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, both of which are guaranteed if their conditions are fulfilled. The most common one is that an Exemplar will appear at the Oblivion's Rampart in region 3, just before the inn. The second way to end up fighting an Exemplar is to reach 5 Loathing. Upon doing so, it will replace the next road battle the player comes across, appearing as punishment for being too lax on ridding the world of evil.

The Exemplar functions as a gatekeeper, either ensuring that the player is capable of disposing of strong enemies before they reach The Mountain, or punishing the player for failing to mitigate Loathing. Its' 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 starts the fight with an Altar alongside it - when at an Oblivion's Rampart - but instead comes with a random size 1 cultist enemy when replacing a road battle, and 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 his "Exultation", a highly damaging cleave, which requires him to have 2 tokens in order to use, and summons a new cultist minion, but only if the starting minion has died. He can generate throughout the fight by either sacrificing his allied minion, or orchestrating "The Fall", an attack useable only on 'ed heroes. If there are no tokens present on the player side and it cannot use "Exultation", the Exemplar can use "Prelude" or "Rapturous Beauty" in addition to "Pillar of Sacrifice".

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 (or even if it won't), consider bringing along resistance buffs and combat items like anti-venom to heal, laudanum to heal  and clear  as well as ample holy water.

Preventing "Exultation" and "The Fall":
Exultation is a frightening move which does immense damage and resummons the Exemplar's 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 fully investing a turn into the act. 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   resistance if mastered on the Leper. Reflection however cannot be used on a team mate, so cannot help if is present on another hero. It also features a 1 turn cooldown. If mastered, Man at Arms "Stand Fast" ability can clear from himself while also creating large quantities of, increasing Man at Arms' capability to withstand the Exemplar's blows. However, mastered Stand Fast features a 1 turn cooldown. Man at Arms can also use "Guard" on an ally with in order to take "The Fall" instead of the protected ally, preventing the Exemplar from gaining. The Bounty Hunter can accomplish the same feat by using "Bodyguard", which also grants the Bounty Hunter.

If "Prelude" misses due to, or , it will not generate a combo token, and the Exemplar will not be able to use "The Fall" in the 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 for protection, although should not be relied upon due to the RNG nature of the tokens. Additionally, Exemplar cannot use "The Fall" on heroes with, meaning that Grave Robber's "Shadow Fade" and Runaway's "Run and Hide" can be used to delay the Exemplar using "The Fall". It is also possible to lure the Exemplar to attack heroes other than those with by using. Additionally, due to "The Fall" only being able to reach ranks 1, 2 and 3, by having on a hero in rank 4, the Exemplar is unable to use "The Fall", forcing him to attack the 'ing hero with "Prelude" or "Rapturous Beauty".

Dealing with minions:
While the Exemplar summons minions, it is often, but not always, not worth attacking them. This is because the Exemplar will kill their 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" prevents it from using "Pillar of Sacrifice" until it resummons a minion using "Exultation".

The Exemplar's minions are also a noteworthy threat. As the Exemplar always spawns with an Altar in the Oblivion's Rampart, you can prepare countermeasures against it, as depending on the act, the act-specific buff provided by the Altar ranges from being ignorable to potentially highly devastating. If playing on Resentment, consider strategising your attacks in order to mitigate the risk of the Exemplar gaining a token before it uses a powerful move like "Exultation". Additionally, the Altar provides the Exemplar with and  in all acts, prolonging the fight. This makes the Altar a considerable threat.

The Herald can also be detrimental to the player. It can afflict heroes with high amounts of and destroy their positive tokens, remove debuffs from the Exemplar and apply  and  to heroes. Evangelists are capable of applying high amounts of with fairly damaging attacks, and can generate and  for themselves. Evangelists are also the only Exemplar minion with resitance, making them much harder to kill when combined with. They will also occupy Rank 1 instead of Rank 4 like other Exemplar minions. Finally, the Cherub is the least threatening Exemplar minion, doing little to no damage, but can still apply negative tokens like and while afflicting your party with. Cherubs can also be hard to kill due to their capability to give themself.

General advice:
Debuffs like and alongside positive tokens like, ,  and   have immense value in this fight as they allow you to mitigate the Exemplar's high damage output. However, due to the Exemplar's naturally high debuff resistance, you may find it hard to afflict it with debuffs. Furthermore, utilising and can allow you to counteract the  the Exemplar gains from Pillar of Sacrifice, potentially preventing the  from healing the Exemplar off of Death's Door. Finally, 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 to succeed Death's Door checks like the Highwayman's "Double tap" and Grave Robber's "Glint in the dark". "Glint in the dark" can also bypass Death's Door entirely if Grave Robber has, meaning that if the attack would reduce the Exemplar to 0 health or if the Exemplar is already on Death's Door, it will be guaranteed to instantly kill the Exemplar. The "Slayer of Cosmic" quirk also allows a hero to ignore all but 5% of the Exemplar's resistance.

As with any enemy, the Exemplar can be Ordained. This is notable as it provides the Exemplar with extra health, damage and other special effects. The most worrying of which occurs on Act 3, where any critical hit "mirrors" any positive tokens on whoever was critically hit, meaning that if unfortunate, the Exemplar could get his hands on extra tokens, ranging from to,  ,  and. Exemplar combats can also feature battle modifiers, so the Exemplar could gain even more benefits, such as extra damage and, shuffling your party on the opening round, or, god forbid, even more health. Account for this possibility, and prepare yourself accordingly.

Altogether, the Exemplar is a significant threat, but can be planned for from the start of a run, providing ample counterplay and opportunities to swing the fight in your favour. While this is the case, it is recommended to maintain and mitigate Loathing in order to avoid having to face more than one Exemplar, as an unfortunate encounter could quickly spell the end of a run, and even a successful one could easily leave your party in a state of disrepair.

Loot
Despite being a miniboss, unlike the Shambler and the Antiquarian, the Exemplar does not have unique loot, providing only standard loot for Oblivion's Ramparts' when fought at the end of region 3, and nothing other than Loathing reduction when fought as a punishment for reaching 5 Loathing.