Baron

Baron

Enemy Class	Bloodsucker
Size	Average (1)
Actions per round
Stats
HP	233
HP (Stygian/Bloodmoon)	280
Dodge	22
Protection	10%
Speed	10
Resistances
Stun	87%
Blight	85%
Bleed	55%
Debuff	60%
Move	85%

“	They would arrive in teeming hordes, adorned in powdered wigs and pretension - seeking to slake their thirst on wine and indecency. As intoxication invariably took hold, innocuous frivolities would escalate to ever more disturbing diversions. Orchestrating the hideous affair was a hunchedbacked fiend who seemed to delight in proportion to the suffering he caused. I could have stopped him, I suppose, but I was a slave to my own appetites, and restraint would have rendered me a hypocrite.	„
	~ The Ancestor.

The Baron is the first Bloodsucker boss in The Courtyard, encountered during the "Morbid Entertainment" quest (LVL 3 Epic). When defeated, he drops a Set Trinket and unlocks the next Courtyard quest, Served Cold.

Reaching the Boss

The Baron is the first boss fought in The Courtyard. The greatest challenge faced by the party, oddly enough, is not the boss himself, but the dungeon he resides in. It is a truly massive dungeon with nearly a hundred rooms and many locked gates requiring special keys looted elsewhere inside the dungeon and guarded by powerful foes. The dungeon itself can be split into four distinct areas, with the Baron residing in the final area.

The first area is fairly straightforward, appearing as a somewhat straight path with a few side rooms. Keep moving to the right whenever possible to reach the second area. Beware of Bloodsuckers and traps, but there are no unusual challenges.

The second area is more difficult, taking the form of a circle with the central path cutting through. In the centre is a locked door requiring a red key found elsewhere. To progress, either move down to find the key or go slightly above where the key is found to bypass the locked door entirely. Either way, a mini-boss will block the way to the third area; the Crocodilian.

The third area is a central hub with a locked door, two wings above and below, is much more difficult, and requires multiple keys. Travel down to the bottom wing to find the blue key, then head up again to the upper wing to find the yellow one, but beware, another Crocodilian guards it. Come back on the main path to unlock the central door to progress to the final area.

The final area takes the form of extremely difficult multiple looping circles with the final boss in the middle behind a locked door. Head up to find the key to the Baron, then take the central path around to unlock the door leading to the Baron.

One special mechanic of this map (and other Epic length boss expeditions in the Courtyard) is that if you abandon the mission, the next time you go back you will start the mission from right where you left off, with all previously uncovered rooms, paths and curios still revealed. The party will not suffer from a stress penalty, but there will be a quirk check and the next expedition will cost you an additional invitation.

Baron Map layout (Korean annotations)

Finishing the Dungeon

The dungeon itself already poses quite a big problem when unprepared. Almost every Courtyard enemy has some way to apply Crimson Curse, so the entire party will likely end up getting infected. Taking sufficient Blood into the mission can help prevent premature retreat.

The enemies generally share one huge weakness: Their low Stun resist. Especially Chevalier is crucial to get Stunned very quickly, since their attacks can quickly dispatch entire teams with a combination of crits, Bleeds and Stuns. Only Supplicant is immune to Stun, but he is by far the least threatening enemy that can spawn, so this is often not a big deal. In addition to this, most of the enemies are very quick, with Sycophant being the quickest. This makes heroes with high Speed and Stuns, especially those that can reach Rank 4, where the Chevalier's often sit, extremely valuable, such as Plague Doctor.

The next thing to plan around is Crocodilian. Having sufficient counters to him is extremely important, since it's required to fight two of the to reach Baron. Having Pulls and Pushes to keep it out of Rank 2/3 is almost required to make a team that can beat the entire dungeon in a single week. Bounty Hunter can make use of a combination of Uppercut and Come Hither and Shieldbreaker can use Puncture to achieve the same result.

Another thing to keep in mind is Protection, as Chevalier can be extremely difficult to take down due to his combination of Prot and large amount of Hitpoints. Bleed is generally very effective, Marks like Houndmaster's Target Whistle can also be extremely helpful to remove Prot and Shieldbreaker's Pierce can simply ignore it.

Team selection for the dungeon

Recommended Heroes

Bounty Hunter - Can counter Crocodilian by himself with Uppercut and Come Hither. His ability to Stun Rank 4 with Flashbang is extremely helpful and Mark for Death can serve as a solid Prot-clearing option.
Houndmaster - Has the best Mark to clear Prot in Target Whistle and can hit any Rank. Dog Treats offer massive burst on-demand against Croc and he can be extremely flexible in his position. Cry Havoc can keep the parties' Stress low in long dungeon runs. His Guard Dog can als be used to prevent more position-reliant backliners from being pulled.
Occultist - Can Stun pretty much anything, including Crocodilian, multiple times with Hands from the Abyss due to the overall low Stun resist. Daemon's Pull is a solid choice for Crocodilian to pull it forward and keep it Stunned up front with Hands from the Abyss. Additionally, he will rarely be out of position, always keeping his Wyrd Reconstruction available to heal people back up. Weakening Curse can be used to lower the Prot of Chevaliers.
Plague Doctor - Easily the best hero for this mission. Blinding Gas paired with Dazzling Mirror makes her faster than pretty much anything and allows her to keep the entire enemy backline locked down multiple turns in a row due to the lower Stun resist. Her Blights don't really function, but being able to pretty much ignore Chevaliers for the first two turns easily makes up for it. Against Crocodilian, she can struggle with positioning, but switching to Incision can solve that problem. Disorienting Blast may not be the most consitent disruption tool, but the stun will at least trade actions 1 for 1 if the shuffle doesn't push Crocodilian back into the desired ranks.
Shieldbreaker - Can ignore the Prot of Chevaliers to take them out quickly and can often onetap the squishier enemies even with her lower base damage. Puncture is the best tool to keep Crocodilian disrupted, being the only pull that can pull Rank 2 enemies. Her low defenses can be an issue at times, but her amazing offense and Croc matchup more than make up for it.

Reasonable Heroes

Abomination - Has decently high Speed and a solid Stun, especially when paired with Broken Key. Slam can push Crocodilian back out of Rank 2. Absolution can make sure that whatever Stress gets taken can immediately get healed.
Arbalest/Musketeer - While she doesn't offer the greatest Crocodilian matchup due to her limited frontline reach, she can serve as massive payoff for -Prot Marks against Chevaliers. Her high ACC can also help deal with a lot of the more dodgy Courtyard enemies. Her massive Healthpool can help her take a hit from Chevaliers and she can clear their Stuns with Rallying Flare
Crusader - Solid Stresshealing can keep the team going and Holy Lance can onetap most of the Courtyard enemies.
Flagellant - Can use his Bleeds to deal with Prot and can easily reposition if Crocodilian starts pulling. Reclaim can premeptively be used to prevent Deaths against Chevalier crits. Endure can serve as decent Stresshealing going into the final stretch with all the Campfires healing him back down with Lash's Solace.
Grave Robber - Lunge can be used as a quick burst option to get rid of the squishier enemies and she can easily reposition against Crocodilian, but needs help against Chevaliers.
Hellion - Can easily take out anything squishy in any Rank. Can be extremely rough against Crocodilian due to the team getting pulled around and If it Bleeds not being able to hit Rank 1. Has a decent answer to Chevaliers in the form of Bleed, but usually needs additional support.
Highwayman - Can take out anything squishy in any Rank. Can deal with Crocodilian's Pulls and reposition using Duelists Advance. Needs help against Chevalier's Prot quite often.
Leper - Can onetap most frontliners even through their Prot and can neutralize a Chevalier using Intimidate by debuffing both their Spd and damage. Can start chopping through Crocodilian's Healthpool quickly, but can end up out of position relatively quickly as well.

Discouraged Heroes

Antiquarian - A dodge team can work quite well against Crocodilian, but can easily get torn apart by a single unlucky hit from Chevalier due to his massive Dodge debuff.
Jester - Battle Ballad is as good as ever and Inspiring Tune can keep the teams' Stress low, but Chevalier can simply negate his dodge with an unlucky hit and place him in a very precarious position. Can be solid for repositioning using Finale and Solo against Crocodilian, but can only do so once.
Man-at-Arms - Doesn't have the greatest damage output and Rampart alone isn't enough to justify him against regular enemies. He is slightly better against Crocodilian, but his repositioning tool in Rampart can also push Crocodilian back into reach to unleash Apex Predator. Bolster is obviously a great choice for the fight, but overall he just doesn't offer enough.
Vestal - She doesn't deal with Chevalier's very well due to her mediocre SPD and her Stun isn't good enough to keep them on lockdown very often. Against Croc, she is both extremely disruptable by pulls and does very little apart from healing. Other heroes simply have better matchups and provide more value than her healing.

The Baron

The Baron fight consists of three phases, or "Acts".

The Baron spawns alongside three Pulsating Eggs. When combat begins, he will immediately use "The Show Begins" to spawn a fourth egg and hide himself inside, then shuffle all the eggs.

Whenever a Pulsating Egg is present, the party cannot use any healing skills. Each egg can be destroyed by a single damaging attack, revealing either a Sycophant or Supplicant inside. An enemy will not act on the round it is revealed, but will begin to attack the next round. Pulsating Eggs have a number of unique interactions:

A revealed enemy will not suffer any damage, debuff, or Mark effects from the attack that destroys the egg.
However, the enemy will still suffer from the attack's Bleed, Blight, or Move effects.
It is possible to Mark an egg, but only if the marking skill does not destroy the egg. If a marked egg is destroyed, the will transfer to the revealed enemy.

There are certain other interactions that still need to be clarified or confirmed.

The Baron himself is hidden inside one of the eggs. As with the other enemies, he cannot act on the round he is revealed but will begin to attack the party the following round. He inflicts fairly high damage and stress, with three actions per round and attacks that can hit the entire party.

It is not advised to stall and ignore the eggs: when the Baron is still hidden, spending a round without destroying a Pulsating Egg will cause him to use "Guests of Honor", immediately opening all the eggs, revealing himself and all hidden enemies.

If the Baron is below 66% of his maximum health at the beginning of a round, he will use "The Second Act", de-spawning all current enemies, spawning four new Pulsating Eggs, and hiding himself inside a random one. The mechanics of the second act are similar to the first, but the eggs may now contain Esquires.

Once he is below 33% of his maximum health at the beginning of a round, he will use "The Third Act". This act is much like the first and second, only the eggs may now contain dangerous Chevaliers.

Strategy

A general principle in Darkest Dungeon is to reduce enemy actions as much as possible. The Baron fight is an extreme example of this: it is highly encouraged to proceed methodically, dealing with one egg/enemy per round, then once the Baron is revealed, concentrate all attacks on him in order to trigger the next act as quickly as possible. With enough burst damage, the Baron and his minions should get very few turns to act before the battle is over.

If the Baron is close to a health threshold (66% or 33%), it may be useful to open an egg or two in order to heal. However, this choice must be very carefully considered, since the damage output of the Baron and his summons can greatly exceed the team's recovery capabilities. In particular it is highly discouraged to open all the eggs at once.

An action-efficient approach is to set up buffs at the beginning of each act while the Baron is still hidden. Enemies contained in eggs are fairly weak, so the party will have usually have extra turns left over after dealing with them but cannot use those turns to heal. Skills like the Leper's Revenge, the Plague Doctor's Emboldening Vapors, or Jester's Battle Ballad can greatly boost the team's damage output. In normal combat these buffs take too long to pay off and would be considered wasted turns; however in this case they allow the team to burst down the Baron more quickly when he appears, so they effectively function as extra attacks against him.

Riposte is an especially effective example of self-buffing: the Baron has multiple actions per round and Crowd Pleaser hits all 4 heroes, so will trigger extremely often. Both the Highwayman and Man-at-Arms can also buff themselves with Tracking Shot and Command, respectively, to mitigate the low ACC of attacks. With proper setup, a single Crowd Pleaser can cause the Baron to take 50-60 damage from , causing him to enter the next act much more quickly.

As with the rest of the Crimson Court, Bleed attacks are effective, especially since they transfer their effects to enemies hidden in the eggs.

Having Crimson Curse on damage dealers can be advantageous. A hero can drink the The Blood to trigger Bloodlust, then drink another vial to buff themselves further; combined, these buffs cause them to deal almost double damage for a short period of time.

One last approach is to stack DODGE. As with much of the rest of the game, stacking enough DODGE buffs and trinkets can cause the Baron to miss nearly all of his attacks, completely trivialising the battle.

Team Selection

Preferred Heroes

Antiquarian - The cornerstone to any Dodge team with Invigorating Vapors.
Grave Robber - She is extremely good on Dodge-focused teams, utilizing her high base Dodge and Toxin Trickery to get her Dodge very high in tandem with the other dodge buffs. Flashing Daggers can be used to clear multiple eggs at once, while Shadow Fade can reset her position in case of a bad pull without giving up much damage.
Highwayman - His Riposte deals much more damage than the alternative on Man-at-Arms, making him the primary choice for the middle ranks. Rank 1 usually still ends up being a Man-at-Arms however, since Point Blank is not a great skill to get locked into. Tracking Shot is extremely important, giving additional ACC and offensive stats. Also pops an egg while setting up, which is quite nice. Grapeshot Blast can also be very useful, allowing Highwayman to pop almost all eggs in one action to re-enable healing in a pinch.
Houndmaster - While he doesn't have the greatest base damage, his Dog Treats and Mark can more than make up for it. Due to Baron's 3 actions, Mark has to be reapplied every turn, which can make him a bit clunky. Hounds Harry is nice to pop all 4 eggs at once, re-enabling healing immediately. It can be a bit risky though, as there will be up to 7 incoming enemy actions on the following turn unless disrupted. His Guard Dog is invaluable to Dodge teams though, as it's effectively a huge +Dodge increase to 2 heroes.
Jester - Battle Ballad is an incredible setup tool for pretty much anyone. Additional ACC and especially crit are very powerful. In addition to this, Finale can be used as a massive finisher to basically skip the final act. Harvest can also be useful, popping open 2 eggs while also applying a decent Bleed to the enemy inside.
Leper - By far the best buff target due to his huge base damage. Revenge is also an insanely good buff. The defensive cut barely matters, since Leper's base defensive are incredibly massive. Although rare, Baron can potentially move into the backline, wasting Leper's action since Baron is out of reach.
Man-at-Arms - Can be part of Riposte teams with Retribution and Command to deal some solid damage and buff ACC even higher to fix the relatively bad ACC of it. He can also go onto Dodge teams to buff the entire team with Bolster. Shard Dust can refresh th uses on it, effectively making the party untouchable when paired with Dodge Trinkets and other Dodge buffs. His campskills deserve another mention, Tactics is appreciated no matter the strategy, since Dodge and crit are extremely useful. Weapon's Practice is also very good, giving very offensive stats across the party.
Plague Doctor - Emboldening Vapors is the best available offensive buff, especially when refreshed using Shard Dust. Otherwise she can feel a bit lacking, since her Blights are very unlikely to stick and her Stuns aren't super useful either. Incision can be alright damage though.
Vestal - While she barely offers anything offensive, she has a spot in most Riposte-centric teams due to being the best option to soloheal a full team from the backline.

Reasonable Choices

Bounty Hunter - While his damage isn't as high as other options, he can also serve as a buff target and output huge numbers if Mark is set up. Baron's three action can make this difficult however, as it needs to be reapplied each round.
Crusader - He can technically also serve as a buff target, but especially Leper is just better due to higher base damage, setup and Campskill availability.
Flagellant - He isn't a good buff receiver due to his bad damage, not great for Dodge teams with his very low base dodge, he just ends up being kinda meh for the fight. He does have the best Egg-popping skill due to his high Bleed on Punish though and the healing on Reclaim can keep the party going for quite a bit.
Hellion - Similarly to Crusader, her base damage is good, but she lacks in-combat setup and doesn't have the campskills of Leper. She can generate a good bit of crit using Sharpen Spear but can be pulled out of position with Necessary Discipline. Other heroes simply fill her role in this fight much better, since her reach is really not needed. Breakthrough can be used to both reposition and pop 3 eggs at once though, which can be nice in a pinch while also moving her back into position.
Occultist - His damage isn't great and his debuffs will wear off quickly. His Stun is still solid, but due to Baron's many actions, it isn't as useful. His Healing is nice, but not enough to sustain an entire by itself due to it's unreliable nature. While he isn't fantastic for Baron, he is usually part of the team that clears the entire dungeon, so he can be a reasonable choice if the entire Baron dungeon needs to be cleared in a single week.
Shieldbreaker - Her damage just isn't good enough compared to other options and she lacks setup. Similarly to Occultist, she's still a reasonable choice if the entire Baron dungeon needs to be cleared in a single week. Impale can also be used to pop all 4 eggs at once, but is can be a bit restrictive in terms of positioning.

Discouraged Heroes

Abomination - Rage can output quite a bit of damage, being second only to Leper, making Abomination a solid buff target. Leper is usually better due to Revenge and his higher base damage, but Abomination can also fill this role. Notable is his Campskill Psych Up giving him a large damage increase. He is very annoying to set up though, as all the eggs need to be popped to enable Transform to be used, making him either reliant on good RNG to have Baron pop out of the last egg popped or extra actions invested to pop every egg after Baron comes out. The +dmg buff from Transform also only lasts for 3 turns, making it pretty much only available for a single phase of the fight. Without it, Abom's great damage becomes pretty much the same as Crusader and Hellion, making his annoying setup not worth the payoff compared to other options.
Arbalest/Musketeer - Can't take advantage of her massive Mark payoff, since Baron will often move into Rank 1, rendering her useless for damage.

After the Fight

Don't return to the Hamlet yet, as you will be unable to revisit this map afterwards. Behind the room that housed the Baron is a chest with a Red Key. Take that to the southeast corner of the map, and you'll use that to unlock a room containing another Crimson Court Trinket in a chest protected by a group of enemies. DO NOT USE A KEY ON THIS CHEST. If you do so, the trinket will be lost and you will only receive two generic pieces of loot. You can also bring the Red key all the way from before you fought the first Crocodilian to get this room before fighting Baron.

Abilities

Veteran Level
Skill Name	Range	Rank	Target	Accuracy	Crit Chance	Damage	Effect (Target)	Effect (Self)	Notes
The Show Begins	Support	1, 2, 3, 4	None				Hides in one of the Pulsating Eggs and creates additional one	Shuffle
The Second Act	Support	1, 2, 3, 4	None				Spawns 4 Pulsating Eggs and hides in one of them	Shuffle
The Third Act	Support	1, 2, 3, 4	None				Spawns 4 Pulsating Eggs and hides in one of them	Shuffle
Crowd Pleaser	Melee	1, 2, 3, 4	1+2+3+4	93.75%	6%	5-6, -85% DMG vs rank 4, -67% DMG vs rank 3, -33% DMG vs rank 2		Forward 3
Necessary Discipline	Melee	1, 2, 3, 4	2, 3, 4	103.75%	11%	5-11	95% Stress +20 120% Bleed 4 120% Pull 1 Horror 4	Back 2
The Thirst	Melee	1, 2, 3, 4.	1, 2, 3, 4	103.75%	6%	5-8		Heal 18 : Debuff: -23% Bleed resist, -15% ACC Buff: +3 SPD Forward 3
Forced Enthusiasm	Ranged	1, 2, 3, 4	1, 2, 3, 4 (allies).	0%	0%	0		Buff: +10% DMG, +4 SPD, +3% CRT
Guests of Honor	Support	1, 2, 3, 4	1, 2, 3, 4 (allies)				Ruptures all existing Pulsating Eggs, releasing all enemies hiding inside	Shuffle

Unknown/Unconfirmed Interactions with Pulsating Eggs

Certain interactions with Pulsating Eggs still need to be clarified or confirmed. Please add them to the list in the section above once you have confirmation.

(Simple.) I believe a stun that destroys an egg doesn't stun the enemy inside, but I currently don't have confirmation.
In the game files, the eggs are coded to have only 1 hp. However, occasionally an egg will not be destroyed by a damaging attack. See this video for an example: ^[1]. It is not clear what the conditions are for this to happen.
While it has extremely high stun and debuff resistances, it is possible in theory to stun or debuff an egg without opening it (using the Crystalline Fang or various debuff trinkets). It is not clear if the stun or debuff would transfer to the hidden enemy in this case.

Gallery

Baron's combat animation
Using The Show Begins/The Second Act/The Third Act
Using Crowd Pleaser
Using The Thirst
Using Necessary Discipline
Defending
Pulsating Egg's combat animation

Map

Map of the area

Trivia

The Baron is voiced by Youtuber/Streamer Baertaffy, whose longest and most popular series consist of Darkest Dungeon playthroughs, going well over 400 episodes and hundreds of hours of playtime. Baertaffy is also the voice of The Fanatic and the Viscount.
There are several Esquires and Courtesans in the background during the fight. They are obviously cheering on The Baron, as they will laugh when the wrong egg is broken or when a party member gets hit, and they will jeer whenever the egg containing The Baron is broken.
The achievement for killing the Baron , Les Jeux Sont Faits, is a French phrase meaning "all bets are in", "the chips are down" or, literally, "the games are made". Most commonly used in casino roulette as the wheel is set into motion.

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