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She hides in the shadows, slays monsters, and robs graves. Carving a special niche for herself among the Heroes inDarkest Dungeon 2is the Grave Robber.The Grave Robber is a back line damage-dealing hero that plays like a typical rogue character.She can jump into stealth to hide away from danger, and leap out of the shadows for a massive critical hit when your team needs it the most.
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Despite being one of the first starting heroes, using theGrave Robbercan be just as tricky as she is. There’s a lot to her kit that feels lackluster without theproper set up. While the rule of thumb in every Darkest Dungeon run is to make the most of what you have, it can be difficult sorting through exactly what the Grave Robber needs. Here is a guide to help you keep a look-out for the tools to build the best Grave Robber.
Grave Robber Summary
- Easy access to stealth
- Low Max HP
- High crit and high crit damage
- Reliant on Stealth for damage in some trees
- Strong ranged options
- Mediocre front line options
- Self-sufficient through crits, Absinthe, and Dead of Night
- Big damage requires a little bit of set up
Lots of movement abilities
High base speed
- Plenty of Blight support
Grave Robber Stats
Resistances
Death Blow
As far as Resistances go, there isn’t too much to write home about with the Grave Robber. She doesn’t particularly resist anything well besides Blight, andher only weaker Resistances are to Stun and Move.Stun can be detrimental if the Grave Robber isn’t in stealth and lacks a decent amount of Max HP, butbeing moved by an enemy is fairly inconsequential because most Grave Robber builds will have her moving between ranks as part of her skills.
Some of her paths will reduce her Speed or her Max HP by a sizable chunk. Don’t forget touse Inn Itemsto help mitigate those weaknesses.
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Grave Robber Skills
Here are all the Grave Robber skills:
Parentheses are used to show a skill’s effect when upgraded.
Unlock Conditions
Pick To The Face (Melee)
Unlocked by default
Thrown Dagger (Ranged)
Flashing Daggers (Ranged)
Poison Dart (Ranged)
Dead of Night
Complete Chapter 1 of Grave Robber’s story
Complete Chapter 2 of Grave Robber’s story
Lunge (Melee)
Complete Chapter 3 of Grave Robber’s story
Shadow Fade
Complete Chapter 4 of Grave Robber’s Story
Glint in the Dark (Ranged)
Complete Chapter 5 of Grave Robber’s Story
Pirouette (Ranged)
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Grave Robber Paths
The Grave Robber has four paths -Wanderer, Deadeye, Venomdrop, and Nightsworn.Out of these four,you’ll rarely want to use the Wanderer because it doesn’t help the Grave Robber perform well in her role.The other three paths in comparison each have powerful effects that let the Grave Robber perform even better as a back line damage Hero.
Out of all the paths,the Deadeye is the most straightforward and simple of the Grave Robber’s paths.The Deadeye buffs all of the Grave Robber’s ranged abilities at the cost of her melee ones.Flashing Daggers, Thrown Dagger, Pirouette, and Glint in the Dark all enjoy an increase in damage and Crit chance.This lets the Grave Robber become fairly self-reliant when it comes to stress management and damage in Rank 3 or 4.
Poison Darts also gets a damage and Crit chance buff, but you’ll be using that skill for its stacks of Blight, not its raw damage output.
At the start, the Deadeye is going to feel the weakest out of the three paths. Its only gimmick is increased crit chance and damage, which feels a little weak compared to what her other paths are capable of. However,if you’re patient and keep an eye out for the right Trinkets, this path will shine through its sheer volume of critical hits and consistent damage.
Best Skills For The Deadeye
Thrown Daggers works best when you have a teammate that can put down combo tokens and when you have Critical hit effects like His Rings and Murder Weapon.Thanks to the Daggers' 85% crit chance, you’ll be able to score those effects, deal a chunk of damage, and sometimes relieve 1 stress when you crit. Skills like this are also wonderful for building Affinity because they require the Grave Robber to work with their teammate.
Flashing Daggers is useful to hit the enemy’s Rank 2 and 3 spot.It’s the Grave Robber’s most consistent splash damage skill that also doesn’t have any drawbacks. With enough damage and Crit chance increasing Trinkets, this skill can cut down multiple enemies at once and shorten battles by a decent margin.
Pirouette serves a few functions in this build. First,if the Grave Robber gets moved out of her comfort zone in Rank 3 or 4, then you’re able to Pirouette back to safety at the cost of taking a Dazed debuff next turn.Second, with enough speed and Crit, there is a good argument to start battles with a Pirouette: It hits Ranks 1 and 2, has a 20% base Crit chance after an upgrade, has decent damage, and it gives the Grave Robber a stack of Dodge+.
The final two skills are flexible, butit’s recommended to bring Absinthe or Dead of Night. Both of these options will give the Grave Robber more survivability, which will take some of the work load off your healers.Dead of Night is a little more useful than Absinthe since it will heal more often, clears a corpse, relieves stress, and it puts the Grave Robber in Stealth.Based on what your team is and how the trinkets are coming, you could replace one of these skills with Poison Darts for the utility and synergy the Grave Robber has with Blight skills.
Be aware that fights like the Act bossesdon’t leave corpses behind,so Dead of NIght won’t be useful. Just before those fights, swap to Absinthe since the extra dodge and speed will be far more useful.
Best Trinkets For The Deadeye
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Venomdrop is a fun path because there are so many ways you can build it.Blight is the general theme for this path, but many of her skills now apply Blight or synergize well with Blight through Stealth. Since Blight is found on several of her skills now, the Venomdrop is able to mimic builds from both the stealth-heavy Nightsworn or the ranged-focused Deadeye. All this while still keeping to her theme of applying as much Blight as possible.
However,these benefits come at the cost of 3 speed, which brings her down to the same speed tier as the Bounty Hunter.Meaning, she’s 1 speed faster than the tanks, but slower than the rest of the cast. If you’re building the Venomdrop, take this speed dip into account when you’re figuring out what Rank to place her in and what Trinkets she needs.
Best Skills for the Venomdrop
As mentioned earlier, the Venomdrop can be built in a variety of ways.As a back line Blight dealer, she’s best served with Poison Dart, Flashing Daggers, Absinthe, Dead of Night, and Shadowfade.This set will focus on spreading Blight to enemies whenever she can with Flashing Daggers and Poison Darts. Shadow Fade is mostly used to get back into Rank 3 or 4 if you get moved out of position. This set will want trinkets that can help with Blight resistance piercing.
If you prefer to lean into the stealth route with the Venomdrop, then you can swap Flashing Daggers for Lunge, and drop Absinthe for Glint in the Dark or Pirouette.You’ll want to find ways to increase the Grave Robber’s speed because using an early Shadow Fade will keep her away from danger.Once you’re in stealth, use Lunge for its Blight resistance piercing and high damage. After your Lunge, you can follow up with Glint in the Dark for its damage and Blight resistance piercing or Pirouette for more Blight applications on Rank 1 and 2.
It’s recommended to keep Poison Darts in both builds because it offers strong back line reach and, when used out of stealth, it applies 6 Blight. With combo markers, it also has a higher chance of Crits which will help the Grave Robber manage her own stress and works well with crit Trinkets.
Best Trinkets For The Venomdrop
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Nightsworn
Let’s address the elephant in the room,-20% Max HP on an already squishy Hero can be painful.Coming in at 23 HP, it’s one of the lowest Max HPs in the game. However, this weakness can be mitigated by using Stealth as often as possible. Unlike the Plague Doctor (who suffers from a similar problem in her Alchemist path),the Nightsworn’s penchant for stealth antics means she can only be damaged by AoE attacks or the rare enemy that hits through stealth.This drastically increases her survivability despite the low HP and, thanks to her Nightsworn buffs, she’s able to shave off chunks of HP from even the toughest enemies while in Stealth.
Best Skills For The Nightsworn
Using Lunge from stealth is the foundation of this build.You want to start battles off in Shadow Fade and then use Lunge immediately afterward. Since Lunge with Stealth has a 50% increase in damage, ignores all stacks of Block and Dodge, and enjoys a 30% Critical hit chance, this skill will have more than enough stopping power to shred through large HP bars with ease.
In some scenarios, you’ll find your Grave Robber in Rank 1 or 2 with Shadow Fade on cooldown.This is where Pirouette becomes extremely useful as a means to deal a large burst of damage to the front ranks and simultaneously move yourself back to Rank 3 or 4 so you’re able to use Lunge again.Be aware that if you don’t have any stacks of Stealth left, you’ll have a weaker follow-up Lunge in the next turn.
Finding Trinkets that add more stacks of Stealth will smooth out this strategy so you can almost permanently be in Stealth.
Since you’ll be using Shadow Fade, Lunge, and Pirouette in most situations,you’ll need a skill to cover corner cases where you’re stuck in Rank 2 or 4 but still need to hit something in the enemy’s Rank 4.Thrown Dagger is perfect for this since it can target the enemy back line, and it still gets the 50% bonus damage from Stealth to help remove crucial targets.
Best Trinkets For The Nightsworn
First Skill To Upgrade For The Grave Robber
Builds that need Stealth will want Shadow Fade upgraded immediately.The extra speed buff means you’ll get to act extremely early in the next turn. When paired with the Nightsworn or the Venomdrop, getting that early turn can help remove a would-be attacker or set up stacks of Blight to deal damage on the enemy’s turn.
If being a back line damage hero is more important, then Flashing Daggers isn’t a bad choice early on.Increased damage on two slots will help you get through fights faster, which means less damage taken. The Deadeye and Venomdrop also appreciate the early spike in damage when Flashing Daggers is upgraded.
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Best Rank For The Grave Robber
Much like the Highwayman and the Jester, the Grave Robber is a Hero that likes to juggle her position fairly often.Starting her in Rank 2 is usually a safe bet if she has high speed and needs to start battles off with Shadow Fade.
For back line Grave Robbers,starting in Rank 3 or 4 is best since you want to have them use their ranged skills as often as possible while keeping them out of harm’s way.If you plan on getting into stealth fairly often from these ranks, Rank 3 is the better choice since it gives access to Glint in the Dark.
Best Team Composition For The Grave Robber
The Grave Robber will perform best with teammates who can hold the front line for her, set up combo counters, or add Blight to enemies.Teammates like the Plague Doctor who are vulnerable to being moved will also appreciate having a Grave Robber around because the Robber’s movement skills are some of the best ways tochange a party’s orderin combat.
