History DemonicSpiders / DarkestDungeon

* Pictured above: Spiders (Webbers and Spitters), even if they're not necessarily Demonic. They have very low health and are able to be one-shot by most attacks, but they also have a decent dodge stat and both types can inflict Blight. The true demonic-ness comes when you have both together: Webbers can mark targets and stun them at the same time with Web, Spitters have a ''tremendously'' increased base damage and crit chance on Spit against a marked target[[note]]enough to bring the flimsier hero classes from full health to Death's Door on a crit[[/note]]. Both kinds also have Bite, an attack similar to Spit that also hits Marked targets harder, but it's considerably less powerful and reasonably inaccurate. Web also inflicts a speed debuff, letting the Spiders act before the poor target can raise a finger to defend themselves. A team of 2 Webbers and 2 Spitters often results in one hero getting Stunned and Marked, followed by the whole group ganging up on them and quickly putting them to Death's Door. If that hero's still standing with low health, the residual blight damage would finish the job.

* Bone Captains, encountered at level three and up in the Ruins, are gigantic armored skeletons wielding huge maces. They have a single target smash (Crushing Blow) that can hit anyone in your formation and easily deal 50% of a hero's health if they're not a Leper or Crusader; on top of that, it lowers stun resist. Its second attack (GroundPound) hits your entire team for medium damage but with a considerable stun chance. That's right, ''a full party stun''. Thankfully, it's rare that more than one hero gets stunned unless they were hit by Crushing Blow beforehand and the debuff stuck.

* The Gnashers in the Weald. These buggers have low health, but ridiculously high dodge, meaning you WILL miss about 75% of your attacks unless you've specced for accuracy; meanwhile their own accuracy is high as well, so they'll almost never miss theirs. Their attacks don't hit all that hard, but inflict bleeding that stacks on subsequent attacks, meaning your party will take heavy damage-over-time if the fight drags out (which, due to above mentioned dodge ratings, it often will), and they ALWAYS attack in packs of 3-4 unless they're together with other monsters. The worst part? Their speed is so ridiculous that the entire pack will almost always get the first turns, meaning going in strong will leave you battered and going in weak will end you. You can go into this fight with a party in perfect condition and just barely survive the DeathOfAThousandCuts. They also have a chance of inflicting Rabies on every hit, a disease that greatly reduces accuracy in exchange for more damage, which makes hitting them even more of a painful task.
* Although Swine Choppers are rather bog-standard Warrens enemies that simply hit reasonably hard and take a fair bit of punishment, their Veteran and Champion versions (Swine Reavers and Swine Slayers) get worse for one reason: Their basic attack now inflicts a ''Healing-reduction debuff''. In two to three hits, a single character '''cannot be healed at all'''. In the higher-tier dungeons these guys are often accompanied by other more dangerous enemies which demand to be killed off first and quickly, so the Swine Slayers get the time to chop your units to bits, leaving them bleeding while receiving no healing.

* Many of the enemies in the Cove qualify, but arguably the worst are the default Groupers, simply because they're the most common and numerous. They have no special gimmicks, no stuns, debuffs, or bleed/blight attacks. They simply hit '''VERY''' hard from ''anywhere'' in their formation, making them immune to AIRoulette, either with a close-range slash that can hit in the 5-9 range (increasing by 50% at level 3 and again at level 5), or a slightly less nasty long-range spear attack (3-7) that can hit your back row (and pull you into melee range from level 3 and up). They like to appear in formations of 4, and if not dealt with quickly can put a ''serious'' dent in your party's health.
* The Uca Majors in the Cove also deserve special mention. They’re essentially a tank with two seriously crippling moves. Tidal Slam is a raw power attack which easily hits in the double digits and messes with team order. Worst still is Arterial Pinch. It hits for two damage. Awesome! Its a reprieve from Tidal Slam’s devastation! No. It causes bleed which causes an additional 8 damage per turn and decreases any attempts to heal the hero by 33%. Worse yet, this is a very common attack, so you’ll burn right through your bandages just to keep everyone from hitting death’s door in the next two turns.

** The Virago is another elite enemy that fits this page. She does capable damage (devastating on a crit), and is also capable of marking targets (bad news if a Fungal Scratcher is there with her). But by far her most terrible ability if From Death Comes Life, which she uses ''instantly'' if an enemy is killed and leaves a corpse (without ticking DamageOverTime or being delayed by stun either). It turns the corpse into a Necrotic Fungus, which does absolutely nothing on its own, but as long as it's on the field, ''you can't heal''. That's right, '''all healing''' is blocked when it's summoned[[note]]even the Abomination can't Transform back from Beast mode since he regains health[[/note]], and it's got a pretty hefty pool of HP to boot. The one silver lining is that if you can kill all enemies and leave two necrotic fungi, you can stress heal as long as the healer's ability doesn't also restore physical health.

* The Crimson Court DLC introduces a few:
** Essentially all enemies have a chance of inflicting the Crimson Curse, a complicated disease that can't be treated at the Sanitarium, requires "The Blood" to keep the afflicted as close to stable as possible, ''and'' giving them The Blood puts you at a MortonsFork: would you rather not deal with the increased debuffs and stress-causing chances of the craving state and end up dealing with a buffed up maniac that has the same tendency to act randomly and independently as an Afllicted hero, including attacking their own teammates, or is it more preferable to endure the craving hero's weakness and obsession until they're wasting to only then give them The Blood, at the risk of the curse's state changing during a fight? Worse still, after you complete the first Courtyard mission ''they spread to the other locations''. At least heroes with the curse are completely immune to any and all other diseases...
** Of all of the Bloodsucker classed enemies encountered, the Chevalier has attracted the most amount of dread to them. Chevaliers are tanky, backrow snipers who'll likely stay out of reach from your heavy hitters while you deal with whoever happens to be in front of them, all while lashing at your party members with heavy hitting moves like the bleed inducing Subterranean Skewer and the multi-target stun Buried Blast. They also have effective immunity to movement so you can't drag them into range of your melee hitters. The only saving grace when it comes to fighting them is that they're among the few enemies in the Crimson Court who can't heal themselves with [[LifeDrain The Thirst]], but that likely won't matter much when all of their friends are keeping them out of reach by staying alive with their own self heals. And speaking of their friends, Chevaliers are one of the few Crimson Court enemies that can show up ''anywhere''. Not only is nowhere safe from them, it's perfectly possible to find them in tandem with some of the other nasties in this same page, among other painful combinations. The one upside is that his stun resistance is ''pathetic''.
* As to be expected, the ''Color of Madness'' DLC adds a few as well:
** By the end of your first Endless run, you will have learnt to ''hate'' the Plow Horse. Though it is a GlassCannon compared to most other Large enemies, with only moderate HP and Prot, it has relatively high speed - and will almost always start the turn by stealthing itself using Paw the Ground, which prevents most of your heroes from hitting it. It then follows that up with Trample, which deals decent damage to your entire party ''and'' shuffles them, messing up your formation and likely forcing you to waste a turn on moving everybody. Its Rearing Strike is nothing to sniff at either, hitting up to two of your heroes with heavy damage, Bleed, ''and'' a stun to boot. The only occasional reprieve comes from Bestial Scream, which only deals moderate Stress damage - and even then, Stress is much harder to deal with in Endless than other dungeons.
** In most dungeons, other enemies that count as [[DemonicSpider Demonic Spiders]] will only appear once in a given formation. Not so in the Farmstead. Remember Ghouls, Unclean Giants, Brigand Bloodletters, and Bone Captains? There's a chance that you could end up fighting ''two'' of them at once now. Have fun.
** Also fun, each regular dungeon generally restricts its possible foes to its respective theme. When going into the Warrens, you know to bring a bleed team, while in the Ruins, you would generally avoid a bleed team. The Farmstead doesn’t have those restrictions, so your team has to consist of generalists or risk getting stonewalled by the mobs most resistant to their strengths.
** Enemies that can inflict diseases with their attacks go from [[GoddamnBats mere nuisance]] to insidious threat when you're doing the Endless Harvest, as it takes just one unlucky hit to infect a party member with a potentially crippling ailment for the rest of that run, unless you brought along a hero who can cure diseases during camp.

[[caption-width-right:350:''Overconfidence is a slow, insidious killer!]]

* Brigand Hunters are upgraded versions of Brigand Fusiliers, encountered in Champion-tier dungeons and the Wolves at the Door mission. Unlike Fusiliers, Hunters have a non-trivial damage output, and cause stress damage on top of that. If you run into a Hunter ''and'' a Bloodletter, as described above, prepare to see your entire party's stress skyrocket.

* Although Swine Choppers are rather bog-standard Warrens enemies that simply hit reasonably hard, their Veteran and Champion versions (Swine Reavers and Swine Slayers) get worse for one reason: Their basic attack now inflicts a ''Healing-reduction debuff''. In two to three hits, a single character '''cannot be healed at all'''. In the higher-tier dungeons these guys are often accompanied by other more dangerous enemies which demand to be killed off first and quickly, so the Swine Slayers get the time to chop your units to bits, leaving them bleeding while receiving no healing.
* The Swinetaurs in the Warrens have a ton of HP and Protection, and when Pig Spear lands, you '''will''' feel it. They're capable of causing a near-TotalPartyKill with a single good attack, and have the durability to make sure they'll at least get to cause one or two; if they don't, they'll use Boar Rush instead, a single-target attack that hits just as hard as Pig Spear, has enough knockback to sent a hero in the forefront ''all the way to the back'', AND it can and often does stun. Even if you clear the battle so they can't Trot Retreat behind anything, they still have Crunching Backhand, a double-target attack with decent damage and a mild stun chance that they'll dish out relentlessly. Even worse in the ''Pitch Black Dungeon'' mod, as Trot Retreat doesn't cost them a turn.

* The Darkest Dungeon, being TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon, is home to plenty of highly deadly enemies. But among them, none are more deadly and numerous than the Cultist Priests. Reasonably resilient and fast, Cultist Priests sport two attacks -- Death Lash mauls the front lines to reduce their Bleed resist and cause some minor Stress, and The Finger strikes any point in the formation, inflicting damage, a hefty '''6''' point bleed, and significant Stress. Within any Darkest Dungeon encounter setup, Cultist Priests easily become priority targets and have to be killed before they break both body and mind. When an encounter sports two or more of them, you know the party's not going to make out of that encounter with their Stress intact.

** Of all of the Bloodsucker classed enemies encountered, the Chevalier has attracted the most amount of dread to them. Chevaliers are tanky, backrow snipers who'll likely stay out of reach from your heavy hitters while you deal with whoever happens to be in front of them, all while lashing at your party members with heavy hitting moves like the bleed inducing Subterranean Skewer and the multi-target stun Buried Blast. The only saving grace when it comes to fighting them is that they're among the few enemies in the Crimson Court who can't heal themselves with [[LifeDrain The Thirst]], but that likely won't matter much when all of their friends are keeping them out of reach by staying alive with their own self heals. And speaking of their friends, Chevaliers are one of the few Crimson Court enemies that can show up ''anywhere''. Not only is nowhere safe from them, it's perfectly possible to find them in tandem with some of the other nasties in this same page, among other painful combinations. The one upside is that his stun resistance is ''pathetic''.

* The Gnashers in the Weald. These buggers have low health, but ridiculously high dodge, meaning you WILL miss about 75% of your attacks unless you've specced for accuracy; meanwhile their own accuracy is high as well, so they'll almost never miss theirs. Their attacks don't hit all that hard, but inflict bleeding that stacks on subsequent attacks, meaning your party will take heavy damage-over-time if the fight drags out (which, due to above mentioned dodge ratings, it often will), and they ALWAYS attack in packs of 3-4 unless they're together with other monsters. The worst part? Their speed is so ridiculous that the entire pack will almost always get the first turns, meaning going in strong will leave you battered and going in weak will end you. You can go into this fight with a party in perfect condition and just barely survive the DeathOfAThousandCuts. They also have a chance of inflicting Rabies on every hit, a disease that greatly reduces accuracy in exchange for more damage.
* Though not Demonic themselves, Spiders (Webbers and Spitters) will qualify. Much like Gnashers, they have very low health and are able to be one-shot by most attacks, but they also have a decent dodge stat and both types can inflict Blight. The true demonic-ness comes when you have both together: Webbers can mark targets and stun them at the same time with Web, Spitters have a ''tremendously'' increased base damage and crit chance on Spit against a marked target[[note]]enough to bring the flimsier hero classes from full health to Death's Door on a crit[[/note]]. Both kinds also have Bite, an attack similar to Spit that also hits Marked targets harder, but it's considerably less powerful and reasonably inaccurate. The moment one hero gets Marked, you can expect almost the entire Spider group to gang up on them, putting them to Death's Door quickly.

* Also Spiders (Webbers and Spitters). Much like Gnashers, they have very low health and are able to be one-shot by most attacks, but they also have a decent dodge stat and both types can inflict Blight. The true demonic-ness comes when you have both together: Webbers can mark targets and stun them at the same time with Web, Spitters have a ''tremendously'' increased base damage and crit chance on Spit against a marked target[[note]]enough to bring the flimsier hero classes from full health to Death's Door on a crit[[/note]]. Both kinds also have Bite, an attack similar to Spit that also hits Marked targets harder, but it's considerably less powerful and reasonably inaccurate.

** Essentially all enemies have a chance of inflicting the Crimson Curse, a complicated disease that can't be treated at the Sanitarium, requires "The Blood" to keep the afflicted as close to stable as possible, ''and'' it prevents them from benefitting from Holy Water (it goes from buffing resistances to causing Blight and debuffing the user). Worse still, after you complete the first Courtyard mission ''they spread to the other locations''.
** Of all of the Bloodsucker classed enemies encountered, the Chevalier has attracted the most amount of dread to them. Chevaliers are tanky, backrow snipers who'll likely stay out of reach from your heavy hitters while you deal with whoever happens to be in front of them, all while lashing at your party members with heavy hitting moves like the bleed inducing Subterranean Skewer and the multi-target stun Buried Blast. The only saving grace when it comes to fighting them is that they're among the few enemies in the Crimson Court who can't heal themselves with [[LifeDrain The Thirst]], but that likely won't matter much when all of their friends are keeping them out of reach by staying alive with their own self heals. And speaking of their friends, Chevaliers are one of the few Crimson Court enemies that can show up ''anywhere''. Not only is nowhere safe from them, it's perfectly possible to find them in tandem with some of the other nasties in this same page, among other painful combinations.

** Essentially all enemies have a chance of inflicting the Crimson Curse, a complicated disease that can't be treated at the Sanitarium, requires "The Blood" to keep the afflicted as close to stable as possible, ''and'' it prevents them from benefitting from Holy Water (it goes from buffing ressistances to causing Blight and debuffing the user). Worse still, after you complete the first Courtyard mission ''they spread to the other locations''.

->''Monstrous size has no intrinsic merit, unless inordinate exsanguination be considered a virtue.''
-->--'''The Ancestor'''

-->'''The Ancestor'''

** Of all of the Bloodsucker classed enemies encountered, the Chevalier has attracted the most amount of dread to them. Chevaliers are tanky, backrow snipers who'll likely stay out of reach from your heavy hitters while you deal with whoever happens to be in front of them, all while lashing at your party members with heavy hitting moves like the bleed inducing Subterranean Skewer and the multi-target stun Buried Blast. The only saving grace when it comes to fighting them is that they're among the few enemies in the Crimson Court who can't heal themselves with [[LifeDrain The Thirst]], but that likely won't matter much when all of their friends are keeping them out of reach by staying alive with their own self heals.

** The Crocodilian is essentially the developers' way of giving the player the middle finger. It's a Mini BossInMookClothing with ridiculously high stats, shielded by three river plants that inexplicably have the health, dodge and protection of an Army tank, capable of dealing tons of damage and stress damage to your poor adventurers. But the ''worst'' part is that [[spoiler:it appears in what's supposed to be a ''level 1'' mission, and you won't know it's there until you find it]]. One of few things that work are heavy bleeds, as the Crocodilian has multiple actions per round and very low resistance. Updates post-launch made its Submerge skill cure it from bleed and blight, but reduced its overall health so upfront damage is more viable. Interestingly, it doesn't transmit the Crimson Curse.

* Brigand Bloodletters, DegradedBoss versions of the giant bandit from the Tutorial, have an attack called "Rain of Whips". Not only does this cause party-wide damage with a chance of bleed, but it ''also'' has a higher critical hit chance than most other area-of-effect attacks. The one silver lining is that the base damage is very low and the bleed is very mild. They also have Point-Blank Shot, an extremely powerful single target attack that hits whoever is at the front of your formation and, like Rain of Whips, has a high critical hit chance.
* Bone Captains, encountered at level three and up in the Ruins, are gigantic armored skeletons wielding huge maces. They have a single target smash that can hit anyone in your formation and easily deal 50% of a hero's health if they're not a Leper or Crusader, and a groundpound that hits your entire team with a high stun chance. That's right, a full party stun.

* The Crimson Court DLC introduces the Crocodilian, which is essentially the developers' way of giving the player the middle finger. It's a Mini BossInMookClothing with ridiculously high stats, shielded by three river plants that inexplicably have the health, dodge and protection of an Army tank, capable of dealing tons of damage and stress damage to your poor adventurers. But the ''worst'' part is that [[spoiler:it appears in what's supposed to be a ''level 1'' mission, and you won't know it's there until you find it]]. One of few things that work are heavy bleeds, as the Crocodilian has multiple actions per round and very low resistance. Updates post-launch made its Submerge skill cure it from bleed and blight, but reduced its overall health so upfront damage is more viable.

* Bandit Bloodletters, DegradedBoss versions of the giant bandit from the Tutorial, have an attack called "Rain of Whips". Not only does this cause party-wide damage as well as bleeding everyone hit, but it ''also'' has a much higher critical hit chance than most other area-of-effect attacks. That's not even getting into the fact that both the party-wide damage ''and'' the resulting bleed damage can cause a Deathblow on party members on [[LastChanceHitPoint Death's Door]]. They also have Point-Blank Shot, an extremely powerful single target attack that hits whoever is at the front of your formation and, like Rain of Whips, has an extremely high critical hit chance.
* Bone Commanders, encountered at level three and up in the Ruins, are gigantic armored skeletons wielding huge maces. They have a single target smash that can hit anyone in your formation and easily deal 50% of a hero's health if they're not a Leper or Crusader, and a groundpound that hits your entire team with a high stun chance. That's right, a full party stun.
* Slavering Ghouls, large undead that appear in any dungeon once you reach level three. In addition to having a mountain of health, they have TWO very damaging stress raising attacks, one of which also stuns, and a powerful short range attack that can inflict Blight.
* The Rabid Hounds in the Weald. These buggers have low health, but ridiculously high dodge, meaning you WILL miss about 75% of your attacks; meanwhile their accuracy is high as well, so they'll almost never miss theirs. Their attacks don't hit all that hard, but inflict heavy bleeding that both stacks AND refreshes on subsequent attacks, meaning your party will take heavy damage-over-time if the fight drags out (which, due to above mentioned dodge ratings, it always will), and they ALWAYS attack in packs of 3-4. The worst part? Their speed is so ridiculous that the entire pack will almost ALWAYS get the first turns, meaning going in strong will leave you battered and going in weak will end you. You can go into this fight with a party in perfect condition and just barely survive the DeathOfAThousandCuts by the skin of your teeth. They also have a chance of inflicting Rabies on every hit, a permanent (unless treated) Quirk that greatly reduces accuracy in exchange for more damage.
* Also literal Spiders. Much like Hounds, they have very low health and are able to be one-shot by most attacks, but they ''also'' have a very high dodge chance and both types can inflict very powerful Blight effects on your party. To top it off, one type has ranged attacks and are usually at the back, while the other can spit webs at your party to stun and mark units, making both types much larger pains in the ass than they should be.
* The Swinetaurs in the Warrens have a ton of HP and prot and when that Pig Lance lands you *will* feel it. They're capable of causing a TotalPartyKill with a single good attack, and have the durability to make sure they'll at least get to cause one or two.
* Many of the enemies in the Cove qualify, but arguably the worst are the default Groupers, simply because they're the most common and numerous. They have no special gimmicks, no stuns, debuffs, or bleed/blight attacks. They simply hit VERY hard from anywhere in their formation, making them immune to AIRoulette, either with a close-range slash that can hit in the 5-9 range (increasing by 50% at level 3 and again at level 5), or a slightly less nasty long-range spear attack (3-7) that can hit your back row and pull you into melee range. They like to appear in formations of 4, and if not dealt with quickly can put a serious dent in your party's health.
* Of the elite enemies introduced in the Radiant update, the Swine Skiver seems to have attracted the most hatred. It's got decent resistances to anything that isn't bleeding, always spawns at the backline, and his only melee attack, used when at the first and usually second position, will send him all the way back to the fourth when used. Which is terrible news, because the main attack available back there is horrific impalement with huge chance for a critical hit (which will rend even the biggest health bars to nothing), as well as knockback and a stun. And if he's not busy throwing javelins, his other attack will blight everything that isn't your first-position hero and debuff their speed and dodging, making it ever so likely they'll eat a killer javelin and the blight finishing off those that got knocked to Death's Door by the impalement. Heavy stunners, extreme backline damage or a lot of pull-forward spam are a ''must'' if you don't want a party wipe.
** The Virago is another elite enemy that fits this page. She does capable damage, and is also capable of marking targets (bad news if a Scratcher is there with her). But by far her most terrible ability if From Death Comes Life, which she uses if a corpse is laying around during her turn. It turns the corpse into a Necrotic Fungus, which does absolutely nothing on its own, but as long as it's on the field, ''you can't heal''. That's right, all healing is blocked when it's summoned, and it's got a pretty hefty pool of HP to boot. The one silver lining is that if you can kill all enemies and leave two necrotic fungi, you can stress heal as long as the healer's ability doesn't also restore physical health.
* The Crimson Court DLC introduces the Crocodilian, which is essentially the developers' way of giving the player the middle finger. It's a BossInMookClothing with ridiculous stats, shielded by three river plants that inexplicably have the health and Protection of an Army tank, capable of dealing tons of damage and stress damage to your poor adventurers. But the ''worst'' part is that [[spoiler:it appears in what's supposed to be a ''level 1'' mission, and you won't know it's there until you find it]].

** The Virago is another elite enemy that fits this page. She does capable damage, and is also capable of marking targets (bad news if a Scratcher is there with her). But by far her most terrible ability if From Death Comes Life, which she uses if a corpse is laying around during her turn. It turns the corpse into a Necrotic Fungus, which does absolutely nothing on it's own, but as long as it's on the field, ''you can't heal''. That's right, all healing is blocked when it's summoned, and it's got a pretty hefty pool of HP to boot. The one silver lining is that if you can kill all enemies and leave two necrotic fungi, you can stress heal as long as the healer's ability doesn't also restore physical health.

** The Virago is another elite enemy that fits this page. She does capable damage, and is also capable of marking targets (bad news if a Scratcher is there with her). But by far her most terrible ability if From Death Comes Life, which she uses if a corpse is laying around during her turn. It turns the corpse into a Necrotic Fungus, which does absolutely nothing on it's own, but as long as it's on the field, ''you can't heal''. That's right, all healing is blocked when it's summoned, and it's got a pretty hefty pool of HP to boot

** The Virago is another elite enemy that fits this page. She does capable damage, and is also capable of marking targets (bad news if a Scratcher is there with her). But by far her most terrible ability if From Death Comes Life, which she uses if a corpse is laying around during her turn. It turns the corpse into a Necrotic Fungus, which does absolutely nothing on it's own, but as long as it's on the field, ''you can't heal''. That's right, all healing is blocked when it's summoned, and it's got a pretty hefty pool of HP to boot

* Of the elite enemies introduced in the Radiant update, the Swine Skiver seems to have attracted the most hatred. It's got decent resistances to anything that isn't bleeding, always spawns at the backline, and his only melee attack, used when at the first and usually second position, will send him all the way back to the fourth when used. Which is terrible news, because the main attack available back there is horrific impalement with huge chance for a critical hit (which will rend even the biggest health bars to nothing), as well as knockback and a stun. And if he's not busy throwing javelins, his other attack will blight everything that isn't your first-position hero and debuff their speed and dodging, making it ever so likely they'll eat a killer javelin and the blight finishing off those that got knocked to Death's Door by the impalement. Heavy stunners, extreme backline damage or a lot of pull-forward spam are a ''must'' if you don't want a party wipe.

If there was any doubt that ''VideoGame/DarkestDungeon'' was not NintendoHard due to its RNG, let [[DemonicSpiders these guys]] clear any doubt.