Focused Fault

"Obsession's unshrinking gaze, focused to a fault! Vo narr loop finalbossbegin 3 01.wav"

- The Academic

The Focused Fault is the Final Boss of the Obsession act in Darkest Dungeon II.

The Focused Fault
Focused Fault, a terrifying fight with the highest damage and stress output of any Boss In Darkest Dungeon II. It is a massive cluster of human eyeballs, with a singular, larger eyeball in the middle, surrounded by spiked teeth. The fight is divided in two parts, the first part is against four Cloistered Eyes, the second is against the Focused Fault itself. The Cloistered Eyes start as a single eyeball on a stalk, growing larger with more eyes popping out as the fight progresses.

Phase 1 - Stalks
The four Stalks open the fight with high Speed, applying one of each Seen Token  on each Hero, mirroring their positions, unless forced to target another hero. Seen Tokens are the key to the entire boss fight, acting as a Horror effect, as well as acting as a target for the Focused Fault's devastating attacks. Killing a Cloistered Eye (Level 1 Stalk) will remove its respective Seen Token, but the Stalk will return the next round. Left unchecked, the Cloistered Eyes grow larger and stronger, dealing heavy damage as they evolve, until they are at their maximum size (Cluster of Eyes). Once all four reach their maximum size (or sufficient rounds have passed,) the Stalks sink into the ground and summon the Focused Fault. Cloistered Eye =

Bifurcated Eye =

Cluster of Eyes =

Cloistered Eye = Bifurcated Eye = Cluster of Eyes =

* When using Observe, the Stalk can transform into either the Bifurcated Eye or the Cluster of Eyes depending on certain circumstances, such as the current round or if the target has a Seen Token or not.

Phase 2 - The Focused Fault
Once the Stalks sink into the ground, the Focused Fault makes its proper appearance. It will nuke any hero that is marked with Seen Tokens  with a devastating attack and healing debuff. It will also shut down any heroes not marked with Seen Tokens by piling a ton of Negative Tokens on them. Once the hero marked with  Seen Tokens has been eliminated, the Focused Fault will immediately search for more targets, marking the rest of the party with more   Seen Tokens.

The Focused Fault is an aggressive and unrelenting foe. Be prepared to withstand a disgusting amount of damage.

Before The Fight
As for every act boss, it's important to take advantage of the time you have to gather and prepare Items, Trinkets, and Inn Items. It's also important to pay attention to who is being targeted in the first phase of the fight. If each Hero starts the fight with one Seen Token each,  the Focused Fault's only action will be Limerence... on each Hero... twice... for around 20-40 damage to each Hero every turn. So how can this be avoided? Let's look at what applies these tokens.

Cloistered Eyes have 6 HP and a 1 Dodge spawn bonus. Bringing Combat Items and Abilities that target all 4 Ranks or remove Dodge will allow you to more easily attack the Eyes.

Recommended Combat items for clearing Dodge: Crows feet  Greek Fire Grenade Spore Grenade Thunderclap Grenade  Scrap Grenade

Recommended Skills for clearing Dodge:

===Magnesium Rain Bellow Hearthlight  Tracking Shot Illumination Vulnerability Hex  Phase 1 === If all four Heroes are marked, you will have to manage upwards of 60 damage a turn on your whole team. This is unmanageable and will invariably result in a full wipe. The goal of the first phase is to reduce the amount of Heroes marked with Seen Tokens, preferably with all 4 Tokens on your Tankiest or Dodgiest Hero. So how can this be achieved?

Your best bet is Taunt. Cloistered Eyes attempt to put Seen Tokens on Heroes in the position that mirrors their own unless there's a Hero with Taunt. If any Hero has Taunt, the Eye will put the Seen Token on them. You can also redirect the placement of Seen Tokens by  Guarding Heroes you wish to keep clear of Focused Fault's gaze.

If a Seen Token is placed on a Hero you wish to remain safe, killing the Stalk that placed the Token on that Hero will remove it. The Stalk will attempt to place the Token again when it is revived next round.

The Focused Fault does an insane amount of damage in Phase 2. It is recommended to have the Seen Tokens all placed on a Hero that is able to withstand a lot of damage, either through  Block Tokens, Dodge Tokens, or just by having a ton of HP.

Reliable ways to produce Taunt:
Retribution Stand Fast (with Bulwark)   Withstand  Intimidate  Repartee  Toe-to-Toe  Barbaric YAWP! (with Carcass)  Noise Maker

Abilities that Guard:
Defender Sanctuary

Recommended Heroes for Token eyes focus hero 0.png Seen Tokens:
=== Man at Arms HellionGrave Robber VestalLeper Phase 2 === The keys to Phase 2 are damage mitigation and haste. The Focused Fault will blast whoever is marked with Seen Tokens with massive damage and a debuff that lowers healing received from all sources by 25%, which means that Hero likely won't last very long. You need to kill the boss before it kills you, and mitigating the incoming damage will buy your team more time to do so. Abilities and effects that can apply Weak or Gain  Block and  Dodge can help the targeted Hero/Heroes survive for around 3-4 turns before you start to Meltdown from Horror and the Stress received  Seen Tokens.

Thankfully, the Focused Fault has no Deathblow resistance, as well as low DoT and Debuff resistances. This makes teams with high damage per turn vital to beating its second phase. It also has multiple turns per round, meaning DoTs proc more often as well. Runaway's Burn, Hellion's Bleed, and Plague Doctor's Blight can act as easy ways to apply high DOTs. The low DoT and Debuff resistances also makes Occultist's Malediction a solid choice. Heroes with side DOT effects like Highwayman's Open Vein, Graverobber's Poison Darts are also good choices.

Another thing to consider is Suppress, which applies a mess of negative Tokens, including Stun. If your plan is more damage-focused, you will have to worry more about Suppress. You should have your damage-focused Heroes carry ways to remove or ignore the effects.

Ways to deal with Suppress:
Indiscriminate Science Ministrations  Holy Water  Smelling Salts  Milk Soaked Linens Clarifying Poultice

Other recommended Combat Items:
Spring Water Invigorating Intoxicant Otherworldly Fragment Bone Saw War Horn The Blood

Applying what you know
It's important to try and fail; this guide is to help you understand what you will face and what works well, but you should still think of more ways to overwhelm this opponent. Bosses onwards will only be stronger, so take everything you have learned and push on. For help on how to find and/or unlock these items, visit Combat Items, Inn items. Academic's Study, and for hero guides and builds visit Heroes. There are many ways to lose in Darkest Dungeon 2... and even more ways to win.

Trivia

 * Originally the -healing received debuff applied by Limerence was able stack enough to go negative. This means that if that hero received healing, it would damage them instead. It was possible to kill your allies by healing them. Quirks and items that healed on turn start, like Deathless or Ghastly Gruel could kill heroes as well. This was changed in the Void Between Us update.