Best Team Comps - Darkest Dungeon 2 Guide - IGN (2024)

Team compositions are what Darkest Dungeon 2 is all about in the end.

With 12 heroes to choose from — each offering 11 skills (some more if you include their variations) — the possibilities aren't endless, but they will keep you busy for a very long time. All those options can be intimidating to new or casual players, however, so if you're looking for some help (or just some ideas), this guide is for you.

Blight is Right

This comp absolutely shreds backlines, thanks to the combined power of Acid Rain and Plague Grenade (even Flashing Dagger helps). Whatever they can't deal with, Magnesium Rain and Necrosis can.

Flagellant starts off clunky, but after some skill unlocks, he makes a lot of sense as a versatile, self-reliant tank.

Deathless lives up to its name, going a long way to sustaining your team (an upgrade isn't even needed, but it's still nice to have). Fester is a fantastic setup tool for all your two-target skills and Crush, plus it doubles as an AoE.

Sure, you already have Magnesium Rain, but anytime Flagellant deals with corpses, Doctor can do more damage (and vice versa). Undying is the alternative, but you'll rarely find a good opportunity for it, whereas Fester comes up constantly.

Necrosis is Flagellant's finisher, cleaning up whatever Plague Grenade and Flashing Daggers don't. Try to sequence your heroes via the use of speed trinkets and items such that Flagellant goes third (so you can perform Grenade > Daggers > Necrosis reliably against four-enemy comps).

Magnesium Rain helps when you can't hit everyone you want to, while offering some versatility in Burn damage, a means to deal with Dodge tokens, and corpse clear (when Flagellant is busy doing other things, or his turn hasn't come up yet).

Grave Robber is all about spamming Throwing Dagger and the occasional Poison Dart; Glint and Absinthe are for situations that will rarely come up, but Pirouette/Shadow Fade serve as a fine value play that efficiently deal with the game's frequent shuffles.

Man-at-Arms is the odd one out.

While he doesn't contribute directly to the Blight plan, you need someone to Stress heal, and since everyone else in the party is either bad at it or doesn't do it, you need someone great at it, leaving just him and the Jester.

Jester could work in an alternate version of this comp, but for this one, only Man makes sense. Be sure to upgrade Bolster sooner than later, if not right away. A second tank is useful as well, and Retribution is really strong for that purpose. It functions as a damage over time skill at times, so in a way Man isn't actually out of place. Early on you won't need the upgrade for it, but be sure you have it in region 3.

Against bosses, swap in Strategic Withdrawal and Sepsis (what you swap out depends on the boss) for an extremely potent damage combo.

Feed the Leper

An old strategy dating back to the original Darkest Dungeon, it revolves in part around reeling in enemies with Daemon's Pull for Leper to chop to death. Pull also helps Controlled Burn.

More broadly, Leper and Hellion one tap most things (on a good day) as Runaway and Occultist manipulate the battlefield to your advantage. Combo tokens galore mean Leper will rarely have an issue with Blind, and for those occasions there is always Milk-Soaked Linen. The tokens also help Firefly and Wicked Hack.

In short, there are synergies galore, and there's nothing cute about them.

No dedicated Stress healer is needed as Hellion and Leper do a fine job of taking care of themselves, and between your other two heroes remaining in the backline, trinkets, inn items, Laudanum, and focusing Stress dealers, you'll be just fine.

Chop Shop

Physical builds like this one need to do two things to be at their best: maximize their damage with Strength, Crit, and Vulnerable tokens, and deal with Block tokens. Naturally, this comp does both reliably, and with every member of the team, so you're never short of a way to deal with a problem or set up a teammate.

Highwayman's Point Blank Shot and Leper's Chop are the stars of the show, with most of the remaining choices designed to support them. Plenty of Combo sources, plentiful Milk-Soaked Linen, and Tempest's inherent resistance to debuffs — which can be buffed — means Leper will rarely have issues with Blind.

Two corpse clear skills keep the action going—handy after hitting the backline with Blinding Gas to set up the next row of victims. Echoing March yields further opportunity to deal with the backline effectively, and alongside Harvest, brings some damage over time needed to clean up enemies on Death's Door.