Farmstead



“Some blazing malevolence from beyond the stars has crashed upon the Miller’s farm. Lands that have, in past years, yielded rich harvests are now sown with a new and terrifying seed—an unrelenting crystalline consumption that inches outward from the mill with each passing season.”

Some hateful shard of alien origin has streaked through the night sky, crashing into the old Miller’s farm on the outskirts of the Hamlet! Those unfortunate enough to witness the Comet’s arrival have been blinded by what they can only describe as a shifting, ephemeral hue of damnably abrasive intensity. There has been no word from the farm in a fortnight, save for the unearthly groaning that echoes from the ruin of the mill…

Ever since the Comet struck the Old Windmill, the Farmstead and it’s surrounding acres of land have been severely altered by the otherworldly corruption. As if natural flow of time has been distorted beyond recognition; once fertile fields are a lifeless wasteland where only crystallized wheat and mutated pumpkins can grow and the acres are littered with fossilized remains of people, farm animals, and petrified crops, as if they have aged uncountable years in a blink of an eye. Even the stars above the Farmstead are not right, none of the recognizable constellations can be seen in the night sky and the Northern Star is in the wrong position, as if these night skies are not from this time and place.

The only reason why this new source of Evil and corruption have not taken over the Estate is because of the Enchanted Stone Slabs on the perimeter of the Farmstead keep this new Evil contained, but like all things, it is a only matter of time before the barrier is pierced by this terror from the stars.

Behavior
The Farmstead is a new area that is introduced in the Color of Madness DLC. It is unique in the fact that it eschews exploration for pure combat - When you enter, you are pitted against a constant stream of monsters, new ones coming in to take the place of the old. The first two missions act as a tutorial to the main draw of the place - An Endless mode, where you are pitted against wave after wave of monsters until you are defeated or you flee.

The Farmstead differs from the other areas of the game in a multitude of ways.
 * Enemy corpses, if ignored, become large crystal formations. If these are left alive, they explode for notable HP and Stress damage.
 * The torch does not fade over time, instead taking a multitude of different variants seen nowhere else in the game.
 * There is no negative consequence to fleeing from the battle, other than losing out on the level's bonuses.
 * In the endless mode, death is temporary. If a character dies, they become lost in time and space, only to eventually reappear after a week or two - This is functionally identical to the way adventurers can go missing after participating in Stress Relief.

Heroes will travel through multitude of dimensions, past, present, or future, with specific ennemies from each region, even the last one. Each fight will bring an alternation between our current dimension, The Farmstead's Miasma, and the other ones.
 * The Farmstead's Miasma - with Farmstead specific monsters:
 * Hero Party Effects: -10% Healing Received and +10% Stress.
 * Green dimension (Haunting):
 * Hero Party Effects: +15% Blight Skill Chance and +10% Stress.
 * Monster Effects: +15% Blight Skill Chance and +10 Dodge.
 * Red Dimension (Gleaming):
 * Hero Party Effects: +15% Bleed Skill Chance and +15% Healing Skills.
 * Monster Effects: +15% Bleed Skill Chance and +5% CRT.
 * Blue Dimension (Blazing):
 * Hero Party Effects: +20% DMG vs Marked and +20% Debuff Skill Chance.
 * Monster Effects: +3 SPD and +10% PROT.
 * Yellow Dimension (Splendorous):
 * Hero Party Effects: +15% Virtue Chance and +20% Stress Skills.
 * Monster Effects: -10% Blight and Bleed Resist.

Provisions
There is no need to bring Torches, Shovels and Keys here.

Like any Darkest Dungeon's quest, bring every Food, Bandage, Antivenom, Medicinal Herbs, Holy Water and Laudanum you can. It's better to be prepared.

Even if you have The Crimson Court (DLC), you will not see any enemies from there. In that case, it is highly recommended to NOT bring heroes with the Crimson Curse, and therefore you will not need any of The Blood. If you do so, this means you need to manage the heroes curse level and sacrifice one or two inventory slots that could be used for something else of more importance for the WHOLE party and not just one cursed hero.

Party Composition
The endless run is a matter of endurance, meaning that maintaining your party's overall health (particularly stress) will be paramount for a long run.
 * Firstly, you'll need a good healer. Classically, a good Vestal will do the job, with Tome of Holy Healing and Salacious Diary trinkets for example, and perhaps Hippocratic quirk. Although the Occultist can do an enormous amount of heal, he won't be as good as a primary healer as he lacks the consistency then that of the Vestal.
 * Secondly, you'll need heroes with stress heal skills. For example, the Jester with Inspiring Tune and the FlagellantPoptext_vampire_resist.png with Endure have an incredible synergy. With the Dirge For The Devoured for the first one and the Aria Box for the second one, you can climb easily to -30 stress per turn.

As spelled above, any corpses left will become a Crystalline Aberration in the next turn. Even if you can heal a bit of yourself by destroying them, you should remove them quickly. The best way would be to use Bleed skills (blight can be useful, but as you will encounter Farmstead monsters most of the time with blight resistance, it is not advised either). Thus, this will allow you to quickly remove the corpse, but even more importantly, it's an excellent way to temporize enemies in order to heal yourself. Nevertheless, keep in mind that if you meet Ruins monsters in that way, it will be a real hell. Thereby, balance your strengths.

It's important to have well chosen camping skills. Since fights last very long, combat buffs are welcome. Also, as you can quickly contract diseases (especially against Warrens and Cove monsters), skills which can remove them (like Snuff Box with Grave Robber) are perfect. Furthermore, as you can overstack Death Door recovery, skills which remove them are welcome.

You will not need scouting or ambush skills.

Global Workaround
As you know, The Farmstead works in waves: you'll need to fight a specific amount of monster in order to spawn the Sleeper's Dream and end the fight.

When you kill a monster, 2 turns later the next one(s) approach. It will be trigger at first kill, if you kill any others after this one, next turn or not, they will all come in the same time. Again and again.

This is why you shouldn't rush kill, it's better to move forward with 2 per 2 kills in order to temporize the fight. You should prioritize killing the stress dealer as stress will be harder in the long run to deal with then basic hp damage, damage dealer enemies should be the last to go. Stack bleed/blight and heal yourself as often as possible. When you are near the killing quota, you can rush kill. When you're here (and there is a place left for it to spawn) it is not of priority to kill the remaining enemies left as you will be teleported away. So it's not important to fight (unless you are in real danger of taking a lot of hp/stress damage) now would be the time for buffing and healing your heroes until the Sleeper's Dream appears. Though if you're just trying to focus on maximizing your kills, then by all means go ahead and let loose!

The meter at the top right corner of the screen increases by each wave of enemies killed, after the last wave, you will encounter a Boss. The 2 first time, it will be successively The Miller, then The Sleeper. Afterwards, it will be an alternation between the Thing From The Stars, the Shambler, the Shrieker, or the Collector.

Pay attention to what kind of light you are in and which area you will be in, act accordingly. For example, when you reach the yellow light (splendorous) it's the perfect time to cross the Affliction limit, as you have a great chance to get a virtuous hero. However this can be risky as it is not guaranteed to get one.