Darkest Dungeon 2 is still coming, according to Red Hook Studios, and it'll bring a brand new character class when it finally arrives into early access.
Thanks to a new feature piece in GameInformer magazine, we now know who that new character is. The Runaway is a mysterious figure, as with all Darkest Dungeon characters, but in The Runaway's case, that murky past has something to do with fire. Or perhaps a lot to do with fire.
Fire is a brand new damage type coming in Darkest Dungeon 2 and Red Hook Studios thought that it was a good idea to create a brand new character to evangelize its damage-over-time effect. Fire now joins both bleed and blight (poison) in ticking damage on enemies or allies every single turn.
"Visually I thought it’d be neat to have this sort of younger woman with a giant backpack and hunched over; we pulled a little bit from Newt from Aliens, obviously more grown-up,” explained Red Hook creative director Chris Bourassa in an interview with GameInformer. “One of my directions to our animator was to channel a sort of a ‘bat girl’ kind of vibe. So, she’s got this cape, and some of the animations are really fluid where it flares out behind her, and she can retreat to stealth and hide.”
In terms of gameplay, The Runaway "excels at disrupting foes, applying flames, and adjusting the flow and positioning of battle." She'll be able to fit into multiple lineups in many different positions, so you'll never feel like taking The Runaway is a bad choice.
The Runaway is also unlikely to be alone for long. Although she'll be the only new character when Darkest Dungeon 2 arrives on the Epic Games Store, Red Hook expects to add more characters over the course of early access.
We still don't have a release date planned for Darkest Dungeon 2, but the Game Informer piece has a lot more info on what to expect from the sequel, from its 3D aesthetic to the new overworld map.