Cardinal

Cardinal

Stats [Compare Stats] [View/Edit Data]
HP	46
Speed	4
Death Armor	2
Resistances
Bleed	30%
Blight	30%
Burn	30%
Stun	20%
Move	20%
Debuff	30%
Low ▪ Medium ▪ High
Other Attributes
Types	Cosmic, Cultist
Size	2
Turns per Round	1
Permanent Condition(s)
All Allies: +10% RES

The Cardinal is a Cosmic/Cultist boss in Darkest Dungeon II.

Description

The Cardinal is a fearsome opponent. All of its attacks inflict Stress, and many of its attacks hit multiple heroes at once, disrupting the party with Shuffle and negative tokens. Hollow Vessel, its only single-target attack, deals especially heavy and Damage over Time.

As with other Cultist bosses, the Cardinal may be worshipped by its minions, enabling it to use its most powerful attack, Exultation.

Skills

Skill Name	Target	DMG	CRIT	Self	Effects
Exultation		6-10	5%	Only used when self has x2 • Remove All • • to party.	•, , • +2 • Remove All
Hollow Vessel		2-5	5%	-	• 2 • 2 • 2 • +3
The Yawning Void Cooldown 2		2-3	5%	• Back 1	• Shuffle • +1
Entropic Star Cooldown: 1	(2 Random Targets)	4-7	5%	-	+1 Add one of the following:

Strategy

The Cardinal's attacks deal little damage on their own, making him unlikely to outright kill heroes unless assisted by allies. His threat comes from his debuffs, stress, and shuffles.

As with all enemies that deal mostly cleave attacks, heroes with Riposte abilities (such as the Highwayman and the Man at Arms), pose a large threat to The Cardinal as they will almost always trigger a riposte. He is also quite susceptible to abilities that cause Daze or Stun, having one of the lower resistances in the game.

The Cardinals ability to shuffle the team is his largest direct threat, causing chaos when it lands on a team unable to deal with this. Having ways to counter this are huge. This can be done with a team that can easily move itself, using abilities that immobilize or using the Dreaming Generals trophy, or by using blind/dodge to avoid the attack landing. It also pays to have a method of removing or at least handling the DOTs applied by his Hollow Vessel attack. Due to the fact it applies all 3 types of DOT it can be hard to buff your heroes enough to avoid them all, but even buffing against one or two types can be handy. Using taunt to force his use of this ability into a single target you can focus healing on, either through abilities like Battlefield Medicine or through the use of items like anti-venom or bandages can be helpful. Using items like neutralizing or ablative powders can also help in causing stress reduction while resisting the DOTs too.

Removing the enemies that spawn with the Cardinal will remove his ability to be worshiped and use his largest attack Exaltation. So focusing on his allies first can tend to be a beneficial method of handling him.