Darkest Dungeon: The Best Upgrades to Get First

Darkest Dungeon is a rogue-like dungeon crawler that will have the player investing in a settlement in Hell. All the upgrades of the game are to the estate and hamlet nestled in Hell after the travels down the old road. Upgrades to each of the buildings will affect what the player has access to and how successful they will be on future ventures through dungeons.

Each upgrade that is given to the player isn’t given freely. Upgrades cost the player certain deeds, so picking which upgrades are the most important can be a difficult decision. Especially since it affects the player’s ability to proceed further into the game.

First Five Places to Upgrade in Darkest Dungeon’s Estate

The Stagecoach – 

The Stagecoach is the first thing that is introduced within the hamlet to the player. Upgrading the Stagecoach will increase the player’s roster of people that they can recruit to follow them into different dungeons and the number of weekly heroes coming in. The more recruits that the player has at their disposal, the more successful their dungeon runs will become. Using weekly heroes is useful so that the player can remove bad quirks from their residential recruits and gain positive traits between dungeons.

The three lines of upgrades for the Stagecoach are Stagecoach Network, Hero Barracks, and Experienced Recruits. The Stagecoach Network has five levels of upgrades. The Hero Barracks has five levels of upgrades. Lastly, Experienced Recruits has three levels of upgrades.

The Blacksmith – 

Upgrading the Blacksmith will allow the player to purchase better weapons and armor at reduced prices. This also affects all of the character’s base speed which will have a significant impact on how easy it is to get through dungeons. Depending on what the player is experiencing with their recruits, they may want to first put points into weapon or armor smithing. Weaponsmithing tends to be a good choice for all players to accelerate their experience in dungeons.

There are three lines of upgrades within the Blacksmith. They are Weaponsmithing, Armorsmithing, and Furnace. Weapon and Armor Smithing have four levels of upgrades while the Furnace has five. Once fully upgraded in the Weapon and Armor Smithing, players will be able to unlock three out of the four upgrade slots on each characters’ weapons and armor.

The Guild – 

The Guild affects what skills players can buy for their heroes and recruits. Skills will positively affect the amount of raw damage and damage over time that recruits can deal. That being said, players should still take time between buying new skills, as they should be saved until the later game to keep.

The Sanitarium – 

The Sanitarium allows players to grant their team members extra quirk treatment slots and reduces the cost of treating bad quirks, diseases, humors, and other physical maladies. Getting rid of quirks and diseases will help the player’s recruits stay in the game and not get turned over so quickly. Treating quirks here is more important than diseases, as diseases happen less often and multiple can be treated at one time.

The three lines of upgrades for the Sanitarium are the Treatment Library, Medical Devices, and Patient Cells. There are five levels of upgrades for the Treatment Library and Medical Devices. Patient Cells only gets four levels of upgrades.

The Abbey OR The Tavern

Both of these places are for healing up the party and provide stress relief, but depending on the play style of the group has, players may want to choose one over the other. If most of the party members have a love interest or are a gambler, investing in the Tavern is more worthwhile. It also depends on whether the player is wanting to prioritize busts or portraits. Portraits go with the Tavern while the Busts go to the Abbey. Both have the chance to give debuffs or negative effects but both usually give the visitor a positive interaction.

The three lines associated with the Abbey are the Cloister, Transept, and Penance Hall. The Cloister offers peace through meditation and has six levels of upgrades. The Transept offers visitors prayer to a higher power and also has six levels of upgrades. Lastly, the Penance Hall offers visitors flagellation in exchange for absolution and has six levels of upgrades.

The three lines associated with the Tavern are the Bar, Gambling Hall, and Brothel. Each has six levels of upgrades to invest in. The Bar allows recruits to drink away their cares. The Gambling Hall gives recruits the possible thrill of winning. While the Brothel offers the pleasures of the flesh.

The Survivalist might be a dead last option for players if they are needing some camping upgrades, however, most of the heroes and recruits have their bonfire traits and stats. Beyond that, the Nomad doesn’t appear to have much if any positive effect and mostly sells items players can find on their own out in the wilderness. With this out of the way, these are all of the main buildings players should invest in. While each is good on their own and has great abilities, spreading out upgrades between them is the best option for players so they aren’t completely out of options in certain areas.

Darkest Dungeon is available on PC.

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