The Leviathan in Darkest Dungeon 2 is the Veil’s hideout boss and the source of its denizens’ fish-like transformations. Throughout the battle, you’ll really only see the head and hand of this massive sea monster, but that’s enough for the Leviathan to wipe out your party. How to defeat the Leviathan and get his trophy Darkest Dungeon 2.
How to defeat the Leviathan in Darkest Dungeon 2
The Leviathan has its home at the Holy Pier in the Shroud. Preparing for this fight is a bit easier than the others, as you really only need to focus on stress resistance, health buffs, and debuff healing or resistance. Leviathan doesn’t deal DoT damage directly, but uses barnacles to bleed targets as they move.
Items to bring to Leviathan battle
During your stay at the inn, you’ll want to make use of some (or all, if you have the money) of these helpful items:
- wax inoculant
- Invigorating stew
- Canned delicacies
- apple and cheese
Reduce your party’s stress levels as much as possible and strengthen their relationships for additional bonuses. In addition to the Inn items, there are a number of battle items you’ll want to equip for this battle:
- Mineral-rich spring water
- healing ointment
- triage kit
- laudanum
- Linen soaked in milk
If you’re using a team that relies on DoTs, you might also want to stock up Poisonous Secretion to reduce the Leviathan’s resistance to any DoT damage.
if you have any pets available and your pet slot is empty, if you obtain the orphaned wolf cub you may be able to achieve up to 20% stress resistance with a full stagecoach full of luxury items.
No Lifeguard on Duty: Leviathan Battle Strategy
The hardest part about fighting the Leviathan is that he uses an old tactic used by the witch from the original Darkest Dungeon: Take one of your party members and drown them, causing damage and stress. This time it’s just underwater instead of in a boiling cauldron.
You know which hero might end up in the depths of the sea when used eyes of the stormand marks the members with a unique token. His hand only targets those with that token in the first two positions, so pushing back marked characters can ensure their safety. This is the best way to avoid losing a character in the water, as the Leviathan can summon another hand in the next turn if the first one is defeated.
When a character is dragged into a watery fate, you must defeat the Hand of Leviathan to win them back. While affected by So-called, the hero takes 4% of his HP in damage and +2 stress every turn. Leviathan’s Hand has a resistance of 40 to all DoT damage, making it pretty difficult to get any of these to stay. This is where you can use your poisonous secretion if you have it to save your hero quickly.
The best tactic in this fight is to focus the Leviathan and move characters away from its hand. Instead of constantly losing a member in the water and having to defeat the Hand, dealing direct damage to the Leviathan will end the entire fight. Since a new hand can be invoked each round, focusing solely on them will create a viscous cycle that will most likely end in a party wipe.
The Leviathan has a resistance of 30 to Plague and Burn, but a resistance of 50 to Bleeding. Using Poisonous Secretion here greatly increases your chance of dealing DoT damage to the Leviathan. As with any Lair boss, DoT damage can quickly drain HP and make the difference between victory and defeat.
Leviathan Best party compositions
Since you’ll need to move your characters to avoid suction, having a party of multiple ranged heroes will make this fight much easier. For example, Leper can only hit the first two enemy ranks if it is in the first two ranks, so moving it to the back rank will render it useless.
Composition of Leviathan Battle Group 1
This first group consists of ranged fighters whose abilities move them, as well as a plague doctor who heals stacks of bleed and inflicts plague.
- Rank 4 – Plague Doctor: Battlefield Medicine, Harmful Explosion, Plague Grenade, Indiscriminate Science, Cause of Death
- Rank 3 – Fool: Harvest, Inspirational Melody, Battle Ballad, Solo, Finale
- Rank 2 – mugger: Duelist’s Charge, Direct Shot, Open Vein
- Rank 1 – Man-at-Arms: Rampart, Retribution, Strategic Retreat, Strengthen, Hold
Composition of Leviathan Fight Party 2
This group is more concerned with finishing the fight as quickly as possible rather than moving away from Leviathan’s hand as they focus on only stacking Blight or Burn.
- Rank 4 – Plague Doctor: Battlefield Medicine, Harmful Explosion, Plague Grenade, Indiscriminate Science, Cause of Death
- Rank 3 – Gravedigger: poison dart, absinthe
- Rank 2 – Outlier: Searing Blow, Firefly, Cauterize, Controlled Burn, Fire Starter
- Rank 1 – Flagellant: Punishment, Acid Rain, Sepsis, Necrosis, Lash’s Venom
These are the top two teams to battle the Leviathan with. Focusing on him and not his hand will allow you to finish the fight faster without going into a losing cycle. Poisonous Ichor and Milk-Soaked Linen greatly increase your chances of dealing sustained damage throughout the fight.
Leviathan Rewards
Once the leviathan sinks into his watery tomb, you will receive one of two trophies.
- The lashing tide: Increases battle item stack by 2 per stack
- The Beck and Call: 100% Bleed inflicted and 100% Bleed gained
Besides the required trophy, you can also get the following items:
- Soaked Sweater
- Carved Bodkin
- fishing line
- Nautical compass
- 1 championship
- -2 disgust
- +15 Flame
- 1 random trinket
- 1 random battle item
- 1 random inn item
- 1 random stagecoach item
- relics and bullets
That’s all the potential rewards for defeating it DD2 Leviathan and the best tactics to bring about its downfall. For more hideout boss battle tactics, check out the rest of our article Darkest Dungeon 2 Leader.
About the author
