Flame

""Take this - it is Hope. The very last of it, it is yours now.""

- The Academic

The Flame, also known as Hope or Torch is mechanic present in Darkest Dungeon II .Presented to the player by their mentor to take to The Mountain. It represents the Last Hope of the world and it is the duty of the heroes to protect it.

Effects
As the Flame waxes and wanes during the journey, it affects the difficulty of battles and the stress accumulated by Heroes. It is strengthened a small amount with each victory, reduced with every league that the party travels aboard The Stagecoach, and is replenished in full every time the party reaches an Inn.

The strength of the Flame is measured on a scale from 100 to 0. As the flame is reduced, enemies will become stronger, receiving various buffs. Therefore, the player should try to keep the torch as high as possible. Unlike the predecessor game, there is no benefit to having the torch low. The cultists will ambush the party when the torch reaches 0, serving as a punishment to the player for letting The Hope die.

Increasing the Flame
Each time the heroes successfully defeat a Cultist Encounter, The Lair or Oblivion's Ingress will be rewarded with 10 flame. The punish battle with the Cultists for letting the flame die will also give 40 flame upon completion. Through the combat item "A glimmer of Hope" during combat the player will receive 15 flame each time it is used.

But the easier way to get flame is through Assistance Encounter. This node will grant flame that varies from 15 to 30 without counting the other rewards. This will depend on the quirks that the heroes have at the moment as these will influence their decisions, the player must keep in mind that the risk of losing flame is present.

At last, The inn will recharge the flame to the maximum once you leave. Making you always start with 100 flame each biome.

Decreasing the Flame
The flame will extinguish naturally throughout the trip. The amount of flame that will be lost along the way depends on several factors, such as Biome Modifiers and Loathing. Some enemies such as Ghouls can reduce the flame with their attacks during combat.

Heroes must prevent this from happening since letting the flame will only make the enemies stronger.

The Infernal Torch
The Infernal Torch is a Stagecoach Upgrade available to unlock at The Altar of Hope at the cost of 25 candles. It completely changes the behavior of the flame. It will be given to the player at the beginning of each run in the first Inn.

When equipped, the game will give a warning. Once equipped, the infernal torch cannot be unequipped so the player must decide his run from the beginning. Once out of the first inn the torch will disappear from the inventory and cannot be obtained in any other way.

Effects:
The infernal torch serves as the game's hard mode, since when equipped it will block the flame at 1. This change is permanent and cannot be modified in any way. The player will not be able to gain or lose torch, making the enemies gain all the buffs during the whole expedition. However the player will gain many more Candles of Hope than usual. Making the game progress faster.