With the arrival of The Crimson Court DLC, Darkest Dungeon just got a whole lot bloodier — and not just because of the vampires! The new Flagellant hero class is based around self-mutilation and getting people bleeding. The more blood, the more damage he deals!
Below we cover everything you need to know to build a party around this new class. Just getting started with Crimson Court? Check out our basic guide to starting the DLC, or take a look at all the new curios and achievements you can unlock along your journey.
Flagellant Stats
Your base stats for the flagellant are sad in the extreme, starting out with 22 HP due to the Sinner’s Flesh “armor” and a base damage of 3 – 6 with a 2.5% chance of a critical hit using the Hand Fashioned Flail.
Really pathetic, right? It’s way lower than any of your more reliable damage dealers like the Crusader, Leper, or Highwayman. That’s where his skills come into play, though (see below). As the Flagellant takes damage and steals negative effects from party members, his power grows.
Of course, you can also increase health and damage by heading to the blacksmith for upgrades. I’m not sure how the blacksmith is exactly upgrading his flesh, but apparently it works out somehow (and is probably quite painful).
Weapon Upgrades
- Level 1 weapon: 4 – 7 damage, 3% crit chance
- Level 2 weapon: 2 – 8 damage, 3.5% crit chance
- Level 3 weapon: 5 – 10 damage, 4% crit chance
- Level 4 weapon: 5 – 11 damage, 4.5% crit chance
Armor Upgrades
- Level 1 armor: HP 26, defense 5%
- Level 2 armor: HP 30, defense 10%
- Level 3 armor: HP 34, defense 15%
- Level 4 armor: HP 38, defense 20%
Upgrading The Flagellant’s Flesh
Flagellant Skills And Party Builds
The Flagellant’s best position — regardless of which skills you have active — is in the first or second spot of the lineup, and everything the Flagellant does is based around the Suffer skill and having low health.
To make this skill work, someone else in the party needs to be bleeding, blighted, or marked — so areas where those skills aren’t used often by enemies make the Flagellant less useful to put in a group. Thankfully in the Courtyard you’ll all be bleeding all the time, so he’s tailor-made for the DLC area.
Suffer takes an affliction off another hero and transfers it to the Flagellant… and then increases his Protection and Death Blow resistance. Despite the fact that he’ll be taking damage every round, he’ll actually be harder to kill.
Unfortunately, you can’t use Suffer on enemies — which seems like an oversight, since several of the Flagellant’s skills cause bleed.
Suffering for a friend
Now that you’re properly suffering, its time to take some damage, because the Flagellant works best when at low health. The Exansanguinate attack, for instance, can only be used if below half his total HP. He also gets a large bonus to damage and critical hit chance if health is below 38%, and that stacks even further if the Flagellant has hit 100% stress and gains the unique Rapturous affliction.
With the increase to damage and critical chance, you’ll be dealing significantly more damage than the pathetic base 3 – 6 per hit. But what if you’re all healed up and not in peak suffering form? Keep Rain Of Sorrows in your skill lineup as a fall back measure. It does next to no damage, but causes bleeding on enemies while you wait a turn or two.
+45% damage and +60% protection makes him your new tank
Ideal Party & Trinkets for the Flagellant
When building a party around a Flagellant, it’s a good idea to have an Occultist in the group, since that hero offers the healing of the Vestal with more versatility. The Occultist’s Wyrd Reconstruction skill causes bleeding while also healing — meaning you don’t have to wait for an enemy to cause a bleed effect to get the Flagellant powered up.
When picking trinkets for your Flagellant, the Book Of Rage is a killer addition, since it doesn’t matter that it reduces your bleed resist, but gives even bigger damage and critical hit bonuses when beneath 33% health. A very rare Flagellant-only trinket released with the DLC even further increases his Death Blow resistance, so equip those as soon as you find them.
Forget diamonds – a Book Of Rage is a Flagellant’s best friend!
On Death’s Door But Not Dying
Like with the Abomination, there’s a balancing act at play while using this hero. The Redeem and Exansguinate skills lower your damage and health — meanwhile Suffer, low health, and the Rapturous affliction increase stats.
Besides the fact that the Flagellant will frequently be stealing afflictions from other members of the party, he can also randomly start bleeding just when walking through the dungeon. He’s pretty much always going to be losing health unless you’ve invested in a ton of bandages — and you shouldn’t, because you want him damaged most of the time.
Being at low health isn’t a negative though, since this hero starts with 73% resistance to Death Blow, so you can pretty well keep him at death’s door constantly. Remember that as long as a hero has at least 1 HP, a single attack can’t kill them — it will only knock them back to death’s door, and another attack (or bleed damage) is required to cause a Death Blow.
In other words, so long as you have a supply of food and any hero who can reliably heal 1 HP, you can keep your Flagellant near dead, dealing tons of damage, and very rarely actually die.
Who needs blood and health? Not the Flagellant, that’s for sure.
Now that you know the basics, you can head out with a Flagellant-focused team and cause some mayhem! What’s your preferred skill loadout, and what party lineup do you find most effective to base around this hero? Let me know in the comments! And be sure to check out the rest of our Darkest Dungeon guides for more help with the game.
