Naturally, there’s the new Courtyard dungeon to explore, Bloodsuckers to fight there who eventually spread tot he rest of the estate, new loot to dig up (including new trinkets that only grant their significant boons to Cursed heroes) and new bosses to deal with on top of all of that. His high damage capabilities, ability to make enemies bleed for damage over time and healing techniques make the Flagellant a solid all-purpose hero that only really fails to deliver against enemies that resist bleeding if you pair him up with a healer to keep him from overdoing it on the self-inflicted damage, he can be a great addition to your team.
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He’s a powerful character who grows even stronger as he takes damage and becomes more stressed unlike every other character, stress is in large part a positive for the Flagellant, who enters a zealous rage when he’s at the breaking point. This is a religious hero who seeks to absolve himself of sin through suffering and inflicting his foes.
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Speaking of heroes who are really into blood, The Crimson Court also introduces a new hero in the Flagellant. The Curse tends to spread itself throughout your estate as well, since heroes who spend time in buildings with Cursed heroes stand a fair chance of being infected themselves. On the other hand, Cursed characters who aren’t fed can die from their cravings, assuming they don’t start trying to feed on other heroes. A Cursed character who’s fed Blood when the cravings take hold is given powerful combat boosts and can be a powerful ally in combat. Cursed heroes take on a vampiric nature, requiring periodic supplies of the Blood, which is obtained in vials dropped throughout the game. Bloodsucker enemies will transmit the Curse when they strike your characters, and once it takes hold, getting rid of it is a practical impossibility for quite some time to come. First, the Crimson Curse itself is absolutely present, and it’s almost certain that your heroes are going to contract it sooner or later. Gameplay-wise, the DLC has several significant effects.
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In this DLC you’ll be sent into the Courtyard to try and fight them back. The Curse’s effects transformed an entire court of nobility into Bloodsuckers, horrific insectoid vampires that infest the Courtyard of the estate. Here, we’re looking at the results of the Crimson Curse, a sort of vampirism spread by the transmission of tainted Blood. Your ancestor brought ruin to the family in more ways than one in the original game you might encounter failed experiments in necromancy and demonology run amuck, for instance. The Crimson Court introduces yet another complication on top of your characters’ health and stress. Darkest Dungeon is a balancing act where you have to weigh your limited resources against the need to get things done by any means necessary if you’ve played XCOM or you’re familiar with the roguelike genre, you’ve probably got an idea of how this plays out. The talons of monsters are just as dangerous as the stress they place on your heroes’ minds, and a character who’s been pushed past the breaking point may be just as useless for your needs as a corpse. Imagine that I put very, very strong emphasis on “expendable.” You’re sending these men and women to awful places where they’ll almost certainly meet with death or insanity. You lead an array of expendable would-be heroes on expeditions to fight off the evil wrought by your ancestor, eventually leading into an assault on the Darkest Dungeon itself. What he found there was unimaginable horror, released from the mind-warping pit known as the Darkest Dungeon. One of your ancestors became obsessed with occult and eldritch powers after a life mired in hubris and made the questionable decision to excavate the ground underneath the family estate. To refresh your memory when it comes to Darkest Dungeon – and if you were trying to repress said memory after the game destroyed you, I can’t blame you – well, ruin has come to your family.
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That’s all relevant to Darkest Dungeon, since it absolutely falls into the latter category you’ll succeed through understanding the game or you won’t succeed at all, and that trend continues in The Crimson Court DLC. Hilariously, the same crowd that pushes the view that “it’s okay if some games aren’t for you” when we’re talking about walking simulators and games with minimal gameplay tends to get upset when a game isn’t willing to compromise on difficulty. Dark Souls cares so little about whether or not you experience all of its content that breathless thinkpieces have been written about how it’s just too hard. They want to make you happy or offer you a pleasant experience.