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 its surrounding acres of land have been severely altered by the otherworldly corruption. As if the 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 the fossilized remains of people, livestock, 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 infected the Estate is because of the Enchanted Warding Stones on the perimeter of the Farmstead keep this new Evil contained, but like all things, it is only a matter of time before the barrier is pierced by this Terror from the Stars.

Behavior[ | ]

The Farmstead is a new location 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 number of ways.

Enemy corpses, if ignored, become large crystal formations. If these are left alive, they explode for HP and Stress damage.
The torch does not fade over time but instead takes a multitude of different variants.
There is no negative consequence to fleeing from the battle, other than losing out on the level's bonuses.
In the endless mode (after the first 2 farmstead missions), 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. However, be wary as losing a character will cause their trinkets to be lost as well until you are able to retrieve them eventually from the Shrieker.
Also upon dying/lost any Prismatic Quirk will be removed from said hero and be added back onto The Thing from the stars list.
Losing all characters to a run will cause all shards and any/all drops to be lost as well.
Camping is only initiated through the Miller's Hearth, meaning one will have to work for a camp.
One inventory slot is taken up by a single quest-like item: Memory. This cannot be discarded, and serves to provide some lore, along with a slight splinter in terms of inventory management.

Lighting Effects[ | ]

Heroes will travel through a multitude of dimensions, past, present, or future, with specific enemies from each region, even the last one. Each fight will bring an alternation between dimensions. When in the Farmstead, the lighting will be the Farmstead's Miasma, and when between dimensions, the light will be randomly selected at the beginning of a wave.

For trinkets and quirks, like the courtyard, the light level is considered to be 100.

Lighting Effects
Lighting Name	Hero Effects	Monster Effects
Farmstead Miasma	-10% Healing Received +10% Stress	None
Blazing	+20% DMG vs Marked +20% Debuff Skill Chance	+3 SPD +10% PROT
Haunting	+15% Blight Skill Chance +10% Stress	+15% Blight Skill Chance +10 DODGE
Gleaming	+15% Bleed Skill Chance +15% Healing Skills	+15% Bleed Skill Chance +5% CRT
Splendorous	+5% Virtue Chance +20% Stress Skills	-10% Bleed Resist -10% Blight Resist

Reflections[ | ]

Once the player has progressed beyond 200 kills, the shimmering space-time of the corrupted Farmstead takes on an endgame condition, called a "Reflection". These are mutators that increase the difficulty of the quest in different ways from that point onward. These conditions stack on top of any other light conditions that are already present in the Farmstead or in space and time.

Reflections
Reflection Name	Hero Effects	Monster Effects
Unbearable Reflection	+33% Stress -33% Stress Skills	+4 SPD
Reflection of Decay	-50% Healing	+15% PROT +25% Stun Resist +25% Debuff Resist
Sanguine Reflection	-8% Deathblow Resist	+7.5% CRT +3 SPD
Reflection Obscura	-20% Stress -20% Healing	+10% PROT +25% DMG

Strategy[ | ]

Provisions[ | ]

There is no need to bring Torches, or Shovels here. Food is not available for the Apprentice and Veteran missions as the expedition will begin with an enemy encounter. Food will be useful for the Miller's Hearth curio when camping.

Like any Darkest Dungeon's quest, you can bring any Bandage, Antivenom, Medicinal Herb, Skeleton Key, Holy Water and Laudanum you think you will need. Remember that it's better to be prepared. Note that with the new buildings, many of these items now provide significant resistance buffs as well.

Even if you have The Crimson Court (DLC), you will not see any enemies from the Courtyard (except Crocodilian). Because of this, it is highly recommended to avoid bringing heroes with the Crimson Curse, so you will not need to bring The Blood. Doing so would mean you need to manage the hero's curse level and sacrifice one or two inventory slots that could be used for something else of more importance for the entire party rather than one cursed hero. You will also never receive the blood as a reward from any fight or curio, making running out entirely far more dangerous.

Party Composition[ | ]

The Endless Harvest 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. Ideally, a good Vestal will do the job and perhaps the Hippocratic quirk. Although the Occultist can heal an enormous amount, he is a far riskier choice as a primary healer. He only has single target heals and lacks the consistency of the Vestal, occasionally healing for very small amounts or even nothing, and potentially inflicting bleed. Although once his Color of Madness trinket is worn his stun and pull can help establish new Comps without being so vulnerable.
Secondly, heroes with stress heal skills are very helpful. For example, the Jester with Inspiring Tune and the Flagellant with Endure have an incredible synergy. With the Dirge For The Devoured on the Jester and the Aria Box on the Flagellant, you can easily heal over 30 stress per turn.
Limited-use skills such as the Jester's Finale or Flagellant's Exsanguinate will not be refreshed until the end of the entire group of waves - that is, after reaching the crystal at the end of the wave meter (a boss at all except the first time) and not the brief rest rooms between. Parties which rely on these skills for normal progression will be difficult to manage.
Lastly Accuracy should be prioritized on damage dealers (Bleed/Blight/Stun) to avoid a miss that would otherwise end your run as many times monsters will repeatedly focus fire one hero putting your team in danger.

Any corpses left will become a Crystalline Aberration on the next turn. While you will receive a minor healing effect for destroying them, it is important to destroy them quickly or remove corpses before they can turn in order to avoid their explosive attacks. A good solution is to use bleed skills (Blight can be an alternative, but you will encounter many Farmstead monsters on this quest that all have very high Blight resistance). This will allow you to quickly remove the corpse, and it's an excellent way to neutralize enemies in order to heal yourself. Nevertheless, keep in mind that you will likely encounter Ruins enemies during the quest who are incredibly resistant to bleed. Balance your strengths, (2xBlight, 1xBleed, 1xHealer), (2xBleed, 1xBlight, 1xHealer) or (1xBlight, 1xBleed, 1xRaw Damage/1x CC support, 1xHealer) for example.

It's important to have well-chosen camping skills. Since fights last very long, combat buffs are welcome. As you can quickly contract diseases (you will regularly encounter Warrens and Cove monsters, and you might face Thing From The Stars with its dangerous Sky Taint as a boss), skills that can remove them (like the Grave Robber's Snuff Box) are perfect. Antiquarian's Resupply can be helpful, though you should not have to rely on camping to progress. As mortality debuffs from the Death Door recovery stack, skills which remove them are particularly useful here - while avoiding contracting diseases by prioritizing certain enemies can work, the occasional critical hit will always put heroes to death's door.

You will not need scouting or ambush prevention skills, you cannot be ambushed on Farmstead quests.

General Strategy[ | ]

The Farmstead works in waves: you'll need to fight a specific amount of monsters in order to spawn the Sleeper's Dream and end the fight. Note that there must be an open enemy slot for the Sleeper's Dream to spawn. It always acts first in the round and always uses "Beyond Time and Space" to teleport the party to a room. The safe rooms will prioritize your team's biggest needs (though not always the one you want) during the first three full sections by either reducing stress or healing. Before The Miller fight is your first chance at a Camp. After The Fracture/The Sleeper fight curios become much rarer to encounter.

When you kill a monster and remove the corpse, 2 turns later others will replace it. This will be triggered on the first kill, if you kill any others after this one, whether next turn or not, all open slots will be filled at the same time. Again and again, until the next kill threshold is reached. Corpses that remain standing will be replaced by a Crystalline Aberration on the next turn. Large corpses will be replaced by two.

This is why you shouldn't rush for kills, it's better to move forward by killing two enemies at a time in order to contain the fight. You should prioritize killing stress dealers, as stress will be harder, in the long run, to deal with than raw damage. Damage dealer enemies should be Stunned or Debuffed and killed last if possible, doing the opposite works if one hero is on the verge of death. Stack bleed/s and blight/s and heal yourself as often as possible. when you are near the kill quota, you can rush for kills. Once you reach the threshold (and there is an open slot for the Sleeper's Dream to spawn), there is no need to kill the remaining enemies as you will be teleported away. Therefore, it's not important to attack enemies past this point (unless you are in real danger of taking a deathblow or stress damage), and now would be the time for buffing and healing your heroes until the Sleeper's Dream appears.

The meter at the top right corner of the screen increases with each wave of enemies killed, after the last wave, you will encounter a Boss. The first two bosses are set: first The Miller, then The Sleeper. For later waves, the boss is chosen randomly from a pool, which includes the Thing From The Stars, the Shambler, the Crocodilian (even if Crimson Court DLC is/isn’t installed) the Shrieker, the Collector, the Swine God, the Flesh, the Necromancer, the Prophet, the Hag, the Brigand Pounder, the Siren, the Drowned Crew, and Brigand Vvulf (only if Wolves at the Door mission is completed). Additionally, the Fracture can appear again.

Pay attention to which kind of light is active and which area you appear in, act accordingly. For example, when you reach the yellow light (Splendorous), it can be worth letting heroes cross the Affliction limit, as you have a 5% increased chance to get a virtuous hero. This does not guarantee one, however, and bear in mind that virtues are cleared by reaching 200 stress.

In the Farmstead, skills that have limited uses per battle (such as Leper's Revenge, Plague Doctor's Blinding Gas or Jester's Finale) do not refresh their usage until the end of the certain group of waves (after the boss battle) instead of refreshing after each wave. You may consider keeping these skills only for bosses, or refresh them with the Shard Dust, although it comes at the cost of stress and irremovable debuffs. The notable exception is Abomination's Transform, which does refresh after each wave.

Battle Strategies and Party Compositions[ | ]

In the endless mode, stress is a far bigger threat than HP damage; therefore, any strategy must focus on dealing with stress. Bringing a hero which can heal stress is a must-have for long runs, as reducing stress by camping and/or curios is too unreliable.
Highwayman's Crimson Court trinkets effect can turn stress damage into your advantage if his virtue can proc. (basic 25% + 45% from trinkets = 70%)
An excellent but cumbersome strategy is to bring both the Hero's Ring and the Ancestor's Tentacle Idol, and slowly turning all four heroes virtuous; this requires the player to switch out trinkets in between battles, and purposefully accumulating stress on already stressed out heroes by passing turns. It is recommended to enter the Farmstead with one hero already at 90+ stress, so this strategy can be executed early when waves are still easy; this also means that one can make an early retreat should the stressed hero become afflicted (instead of laboriously stress healing to 0 stress to clear the affliction). Keep in mind that following this strategy two trinket slots are "wasted", but additional trinkets can be found with the "Gleaming Shards" curio in the Farmstead.
Vestal's Divine Comfort is a great counter to Miller's Reaping.
A viable party composition for farming shards is Plague Doctor / Vestal / Highwayman / Antiquarian. Equip Antiquarian (+15% basic) with Crystal Pendant (+15%) and Cluster Pendant (+25%), you will gain +55% shards in total but the Antiquarian will probably die of heart attack. Antiquarian's Protect me! and Highwayman's riposte plus DMG buff: emboldening vapours, tracking shot and unparalleled finesse work great together. Bear in mind that you will NOT last past wave 3 with this build, it's purely for farming.
A good party composition for long-term fighting is Vestal / Jester / Shieldbreaker / Shieldbreaker. Equip Vestal with Prophet's Eye and Salacious Diary from Crimson Court, Jester with Bright Tambourine and Dirge For The Devoured. With Jester spamming Battle Ballad, occasional Inspiring Tune and bleeding attacks when needed plus camping skill Every Rose Has Its Thorn. Stress and health will not be a problem until you run out of supplies after about wave 10. This party is confirmed to have 562 kills in Stygian Farmstead.
Grave Robber / Vestal / Crusader / Shieldbreaker is a well-rounded setup for long runs. Crusader's and Grave Robber's camping skills allow to reset both Death's Door debuffs and diseases, with Vestal and Shieldbreaker being the reliable healer and damage dealer respectively. This party is confirmed to have 700+ kills in Stygian Farmstead.

Hero Discussion[ | ]

Shieldbreaker is considered one of the best heroes in the Farmstead, thanks to her ability to hit all ranks, the armor penetration on her standard attack, and her potential to pull or unstealth enemies.
Vestal is the primary choice for a healer, courtesy of her high output and her potential to counteract AoE damage. Her stun is useful, but often becomes less reliable later in the harvest, when enemies pile on resistances.
Jester is an excellent choice for counteracting stress, but his reliance on bleed makes him a bit less useful as a damage dealer in the Farmstead. Preferably used in a party which can profit from Battle Ballad or which allows him to use Dirk Stab.
Grave Robber is a good choice for long runs, as she is one of only two heroes able to cure diseases. With both blight and armor penetration, she will still be able to deal decent damage later in the harvest.
Highwayman can be a very useful party member early in a run, thanks to his high damage output. He becomes a bit weaker late in the run, as he will have trouble overcoming bleed resistance and PROT.
Crusader is quite useful as a supporter, with his stress heal and his ability to remove Death's Door debuffs. His lack of getting past PROT makes him mediocre as a damage dealer late in a run.
Houndmaster can be a good addition to a party, thanks to his stress heal capabilities and his solid damage output on all enemy ranks.
Bounty Hunter's abilities to stun and move enemies can be quite useful during wave-style battles, and he is generally at least decent against all bosses in the Farmstead. A good supporter, but becomes less useful late in a run when monsters stack resistances.
Leper is too unflexible to be a good choice in the Farmstead. The Farmstead features a number of bosses the Leper is ill-equipped for, and even his greatest strength, his abilitiy to do massive damage, can't compensate - as the time to do the necessary setup for this is often not available.
Hellion's low ACC makes her a liability in long runs, and the Bleed focus of many of her abilities is not exactly beneficial either. Only use her for short runs.
Occultist is too unreliable as a healer on the Farmstead, and his other abilities are not meaningful enough to compensate for this. Can be decent in dedicated Mark-Teams, but not good in long runs.
Arbalest does not have the healing prowess required on the Farmstead, and has no significant abilities which warrant building a team around her. Can be decent in dedicated Mark-Teams, but not good in long runs.
Abomination is not recommended. His strong stun ability can be very useful to control the "wave" battles, but due to the threat of stress in the Farmstead the Abomination can be quite the liability when fighting bosses - unable to transform, yet helpless against bosses' Stun resistance.
Man-at-Arms lacks relevant abilities to make him truly good in the Farmstead. His excellent camping abilities can't shine due to how unpredictable camping is, and because camping points are often needed for other, more important abilities.
Flagellant relies on bleed, and as such is not a great choice for the Farmstead. His robustness when dealing with stress, however, makes him a decent choice for short runs.
Antiquarian is simply too weak for proper Farmstead runs; it is only recommended to bring her when focusing on farming crystals during short runs.