In Darkest Dungeon 2, players assemble a party of 4 playable Heroes to journey to The Mountain. Heroes are divided into classes, defining their appearance and abilities. As of the latest update, the game features 12 controllable heroes.
Here’s our tier list classifying all 12 heroes from best to worst. Please note that tier lists can be subjective and an indication of individual playstyle and preferences. Do feel free to experiment with different characters when you play the game.
S-Tier
#1 Man-at-Arms (Unlocks at start)
Man-at-Arms.. the man himself! What an excellent utility hero he is. Such a reliable tank and that too with consistent damage output and good stun potential. His drawbacks are minimal, in fact his biggest and only drawback is his slow speed. This makes setting up taunts a bit challenging, because he acts at the end of the first round.
While Man-at-Arms isn’t the most damaging hero, he has impressive self-sustain with his Crush ability. His stun and daze abilities, like Rampart, are quite powerful. Though, some of his more advanced abilities, such as Courageous Abandon, don’t seem to be as effective as they could be.
Man-at-Arms can also be played as a support character in the backline using abilities like Command, Bolster, and Defender. However, this role feels a bit weak compared to his tank role. Despite this, his overall utility is great, and he is the second-best stress healer in the game, with a very reliable stress heal that is almost on par with Jester’s.
Considering his strengths and versatility, he is a top-tier character. He is highly effective and can be played in almost any run with good results.
#2 HighwayMan (Unlocks at start)
Highwayman is a good character overall with consistent damage output. Even though his damage is crazy high outside of the Sharp Shot ability, it still remains reliably good.
The Yellow Hand path, while not as strong in terms of combat effectiveness, is considered fun to play and a favorite among many players. As enemies gain more abilities, Highwayman’s ability to steal tokens becomes more valuable. The character has good utility, being able to steal tokens, defend himself, dodge, and block. He also has a stun ability and can reach various enemies.
However, his damage ceiling is lower than some other damage-dealing characters like Hellion and Leper. Despite this, Highwayman is consistently good at dealing damage and can carry the damage load for a team. All of his paths are considered pretty good, making him a solid pick that fits into most teams and performs well. Definitely a top-tier hero.
#3 Bounty Hunter (Unlocks at Altar of Hope)
Bounty Hunter, a strong character with solid tank-iness and good base stats is easily a top-tier hero. He is so good on his own that you don’t really have to worry about relationships.
He is really strong in regions 1 and 2. In the 3rd region, other characters catch up in power, but his damage remains consistent. There’s no doubt that other heroes like Highwayman, Helene, Leper, can perhaps hit harder than him, but Bounty Hunter’s stuns, (Uppercut, No Escape) are perhaps more valuable. Plus they require no setup!
Overall a really good character in the game who is highly recommended in regions 1 and 2, as he is guaranteed to be stronger than other heroes in your party (if not the strongest).
A-Tier
#4 Plague Doctor (Unlocks at start)
The Plague Doctor is versatile and can deal a lot of damage, either through constant damage-over-time (DOT) effects or by dealing heavy damage with an attack called “Incision“. This attack is notable for its raw damage and bleed effect.
Plague Doctor is also the most reliable healer in the game, able to consistently heal her teammates. She used to be the most reliable stress healer as well but has since been nerfed. Nevertheless, she remains a powerful character.
The main limitation of Plague Doctor is her positioning requirement. She needs to be in the backline to make the best use of her abilities. If she is put in the frontline, her effectiveness is significantly reduced.
In addition to her damage and healing capabilities, Plague Doctor has some great utility skills. She can provide positive tokens, daze, stun, and blind her enemies, making her very effective in various situations.
Overall, Plague Doctor is a popular choice for both new and experienced players and easily classifies as a top-tier hero. She is frequently included in successful runs due to her consistent healing, damage output, and utility abilities.
#5 Jester (Unlocks at Altar of Hope)
Jester is a very effective character. The main reason for his effectiveness is the ability called “Encore“, which can essentially be any other move in the game, giving Jester a lot of versatility. Additionally, when using Encore, the character doesn’t take damage over time and reduces the cooldown on other moves, allowing for more actions in less time.
Besides Encore, Jester has decent movement and combo potential with abilities such as “Fade to Black” and “Razer’s Wood”, which provide solid bleed effects.
Jester has the best single-target stress heal and the ability “Harvest” that removes tokens and applies bleeds to enemies. Other abilities, like “Finale” and “Echoing March“, deal heavy damage, especially when set up properly.
Jester is a high skill cap character, meaning it takes skill to play him effectively. The character has different paths that are all good: “Virtuoso” enhances Jester’s abilities, “Soloist” offers solid damage but requires caution, and “Intermezzo” is a fun path that makes “Echoing March” a powerful damage skill.
Overall, Jester is a fun and powerful character in the game and can be conveniently ranked as at top-tier hero.
#6 Vestal (Unlocks at Altar of Hope)
Vestal, a relatively new hero to DD2 performs well both in support and damage-dealing (DPS) roles.
Feel free to position her at various ranks within the team. Her playstyle revolves around choosing the right skills to use during combat encounters. Vestal has low speed and longer cooldowns, but her unique Conviction token can make some skills more powerful as it stacks up.
Her key skills include Consecration of Fortitude, Consecration of Light, and Sanctuary. These skills grant positive tokens like Strength, Crit, Dodge, Block, or Guarded to the team, allowing her to build up Conviction tokens and use them on powerful skills like Mace Bash (for dealing damage) or Divine Grace (for healing teammates).
When placed in positions 3 and 4, Vestal excels at supporting her team by using Consecration of Fortitude, Consecration of Light, and Ministrations. This allows her to build up Conviction tokens, which can then be used to make Divine Grace heal for 50% HP or make Judgement deal +100% damage and apply a 4 burn token status effect when it crits, potentially taking out multiple enemies.
If positioned in positions 1 and 2, Vestal can use Hand of Light to grant Strength to herself and her team. When she has three Conviction tokens, she can use Mace Bash to deal significant damage to the enemy team.
Some people may disagree but Vestal is definitely a top-tier hero.
#7 Hellion (Unlocks at Altar of Hope)
Hellion is a hero that seems to have some serious issues. Case in point – several of her moves like “Barbaric YAWP!” and “Breakthrough” don’t get used much at all. Her bleed skills are also hindered by positional dependency. “If it bleeds” can only be used from positions 2 and 3, while “bleed out” is only usable from position 1.
Hellion is typically played in position 1, where many of her helpful abilities are based. She does have a trinket that helps in position 2, but it’s rare for her to stay in that position. One way to get rid of the “winded” status is by using the “Toe to Toe” ability.
Playing Hellion as a “wanderer” might be the best way to utilize her, as she can deal raw damage with abilities like “howling end“, “Toe to Toe“, and “Wicked Hack“. However, this playstyle might feel boring and lackluster.
Overall, a pretty decent mid-to-top tier hero, who could have been placed higher if she was a little easier to fit easily into any different team compositions.
B-Tier
#8 Flagellant (Unlocks at Altar of Hope)
Flagellant is a unique hero because he performs better when he’s taking damage and is at low health. His abilities often harm himself while dealing damage to enemies or healing his party members.
When Flagellant is at critical health, called “Death’s Door”, he can gain various buffs, although it’s risky due to his low HP. Instead of causing bleeding damage over time (DoTs), Flagellant’s abilities now revolve around inflicting Blight on enemies.
Flagellant can serve as both a support and damage-per-second (DPS) hero. His Blight abilities can deal damage to enemies while he provides regeneration and heals his party members.
One of his notable abilities is “Suffer,” which allows him to remove Blight, Bleed, and Burn effects from a party member and take them on himself. This helps Flagellant reach Death’s Door more quickly and gain buffs. Another ability, “Lash’s Gift”, restores some of Flagellant’s HP and buffs a party member’s strength and defenses.
The “Deathless” skill allows Flagellant to heal a party member at the cost of his own HP. On the whole, Flag is an average mid-tier hero who you may enjoy playing if you have a rather high-risk and unconventional playstyle.
#9 Runaway (Unlocks at Altar of Hope)
Runaway isn’t the best damage dealer or damage-over-time (DOT) dealer, but she’s quite versatile. She can play as either a frontline or a backline character and can heal her teammates. Some of her abilities are really amazing in the game, such as an upgraded smokescreen and a self-heal ability. Unique to Runaway, she can heal characters who are bleeding at any level of health, which is a valuable skill since bleed is common in the game.
Runaway is fun to play and adaptable, but mastering her abilities requires a bit more nuance than other characters. Some of her abilities, like “Firestarter” and “Backdraft“, are niche and require a specific team composition or a build centered around them to be effective.
Overall, Runaway can be considered a low-tier character. She’s enjoyable to play and can fit into most team compositions, but she doesn’t excel at any particular aspect of the game. Her unique ability to burn enemies effectively sets her apart from other heroes.
#10 Leper (Unlocks at Altar of Hope)
The thing about Leper is that in order to maximize his potential, you need to build a team that is able to work well with him. If you party is out of sync with him, the Leper can become more of a burden than an asset. When played as a tank, the Leper is easier to manage since you don’t have to worry as much about his blind. But if you want to use him as a damage dealer, you need to work hard to establish synergies with other characters.
The Leper has a few abilities that are not as useful, and some require significant setup to be effective. Despite this, he is good at taking down bosses when set up correctly. However, he does suffer from being limited to positions one and two in the lineup, as he cannot work in positions three or four.
In summary, the Leper is a character that requires a lot of setup and a team tailored to work around him effectively. When played correctly, he can be fun and contribute to the team’s success, but his limitations in positioning and the need for team synergy can make him challenging to utilize.
C-Tier
#11 Grave Robber (Unlocks at start)
Thanks to her inconsistent combo token system and low base damage, Grave Robber should actually be the worst hero in the game. But luckily for her, the Occultist takes that spot.
Grave Robber has several abilities that aren’t very effective. For example, “Pick to the Face” has a good crit chance but doesn’t guarantee results, while “Thrown Dagger” isn’t good without mastery. “Flashing Daggers” is only okay for using tokens. Which probably makes “Darts” her best damage move.
She has two strong self-heals, but some abilities like “Lunge” and “Pirouette” are not as effective as they should be. The character’s paths (Dead Eye, Venom Drop, and Night Sworn) help improve her abilities, but she is still largely ineffective due to weak base skills.
The stacking stealth tokens are good, but it’s hard to get into stealth consistently without trinkets. Overall, she will remain a lower-tier hero until the base power is buffed to make her a more viable character in the game.
#12 Occultist (Unlocks at Altar of Hope)
Ah, the Occultist! Another fun-to-play but hard-to-master hero (due to his nuanced abilities). He comes with versatile base stats, with abilities like Abyssal Artillery, Demon’s Pull, and various cursing abilities that can weaken and make enemies vulnerable. He’s also a secondary healer in the game, with his healing ability being health-dependent.
But he brings drawbacks too, too many of them. His healing ability, for instance, can sometimes result in a zero heal bleed, which can be quite dangerous for teammates. With regards to positioning though, Occultist is versatile and can be effectively used in the frontline and other positions.
Some of Occultist’s abilities, like Malediction and Amnesis, are supposed to be strong but suffer from taking too much time to set up and not dealing enough damage. His Unchecked Power mechanic can be hard to set up and doesn’t always provide a significant payoff. And so, in comparison to other characters’ abilities, Occultist’s abilities can often feel less rewarding for the effort required.
All these drawbacks, sadly make him the lowest-tier hero.
That’s it. Let me know what you thought about this tier list. Agreements, disagreements, and criticism are all equally welcome. Do you have your own Hero Tier List? Please share in the comments section below.
