Chirurgeon

The Chirurgeon is a Gaunt mini-boss in Darkest Dungeon II encountered at the Chirurgeon's Table.

Strategy
The Chirurgeon is, first and foremost, a support boss; He spends most of his turns buffing his allies or debuffing his enemies, and will rarely resort to attacking the player directly. However, as a mini-boss, even his self-defense ability, Bonesaw, is still a force to be reckoned with. Nevertheless, since he can't respawn any of his allies, killing the gaunt and ghouls he spawns with will generally leave him as an easy kill.

Though he is an easy enough boss that most players can kill him without a great team, he does have a unique buff that directly counters DOT. At the start of his turn, he takes a single turn of damage from every DOT on him and then gains a small restoration buff before removing all his DOT. Note, he won't gain any more restoration from having more than 1 DOT, nor does he care about how much DOT he has. What this means is that heroes relying on DOT, such as Yellowhand, Alchemist, or Venomdrop, will have their effectiveness drastically reduced. You can still brute force your way through the Chirurgeon with DOT, as he does take a single tick of damage as well as having the lowest DOT resistances in the game, but it becomes even more pertinent to kill his allies and leave him alone due to that. Direct damage teams, such as Leper, Man at Arms, or Deadeye Grave Rrobber s, will be better at putting the Chirurgeon down.

An interesting note about what teams are best in this fight is the unique place Negative Tokens have in it. 2 of his attacks, both being close copies or each other, serve the function to deal damage to a target in order to remove negative tokens. Skills that tend to give their heroes negative tokens such as Jester's Finale, Grave Robber's Pirouette, and 3 of Leper's high damage skills, will cause the Chirurgeon to focus them when he can. More importantly, though, is that he has a worse version of the move he uses on his allies. He deals more damage to his allies to remove the negative tokens, and removes a good amount of defensive tokens in the process. Using skills such as Occultist's curse skills, Hellion's Barbaric Yawp, or Plague Doctor's Disorienting Blast can cause the Chirurgeon to kill his allies for you. You should be prepared for whatever move the Trepanned Enemy uses when your debuffs are removed, and you should expect your debuffs to only be worth how much damage the Chirurgeon deals to the enemy, but it can be an effective strategy to distract the Chirurgeon while dealing with his allies.

Trivia

 * The Chirurgeon uses most of the unique items that can be obtained as a reward for defeating him.
 * The Appalling Apron and Spiked Skullcap are both worn on his person and provide the same respective buffs that they do as equippable trinkets.
 * The Trephine Bur and Orbitoclast are used by him in combat both to treat his Gaunt allies and to "treat" heroes.
 * The contents of his ubiquitous bucket of Leeches can be rewarded in the form of an inn item or a combat item.
 * The Bone Saw is used as his last-resort procedure on heroes.
 * The Physicians' Guild Seal is the only unique item drop that does not appear anywhere in the battle.


 * Patients, the champion version of Lost Souls, exclusively appear in battles with the Chirurgeon.


 * Leucotomy provides a unique buff to Carrion Eaters, despite them not appearing in the fight naturally. This is because they can still spawn via the Corpse Light Infernal Flame.


 * Both the Chirurgeon's visual design and battle mechanics were created in collaboration with a Darkest Dungeon fan via the Make-a-Wish foundation.
 * The first batch of items based on the Chirurgeon, which included the Appalling Apron, Spiked Skullcap, Bone Saw, and the Leeches inn item, were released in the Void Between Us update on December 12, 2022, with the Chirurgeon himself, along with a promotional render and concept art being revealed a month later on January 26, 2023, with plans announced to add him to the game following the game's full release.
 * Initially, the Chirurgeon was planned simply as a basic support unit for the Gaunt faction, but upon the reveal of the Chirurgeon's Table update, was revealed to have become a true mini-boss with his own node, rewards, and mechanics, and was added to the game on August 18, 2023.