Darkest Dungeon II

"You were right to fear the world. It has gone mad. The gutters brim with poets, and decency lies burning in the street. But this is not a time for heroes. Look instead to those battered souls who have known fear and failure in ample portion, but rise again to reclaim a glimmer of hope from the spreading stain of the Darkest Dungeon."

- The Narrator, "A Glimmer of Hope"

Darkest Dungeon II is the upcoming sequel to Darkest Dungeon. It will launch on the Epic Games Store in early access in Q3 2021. The game was revealed on February 19, 2019 with a teaser titled "The Howling End". With Wayne June reprising his role as the Narrator, the RPG combat gameplay of Darkest Dungeon will return in a "tuned-up" form, and the metagame will feature a "completely different" structure involving a "grueling journey" instead of dungeon-delving in a single locale.

Setting
Following the events of Darkest Dungeon, the corruption defeated at the Estate is found to be only a symptom of a far greater evil that is already on the verge of ending the world. As madness consumes everyone, and apocalyptic cults and monsters spread chaos and decadence, the player and their party of heroes must journey to a distant, foreboding mountain to avert the end of the world.

Gameplay
Darkest Dungeon II was featured in the July 2021 issue of PC Gamer, which revealed important details about the gameplay. Several following articles and interviews further clarified some things and provided new information.


 * The sequel will be more akin to a "...road trip, [and] a rogue-like mash-up of Darkest Dungeon and The Oregon Trail."
 * The sequel shouldn't make the previous game irrelevant, hence the different approach.
 * A single party of heroes is managed instead of the larger roster, with every rogue-like run through the game allowing you to select a different party.
 * The Stress system is present, although any ways in which its application will differ from the first game are unspecified as of yet.
 * The game will be made in the Unity engine with 3D models for the characters and enemies, with the heroes looking more defined compared to their cartoonish proportions and simplified designs in the first game. More animations will be present, such as preparatory actions.
 * An affinity system will be introduced. Heroes will have relationships that will shift player choices and battle dynamics.
 * A full stress meter won't trigger a heart attack, but rather a meltdown. The hero will fall to Death's Door, stress out other heroes, and all their relationships with other heroes will be reset.
 * Certain player actions (such as choosing who to heal) and quirks will affect relationships and potentially stress out heroes.
 * Heroes will interact more, such as sharing a drink or having a card game. This can reduce hero stress and improve relationships, or cause heroes to develop negative quirks.
 * Heroes' gear, such as armor and weapons, can no longer be upgraded, with the main form of progression being replaced with a "mastery" system to upgrade heroes' skills.
 * Combat has changed:
 * Accuracy was a mechanic that was criticized for the lifetime of Darkest Dungeon. As such, it has been completely removed, with the assumption being that "You hit. You know you're going to hit - unless the enemy is dodgy, unless they have a block."
 * These "dodgy" and "block" effects, among many other mechanics, have been converted into more clearly defined "tokens" that represent a concrete effect, rather than buffs or debuffs being umbrella indicators for everything.
 * The exact effects of these tokens have not been stated, with the exception of Block, which is stated to halve damage on the next attack targeting that hero.
 * Many other effects, such as Blind, Immobilize, and including effects from the original game, have also been mentioned to be part of this "token" system.
 * Provision items now seem to be required to be equipped to a hero before combat for them to be usable, rather than allowing access to your entire inventory during a battle.
 * Turn order is visible for both the hero and enemy party via a time bar at the top right corner of the screen.
 * With the aforementioned exception of Accuracy, most of the stats from the original game will return, including Speed, maximum HP, and the various status effect resistances.
 * Along with Bleed and Blight, Burn will be a new damage over time effect.
 * As seen in the description of one of Grave Robber's new skills, it appears that enemies will have some form of deathblow resist.
 * Heroes have changed:
 * Heroes now have eleven skills to choose from as opposed to the seven from the original game; some of these skills are unlocked through special encounters on multiple runs. This rewards the player for the time they put into the game, directly translating into more adaptability and options for heroes and synergies.
 * Only one of each hero can be in the party at a time, so as to make them feel like distinct individuals.
 * Similar to the first game, heroes will come with pre-rolled positive and negative quirks, but unlike the first game, it appears they will only have one of each to begin with.
 * You can upgrade the wagon that your heroes will travel in, with benefits such as: Improved healing out-of-battle; scouting for upcoming battles; and a chance to heal stress as the party travels.
 * Due to the rogue-like nature of the game, trinkets will be found and equipped on a run-to-run basis, rather than kept for the duration of the campaign.
 * This allowed game design director Tyler Sigman to "get crazy" with the variety of trinkets that could be made, granting more impactful, concrete effects rather than static stat increases, such as starting every round of combat with two Block tokens to absorb incoming damage.
 * With trinkets being one of the main forms of progression in this new gameplay structure, they are a significant incentive to take on challenging battles or the area boss fight, with special trinkets being exclusive to certain factions of enemies or powerful bosses.
 * Most skills seem to have been reworked, and new ones have been added for all heroes, new and old. Mentioned specifically are:
 * Leper:
 * Intimidate: "Taunts an enemy and hits them with a weaken token. Ideal to use on heavy hitting baddies."
 * Ruin: "When the Leper gets hit, he gains a stacking damage buff. Pair it with a taunt and hulk out." (Possibly a reworked Revenge.)
 * Grave Robber:
 * Glint in the Dark: "A powerful attack that ignores stealth and 20% of deathblow resistance." (This implies deathblow resistance for enemies).
 * Absinthe: "If under 25% HP, they heals [sic] for 25% and gets [sic] a speed token and three dodge tokens to avoid attacks." (Possibly a reworked Toxin Trickery.)
 * Highwayman:
 * Highway Robbery: "Destroys any positive tokens an enemy might have on them, leaving them wide open."
 * Point Blank Shot: "Places a combo attack token for a team-up attack, but can only hit when the enemy in [sic] the front row."
 * A successful run through the game "...currently looks like it will take around four hours."
 * The game's story will be released in five "acts." While a run will be able to be completed while the game is in early access, new regions, story elements, and even "a new boss to fight when you reach the mountain," the game's final area, will be added with each act that arrives over the course of early access.
 * The game will launch with act 1, which contains four areas:
 * "The Sprawl," a lawless, burning ruin of what remains of a large city. The main faction of enemies there are a group of hooded cultists with what appears to be melted flesh. Some of the areas and battle backgrounds emphasize the burning of books. Expect fire-based attacks and fire resistance to go along with them.
 * "The Farmlands," a once pastoral land of fields, farms, and baronies where both the nobles and the humble farmers have devolved into ravenous, bulbous fiends with large mouths and larger, inhuman appetites. These creatures, known as the Plague Eaters, are resistant to blight and capable of renewing themselves mid-combat, similar to the Bloodsuckers of the Crimson Court, but instead of feeding on heroes, the Plague Eaters feed on both the corpses of their own and the equally grotesque livestock they bring into battle with them. Much of the strategy the Plague Eaters employ is based on gaining access to their most powerful abilities by feeding, or on buffing and maintaining the livestock to provide for others on the field.
 * Nothing at all is known about the third area of the game, and it has never been shown in any official material.
 * The final area of the game is the unnamed mountain, which is the party's ultimate destination, although what awaits them there is a mystery. In the "The Howling End" teaser, what appears to be some kind of creature resembling the fleshy abominations of the Darkest Dungeon seems to be frozen within the mountain itself, though whether this creature is another tendril of the same horror beneath the Ancestor's estate or some other lurking presence is unknown.
 * Similar to the first game, each region will house distinctive enemy factions with strengths and weaknesses, making some heroes potentially better suited for operating there than others.
 * Every area also contains a set of random modifiers that change with every run, potentially making going to your most comfortable area less appealing.
 * Heroes will navigate through encounters and areas through an abstract map display rather than the tile and room based movement in the first game.
 * The torch is fueled by successful fights throughout your run. The torch represents the hope that your team carries with them, and if it dwindles to nothing, you're given one last chance to press on with a difficult battle against cultist enemies. If you win, you get a little more time to keep going and hopefully restore the torch somehow. If you lose, it's game over.
 * Fights can be avoided and bosses will be optional, but this will leave your heroes underpowered when advancing into new areas.
 * Random boss encounters similar to the Collector and Shambler will return.
 * Stalling, the predominant strategy in the first game, is going to be severely limited, most likely through the now situational nature or reduced effectiveness of healing in combat.
 * A multitude of different modifiers to the game called "Mutators" will be able to dynamically alter a run's difficulty, instead of the three set difficulty modes in in the first game.
 * The new Runaway hero will be introduced in early access, and more characters are planned to be released.

Heroes

 * Grave Robber
 * Hellion
 * Highwayman
 * Jester
 * Leper
 * Man-at-Arms
 * Occultist
 * Plague Doctor
 * Runaway

Enemies
The game will feature various new and returning enemies. Each region that the party ventures through features a different enemy faction, such as the Plague Eaters, who are found in the Farmlands. Enemies are also randomly encountered during road travel sequences, where unique encounters can occur.

Development
"In the howling darkness of the end, men will become monsters. But hope will ride with those courageous enough to carry the flame."

- The Narrator, "The Howling End"

Darkest Dungeon II was first announced as a direct sequel to Darkest Dungeon with a teaser trailer narrated by Wayne June in his role as the Narrator on February 19, 2019. Eight hero classes from the original game were confirmed to be returning: Grave Robber, Hellion, Highwayman, Leper, Man-at-Arms, Occultist, Jester, and Plague Doctor, as well as a new introduced ninth hero: the Runaway. Red Hook Studios also revealed that whereas Darkest Dungeon had taken place at one main location, the Narrator's Estate, the sequel would involve a "grueling journey" in which players would get to see the "supernatural apocalypse twisting and distorting the world beyond the estate".

For its work on Darkest Dungeon II, Red Hook Studios expanded considerably from the 5 full-time developers who created Darkest Dungeon. At the time of the sequel's announcement in February 2019, Red Hook had increased to 14 employees, and had plans to hire another 6 over the next 18 months. The studio also confirmed that it would likely launch the game in Early Access, just as they did with the first game. The reception of the game early on would determine how much additional resources and features Red Hook would put into the project.

Red Hook Studios remained silent about the game until March 5, 2020, when they confirmed via Twitter that they had been making substantial progress with Darkest Dungeon II, and more news would be shared "when the stars are right".

On October 21, 2020, Red Hook Studios announced that Darkest Dungeon II would be releasing in early access in 2021 on the Epic Game Store. The announcement was accompanied by the reveal of the game's logo, a second teaser titled "A Glimmer of Hope", and confirmation that characters in the game would be rendered in 3D models using the Unity engine.

Starting from late May of 2021, Red Hook Studios began sharing much more information about the game, releasing the first in-game screenshots and gameplay details in an article for PC Gamer magazine, and following with multiple articles and interviews with other new outlets, eventually culminating in the reveal of the new playable hero for Early Access launch, the Runaway, featured in Game Informer magazine.

Trivia

 * The Crusader's helmet can be found on the cover of the article for PC Gamer magazine, implying that the hero won't return for the second game. It was later confirmed that the Crusader would not be one of the game's initial set of 9 Heroes.
 * The Caretaker from the original game is making a return as The Hoarder, one of the many shopkeepers in the game. He appears to have looted the entire Estate on his way out, judging from the visible busts and portraits lashed to his enormous knapsack.