After much toying around with team compositions (comps), I landed on the following comp + strategy to successfully carry me through the Grand Slam achievement. There are many comps which will complete a Grand Slam, all of which are good/viable, but often what is lost on just discussing a comp is the nuanced strategy behind how it works. This guide therefore seeks to present a composition and then also the game plan for how to make it work throughout an RNG based game. I'm not saying this is the best comp there is, but I am saying it's a strong comp that does work.


Note
There are many other guides on steam, with a special shout out to the Novel Guide, which are full of information on game play, strategies, comps, considerations, and more. I definitely recommend them for overall learning about the game, more so than this guide which assumes you understand the game at large and cuts right to the chase.

Plauge Doctor (Alchemist) Position 4 (Back)

The Plague Doctor in Alchemist mode whose primary job is for Blight DoT. Distant secondary is to throw in a heal if ever needed.

Skills

• Noxious Blast
  
• Plague Grenade
  
• Battlefield Medicine
  
• Indiscriminate Science
  
• Magnesium Bolts

Notes

• The Plague Doctor is a very powerful character and appears in a lot of strong comps for a reason. Mostly because she combines powerful DoTs with sustaining heals which is exactly what we will use her for here.
  
• Our goal is to primarily be DoT'ing. Heals are very rare and only typically to either pull someone off Death's Door or to remove some nasty DoT's on them which will put them there.
  
• Why both heals? Tempo. (see Tempo Strategy). One heal or the other is going to heal for more (or remove DoT's in the case of Battlefield Medicine). We have both so you have access to whichever is stronger for the target. Since you will rarely be healing anyways and we always want PD to be blighting, so we don't lose tempo, there's really nothing better in kit to spend a turn on anyways.
  
• Magnesium is a dodge removing cleave and occasional utility out of corpse clear. Rarely used.
  
• Alchemist so you get Blight penetration so your blights always stick.

Runaway (Arsonist) Position 3

The Runaway in Arsonist mode adds more DoT to the party. (We're all about it!) Also adds a pinch heal and pinch blind that can be sometimes useful.

Skills

• Firefly
  
• Cauterize
  
• Controlled Burn
  
• Smokescreen
  
• Dragon Fly or Run and Hide (dealer's choice)

Notes

• Arsonist mode so that we have burn penetration so burns will reliably stick.
  
• Runaway's job is to find targets to DoT primarily. Distant secondary is an off Cauterize for sustain or Smoekscreen.
  
• Dragon Fly or Run and Hide are purely there for just a little "help" in repositioning. This team is generally weakest to shuffles (discussed in Strategy), and this can sometimes save a turn. That's it.
  
• Special note on Cauterize. Cauterize is a damn good, powerful heal. It only works when someone is bleeding. Thank goodness someone is almost always bleeding because bleed is ridiculously prolific in this game. (see Strategy). Cauterize is amazing for that.

Flagellant (Exanimate) Position 2

Flagellant's (Flag) job is to use More MORE! Everything else is a bonus, and that bonus comes in the form of DoT's. Because, we're all about those DoTs!

Skills

• More, MORE!
  
• Punish
  
• Sepsis
  
• Acid Rain
  
• Deathless

Notes

• Flag's primary purpose here is use More, MORE! to force enemies to attack him. Because this ability's heal is so strong, this ability effectively acts to cancel enemy turns. This is so much better than a normal taunt/block that you would get from Man at Arms, for example.
  
• Acid Rain is also helpful to hit back rows just like a plague grenade. Keep in mind though, it's not as good because he doesn't get good blight penetration.
  
• Punish is there to give you the ability to hits positions 1-3 to plink damage and add DoT's. Also, due to Exanimate, sometimes this ability actually hits pretty hard!
  
• Deathless is yet a 3rd party member with a heal to keep people up or off of death's door in a pinch.
  
• Sepsis is there to heal Flag and it can do incredible damage with this comp. Mostly just here for giggles, but it does have some uses for ending Boss Fights more quickly.

Hellion (Berserker) Position 1

Hellion is here to add even more DOT's. (Seriously, we're all about it.) Bleeds, pinch Iron Swan, and well, is also our source of Stress mitigation.

Skills

• Iron Swan
  
• If It Bleeds
  
• Bleed Oout
  
• Howling End
  
• Raucous Revelry

Notes

• This is Hellion played "weird", frankly. Note that we have no way to remove Winded tokens. We don't care because our job is to Bleed. Still, doesn't hurt though that Hellion can do solid damage early in a fight before the winded tokens stack up.
  
• Raucous Revelry is important to us because it's a party stress heal, self heal, and self stress heal. There will be a discussion on Stress Management in strategy.
  
• Iron Swan is sometimes useful very early in a fight or some fights before you start stacking up winded tokens to hit a back row enemy.
  
• Howling End is, weirdly, not used for damage. It's used for a tempo sustaining re-position to Position 2. We use this when there's no good target in Position 1 to use Bleed Out on. This does some damage, moves us into Position 2, and gets us ready to use If It Bleeds.

For Newer Players
Darkest Dungeon 2 is a rogue-lite game, meaning it's a short play through with the intention being that you will play-through many, many times, often losing, while you slowly build up power using the candles you collect to get strong enough to beat the game. It then makes this game play loop interesting with liberal use of randomness to ensure each run is different.

Since you don't start the game with this comp available as is, there's work to be done to get out there, farm Shrines and Candles until you get all the skill and class specialization unlocks you need to make this comp shine.

Candle Usage
You should work your way towards upgrading these 4 characters to near full upgrades. You do this because they get small increases in resistances along the way. So, for example, no need to stop on Berserker with Hellion, you should go further.

Additionally, this comp, like all comps, becomes stronger and stronger the more we have access to strong Trinkets, Stagecoach items, a specific Pet, and some Combat Items. So, you will want to unlock these things. You have much farming to do! Use this time to enjoy the game. Unlock all the characters, do the Crusader quest, try out all ideas for your team comps, etc.

Comps NEED Candles
Just walk away from this section knowing that while no Comp relies specifically on any access to specific trinkets "in theory", that the overall strength of ALL comps is increased in a very subtle way with unlocks. Often, it's so subtle, the same comp you tried 5 runs ago now suddenly works better than it did because you scored some cool Trinket... that wasn't available 5 runs ago. Things like that MATTER. A LOT. The more you play the game and progress with unlocks, the more you forget what it was like to play the game without them. Keep this in mind. Most people who offer advice on the game forgot a long time ago what it was like to do a play through with no trinkets or combat items unlocked. So, enjoy the game. Build up your candle unlocks, and when you are ready, it's Grand Slam time.

Before diving into how to play this comp, it's useful to understand some quick concepts which generally help with playing DD2, no matter the comp or play style. Again, I recommend reading the Novel Guide here on Steam if you want a very long analysis of all things DD2. These concepts here are presented here in short form but are covered in much more detail in that guide.

Tempo
The concept of Tempo put very shortly is that your when it's one of your comp member's turn, they are generally doing what YOU want to do to progress the fight rather than being forced to react to what the enemy is doing. Tempo is that feeling you get when the fight is going smoothly, according to plan, and no wasted actions are being taken. Your tempo gets messed up when you find yourself having to react and doing things that don't progress the fight like being forced to reposition (thus wasting turns you could be killing things) or being forced to heal someone because they might die or have too much stress. A good team comp should feel smooth, with very little wasted actions.

This comp has extremely high tempo. The only thing that messes it up is shuffles, which will be discussed in the strategy section.

Damage Plan
This is how your comp intends to do damage to progress and end a fight. This goes hand in hand with tempo and the next concept, threat assessment/targeting.

The damage output of this comp is well, well above average. Not completely insane, but VERY HIGH. You won't need much of a real damage plan here. The plan is, DoT the crap out of everything and win. You have all the tools you need to hit all ranks w/o losing tempo and with very high damage. Case closed.

Threat Assessment / Targeting
Again, this guide assumes you've played the game already. You have seen most of the enemies, fought them, know which ones hurt, which ones are annoying, which ones cause stress, and so on. You know what to kill and realize that probably 85-90% of the time, the rule is kill the stuff in the back first, then the stuff in the front, with notable exceptions.

This comp can destroy any rank easily with high tempo. This box is checked.

Sustain / Mitigation
As a person who has played the game enough, you realize that sustaining your team while you fight is important, especially around STRESS. But also, healing and mitigation, and possibly the most important of all, being able to remove stacked DoT's which can really devastate if you don't.

Mitigation comes from typically Tanks. The best tank in the game, IMO, is Flag, and that's why he's here. (More on why later.) Man At Arms is also strong, but not as good as Flag for one key reason (discussed later.) Sustain then comes from ability to heal off damage (this is why Flag is better than Man At Arms at its core). That usually happens by a healer. In this comp, both Plague Doctor and Ruanway have heals. Hellion has a self heal + party stress redux. Flag heals himself. Further Plague Doctor and Runaway can remove DoTs (more on this later). You literally have sustain in every party member. This is important for this comp.

Take the Fight
Your priority selection should be to take fights on maps. The reason for this is to maximize the amount of Mastery Points you can get in an area. Dens not only give mastery but can also provide other very helpful turn ins. Always do the Lairs.

Shout out to the Hoarder late game when you have more money than you know what to do with.

In case you didn't see, this comp is all about that DoT (Damage Over Time). Talking about DoT's gets a special section here because to understand why this comp is so strong, you need to understand why DoT's in DD2 are arguably the best type of damage, and if not the best, at least equal to any other damage plan.


DoT's Allow You To Ignore Tokens. Enough said.
No really, this is so important and such an enormous advantage in this game, it needs to be spoken about. Here's the thing. Many enemies and bosses rely on token manipulation to wreck your day. Tokens, for the record, are the Block, Vulnerable, Strength, Crit, etc. tokens. You know, the ones that make you (or the enemy) take 50% or 75% less damage, or 50% more damage, etc. See, DoT's don't care about Block tokens, or having to setup Combo tokens, or having to manipulate Vulnerable tokens. You get the damage, it's already strong, and poof, you get to ignore half the game mechanics.... just... like... that.

The only tokens you now have to care about are Blind, Taunt, and Dodge. Blind because it makes you miss your DoT's. Taunt because you want ever so many more Taunt tokens on Flag. Dodge because they can dodge your DoT's. That being said, you know what else is cool about DoT's? Once an enemy has "enough" DoT on them to basically wipe them out in a turn or two, who cares if they suddenly acquire Stealth, or Dodge, or Blind someone? Even these tokens are less of a problem with an all DoT based damage plan.

DoT's Increase Tempo
Enemy already going to die on his turn anyways? Cool! Switch targets now. See how much tempo you get from that? You can already start in on the next guy before the first guy is dead. No more wasted turns having to knock off that last death shield or ping off those last 5 HP... especially after the guy just dropped a Dodge+ token on himself with that last 5 HP. Ouch city for tempo. You, like the Honey Badger, no longer care.

DoT's Do Comical Damage W/O Setups Because They Stack
Hilarious, my Hellion just Howling End for 50 Damage! So Sweet! All I had to do was set up a strength, put vulnerable on him with another character, up my Crit %, and look how awesome that was! So... much... tempo... lost.

DoT's will hit for 50 damage (yes seriously) just by stacking them up with normal actions.

Plainly put, do the math yourself. Runaway shlocks someone with Firefly for let's say 4 damage and slaps a 6 damage DoT that will last for 3 turns. Total damage output of that move then is actually 22 DMG! With NO SETUP. Yes, yes, "but that's over 3 turns." No sir. Because I will hit them again with another Firefly and then AGAIN with another in those 3 turns if need be. And look at the insane damage pouring out over those same 3 turns versus all the setup for doing straight damage necessary to pull those numbers. The damage output of Plague Grenade is bonkers since it hits 2 targets.

DoT's Wreck Bosses
Because bosses generally take multiple turns in a single round, that causes the DoT's to trigger at a faster than normal rate. Thus, now you are hitting like a truck (see above) and don't even have the investment penalty to do it. Since almost all bosses are DPS race, this puts a DoT damage plan into an even better position!

DoT's wreck bosses. No setup required. No combo tokens. No bull. Just straight wreck. Drop the mic.

This section covers the general strategy of how to use this comp.

High Damage Ends Fights Fast
This comp pours out damage in the form of DoT's. Fights are FAST. DoT them up till they are going to die soon and switch targets before they do. Keep this up till it is all wrecked. For bosses, just pour on the DoTs like you pour on the ranch dressing, and when the boss starts taking 30, 40, even 50 damage every time it activates, wave bye bye and get ready to collect the sweet loot.

You generally want to be flinging out those DoTs with PD, Runaway, and Hellion. Flag is the only person who will skip turns of DoT'ing but only so he can use More, MORE! every time it comes off cool down.

But, this fight is going long. My stress is getting high. Someone is really hurt! Should I stop to heal? Probably not! DoT them instead. Heal when the enemy is dead... or better...

Sustain When Everything is Basically Already Over
1 enemy left who already has enough DoT's to kill him in 1-2 turns? His damage output is low, Flag will tank him. Cycle a turn or 2 and heal yourself up for the next fight. Drop a Raucous to remove some stress. Sip tea and watch the last dude melt.

Know Thy Bosses
Special section on each boss will be below. But know the bosses. Come with the right plan and equipment, and you will destroy them all with this comp. Even Leviathan goes down like a house of cards... not that you will ever fight him... but I digress.

You Don't Need to Over DoT
Suppose you got an enemy in the back rank. He's got 8 damage on him already for the next 3 turns and 9 HP. Now, you might be tempted to smack him with a Plague Grenade because lets end him now. Many times, that IS the right choice. Many times it isn't. Depends on the enemy and Flag's More, MORE! state. Do you really care if that enemy gets one more turn? Do you care so much you are willing to waste tempo by not using Noxious on something in the front rank to ultimately end the entire fight 1 entire round faster? Think about it.

If it DoTs, it is Good.
Trinket selection gets real easy in this comp. Does it give extra DoT potential? Yes, please! Does it give resistance to Bleed, give Flag more taunt, remove DoT's from your own team member, or otherwise just "sounds good till I can get something better". OK take it. Doesn't do any of that? Trash heap.

You will be constantly choosing either The Sprawl, The Foetor, or The Tangle. Why? Because you want the Trinks that commonly drop for Blight and Burn in those regions. But Runaway sucks at fighting the Sprawl boss? Pfft... that boss is the ultimate in weak sauce of all the bosses. You could literally skip Runaway's turn in that fight and still wreck that boss with this comp. Every time. (See below).

Pet Choice
Take just enough candles to unlock the Food Rabbit. That's all you ever need. If you do just enough candles to unlock him, he will always be available (#4 on the pet grid.)

Why the Food Rabbit?

Because of the Speed Boost. You are going to, if you can find them, load up your wagon with Food Gear. Each time, you get +1 Speed. Speed is the great destroyer when it comes to DoT based comps. Why? Because you get to go before the enemy, simple as that. This gives you a round to load them with DoT's before they act and puts you 1 turn ahead of them on the damage train.

Also, STACK FOOD in your inventory. Flap Jack maker is great. Food stack stagecoach item is also great. Every 4 food, is more HP for you. More HP means less having to worry about stopping to heal someone, which means more DoT's, better Tempo.

Food Rabbit 4tW. Don't ever look back.

Stress Management and Reputation
You may have noticed, this is the rare Grand Slam comp that doesn't include Man at Arms or Jester (or both). Right you are, and you are probably thinking, BUT STRESS? WHAT TO DO ABOUT STRESS?

Believe it or not, you don't need a Stress Healer in this game at all once you understand some core components (listed below). However, we pack one anyway in Hellion with Raucous. Raucous will keep Hellion at low stress, but also removes 1 stress from all party members.

Remember, the sweet stress spot is 3-4, preferably nobody over 3.

• Reputation - Always buy reputation upping items in the inns and use them. You want reputation to be as high as you can get it at all times. This not only gives you sometimes incredibly good bonuses for a run, but it also acts as a natural stress reducer during and between fights as your team helps each other.
  
• Laudunum - Buy. It. All. Equip it. Use it all the time. Stress problem (and Horror problem) largely solved just by this alone.
  
• Choosing Paths - OK, it took me forever to notice this. When you are choosing which way to go on the stage coach, a symbol appears above each party member portrait at the bottom of the screen. That symbol is telling you which way that party member wants to go. If you pick the way they want to go, they typically lose 1 stress.
  
• Prioritize Stress Dealers - Kill the stuff that causes stress damage first, and profit.

You follow that list and make sure you heal your stress in the inn, and that'll be that. You don't NEED a dedicated stress healer in this game.

Finally, let's note that when you are on the last fight of an area, it's OK if your stress gets high because you are about to hit an inn where you can easily lower it. Most reputation building items also reduce stress.

Being Shuffled
The weakness of this comp, if there really is one, would be, being shuffled. The reason for this is that depending on the shuffle, it can destroy your tempo and force a few wasted actions getting back into the right position. This is because the comp lacks tempo effective skills to reposition itself like a dance comp would or similar.

In reality, there just isn't that much shuffling in the game, and when there is, the odds of being shuffled into the "worst possible position" are low. Even if you do end up there, it's still manageable with just clever repositioning.

Let's discuss.

First, Flag and Hellion can swap positions and be just as effective in most cases. Meaning Position 1 and Position 2 can swap and cause no tempo loss. PD and Runaway can also swap positions w/o tempo or loss in effectiveness. So, already, there some configurations of shuffling which have no effect at all.

Secondly, we take one skill on Runaway such as Dragon Fly to allow a tempo effective movement to help get Flag back into position should Flag be knocked into the way back.

One can make an effective argument on this comp that Hellion could take one of her 2 move forward skills such as Toe to Toe instead of Howling End to also create a tempo effective re-order. The thing is, I just don't experience shuffling happening enough in such a bad way to warrant it over what Howling End is good for in this comp already (see Hellion).

Ultimately, if Flag gets moved to the back or PD to the front you are going to lose an action or two having to use the standard move to get them back into position. Not the end of the world, and it does happen.

Finally, I do throw Inn Items that give Move Resists to Flag and PD if I get them randomly. I typically don't buy them over say Reputation gainers, but you could if it really bothers you that much.

Mastery
More, MORE! always first. I usually then pick Plague Grenade.

After that, I upgrade all the damage abilities. Firefly, Bleed Out, if It Bleeds, Noxious etc. Lastly, we start targeting utility.

If you follow the general advice about fighting all the time, you will end up with more mastery in most runs than you have abilities to use it on.

You Are Here to DoT Not Heal
You should be using the Plague Doctor as a constant source of DoT. You generally start with Plague Grenades into the back till they are nice and sauced up and ready to die, then switch to Noxious Blast. You are here to dish out that sweet, sweet blight stacks as efficiently as you can.

You are equipped with two heals "just in case". Flag gets overstacked with DoT's? Drop a battlefield medicine on him. Runaway just got walloped by a stray shot from a boss and is on death's door with nobody else up with another heal? Okay, Indiscriminate Science.

Trinkets
ANYTHING THAT CAUSES ANY KIND OF BONUS DOT DAMAGE. Don't care if it's Blight or Burn or Bleed. Anything that gives you a flat increase is best, %age chance is 2nd best. Best item ever, the trinket that gives you 3 Blight or 3 Burn or 3 Bleed.

Why? Because Plague Grenade hits multiple enemies, that's why. This makes Plague Grenade the best DoT applier in the game because you have Blight Penetration too. If you can suddenly start stacking even more DoT's with it, my goodness it's a game changer. Noxious is no slouch either and gets comical when you suddenly are applying even more DoTs.

If you can't find anything like that, well then go for utility stuff like party stress redux, or stress resist, +HP. Anything really that sounds good till you can replace it with a DoT increase if you ever get one.

Magnesium Rain
Gets even better with DoT gear. However, it's main purpose here is that it will rarely be used as a cleave style attack to clear Dodge tokens. For example, suppose you are fighting Beasts and get the 4 spiders. Each has 2 dodge tokens. Sigh. Magnesium Rain is good there. It's also good to help get rid of annoying barricades on road fights.

Someone Call for a DoT?
Just like Plague Doctor, Runaways is here to dish out the DoT's. Liberal use of Firefly, with a Controlled Burn mix-in where applicable (see below).

First Rank Problem
Runaway can't hit first rank in this comp. That's sometimes a little annoying and can be a bit of a tempo buster. That's no problem. Split your DoT's up. Let Runaway start piling on Position #2 while PD and Hellion pile on Position 1. Yes, the enemy might get another turn out of this, but not effectively as both Positions probably die right around the same time.

Otherwise, Cauterize or at worst, swap positions with the PD to skip turn. Or use Smokescreen for giggles. Typically by the point Rank #1 is causing you any kind of trouble, the fight is already wrapping up anyways. So, it's not REALLY a problem.

Cauterize - A Girl's Best Friend
I know what you are thinking. Cauterize only does anything when someone is bleeding. Yep, that's true, and it's a whopping huge heal with no cost too.

But let's get real about Bleed. Bleed is hands down the most common DoT in the game from enemies. It's absolutely prolific. Practically every fight has an enemy in it that causes bleed. Even in the Sprawl, stuff still bleeds, lol. This game is just bleed happy. You will find more use out of Cauterize (because it's so strong of a heal) than you will out of Battlefield and Indiscriminate on the Plague Doctor. Trust me on this one.

Controlled Burn
Controlled Burn is gross against bosses. Use it first. They don't switch positions and this thing stacks up like crazy over time. I always open with Controlled Burn on bosses.

Additionally, got an enemy with a Dodge token on them? Control Burn them instead of Firefly so you can guarantee that some kind of DoT is going to stick to them. It's better than missing.

Trinkets
Anything that gives more DoT damage! Burn specifically. Give the REALLY good DoT stuff to the Plague Doctor, though. But still, by end game, you want it so that both PD and Runaway both have trinkets giving them bonus DoT damage. Damage gets comically high with all the stacking.

Beyond that, anything sounds utility good (stress resist, +HP, ... really whatever...) until you get some DoT love.

One special shout out to the Trinket that removes all DoTs and gives you Regen when it does it. (Comes from Chirg) This is very good for Runaway since she is setting herself on fire all the time while in Arsonist mode.


Final Note on HP + Speed
Both Runaway and PD have lower HP. That's why we take the Food Rabbit (TM). Realize that with a good run with Flapjacks and food stacks galore, runaway can easily hit 50 HP and and PD packing 40 or so. So gross.

Flag TANK! Flag DoT! Flag TANK! Flag DoT!
Guide on how to play Flag.
1. Click More, MORE!
2. Use Punish or Acid Rain to DoT something.
3. Return to Step 1.

Sepsis
Sepsis is only here because sometimes it can do crazy damage when PD has really been working a boss. It can end of fight with a Boss 1-2 turns earlier than ohterwise with a train wrecking amount of damage.

It can also double heal Flag (by Sepsis followed in same turn by proc from More, MORE!)

Why is Flag the Best Tank in the Game?
Because More, MORE!

Here's the thing, More, MORE! when upgraded, heals for so much HP it effectively NULLIFIES whatever has hit Flag. NULLIFY meaning, the enemies who targeted flag have wasted their actions.

This is not true of Man At Arms or Leper. These two MITIGATE damage by reducing it to something manageable that can be healed later. Because More, MORE! just straight heals up the damage, it NULLIFIES it. This is better than Mitigation, hands down.

More, MORE! also Taunts to ensure things will hit flag and often, no one else.

Pinch Heal
Don't forget, Flag can pinch heal just like PD and Runaway. 3rd person for emergency heal off death door.

Trinkets
Bleed Resist and Stress Resist are phenom. Bleed because it's so freakin' prolific. Stress is obvious. Other than that, his class specific which gives Blight damage is nice. Anything really for sustain and increase heal or damage redux is nice.

The Odd Duck
Hellion is the odd duck in this comp. In fact, so odd that if you wanted to replace someone in this comp, it would probably be her. But Hellion brings a lot to this comp that is not at first obvious. Let's discuss Hellion.

Winded Tokens
You will note that Hellion in this comp does not have a skill to remove Winded, yet has multiple skills that cause it. That's right! Half her skill bar in this comp is going to wind you with no way to remove it. What gives?

Because this Team, is all about the DoT. Did I mention that? So, we don't CARE if Hellion does -100% damage... because her DoT still goes through. So, you ignore the tired token altogether.

Early Fight vs. Late Fight
Very early in the fight, look at the enemy you are facing. Got someone in the back row you need to absolutely curb stomp quick? Now's the time to use Iron Swan, before you have racked up winded tokens. Same goes for Howling End. See, here's the thing, early in the fight you use the damage abilities IF YOU NEED THEM.. and it's rare you do. Most common fight is you dive right into Bleed Out on the first position to start stacking DOT.

In the late fight, well, all you are doing is Bleed Out, Raucous and If It Bleeds. That's it. Who cares if winded.

Why is Howling End Here?
Howling End is on EVERY Hellion Build, but in this comp, it's not here for the typical reason. See, normally Howling End is used as part of a setup mechanic to whack someone for 50 damage and lolz. It's true, it's good for that. In this comp, however, we are all about the DoT. So what gives?

Howling End is simply used in this comp to increase tempo for swapping positions with Flag. Why? Because Position #1 is already DoT'ed to hell and back (or is a corpse already), and you need to slide Hellion Back 1 so you can target Position 2-3 with If It Bleeds. Might as well whack something for a little damage too while you are at it? Am I right?

Stress Healer
Use Raucous to heal stress on party members to keep them below 5. You will especially use this towards the end of fights when the enemy is already going to die due to DoTs, and stacking more DoTs is just wasteful. Might as well Stress Heal a little.

Do not underestimate the long term benefit of this simple stress heal when combined with liberal Laudunum use.

Knowing how to deal with each Boss is important for a Grand Slam run for any comp, and it is true of this one as well. No comp I have experienced in the game yet is so incredibly OP that it can just ignore boss mechanics writ large and still win. So, here's the Boss Breakdown.

First, Always Fight Trophy Bosses
Always go for the Lair. Even when you are weak at the start of the run. There isn't a boss you can't kill flat, with no upgrades or trinkets, with this comp.

Second, Almost All Bosses in DD2 Are DPS Races
A DPS Race means the boss will win overtime if you don't kill them fast enough. Luckily, this team excels at DPS, and therefore, is more than aptly equipped to handle all the bosses. This is pointed out to keep you in the right mind frame. Don't worry if the stress is building or the damage is stacking up on you, just keep DoT'ing. This isn't always true. You do have to use some judgement, but for the most part, it's the right answer to just keep attacking.

Sleeping General (Tangle)
This boss is trivial with this team. His major mechanic is you need to be able to hit the back row to remove vines from your team. The goal is to hit the back object twice per round and no more while otherwise doing damage to the boss.
- Runaway -> Controlled Burn.-> Fire Fly on general every turn.
- PD - > First round, Noxious on boss, 2nd and all subsequent rounds, Plague Grenade to hit back row + general.
- Flag -> Punish on first round, then Acid Rain to hit back row and boss with DoT.
- Hellion -> Bleed Out.

Repeat till dead. This boss drops excellent trophies for this comp. The no shuffle trophy is great, but all of them are pretty useful.

Librarian (Sprawl)
Easiest boss in Game for this comp.
- Runaway - Pings Firefly for trivial damage and otherwise smokescreen when available.
- PD - Plague Grenade every turn while he's in the back, Noxious when he gets to the front.
- Flag - Cycle More, MORE! with Acid Rain at first, then Punish.
- Hellion - Iron Swan at first. Then drop back one pos to If It Bleeds while he's in the middle. Step back up for Bleed Out if somehow he gets to the front. (He never does though... dead before that.)

Worst case scenario is he hits you with a bad shuffle. It's still no big deal. Because this boss activates multiple times a turn, the DoT's crush it.

Trophies and Trinkets from this both are typically very good for this comp.

Baby (Foetor)
This is just a straight DPS race. Step on the gas HARD and do not let up till it's dead. DoTs kill it quick because of its multiple actions per turn.
- Everybody throws whatever DoT they can at it where applicable.
- You will be forced to eat meat with Hellion and/or Flag sometimes. Oh well. Just kill the boss. Don't target the meat.
- Runaway + Dragon Fly (because typically higher speed than PD) will keep PD and Runaway from moving forward.

Trinkets and Trophies are typically good for comp.

Leviathan (Shroud)
Don't bother. Although Trophies can be really good, you don't have much need for Bleed trinkets. In theory, could help Hellion, but truth is, I never pick Shroud over the other options for this comp. It's not that don't bother with Leviathan so much as it is don't bother with the Shroud.

Collector
Load down DoT's on first turn. Continue Plague Grenade + Firefly till dead. This is an easy fight.

Death
Another DPS race. Dump DoT's till dead. Try to manage stress if you have Laudunum or need sustain.

Knight
Just a regular fight for this comp. Focus the Boss not the minions because of his AoEs.

Act 1
For this comp, typically order is Ranged -> Melee -> Heals -> Stress heal. Kill in that order. If you don't know this boss, it's 4 enemies, one of which randomly each turn has an ability to disable all skills of a specific type. In truth, you will kill multiples of these at a time due to DoTs, like Plague Grenade or Hellion battering the front position with Bleed Out.

Items to Take: Anything that causes more DoT damage. Any heals.

Act 2
Straight DPS race. Pedal to the metal DoTing the boss. Forget the lungs. Mostly forget the breath mechanic. Hammer him.
- Runaway - Controlled Burn -> Firefly on boss every turn.
- Plague Doctor - Noxious blast on boss every turn.
- Hellion - Drop back with Howling End and If It Bleeds on Boss every turn.
- Flag - Rotate More, MORE! and a DoT on boss.

Items to Take - DoT combat items to stack on the boss. A heal kit on someone is also helpful in case you get very unlucky getting smacked by a Crit Breath or something.

Act 3
Do your best to manage the tokens put on you in Part 1 hopefully getting the majority onto Flag. After that, straight DPS race, again. Start DoT'ing and don't look back.
- Runaway - Controlled Burn -> Firefly on boss every turn.
- Plague Doctor - Noxious blast on boss every turn.
- Hellion - Bleed Out every turn.
- Flag - More, MORE! and DoT rotation.

Items to Take - Healing items. If someone gets smacked into Death's Door you can throw a healing item at them to get them back on their feet without losing Tempo.

Act 4
More DPS races. Who would have thought?

To easily defeat this boss you need some prep work. Throughout the run, you MUST collect Bleed Resistance trinkets and items. You want if you can for 3 team members to have item to increase Bleed Resist for 3 turns and one with a Heal Item. In addition, stockpile Inn Items that give bleed resist to be used on the Mountain. Also, food that grants +Bleed resist stock piled for the Mountain. Scoring the +66% or +33% Bleed Resist trinkets is even better. Flag first, then Hellion, etc. If your bleed resist is already going to be 90+, don't over stack it unnecessarily. Help someone else out first.

- Phase 1: This phase is the most dangerous to you if not played properly. Kill this thing. All DoTs all the time. The reason why dangerous is he can shuffle front pos to back and hits very hard.
- Phase 2: If you have enough bleed resists, this is easy. DoT him to death and sustain as you need. Flag will do the work here of taking care of damage.
- Phase 3: Same as phase 2 is you have enough bleed resists. Just DoT away and sustain as needed.

Act 5
Arguably the easiest act boss, lol? Maybe not easier than Act 1. There's nothing to really say here in terms of strategy.

If you can get some extra Blight Pen for PD before the fight, that's helpful for Phase 1 of the fight.Otherwise, this is just a long, normal-ish fight. Sustain as you need with normal rotation and DoT it down.

For the final phase, it is recommended NOT to select Hellion to fight against. The reason is because your Hellion will be winded and no way to fix that. Everyone else is fair game. Flag is the harder of the 3 to defeat because you really want Flag to be sustaining for you with More, MORE!, not fighting himself.

Truth be told, this comp does SO MUCH DAMAGE you can easily skip 2 of the clones to fight. It's no problem for you to do 400 damage during this fight. I haven't tried it, but I actually think you could do the full 1000 damage, but it's the sustain that's the problem because your own clones do hurt.