Darkest Dungeon is all about taking control of your emotions and greed, not the other way around.

While RNG plays its little game all the time, if you plan around minimizing risk from week 1, and manage to consistently execute this strategy through the entire run, then around week 40-50 you should have -

1. Maxed-out Guild and Weaponsmith.
2. You first team of four Resolve Level 6 heroes.
3. Some, if not all, tier S trinkets, class-specific and general.
4. A few ancestor's trinkets, although they are far from mandatory.

This means the player should be ready to take on DD1 (We Are the Flame) by week 50 in the worst case. On Stygian difficulty, the base game gives you 86 weeks to beat the game, so that's 36 weeks' leeway for four quests. Because failing a DD quest is heavily punished, it's more preferable to keep farming for useful trinkets / quirks past week 50, than launching a premature assault on DD (prevention > reaction).

This is a simple and effectively way of having successful runs. Over time you'll accumulate enough game knowledge and start thinking in a new way - 'what exact party composition, hero level and gears do I need to have a reasonable chance at quest X'. Ultimately, X is the Darkest Dungeon level quests (win condition).

On your first run, it is not possible to deduce preconditions from this win condition, because you don't know about them at all yet, so working from week 1 all the way to DD is like scouting the game to get a map of it. This is what Darkest difficulty is for. Then you should have all you need to make deductions from win condition and make a path on the game map, so the second run will be all about execution, walking that path. Of course, there are many possible paths, some safer and longer, others riskier but shorter. Speedrunners are always looking for the shortest path and they don't care about failing a hundred times as long as the 101st attempt succeeds.

Now, the real fun (reads punishment) comes when you get emotional and greedy. When emotions take control, you tend to make faster, but not better, decisions. The game rewards good decisions and punishes bad ones. So we don't want emotions. But emotions always emerge, so what I like to do is walking the *** away from my keyboard for a while. Relax and watch some porn maybe, and come back only in rational mode.

Greed is all about risk management. Risking something you can afford, like a disposable hero, for a huge potential reward, like a Focus Ring, is OK. Risking your best men on quest reward, which usually includes some gold, heirlooms and a trinket, even if you are just one room away, is often not. Click that X button, bite the bullet, and live to fight another day. Always make favorable bets, never hope for godly rolls on unfavorable ones.

And of course, there will be times when the game just decides to **ck you up with really bad RNG. My mental model for this is simple - it's not my fault. Rather, it's just another way of the game saying 'I say 86 weeks, but its' really just 84. RNG tax is a thing'.

That's pretty much it for me. The first run is all about enjoying original art, music and combat design from the game. Then, if you are up to it, the second run is all about executing a reasonable plan, cold-blooded, and with a heart of steel. Darkest Dungeon does a really good job hand-crafting good experiences for such two runs.

Lastly, I must say the game has its problems. My biggest two complains -

1. Focus Ring.
2. Abuse-able stall-heal mechanics in combat.

Focus Ring is just strictly the better trinket 99% of the time, which defeats the purpose of the trinket system.
Stall-heal is tedious but too rewarding not to abuse, sadly.

That said, you can always play the game with self-imposed challenges -
1. No/Limited Focus Ring.
2. No/Limited stall-heal.

So, still a great game )

Darkest Dungeon is all about taking control of your emotions and greed, not the other way around. While RNG plays its little game all the time, if you plan around minimizing risk from week 1, and manage to consistently execute this strategy through the entire run, then around week 40-50 you should have - 1. Maxed-out Guild and Weaponsmith. 2. You first team of four Resolve Level 6 heroes. 3. Some, if not all, tier S trinkets, class-specific and general. 4. A few ancestor's trinkets, although they are far from mandatory. This means the player should be ready to take on DD1 (We Are the Flame) by week 50 in the worst case. On Stygian difficulty, the base game gives you 86 weeks to beat the game, so that's 36 weeks' leeway for four quests. Because failing a DD quest is heavily punished, it's more preferable to keep farming for useful trinkets / quirks past week 50, than launching a premature assault on DD (prevention > reaction). This is a simple and effectively way of having successful runs. Over time you'll accumulate enough game knowledge and start thinking in a new way - 'what exact party composition, hero level and gears do I need to have a reasonable chance at quest X'. Ultimately, X is the Darkest Dungeon level quests (win condition). On your first run, it is not possible to deduce preconditions from this win condition, because you don't know about them at all yet, so working from week 1 all the way to DD is like scouting the game to get a map of it. This is what Darkest difficulty is for. Then you should have all you need to make deductions from win condition and make a path on the game map, so the second run will be all about execution, walking that path. Of course, there are many possible paths, some safer and longer, others riskier but shorter. Speedrunners are always looking for the shortest path and they don't care about failing a hundred times as long as the 101st attempt succeeds. Now, the real fun (reads punishment) comes when you get emotional and greedy. When emotions take control, you tend to make faster, but not better, decisions. The game rewards good decisions and punishes bad ones. So we don't want emotions. But emotions always emerge, so what I like to do is walking the *** away from my keyboard for a while. Relax and watch some porn maybe, and come back only in rational mode. Greed is all about risk management. Risking something you can afford, like a disposable hero, for a huge potential reward, like a Focus Ring, is OK. Risking your best men on quest reward, which usually includes some gold, heirlooms and a trinket, even if you are just one room away, is often not. Click that X button, bite the bullet, and live to fight another day. Always make favorable bets, never hope for godly rolls on unfavorable ones. And of course, there will be times when the game just decides to **ck you up with really bad RNG. My mental model for this is simple - it's not my fault. Rather, it's just another way of the game saying 'I say 86 weeks, but its' really just 84. RNG tax is a thing'. That's pretty much it for me. The first run is all about enjoying original art, music and combat design from the game. Then, if you are up to it, the second run is all about executing a reasonable plan, cold-blooded, and with a heart of steel. Darkest Dungeon does a really good job hand-crafting good experiences for such two runs. Lastly, I must say the game has its problems. My biggest two complains - 1. Focus Ring. 2. Abuse-able stall-heal mechanics in combat. Focus Ring is just strictly the better trinket 99% of the time, which defeats the purpose of the trinket system. Stall-heal is tedious but too rewarding not to abuse, sadly. That said, you can always play the game with self-imposed challenges - 1. No/Limited Focus Ring. 2. No/Limited stall-heal. So, still a great game )