Shrine of Reflection

"Who will face the half-remembered horrors of their past?"

- -The Academic

The Shrine of Reflection is a node location in Darkest Dungeon 2. Found randomly on the map, their main function is to unlock new abilities for the heroes and reveal their past to the player. When entering the node the player must choose one of the 4 heroes to start.

Some of the nodes will present a short narration of the history of the hero while others will present a small mini-game in the form of combat where it must be successfully completed in order to unlock the skills.

Portraits-plaguedoctor.png Plague Doctor
🔸The Plague Doctor gains access to 6 skills over 5 Chapters in The Shrine of Reflection.

Chapter One: The Good Student

Chapter Two: Head of the Class

Chapter Three: Extra Credit

Chapter Four: Failing Grade

Chapter Five: Do No Harm

Shrine Bullet Point.png Chapter One: The Good Student
🔸Unlocks Emboldening Vapours "The jeers, the whispers... they pushed me deep into my studies."

- The Plague Doctor

"Brilliant and bold, her unconventional theories created nothing short of a scandal in her fourth year. The mocking whispers and scornful glares of her peers and professors had an ironically invigorated effect upon her 'extracurricular experiments.' The mysteries of the human body - of life and death itself - hovered just above her scalpel's reach... If only she could acquire a corpse of sufficient freshness."

- The Academic



Shrine Bullet Point.png Chapter Two: Head of the Class
🔸Objective: Disprove The Professor

🔸Unlocks Plague Grenade "I was the smartest, but wisdom was not on the syllabus."

- The Plague Doctor

"Her professor was a relic, hacking and wheezing his way through a hopelessly conventional curriculum!"

- The Academic

"She delighted in the combative debate, and, behind her bookish glasses, reveled in their outrage and confusion."

- The Academic



Shrine Bullet Point.png Chapter Three: Extra Credit
🔸Unlocks Indiscriminate Science "Ostracized, I had to prove myself, no matter the cost."

- The Plague Doctor

"By the second semester, her research was at a critical point. And regular supply raids of the University laboratories had become necessary. During one such expedition, she stumbled upon her professor, awkwardly slumped over his podium, a bloody kerchief on the floor. Here, then, was her ideal cadaver, her long-awaited opportunity. And she would not waste it."

- The Academic



Shrine Bullet Point.png Chapter Four: Failing Grade
🔸Objective: Stabilize The Patient

🔸Unlocks Cause of Death "I could not say if it was madness, revenge, or naked ambition."

- The Plague Doctor

"Success! Vindication. The human machine, restored to action!"

- The Academic

"The shrieking was horrible, but the silence that followed... was even worse."

- The Academic



Shrine Bullet Point.png Chapter Five: Do No Harm
🔸Unlocks Disorienting Blast and  Magnesium Rain "Those screams will never leave me."

- The Plague Doctor

"Disposal of the body was a procedural affair, a carboy of acid would dissolve the thing, and no evidence would remain. In the weeks that followed, however, she found herself unable to focus, instead sitting motionless at her desk, paralyzed by the ceaseless wailing that reverberated in her mind."

- The Academic Runaway 🔸The Runaway permanently gains access to 6 skills over 5 Chapters The Shrine of Reflection

Chapter One: The Pigs of Saint Martha's

Chapter Two: Beloved

Chapter Three: Drawn to the Flame

Chapter Four: Burnt Offering

Chapter Five: Ashes

Shrine Bullet Point.png Chapter One: The Pigs of Saint Martha's
🔸Objective: Steal The 3 Keys And Escape

🔸Unlocks Ransack "I only felt the pain from the brand the first time."

- The Runaway "Her pious caretakers had marked her for the last time... Tonight, she would escape their cruelty at last."

- The Academic "She ran blindly into the rain, the squeals of the pursuing Sisters lost in the howling wind."

- The Academic



Shrine Bullet Point.png Chapter Two: Beloved
🔸Unlocks Cauterize "My painful memories hid from the warmth of their love."

- The Runaway "Good fortune is a rare and wondrous thing. She straggled from place to place, drenched and hungry, until a kindly woodsman and his wife happened upon her. Childless themselves, they welcomed her into their home, where she warmed herself in the glow of their hearth and hearts."

- The Academic



Shrine Bullet Point.png Chapter Three: Drawn to the Flame
🔸Unlocks Controlled Burn "How could this thing that warmed us on cold nights be terrible?"

- The Runaway "She would stay up long into the night, tending the fire. Captivated by its shifting hues, she thrilled to the eerie dance of spark and ember, running her fingers absentmindedly over the scars that patterned her arm. The hearthlight seemed somehow alive, and in these private moments, she yearned to reach out and be touched once against by its searing embrace."

- The Academic



Shrine Bullet Point.png Chapter Four: Burnt Offering
🔸Objective: Play With Fire

🔸Unlocks Dragonfly "If I made the fire my friend, it couldn't hurt me anymore."

- The Runaway "An accident, but surely there was time to contain the flames!"

- The Academic "The walls were alight! There was no stopping it now..."

- The Academic



Shrine Bullet Point.png Chapter Five: Ashes
🔸Unlocks Firestarter and  Backdraft "Fire itself is not evil. It can't choose what it devours..."

- The Runaway

"She stood in the center of the inferno, transfixed by its swirling, kaleidoscopic beauty... Her rapturous fixation was cut short by a heavy beam falling from the ceiling, blocking the door. Panicked, she dove headlong through a window as the cabin bloomed into a pyre. Heaped upon the wet grass, she heard the screams of her adoptive parents... trapped and burning in their bedroom."

- The Academic

Occultist 🔸The Occultist permanently gains access to 6 skills over 5 Chapters through accessing memories in the Shrine of Reflection.

Chapter One: The Ritual

Chapter Two: A Door in the Desert

Chapter Three: Some Parts Must Die

Chapter Four: The Guest

Chapter Five: An Eternal Flame



Shrine Bullet Point.png Chapter One: The Ritual
🔸Unlocks Vulnerability Hex "Few minds are ready for the other planes."

- The Occultist

"On certain portentous evenings carefully selected for their astrological potency, he would gather his devotees around the ancient onyx table, and, joining hands with them, he would send his spirit out into the void. Safely tethered by their vital energies, he was free to wander the Outer Sphere in search of some dark communion and impossible power."

- The Academic



Shrine Bullet Point.png Chapter Two: A Door in the Desert
🔸Unlocks Binding Shadows "That pyramid changed everything."

- The Occultist

"He found himself in a vast expanse of windswept dunes. Ahead, the stone spires of a pyramidal temple called down jagged bolts from a roiling, angry sky. Undaunted, he crossed the threshold of the towering aperture, settled himself upon the central dais, and prepared for the coming sacrifice."

- The Academic



Shrine Bullet Point.png Chapter Three: Some Parts Must Die
🔸Objective: Slay Your Virtues 🔸Unlocks Malediction "Back then, I was not yet wise enough to know fear."

- The Occultist

"Terrible though it was, he would pay the price for power!"

- The Academic

"The emptiness in him called out across the boundless gulfs of unknown space... for nature abhors a vacuum."

- The Academic



Shrine Bullet Point.png Chapter Four: The Guest
🔸Objective: Protect The Seance 🔸Unlocks The Burning Stars "It took too much and gained even more, but..."

- The Occultist

"Drawing vitality from the assembled mediums, he would hold fast against the thing, and harness a portion of its power!"

- The Academic

"Imbued with strange currents of infernal origin, his apotheosis was complete..."

- The Academic



Shrine Bullet Point.png Chapter Five: An Eternal Flame
🔸Unlocks Anamnesis and  Chaotic Offering "I am shrouded by an endless night where they prowl and whisper all names."

- The Occultist

"Emerging from his trance, he met the charred, steaming corpses of his acolytes with a shudder. He cound sense the eldritch entity stalking the edges of his consciousness, probing for weaknesses. He had become a beacon - a conduit to unknown regions... and would be assailed by those blasphemous forces all the rest of his days."

- The Academic