Loathing
“ | "The loathing whispers...." | „ |
~ The Academic |
Loathing is a value that represents the evil that is gradually taking over the world of Darkest Dungeon II.
While traveling, the party may accumulate levels of Loathing, each of which progressively increases the difficulty of the expedition. Care must be taken to keep Loathing at a manageable level as higher levels of Loathing, especially the final level, inflict severe penalties on the party.
Mechanics
The primary source of Loathing is travel. Roads with Oblivion Tears increase Loathing by one level when traversed; various nodes also increase Loathing as a secondary effect.
Level | Effects | |||
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The Loathing Abates |
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![]() The Loathing Whispers |
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![]() ![]() The Loathing Festers |
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![]() ![]() ![]() The Loathing Howls |
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![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The Loathing Consumes |
Reaching the maximum level of Loathing immediately triggers a number of negative effects:
Then the Loathing level is reset back to 0. |
Managing Loathing
The primary means of reducing Loathing is combat. Loathing decreases by one level each time the party successfully completes a battle at a node (e.g., Resistance Encounter, Oblivion's Ingress, Creature Den), including boss encounters (e.g. Lair bosses and mini-bosses like the Shambler and the Chirurgeon). Note that all enemies must be engaged and killed—simply arriving and avoiding combat, or retreating before killing the Lair boss, will not reduce Loathing.
If a node increases Loathing as a secondary effect, it will typically be applied last, after all other node interactions have been completed. For example, if the party enters a Resistance Encounter with zero Loathing, completing the Resistance Encounter will have no effect. If the node itself increases Loathing, the increase will be applied last and will not be cancelled out by the reduction from the Resistance Encounter; so the party will leave the node with a total of one Loathing.
The Doom Candle
The Doom Candle is an Infernal Flame that reduces the maximum Loathing level by 1, while increasing Loathing by 1 after it is reset.
Trivia
- Prior to the Void Between Us update, Loathing was generated by the "Doomsayer" and "Shattered Will" quirks.
- In the game files, Loathing is referred as "Doom".