The Shackles of Denial

"The mind must be freed of its self-imposed incarceration! Vo narr loop finalbossbegin 1 01.wav"

- The Academic

"The Shackles of Denial refer to a group of enemies that act as the Final boss for the Denial act of Darkest Dungeon II"

Description
Contrary to unpopular belief, these locks are not a reference to the four keys in the Crimson Court.

Lock Overview
Latch of Regret =

Bolt of Lamentation =

Padlock of Wasting =

Shackle of Despair =

Combat Skills
Shared = Latch of Regret = Bolt of Lamentation = Padlock of Wasting = Shackle of Despair =

Strategy
The biggest factor of the fight is how your heroes will have moves restricted each round. Going into the fight, you should plan to have varied moves of Melee, Ranged, and healing moves of both kinds, as well as having a backup plan in case certain moves like a heal can't be used on a round you need it. Caution and adaptability are the names of the game. Note 2 things; Anything tagged as Melee or Ranged is fully blocked however moves with secondary effects for healing or stress healing will not block the entire skill for the effect. Rather, healing or stress healing effects will be ignored if the token is applied to the hero using it. For Example, Man At Arm's Crush skill will not heal on combo effect if the Denial of Fortitude token is on the man At Arms.

Pre-Mountain preparation, you'll want to bring a lot of Clarifying Poultices. Each Lock has a shared Stun move that can suppress your team just as well as Denial of abilities, so topping off hero Stun Resistances can save you from missed turns entirely. In general, though, you would best use Inn items that can help a hero survive for multiple turns without healing, to make the weaker heroes more self-sustainable in the case of a heal being rounds away.

One benefit of how the fight is structured, due to the separate enemies constituting the boss, is that the fight becomes easier the more Locks you destroy. Not to say the boss stays easy, and a crippled team can still be put down by the remaining Locks. In particular, the remaining locks gain a buff when their allies die, based on which Lock was killed. As well, the lowered amount of locks will increase the frequency that the other locks use their Denial skills, reaching a constant suppression of a specific type by the last Lock standing. The locks will also spawn in randomized positions, which may dampen plans to focus certain locks first.

The general strategy for killing the Locks is to first decide if you want to kill the Healing Lock first or second to last, as it will heal all of its allies upon its death. Whether you destroy the Healing Lock first or not, your next target should be whichever Lock denies the most damage from your team. For Compositions with heroes like Leper and Hellion, you'd more likely target the Melee Lock, while teams with Grave Robber or Highwayman, it'd be the Range Lock. If at all possible, leave the Stress Lock for last, since its effects are largely moot at the end of a run (The largest danger is the low health from Meltdowns, which can't kill you, as well as the lowered Death Blow Resistance. Affinity and most quirks are negligible).