Exemplar

"Loathing made manifest!"

The Exemplar is a Cosmic miniboss in Darkest Dungeon II.

Enemy Description
The Exemplar is a miniboss which can only spawn under two circumstances. The primary method is that an Exemplar is guaranteed to appear at the Oblivion's Rampart in region 3, just before the inn. The second way an Exemplar can appear is that one is guaranteed to replace any enemies encountered in road battles if the player has 5 Loathing.

The Exemplar functions as a gatekeeper, either ensuring that the player is capable of disposing of strong foes before they reach The Mountain, or punishing the player for failing to mitigate loathing. It's attacks are highly damaging, and they can target multiple Heroes, inflict high amounts of, apply debuffs or  , and apply  to player heroes.

The Exemplar also begins the encounter with an Altar alongside it when at an Oblivion's Rampart. If the Exemplar appears in a road battle, the Altar will instead be a random size 1 Cultist enemy. The Exemplar will periodically kill and resummon its allies over the course of the battle, applying self buffs in the process.

Combat Skills
The Exemplar has numerous fearsome attacks in its arsenal, but the most powerful of them all is "Exultation", a highly damaging cleave which requires him to have 2 tokens in order to use and will summon a cultist ally if the starting ally is absent. The Exemplar can generate throughout the fight by either using "Pillar of Sacrifice" to destroy its cultist ally, or by setting up "The Fall", an attack only on heroes with. If there are no tokens present on the player side and it cannot use "Exultation", the Exemplar can use "Prelude" to inflict  and, or "Rapturous Beauty" to inflict and , or "Pillar of Sacrifice," if its cultist ally has accumulated two  tokens on itself.

Strategy and advice
The Exemplar is a powerful enemy, yet only shows up in two specific circumstances. As a result, it is possible to prepare for the fight in advance. If you think that your party will struggle against the Exemplar, consider bringing along resistance buffs and combat items like Antivenom to heal, Laudanum to heal  and clear , as well as at least one stack of Holy Water, to remove any  tokens in an emergency.

Preventing "Exultation" and "The Fall":
"Exultation" is a powerful move which does immense damage and summons a cultist minion. However, it can be entirely avoided by preventing the Exemplar from reaching 2 tokens. The only way to realistically accomplish this is by clearing the tokens applied by "Prelude." There are multiple ways to accomplish this. Firstly, if it is unlocked, the Holy Water combat item is highly recommended, as it clears tokens from its target, allowing you to clear without spending one of your heroes' actions on doing so. If you do not have Holy Water, there are hero skills that can be used instead. Jester's "Play Out" and "Battle Ballad" both remove when mastered, allowing you to simultaneously clear while also applying, or to your selected teammate. However, the positional requirements and moving effects of "Play Out" and "Battle Ballad" may mean that using one of them is occasionally not viable.

Leper's "Reflection" skill allows you to clear while simultaneously clearing, healing , and buffing the Leper's   resistance if mastered. This skill can only be used on himself, however, so it cannot help if is present on another hero. It also features a 1 turn cooldown when unmastered, so if this is to be your primary strategy, be sure to master "Reflection" prior to the third region.

If mastered, Man at Arms' "Stand Fast" skill can clear from himself while also creating a large reserve of, increasing Man at Arms' survivability against the powerful "The Fall." However, unlike "Reflection," "Stand Fast" has a 1 turn cooldown, even when mastered. Man at Arms can also use "Defender" on an ally with in order to guard them and take "The Fall" instead of the ally, which not only diverts the damage onto a hero better equipped to survive it, but also will prevent the Exemplar from gaining if Man at Arms doesn't have  himself. The Bounty Hunter can achieve the same result by using "Bodyguard," although he has no way to clear from himself.

Another viable strategy revolves around preventing from being applied to begin with. If the Exemplar's "Prelude" misses due to, or , it will not generate , and the Exemplar will not be able to use "The Fall" in its next turn. This means that skills like Plague Doctor's "Blinding Gas" or the Grave Robber's "Absinthe" and "Repartee" can be used to great effect, although this strategy is inherently inconsistent due to the random nature of tokens that affect hit chance.

Additionally, Exemplar cannot target heroes with, meaning that Grave Robber's "Shadow Fade" and Runaway's "Run and Hide" skills can be used to delay the Exemplar using "The Fall" on them. It is also possible to lure the Exemplar to attack heroes other than those with by using, delaying usage of "The Fall," as  tokens take precedence over synergy. Moreover, due to "The Fall" only being able to target ranks 1, 2 and 3, it is possible to prevent this attack entirely by having on a hero in rank 4. This will force it to attack the hero with taunt, which it can only do by using "Prelude" or "Rapturous Beauty."

Dealing with allies:
While the Exemplar summons allies, it is often, but not always, not worth attacking them. This is because the Exemplar will kill its ally eventually; if you fail to kill their ally before the Exemplar uses "Pillar of Sacrifice", you will have wasted damage that could have been used on the Exemplar itself. However, killing the Exemplar's minion before it uses "Pillar of Sacrifice" will deny it the significant positive buffs that skill provides, until it summons a new minion using "Exultation."

While attacking them can often be unwise, the Exemplar's allies are still a noteworthy threat. At an Oblivion's Rampart, the Exemplar always appears with an Altar supporting it from Rank 4. At the start of the battle, Altars provide an buff that changes depending on the Confession of the current expedition. This buff ranges from being negligible, to potentially catastrophic. If the Confession is Resentment, consider paying careful attention to your attacks relative to how many the Exemplar has, in order to reduce the risk of the Exemplar gaining a token before it uses "Exultation." Additionally, the Altar provides the Exemplar with and  regardless of the Confession, prolonging the fight.

The Herald is another dangerous ally for the Exemplar. It can inflict high on any hero and destroy their positive tokens regardless of their rank, and apply  and  to heroes in the back ranks. Additionally, it can also remove negative tokens from the Exemplar. These abilities can significantly swing the battle in the Exemplar's favor, and, combined with Heralds' low health and lack of any defensive tokens, make spending the turns to kill them with your own heroes as soon as possible an option worth considering.

While Evangelists are capable of applying high amounts of with fairly damaging attacks, and can generate for themselves, they are not advisable to try to kill before the Exemplar sacrifices them, due to both their relatively high health, and ability to generate for themselves. Evangelists are also the only Exemplar minion with resistance, making them almost always take at least one extra turn to kill. Unlike all other Exemplar allies, Evangelists will always appear in Rank 1.

Finally, the Cherub is the least threatening minion, doing a paltry 1-2 damage with its attacks, but still being capable of applying negative tokens like and, along with a significant  debuff. Cherubs, like Evangelists, can also be hard to kill due to their capability to give themselves. While the negative effects they apply can be bothersome, Cherubs are rarely worth diverting attention away from the Exemplar for.

General advice:
Debuffs that reduce the effectiveness of the Exemplar's attacks, like and, as well as positive tokens that do the same, like, ,  and   have immense value in this fight, as the Exemplar's attacks universally do very high damage. However, due to the Exemplar's high debuff resistance, debuffs can be unreliable, so a consistent strategy revolving around positive tokens for your own heroes is preferred.

Furthermore, due to the Exemplar's high resistance, the Exemplar may take multiple blows to finish off after reducing it to 0 health. This can be mitigated through repeated blows to lower the resistance, combat items like Death Cap Spores that debuff  resistance, equipping trinkets that increase  chance, or using attacks with an increased  chance like the Highwayman's "Double Tap" and Grave Robber's "Glint in the Dark". When mastered, this skill also has the unique ability to bypass Death's Door entirely if Grave Robber has, meaning that even if the Exemplar still has health remaining, if the attack would reduce the Exemplar to 0 health, the Exemplar will be instantly killed, as if it had no resistance at all. The "Slayer of Cosmic" quirk also allows a hero to ignore all but 5% of the Exemplar's resistance. Finally, applying and can give further chances to deal the final blow on the Exemplar's own turns, or at the very least counteract the  the Exemplar gains from "Pillar of Sacrifice," from healing the Exemplar off of Death's Door.

As with any enemy, the Exemplar can be Ordained, and in the guaranteed encounter with it in the third Oblivion's Rampart, it will almost always be Ordained, as the chance for Ordained enemies increases to 90% in the third region. This is extremely significant not only for the boost to the Exemplar's already formidable health and damage, but for the unique, special effects Ordainment provides to enemies depending on the Confession. The most significant of these is the Obsession Confession, where any critical hit "mirrors" any positive tokens on whoever was hit, meaning that if unlucky, the Exemplar could gain extra tokens it's normally incapable of receiving, ranging from and  to  and.

Altogether, the Exemplar is a significant threat, but can be planned for in advance, providing ample counterplay. While this is the case, it is highly recommended to mitigate Loathing in order to avoid having to face more than one Exemplar, as an unfortunate encounter could quickly spell the end of an expedition, and even if you emerge victorious, a surprise attack from the Exemplar can easily leave your party in a state of disrepair.

Loot
Despite being a miniboss like the Shambler and the Antiquarian, unlike them, the Exemplar does not have unique loot, providing only standard loot for Oblivion's Ramparts when fought at the end of the third region, and no reward at all other than Loathing reduction when fought as a road battle with five Loathing.

Trivia

 * The Exemplar appears to be two entities, or one creature composed of two, with a headless, humanoid torso emerging from a fleshy, beastlike mass of tentacles and humanoid arms, and an iron mask similar to the ones worn by Deacon and Cardinal adorning a spot at the end of its spine.
 * The two "halves" of the Exemplar even seem to each be in charge of different skills, with the lower, beastlike half attacking with its huge limbs during "Prelude," and piercing heroes with its gaze during "Rapturous Beauty," while the upper, more humanoid half becomes more animated when destroying an ally with "Pillar of Sacrifice," or when calling forth "The Fall."
 * The Exemplar has a floating, perpetual manifestation of the Iron Crown surrounding the area where its humanoid head would be.
 * In German versions of the game, the Exemplar is named 'der Abgott'.