How do I play this fucking game? I started it because of a thread earlier but I have no idea what I'm doing...

how do I play this fucking game? I started it because of a thread earlier but I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm on week 11 but it feels like I'm getting weaker instead of stronger. I haven't had anyone die yet but all my characters are either stressed, diseased, or piled with crippling quirks, and I don't have enough money to fix them.

The two at top are the only ones significantly stressed, and Reynauld only barely. GR and PD can both cure diseases when camping, bring them on medium missions. Escort an antiquarian for some easy cash. Do you know how to use curios? What quirks do you define as "crippling?" Most are relatively harmless.

Shit you find in dungeons doesn't have to be random, use items like holy water on stuff for unexpected (most often) positive effects.

Don't bother spending money on stress relief unless they have 50+ of it.

Hire an antiquarian and take her to short dungeons for a quick buck. Use her to interact with everything for extra cash.

Lv1 or 2 heroes are expendable and don't deserve any upgrades whatsoever, waste of money.

Don't let Reynauld's kleptomania settle in.

also, a helpful guide

Play Slay the Spire instead. It's actually fun.

>Don't let Reynauld's kleptomania settle in

Everyone always says this but its always locked in on like the second expedition I take him on in every play through.

I don't know I have a bunch of characters with cove phobia so I can't take them to the cove, and I didn't remove reynauld's kleptomania so it has the skull icon next to it which I assume is bad. I've only been doing short missions since I've barely getting through them most of the time and I thought medium would be too hard.

how do I know what item to use on what thing? if my characters die won't I just have to replace them anyway?

You should only take him on the first ruins trip because you have to, then let him sit on the bench until you unlock the sanitarium.

>how do I know
You try to guess what would make sense. After one successful attempt, the game will remember it and show you a helpful icon next time.
Or just look it up in a wiki, nobody is going to stop you.

>I don't know I have a bunch of characters with cove phobia so I can't take them to the cove

Don't even bother about that for short missions. For apprentice/veteran level short/medium dungeons you shouldn't be getting their stress up at all unless you fuck up, the difference should be negligible. Kleptomania doesn't trigger all the time so it's not that bad, locked quirks are just very pricey to remove. You'll get town events allowing you to use the sanitarium for free, use that to remove the really troublesome quirks.

>I've only been doing short missions since I've barely getting through them most of the time

So then we need to talk about party composition, what skills you're using, and what you're doing with curios. Once you have the basics down the game really isn't difficult until the champion level dungeons which fuck everything.

>how do I know what item to use on what thing?

Here's a hint: emphasize taking holy water in the ruins, antivenom in the weald, medicinal herbs in the warrens, shovels in the cove. The game will remind you what the effects of any item were once you've used it.

I did a few dummy runs to experiment and learn the game for a couple hours before I started a proper file. It's got a steep learning curve so you just have to figure shit out and use guides to teach yourself how to play and which enemies do what so you can prioritize in fights.
>not naming your estate Bonertown

I hit 100 stress a couple times because of some enemy that kept raising it and wouldn't die fast enough and another time because I ran out of food and then had to get through a wall without a shovel. how much provisions should I be bringing with me? sometimes I take 8 food and still have some left over at the end, but other times I take 12 and it's still not enough.

I pretty much use whatever 4 characers have the lowest stress and aren't doing something in town, but I try to at least have someone who can heal.

>mfw killed wilbur first

> Antistress Bleedwall team not mentioned
How? Vestal Jester Flagellant Hellion is tip fucking top tier. 0 stress maximum bleeds maximum heals plus 3/4 stuns

how important is upgrading equipment? will upgrading armor compensate for the -10% hp from all the diseases my characters have?

>see swine king has a little pig behind him
>i should probably focus that down
>iron swan that shit on turn one
>crit and blow it up
>awesome this fight is gonna be super easy now
>king starts spamming the whole party
>DONT HIT THE LITTLE ONE
>mfw its already dead and I know I have made a huge mistake
>keep fighting anyway
>use healing only on people who are already on deaths door, spam guards, etc.
>every round at least one party member will be hit on deaths door no matter how hard I mitigate
>LEAVE THE LITTLE ONE ALONE
>get to the point where my healer got stunned, already on deaths door
>the rest of the party gets hit
>everyone is on deaths door
>LEAVE THE SMALL ONE ALONE
>have to decide on whether I should try to meme him down or somehow mitigate through another round.
>fuck it lets kill him
>hellion hits
>M@A hits
>occultist hits
>hwm misses
>mfw
>boss hits everybody while they are on deaths door
>they all somehow lived
>HE DOES HIS SECOND ATTACK
>THEY ALL STILL SOMEHOW LIVE
>finish him off dripping with sweat

guys, don't kill wilbur first.

I think I might be the only person in existence who didn't get baited by that little shit.

>how much provisions should I be bringing with me?
Here is what i usually do.
Short: 8 torches, 16 food, one skelly key (for those hidden rooms that give mad dosh) and the rest depends on the destination. Lots of holy water for ruins, herbs for cove and warrens, antivenom for weald. Bandages are pretty good everywhere.
Medium: 16 torches, 24~ food, one skelly key.
Long: 24 torches, 30+ food, one skelly key. Just bring even more of the other essentials for the destination.
It might seem like an overabundance of food, but sometimes the hunger checks fucks you over. If they don't, well then your guys can have a feast when camping for a nice heal and some stress relief. Better safe than sorry.

You'll figure out some good comps along the way. I personally like to have a healer and a stress healer in my comp for medium/long dungeons.

how do you find hidden rooms? is food the only item that can heal you out of battle?

Whenever you enter a new room there is a chance that you will scout ahead. You must have seen this. It shows curios and battles ahead. Sometime you will find a hidden room, which will appear as a gold star on your map. There wont be a door, but you can still enter the room. Use the key on the chest in that room. Scouting chance can be raised by quirks, trinkets and some camping skills.

Some curios can heal you, if you apply the right thing to them.

so it shows up on the map? I thought it would be some shit where you have to randomly hump the wall to find an invisible door.

>so it shows up on the map?
Yes

what about shovels? what does laudnum even do?

Some enemies can do stress DoT. Laudanum is for it.

Oh yeah shovels are super important. I always bring four, no matter the length of the dungeon. They can also be used on certain curios for loot. Laudnum heals stress dots. Not really worth it, except maybe in cove on champion difficulty. There is a guy who plays some mad tunes there.

Laudanum cures a status called horror. Little black skull on your bar. It's like blight/bleed only instead of health it does stress damage.
Also bring shovels everywhere except warrens and DD. Weald has graves, cove has clams, ruins has those glass cabinets and CC has potted plants.
And they all have obstructions.