Darkest Dungeon 2: How To Defeat Focused Fault

The Confessional Bosses of each act are the only checkpoints players get in Darkest Dungeon 2. Restarting runs from the beginning of the act can be a patience-trying experience when you are unsuccessful. These bosses are particularly potent foes, too, especially the Act 3 – Obsession boss, Focused Fault.

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Focused Fault boasts some of the highest stress and damage output in the game, and two phases of the battle must be managed. Players need to juggle timing when the boss enters these phases, in addition to Darkest Dungeon 2’s own grueling mechanics. This guide will provide tips on the best Heroes and items to bring, how to manage the Eye Stalks, and a detailed breakdown of Focused Fault’s abilities, as well as strategies for success.

Quick Tips For The Fight With Focused Fault

• Use mobile Heroes to position your tank where the Focus tokens will be spawned. This will take three rounds if done perfectly.
• Use upgraded Self Stress clearing abilities, such as Solemnity or Raucous Revelry, to manage the stress on your tank.
• Target the Focused Fault with heavy on-hit damage, such as that done by The Leper, The Hellion, or the formidable Highwayman.
• Utilize Dodge and Block to mitigate damage.

The Stalks

Initially, players will be faced with four enemies, called eye stalks. These enemies are quite squishy but are fast, and stack stress. As an extra challenge, eye stalks evolve over time to get stronger. Eye stalks always begin as Cloistered Eyes, and there are two more stages (Bifurcated Eye and Cluster of Eyes). When an eye stalk is killed, it will revert to a Cloistered Eye and begin evolving anew.

Eye stalks will stack and utilize a unique token called Focus. Focus tokens add +1 Stress per round, and mark the affected Hero as the target of all the Eye’s attacks. Each stalk has its own Focus token. This fight plays more like a puzzle than a combat encounter, as success will be dependent on stacking all four Focus tokens onto your most tanky Hero before Focused Fault spawns.

Cloistered Eyes

Cloistered Eyes are the weakest of the three eye stalk types but are also never-ending. If an eye stalk dies, a Cloistered Eye will take its place.

When Cloistered Eyes spawn, they will have high speed. In their first turn, they place a Focus token on their opposing Hero using the Observe ability. Then, the eye stalk will evolve into either a Bifurcated Eye or a Cluster of Eyes​​​​​​.

Bifurcated Eye

It appears that this enemy is more likely to appear in earlier rounds of combat, while Cloistered Eyes will tend to skip straight to the Cluster of Eyes form later on. In this form, the eye stalks do a moderate amount of damage and stress.

Cluster of Eyes

This is the strongest of the eye stalk types, and the final evolution. While in this state, eye stalks will do a considerable amount of damage while stacking Dodge on themselves. When all four stalks have evolved into a Cluster of Eyes, they will merge into Focused Fault.

Due to the Cluster of Eyes’ substantially higher damage numbers, the player will want to minimize the time each stalk spends in this stage before triggering Focused Fault. Speed is key here.

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The Focused Fault

Once the Focused Fault spawns, it will immediately copy all positive tokens from the eye stalks. Then it will focus its attacks on the Heroes with Focus tokens. If you’ve done the previous phase right, one Hero should have all four tokens.

While Limerence looks scary, keep in mind that a Hero will only lose Death Blow resistance if they have zero hit points when the damage was done. You do not need to heal your tank up past 40 HP every round.

Related: Darkest Dungeon 2: How To Build The Grave Robber

Preparing For The Fight With Focused Fault

For the best chance of beating this boss, you’ll want to up your party’s Max HP with food and load them up with all the best combat items and trinkets. What you have available will vary from run to run, but some stats and ailments are far more important to prioritize.

Best Combat Items

Unlike many other boss fights in Darkest Dungeon 2, DoT combat items are not particularly useful here. Instead, the best combat items to face The Focused Fault will:

• Decrease stress
• Provide Strength tokens
• Remove Blindness

In addition to this more general advice, load up on Restorative Herbs if at all possible. These can be used to counteract the reduced healing your tank will receive during the second phase of the fight.

Best Trinkets

The best Trinkets for your tank are those that increase Max HP and stress resistance. Other heroes are best equipped with damage and Critical Hit Chance items. Examples could include:

• Gilded Mind
• Heartseeker
• Sharpness Charm
• Hale Draught

Best Heroes

The most important Hero on your roster in this fight will be the front liner. It’s crucial to choose a tank that can handle the damage and stress that the boss pumps out, preferably one that is self-sufficient enough to clear that stress and heal up on their own. Ideal candidates include:

• The Hellion
• The Leper
• The Grave Robber

Some of the varied Hero Paths are more suited to tanking Focused Fault than others, so choose wisely. Other party members should be able to help pump heavy damage into the boss: bringing multiple support heroes to this fight is inadvisable.

Next: Darkest Dungeon 2: How To Unlock Every Hero