Farmstead



“Some blazing malevolence from beyond the stars has crashed upon the Miller’s farm. Lands that have, in past years, yielded rich harvests are now sown with a new and terrifying seed—an unrelenting crystalline consumption that inches outward from the mill with each passing season.”

Some hateful shard of alien origin has streaked through the night sky, crashing into the old Miller’s farm on the outskirts of the Hamlet! Those unfortunate enough to witness the Comet’s arrival have been blinded by what they can only describe as a shifting, ephemeral hue of damnably abrasive intensity. There has been no word from the farm in a fortnight, save for the unearthly groaning that echoes from the ruin of the mill…

Ever since the Comet struck the Old Windmill, the Farmstead and its surrounding acres of land have been severely altered by the otherworldly corruption. As if the natural flow of time has been distorted beyond recognition; once fertile fields are a lifeless wasteland where only crystallized wheat and mutated pumpkins can grow and the acres are littered with fossilized remains of people, livestock, and petrified crops, as if they have aged uncountable years in a blink of an eye. Even the stars above the Farmstead are not right: none of the recognizable constellations can be seen in the night sky, and the Northern Star is in the wrong position, as if these night skies are not from this time and place.

The only reason why this new source of Evil and corruption have not taken over the Estate is because of the Enchanted Stone Slabs on the perimeter of the Farmstead keep this new Evil contained, but like all things, it is only a matter of time before the barrier is pierced by this terror from the stars.

Behavior
The Farmstead is a new location that is introduced in the Color of Madness DLC. It is unique in the fact that it eschews exploration for pure combat - When you enter, you are pitted against a constant stream of monsters, new ones coming in to take the place of the old. The first two missions act as a tutorial to the main draw of the place - An Endless mode, where you are pitted against wave after wave of monsters until you are defeated or you flee.

The Farmstead differs from the other areas of the game in a number of ways.
 * Enemy corpses, if ignored, become large crystal formations. If these are left alive, they explode for HP and Stress damage.
 * The torch does not fade over time but instead takes a multitude of different variants.
 * There is no negative consequence to fleeing from the battle, other than losing out on the level's bonuses.
 * In the endless mode, death is temporary. If a character dies, they become lost in time and space, only to eventually reappear after a week or two - This is functionally identical to the way adventurers can go missing after participating in Stress Relief. However, be wary as losing a character will cause their trinkets to be lost as well until you are able to retrieve them eventually from the Shrieker.
 * Losing all characters to a run will cause all shards and any/all drops to be lost as well.
 * Camping is only initiated through the Miller's Hearth, meaning one will have to work for a camp.
 * One inventory slot is taken up by a single quest-like item: Memory. This cannot be discarded, and serves to provide some lore, along with a slight splinter in terms of inventory management.

Lighting Effects
Heroes will travel through a multitude of dimensions, past, present, or future, with specific enemies from each region, even the last one. Each fight will bring an alternation between dimensions. When in the Farmstead the lighting will be Farmstead's Miasma, and when between dimensions the light will be randomly selected at the beginning of a wave.

Reflections
Once the player has progressed beyond 200 kills, the shimmering space-time of the corrupted Farmstead takes on an endgame condition, called a "Reflection". These are mutators that increase the difficulty of the quest in different ways from that point onward. These conditions stack on top of other Light conditions already present in whatever room the player is present in the Farmstead or Space and Time.

Provisions
There is no need to bring Torches, or Shovels here. Food is not available for the Apprentice and Veteran missions as the expedition will begin with an enemy encounter. Food will be useful for the Miller's Hearth curio when camping.

Like any Darkest Dungeon's quest, you can bring any Bandage, Antivenom, Medicinal Herb, Skeleton Key, Holy Water and Laudanum you think you will need. Remember that it's better to be prepared. Note that with the new buildings, many of these items now provide significant resistance buffs as well.

Even if you have The Crimson Court (DLC), you will not see any enemies from the Courtyard. Because of this, it is highly recommended to avoid bringing heroes with the Crimson Curse, so you will not need to bring The Blood. Doing so would mean you need to manage the hero's curse level and sacrifice one or two inventory slots that could be used for something else of more importance for the entire party rather than one cursed hero. You will also never receive the Blood as rewards from fights or from any curio, making running out entirely far more of a risk.

Party Composition
The Endless Harvest is a matter of endurance, meaning that maintaining your party's overall health (particularly stress) will be paramount for a long run.
 * Firstly, you'll need a good healer. Ideally, a good Vestal will do the job and perhaps the Hippocratic quirk. Although the Occultist can heal an enormous amount, he is a far riskier choice as a primary healer. He only has single target heals and lacks the consistency of the Vestal, occasionally healing for very small amounts or even nothing, and potentially inflicting bleed.
 * Secondly, heroes with stress heal skills are very helpful. For example, the Jester with Inspiring Tune and the FlagellantPoptext_vampire_resist.png with Endure have an incredible synergy. With the Dirge For The Devoured on the Jester and the Aria Box on the Flagellant, you can easily heal over 30 stress per turn.
 * Limited-use skills such as the Jester's Finale or Flagellant's Exsanguinate will not be refreshed until the end of the entire group of waves - that is, after reaching the crystal at the end of the wave meter (a boss at all except the first time) and not the brief rest rooms between. Parties which rely on these skills for normal progression will be difficult to manage.

Any corpses left will become a Crystalline Aberration on the next turn. While you will receive a minor heal for destroying them, it is important to destroy them quickly or remove corpses before they can turn in order to avoid their explosive attacks. A good solution is to use Bleed skills (Blight can be an alternative, but you will encounter many Farmstead monsters on this quest which all have very high Blight resistance). This will allow you to quickly remove the corpse, and it's an excellent way to neutralize enemies in order to heal yourself. Nevertheless, keep in mind that you will likely encounter Ruins enemies during the quest, who are incredibly resistant to bleed. Balance your strengths.

It's important to have well-chosen camping skills. Since fights last very long, combat buffs are welcome. As you can quickly contract diseases (especially against Warrens and Cove monsters), skills which can remove them (like the Grave Robber's Snuff Box) are perfect. As mortality debuffs from Death Door recovery stack, skills which remove them are particularly useful here.

You will not need scouting or ambush prevention skills, you cannot be ambushed on Farmstead quests.

General Strategy
The Farmstead works in waves: you'll need to fight a specific amount of monsters in order to spawn the Sleeper's Dream and end the fight. Note that there must be an open enemy slot for the Sleeper's Dream to spawn. It always acts first in the round, and always uses "Beyond Time and Space" to teleport the party to a room.

When you kill a monster and remove the corpse, 2 turns later others will replace them. This will be triggered on the first kill, if you kill any others after this one, next turn or not, all open slots will be filled at the same time. Again and again, until the next kill threshold is reached. Corpses left standing will be replaced on the next turn by a Crystalline Aberration. Large corpses will be replaced by two.

This is why you shouldn't rush for kills, it's better to move forward by killing two enemies at a time in order to contain the fight. You should prioritize killing stress dealers, as stress will be harder, in the long run, to deal with than raw damage. Damage dealer enemies should be the last to go. Stack bleed/blight and heal yourself as often as possible. When you are near the kill quota, you can rush for kills. Once you reach the threshold (and there is an open slot for the Sleeper's Dream to spawn) there is no need to kill the remaining enemies left as you will be teleported away. Therefore it's not important to attack enemies past this point (unless you are in real danger of taking a deathblow or stress damage), and now would be the time for buffing and healing your heroes until the Sleeper's Dream appears.

The meter at the top right corner of the screen increases with each wave of enemies killed, after the last wave, you will encounter a Boss. The first two bosses are set: first The Miller, then The Sleeper. For later waves, the boss is chosen randomly from a pool, which includes the Thing From The Stars, the Shambler, the Crocodilian (even if Crimson Court DLC is/isn’t installed) the Shrieker, the Collector, the Swine God, the Flesh, the Necromancer, the Prophet, the Hag, the Brigand Pounder, the Siren, the Drowned Crew, and Brigand Vvulf (only if Wolves at the Door mission is completed). Additionally, the Fracture can appear again.

Pay attention to which kind of light is active and which area you appear in, act accordingly. For example, when you reach the yellow light (Splendorous), it can be worth letting heroes cross the Affliction limit, as you have a 5% increased chance to get a virtuous hero. This does not guarantee one, however, and bear in mind that virtues are cleared by reaching 200 stress.

In the Farmstead, skills that have limited uses per battle (such as Leper's Revenge, Plague Doctor's Blinding Gas or Jester's Finale) do not refresh their usage until the end of the certain group of waves (after the boss battle) instead of refreshing after each wave. You may consider keeping these skills only for bosses, or refresh them with the Shard Dust, although it comes at the cost of stress and irremovable debuffs.

Battle Strategies and Party Compositions

 * In the endless mode, stress is a bigger threat than HP damage. Therefore, it is advised to use heroes with - stress% quirks, equip - stress% trinkets, or kill your enemies fast.
 * Highwayman's Crimson Court trinkets effect can turn stress damage into your advantage if his virtue can proc. (basic 25% + 45% from trinkets = 70%)
 * Vestal's Divine Comfort is a great counter to Miller's Reaping.
 * One viable party composition for AOE damage is Plague Doctor / Vestal / Shieldbreaker / Shieldbreaker. Equip Plague Doctor with Prophet's Eye and Blasphemous Vial, Vestal with 1 +healing skills trinket such as Salacious Diary from Crimson Court and 1 - stress% trinket such as Aria Box from Madman, both Shieldbreakers with both offensive trinkets (spectral speartip is a great choice). Using impale, stuns, emboldening vapours and camping skill snake eyes X2, you will make short work against the endless waves and even the bosses there. Moreover, Shieldbreaker's Serpent Sway can be used when there is no enemy or to swap positions. Bear in mind that you will NOT last past wave 4 with this build, as it has no Jester.
 * Another viable party composition for farming shards is Plague Doctor / Vestal / Highwayman / Antiquarian. Equip Antiquarian (+15% basic) with Crystal Pendant (+15%) and Cluster Pendant (+25%), you will gain +55% shards in total but the Antiquarian will probably die of heart attack. Antiquarian's Protect me! and Highwayman's riposte plus DMG buff: emboldening vapours, tracking shot and unparalleled finesse work great together. Bear in mind that you will NOT last past wave 3 with this build, it's purely for farming.
 * The best party composition for long-term fighting should be Vestal / Jester / Shieldbreaker / Shieldbreaker. Equip Vestal with Prophet's Eye and Salacious Diary from Crimson Court, Jester with Bright Tambourine and Dirge For The Devoured. With Jester spamming Battle Ballad, occasional Inspiring Tune and bleeding attacks when needed plus camping skill Every Rose Has Its Thorn. Stress and health will not be a problem until you run out of supplies after about wave 10. This party is confirmed to have 562 kills in Stygian Farmstead.