Idols & Aspects of Cthulhu (Reworked)

<This is a significantly reworked version of a mod I published earlier. Because of the way the game handles Districts, it is not possible for me to push updates when so much has changed. If you are using an older version of this mod, please read the instructions below.>

Idols and Aspects are buildable districts found on the left and right of your district panel respectively. There are approximately 50 Idols and 50 Aspects avaliable for construction. These are end game districts aimed to address the stagnation of Darkest Dungeon’s end game where gold, heirlooms and difficulty tend to become a lot less relevant.

Unlike the previous iteration where Idols and Aspects had a messier set of penalties / bonuses or adjustments / buffs that could easily affect a class’ performance, I’ve rejiggled the system to be much more simple, far more friendlier in most scenarios and much more in line with the game’s balance.

Now, you can build all Aspects and Idols to your heart’s content, and can do so without fear that the game becomes too difficult or that your roster would be too adversely affected.

Each Aspect represents one class in the game and allows the player to provide small but meaningful buffs to his/her favourite class. Many modded classes are now supported (having them installed is NOT required), and new Aspects can be easily added in future updates.

Building an Aspect will reduce the virtue chance of all heroes by 1%. The maximum penalty at the moment if you build all avaliable Aspects is – 55% Virtue.

Each Idol, despite the way it is worded, increases the damage of one monster / group of monsters / boss / mini-boss from the game. Some Idols will instead buff certain regions or impose new rules or restrictions.

For making the game harder, your roster is awarded with a bonus 2% virtue chance. The maximum attainable Virtue if you build all Idols is + 102%.

Find a balance between Idols & Aspects!

Many modded classes (Aspects) are now properly categorised by author(s), and some Idols have been repositioned to make it easier to find what you are looking for.

Many large numbers for the difficulty modifiers have been constrained to a maximum of 10%, with the highest upper limit of 15%. Generally, powerful enemies can only receive a +10% damage modifier, while weaker enemies will receive +15%.

This means you can genuinely enable all (or most) difficulty modifiers through the Idols, still be able to beat the game and not worry that the balance of Endless has been too adversely affected.

Buffs to classes through Aspects have been changed. There are no more buffs to criticals, significant damage boosts, ignore armor or ignore stealth (which didn’t work properly). Previously, Aspects only buffed 2 class skills. Now they buff 3 skills but focus only on the class’ ability to inflict statues (debuff, blight, stun etc) more consistently.

If a class doesn’t have many skills that inflict status, a damage buff (7%) to a side skill is given. Single target skills that inflict status will have a 15% bonus while AoE skills will receive a 10% bonus. This 10% bonus limit is also extended for some classes where they get a buff to stress heal or direct healing.

This prevents as much power creep as possible while respecting the classes’ design intent.

You should finish that save with the old mod first. However, if you have not built any of the previous mod’s districts, upgrading is safe. Obviously, you shouldn’t run both versions.

It was important for me to reassess and rewrite this mod because I was certain I could make it much better. Additionally, I always felt that the modded classes were usually a little out of place with the base game and I wanted a way to enshrine all (or most) of them in the game without too much intrusion.

And of course, Bastion’s shrines were, in my opinion, a really great way to encourage the player to make the game harder. I wanted to emulate that but I felt that I had gone a little too far with the numbers in the previous mod.

I hope the mod provides a fun sandbox experience that is update proof. Unless Red Hook or Mod authors completely rework a skill, the Aspect’s buffs will always remain meaningful but not essential, which is how they should have been from the start.

Finally, remember that Districts cannot be demolished so there is permanance in your choices.

Marvin Seo: I looked at his Amphitheater mod to understand how the basic coding and insertion mechanics worked. His work is simply incredible.

O’Nightmare: For teaching me something about tooltips. Prior to that, I had no coding knowledge and had to figure out everything the hard way. His steam guide on the game’s parameters was infinitely valuable. You can find it here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1095670238

Clair de Lune: For her Discord channel which you can find here: https://discord.gg/VkXB87M
And also because I finally understood how to do up tooltips for rules and buffs by looking at her work in her Trinket Collection.

Darkest Dungeon Tactics greatly remixes and improves enemy compositions without changes to the game’s mechanics. You can find it here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1425215747

Increase Hamlet Maintenance Costs is essentially marathon mode for Darkest Dungeon which raises the cost of vanilla districts and activities by reducing the game’s absurdly generous discount for said services. You can find it here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1438310168

Want a new set of balanced prismatic quirks with a dark twist? https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1444846200