However, heroes that become virtuous will instead, upon reaching 200 stress, have their virtue removed and stress reset back to 40. Upon reaching 200 stress, a character will suffer from a heart attack and will either enter Death's Door or, if already on Death's Door, die outright. Virtuous heroes reset their Stress level to 40-45. Virtuous heroes enjoy one of several possible combat buffs and will occasionally also trigger additional effects at the start of their turn depending on the virtue gained, such as healing themselves or buffing their allies. A hero with 100 or more stress must be either Virtuous or Afflicted if something would cause their stress to exceed 100, their resolve is immediately tested.Īfflicted heroes will often disobey the player's commands and will hinder the mission by inflicting additional stress damage on themselves and the party, potentially dragging their comrades along in their path to madness. The stress bar is a gauge from 0 to 200, with a threshold at 100 stress points: once this level of stress is reached, the hero will either gain an affliction, or (small chance) will become virtuous instead. Stress persists on the heroes, rendering treatment mandatory in order to make use of a stressed hero again without heavy drawbacks, and making difficult decisions such as retreating from a failing expedition more grave, as fleeing from fights and missions also stresses out the heroes. When returning to the Hamlet, stress levels are capped to 100. Unlike combat damage, stress is not fully healed when finishing a mission. Many negative quirks will increase the amount of stress suffered by a hero in certain situations, as will the drawbacks of many trinkets. Heavy stress damage will also be applied, together with health damage, when failing to satiate a hungry party, when removing obstacles without the use of a shovel, or when witnessing a comrade either reach Death's Door or die. Extra stress damage is suffered if walking backwards through a corridor, when getting hit by traps, or through some interactions with curios, as well as when prolonging a fight excessively. A small amount of stress is also gained when entering a dungeon (depending on its level and the hero's resolve) and while travelling through it, and its magnitude is greatly influenced by the amount of light that the adventurers have at their disposal during any stressful event. Stress is mainly gained by fighting during expeditions, through monsters' critical strikes and some particular attacks that specialise in dealing stress damage.

Darkest dungeon stress relief