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Exaelus' Arduous Edition Mod

Requires Color of Madness: Yes
Requires Crimson Court: Yes
Requires Shieldbreaker: Yes
Requires Musketeer: Yes
Mod Version: 22.9b
Language: English, S-Chinese, Spanish



Added 3 new very rare cursed gems.
They're called Omenite, Voracite, Nocturnite.
They give party wide debuffs.
They are very valuable.

Added a few Keepsake items.
Keepsake items are legacy trinkets.
They can be found in the intro tutorial.
They can also be found as random drops or in chests.

Added a new gem called Amethyst.

Added 20 new trinkets of various base rarities.

Added 16 Elemental trinkets!
Added 1 new curio called "Elemental Altar"!



1. When exchanging shards for heirlooms, if you first mouse over the 5th option (bottom option), your game will crash. Just mouse over any other option first.

2. You have to use [TAB] key to swap between map and inventory due to game limitations.



Arduous Edition is a mod that adds more difficulty and RNG to Darkest Dungeon making it way more exciting.

This mod adds 3 new difficulty levels: 2, 4, and 6, known as "Recruit", Adept," and Darkest." The "Darkest" difficulty has been renamed "Master". At this difficulty level, you can also encounter monsters from the darkest dungeon. The reward for "medium and long quests in the "Master" difficulty are "Ancestral" trinkets. These difficulty levels have new colours and many other visual changes to keep everything coherent.

There is a new heirloom called "Diamond" that can only be obtained by completing randomly generated quests. These diamonds can be used to buy newly added district buildings or upgrade slots on existing town buildings.

There are 10+ new bosses. The bosses are mostly the boss versions of my classes and also completely new ones, and they spawn in all base dungeons (quest, event, ambush, or curio). They can be found in the new difficulty levels 2, 4, and 6 instead of 1, 3, and 5, and you will be rewarded with one or more trophies for defeating them. Roaming bosses now also have the chance to drop their own unique trophy on higher difficulty levels.

All monsters and bosses spawn with randomly generated buffs based on the difficulty of the dungeon. Monsters receive stat buffs, while bosses receive special buffs such as "Can not be marked," "Reflect damage," "Steal buffs," etc. All bosses also get a permanent stat increase based on their difficulty level.

The combinations for spawning monsters have also been significantly expanded. Monsters can spawn in every single possible combination (10000+). Note that the rules of the game have been followed and that monsters that did not spawn together won't, and monsters that spawned only in the halls still do.

There are also 5 new district buildings that increase gold and heirloom stacking, brew new potions each week, provide supply items, provide new unique food and even new evolving quirks. Potions are short-term buffs that can help you in your endeavours, but they might have some side effects.

Each monster can now also drop a "Souvenir", depending on the type of monster. Souvenirs are new, very valuable items that can be sold or used, they give you a reminiscence quirk that makes you stronger against that particular type of enemy. There are also 5 new gems, "Spinel", "Amethyst" and 3 cursed gems that are dropped by all enemies.

You will also find many new quests, help the chef build his tavern, help the mysterious being or just go and collect elemental motes which are turned into primal elements which grant your heroes powerful quirks.

This mod also expands the inventory and adds tons of new quirks. There is a new revision of the Musketeer. New trinkets, including new rarities like Precious, which can only be found in the shop or Phantom chests (using Skeleton Key); Ethereal, which can only be obtained from the Spectre, Oracle, or Phantom chests (using the Ethereal Key); Umbral, which has a tiny chance to drop from any enemy or Phantom chest (using the Umbral Key); Academic, which can be found as long quest rewards or by interacting with a new curio "Grand Lectern"; and Resourceful, which are tied to a special being.



New Bosses: Added new bosses, some based on my existing classes and also new ones! (10+)
New Trinkets: 300+ (New Rarities: Academic, Ethereal, Precious, Umbral, Arcana, Resourceful)
New Heirlooms: Diamonds and Relics, used to buy districts and unlock slots in town buildings.
New Districts: Ard. Hall, Scav's Guild, Chronicler's Ward, Demarc. Precinct, Abandoned Mine.
New Items: 5 Souvenirs (Return for gold or use to gain a quirk), 5 Potions, 2 Keys, Food etc.
New Gems: Spinel (Stacks to 10, 150g), Amethyst (Stacks to 5, 1500g) and 3 cursed gems.
New Difficulties: Game now has level 2, 4 and 6 dungeon quests for easier progression.
New Quirks: Added 100+ new quirks to the game even evolving ones.
New Curios: Added a lot of new curios to the game.
New Quests: Added a lot of new quests to the game.
New Events: Added a lot of new events to the game.
New Secret Rooms: Added a chance for prisoners to appear in all dungeons.
New Musketeer Rework: Changed Musketeer's abilities to be different from Arbalest.
New Monster Abilities: Added new abilities to existing monsters in the game.
Random Buffs: All monsters receive random buffs based on their difficulty.
Random Spawns: All monsters can now spawn in a lot of different combinations.
Random Boss Buffs: All bosses receive random buffs based on their difficulty tier.
Rebalanced Bosses: Bosses have new AI and stats based on their difficulty tier.



If you like this mod you might like some of my custom classes:





If you like my mods and would like to see more, consider throwing a few coins my way!
Any amount is greatly appreciated!

[www.paypal.com]


Thank you for all the positive feedback and your support, it does motivate me quite a bit!

Special thanks to RedHook for making this great game and giving players the ability to mod it!

This mod is not an official Red Hook Studios product or product modification, and Red Hook Studios Inc. is not responsible in any way for changes or damages that may result from using the mod. Furthermore, “Darkest Dungeon” and the Darkest Dungeon logo are trademarks of Red Hook Studios Inc. All content in the game is Copyright Red Hook Studios Inc. All rights reserved.