Paying attention to your party’s Affinity can have a huge impact on a run in Darkest Dungeon 2. If you push through a run without paying attention to your team’s Affinity with each other, then you’ll find your well-oiled, monster-slaying machine ripped apart by excessive in-fighting and needless amounts of stress.
However, once you understand how to prevent your heroes from harming each other, you’ll find that each run becomes easier. Your heroes will create stronger bonds with one another, and even go out of their way to help each other in combat. Reaching that point requires a little planning and know-how, so to help you manage your teammate’s relationships with one another, here is a guide to managing Affinity and the enormous benefits it can provide.
What Is Affinity?
Affinity is how your characters view each other. Each character starts at 9 out of 20 Affinity. The lower a character’s Affinity gets, the more chances those two characters will have for forming a negative relationship. The opposite is also true: the higher your Affinity gets, the more chances your characters have to form a positive relationship with one another.
Relationships are formed when your team visits an Inn and spends the night. During that time, your characters may form a relationship based on how much Affinity they have with one another. Some stage coach items like Orphan Wolf Cub and Leaf Suspension can increase the chances of a positive relationship forming. In addition, some quirks may increase or decrease the probability of forming a positive or negative relationship as well.
The first Inn offers a 10% decreased chance of a relationship forming.
Here are the chances of forming a relationship based upon how much Affinity your characters have:
|
Affinity |
Chance of forming a relationship |
|---|---|
|
0 |
90% chance of forming a negative relationship |
|
1-4 (Very Unfriendly) |
65% chance of forming a negative relationship |
|
5-8 (Unfriendly) |
33% chance of forming a negative relationship |
|
9-13 (Neutral) |
5% chance of forming a negative relationship 5% chance of forming a positive relationship |
|
14-16 (Friendly) |
33% chance of forming a positive relationship |
|
17-19 (Very Friendly) |
65% chance of forming a positive relationship |
|
20 |
90% chance of forming a positive relationship |
What Happens When A Relationship Forms?
Once a relationship forms, a random skill on each hero will become Blessed or Cursed, depending on whether the relationship is positive or negative.
Blessed Skills will give a buff to their partner when they’re used, and you can choose whether you want to equip the skill or not. A positive relationship also gives the hero’s partner a small chance to attack out of turn order, take a hit, or give a buff to their partner.
Cursed Skills will give a debuff to their partner each time they’re used and are automatically equipped. They cannot be removed until the two characters’ Affinity changes, and Mastered Skills have a much higher chance of being Cursed. Negative relationships can also cause a hero to hit another teammate.
Be aware that Blessed and Cursed skills have a chance to change each time the inn is reached.
How To Increase And Decrease Affinity
Affinity can be increased through Inn Items, actions in combat, decisions at Nodes, and randomly while you’re traveling on the road.
In comparison, Affinity can be lost through combat actions, randomly on the road, or choices at Nodes.
Flame
Flame levels will also affect your chances of gaining positive and negative Affinity. If you’re having trouble with your Flame, there are ways to manage your Flame levels. Based on where your Flame is at, these are the effects each tier has on Affinity:
|
Flame |
Affinity Modifier |
|---|---|
|
100-81 |
+10% Positive Affinity |
|
80-61 |
+5% Positive Affinity |
|
60-41 |
– |
|
40-21 |
+5% Negative Affinity |
|
20-2 |
+10% Negative Affinity |
|
1-0 |
+20% Negative Affinity |
Inn Items
Inn Items can randomly increase or decrease affinity. Affinity-increasing items will be denoted with a golden diamond in their stats, while Affinity-decreasing items are denoted with a blue diamond. Here are all the inn items that can change affinity:
|
Item |
Stats |
|
Boxing Gloves |
|
|
Candles and Chocolate |
|
|
Dartboard |
|
|
Playing Cards |
|
|
Pipeweed |
|
|
Roast Pig |
|
|
Songbook of Amorous Ballads |
|
|
Songbook of Touching Dirges |
|
|
The Wine |
|
|
Whiskey Barrel |
|
|
Whiskey Bottle |
|
|
Whisky Flask |
|
Items that give your entire party the chance to gain 2 or more Affinity, like the Songbook of Dirges, are perfect for building up Affinity as quickly as possible. Items with assured Affinity gain, like the Whiskey Flask, are best used to fix relationships where RNG didn’t go your way.
Combat
Actions in combat have a chance to increase or decrease Affinity, depending on both the stress level of the heroes and the action performed. High stress will decrease the chances of gaining Affinity and increase the chances of losing Affinity. Low stress will have the inverse effect, increasing the chances of gaining an Affinity point and decreasing the chances of losing Affinity from other actions.
Here are the actions that can increase Affinity:
- Buffing another hero
- Healing another hero
- Reduce stress of another hero
- Guard a hero when they’re on Death’s Door or low HP
- Using a movement skill while low on stress
- Attack the same enemy another hero just attacked
- Attack an enemy immediately after a previous hero debuffed it.
- Attack an enemy that just attacked an ally
- Whenever a hero stands Resolute after having their Resolve tested
Decreasing Affinity in combat will usually happen when a hero’s needs aren’t taken care of. Here are the actions that can decrease Affinity:
- Heal a hero while another hero is on Death’s Door or low on HP
- Repeatedly healing or buffing the same hero with the same healer
- Reducing the stress of another hero while another hero has high stress
- Guarding a hero while another hero is on Death’s Door or low on HP
- Moving or using a movement skill with high stress
- Whenever a hero suffers a Meltdown
Before you click to confirm an action, hover over your intended target and look at your heroes. If there is a blue arrow pointed downward at their feet, that means your action is assured to decrease their Affinity by 1.
Nodes
Nodes will have you choose between specific actions suggested by your party of heroes. Some decisions will make a hero lose 2 Affinity with other heroes, while other decisions will increase their Affinity by 1. What affects these decisions is what exactly each hero wants to do. Two heroes that agree on starting a fight will gain Affinity with each other if you choose one of their options to fight. However, if two heroes want to flee while one hero wants to fight, then choosing to fight will make that hero lose Affinity with the two heroes who wanted to flee.
When you hover your mouse over a hero at a node, a yellow aura will glow around heroes that will gain Affinity. Alternatively, a blue aura will glow around heroes that will lose Affinity.
The following Nodes will have you make a decision that can affect your Affinity:
- The Desperate Few
- Resistance Encounters
- Oblivion’s Ingress
- Creature Den
- Oasis
- Academic’s Study
What Are The Buffs And Debuffs From Forming A Relationship?
There are seven possible relationships your heroes can build: Three different kinds of positive relationship and four different kinds of negative relationship.
Here are the possible positive relationships that can form:
|
Relationship |
Possible Buffs |
Possible Actions |
|---|---|---|
|
Amorous |
|
|
|
Hopeful |
|
|
|
Respectful |
|
|
Here are the negative relationships:
|
Relationship |
Debuffs |
Possible Actions |
|---|---|---|
|
Envious |
|
|
|
Hateful |
|
|
|
Resentful |
|
|
|
Suspicious |
|
|
General Strategy
Early on, you’ll want to use Songbook of Touching Dirges as often as possible. While it’ll increase your team’s stress, the trade-off is that it builds Affinity extremely quickly. If the songbook is unavailable, Playing Cards and Whiskey Barrels are good substitutes.
If you don’t mind using a pet slot, equipping the Orphan Wolf Cub will increase your chances of forming positive relationships early in your runs. This can be especially beneficial if you’ve been using the Songbook of Touching Dirges, since it increases the chances you’ll get a Hopeful relationship which will help manage Stress.
Once you’re in combat, be sure to target the same enemy if heroes are taking their turns in consecutive order. If an enemy attacks a hero, be sure to target that enemy next. This way, you’ll maximize the number of chances you get to increasing Affinity each time you attack.
On that same note, don’t forget to Buff, Heal, or Protect any heroes that reach Death’s Door. While being on Death’s Door can be frightening, it’s also an opportunity to gain more Affinity.
Nodes can be tricky for building Affinity. You’ll sometimes get straightforward options where the entire party agrees, or where an unpopular character will have an option that raises Affinity with other characters. However, if you have to pick an unpopular option, choose the option that will hurt the pair with the highest Affinity. Even if they don’t continue to have a positive relationship in the next part of the run, it’s more important to ensure no one in your party forms a negative relationship with one another. Gaining the bonuses from a positive relationship generally isn’t as important as avoiding the drawbacks of a negative one.
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