In Darkest Dungeon 2, The Sluice is a swine-ridden underground maze which is home to both promising loot and dangerous enemies. This Darkest Dungeon 2 Sluice Guide will help you understand how to venture through The Sluice region and tips to prepare and fight the enemies within!
Enemies In The Sluice
There aren’t many enemies unique to The Sluice that you will face in the resistance encounters due to the fact that The Sluice is a small region. I also believe that most fights are easy, but the difficult fights can be exceptionally brutal. There is also no shared mechanic like The Sprawl’s Ignite between the few Sluice enemies.
Swine Skulker:
This is the most common enemy in The Sluice and you will see it in almost every fight against Sluice enemies. They have low health and can spawn with up to two dodge tokens. Their main gimmick is their skill “Skitter,” which will stealth the Skulker and give it a strength token. One of their damaging attacks is “Pigsticker” which does damage to a single target ranging from low to medium-high. With the strength token, critical hits from this attack can be devastating. Another skill is “Ragged Hook” which targets the back two ranks and does a low amount of damage and attempts to pull the target forward one rank. This skill is mostly an annoyance because it can pull heroes out of position. The final skill of the Skulker is “Fouled Shank,” which does low damage, attempts to inflict blight, deals one stress damage, and can disease the hero targeted. In my opinion, this is the most dangerous skill a Skulker has due to the stress damage and disease chance. Skulkers can act in any position, so the best way to deal with them is to kill them as fast as possible. Due to the stealth, abilities that can remove it are somewhat useful, but I prefer using area of effect abilities. There is also one more ability the Skulker has, but it only uses it with another enemy that I will explain there.
Swine Brute:
Swine Brutes are high health enemies that take up two ranks. They don’t deal much damage but they can inflict stress to your heroes. Brutes also have deathblow resistance, so you must get them to death’s door first before being able to kill them. When in the front two ranks, they have access to the attacks “Smash” and “Squeal.” These skills both deal moderate damage and inflict one stress to the front two ranks of your party. When not in the front two ranks, Brutes can use “Gore” which does high damage, attempts to stun and bleed, and moves the Brute forward one rank. Although this sounds frightening, I honestly worry more about the stress damage from “Smash” and “Squeal.” Overall, Brutes are a giant punching bag that can cause stress, but they aren’t a high priority.
Wilbur:
Wilbur is a stronger version of Swine Brutes that has more health, stun resistance, and deathblow resistance. If there are Skulkers while Wilbur is present, Skulkers gain a unique skill called “End This One.” This causes stress damage and puts a combo token on the target. Wilburs skills are similar to the Brutes but stronger. “Squeal” turns into “Shattering Squeal” which also can apply a daze token. “Smash” turns into “Obliterate Masses” which deals extra damage if the target has a combo token. “Gore” turns into “Savage Gore” which does more damage. In addition to these skills, Wilbur can use “Obliterate Body.” This attack targets a hero with a combo token and does massive damage and inflicts stress. Wilbur is far stronger than Brutes which makes him a higher priority, but he’s still not very threatening. Killing assisting Skulkers to remove Wilbur’s combo bonuses is a good strategy.
Swine Skiver:
Swine Skivers are an uncommon back-rank unit that you can find in The Sluice. Skivers are the most horrifying unit you can encounter and are the highest priority target no matter the situation. One attack they can use is “Spit to Roast” which targets one of the front three ranks of your party. This attack deals massive damage, can stun, inflicts stress, and attempts to move the target to the farthest rank of your party. This can be crippling if your frontline hero is sent to the back and stunned, which can ruin positioning for your party. The damage is also no joke, and it can easily send a hero to death’s door if it crits. Another attack is “Cripple Them” which targets the three back ranks of your party. This attack does low damage, attempts to apply a blight, inflicts stress damage, and attempts to apply weaken, vulnerable, and daze tokens. This attack can be even worse than “Spit to Roast” due to the tokens it applies. If a Skiver is in the front rank it uses the attack “Goring Flight” which does little damage and moves the Skiver back. This is the ideal situation, where the Skiver isn’t able to use “Spit to Roast” or “Cripple Them,” so pulling a Skiver to the front rank is a great way to deal with it. I don’t like taking risks with Skivers, so I usually use combat items that can blind or erase the possibility of a critical “Spit to Roast” instantly throwing a hero to death’s door.
Preparing for The Sluice:
I find area damage and combat items such as smoke bombs that can neutralize damage to be the most important. Combat items like smoke bombs are purely to deal with Skivers since they are so dangerous. However, area damage is important for hitting Skulkers through stealth. Area damage can also remove dodge tokens from Skulkers and potential Creature Dens you may come across. The Sluice still has normal encounters along the path, but you can’t see the roads ahead. This makes it so you can’t plan the road ahead. I recommend eating food to boost the health of your heroes. However, I don’t think that it’s worth using other inn item buffs since the region is so short. For other general preparation tips, check out our Darkest Dungeon 2 Inn Guide!
I always go to The Sluice once I see the option at an Inn because it’s essentially free loot. The earlier you can go the better since there will be less of the stronger Ordained enemies. Usually the worst thing that happens in The Sluice is a hero contracting a disease from a Skulker. Otherwise, be wary of Skivers and claim that Swine Cache!
