Prepare a party to practise a boss fight

Checked against Darkest Dungeon (Steam build 25810065) · November 3, 2026

Bosses are where Darkest Dungeon campaigns are won and lost, and a failed attempt can cost you heroes you spent weeks on. A boss fight is a good thing to rehearse: you want a strong party and the boss quest on offer, without a campaign’s worth of grinding. This guide shows how to build both in a spare campaign, so the fight can be learned and tried again.

Do it in a spare campaign

Start a new campaign in an empty slot (and quit once the first dungeon has started, so the game writes the save), or copy a profile folder as described in the save and backup guide. Then edit that copy. Your real campaign stays as it was, and a lost fight costs nothing.

Open the boss quest

Each region has two bosses, and each comes in three strengths. The quest appears when the region reaches a level:

  • Level 2, 4 and 6: the Necromancer (Ruins), the Hag (Weald), the Swine Prince (Warrens) and the Siren (Cove), from the first to the strongest version.
  • Level 3, 5 and 7: the Prophet (Ruins), the Brigand Cannon (Weald), the Formless Flesh (Warrens) and the Drowned Crew (Cove).

On the Dungeons tab of the editor, set the region’s experience. A region needs 6 experience for level 2, 10 for level 3, and so on (see Radiant or Darkest for the table of your mode); the tab shows the level it gives. The region must already be open in your campaign. The final dungeon depends on story progress the editor does not change.

Build the party

  1. On the Heroes tab, pick four heroes: roster heroes, or recruits waiting at the Stage Coach.
  2. Set the resolve level to 6 (48 experience in Darkest, 40 in Radiant), the weapon and armour levels to 5, and use All skills to rank 5.
  3. Under Combat skills, pick the four skills each one takes along, and under Camping skills the four they use at camp.
  4. Set stress to 0, remove the negative quirks and lock the good ones, and clear any affliction or disease.
  5. On the Trinkets tab add what your plan needs and equip it in the Hamlet.
  6. On the Estate tab give the party enough gold for provisions.

Try the fight

  • Bring the supplies a normal quest needs; a rehearsal that skips provisions teaches the wrong lessons.
  • If you save mid-dungeon, the Expedition tab lets you set the torchlight and the party’s bag, and the Heroes tab sets their health.
  • Learn the boss’s pattern, which skills move the party, and what stress does at its worst, then take that plan to the real campaign.

This is for your own offline single-player play. A party with everything at the top will beat the fight on stats alone, so lower the numbers if you want a true test. The editor makes no backups and edits are at your own risk.

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