CCRB RECORD No. 0014
Darkest Dungeon II
Determination: Explicit — Blasphemy 3, Corruption 1
The enemy faction is a church. Deacons and Cardinals are bosses, and Worship is a mechanic that heals them.
Where the first game put Christian practice in the player's hands, the sequel puts a church hierarchy on the other side of the fight. The Cultists are catalogued in-game as the Avatars of Oblivion, clergy of the spreading stain, and their ranks are ecclesiastical throughout: Altar, Cherub, Evangelist, Herald, and the bosses Deacon, Cardinal and Exemplar. The lore has them emerging from a great cathedral after the cataclysm. Worship is not flavour but a combat system — when a Deacon or Cardinal is present, lesser cultists spend their turns worshipping, healing their superior and generating tokens that unlock the boss's most devastating attacks, named Exaltation and Exultation. The player's counter is to kill the congregation before it can empower the clergy.