Expedition

An expedition is a mission that heroes can undertake by visiting one of the various locations near the Hamlet.

Types of expedition
Each of the locations outside the Hamlet will have a number of different types of missions to accomplish, with various dungeon sizes, objectives and difficulty levels. Greater mission length and difficulty make expeditions harder, but also increase the rewards for completion. Each mission's objective, difficulty and size are generated randomly, with size and especially difficulty being weighted depending on the heroes of the current roster. Regardless of the composition of the roster, there will always be at least one apprentice level mission possible, in case the player wants to recruit new heroes from the Stage Coach.

Expedition length
There are three different possible lengths for any mission:
 * Quest short.png Short: consisting of a handful of rooms, are the least risky, but also the less rewarding at all difficulties. Higher difficulties make for slightly bigger dungeons.
 * Quest medium.png Medium: featuring a larger dungeon with different branches, making bigger supplies of food and torches necessary for the survival of heroes. When facing medium sized missions, one unit of Firewood will be provided to allow for one camp during the expedition, giving a chance of respite from combat stress and damage and possibly to better prepare for further encounters with camping skills. Boss missions are always of medium length.
 * Quest long.png Long: especially at higher difficulties, long expeditions will feature much larger dungeons, with extreme branching and a big number of dead ends. Bountiful amounts of food and torches are essential and those, together with the two units of Firewood provided, prevent the party from gathering much loot at the start of the quest. Careful planning for exploration and camping, as well as good stress control are mandatory to make long expeditions successful.

Mission length acts as a sort of multiplier for the difficulty level, making hard expeditions even harder with longer quests.

Difficulty
There are three different levels of difficulty an expedition can have, each corresponding to a certain hero Resolve level. Heroes that are two or more levels above the expedition level will refuse to take part in it. Heroes of any level below the expedition can participate, but low level heroes will suffer severe stress damage from partaking in it and will obviously be at a general disadvantage with the dangers thereof, and will protest to the player to warn them. Entering a dungeon will give each hero 20 stress damage for each level above his own.
 * Quest cleanse 1.png Apprentice: corresponds to Resolve level 1 and is the least challenging difficulty, with monsters being weaker and dungeons being smaller. Apprentice missions are coloured green.
 * Quest cleanse 3.png Veteran: corresponds to Resolve level 3 and presents a bigger challenge; dungeons get bigger, posing for a larger consumption of supplies, enemies get stronger and a broader variety of monsters is introduced, with some of them possibly being champion monsters, harder to slain and control; additionally, many monster attacks that do not do it at lower difficulties gain the chance to apply status effects. Veteran missions are coloured orange.
 * Quest cleanse 5.png Champion: corresponds to Resolve level 5 and is the most challenging difficulty: dungeons can be very long and intricate especially on long expeditions, monsters are of the most dangerous variety and the chances of encountering bigger monsters are a concrete threat. Enemy attacks on this difficulty are more accurate and dangerous overall. Champion missions are coloured red.

A higher difficulty grants more challenge, but also more valuable rewards for money, heirlooms and trinkets rewarded, with loot found during the expedition becoming more plentiful and valuable also.

Mission objectives
Every dungeon has various tasks to take care of, each with different objectives in order to consider the expedition successful. It is never necessary to explore a dungeon completely: it can be left as soon as the objective is complete.

Possible missions for each expedition include:
 * Quest cleanse 1.png Cleanse: requiring the party to win every fight encounter in dungeon rooms. Battles along corridors do not count, and can thus be circumvented if scouted in advance and alternative paths are available. These missions allow the party to hold an empty inventory (except for provisions) and consequently do not constitute a problem for the gather of loot. Despite this, it is probable for the heroes to suffer much damage, hence a good party composition and food supply are recommended.
 * Quest explore 1.png Explore: the requirement of scout missions is to set foot in 90% of the dungeon rooms; this means that regardless of the dungeon size, at least one room can be foregone, with larger dungeons having a proportionally higher amount of rooms that an be avoided in case of dangerous paths. Despite being the least dangerous in theory, scout missions have larger risks if a numerous amount of battles are generated throughout corridors and rooms. Moreover, since most of the dungeon will have to be explored, the party is guaranteed to consume a high number of foodstuff and torches. Despite the risks, it is however possible to abandon dangerous battles, especially when in dead ends and circumventable passages. It is worth noting that leaving a room by abandoning a fight will still count the room as explored.
 * Quest gather 1.png Gather: gather missions will require the party to collect quest items from special curios distributed around the dungeon. The risks of these missions depend on the position of the items, with larger dungeons requiring more items to gather. Especially in smaller dungeons, gather quests can end up being very easy if the quest items are generated closely to each other and the player follows the right route. Due to the items being placed in the inventory, these missions don't allow the party to gather as much loot as others; as such, leaving a gather quest will prove more economically punishing if it cannot be successfully completed.
 * Quest activate 1.png Activate: these missions require the party to activate various special curios along the dungeon, consuming special quest items provided with the rest of the provisions at the start of the expedition. These quests constitute a similar amount of risk as gather missions but, because the quest items are provided at the start, they allow for more plentiful loot toward the end of the quest as the items get consumed, while leaving limited room for additional items at the start.
 * Quest boss 1.png Boss: these special expeditions have only one simple objective: to slay the boss of the dungeon. The dungeons of boss quests are always of medium size and their difficulty is not generated randomly: by defeating all the varieties of all bosses of a dungeon, their next versions of higher difficulty will be unlocked. In order to find and undertake a boss quest it is first necessary to accomplish enough successful expeditions in the same location to clear the path to the boss.
 * Quest darkest.png We Are The Flame: The only quest of "Darkest" difficulty, equal to Resolve level 6, We Are The Flame is the only mission of the Darkest Dungeon, available since the beginning and consisting in eliminating the final boss, the Shuffling Horror.

Rewards
Every expedition has a set of rewards that are given to the player if the mission is concluded successfully. Every mission has:
 * A reward in gold, with an increasing amount the more difficult and long a quest is. Gold is used to finance hero management and improvements as well as provisions for future expeditions, but the loot collected during expeditions will most often surpass the amount given as a reward, hence the gold reward is not the topmost priority in choosing an expedition to undertake, unless the Hamlet verses in very poor economic conditions.
 * One or more heirlooms, used to improve buildings in the Hamlet. Every location will reward a different type of heirloom, but particularly dangerous quests such as boss slay missions will sometimes reward more than one type. Additional heirlooms may be collected as loot during the expedition, but some types (such as deeds) stack in very few numbers: when explicitly in search of heirlooms, quest rewards with a large number of heirloom rewards should be prioritised.
 * A trinket, able to be either sold for gold or equipped by heroes for various improvements, usually with one or more drawbacks. Trinkets, especially rare ones, are hard to come by, so this kind of reward is usually the main factor in deciding which expedition to attempt.

Undertaking an expedition
Expeditions always start from the Hamlet, where the heroes rest between missions. An expedition is formed by four heroes recruited through the Stage Coach, with various possible compositions of classes and formations. After choosing the heroes and the location to approach, provisions must be bought from the Caretaker before departing.

Exploration
During an expedition, the party will move forming a row following the formation defined before departing; outside of battles, this formation can be changed at will. While the party moves across the dungeon, the dungeon map will reflect their movements and display information. While in a room, a new room must be set as destination before the party can traverse the corridors and continue the quest.

While exploring, the party will occasionally suffer small instances of stress damage, discouraging long expeditions and superfluous movements. The Light Meter will also deplete by some units for each corridor segment and room entrance traversed, so it is recommended to keep an eye on it before entering rooms that may contain fights, in order not to cause low thresholds of light to trigger ambushes on the heroes. Passing by corridors that have already been explored will, however, deplete the light more slowly, simulating a more secure and swift advance by the heroes and allowing the player to save on torches by taking less fruitful, but more safe paths.

Scouting
As the party enters a room, there is a chance that they will scout ahead, revealing possible dangers and treasures in advance, giving the player the chance to prepare for coming battles or circumvent them if possible. Scouting can also be triggered by some curios, and the chances of scouting events occurring can be improved using appropriate trinkets.

Backtracking
If the party encounters a danger that the player doesn't want to face, it is possible to proceed backwards along the corridor to get back to the previously explored room. Doing this will be slower than regular movement and will cause the party to suffer additional stress; the heroes will lament this condition through their barks.

Fighting
When encountering enemies, battle will commence. At the start of the battle, the chances of either party surprising the other will be calculated, then the fastest units will start acting. Once a battle starts, the active abilities of a hero cannot be changed until it is over, however all learned abilities can be activated and deactivated at will when out of combat.

Turns
The battle is structured in turns: units act one at a time, with their priority being defined by their speed added to a random number that is newly calculated for each unit every turn. When all units with an available action have finished, the turn is reset and the priority is calculated anew.

Enemies will typically act by attacking the player with one of their abilities, while heroes have different actions at their disposal:
 * Using an item from the inventory will not forfeit the turn, but only some provision items can be used in battle and each hero can only use them on himself.
 * Moving across the formation will make the hero switch place with an adjacent companion and forfeit any further action. This can sometimes be necessary as many abilities can only be used from certain positions, and enemy move attacks or ambushes can force heroes out of their ideal position.
 * Passing the turn is a last-resort action that will cause the hero to suffer stress damage in addition to forfeiting any other action. In extreme situations it is possible to be forced to do this when abilities cannot be used and movement would be detrimental.
 * Using an ability is the typical action taken by heroes to inflict damage or other status effects on the enemy party in an effort to conclude the fight.
 * It is also possible to retreat from combat, which, if successful, brings the party back to the previous explored section of the dungeon map and causes the party to take heavy stress damage. Fights that are not brought to an end will be re-entered if the section that contained them is approached again. Retreat can also fail, causing the hero to lose his turn and possibly be exposed to further damage by the enemy.

Ending an expedition
An expedition can be abandoned at any time when not in a battle. During battle, it is necessary to escape or finish the encounter before being able to leave the dungeon.

Successful missions
When the mission's objective has been fulfilled, a prompt will appear making the player choose to either continue exploring the dungeon or immediately leave for the Hamlet. From this point onward, the mission can be left without drawbacks at any moment while not in battle. If the party does not verse in terrible condition, it is recommended to continue exploring the dungeon in order to gather more [[loot] and make the expedition more rewarding.

Aborting a mission
If a mission proves too risky or difficult the party can escape with their lives, bringing with them any loot gathered so far but forfeiting any mission reward. Additionally, heroes that flee from a dungeon without completing their mission suffer stress damage that has then to be cured in the Hamlet; stress damage suffered this way will not cause the heroes to get afflicted if their stress metre happens to get above 100. Any random assignation of quirks and diseases at the end of the mission will occur as normal.

Failing a mission
A mission is failed when all heroes die; all collected loot is lost and, naturally, no hero will return to the Hamlet, causing the destruction of any trinket equipped on the heroes. If the mission objectives were completed before the death of the party, however, the quest rewards will be obtained as normal, encouraging the player to take bigger risks after the completion of a quest when commanding a party of expendable heroes.

Debriefing
After leaving an expedition, regardless of its outcome, the debriefing screen will appear, displaying the mission rewards (greyed out in case of unsuccessful outcome), any additional heirlooms gathered, and the amount of gold collected in the form of valuable loot, raw gold coins and unused provisions, which are converted into trivial amounts of gold.

Following the reward screen, surviving heroes will receive Resolve experience and randomly assigned quirks, positive or negative, sometimes accompanied by diseases contracted on the way out of the dungeon. Any afflicted hero will remain so and will require treatment to get rid of the harmful status, but virtuous heroes will not maintain their condition.