Darkest Dungeon II: Trinkets and Baubles Update Detailed

Trinkets and Baubles, the latest early access update for Red Hook Studios' side-scrolling RPG Darkest Dungeon II, overhauls the game's trinket system in order to make the game's trinkets more impactful. It also fixes some assorted issues and adds a new Hero Path for each of the game's 9 classes.

Here are the patch notes:

M3 - Trinkets and Baubles

“Are such treasures ever truly yours? You are their caretaker, at best. Make the most of their visit, for they will linger long after you are remanded to dust.”

With the Shroud finally hatched and grown, we were at last able to turn a watchful eye to that class of item that often makes or breaks an expedition: trinkets!

Trinket Design Philosophy

Early Access has already been extraordinarily useful as we’ve been able to get to know the game better through observing all of you play it! In that reflection time, we’ve noted that the launch catalog of trinkets still left some meat on the bone in regards to exploring all of the wild things that we could potentially do with them. With this eagerly-awaited update, we are steering trinket design to allow players to get more creative and push hero boundaries further via strategy-altering effects. We’ve also brought back some of the trade-off concept of Darkest Dungeon 1 trinkets. That is, some trinkets confer generous bonuses, but not without a cost. Our goal is to make sure that trinket looting and selection is exciting, dynamic, and non-trivial. Crucially, we want the rarer and most powerful trinkets to be run-altering, as this is the best type of reward to be earned from a hard battle! Last and certainly not least, we’ve put a lot of effort into also making sure that trinkets are fun, and thematically rich.

The entire trinket catalog has been examined, with the vast majority undergoing revision. Full details below. As always, we invite your feedback!

Path Triumvirate

Hero paths have been well-received ever since their addition in January’s Beasts and Burdens update. We’ve thoroughly enjoyed the recent community discussions around them. While that feedback is still distilling in our alchemical apparatus, we found the time to slip a bit of bonus content into this update: a third path for each hero!

Our goal with hero paths remains the same as before, which is to encourage dynamic party assembly and also to lead you to explore alternative roles for even your most trusted of roster members. Furthermore, we intend the feature to present a bit of the thrill of the jackpot when you roll up to the Crossroads and find your favorite hero predisposed to a path of your liking. Adding another path into the mix confers additional texture and possibilities to your party construction.

Trinket System Changes
  • Massive trinket changes! See full list below.
  • Profile unlocks for trinkets have been updated
  • Region trinkets now only appear in their respective regions -- including trinkets sold by The Hoarder and found in Academics Cache
  • Field Hospitals no longer sell trinkets
Heroes
  • 9 new Paths added; 1 per Hero
    • Grave Robber: Venomdrop
    • Hellion: Carcass
    • Highwayman: Yellowhand
    • Jester: Intermezzo
    • Leper: Monarch
    • Man-at-Arms: Bulwark (new version)
    • Occultist: Aspirant
    • Plague Doctor: Physician
    • Runaway: Orphan
Highwayman
  • Take Aim and Take Aim+ now have a 1 round cooldown
  • Highway Robbery and Highway Robbery+ are now considered Melee skills
Man-at-Arms (Bulwark Path)
  • Bulwark renamed to Vanguard with new flavor text
  • HP bonus reduced to 20% from 33%
  • Crush DMG bonus reduced to 50% from 100%
  • Riposte DMG bonus reduced to 50% from 100%
Occultist
  • Binding Shadows and Binding Shadows+ launch ranks changed to 1 2 3 from 2 3 4
  • Occultist (Ritualist Path)
  • Ritualist Path no longer increases Sacrificial Stab damage
  • Vulnerable token is no longer resistable
  • Vulnerable chance raised to 33% from 25%
  • Cursing Skills bonuses now apply to Malediction
  • Cursing Skills now have a +10% Debuff Chance
Runaway
  • Ransack and Ransack+ can now be used in all ranks
  • Smokescreen and Smokescreen+ can now be used in all ranks
  • Cauterize and Cauterize+ launch ranks changed to 2 3 4 from 1 2 3
  • Controlled Burn and Controlled Burn+ launch ranks changed to 1 2 3 from 1 2
  • Controller Burn and Controlled Burn+ no longer ignore Dodge or Blind
  • Controlled Burn and Controlled Burn+ now have an initial Burn application, dramatically accelerating the DOT process; this can be dodged or miss but the Controlled Burn token will still be applied as it was before
Gameplay
  • Fixed an issue where characters with Breacher would forget where they are supposed to be if you quit the game during combat start
  • Fix to dot damage based damage calculation to account for dot damage buffs
  • Current HP now scales up or down when max HP is modified
  • Added more hero specific act out barks
  • Added missing Stew use limit barks
Driving
  • Fixed some road collision with tiles in The Sprawl and The Foetor
  • Cleaned up z-fighting issues that were found/reported
UI
  • Fix to torch affinity buffs so they show up on the HEROES side of the torch tooltip
  • Fixed an issue with Master Hero Path upgraded skill icons would carry over to other characters while building your party at the Crossroads
  • Fixed an issue where the Attack preview would sometimes focus on enemies without mouseover
  • Fixed an issue with ui scaling when opening the biome goal ui panel while driving
  • Fixed an issue where heal preview would double if the skill was selected with keyboard, then mousing over the actor.
  • Added tooltip max width text wrapping
  • Fixed a minor issue with the Profile Wheel scrolling
  • Fixed the biome pane background image from jumping/flickering on mouseover
  • Fixed an issue that allowed players to click the continue button on the results screen while invisible
  • Added vfx for Ordained enemy icons
  • Discounts granted via stagecoach items now correctly show on store tooltips when discounts are present
  • Updated Trinket tooltip text and frame colors, as well as minor art repositioning
  • Removed “Discard for Hope” line in the Inventory UI
  • Removed the ability to open the pause menu the Lair/Guardian loot window is open
  • Fixed a vfx and ui flicker issue when placing the cursor on the edge of the hero roster ribbons
  • Added Quirk remove pop text when coming from a trinket
  • Added Diseases gained pop text when coming from a quirk
Hero Shrines
  • Man-at-Arms Shrine Challenge 2: increased difficulty by decreasing Handful of Dirt damage as well as increasing stress damage taken from the ghosts
  • Plague Doctor Shrine Challenge 2: Decreased stab damage for the Plague Doctor
  • Leper Shrine Challenge 2: Advisors will do more damage, but Leper can heal a bit more and gets Block+ instead of Block
Quirks
  • Slayer of Fisherfolk had an incorrect banter effect
  • Sanguine stress heal chance reduced to 25% from 100%
Fixes
  • Guardian Node final combats no longer only award city currency
  • Cleaned up some city VFX decor items on common nodes to increase performance
  • Fixed a softlock that could occur by abandoning a run right as combat starts
  • Fixed an issue that would allow players to equip up to 2 cultist trinkets with them both being unlocked as if Dark Impulse was equipped.
  • Fixed an issue where end turn effects would happen before the skill result was applied
  • Fixed an issue where double kills could result in an invalid corpse and thus blocks creature summons
  • Added confirmation dialog check for pause menu
  • Added error SFX when double-clicking a player inventory item to equip fails in certain cases
  • [Community] Fixed an issue where the Almanac: The Shroud appeared twice and the Almanac: The Tangle wasn’t appearing at all from certain Academic Studies.
  • Fixed an issue with the General's Dream trophy showing the incorrect version of the Immobilize token
  • Stitching Kit no longer appears in Field Hospitals
Known Issues
  • Venomdrop: additional Blight granted by Path cannot be adjusted by Trinkets