The Best Trinkets in Darkest Dungeon

Darkest Dungeon has a lot of trinkets and that makes the game daunting for new players. While trinkets don't make or break the game early on, it definately helps to have your heroes properly geared for a dungeon. This guide helps you identify the best trinkets and help you prioritzie quests in order to get the best trinkets.

Trinkets that aren't mentioned in this guide are probably not worth using unless they are your only option. Some of these trinkets are worse versions of the worse versions of a trinket that's mentioned; for example, Tough Ring > Heavy Boots > Defender's Stone (not mentioned) > Protection Stone (not mentioned).

Class Specific Trinkets

Let's cover class specific trinkets first because they are in a pretty weird spot. You should almost always prioritize tier 1 trinkets over class specific trinkets but some classes have game breaking trinkets that you should look for if you plan on using those classes a lot.

Before getting into the trinkets, a lot of class specific trinkets are really a second Legendary Bracers or a replacement for Legendary Bracers. Spiked Collar, Wounding Helmet, Wrathful Bandana, and arguably Gunslinger's Buckle (the accuracy increase gives it a slight edge) should be closely compared to Legendary Bracers and should only be considered if Legendary Bracers aren't enough.

Blasphemous Vial (+15% ACC Ranged Skills, +40% stun skill chance, +20% blight skill chance +15% stress damage)

The Blasphemous Vial is one of the trinkets that makes the plague doctor work. Substantial increases to stun and blight skills makes this trinket pretty much mandatory. If you plan on using a plague doctor, this should be one of your top priorities.

Sacred Scroll (-10% stress damage, +33% heal skills, -30% stun skill chance, -3 SPD)

Sacred Scroll turns your vestal into a dedicated healer. Dazzling Light takes quite a blow (it loses 30% of it's effectiveness), but the healing bonus is nice. It's a good trade off between Junia's Head (+30% heal skills, +20% stress dmg).

Restraining Padlock (-25% Stress Dmg Done to Party from skill Transform, -25% Transformation Stress)

Restraining Padlock doesn't do enough to offset the loss of damage of a different trinket (Legendary Bracer + Moon Ring/Berserk Charm) to make it a priority, but it's a trinket you should keep an eye on. Eventually, you'll want to pick one up for your abomination so you don't have to worry about dropping heroes off in the abbey or tavern.

Raider's Talisman (3% CRIT, +30% trap disarm, +10% scouting, +100% food consumed).

The grave robber's very rare trinket is in a weird spot right now. The trap disarm is close to useless since the class already disarms traps extremely well. So you're really taking +3% CRIT and 10% scouting for eating twice the food as normal.

Strongly consider Legendary Bracers or Sun/Moon Ring over this trinket.

Profane Scroll (+15% DMG, +30% debuff skill chance, 10% PROT if in position 2, 33% heal skills if in position 2, 15% stress damage)

Another trinket in a really strange spot, this trinket offers some very strong bonuses at very high costs. A vestal in your second position is less than ideal and this scroll turns her into a psuedo-damage dealer (Mace Bash, Divine Comfort, Illumination, Hand of Light); she loses her stronger heal and her stun, but gains some decent debuffs and better damage against undead.

Probably not worth picking up, but could be interesting in the right team compositions.

Tier 1

These trinkets should be a priority when chosing quests or purchasing from the Nomad Wagon. They are universally good and can be used on generic builds (basically, any DPS hero benefits from Legendary Bracer + Berserk Charm, even though it might not be the absolute best)

Legendary Bracer (+20% DMG, -3 SPD, +10% stress DMG)

Outside of ancestral and trophy trinkets, this trinket is the best damage dealing trinket in the game (Dismas's Head is an alternative to this trinket but has much larger drawbacks).

Focus Ring (+12 ACC, +1 CRT, -8 DODGE)

Accuracy and crit make this trinket really good by itself, but where it really shines is with any damage dealer that has been affected by rabies. Rabies essentially gives a DPS class a free +20% DMG.

Tough Ring (+10% PROT, +15% Max HP, -10% DMG, +10% stress DMG)

The best tank trinket in the game, it's useful on just about every class because PROT is so strong. The loss of damage is offset with Legendary Bracer or Berserk Charm.

Feather Crystal (+2 SPD, +8 DODGE, -20% stun resist, -20% move resist)

The second best damage mitigation trinket in the game, the Feather Crystal also helps deal with potential stun chains and the always annoying position juggling skills.

Berserk Charm (+3 SPD, +15% DMG, +15% stress DMG, -5 ACC, -10% virtue chance)

Berserk Charm is the best damage dealing trinket behind Legendary Bracer. It pairs well with Legendary Bracers by offsetting the speed debuff at the cost of more stress damage; the trinket also pairs well with Focus Ring to remove the accuracy drawback.

Camouflage Cloak (+15 DODGE if light above 75, -20% stun resist)

Potentially stronger than the Feather Crystal during light runs, the Camouflage Cloak finishes off the tier 1 trinkets (as mentioned throughout the guide, light runs tend to be safer than dark runs, so light based items are listed first).

Tier 2

Sun Ring (+15% DMG if torch above 75, +10 ACC if torch above 75, +10% stress damage)

Light runs are safer than dark runs, so Sun Ring is slightly preferred. You'll want to get sun rings for your damage dealers along with Legendary Bracers.

Moon Ring (+20% DMG if torch below 26, +15 ACC if torch below 26, +10% stress damage)

Major damage and accuracy bonuses at the cost of light level and increased stress damage. There's a hidden 3% bonus to crit that you receive at lower light levels that should be assumed when considering this trinket.

Sun Cloak (+5% PROT if Torch above 75, +10 DODGE if Torch above 75, +10% Stress Dmg)

Obviously used for light runs. Like the Camouflage Cloak, but a little less dodge for PROT and increased stress damage. The stress damaage drops it down a tier, but still very strong.

Moon Cloak (+15% PROT if Torch below 26, +10 DODGE if Torch below 26, +10% Stress DMG)

Again, a stronger version of the Sun Cloak, but for dark runs instead of light runs. Higher PROT since it's a little more dangerous to run at lower light levels.

Cleansing Crystal (+40% Debuff Resist, +40% Blight Resist, +40% Bleed Resist, -25% Blight Skill Chance, -25% Bleed Skill Chance, -25% Debuff Skill Chance)

This trinket is primarily used on the occultist to almost remove the bleed drawback to Wyrd Reconstruction (his heal). The trinket can also be traded between heroes during the mission to interact with certain curio. If you have no interest in using the occultist, this trinket loses a lot of it's value.

Tier 3

Surgical Gloves (+5% CRT Melee Skills, +5 ACC Melee Skills, -20% Move Resist, -10% Debuff Resist)

Another decent damage dealing trinket, the increased crit chance has a unique place with potential stress heals associated with successful critical hits.

Solar Bracer (+2% CRT if Torch above 75, +5 DODGE if Torch above 75, -2% CRT if Torch below 50, -6 DODGE if Torch below 51)

A decent hybrid ring (as it offers both offensive and defensive bonuses) for ligh runs. Obviously you never want to go below 50 light level and ideally, you keep the light level about 75.

Dark Bracer (+5% CRT if Torch below 26, +5 DODGE if Torch below 51, -10% DMG if Torch above 51)

Same thing as the Solar Bracer (above), but quite a bit stronger and for dark runs. Remember that you can shift-click your torch light icon at the top of the screen to reduce light by 25 to guarentee that this is always active.

Book of Rage (+25% DMG when life under 25% HP, -10% bleed resist, -10% blight resist)

Since the drawbacks associated to this trinket aren't too bad, you don't want to focus on always having the damage bonus. It should basically be treated as "if things go badly, this trinket can help."

Quick Draw Charm (+8 SPD on First Round, +5% CRT on First Round, -3 SPD after First Round)

Primarily used for a buffing Jester and potentially useful for high damage dark run teams (since you're almost guarenteed to act first).

Tier 4

Heavy Boots (+40% Move resist, +10% PROT, -2 SPD)

One of the best substitutes for Tough Ring, I only put it as tier 4 because it's almost always better to stack damage until you need dodge or protection.

Steady Bracer (+10 ACC ranged skills, -2 DODGE)

The best substitute for Focus Ring for ranged classes (especially after the nerf of Archer's Ring).

Seer Stone (+20% Scouting chance, -1 SPD)

Seer Stone is a really good filler trinket if you have an open slot on your party (especially early on, so you can find secret rooms and get your 3 head trinkets).

Book of Holiness (-20% Stress damage, -6% death blow resist)

This trinket is handy for offsetting increased stress damage on tier 1 and 2 trinkets for low to mid level characters. Best used with Barristan's Head, Dismas's Head, and Junia's Head until you get Legendary Bracers or Tough Ring.

Sniper's Ring (+15 ACC if in Rank 4, -2 SPD)

Handy for arbalests and houndmasters that hang out in your last position. Also, a better option than Steady Bracer/Archer's Ring for backrow damage dealers with rabies.

Tier 5

These trinkets are situational and can fill the role of a tier 1 or tier 2 trinket in certain dungeons. 

Beast Slayer's Ring; Eldritch Slayer's Ring; Man Slayer's Ring; Unholy Slayer's Ring (+25% DMG vs monster type)

These trinkets provide a huge damage boost that's on par with some of the best trinets in the game against certain monster types. Since each dungeon basically specializes in a monster type, these rings can be extremely useful early on in your adventure.

• Ruins: Unholy
• Weald: Human/Beast/Eldritch
• Warrens: Beast/Human
• Cove: Eldritch

That being said, eldritch is the most common mob type (by sheer volume).

Eldritch Killing Incense (+20% DMG vs eldritch, 4% CRIT vs eldritch)

Combined with Eldritch Slayer's Ring, an occultist gets +45% DMG vs Eldritch, +4% CRIT vs Eldritch, and -2 DODGE. This makes the cultist in the 3rd position a great early game damage dealer in the Cove.

Book of Intuition (-20% Party surprised, -1 SPD)

A decent early game trinket for parties that don't handle position juggling well. This trinket isn't as good as it sounds since being surprised doesn't affect attack order (where surprising the enemy guarentees that your entire party goes first).

Best in Slot By Class

Check out the folowing table if decision making isn't your thing and you want the short list of what trinkets are best on each class:

Note: I didn't include any ancestral or trophy trinkets. It should be fairly clear what rare/very rare trinkets to replace with ancestral/trophy trinkets.

Remember that the BiS table doesn't always take into account some advanced things you can do (like Focus Ring + Rabies) or light levels. A light or dark build might end up being stronger, but it's not always the best option or even viable (for example, light builds don't work against The Shambler and dark builds could be potentially troublesome for vestal heavy parties).

Resources

• Official Website
• Official Wiki
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