Exemplar
| Exemplar | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Stats | |
 HP | 101 |
 Speed | 4 |
 Death Armor | 2 |
| Resistances | |
 Bleed | 40% |
 Blight | 40% |
 Burn | 40% |
 Stun | 60% |
 Move | 50% |
 Debuff | 40% |
| Low ▪ Medium ▪ High | |
| Other Attributes | |
| Types | Cosmic, Cultist |
| Size | 3 |
| Turns per Round | 2 |
| “ | ...but gaze not upon the high Exemplar, for you are not worthy of such an honor. | „ |
| ~ The Oblivion's Ingress Patch Notes |
The Exemplar is a Cosmic/Cultist boss in Darkest Dungeon II.
Description
The Exemplar is a boss that primarily appears at the Oblivion's Rampart in the final Region, just before the Inn, starting from Act 3 onwards. The Exemplar appears to be two entities, or one creature composed of two, with a headless, humanoid torso emerging from a beast-like mass of grotesque flesh, humanoid arms, and an iron mask similar to the ones worn by Deacon and Cardinal adorning a spot at the end of its spine. The two "halves" of the Exemplar even seem to each be in charge of different skills, with the lower, beast-like half attacking with its huge limbs during "Prelude," and piercing heroes with its gaze during "Rapturous Beauty," while the upper, more humanoid half becomes more animated when destroying an ally with "Pillar of Sacrifice," or when calling forth "The Fall.
The Exemplar functions as a gatekeeper, ensuring that the player is capable of disposing of strong foes before they reach The Mountain. Its attacks are highly damaging, and they can target multiple Heroes, inflicting high amounts of , , 
and massive direct damage.
The Exemplar also begins the encounter with an Altar but can kill and resummon different cultist minions. The Exemplar will periodically kill and resummon its allies over the course of the battle, applying self buffs in the process.
Combat Skills
The Exemplar has numerous fearsome attacks in its arsenal, but the most powerful of them all is "Exultation", a highly damaging cleave which requires him to have 2 
tokens in order to use and will summon a cultist ally if the starting ally is absent. The Exemplar can gain throughout the fight by either using "Pillar of Sacrifice" to destroy its cultist ally (if they already have two ), or by setting up "The Fall", an attack only on heroes with 
. If there are no tokens present on the player side and it cannot use "Exultation", the Exemplar can use "Prelude" to apply the token along with a massive , or "Rapturous Beauty" to inflict 
and 
on two random heroes.
| Skill Name | Target | Ranks | DMG | CRIT | Self | Effects |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prelude | 
|
|
6-10 | 5% | - | • Add Pull 1 • 6
|
| The Fall Cooldown 1 Requires target 
|
|
|
10-16 | 5% | (Only if hits )
|
• +2 • Remove
|
| Exultation Requires 2 forced to use when eligible |
(2 Targets) |
|
10-20 | 5% | • Remove • Add
|
Summons Altar (31%), Cherub (23%), Evangelist (23%) or Herald (23%) on use. Cherub, Altar and Herald spawn in rank 4. Evangelist is summoned in rank 1. |
| Rapturous Beauty Cooldown 1 |
(2 Targets) |
|
4-8 | 5% | - | • (75% of +1 on turn start for 3 turns) • Add
|
| Pillar of Sacrifice Requires alive ally with 2 forced to use when eligible |
|
|
- | - | • Gain • Gain  6• Gain  x2
|
Deathblow |
| Riposte Attack used by
|
|
|
6-10 | 10% | - | • +1
|
Strategy and advice
The Exemplar is a powerful enemy, but since it only shows up at the end of the final region before the Mountain, it is possible to prepare for the fight well in advance. If you think that your party will struggle against the Exemplar, consider bringing along 
resistance buffs and combat items like Antivenom to heal , Laudanum to heal 
and clear 
, as well as at least one stack of Holy Water, to remove any tokens in an emergency.
Preventing "Exultation" and "The Fall":
"Exultation" is a powerful move which does immense damage and summons a cultist minion. However, it can be entirely avoided by preventing the Exemplar from reaching 2 
tokens. There are multiple ways to accomplish this. Firstly, if unlocked, the Shred of Decency combat item can remove tokens, preventing or at least delaying, "Exultation". Holy Water removes tokens from its target without spending one of your heroes' turns. Junia's Head has the ability to remove with any skill that targets allies.
As Jester (Darkest Dungeon II), mastered "Play Out" can remove , allowing you to simultaneously clear while also applying 
to your selected teammate. Intermezzo's Play Out cannot remove .
As Leper (Darkest Dungeon II), "Reflection" skill allows you to clear while simultaneously clearing 
, healing , and buffing the Leper's 
resistance if mastered. This skill can only be used on himself, however, so it cannot help if is present on another hero. It also features a 1 turn cooldown when unmastered, so if this is to be your primary strategy, be sure to master "Reflection" prior to the third region.
As Man at Arms, Bulwark's mastered "Stand Fast" skill can remove from himself, generating , and subsequently increasing his survivability. However, unlike "Reflection," "Stand Fast" has a 2 turn cooldown. Man-at-Arms can also perform "Defender" to guard an ally with , forcing "The Fall" to hit himself instead, where Exemplar cannot gain under the condition he doesn't have himself.
As Vestal, she generate guard through her "Sanctuary". However, she does have the ability to remove .
As Bounty Hunter, performing "Body Guard" and "Staredown" can force Exemplar to act on him instead of an ally who has .
As Flagellant, Maniac's mastered "Sepsis" skill can transfer from himself to the enemy. In addition, Maniac's mastered "Lash's Gift" skill can transfer from allies to himself.
As Duelist, mastered "Meditation" can remove . Intrepide's mastered "Disengage" skill can generate stealth; when mastered, it can also allow allies to guard her.
Another viable strategy revolves around preventing from being applied to begin with. If the Exemplar's "Prelude" misses due to 
, 
or , it will not generate , and the Exemplar will not be able to use "The Fall" in its next turn. This means that skills like Plague Doctor's "Blinding Gas" or the Grave Robber's "Absinthe" and "Repartee" can be used to great effect, although this strategy is inherently inconsistent due to the random nature of tokens that affect hit chance.
Additionally, Exemplar cannot target heroes with 
, meaning that Grave Robber's "Shadow Fade" and Runaway's "Run and Hide" can be used to delay the Exemplar using "The Fall" on them. It is also possible to lure the Exemplar to attack heroes other than those with by using 
, delaying usage of "The Fall," as tokens take precedence over synergy. Moreover, due to "The Fall" only being able to target ranks 1, 2 and 3, it is possible to prevent this attack entirely by having on a hero in rank 4. This will force it to attack the hero with taunt, which it can only do by using "Prelude" or "Rapturous Beauty."
Dealing with allies:
While the Exemplar summons allies, it is often, but not always, not worth attacking them. This is because the Exemplar will kill its ally eventually; if you fail to kill their ally before the Exemplar uses "Pillar of Sacrifice", you will have wasted damage that could have been used on the Exemplar itself. However, killing the Exemplar's minion before it uses "Pillar of Sacrifice" will deny it the significant positive buffs that skill provides, until it summons a new minion using "Exultation."
While attacking them can often be unwise, the Exemplar's allies are still a noteworthy threat. At an Oblivion's Rampart, the Exemplar always appears with an Altar supporting it from Rank 4. At the start of the battle, Altars provide an buff that changes depending on the Confession of the current expedition. This buff ranges from being negligible, to potentially catastrophic. If the Confession is Resentment, consider paying careful attention to your attacks relative to how many the Exemplar has, in order to reduce the risk of the Exemplar gaining a 
token before it uses "Exultation." Additionally, the Altar provides the Exemplar with 
and 
regardless of the Confession, prolonging the fight.
The Herald is another dangerous ally for the Exemplar. It can inflict high on any hero and destroy their positive tokens regardless of their rank, and apply 
and 
to heroes in the back ranks. Additionally, it can also remove negative tokens from the Exemplar. These abilities can significantly swing the battle in the Exemplar's favor, and, combined with Heralds' low health and lack of any defensive tokens, make spending the turns to kill them with your own heroes as soon as possible an option worth considering.
While Evangelists are capable of applying high amounts of with fairly damaging attacks, and can generate for themselves, they are not advisable to try to kill before the Exemplar sacrifices them, due to both their relatively high health, and ability to generate for themselves. Evangelists are also the only Exemplar minion with Death Armor, making them able to not immediately die upon reaching 0 health. Unlike all other Exemplar allies, Evangelists will always appear in Rank 1.
Finally, the Cherub is the least threatening minion, doing a paltry 1-2 damage with its attacks, but still being capable of applying negative tokens like and 
, along with a significant debuff. Cherubs, like Evangelists, can also be hard to kill due to their capability to give themselves . While the negative effects they apply can be bothersome, Cherubs are rarely worth diverting attention away from the Exemplar for.
General advice:
Debuffs that reduce the effectiveness of the Exemplar's attacks, like and, as well as positive tokens that do the same, like , , and have immense value in this fight, as the Exemplar's attacks universally do very high damage. However, due to the Exemplar's high debuff resistance, debuffs can be unreliable, so a consistent strategy revolving around positive tokens for your own heroes is preferred.
Furthermore, due to the Exemplar having the maximum amount of Death Armor tokens at three, it can survive taking damage several times at 
Death's Door. This can be mitigated with the use of 
Execution or the Death Cap Spores combat item to reduce the amount of times it can take damage before dying. Finally, applying and can give further chances to deal the final blow on the Exemplar's own turns, or at the very least counteract the the Exemplar gains from "Pillar of Sacrifice," from healing the Exemplar off of Death's Door.
As with any enemy, the Exemplar can be Ordained, and in the guaranteed encounter with it in the third Oblivion's Rampart, it will almost always be Ordained, as the chance for Ordained enemies increases to 90% in the third region. This is extremely significant not only for the boost to the Exemplar's already formidable health and damage, but for the unique, special effects Ordainment provides to enemies depending on the Confession. The most significant of these is the Obsession Confession, where any critical hit "mirrors" any positive tokens on whoever was hit, meaning that if unlucky, the Exemplar could gain extra tokens it's normally incapable of receiving, ranging from and 
to and .
Loot
Despite being a boss like the Shambler and Death, unlike them, the Exemplar does not have unique loot, providing only standard loot for Oblivion's Ramparts when fought at the end of the third region.
Trivia
- The Exemplar used to replace enemies that would appear at any road battle the player entered when they had 5 Loathing prior to the "Redemption Road" update. This meant that if the player failed to mitigate loathing, they would be the victim of an Exemplar spawning at a road barricade. Exemplars could spawn prior to region 3 this way, as well as spawning with any cultist rather than the Altar it is guaranteed to spawn with at its regular place of residence.
