Old Road



"Brigands have run of these lanes. Keep to the side-path, the hamlet is just ahead. Narration_OldRoad.wav"

- The Narrator

The Old Road is the very first Location in which the player finds themselves after launching the Game and creating a savefile. It begins after "Road Home", the second cinematic of the game, in which the Stage Coach carrying you to Hamlet suffers an accident because of the apparent madness of its driver. The Old Road is supposedly located in the Weald, as the background and music both match with the ones you find in this region.

The player has to get through the Old Road to reach Hamlet. It serves as a tutorial on how to progress/find your way into a dungeon, along with tutorials for battle and curios investigation.

Reynauld and Dismas
On the Old Road, the player will always begin their adventure with the same two characters: Reynauld, a Crusader, and Dismas, a Highwayman (both at level 0).

Reynauld possesses the combat skills Smite, Zealous Accusation, Stunning Blow and Bulwark of Faith. He has the quirk Warrior of Light, which is really useful at the beginning of the game. But he is also God Fearing and most importantly, Kleptomaniac, which may cause him to interact with any encountered curio on his own and steal any resulting loot. Should Kleptomaniac not trigger upon reaching a curio, it is safe to proceed looting with Reynauld as the selected hero.

Dismas has the combat skills Pistol Shot, Grapeshot Blast, Tracking Shot and Open Vein. He possesses 2 positive quirks, Hard Noggin and Quick Reflexes and also 1 negative quirk, Known Cheat, which is not troublesome for the dungeon.

These features are not randomly generated: the player will always begin the game with these 2 characters, and their skills/quirks will always remain the same at the beginning.

The Map
Since it's intended as a tutorial, the Old Road is the easiest dungeon in the game. There are only 2 rooms: the entrance room (where the heroes begin) is directly connected to the last room. The player has to pass through one corridor to do so and complete the first quest: reach the Hamlet alive.

Halfway through the corridor, you'll encounter one Brigand Cutthroat, and the combat system will be explained to you. This fight is relatively easy, the Cutthroat has low stun and bleed resistances and also low health. Use Stunning Blow to prevent him from moving, then have your heroes cut him down.

Just after that, you will find the first curio (with tutorial): a bandit's tent. This particular tent cannot be found anywhere else and only gives loot. This is normally what gives you an edge before the second dungeon, so collect it and move on. If playing on Stygian, the Traveler's Tent will be replaced by the Transcendent Terror, which inflicts +100 stress and a resolve test on the character used to investigate the curio.

After passing through the corridor, you'll enter the second room: a Battle Room with a Trapped Strongbox guarded by a Brigand Bloodletter (1st and 2nd position) and a Brigand Fusilier (3rd position). They have to be killed in order to finish the quest. This can be easily done by having Dismas use Open Vein or Pistol Shot on the Fusilier, and Reynauld use Smite; Bulwark of Faith is useless due to the Bloodletter not caring about marks and Fusiler only using weak AoE. Do not open the strongbox; It has no chance of loot, and although it won't do anything, it can give heroes a Blight. If however you happen to have dropped a key at this point you can use it to loot the strongbox, bypass the trap and get actual loot instead. After this, just leave to the Hamlet.

Strategies
The Old Road may be the easiest dungeon in the game, but that doesn't mean that you can get careless. You only have 2 heroes without any trinkets equipped, and neither Reynauld nor Dismas have any healing abilities. Having to deal with an afflicted hero in Stygian just makes it more difficult. If you get unlucky, though, don't panic: should you lose Reynauld, Dismas, or both, additional heroes will appear in the starting Stagecoach to ensure that you have a full party of four for the next mission.

It's best to put an end to fights as quickly as possible in Darkest Dungeon, and that holds just as true in the Old Road as it does in later dungeons. Finishing the Cutthroat with 2 attacks is possible, and in the second fight, you should ignore the Fusilier and focus the Bloodletter - damage from his bleed attacks can add up quickly. Stunning him is possible, but you have a 50% chance to fail (Stunning Blow is at 100% but the Bloodletter has 50% resistance). There is nothing more the player can really do, except pray not to be too unlucky.

If you're feeling especially daring, you can try dousing your torch to zero in the starting room in order to maximize your quest loot. Be warned, though, that adventuring at zero light has a chance of replacing the Cutthroat fight with a significantly more dangerous encounter.

Quest Reward
After beating the Bloodletter and the Fusilier, you'll have completed the quest and the game will propose you to go to Hamlet. You can stay and open the strongbox if you like, but unless you happened to obtain a key (possible as a reward if you doused your torch before fighting the Cutthroat), you'll only be blighted for your efforts. Once you're done, you'll get 5000 gold for the trouble (along with any loot you found), forming a financial base to buy the provisions for your first quest.

Trivia

 * If the player fails to kill the very first bandit in this location in the next encounter in other location The Narrator will say the same thing as in the beginning of the battle with him. This is most likely a glitch.
 * If Reynauld and Dismas die on the Old Road you still “clear” the quest and receive the 5,000 gold. The weekly Ledger states that you “escaped through the trees and reached the hamlet” and the stagecoach will have two random heroes along with the Vestal and Plague Doctor