Each character you can add to your party in Darkest Dungeon 2 has a particular set of skills. Skills they have acquired over many runs. Skills that make them a nightmare for the host of horrors they’ll encounter along the bumpy road to the Mountain. These skills allow them to look for, find, and ultimately kill, any monster that gets in their way.
That is if the right skills are Taken along for the ride, of course. While each character can unlock up to 11 skills, only five can be equipped at a time, turning each party member into a micro-deckbuilding challenge of sorts. Making the right choices when it comes to these skills can determine the entire outcome of a battle.
10 Defender - Man-At-Arms
The Man-at-Arms is a flexible and powerful character, packing a toolkit that can handle just about any situation the game can throw at him. The most common of these situations is taking damage, which is why its best counter, the Defender skill, is so powerful.
This skill not only provides the Man-at-Arms himself with a couple of layers of Block, but it also protects another party member from a couple of attacks, letting the Man-at-Arms take the hits instead. This is particularly useful against the telegraphed attacks of bosses, and for protecting fragile healers or damage dealers so that they can get their own skills off uninterrupted.
9 Chop - Leper
Some situations in Darkest Dungeon 2 require subtlety and tact, while others just require the biggest smack to the face you can muster. Chop is the best among this school of skills. Packing a high damage ceiling of 16 when mastered, it can demolish many weaker support enemies in a single decisive blow.
It does come with the notable downside of almost always applying the Blind status to the Leper after use, but that can be circumvented by other skills in the party, whether they be status-curing skills or skills that apply combo tokens, which then allow Chop to ignore Blind and strike true regardless.
8 Take Aim - Highwayman
Perhaps the defining skill of the Highwayman character, Take Aim provides a huge amount of value in exchange for one turn of your time, especially when mastered. It not only grants one or two Crit tokens, guaranteeing big damage in the turns to come, but it also applies Speed, ensuring said damage will always arrive before enemies get to say their piece next turn.
In addition, it also applies Dodge and removes Blind, increasing the Highwayman’s survivability and reducing his odds of missing with his juiced-up attacks. While setup moves tend to play second fiddle to all-out attacking in Darkest Dungeon 2, Take Aim is a clear exception to that rule.
7 Plague Grenade - Plague Doctor
Plague Doctor generally plays more of a support role in Darkest Dungeon 2, providing healing and buffs to her allies, but she’s more than capable of dishing out damage herself as well. Her best skill for doing so is Plague Grenade, a multi-hit Blight inflictor that damages both positions in the enemy’s elusive back row simultaneously.
For most parties, the back rows are dealt with later on in a battle, once the front rows and their corpses have been cleared, but Plague Grenade lets you get started early, applying damage over time that will soften the enemies up nicely for when they come into range. It’s also handy for removing Dodge and Block from supporting units in the back, particularly during Cultist battles.
6 Encore - Jester
While sacrificing your Jester’s turn in exchange for an extra turn for one of your other characters seems like a balanced trade on the surface, it actually fundamentally breaks the rules of the game and can result in some truly overwhelming combinations.
For example, you could set up Take Aim on your Highwayman and attack in the same turn, or use Defender to protect a key party member while setting up ripostes via Retribution at the same time. The latter example is particularly relevant, since Encore also ignores speed as a variable, allowing slow characters like the Man-at-Arms to act sooner than intended in many cases.
5 Dead Of Night - Grave Robber
The Grave Robber, while a generally balanced and flexible character overall, has a particular affinity for Stealth and can make use of it to buff her attacks and open up her options in battle. Achieving this status is of prime importance, then, and Dead of Night is the best option she has for doing so.
Not only does this skill clear an enemy corpse, thus freeing up more of your team’s attack options, but it also provides two stacks of Stealth and a significant self-heal to boot. When mastered, it even throws in some incidental Stress healing as a fun bonus. If you’re following the path of the Nightsworn, or just playing Grave Robber in general, you can’t go wrong with this one.
4 Sepsis - Flagellant
The Flagellant’s ace-in-the-hole, and the ultimate payoff for all the self-inflicted pain it receives, Sepsis is a powerful game-changer of a skill. Not only does it inflict significant damage to an enemy, but it also provides significant self-healing and adds a significant amount of Blight to your foe as well.
It does require your health to be at 50 percent or lower, but that’s an acceptable trade-off for such raw power. By hitting an enemy for a huge amount while healing yourself nearly to full, Sepsis provides the kind of game-winning swing turn that can define the very best Darkest Dungeon 2 runs.
3 Smokescreen - Runaway
No skill in Darkest Dungeon 2 dooms an enemy to death quite as effectively as Smokescreen does. When mastered, the skill applies a combo token, two stacks of Blind, and Vulnerable: status’ which, together, all but ensure the next hit the enemy takes will be fatal, while also ensuring that its own next hit likely won’t land.
It’s a great way of focusing down a particular foe early in a fight, and it has a fairly modest cooldown of one turn, meaning you can apply it multiple times per battle with ease. Alongside heavy damage dealers like the Hellion or Leper, this skill becomes one of the most dangerous setup options in the game.
2 No Escape - Bounty Hunter
No Escape may not look like much on the surface, but it actually holds a very important distinction among skills in Darkest Dungeon 2: it’s the only one that can Stun an enemy without any kind of prior setup via combo tokens. This is extremely powerful since Stun causes the affected enemy to miss their turn entirely, avoiding lots of damage or setup when timed correctly.
In addition, No Escape also ignores the very common Dodge, and inflicts a combo token of its own, making it easier to chain-Stun the enemy in question via other skills on subsequent turns. Capable of locking a problem foe out of a battle indefinitely, No Escape is one of the best skills in the Bounty Hunter’s stacked lineup.
1 The Burning Stars - Occultist
As far as attacking skills in Darkest Dungeon 2 go, The Burning Stars is the undisputed king. Dealing an eye-watering 12-18 damage once mastered, and hitting any enemy rank, the skill also pierces through Block and applies a combo token, just in case the enemy survived its cosmic pounding with a sliver of health intact.
With great power comes great responsibility, however, and in this case, said responsibility is accumulating two Unchecked Power tokens in order to actually use The Burning Stars. This is fairly trivial for certain Occultist builds, particularly those following the Warlock path, but it does balance out the raw destructive power of the skill. Just not enough to stop it being one of the best in the game.