Darkest Dungeon is a roguelike role-playing game from Red Hook Studios. Players inherit a gothic estate whose previous owner unleashed monstrous corruption while excavating the ruins beneath it. They recruit heroes, prepare them in the Hamlet, and send parties of four into procedurally generated dungeons.
Exploration combines real-time movement with turn-based combat. Heroes occupy ranks that determine their attacks, defenses, and vulnerability to displacement. Food, darkness, wounds, death, and enemy abilities increase stress. At high stress, heroes can suffer afflictions that disrupt their behavior—or, more rarely, gain a beneficial virtue. Extreme stress may trigger a potentially fatal heart attack, while death in a dungeon is permanent.
The game’s story descends into Lovecraftian horror, ending with battles against the Ancestor’s apparition and the Heart of Darkness. Expansions add new environments, classes, enemies, bosses, a horde mode, and player-versus-player combat. Praised for its atmosphere and demanding tactics, Darkest Dungeon sold more than two million copies and received several award nominations. Its sequel launched in 2023.