Darkest Dungeon is not a game about heroes. It is a game about the party, and about accepting that individual heroes are consumable.
A build here is a four-person composition with fixed positions, because almost every skill in the game only works from certain positions and only reaches certain targets. Get the positions wrong and half your party has nothing to do.
Position is the build
Ranks one and two are the front. Ranks three and four are the back.
Front-line heroes have skills that hit the enemy front line and often move themselves around. Back-line heroes hit the enemy back line, where the casters and buffers hide.
Every hero's skills list which ranks they can be used from and which ranks they hit. Ignoring that produces the classic new-player experience: a party where two heroes pass their turn every round because nothing they own works from where they are standing.
Shuffle effects from enemies are dangerous specifically because they break this, which is why anti-shuffle and repositioning skills matter more than their descriptions suggest.
Stress is the real health bar
Every hero has health and stress. Health reaching zero puts them at Death's Door, where one more hit may kill them. Stress reaching 100 triggers a resolve check, and a failed check gives them an affliction that makes them actively harmful.
Stress accumulates from being hit, from critical hits against the party, from darkness, and from watching allies suffer.
Bringing a stress healer is not optional on longer dungeons. The Jester and the Houndmaster manage it in different ways, and a party without either will lose heroes to affliction long before it loses them to damage.
A hero who passes a resolve check instead becomes Virtuous, which is a large temporary buff. That is the upside of running stress high, and it is a gamble rather than a plan.
Light, and the trade it offers
Your torch burns down as you explore. High light means better accuracy and less stress. Low light means more damage, better loot, and far more danger.
Running dark is a legitimate strategy for experienced parties and a fast way to lose four heroes for everyone else. The scouting bonus from high light is worth more than most people credit, because avoided traps and previewed rooms prevent the damage rather than healing it.
Quirks and camping
Heroes accumulate positive and negative quirks over runs. Negative ones can be locked in permanently if ignored, and some are genuinely crippling.
Treating quirks at the sanitarium costs money and competes with upgrading your buildings. The usual answer is to treat only the worst ones and to accept that heroes are replaceable.
Camping skills between fights restore health and stress and apply buffs for the next battle, and the good camping skills change how a dungeon goes. Budget camp time deliberately rather than resting whenever you can.
Comps that work
Two front, two back is the default and it is default because it works.
A durable front line, a back-line damage dealer that reaches rank three and four, a stress healer, and a healer. Vestal covers healing, Jester covers stress, and the remaining two slots are where the variety lives.
The Darkest Dungeon walkthrough covers the regions and the bosses.
