The Darkest Dungeon II Relationships mechanic may appear little in comparison to the anxiety that your heroes may experience, as well as quirks and other combat-related debuffs. However, if you’re not mindful of the Affinity Levels in your party, they may start to turn against one another quite quickly and cause a number of irritating situations. Making the most of each trip and, of course, managing to survive longer depends on your ability to employ this mechanism to your advantage.
Relationships underwent a significant iteration after the January 2023 release of The Void Between Us upgrade. If you also believed that some of its randomised components didn’t fully work in its favour, the most recent changes should be more than welcome as a mechanism that previously caused some discussion in the community after the early access period. The greatest techniques to build strong connections among your crew as well as everything you need to know about Relationship Skills in Darkest Dungeon II are covered in this tutorial.
Relationship building in Darkest Dungeon II
Affinity and relationships go hand in hand. The kinds of relationships—positive or negative—that might develop between characters depend on your level of affinity. Relationships may only only develop in the Inn with the release of The Void Between Us update. Every time you visit an Inn after your initial journey on the bandwagon, with the exception of the first one, you will be paired with a different person.
It’s important to note that since the relationships won’t start until after you’ve slept, you have some room to attempt to sway your party’s opinion in either direction. When everything is ready, the screen just before taking off will indicate any relationships that have developed. If you click on them, you’ll learn if the result was favourable or unfavourable and which Relationship Skills were impacted (more on this later).
There are several methods to forge alliances among your group, but if you’re unsure how to do so in Darkest Dungeon II, keep reading for some advice:
- Watch out for things from inns; they tend to be more affordable and can be found as loot or awards during excursions. Items like “Playing Cards” are another example. Using these things before to the next expedition can be quite beneficial, unless the Affinity Levels of your characters are already in a situation with which you are comfortable. They are still a gamble in the end, but you never know; trying your luck could pay off in the end.
- Your Affinity may also be impacted by the Inns themselves: When you arrive at an inn, be careful to hover your cursor over the icon in the upper left corner to see if the party will be affected in any way.
- When making decisions, follow your instincts: You may occasionally find yourself choosing between several party members before an encounter or in the course of a dialogue with an NPC. The colourful “aura” around the characters indicates whether a decision will have a favourable or bad effect on a person (gold and blue, respectively). It’s up to you how you want to approach any circumstance; just be sure to consider this before making the incorrect decision.
- Your combative behaviour counts: Choosing to use some skills over others has distinct results, just as the choice-driven events. Fortunately, they are indicated by either colour during that character’s turn, so you may decide how to respond to any circumstance. When you truly need to employ a particular talent, the inevitable bad outcome will happen.
- Quirks are crucial since they affect how a character’s interactions will develop. The majority of them are often irrelevant, but it’s always worthwhile to check yourself by accessing the character screen. Also keep in mind that throughout trips, additional Quirks may undoubtedly manifest.
These are the fundamentals, however keep in mind that Randomized Values are what Darkest Dungeon II relies on. During excursions, your characters’ Affinity points with one another are certain to rise or fall. You can try to change the rules in your favour by using the aforementioned methods as just instruments to counteract such impacts.
Additionally, keep in mind that partnerships don’t follow you on your entire run; rather, they endure only as long as the following adventure. Negative relationships may turn from positive to negative and vice versa, so it’s not the end of the world if you have one after your second trip to an inn.
The Function of Relationship Skills in Darkest Dungeon II
As previously indicated, the choices you make in battle have an effect on the dynamics of your group. Once a link has been established, one skill from each of the two characters will randomly get a bonus or penalty. As a result, the effect will occur anytime you use the skill in battle, further impacting the connection.
Respect, Hope, and Love make up the current good partnerships, while Suspicion, Hatred, and Envy make up the current bad connections. The skill boosts and debuffs can take many different forms, such as adversaries assaulting or protecting one another during combat or random stress-dealing or healing barks.
I advise always checking twice before utilising talents if you’re attempting to keep as much peace as you can. There is a chance that helping out a party member who has recently been hit or who has a debuff state (such bleed or blight) can make you seem good.
I advise applying your good connection skills as frequently as you can. Negative ones, on the other hand, are tougher since you cannot remove them from the skill bars of the characters; they will remain there for the duration of the trip. In addition, if the skill the game randomly selected is one you frequently use, be prepared to enrage people anytime you use it.
In Darkest Dungeon II, relationships may be pretty haphazard, so it’s necessary to be ready for anything that can happen. Our beginner’s tutorial and step-by-step explanation to fight the Denial Brain can be of assistance.