Last Updated on by Samuel Franklin
The best quirks for each class in Darkest Dungeon maximise your hero power through small but impactful positive traits. This list of the best quirks to use includes Evasive, Natural Swing, Quick Reflexes, Steady and Tough which can save players gold by locking these early through the Sanitarium.
Table of Contents:
– Best Quirks For Each Class List
– Quirks Mechanic Overview
Darkest Dungeon Best Quirks Guide
The best quirks in Darkest Dungeon buff core character playstyles by enhancing a strength or reducing a weakness. The quirks below includes DLC quirks although does not include the hard to obtain quirks (Corvid and Prismatic) from specific boss events. A full list of all positive and negative quirks is available on the Darkest Dungeon wiki.
| Quirk | Quirk Effect | Best Heroes | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Early Riser | +2 SPD if Torch above 75 | All | If you prefer to play at higher torch levels this is an okay source of speed although not the best of the available speed based perk options. |
| Evasive | +5 DODGE | All | A simple but effective boost to dodge this quirk is effective across all heroes and will decrease the overall damage you receive. |
| Hippocratic (The Colour of Madness DLC) | +20% Healing Skills | Healing Heroes | Designed for heroes that have a healing role in the team such as the Vestal with this quirk you will find your heals simply go further. |
| Luminous (The Colour of Madness DLC) | +2 SPD, +5 DODGE | All | Providing speed and dodge this quirk is effective across all Darkest Dungeon heroes to improve your average turn priority and provide some survivability. |
| Natural Eye | +5 ACC Ranged Skills | Ranged Heroes | For ranged heroes that want an additional chance to land their hits this quirk will improve your overall damage output. |
| Natural Swing | +5 ACC | All | With all heroes at some point needing to land their attacks on enemies this is a fantastic quirk that has broad effectiveness. |
| Photomania | -20% Stress if Torch above 75 | All | Another quirk that is more suited to players who regularly run at higher light levels with a reduction to total stress. |
| Quickdraw | +4 SPD on First Round | Utility Heroes | One of the niche best quirk options in Darkest Dungeon this can be useful on a high utility hero where the additional speed in the first round is pivotal to your strategy (such as stun) although can be replaced with alternative generalist speed quirks later if available. |
| Quick Reflexes | +2 SPD | All | A simple and effective source of speed that is hard to pass for any hero if available. |
| Slugger | +10% DMG Melee Skills | Melee Heroes | A reliable boost to damage for melee focused heroes that deal their damage primarily through melee attacks. |
| Steady | -10% Stress | All | Reductions to stress is always useful given the potential impact to your party and this quirk offers a broad reduction. |
| Tough | +10% MAX HP | All | HP is an effective method to increase hero durability and helps to counter some of the debuffs like bleed and blight that make regular combat appearances. |
| Hard Skinned | +10% PROT | Frontline Heroes | While this can be used on all heroes it shines on frontline heroes who are likely to take higher amounts of damage overall. |
| Unerring | +10% DMG Ranged Skills | Ranged Heroes | For heroes that are solely ranged the extra damage helps to dispatch threats faster. |
| Warrior of Light | +10% DMG if Torch above 75 | Offensive Heroes | For players that stay at high torch levels this is an alternative method to acquire 10% DMG buff through quirks instead of trinkets. |
Darkest Dungeon Quirks Mechanic Overview
The quirk system in Darkest Dungeons provides positive and negative traits that impact each hero individually and are listed on their hero page.
- Darkest Dungeon Heroes will start with random quirks when recruited from the Stage Coach although backer heroes acquired from the Stage Coach have a fixed set of quirks that make some of them highly sought after.
- Additional quirks can be obtained through Hamlet events, Hamlet building activities or while on expeditions (curios interaction or end of an expedition). End chance to acquire a positive or negative trait is influenced by your success or failure on that expedition and the ending stress of that hero.
- Characters are limited to a total of 10 quirks split between negative and positive modifiers (5 each). When players are already at the maximum amount of negative or positive quirks and they obtain a new one it will randomly replace a current one unless locked.
- If you’re wondering how to lock in quirks you must unlock the Sanitarium. Positive quirks that are locked through the Sanitarium (shown by a lock) or reinforced negative quirks overtime (shown by a red skull symbol) will not be replaced under the above mentioned replacement mechanic. This creates some advanced tactics where players will purposefully reinforce negative quirks that have little impact on gameplay to protect against potentially worse traits.
- Negative quirks can be removed in the Sanitarium for gold with the cost based on if the quirk is reinforced or not. Some expedition curio encounters can also remove these perks.
- Players can only lock a maximum 3 of positive quirks on a hero with the best quirks to lock generally based on hero archetypes as they have higher values than the strong generalist quirks.
- The Sanitarium is limited to only changing one positive and one negative quirk per week.
- Most positive quirks have an inverse negative quirk that flips the effect around and may have a similarly themed name.
