PIT STOP: Changes & Celebrations

     Darkest Dungeon II is celebrating its second year anniversary with tons of merchandise (thinking of getting a Mountain shirt myself) and they dropped this infographic to celebrate it.

    I purposely blew it up as much as I could because small text and all but it is really cool to see how far the game has come. On a personal note, I started playing Darkest Dungeon II just before it's first anniversary and it is now my second most played Steam game of all time beating, ironically, the original Darkest Dungeon. I am currently in my break from it but when I get invested I get invested in it and it is nice to see they still have more future plans for it so I have a reason to come back.

    First is the third Kingdom module which will be Crimson Court themed and well that might be fun but also remembering how much the Crimson Court kicked everyone's butt in the original it might also be a real challenge. Also the upcoming Hero reworks are still planned and I hope we get some improvements for people like Runaway (a different flame build perhaps so she doesn't get completely negate in the fire zones), Duelist (just make her not as squishy is all I ask) and Leper (a way to move to the front faster or even let him move 2 spaces forward instead of the measly one) and for aesthetics, we are also finally getting the Hero origin skins which will be awesome. Nun Vestal and healthy Leper come to mind for sure.

    Their celebration post also asked what is the biggest highlight for us, the players in this second year and I have to say it really is the return of the Abomination. 'A-bomb' as I affectionately call him is a great addition, real fun to use and I enjoy how they created a real back-story for him and with his transformation, you technically get 2 characters in one.

    All of this, is stuff to remain excited about and since this blog has always focused on Darkest Dungeon (1 and 2) I feel we should get in on the celebration too.

    

This shirt tho.

        So with the Celebration out of the way, lets chat about the Changes coming to this blog. It is nothing big, I still aim to blog at least twice a month going forward even if its not a RANT or a RAVE. You regular readers might be getting more PIT STOPs (like this one) and just general blogs about whatever crosses my mind. Regular readers might also notice I have been slowly updating the side bar of this blog a lot as well. Of course we are keeping the UPDATES, which I basically call my twitter without having to actually use twitter (still not calling it X) however we have added to recent additions I want to draw attention too.

    First is R/R Quickies. This one is simple, R/R is of course an abbreviation of Rants & Raves and this lets me review things quick, sometimes even with a score. This will be update periodically so keep your eye on it. Quickies will also review things I enjoy but I do not have the time or energy to write a full blog about it so TV shows, movies and smaller games will get their shine there. I aim to refresh it at the end of each month. Quickies will also probably be accompanied by a UPDATE as well so I can give my 2 cents instead of just scoring it.

    The second thing is also a minor update to the side-bar where we will now be including the books I am reading as well and books will be signified with a * before it. For example right now I am finally reading Imajica by Clive Barker. This book has a story behind it but we will discuss that when the time comes but yes, books are now included on my 'Currently Reading/ Playing' side-bar.

    On that note, I am still playing both Grime and Steamworld Quest and enjoying both of them (early prediction; I think one is definitely going to be a RAVE and the other might be a Rave tho things can change and it can be updated to a all CAPS Rave).

AV

The BEST run ever: Darkest Dungeon II Kingdoms

     My original plan was to just do Darkest Dungeon II discussions in my UPDATES (aka my side bar blog) but during my most recent run when I collected the last two achievements to get 112 out of 112, I was also able to pull off the most overpowered run ever so here we are breaking it down.

This was much easier than the previous one. Trust me.

    It all started with the team I picked, my first run in Kingdoms 'Secrets of the Coven' I quickly realized that the new Coven/ Witch enemies love going into stealth so I decided to focus on a team that could take care of that. The Coven enemies also loved to buff themselves so a no brainer was too bring in Vestal specifically her Confessor class because it deals with buffs and debuffs. Third spot went to Plague Doctor; whom has ways of dealing with buffs and debuffs too, AOE attacks for stealth and unlike the previous Beastmen (stars of the previous Kingdoms) they are actually vulnerable to Blight. I knew my second place the minute I realized stealth was a thing and recruited Highwayman. He of course has anti-stealth tech but also importantly he puts combo on them as well which makes him the perfect partner for my first place; Leper. Leper also surprisingly has a good way of dealing with stealth, gets rid of corpses and hits like a truck if enemies have combo on them even if he is blind. With the team in place I knew I would no longer be dealing with non-stop stealth shenanigans and non-stop they were. One of the new achievements which I got during this run was 'I've Been Here the Whole Time' where you need to clear 30 (!!) stealth tokens during a run and I actually did that unknowingly because of how frequently enemies go into stealth.

I UNDERSTAND now

    However it was not just the correct team that made this run so great, it was also thanks to my Wagon set-up. Normally my Wainwright doesn't have any fancy bells and whistles, I just basically want health or stress reduction. I have watched many videos tho that has mentioned that the most OP pet when used correctly is the Reanimated Rabbit. This pet benefit was +1 speed for Food gear equipped and +1 health for each 4 pieces of food collected. Also super helpful was I got the rabbit super early so I could build my wagon around it and build I did. I made sure I got the following wagon items, Harvest Child's The Harvest's Bounty trophy (which increased my inventory storage by 25 slots), Icebox (food item = +1 speed, food stacking for better disease resist and double the quantity of food), Food Barrels (food item = +1 speed, increase food stacking even more and increase case of resolute status instead of a meltdown) and the final slot was inter-changeable with whatever needs I had. Need better food and more speed? Invigorating Stew, Need better relationships? Tea Service and take it off after we get the buffs, Need Milk-soaked Linen to cure Leper's blindness? Slap on Worktable Loom. All of this and getting them so close to each other created a perfect storm where by the middle of the run I already knew we were going to have a good time. I was able to defend all my inns as well with well placed distributions of the heroes not in the main squad and even outfitted some of them with some great trinkets too.

    Another big benefit of this run was hindsight, after completing the second Kingdoms expansion once I was now prepared for the quest steps I had to follow and how to move the quest forward, I knew how to use the quest specific item 'Witchbane' correctly, I knew how to fight the Coven specific enemies and thanks to the recent (much needed) nerf of the spiders, they were nowhere near as frustrating to fight as well especially when *SPOILERS* they become the main enemy in the game. Combine this with less emphasis on cluttering up your inventory and taking away trophy and wagon slots like the first Kingdoms expansion (I think they listened to feedback because it was not fun constantly stacking bodies in the Beastmen expansion and losing inventory space because of it).

    Finally; understanding how the 'Suspicious Few' encounters in the late game worked and being able to always figure out whom were witches in disguise (psst look for the mushrooms on them) so I never failed one of those challenges and I got the final achievement 'True Sight' pretty easily. LOL this was definitely through trial and error because doing my first run I killed more then a couple innocent bystanders but not during this perfect run.

    By the end; my squad was moving fast, had tons of health due to food stacking on top of food stacking (Vestal HP reaching 99), we had no issues dealing with witches or spiders, had not caught a disease in forever, had tons of great trinkets, only lost one militia defender and fought off every siege and when we fought the final boss of the expansion we did so well preparing for it that two of the heroes instead of having a meltdown went resolute instead and that was because I wanted them to get stressed out to see if they would resolute lol. I mean after investing all this time into building a strong squad, having them resolute at the end was the icing on the cake right.

The King in Yellow

    Thus ended the best run ever and getting all the achievements along the way just made it even better. I am mainly writing this down for posterity sake so when the game eventually screws me I know what I need to do to break it again. I feel after this run and two back to back campaign wins I might take a short break and play some other games but man I will be going out on the highest of high notes.

AV   

PIT STOP: Darkest Dungeons II Kingdoms thoughts

The irony is this is 3/4th of the team I actually used

We have just finished 'Secrets of the Coven'; the second of three Kingdoms expansions and I enjoyed the heck out of it. We also have 4 of the 6 new achievements as well so there is that.

This was originally going to be a commentary and my thoughts on it and then I realized I never did one for the first Kingdoms expansion, 'Hunger of the Beastmen'. I was then in two minds whenever to just wait for the third one, the one involving the Crimson Court and go all in or to write about the initial two expansions first. I was still under decided when I started writing this blog lol.

However looking at the release dates for the expansions so far, with 'Hunger...' coming out in January and 'Secrets...' coming out in April, I have a feeling the third and maybe final one will be out before the end of the year so we are going to just wait and do a big RAVE of all three.

Overall, this mode is really fun and the fact that its all free content blows my mind. I would have definitely paid money for a 'season pass' of DD II content. Speaking of; Red Hook is offering a ' Infernal Supporter' pack with special made skins for the heroes and the wagon which I am definitely going to buy when I have the money because 1) I love to support them for all work they have done and 2) it is not egregiously charged at all at only $5 and 3) I mean look at them!

The tiny details are also amazing in how they change not only their looks but their weapons as well.

So yeah; I have also realized I never wrote a RAVE for Darkest Dungeon II so I endeavor to make a much longer RAVE for Darkest Dungeon II and Kingdoms once the final expansion drops and I'll keep posting updates about my achievement journey in this blogs side bar.

AV

Victory: Grand Slam COMPLETED (Darkest Dungeon II)

 

Anyone who knows me knows I love me some Darkest Dungeon, both games have gotten pretty extensive coverage on my blog. The above achievement is one of the most elusive achievements for Darkest Dungeon II that I have ever attempted and I can proudly say, last night I did it.

I called in a lot of help but the main thing is I defeated all 5 of the major bosses (or as they are known in-game, the Confessional bosses) and the funniest part is it was not with the team I was attempting with it the most. That team was a Plague focused backline hitting team of Plague Doctor/ Occultist/ Flagellant/ Man-at-Arms squad but a lot of time this team would fall apart due to either Occultist notorious low health or us running into death a lot because of Flagellant. Some of these failures was talked about in my previous blog series featuring Darkest Dungeon II last year. It became so hard and made me feel so downtrodden that I stopped attempting the Grand Slam and I started playing other games. I rarely give up on something I dedicated this much time too (63 hrs since picking it back up 2 weeks ago) but at the same time, it felt impossible.

Fast forward to 2025, with the DD II 'Kingdoms' expansion and the 'Inhuman Bondage' DLC coming out I knew I wanted to get back into DDII eventually and got back into it I did, 'Kingdoms' itself was a very unique experience and finally completing that campaign even on the 'easiest' difficulty was some hard work but me and my heroes got it done (I think after I complete my second Kingdoms' run I'll write a full blog about that too). One of the biggest take-aways from Kingdoms is it is hard to keep running your favorite team because of the 'Fatigue' mechanic and basically Fatigue means if you keep using the same heroes they eventually lose up to 50% of their health if you push them too hard. Because of this I started experimenting with some new different team compositions that was not my team above. It was during this experimenting phase I finally found a team that did everything I needed and more. So with a little fanfare, let me introduce you to 'Holy Fyre' the Squad that helped me finally obtain the Grand Slam trophy.

Bringing up the rear is my trusty Vestal who I named Kassie.

Every squad needs a healer and whilst Vestal is not as strong in that department as she was in Darkest Dungeon, she is still gets the job done. Surprisingly what was previously my favorite path Seraph was not what I needed. I came to find the Confessor path was much better since her re-work. Sure, she could still heal when called upon but the 'Mantra' skill change meant I could finally get rid of de-buffs and her 'Illumination' could get rid of buffs on my enemies, especially annoying ones like Riposte and Dodge. Top that off with a hit anywhere skill like 'Judgement' that does good damage as well as stuns at higher levels of power helped me hit annoying rank 4 enemies pretty hard which is definitely a much needed skill in this game. Since her re-work, Vestal no longer feels like an after-thought like she did when the game first came out which is awesome because I feel she was unjustly nerfed too hard mainly because she was such a popular character (due to healing spam) in the original DD.

Holding it down for the third rank is my favorite character, the Occultist, whom I named Eli.

As stated above, the Occultist is my favorite character in Darkest Dungeon II and in running for my favorite character in the original as well (going toe to toe with Shieldbreaker) so you know I wanted him in a team that was going to obtain the Grand Slam. I didn't play around with his classes tho and went with Warlock like I usually go for and just did what I always did. Slam folks in the back rank with 'Abyssal Artillery', pulled folks closer and put a combo token on them for my front rank people to exploit with 'Daemon Pull' and of course, drop a bomb on them when possible with 'The Burning Stars'. Much like Vestal, Occultist being such a flexible support unit is what made him work in this team. However the MVP is surprisingly going to someone else. 

As mentioned, the MVP of 'Holy Fyre' is none other than Runaway, whom I named Jasper

Now I will not front. I did not know about Runaway's true potential until I was deep into Kingdoms. After a pretty steep learning curve when I tried her originally I did not like her. I did not like that despite being a 'fire' based character she was still vulnerable to fire like everyone else, her skills were counterproductive in the Sprawl aka where everyone is basically immune to fire damage and I did not like how she had to dance when she attacked. Then, I discovered 'Smokescreen' and everything changed. Smokescreen being a move you can use at any rank and it can hit ranks 1 to 3 on the enemy and inflict blind, vulnerable and combo? Blind being a key component in winning runs and avoiding damage since stuns were made into a 2 part process instead of instantly like in Darkest Dungeon? Smokescreen was also amazing because of how it works on so many enemies, even bosses. 'Ransack' was also a less effective version of 'Daemon's Pull' but it got the job done in getting enemies away from the back ranks and 'Cauterize' healing bleeding folks came in useful too. Finally her last key component was her role as the set up for my front line, with 'Smokescreen' as mentioned but her 'Firefly' cause combo and put burn on folks which my # 1 rank loved to exploit. Speaking of...

Finishing out the squad and my all rounder is my Crusader, whom I keep as his default name, Reynauld. I actually think his default name suits him so we ran with it.

I never knew until I did more research just how much Runaway and Crusader have so much synergy. Much like how Jester and Vestal formed Jestal in the original Darkest Dungeon, I feel Cruaway is a perfect pairing. I choose the Aggressor path which specializes in holy fire and low-key inspired the name for the squad. Of course, he is also our main stress healer and could pitch in with some healing when needed. In later runs when I realized he could be pushed into rank 3 by Runaway's dancing, I got to use my favorite skill of his 'Holy Lance' to get back to front and slam opponents as well but his main call to fame was 2 specific skills. 'Stunning Blow' took full advantage of the combo placed on enemies by Runaway and Occultist and put them to sleep and I found a lot of use for his 'Reap' skill which by-passed many enemies annoying death armor if they were on fire which Runaway supplied in spades and sometimes I was able to kill 2 enemies at once. Crusader was really the missing piece of this puzzle and because of how well he exploited the burn status that all 3 other members of the squad put on enemies they were truly a unstoppable team. Also I killed 2 birds with one stone (much like Reap does) and I got the Battle Hardened achievement too which requires you to apply 5 memories onto the Crusader and that was easy since we were doing the Grand Slam anyway.

There you have it, 'Holy Fyre' the team that helped me perform the impossible.

Grand Slam COMPLETED.

AV

P.S It goes without saying the narration of Darkest Dungeon I and II really helps enhance the experience and one of the reasons I love playing it with my sound turned up and not play background music like I normally do. The man who provided the narration, Wayne June is such a important part of the atmosphere of Darkest Dungeon series that it is sad to say we as a fanbase lost him on January 2025. I just wanted to acknowledge the sadness we all share and thank him for his contributions. It goes without saying, the DD games won't be the same without him. 

Rest In Peace Mr. June.

PIT STOP: Hiatus & Future Plans.

     Hey y'all.

    Just letting everyone know we will not have a Dungeon Diving/ Week of Darkest Dungeon II for this week and next week.

    I am currently focusing all my energy on my family for this week with us suffering a personal loss recently. After we process this I will be taking a much needed vacation with my wife and family and we won't be doing any updates during that time either.

    When we come back, we will do Week of Darkest Dungeon II but take into account the 2 missing weeks so instead of Week 4 it will be Week 6 since I might still be playing it when I can.

    Also by the time I get back I should have Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree and hopefully the game will run much more smoother on my console of choice, the Steam Deck. I am patient tho because I have other things on my plate.

Thumbnail from when I used to stream.

Until then.

AV

Week 3 of Darkest Dungeon II: Deja Coup

     Welcome to Week 3 of Dungeon Diving; our ongoing exploration of Darkest Dungeon II. This blog is written chronologically and basic summarizes my thoughts and experiences as I play Darkest Dungeon II. Now I know this is going up on Thursday but I have come to realize my Wednesday are actually pretty busy mainly due to Bible Study which I attend every Wednesday. However Bible Study is taking a break as of this Wednesday so I might have more time now however that might be up in the air as well. More about that in the WHAT'S NEW section at the end. On that note, let's Dive.

Wednesday

- Started off a new week with a pretty good runs however they both feel apart near the end against Leviathan and then hitting a Oblivion Ingress into the Collector.

- Collector is such a rough fight without an back-end damage dealers (Future Phil: This will become a re-occurring theme of this week)

- Re-reading my previous blog I realized that I had Occultist as my Number 4 position and that makes so much more sense.

- Daemon Pull is so in-disposable.

- Since the deck is always stacked against you I have taken to quitting and restarting when I use Inn items that are supposed to get rid of quirks and they do not do it. Like 67% and I can't get rid of Anemic. C'mon game.

- At first I was annoyed they re-purposed the Cannon boss from Darkest Dungeon as a random encounter boss. However I realize it thankfully is nowhere near as tough as it was in DD and most of the time you get a cool item when you beat it that strengthens your stage wagon.

- Whilst he is a cool character, Leper really sucks if he gets moved out of position 1 or 2. He already has the built in weakness of being blind 80% of the time and he has no way to big damage to the back-end. If he could at least move forward 2 spaces (something he was able to do in DD) it would be so much better if he is pushed out of position 1 or 2.

Thursday

- I think it might be time to make a change, team Power Creep (the MVP team of my last blog) just is struggling a lot. Either that or I might change the time positions.

- New team has a built in name, Deja Coup (hence the name of this blog). Also it is nice to bring back the ol' Jestal team aka Jester/ Vestal. Deja Coup is made up of Vestal/Jester/Duelist/Man-at-Arms

- This team is built to deal with stress it appears, they did not struggle at all with it and I think it is mainly due to Jester.

- Team was doing good until we made the mistake of taking on the Shambler and MaA died. 3 on 4 for area's final node was too hard. Pretty much made a rule if I lose a character I will just abandon the run.

- Beginning to notice a annoying trend, the final area always have tons of road hazards and most of the time I find myself getting ambushed at the worst time.

- Resentment boss seems much more do-able now. Lost Jester but we able to beat it.

- I must admit when Deja Coup work, they work well. It really is a testament that all characters work so well together, well with the exception of Leper.

- Denial is much more beat-able with any team as long as we stock some debuffing items for the back-end. Also note to stock a lot of holy water to get rid of all the debuffs it puts on me.

- The Profane Scroll wants you to run a front row Vestal... haha... no.

Friday

- Understand speed and being able to move before the enemy is super important especially when it comes to using items.

- Getting ambushed by the Antiquarian and being able to smack her around the globe was a good feeling. Like call an ambulance but not for me!

We used to be friends... a long time ago.

- Realizing Duelist potential is really nice especially her dying so much on me in the early days using her.

- After a nearly flawless run Deja Coup falls apart against Resentment due to... you guess, lack of back-row damage. I must have got lucky in a previous run because it felt inflating it's front 'lung' which was much easier to hit but  this time it was mainly the harder to reach back one.

- Really need to think out my routes better, sure pleasing the squad is good and all but running a Stress Relieving team means I can get rid of small ticks of stress much easier. Saying this because following their 'requests' keeps leading me down hazard roads and Cannon ambushes yay *sarcasm*.

- Starting to notice a weird trend, everything I try a new team they do well for a couple runs but subsequent runs things fall apart a lot faster. Weird that.

- Vestal is a key component of Deja Coup, not only is she the healer of the team she is also our main consistent back-row damage dealer. A lot of folks say she was nerfed and she is no longer brain damage hit heal every turn character now she is much more nuance and about setting up consecrations.

- Going back to a previous post, I am required to kill the boss of this area and characters are telling me to go a separate patch. Trolling I tell you.

- After a good run with so many close calls we lose Duelist simply because we forgot to equip MaA with his 'Bellow' ability to hit the back row of the Sleeping General lair boss. SMH.

- I must say, previous DD was fixated on killing you with Stress and Heart Attacks, DD II is more everyone does a million Damage Over Time (DOT) effects every attack. Going to try running a Resistant (RES) stage wagon build to counter it.

- I feel the run after losing to DOT is a apology run aka a run where the game just throw good items at you. I already have 4 pieces of Road Gear for my anti-DOT station wagon.

- Realizing that Combat Items are basically free attacks and not just healing is changing my game approach a lot.

- Apology run is going well. Time to stock up on my own DOT items for the final boss.

- Wow. Despite having a amazing run up till the boss, we barely win with only MaA surviving. Going to change his name to MVP.

- I did not re-equip Duelist's Coup De Grace for her back-row damage so it was on me.

Saturday

-  Also worthwhile  noting that my anti-DOT team still had good/ great relationships at the end.

- I do enjoy a good Daemon Pull as mentioned above. Clearing bodies whilst getting the enemy in front of the front line damage dealers with Combo status? Chef Kiss.

- After a particularly bad run that ended with a Warlock ambush I think I am done for today. Going to play some anime fighters instead.

Sunday

- I am a private person so I will not go too much into it but today was a really sad day for me. Definitely a break night.

Monday

- The Grand Slam achievement requires you to beat all the confessional bosses without losing anyone. It really is one of the hardest things to pull off for sure.

- Nothing beats turning around tons of negative affinities to positives one.

- Still trying to get the Grand Slam, I have been quitting as soon as I lost a character. I really do not like replacing characters at the Inn because they always come in with no affinities and seem to have bad traits off the bat.

- Was hesitating pulling the trigger on completing the Altar of Hope but now I see you can use excess candles to either try to either pull good items before a run (rarely happens) or re-roll quirks. Pretty good because some quirks are game breaking aka Head Injury (50% chance of being Dazed) or the Yips (15% of being Blinded).

- New squad is 'Pulling Flames' with Occ/Due/Run/Lep with Duelist using the Instructice class. Trying something different with her.

Tuesday

- Had the most insane run, arrived at Act 1 boss and instantly got hammered by DOT and more and everyone was on Death's Door by Round 3. However we also inflicted tons of DOT on the boss and somehow we still won and not just won, everyone survived! A insane moment which I wished I recorded.

- After this epic win, I proceed into the game without equipping my winning team with memories. Realizing I missed up I quit before reaching the Inn and I lost everyone. After this hard earned win I messed up big time. I am such a dummy.

- 'Monarch' class Leper is supposed to do big damage against Cosmic foes and they appear a lot in the game so I thought this was a great idea, however his regular damage blows and he still has all Leper's normal flaws. Unless they buff this class in the next update, I do not think I will ever use it again.

- Pulling Flames is losing points for me. Struggle bus and all the seats are filled. Giving it one more try before moving on.

- Yeah this team lacks a lot. Occultist tries to heal Leper and instead bleeds him and he dies. I need a more consistent healer? Maybe Plague Doctor? Besides I do not need Daemon Pull if Plague Doctor can clear bodies and Runaway can put Combo tokens for Leper.

- Yep. P.D was the missing link. Being able to heal multiple DOTs is invaluable as well.

- Stress seems to be this teams biggest weakness. Anti-stress stage wagon?

- Team was doing great until we reached the boss. DOTs do not harm the back lungs so the Seething Sigh boss just keeps wiping us out. I need to re-think my teams to include someone like Highway Man, Crusader or Grave Robber who can actually hit the back row.

WHAT'S NEXT

    Another week, another blog. However as I mentioned in my Sunday entry, my family has had a pretty bad tragedy and I might be taking some time off from writing this blog. I might come back next week but do not be surprised if we do not have a blog next week because I will be pretty busy with family obligations. 

    I am still playing Darkest Dungeon II tho so I will eventually return to this. Till next time.

AV

Week 2 of Darkest Dungeon II: Power Creep

     Welcome to Week 2 of Darkest Dungeon II or as we are going to call it, 'Dungeon Diving'. This will be an ongoing blog discussing our experience with the game. It is presented chronologically and normally updated every Wednesday. Now I said normally because Wednesday has come and gone and yes, I do know today is Friday lol.

    It was a pretty busy week so I am only now getting around to writing this blog. This will discuss my experience with the game up until the Wednesday. We are now deep in the game so this will be much more extensive than the previous one. With the house keeping out of the way. Let's Dive.

Wednesday

- Was pretty busy today ( which might be a re-occurring theme lol in hindsight) but I was able to squeeze in some late night gaming.

- Decided to try out Duelist, the new character introduced in Darkest Dungeon II specially the DLC update 'The Binding Blade'. She reminds me of Shield Breaker in design with how she moves back and forward.

- I do have slight beef that beating the game with a character allows you to add 'memories' which are persistent character buffs and also the traits the characters picked up in their previous run but you do not keep any of the relics/ items you obtained. I know it is probably balanced so you need to start over but obtaining a really cool item and having to start over again to get it again is a pain.

- Turns out Plague Doctor/ Grave Robber/ Duelist/ Highway Man has some sauce. They steam rolled the Denial boss with no issues, funny enough I was actually going to retire earlier in the same run because they were all not fans of each other and relationships are important in DD II.

- Rage Quitted on the Foetor boss, 'Harvest Child'. I was stuck in a loop where everyone was constant eating and tanking all my character relations.

- Ambushed by the Antiquarian. Funny how they made her into a mini-boss in this one after being the best way to farm for resources in the original. Thankfully she is not that hard and once you kill her bodyguards she became red paste.

Thursday

- Had a pretty awful run where I had to fight the lair boss and I was sent down a path with multiple road hazards. Ended up getting ambushed and than the fire breathing minions keep pelting me and watched as every member succumbed to it.

- Need a break after that B.S

- The B.S ramped up for the subsequent run too specifically on the final node before the Inn. First my Duelist gets one shotted when One Shot Protection aka Death's Door should exist. Then it was just my Man of Arms and he kept missing not only his attack which would have healed him but also would have killed the Cosmic Evangelist. I just wanted to get to the Inn and I would have cashed out but nope.

- This team of Vestal/ Crusader/ Duelist/ Man of Arms is fun but sometimes it is a struggle.

- Duelist being made of paper is the real issue here, even with health buffs and trinkets she gets sneezed on and she is at half health.

Friday

- Team 'Locked On' aka Occultist/ Crusader/ Highway Man/ Man at Arms is cooking now. Defeated the Denial without an issue.

- Break Night. I occasionally like to take a night off from gaming as anyone who followed my 'Learning AF' know. Just rested tonight and did not play much at all.

Saturday

- Saturdays are a mixed bag for me. Either a lot happens or nothing happens at all. This was a nothing happened at all one.

Sunday

- I skipped my normal Sunday afternoon nap to get wrecked by the second confessional boss 'Resentment'. It was a decent run until we lost my Occultist and had to replace him with a 'rookie' Plague Doctor. Occultist really was the engine and without him it was a struggle.

Monday

- Getting frustrated now, started a new run and my first encounter was the now infamous Warlord mini-boss. My team was super weak with no good equipment and we got destroyed.

- I think it is because we are constantly trying to clear the second confessional boss because the game is much harder now. Having a lot more bad runs compared to good ones.

- Thinking part of the frustration is me trying to use Locked On no matter what. Think I might do some experimenting with some other teams/ combos.

- Occultist/ Crusade/ Duelist/ Leaper is not working. Crusader wants to use Holy Lance from rank 3 but when he does that combined with Duelist moving forward as well Leaper ends up in Rank 3 with nothing to do. Wasting a move on just getting into position without buffing or hurting the opposing team is not a good strat.

- Thinking of re-visting this team with Man at Arms instead. MaA can at least get from the back ranks to the front with his Hold the Line skill

- Just realized, have I been calling him Man of Arms/ MoA instead of his proper name which is Man At Arms in previous blogs. My bad. I'll try to use MaA going forward.

- Wiped out in the third act again due to Duelist's health. I am okay with it because this team felt really frustrating to play with.

- Switching to MaA was the best idea, he fits so much better in this team. Occultist/ Leaper is still a great team but they need a stable 2 and 3 position to work and not dancers aka character whom like to move back and forward a lot.

- Prime dancer characters are Jester, Highway Man, Grave Robber and now the Duelist.

- LOL we need to talk about the prizes some of these Lair bosses give out, The Lair boss gave out the book for the Tangle which I was currently already in, why would I need a book for a area I am already in and can not use?

- Also speaking of loot, some of the character specific trinkets draw-backs are so bad I rather use strong no character trinkets instead. The MaA trinket I keep getting asks him to be rank 2 instead of 1 which he never is and if he is at 1 he gets punished for it.

This Trinket is Booty.

- Okay, so it appears you can go back to areas you have already beaten? I guess that was the point of getting a Tangle book within the Tangle.

Tuesday

- Thinking my new team, 'Power Creep' nicknamed after the term people use when new DLC characters replaced previous characters by doing what they do but better might be the one. Occultist/ Crusade/ Duelist/ MaA made short work of the Leviathan lair boss. Most of the times we walk away from boss battles barely alive but this was dominance, pure and simple.

- 'Power Creep' did it. We finally dusted the Obsessions confession boss on our second try. Looked up a strat that told me to stack all the debuffs on MaA to tank it and boss folded. 2 more confessional bosses to go.

- Hah, as our narrator loves to remind us, overconfidence is most insidious killer. We tried to keep going and felt we could take on Chirurgeon mini-boss in a Ambition run and whole team is quickly wiped out cause we were under-levelled. Back to start I guess.

- I do like how certain 'Quirks' make more sense in DD II, DD had some really annoying ones which also made no sense and removed so much player agency.

- DD II has kept Darkest Dungeon tradition of focusing on a poor character when they are already falling apart. Combined that with a no health Duelist and well, game over man, game over.

WHAT'S NEXT

    So again apologies for the lateness of this blog, I will try to keep it most consistent like how I did with my 'Learning AF'. Also I know I keep promising an impressions blog about DD II but I am too busy playing it so its hard to crave out the time I can to write it. At this point we might be just putting it all into Darkest Dungeon II eventual RAVE (which I know I'll give it one).

    Next blog we will explore more specifically with my brand new team which I've really enjoy using and finding the missing piece of the puzzle I needed to use the Duelist the way I want to use her. Spoiler: she is a amped up Crusader spamming Holy Lance lol. Till then.

AV

    

Week 1 of Darkest Dungeon II: Burn Bright

     Welcome to Dungeon Diving! Our ongoing blog about our Darkest Dungeon II. Similar to the style I employed for my Learning Anime Fighters, this will be a chronological 'diary' of my thoughts whilst playing the game. I will have a much longer and detailed impressions videos later this week but right now we will be talking about mostly my gut reactions whilst playing the game. This blog is designed to be ongoing and I will update it every Wednesday.

Wednesday

- I finally got Runaway's first memory unlocked. I have been playing this game for at least 3-4 days now and every time I tried to unlock her memory to get more of her skills and I kept failing. I even had to look up a video online to get an idea on how to beat it, it was that annoying.

- Fortunately Runaway's default skill set is actually pretty good and I got pretty far with just using that. As the brand new character to the Darkest Dungeon franchise I like what she brings to the table.

- I was playing this game originally with a controller which is possible but I have defaulted back to Mouse and Keyboard (M&K). There is just so many menus to navigate and constant need to figure our what moves do what and how this token affects me that doing it with a controller just wasn't doing it for me. I exclusively playing the original DD with M&K as well so that makes sense.

- Damn. I thought had a good team and everyone had good relationships and then I got destroyed by the Denial boss. I really thought I was onto something too.

Thursday

- Okay, I've found a better team lol.

- Got to the second boss, Resentment. I was focusing on it's core but it turns out its 'lungs' should be the focus. Good to know.

- Realizing I do not need to fix my wagon for the final run up to the mountain is saving me time and currency. I can focus on getting a final item instead.

- All the lair bosses aka the big bads of the region have some nasty tricks to ruin your run. I thought the easiest one was the one in the Foetor and even that thing has teeth.

Friday

- I wish there was a way to sell unwanted items, so many times I'll be a couple currency short at the Hoarder/ Hospital but I have tons of items I would love to get rid of. Just throwing stuff away is so wasteful. Sure this is a hold-over from DD but man I wished they consider changing it.

- I have beaten the first boss Denial so many times now, the second boss, Resentment however? Not so much. It feels doable tho.

Saturday

- I think I've found my go to team. It is Occultist/ Highway Man (HWM)/ Grave Robber/ Man of Arms (MoA). I have taken to calling them 'Target Locked'

Sunday

- Looking at my Darkest Dungeon wallpaper for the original game and I realize I do miss some of the original classes. Surprisingly the character I miss the most is the Arbalest/ Musketeer. DD 2 has so many annoying backline enemies which are hard to reach with most of the cast.

- Thank goodness Occultist has his 'Daemon Pull' skill which brings them close to the front ranks. When I have teams with out him I actually miss that ability so much.

- I finally beat Resentment with team 'Target Locked' I was right, focus on the lungs, interchanging with attacks on its core. Did not even lose a squad member.

- Having the same team get wiped out on the first boss in a Obsession run is very humbling tho lol.

Monday

- Tried to take down the Shambler mini-boss with Target Locked and lost the whole team except Man of Arms. Tried to complete the objectives to at least get some extra candles and the next area is another alter to Shambler and this time I can't reject fighting it. WTF man.

- This game is so addictive. I constantly tell myself I am going to play something else but I keep coming back.

- Yoooo you can get rid of positive traits at the hospital too? LOL I forgot that was a thing.

Tuesday

- Getting jumped by the Collector mini-boss after a long lair boss fight is dirty pool Red Hook. I need you guys to know that.

- Okay, did I accidentally turn on hard mode? New run, first boss is the Warlord mini-boss and my time is not strong enough for that. This is some b-s.

- Occultist 'Anamnesis' skill might not be worth it. You need two 'Unchecked Power' tokens and be in position 1 or 2. This might work for front row Occultist but who runs that combo?

- 'Obsession' is tough as well and it has 2 stages. I was having a great run and even took down Fanatics' pretty easily. Also it appears on later runs you have to fight more back to back battles to get to the boss.

WHAT'S NEXT

    So on that note, we are done with our first Darkest Dungeon II ongoing blog. I think we will be here for awhile because right now we are loving DD II. I have other team combos to try, other characters to learn and at least 3 more major bosses to conquer.

    Also we still have the upcoming Kingdom update still coming soon as well. Check back in next Wednesday for another installment of 'Dungeon Diving'.

    AV

Week 13: Learning AF- The Fall Off

    Welcome to another Learning AF (Anime Fighters) blog. We have now reached Week 13 of this ongoing series of me picking up and learning Anime fighting games. This week however is bit scarce because it was another busy week for yours truly and I have been playing other games as well (more on those later).

    We will be making a decision soon but before we get there let drop into a new week of Learning AF.

Monday

- I have completed all of Blazblue Central Fiction (BBCF) tutorial. Some good information and it was helpful but also nowhere near as deep as UNI's ones. UNI seems to have the best tutorial when it comes to game depth even tho I will say, sometimes it gets really deep for a beginner.

- After finishing the tutorial I decide to pick my main and I always had one in mind for this game, which is Hazama. Regular readers of this blog know I like Hazama and he was actually # 5 in my top 5 favorite video game characters LIST. Peep that here. LIST

- His combo trials are definitely unique, some hold over concepts from BBTAG (where I used him) but also some new stuff having to cancel his 214x attacks because 214x puts you in a stance.

- Similar to how BBTAG only gave me ideas how UNI combos work and not the whole concept, it did not prepare me for how in-depth BB combos are.

- After completing Hazama's normal combos, harder combos became unlocked. Interesting.

- It looks like I grossly underestimated how hard BBCF combos are. Spent hours working on one hard Hazama combo and it does not even look that hard on paper. Sheesh

Tuesday

- Played nothing but Tainted Grail Conquest today. I really wanted to get the true ending. I also wanted to get my RAVE out and normally I do not do my RANT or RAVE until I've completed the game to my satisfaction. Turns out my OCD-ness of completion extends to everything in gaming not just fighters.

Wednesday

- After what felt like a lifetime I finally pulled off Seth's 5-7 in UNI2. I kept putting it together like a puzzle and it finally clicked. Also the hard part with 214B,214A,214[A]7 only started working because I stopped putting pauses in it. You just need to do it back to back, no pauses.

- Does this mean I can do all the other combos that involve this ender? I hope so because this is the last hurdle I need to cl_r (lol) if I want to start using Seth seriously.

- [BBCF] so when this game says a combo is hard, it actually means it is hard. It took me a long time to finally get Hazama's hard # 1 combo.

- One thing I do not like about Hazama's combo involving aerial B, aerial C into more aerial C is the lack of 'hit stun' the moves do. I feel like I got to mash it out but at the same time I can not visually tell when to do the double jump. I feel like I am barely touching the opponent when I am hitting buttons like mad.

- These BBCF Hazama combos feel like they are beyond me right now.

- Completed Es' normal combo challenges. Let's see if her hard ones are like Hazama's.

- Okay Es' hard combo challenges are much easier and doable. I guess Hazama is another high execution monster ala Seth. Why do I always gravitate to the hard characters to learn.

- Completed 8-10 of Es' hard combos. I guess Hazama was not the best character to start with lol.

Thursday

- UNICLR time. Gordeau feels similar to his UNI2 version. Like other character his UNICLR combos have less emphasis on dashing attacks. Also slight charge is back but I feel it is not really a charge at all. I feel the point of the slight charge is to stop you from doing 2 hit 2C.

- 100% Gordy's trials. Feels good I still have some execution.

- Looks like all the dash combos was saved for Phonon cause they are back... in spades.

- All of Phonon's 5-x series require charged 236[B] and 2C, delay 3C which I am used to thanks to UNI2. She however has one that involves one hit of her Force Function (BC) cancelled into her 22A which I am not used too.

- Pulled off a Force Function (FF) 1 hit into 22A combo in 4-12. This one does not require exactly one hit of the FF but it does require good timing with the falling aerial 236A, this needs to be done with a slight delay after 22A.

- Okay the FF combos are easier to do now. The science comes down to delaying the 4B as long as possible.

- 4-2 was a weird one. Normal aerial 2[B] is the ender into the ground series but this one required you to aerial 2[B] into aerial B, aerial 236A. You really got to hit the aerial B early. No delay.

- 12 out of 15 so far for Phonon. Her 4-3 is alluding me. I guess it is true that combos that start off Assault have more severe hit stun scaling because the opponent kept dropping out of it at random places but especially near the end.

- I knew I was not crazy, UNI2 has no combos involving FF into 22A. I wonder if they are still viable or they have been pushed out for 236[B] combos instead.

Friday

- Phonon's 4-3 completed. Precision is need because as noted before hit stun is very short with this one.

- 13 out of 18 combos for his 4-x series and 3 out of 4 for his 5-x series with Hyde on my first night with him. The combos I am struggling with most involve 22x into 3B into delayed 236x

- Speaking 236x, you need to do it twice for the follow ups to come out, unlike UNI2 where you can simply do 236x,6x. Now like Seth you need to do it quickly.

Saturday

- 4-7 now done. It says delay and delay it meant. 3B DELAY 623B lol.

- 4-10 done as well.  For something that looks simple, you really need to time the last 3 hits.

- 5-3 done. I remembered a similar combo in UNI2 with the fireball cancel into a beam. UNICLR's motion is slightly harder tho requiring 646 instead of just 46. On that notes all of Hyde's 5-x series are done.

- 4-3 done. Another combo which look simple at first and just required more precise timing. I am also happy none of Hyde's combos require the dash B combo which frustrated me to no end in UNI2.

- The last 2 combos are variants of his wall bounce into 3B delay 236B,236A which I know I will eventually get.

- Phonon's 4-15 done. I was getting so close the previous day but today I locked in and everything just feel into place.

- For some reason Phonon's 4-14 combo just was not working for me. The 2A,C (2 hits), delay 4B, FF (1 hit), 22A was refusing to come out no matter how much I delayed the 4B.

- Remembering I can do FF (1 hit), 22A off 2C better, I decided to do 2A,C (1 hit),2C, delay 4B, FF (1 hit), 22A instead and the simple change of putting the extra 2C helped me do it. Phonon's combo trials in UNICLR are completed!

- Now we are pretty much done with Tainted Grail Conquest. Check out the RAVE review. RAVE. I decided to finally start Darkest Dungeon II as my new rest/ break night game.

Sunday

- Break Night

- I have been putting off starting Darkest Dungeon II for weeks now as regular readers of this blog know. I have no idea why. After I started it I was hooked again and now I am really enjoying myself.

WHATS NEXT

    So now the title should make sense to you. I have really fallen off with my Anime Fighters to the point where I might actually be ending this ongoing blog soon.  This blog used to take FOREVER to write because I had so much to discuss but now it just I did this combo, I did that combo. This blog originally started as me wanting to learn Anime Fighters and using my Leverless controller MidNite and now I mostly do combo trials and I do not use MidNite at all.

    I am really not 'Learning' it anymore and whilst I do want to still play it competitively I also feel I will not do as well in it as say a certain 3D fighter and well personally I do not want to do that.

    I think I will see how this week goes but if I continue to loose interest next weeks Learning AF might be our last one. Not to be a Debbie Downer tho, I will still play UNI2 at least for fun and I intended to play some Blazblue Central Fiction and do its story mode at least.

    This blog might soon go back to its original focus. Speaking of, I will probably drop a impression video for Darkest Dungeon II later this week. Till next time.

AV

PIT STOP: The Triple I Initiative

  

    On April 10th; a lot of indie developers with big dreams decided to band together and do what I like to call the 'Anti Game Awards'. Thankfully gone are the celebrities who know next to nothing about the games they are presenting, no commercials not pertaining to the games and no down time between presentations. All killer, no fluff.  It was refreshing and it truly showed companies who wanted to buck the existing system. We wanted games, they gave us games.

    Over the course of the last couple years and unironically coinciding with me getting my Steam Deck I have found myself more and more getting into the indie scene. Now I've always enjoyed indie games especially during my Xbox360 era when I had access to their indie store. However the PC indie scene has grown to the point where its no longer even feels like a indie game we are playing. The budget might be smaller but the game still has a 'Triple A' feeling hence I feel why they calling it 'Triple I' I believe.

    Off the top of my head, some of my favorite games of the last couple years are not in the 'Triple A' space. I skipped titles like the 'Final Fantasy' games, 'Starfield', 'God of War Ragnarok' and other games that got a lot of media coverage, good or bad. Sure 'Elden Ring' might have been my favorite game of 2022 and Fromsoft is definitely in the 'Triple A' space but for every ER, I am also loving 'Darkest Dungeon', 'Risk of Rain',  'Inscryption' and 'Dredge' Most of the RAVES on this very blog are indie games and that I think is not by coincidence. These are the games I enjoy playing the most. Heck, something playing a 'Triple A' gets so daunting for me with all I need to do that even if I enjoy playing it, 'Marvel's Avengers' for example, I stop because I find something else more smaller and more enjoyable to me. It is just how I am wired these days.

    So when the guys who makes big indie games like Risk of Rain, Darkest Dungeon, Dead Cells, Slay the Spire and many others decided to band together and do their own presentation I got interested and now I've seen what is coming I am even more interested. Lets chat about some games we will definitely be playing soon. This list is not in order btw.

    Darkest Dungeon 2: The Kingdoms update- Right off the bat, lets talk about one of the big names who was a part of putting this all together. Red Hook studios, the sickos behind 'Darkest Dungeon' has being promoting 'Darkest Dungeon 2' for awhile now. First as a Epic Store Exclusive but it had recently came to Steam and with it, it has steadily added new content like new characters (or returning characters like The Crusader class) and patch updates. Their next big update appears to the The Kingdoms, which is a free new mode that changes the game slightly. This might be a good idea because a lot of feedback for Darkest Dungeon 2 was how they changed it a lot from how the original Darkest Dungeon played. This new mode seems more like a return to their roots which might be what the game needs to turn some of the naysayers. Also as a new mode, it does not erase the original concept with the heroes riding the stagecoach but it does give people the option to play DD 2 a different way.

    Personally, I've been on the fence with getting DD 2. A bit of trepidation was from the negative word of mouth and reviews and how much it changed the core of the game but some of it is because I am so busy playing other games and 'Learning Anime Fighter' (shameless plug I know). However it has always been on my wishlist and I really wanted to try it out for myself. Right now it is actually on sale and I can pick up the game and its DLC for less than $30 so I think the price combined with the new update coming has convinced its time to dive back into the darkness. I will probably do an impression of Darkest Dungeon 2 after I pick it up and put in some hours.

    A sequel I have no qualms picking up tho is 'Slay the Spire 2'. After revolutionizing the deck builder roguelike genre in a way that every other game similar to it since then are called Slay the Spire-likes. The team at Mega Crit have taken their time but I feel it'll be worth the wait. Speaking of waiting, we are going to have to wait till 2025 for this one but the fact that they are making a sequel is reason to celebrate. 'Slay the Spire' was one of the first games that really got me into not only the roguelike genre but the deck-building sub-genre (which happens to be my favorite sub-genre). No gameplay but it is early days but we can already see some familiar faces and some new ones (the sassy skeleton) as well. It will not be here for awhile but I am definitely putting it on my radar and I think I might bite the bullet and just buy the original again but this time for my Steam Deck. I've been seriously thinking of doing it every time its on sale and now it just feels right especially since I barely get on my PS4 (which has my original copy) anymore.

    Speaking of Dead Cells, of course you know I am super pumped for the 'Risk of Rain 2' expansion 'Seekers of the Storm'. However to give us a peek into what they have cooking, they are dropping a free update called the 'Devotion update'. This update comes with a Prisoner/ Dead Cells skin for Mercenary (yay), a brand new stage (yay!) and more artifacts (depending on what they do... yay?) and to top it off its coming for all platforms not just PC first which I know the console army is happy about. On one hand this is great news because more Risk of Rain 2 content is always good but this will be the first time RoR2 updates will be completely handled by Gearbox's team and not Hopoo whom has passed the reigns onto them. Sure the Gearbox team helped out a lot with the 'Survivors of the Void' expansion but this is the first time they are doing it all on their own so it'll be interesting if we keep the RoR flavor or if it'll feel different. I optimistically hope for the former. There is no date for this one but I have a feeling it'll be soon so I think its time to jump back into RoR 2 when it drops.

    So those are the big ones, however some other games did catch my eye like Kill Knight, Dino Lords and Hyper Light Breaker. All in all, the Initiative really did what it was supposed to do, let us know some big indies were coming and got us all hyped. Stay turned to this space because I know a lot of these games will get the focus once they drop.

* This blog previous mentioned The Rogue Prince of Persia but due to Ubisoft anti-consumer practices, I will no longer talk about nor purchase it. I have not played any Prince of Persia games before and it looks like I never will especially if they stay under Ubisoft.

AV