In Darkest Dungeon 2, The Tangle is a lush, foliage consumed area. It is also home to The Lost Battalion and its leader, The Dreaming General. This Darkest Dungeon 2 Tangle Guide will help you understand what to expect when going through this region and the best strategies for preparation and battle.
Enemies In The Tangle
The enemies in The Tangle can apply bleed to your party, but they don’t have any blights or burns on their attacks. However, these bleeds are somewhat uncommon, and the enemies instead have a tendency to deal huge amounts of up-front damage instead and induce stress on your party. Here is a guide to all of the enemies unique to The Tangle in Darkest Dungeon 2 and how you should deal with them.
Drummer:
The Drummer is an extremely high priority enemy to deal with in The Tangle since he has the ability to control the flow of battle by buffing his allies. It sits in the back rank with immense move resistance, so it’s not possible to move it out of position. The Drummer can also mark your heroes with taunt using its “Focus Fire” attack, which can be a dangerous situation if they are a fragile hero. If The Drummer is the last enemy standing, it will use its suicide attack “Death Before Dishonor.” This will cause your party to gain a large amount of stress, so make sure this scenario doesn’t happen. The Drummer also has access to “Marching Orders” which will give speed to all enemies. Finally, the Drummer can give specific buffs to certain enemies in The Tangle, so it’s important to know what each buff does. These specific buffs will be bolded below towards the end of each enemy’s paragraph – if they have a specific buff.
Foot Soldier:
Foot Soldiers are a common enemy that you will see in most fights with The Lost Battalion. Their unique trait is that they have a 5% deathblow resistance. This makes it so you cannot one-shot them since you have to get them to death’s door first. Putting a damage over time status is a good idea so you can kill them after you put them at death’s door. Foot soldiers also start the fight with 2 block tokens, so damage over time effects are even more important since they aren’t affected by block tokens. The Foot Soldier’s main attack is “Atrophic Cut,” which can target ranks 1, 2 and 3 of your party. My heroes take critical hits from this attack often, so it seems to have a high critical hit chance. This attack also attempts to apply a debuff to decrease the target’s bleed, blight, and burn resistance. This debuff is mostly useless since The Lost Battalion doesn’t apply much of these effects. If a Foot Soldier is in the fourth rank, they have to use a very weak attack called “Shambling Thrust” which moves the Foot Soldier one rank forward. By pushing them in the fourth rank their threat is mostly neutralized for the turn. When buffed by The Drummer, Foot Soldiers will gain 50% deathblow resistance, taunt, and block tokens. This can cause them to be extremely tanky and force your damage dealing heroes to attack the Foot Soldier due to taunt, which can prevent your team from taking down high priority targets.
Knight:
In Darkest Dungeon 2, Knights are a dangerous enemy from The Tangle that take up 2 ranks in the enemy position. Knights can apply bleed to your heroes and are the main damage over time appliers in this region. The Knight can also use an ability called “En Garde,” which gives him riposte and block. It’s important to note that his riposte attack will attempt to apply bleed to your attacking hero. This makes attacking Knights with riposte very dangerous, so skills like Man-At-Arm’s Bellow which remove riposte can be extremely useful. When at death’s door, Knights will have a 30% damage boost and +5 speed. This can make them hit extremely hard and also act faster than normal, so if possible try to set it up so you kill the Knight as soon as he gets to death’s door. Similar to the Foot Soldiers, in the fourth rank the Knight will use “Have At You!” which is a weak attack that moves the Knight to the front rank, so moving the Knight in the fourth rank makes him far less threatening. When The Drummer buffs a Knight, the Knight gains a crit token and gains the attack “Flashing Blade.” This will hit the front 2 heroes in your party and attempt to apply a bleed, so blinding is important.
Arbalist:
The Arbalists are a threatening back-rank unit which can hit your units for large amounts of damage. They also have some capability to apply damage over time effects. This makes them a higher priority to kill than Foot Soldiers and Knights. Their “Serrated Bolt” attack will deal a moderate amount of damage and attempt to apply a bleed to the target. Their other damaging attack is “Piercing Shot” which does large damage to a single target and applies one stress. When in the first rank, an Arbalist will use “Hip Shot” which moves the Arbalist back one rank. The damage on this attack is negligible, so try to move the Arbalist to the front rank. When buffed by The Drummer, Arbalists gain a crit token and gain the attack “Serrated Bolt Volley.” This will essentially use “Serrated Bolt” on all four units of your party, so take it out quickly.
Bullseye Barrett:
There’s not much difference between Bullseye Barrett and Arbalists. Bullseye Barrett has more health and death’s door resistance, but has similar skills to the Arbalists. Bullseye Barrett has one unique skill: “Mark for Death.” This marks a hero in your party and causes them to take extra damage from Bullseye Barrett.
Bishop:
Bishops are another back-rank unit which is incredibly dangerous under certain conditions. They have extremely high move resistance like The Drummer, so you won’t be able to move it with skills. Bishops normally start the battle using “Penance,” which damages itself. However, the Bishop will gain two Benediction tokens that it uses for two powerful skills. One skill is “Purge the Unworthy,” which will deal some damage and a large amount of stress to the target. The other skill is “Serve Once More” which will revive a dead enemy. These skills are extremely dangerous, so try to kill it before it has a chance to act with Benediction tokens. Without Benediction Tokens, Bishops will use a weak attack when in the first two ranks. In the back two ranks it will use a slightly stronger attack which applies one stress damage. Bishops don’t have a special Drummer buff. Nonetheless, Bishops are extremely dangerous and since they can revive enemies, they are the highest priority target in my opinion.
Preparing For The Tangle
Darkest Dungion 2’s, The Tangle, has a guaranteed Creature Den, more oases and academic studies, and less Watchtowers, Hoarders, and Field Hospitals. Stress is a pretty big factor in The Tangle. Bringing Laudanum or upgrading stress healing skills are very important for this reason. Trinkets for dealing with stress are also very useful. Aside from stress, bleed resistance/curing items can be decent, but not essential. Ways to get block tokens are also great since enemies have high damage. Having skills that apply damage over time effects are incredible since Foot Soldiers and Knights have deathblow resistance. Check out our Darkest Dungeon 2 Inn Guide to know more about general preparing!
The Tangle is a desirable location due to the guaranteed Creature Den. However, make sure that you have proper stress healing capabilities! Even The Dreaming General lair boss deals heavy stress damage, but a guide for that will be its own post. I hope this information is useful to you, and good luck venturing through The Tangle!
