The Deacon is the second level difficulty big bad when it comes to Cultist battles in Darkest Dungeon 2. He’s got a lot of HP and a viscous AoE attack that can quickly cripple your team. If you’re having trouble beating the Deacon and his cohort of Cultists, here’s how you can defeat him in Darkest Dungeon 2.
How to Beat the Deacon in Darkest Dungeon 2
If you’ve tried to beat this baddie before you’ll have noticed that the Altar, along with a Cherub or Herald, keep him well buffed and healthy throughout the whole battle. The key to taking down the Deacon isn’t actually focused on the Deacon. It’s to take out his supporting allies first, allowing you to stack damage without it being instantly healed.
Take Out the Altar
The Altar pumps the most healing, buffs and Regen onto the Deacon out of all the other Cultists. Really, it has no other purpose besides buffing its allies. You’ll want to focus on it first to avoid having an damage you deal negated.
If you can’t reach the back line right away, a great strategy to use is changing the enemy positions. Whether you use a skill, such as the Man-at-Arms Knockback, or a Combat Item like Thunderclap Grenade, you want the Altar to get to the first position. That’ll render it as useless as possible, as well as disrupt the other ally’s skills.
Once the Altar is out of position, hit it with all you’ve got. Its HP will range depending on the Confession, but it’s weak to Blight and Burn. It’s a bit more resistant to Bleed but it’s not impossible to inflict it.
After the Altar is defeated, focus your attention to the other Cultist ally that the Deacon has. Hopefully it’ll still be out of position and unable to Worship the Deacon. You need to get rid of all allies before focusing your attention on the Deacon.
Battling the Deacon
The Deacon has a decent amount of health that you can quickly get through once the other Cultists are dealt with. He can inflict large amounts of Bleed with his Flesh from Bone skill, as well as immobilize your team with Weight of Worlds. You’ll want to have someone focusing on Stress heal, as most of his skills inflict anywhere from 1 to 5 Stress an attack.
To take out the Deacon, utilize DoT damage as he is only 20 resistant to Bleed, Blight and Burn. Having someone that can consistently Crit for large amounts of damage will bring him to Death’s Door quickly. He’s not even that resistant to Deathblow so just keep stacking on the damage until you’ve achieved victory.
That’s the best way to defeat the Deacon in DD2. While the Deacon may deal the damage, defeating him is all about taking out his support first. For more battle assistance, check out our growing library of guides for Darkest Dungeon 2.
