Like its predecessor, Darkest Dungeon 2 is a dark fantasy role-playing game with roguelike elements. Death can occur in a variety of ways and it is ideal to come prepared with the best heroes for your team going forward. A combination of these heroes should help you navigate through the toughest of challenges during any portion of the story.
Before we get through the best team compositions that will carry you through the game, you should know what makes a hero good in Darkest Dungeon 2. There are 12 different heroes in the game currently, with more in the works that will come with future updates. Each hero, or adventurer, is separated by their own class, strengths, and weaknesses, so a combination of different classes is the way to go with any team comp.
Heroes in Darkest Dungeon 2
Of these heroes, 11 of them make their return from the original Darkest Dungeon. You start off with four heroes already unlocked.
- Grave Robber: A hero that relies on positioning and critical hits to deal damage and sustain herself. Her low HP pool is offset by her high dodge chance, making her surprisingly tanky as she outputs high crit damage with quick attacks.
- Highwayman: A high-damage-dealing hero that uses a sword and a gun. His main focus is his damage output and he can buff himself to deal even more damage. He is also great at stealing and destroying tokens from enemies.
- Man-at-Arms: The de-facto tank of the starting lineup. The Man-at-Arms excels at boosting his own defense and taking damage that would otherwise affect his teammates. His offensive skillset is no joke either, allowing him to close the gap on troublesome enemies.
- Plague Doctor: She fits the role of the humble support, positioned in the backline and healing her allies. Her offensive capabilities are nothing to scoff at, spreading blight and dealing a lot of bleed damage while staying out of danger at the back of the party.
Once you get the most out of these heroes, you will be introduced to eight more heroes over the course of the story. All eight are unlocked at the Altar of Hope. Seven are returning heroes while one is a new character.
- Bounty Hunter: The new character introduced in Darkest Dungeon 2. He specializes in dealing bonus damage to his marked targets by ignoring their defenses and resistances. He can also take out weaker targets, piercing through most of their defenses with a finishing blow.
- Flagellant: A hero that has a unique playstyle. He can play in two different ways, either turning his pain into healing for himself or using toxins to damage enemies that hit him. He can also enhance the toxins to heal him when his HP drops low.
- Hellion: A barbarian that focuses on combat and damage output. They are berserkers that deal more damage when they’re below 50 percent health and even more when they drop below 25 percent health. They also cause bleeding and deal more damage to bleeding enemies.
- Jester: This hero is great at healing their allies and relieving stress. Their damage output is considerable as well, with above-average critical hit damage and toxin procs on different attacks. Their low HP pools relegate them to the backline, however.
- Leper: Quite possibly the hero with the most damage potential in the game. Also the hero with one of the highest defenses in the game. To mitigate these overpowered stats, he starts with permanent blindness and thus low mobility as well.
- Occultist: A higher-tier support hero with strong offensive potential as well. Also very fragile so they will have to be relegated to the backline. The hero has access to all damage-over-time abilities and some of the strongest heals. They are a jack-of-all-trades.
- Runaway: This hero is a master at repositioning his enemies. Messing up their formation can leave enemies open to his team’s attacks and several of his debuffs. He also has the highest resistance of any hero. The downside is he only heals from bleeding enemies.
- Vestal: This hero is a combination of damage dealer and support. Typically a backline hero with low mobility, her teammates have to protect her while she buffs them in return. She is excellent at taking out wounded enemies as well with her powerful burst damage.
Now that you know how the heroes work, you are ready to see which ones synergize well with others. Depending on which point of the game you are currently at, some combinations of heroes perform better than others.
Related: Darkest Dungeon 2: Biggest changes from original (via Gamepur)
Best team comps in Darkest Dungeon 2
The best team compositions can be divided into three stages: early-game, mid-game, and end-game. Every comp shines at their strongest points and to know which ones are best at what stage, we have listed out the teams you would want at each phase.
Each team composition consists of four heroes so picking which four synergize well with the other is essential to success. Some heroes, while individually powerful, don’t go well with other heroes, such as multiple sacrifice heroes in one lineup.
Team comps are carefully created to cover each others’ weaknesses and amplify the team’s strengths, which is what we have gone for as well.
Best early-game team comps in Darkest Dungeon 2
The best team comp for the early game is relatively simple, probably because you’re quite familiar with these heroes.
- Grave Robber
- Highwayman
- Man-at-Arms
- Plague Doctor
The idea behind this lineup is, why fix it when it isn’t broken? The game gives you four of the best starting heroes which complement each others’ skills and abilities perfectly, so we feel like keeping them together is the best way to go. You can keep these four together for a long time before you decide to switch it up with newer heroes.
To make this lineup work, make sure the Man-at-Arms is in front to soak up all of the damage. There is very little in terms of enemy variety that should give him any problems there. Next, the Highwayman stands behind the Man-at-Arms to provide burst damage while being protected. His huge damage output should allow him to solo most early-game enemies.
Behind the Highwayman stands the Grave Robber, providing additional damage and supporting the Highwayman’s damage output with damage over time. His low HP pool makes the Grave Robber perfect for this spot.
And finally, the Plague Doctor brings up the rear of the party, making sure your team stays alive with heals and debuffs. He can tack on the damage too, if he gets the chance to.
The strategy here is to make sure the Highwayman and Grave Robber can take out the backline while the Man-at-Arms keeps everyone busy. If he’s having trouble, the Plague Doctor should be able to keep him alive throughout most of the early powerhouses.
Best mid-game team comps in Darkest Dungeon 2
The mid-game team comp differs from the early game because you will be replacing half of the starting heroes with new ones that you get from the Altar of Hope. After you spend the appropriate amount of Candles of Hope, you will unlock these.
- Hellion
- Jester
- Man-at-Arms
- Plague Doctor
The Man-at-Arms and Plague Doctor reprise their roles from the previous lineup because of how powerful their abilities are. The other two are replaced by the new Hellion and Jester. Since you are in the mid-game at this point, you will also have to choose hero paths for each of these heroes. You can choose whatever you want, but for maximum efficiency, these are the paths we have chosen.
The Man-at-Arms goes with the Vanguard path because it increases his tanking efficiency even further. His buffs will also keep the party alive in dire moments. The Plague Doctor goes with the Surgeon path because it amplifies his already powerful healing even more. He can get a debuff or two in between the turns he doesn’t need to heal.
The Hellion goes with the Ravager path because it offsets the vulnerable positions that the Hellion normally gets into when she uses her Bleed effects. The Jester goes with the Virtuoso path because he is the best setup and reposition hero in the game and Virtuoso just makes him more durable while he helps his team.
Best end-game team comps in Darkest Dungeon 2
The final comp in the game is perfect for an end-game run.
- Flagellant
- Jester
- Leper
- Plague Doctor
The Plague Doctor is the only leftover from the initial lineup. This is because his healing abilities cannot be beaten by other heroes. The Alchemist path for the Plague Doctor gives him more damage potential, which is why we go for this over the Surgeon path.
The Jester makes his return in the same position with the same Virtuoso path in the previous build. Not much to add; he reprises his repositioning and setup roles from the previous lineup and his durability increases even further.
The new entries are the Flagellant and the Leper. The Scourge Flagellant will be your major damage source here while the Jester supports him. The Tempest Leper replaces your Man-at-Arms with more emphasis on the damage instead of tanking.
If you feel like you’re lacking tankiness in your Darkest Dungeon 2 lineup, it is still worthwhile to go for a Surgeon Plague Doctor to amplify the healing to make up for it.
