Darkest Dungeon’s resident funny man is back in the second game to continue his song and dance of death. As an agile fighter, acting out violence from every rank, the Jester is a strong member of your team. His attacks often come with an added utility feature to improve their versatility. On the offensive, he’s rather Bleed-reliant, which tends to mean that he’s much better suited to going on the offensive against foes that be effectively bled.
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He’s also a great support character. Using his songs, he can relieve stress, move allies, and even provide party-wide buffs. His skills are as diverse as they are useful. Even so, some stand above the others as staples for a variety of team compositions.
11Play Out
Play Out is the opposite of Battle Ballad. It lets you select any ally but the rearmost,and move them back one space, while granting a Block token in the process. It’s another move made to counter party shuffling, so you have everyone where they need to be. When upgraded, the block token is improved to mitigate 75% of damage rather than half, i and it removes marks from the target should they have any. It’s a great way to get Block on allies that have no way of getting it themselves, but it’s somewhat more limited than other tools of the Jester’s.
Solo is a setup move for the Jester’s most powerful attack. It moves him forward to the front of the party, if possible, while granting him a speed boost and two stacks of dodge. It also marks any target in the enemy line. While Solo has a one turn cooldown, it can only be used from the back two ranks, so it’s perfectly timed. Upgrading it makes the move grant greater Dodge tokens, letting the Jester avoid damage more consistently. It only has this one specific use, though, and must be executed carefully.
9Razor’s Wit
Razor’s Wit is a simple lunging attack that the Jester has from the start of the game. It moves him forward one rank and deals decent damage as he moves. The added feature of this attack is that it will mark any target you hit for a combination attack. So long as the Jester isn’t in rank one, then, he can use this skill to set up his teammates. When upgraded, it deals a little more damage, but also grants a single Dodge token. It damages, marks and bestows damage mitigation, a handy mix of effects. It is rather situational because of the movement effect, however, and won’t suit every scenario.
8Slice Off
Slice Off is an offensive attack the Jester can use while in the middle two ranks, targeting one of the same ranks on the enemy’s side. It’s rather lacking in raw damage, as are most of the Jester’s other attacks, but Slice Off can inflict a decent Bleed on your target. The move gets a lot better when upgraded, as it will apply a token of Vulnerability in addition to becoming more powerful. A staple of the Jester’s moveset from the original title, Slice Off is a solid attack for piling on Bleed and critical hits.
7Echoing March
Echoing March is a debuff best used on backline enemies to disrupt their role. These distant enemies usually specialize in ranged attacks, which damage and debilitate your team. Bringing those enemies to the front blunts their teeth and can force them to waste their turn retreating. That’s when Echoing March really shines. The initial move pulls them forward one space (or two when upgraded), then the enemy is forced to move forward again every subsequent turn for three turns.
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It keeps ranged enemies disrupted and melee enemies constantly trying to rush back to the front. Echoing March is effective because enemies can be as adversely affected by being pulled out of their effective positions as the party is. Against some foes, however, it won’t be nearly as strong.
6Fade To Black
Fade To Black is a great skill to pair with Razor’s Wit. It does the same middling damage, but moves the Jester back one rank. However, instead of marking targets in its standard form, it blinds them. When it’s upgraded with mastery, the move gains the ability to mark. Blindness is a powerful status to inflict, as it causes the attacker’s accuracy to drop to half. This is very strong indeed when it works out perfectly, but the element of chance involved in the activation of the status can be problematic.
Harvest is the Jester’s best Bleed tool. Similarly to Slice Off, it’s used in the middle two ranks, but it can target both those same ranks on the enemy side. Inflicting Bleed on all its targets with a chance to mark them gives it a lot of utility, but its damage means it’s reliant on Bleed and this is very enemy-dependent. Its upgrade only gives you one more point of damage, too, along with a slightly higher chance to mark. It’s not worth the mastery point, and the skill itself is already good enough without devoting an extra precious point.
4Battle Ballad
Battle Ballad is a utility move that becomes essential when enemies start shuffling your team. So long as the Jester and his target aren’t in rank one, he can move one ally forward and give them a Might token. Might increases the damage of the user’s next attack to 1.5, so you can use Battle Ballad to set up some hard hits.
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When upgraded, the skill gains a chance to grant a guaranteed critical to your target, and removes enemy marks. Removing marks can be essential to avoiding enemy combos. Battle Ballad is great inso many team compositions, helping your heavy hitters hit their damage potential, but there may not be an opportunity to set it up as often as the player would like to.
Encore is extremely powerful. In a turn based game, the efficiency of your actions will decide how well you perform. Encore gives you greater control over this by letting you choose any target on your team and give them an extra action for that round. Given to an ally who can empower themselves and then attack on that same turn, its effects can be devastating, and givinga healer (such as the formidable Vestal)a second turn can save lives in a dire situation. It’s best not to use it on the Jester themselves, though: They debuff themselves to use the move, and their action is already being used.
2Inspiring tune
The accumulation of stresscan cascade into total failure very quickly. Having a method to reduce stress is paramount for almost any team. Inspiring Tune only targets one party member, but its stress heal is all but unrivaled. When an ally’s stress is five or higher, you can use this skill on them to reduce their stress by two, or three if the skill is mastered. When mastered, it can also remove the Horror status, preventing further stress gain. With a one-turn cooldown, it has its limitations, but it’s an invaluable move for keeping stress down in difficult situations.
