Heart of Darkness
Heart of Darkness is the ultimate boss of Darkest Dungeon. It is the last phase of the Ancestor fight, whose form became a vessel for the creature to cross over.
Resistances
| Variant | Stun | Blight | Bleed | Debuff | Move |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 87.5% | 47.5% | 47.5% | 67.5% | 88% |
Stats by difficulty
| Stat | A | B |
|---|---|---|
| HP | 252 | 303 |
| Dodge | 23.75% | — |
| Protection | 0% | — |
| Speed | 10 | — |
Recommended comps
Strategy
As mentioned above, this fight will get progressively harder as you reduce the enemy's HP and therefore lose more party members. The exact amount of HP for every one hit KO are 170 and 83 HP. Although it is impossible to exactly predict the exact amount of damage your heroes deal, it should be in your best interests to make the member who is about to be sacrificed deal the last blow to optimize damage output. Beware that if Heart reaches the HP threshold on its turn due to DoT, it will still cast "Come Unto Your Maker".
Another thing worth noting is if you kill the previous phase instead of letting it shift to the final form, the excess of damage dealt to that form will carry over and be dealt to Heart of Darkness, thereby starting the fight effectively with less extra HP.
If you are using healers or other support characters like a buffing/stress reducing Jester, it would be advisable to let them die first, while letting your main damage dealers focus on Heart of Darkness for the second and third parts of the fight.
In essence, this is pretty much a rush-down boss-fight. You will want to deal as much damage as fast as possible, especially during the last third of the fight where you will only have 2 heroes available. Skills that benefit from marking are therefore invaluable for dealing high amounts of burst damage.
During the early portion of the third part of the fight, you may want to consider healing up/reducing the stress on afflicted heroes, as his attacks, while powerful, will not usually put your characters immediately on death's door. Due to Heart of Darkness's relatively low Stun resistance, this would be an ideal time for stalling time and recovering.
Considering this boss's mechanics, you may make your last heroes have lower bleed than blight resistance, as his blight attack can also trigger the stun effect.
Heart appears to restore one action by killing anyone by other skills than "Come Unto Your Maker". This may be a glitch.
As the battle progresses, you should become more aggressive, since this is the last mission and no retreat is possible. Moreover, the fewer characters you have, the less you will be able to keep up with Heart of Darkness's onslaught.
If the player manage to defeat Heart of Darkness, they will be greeted with a cinematic epilogue and have beaten the game.
Abilities
| Darkest Level | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Skill Name | Range | Rank | Target | Accuracy | Crit Chance | Damage | Effect (Target) | Effect (Self) | Notes |
| Come Unto Your Maker | Ranged | 1, 2, 3, 4. | 1, 2, 3, 4.* | 223.75% but impossible to dodge% | 12% | 11-23 |  Instant Deathblow** | No Effect | |
| Know This | Melee | 1, 2, 3, 4. | 1, 2, 3, 4. | 113.75% | 0% | 0 | Stress +22 (24 on Stygian) | No Effect | |
| Puncture | Ranged | 1, 2, 3, 4. | 1, 2, 3, 4. | 113.75% | 12% | 13-16 |  150% Bleed 5 (6 on Stygian)Stress +10 (12 on Stygian) | No Effect | |
| Dissolution | Ranged | 1, 2, 3, 4. | 1, 2, 3, 4. | 113.75% | 12% | 13-16 |  160% Stun 150% Blight 5 (6 on Stygian)Stress +10 (12 on Stygian) | No Effect | |
* The player chooses the target for Come Unto Your Maker.
** Come Unto Your Maker kills a target instantly, bypassing HP and Deathblow Resist.