Inns in Darkest Dungeon 2 are the main stopping points on any given run, offering a multitude of options for your heroes to both recover from the previous region and prepare for the next. This Darkest Dungeon 2 Inn Guide will help you understand what you can and should be doing at an inn, along with what you should be looking for in regions to further increase the effectiveness and value of an inn.
Inn Status:
All inns provide a free service for your party, with the baseline of healing your heroes to 50% of their max health if they’re below that threshold along with 1 stress heal. Some inns provide greater services and buffs, such as The Good Doctor which fully heals your party and removes diseases, or The Curious Nag which provides 100% scouting chance for some structures in the next region, allowing you to have an easier time planning your location route. (You can also check out our Darkest Dungeon 2 Locations Guide for tips about location planning!) However, some provide negative effects, such as The Tempting Goblet, which only heals your heroes to 25% of their max health and gives them 2 stress damage when they leave the inn. You won’t know what type of inn you are going to until you arrive at it, so you can’t rely on receiving great bonuses from inns. However, you should still utilize the possible bonuses you receive to their maximum potential. Aside from the inn itself, you can obtain Creature Parts by clearing a Creature Den. These parts can also provide inn bonuses such as cheaper trinkets or combat items. Be sure to utilize this as well since every bit of value counts!
Inn Items:
Inn Items are your main preparation for the next region, and they include items that can increase your heroes’ stats, heal them, decrease stress, increase relations between members, and provide unique combat or travel effects. Some quirks disallow the use of certain inn items on certain heroes, which can sometimes hinder your ability to buff them for the upcoming region. Note that although food items that increase your max health can only be used once by heroes, other inn items such as poultices can be used multiple times. This is extremely important! My favorite strategy is to stockpile some of these items in my inventory until the mountain boss. By doing this I can use all of them on my heroes to give them incredibly large buffs just before a big boss battle.
The Provisioner:
The Provisioner is essentially the ‘store’ feature of an inn. Interacting with the Provisioner allows you to buy combat items, inn items, relics, and stagecoach equipment. The provisioner is similar to a Hoarder but with fewer items. Nonetheless, being able to buy powerful combat and inn items can be extremely important, especially if you need a little more food or if you’re trying to stockpile items. Certain stagecoach equipment can also be incredibly powerful early on in a run. For these reasons, I recommend always checking the provisioner to see if there’s something that you might want to buy. As a general tip: Don’t be stingy at hoarders and provisioners. You can always earn more relics later! I’ve had many runs end with relics and baubles left in my inventory which weren’t utilized.
Mastery:
You accumulate mastery points in regions, and you are able to spend them at inns. These are one of the main ways your heroes get stronger throughout a run. With that in mind, it is incredibly important to look for Mastery when still in a region. Note: mastery points are refunded with the reset option in the mastery tab ONLY IF you don’t close the mastery tab. Exiting the tab will cause your spent points to lock in, and you won’t be able to get them back. Make sure you’re okay with how you’ve spent your mastery points before you close the tab! I always spend my mastery points right before I’m about to head to the next region to avoid this mistake.
Ending the Expedition:
You have the option to end an expedition early at inns, keeping all of the candles of hope you’ve accumulated so far which you can spend to gain permanent progress. If your party is wiped out during the run, you will lose most of the candles of hope you have. So, if you’re extremely hesitant on whether your party will survive the next region, consider cashing out early. After reaching the final inn, you keep all the candles you’ve obtained regardless of whether your party perishes. Personally, I enjoy the risk factor in Darkest Dungeon 2 so I rarely choose to end the expedition early. The only times I do is if my team is in horrible shape with horrible quirks that cripple their performance.
Conclusion:
Inns are a small portion of Darkest Dungeon 2, however they are also incredibly important to utilize in order to optimize your gameplay and have the greatest chance at winning. If you were to learn anything from this Darkest Dungeon 2 Inn Guide, make sure to take your time while at an inn and explore all of your options. After all, in the wise words of The Ancestor: “The cost of preparedness [is] measured now in gold, later in blood.”
