast+ no longer deal DMG

• Noxious Blast and Noxious Blast+ no longer gain Blight RES Pierce vs. Combo

• Noxious Blast and Noxious Blast+ now gain +20% Blight RES Piercing if the target has Bleed

• Noxious Blast+ increases the duration of its Blight by 1 if the target has Burn

• Noxious Blast+ CRIT increased from 15% to 20%

• Plague Grenade and Plague Grenade+ no longer have +33% innate Blight RES Piercing

• Plague Grenade and Plague Grenade+ no longer deal DMG

• Plague Grenade and Plague Grenade+ now gain +20% Blight RES Piercing if the target has Bleed

• Plague Grenade CRIT reduced from 15% to 10%

• Plague Grenade Blight increased from 3 to 4

• Plague Grenade+ Blight increased from 4 to 5

• Plague Grenade+ increases the duration of Blight by 1 if the target has Burn

  • Dev Note: Noxious Blast and Plague Grenade no longer deal their minor damage but, instead, deal higher values of Blight and can gain bonuses to both RES Piercing and DOT duration without having to consume precious Combo tokens.

Physician

Dev Note: DOTs are a major part of the Plague Doctor's identity and reducing their efficacy took away from her flexibility, reducing kit options and making it difficult for the Physician to engage offensively when needed. Her kit has been reworked to retain offensive options, improve some utility aspects, and rebalance elements so that no skill is strictly a "Wanderer+" version. The Physician now has access to all standard negative tokens other than Taunt.

• Cause of Death is now a Path skill

• Cause of Death has a 5% CRIT chance

• Cause of Death has a cooldown of 3

• Cause of Death and Cause of Death+ are classified as Melee skills

• Cause of Death causes an enemy to receive +1 Bleed, Blight, and Burn from all sources for 3 rounds

• Cause of Death causes an enemy to deal -1 Bleed, Blight, and Burn for 3 rounds

• Cause of Death+ reduces the cooldown to 2

• Cause of Death+ has a 15% CRIT chance

• Cause of Death+ applies a second time if it CRITs. This additional time cannot be resisted

  • Dev Note: We wanted to experiment with this skill in a way that suits both the Plague Doctor's DOT identity and the Physician Path's support identity, allowing her to amplify DOTs applied to the enemy while also reducing their own output.

• Disorienting Blast and Disorienting Blast+ no longer ignore 20% Stun RES

• Disorienting Blast and Disorienting Blast+ no longer apply Weak

• Disorienting Blast and Disorienting Blast+ now remove all Riposte from the target

• Disorienting Blast no longer applies Vulnerable

• Disorienting Blast+ CRIT increased from 10% to 15%

• Emboldening Vapours and Emboldening Vapours+ do not clear Daze or Stun

• Emboldening Vapours and Emboldening Vapours+ remove all Weak before applying Strength

• Emboldening Vapours grants 1 Strength

  • Dev Note: Utility adjustments have been made to Disorienting Blast and Emboldening Vapours to better match the recent changes to the Wanderer versions of these skills in terms of overall effect and mastery while giving them a touch of Physician personality.

• Incision is no longer a Path skill

• Noxious Blast and Noxious Blast+ now apply 1 Weak

• Noxious Blast Blight increased from 2 to 3

• Noxious Blast+ Blight reduces from 4 to 3

• Noxious Blast+ now increases Blight duration by +1 vs. Combo

• Noxious Blast+ now ignores 30% Debuff RES vs. Combo

• Noxious Blast+ CRIT increased from 5% to 10%

  • Dev Note: We wanted to differentiate Noxious Blast as a Physician skill by providing it with both a moderate level of Blight and debuff effects. It also boasts the recently added Wanderer Combo effect with an added twist.

• Ounce of Prevent and Ounce of Prevention+ launch ranks increased from 3 4 to 2 3 4 to match new Wanderer

• Ounce of Prevention and Ounce of Prevention+ DOT RES values increased to match new Wanderer

• Ounce of Prevention and Ounce of Prevention+ Disease RES values increased to match new Wanderer

• Ounce of Prevention no longer applies a Stress RES buff

• Ounce of Prevention+ Stress RES buff increased from 15% to 20%

  • Dev Note: Physician's Ounce of Prevention has been adjusted to better align with the revised Wanderer, trading that version's new Debuff RES when mastered for an enhanced Stress RES buff.

• Plague Grenade is no longer a Path skill

OCCULTIST

Aspirant

• Reduced amount of Immobilize applied by Unchecked Power penalty from 2 to 1

• Fixed an issue with Aspirant Unchecked Power still stating that it applied 2 Immobilize when it has since been reduced to 1

• Fixed an issue with Wyrd Reconstruction's Bleed not correctly applying in conjunction with Unchecked Power under certain circumstances

DUELIST

Antagoniste

• Increased the Debuff RES Piercing of Aggressive Stance from 10% to 15%

• Fixed an issue with Aggressive Stance token description stating an incorrect amount of Debuff RES Piercing

ORDAINMENT

• Chance to spawn based on Confession and Region remains unchanged

• DMG buffs changed from % to flat and now scale based on region along with Max HP buffs as follows

  • Denial: Region 1: +10% Max HP, Region 2: +20% Max HP & +1 DMG

  • Resentment: Region 1: +10% Max HP, Region 2: +20% Max HP & +1 DMG, Region 3: +30% Max HP & +2 DMG

  • Obsession/Ambition/Cowardice: Region 1: +20% Max HP & +1 DMG, Region 2: +30% Max HP & +2 DMG, Region 3: +40% Max HP & +3 DMG

  • Dev Note: Flat damage is something we're experimenting with to help address Weak tokens feeling underpowered when facing the previous % based DMG buffs. Untested feedback has already been shared speculating that flat DMG buffs across the board brings risk that the power discrepancy between enemy skills is too great. We have contingency plans to revert back to % DMG buffs, however, we ask you try out this experimental version before providing feedback. Even if it ends up being short lived, we hope you enjoy trying out these tuning changes!

• Removed +10% Bleed, Blight, Burn RES Piercing buff

• Several Confession specific buffs have been updated, primarily to replace Apply On Hit: DOT (10%) effects

  • Denial specific buffs remain unchanged

  • Resentment specific buffs have been changed from Apply On Hit: Burn 1 (10%) to Round End: gain Apply On Hit: Burn 3 when self HP is 100

  • Obsession specific buffs remain unchanged

  • Ambition specific buffs have been changed from Apply On Hit: Bleed (10%) & Vulnerable (5%) to Round End: Convert Block+ to Strength, Block to Block+, Dodge+ to Crit, Dodge to Dodge+

  • Cowardice specific buffs have been changed from Apply On Hit: Blight (10%) and Round Start: gain Crit (10%) & Vulnerable (5%) to Apply On Critical Hit: Invert 1 Positive Token and Target: Apply to Attack When Hit: Blight 1 (3 Turns) (Until Hit) when target Monster

  • Dev Note: There are certain buffs that will not be taken advantage of by all enemies. This is intentional as Ordainment effects should add texture to fights through situational power that should make players consider mashes differently when these effects come into play. We'll be monitoring these unique buffs and effects, all of which are subject to tuning changes.

• Exemplar will always been Ordained in Confessions

• [SPOILER]  Ancestor's Statue can no longer be Ordained

GAMEPLAY

• Fixed Winded, Controlled Burn, Field Surgeon, and Pyromaniac not appearing in token glossary correctly

• Fixed Widow and Chirurgeon Academic View and buffs strings

• Patient now only applies diseases when Chirurgeon is present

• Necrosis: Tooltip now explains Heal 5% per target

• Hero trinket tooltips no longer say [SKILL NAME] Skills: and will now just say [SKILL NAME]:

• More string fixes to replace instances of If with When

• Fixed an issue that could cause On CRIT effects to sometimes express that they occurred when they weren't CRITs

• Fixed the blade orientation on Plague Doctor's infernal dagger to match her other weapon kits

• Fixed incorrect token categories

• Fixed coloring of increased/decreased loathing color in tooltips to better match the gold/blue paradigm

• Fixed Plague doctor bomb not resting in hand during positive relationship presentation

• Issues with Gamepad Text entry for the Begin New Adventure screen have been addressed

  • Dev Note: On Steamdeck we recommend updating to Steam OS 3.7 if you're experiencing loss of input after resuming the game from sleep mode

• Fixed ignited shaman academic view

• Fixed rank tokens not displaying rank locked indicator

• Fixed Galea description

• Fixed bagman academic view tooltip

• Fixed copying DOTs onto target when target is DOT immune

• Fixed candles not spawning correctly at locations in early regions

• Fixed certain region goals not appearing as intended

• Fixed issue where you could sell Tattered Banner quest item