Part 6: Overview: The Warrens
The WarrensOur top-of-the-line sewage structure will ensure the cleanliness of this land
Man, its been a long time since I did a proper info-post, so let's talk about the festering pile of disease and awful things known as the Warrens. The focus of this area is on Beast enemies, namely pig-men and carrion feeders, and both of them are rife with awful biological agents. Combat in this zone will mainly involve dealing with all the blight and disease these enemies throw at you, along with a little bit of bleed from the Pig Butcher, so a Plague Doctor is recommended in general but you can also bring a Graverobber to deal with the disease. Enemies here are also susceptible to bleed here; with all these beasts here a Houndmaster is highly recommended since he'll make short work of all the pigs, however classes like the Highwayman, the Hellion, the Jester, and the Bounty Hunter all have good bleeds for exploiting the weaknesses prevalent in this area. In terms of curio loadouts, I would recommend bringing more torches than normal for one specific curio, alongside a bunch of Medical Herbs & Bandages for the curios here, and maybe some Antivenoms if you are short a plague doctor and hate all the blight.
Exclusive Enemies:
Swine Chopper (Threat Level: Medium)-I have a hard time classifying threat levels in the Warrens, mainly because with recent updates the other areas feel way more threatening in general and it throws me off. The Swine Chopper is this area's common tanky unit, hogging the front lines with some medium prot levels and some hefty crowd control. His main attack is Butcher Chop, which does decent damage alongside some bleed damage to the front row. His other attack is Ball & Chain, which does light damage but is designed to stun and move the back rows around. The guy does a decent amount of damage and is rather durable, however he doesn't have any presence compared to some of the other enemies you fight in this game. I usually save him for last since there are more pressing matters in this area.
Swine Drummer (Threat Level: Low)-A general rule in Darkest Dungeon is that the back rows are threats that should be addressed ASAP. The Swine Drummer is that exception. This is an enemy designed to compliment other enemies in this dungeon, however in execution it doesn't really work that well. He has two attacks: his first attack being Drums of Doom is a full-party stress attack that has a roughly 3/4th chance to do....pitiful stress damage to everyone. His other ability is Drums of Debilitation, which marks a party member and reduces their dodge level. Now naturally the last attack sounds threatening but there's only one enemy in the Warrens that does more damage with a mark and Drummers very rarely work with that specific enemy, they are often with the other pig-soldiers. Feel free to ignore him in general, he doesn't do much at all.
A note: usually I get enemy name & attack info from the Darkest Dungeon wiki, however for this enemy specifically they either got the names mixed up or just haven't updated the names properly. I'm basing the attack names on episode 30 in my LP because the wiki listing makes no sense.
Swine Slasher (Threat Level: High)-A very simple enemy that is very threatening, the Swine Slasher has one job but man does he do it well. This guy not only comes with a high level of Dodge in general but he also comes with some light PROT, so killing him is somewhat of a trial in general. The beast only has one attack, Hook where it Hurts, but it does a high amount of damage alongside a high amount of crit chance, but it also moves him back one space so he often gets out of the range of most front-line damage dealers. This thing is a huge headache with how often it crits and I would highly recommend killing it first.
Swine Wretch (Threat Level: HATE)-The swine folk are very simple enemies that do what they do best. The Swine Wretch is the perfect example of this. He has high DODGE and is typically found in the back rows, so its a bit hard to address in general. His one attack is Vomit, which does moderate stress damage but also has a 33% chance to inflict any disease. This becomes a huge pain since the Wretch often comes in pairs so stress damage piles up and then you get some awful disease like The Black Plague or The Worries and everything just becomes awful. Kill these guys first, they are the absolute worst.
Carrion Eater (Threat Level: Medium)-This enemy feels weirdly out of place compared to all the PIG in the warrens, but it kinda makes sense in context of all the flesh down here. The Carrion Eater is another very simple enemy that does its one job well. He comes with average dodge chance and a high stun resist, so its hard to lock this thing down. His only attack is Munch, which does decent damage along with a light Blight DoT, however this is the one of two enemies in the Warrens that deals more damage on a marked target. The Carrion Eater sounds simple enough, however I list him as a medium threat just because he gets super mean in the late-game.
Curios & Effects
Bone Altar-There's a lot of macabre curios in the Warrens, and a lot of them are somewhat unclear of what to do with them. The Bone Altar is one of those curios that always messes with me. You don't need to have any items to make this "safe," because interacting with it in general will give a hero a buff to Damage, Accuracy and Crit Rate until you camp. This curio's great, often time I either save it for bosses after I camp or use it in a mission and never camp at all.
Dinner Cart-Well this thing's disgusting, its just a melted pile of human flesh in a cart for the pigs to enjoy. Interacting with it in general will give you an equal chance of getting food and loot, a blight proc, The Black Plague, or nothing at all. Rubbing Medicinal Herbs on it though will guarantee some treasure drops along with a stack of food. Which is probably human flesh. Enjoy your cannibalism you horrible monsters.
Also a note: Anyone with the Tapeworm disease or Sitiomania will have a high chance of auto-examining this, along with a lot of other curios in this area.
Makeshift Dining Table-The Makeshift Dining Table is roughly the same as the Dinner Cart with a few minor tweaks: It offers less gold drops in general and gives more food, and rather than giving you The Black Plague by raw interacting with it, you instead can get Tapeworm here. Much like the Dinner Cart, you can rub Medicinal Herbs on them in order to guarantee the gold and food stack, so enjoy your human steaks with a side of rubies.
Moonshine Barrel-The Moonshine Barrel is another curio that I often hope to find in a dungeon. Interacting with it raw gives you a low chance at treasure, and equal chance at nothing, and a high chance of either getting a blight proc or becoming a Tippler. Putting some Medicinal Herbs in it however will purify it and give you a 30% damage buff until you camp. Much like the Bone Altar, this is a curio that makes your life super easy down here.
Occult Scrawlings-This disgusting little curio is one I almost never interact with. Doing a raw interaction will result in either a random positive or negative quirk, some stress damage, or absolutely nothing. You can pour some Holy Water on it, but this is a bad idea because its one of the few item interactions that is detrimental to you, actively reducing your dodge chance by a boatload. I never bother with these, there's no real incentive to it since you can get positive quirks rather easily in general.
Pile of Bones-The Pile of Bones is a curio that I never prepare for, just because I rarely think its worth it. A normal interaction will result in an equal chance of cash, nothing, a random disease, or a negative quirk themed around the black arts. Pouring some Holy Water on it though will guarantee you a good amount of money. The thing about this curio is that I feel like it rarely spawns, so I almost never bring Holy Water with me down to the Warrens. I would recommend you do so though if you want to get some cash, I just always forget about this specific curio.
Pile of Scrolls-Now this is the big reason why I ever go to the Warrens. The Pile of Scrolls can be a godsend depending on how you interact with it. Rubbing your face on it will either result, in descending chance: Scouting Chance, Nothing, Stress Damage, a random positive quirk or a random negative quirk. However, burning the scrolls with a Torch will purge a negative quirk from the hero that interacted with it. This is a great and cheap, albeit rare way to remove negative quirks, and honestly worth bringing more torches down here than usual to fix your idiots.
Rack of Blades-The Rack of Blades is a weirdly out of place curio to me, mainly because of its interactions. Touching it unprotected with either give you gold and food (somehow), give you a nasty gash for a bleed proc, or nothing at all. However wrapping your hands in Bandages will protect you from the blades somehow and guarantee you a good stack of gold and food. I bring about 2-3 bandages down in the warrens just because this curio in particular is relatively common and worth the conversion.
Sacrificial Stone-The Sacrificial Stone is a huge risk-reward gamble, and there's no way you can make it safe. There's a 50:50 chance of the interaction being bad; the bad interaction being +50 stress, while the good interactions are either a purged negative quirk or either the Explorer or Scrounger perk for the Warrens. I probably should use this curio more often because the positives are relatively powerful, however I don't like the huge hit to stress damage in this area where stress damage can get rather hefty.
A note: I can't find any documentation on this, but once upon a time I swear you could throw your firewood on this to guarantee one of the three positive benefits. This would've been a better risk/reward choice for medium/long dungeons since you'd have to give up camping buffs for a more permanent choice. As I mentioned though, this got patched out at some time and I can't find any evidence to support this ever happening so maybe I'm just going crazy.