Darkest Dungeon 2: How To Defeat The Harvest Child

Darkest Dungeon 2 requires players to defeat a Lair Boss and mount the resulting trophy on their Stagecoach before entering The Mountain. Each of these bosses have unique strengths, weaknesses, and mechanics to challenge Heroes. Like the original game, Red Hook has no qualms about equipping bosses with all manner of dastardly weapons and making them absolute ordeals for the player.

Related: Darkest Dungeon 2: How To Defeat The Dreaming General

The Harvest Child, one such Lair Boss, is a tricky opponent indeed for parties that rely on the wrong damage type, or fail to clear corpses efficiently. For a detailed strategy on how to beat this boss, including all attacks in its arsenal, the best Heroes to use, and the best items to bring, keep reading.

Reaching The Harvest Child In The Harvest House

The Harvest House, located in the Foetor region, is where you will find The Harvest Child. As is typical for Region Lairs, you must defeat two waves of sentries before facing the boss. In The Harvest House, sentries belong to the Plague Eater faction.

Plague Eaters

Plague Eaters, like those found in The Harvest House, typically have the following characteristics:

• High Blight Resistance
• One or more abilities that make use of corpses
• The ability to apply Blight to Heroes
• Low Bleed and Burn resistance

As such, it is very important to have reliable ways of clearing corpses, and preferably a way to generate Bleed or Burn Tokens too.

Fighting The Sentries

The first two waves in The Harvest House are likely to be made up of any combination of six enemies (ordered from highest to lowest priority):

• Maid
• Livestock
• Lord
• Lady
• Butcher
• Dinner Cart

Prioritize Livestock unless there is a maid. This is because other Plague Eaters can heal from Livestock multiple times, but will only heal from a corpse once (if you can’t clear it in time). If multiple Livestock are present, start with the one in Rank One. Livestock have a high damage ability that can only be used in the Rank One position, which can be easily avoided by bursting a target in the first round.

Maids are of a higher priority than Livestock because, while Livestock is a source of healing for other Plague Eaters, Maids use corpses to place powerful buffs on allies. This can be deadly, and it is best to ensure these buffs never appear by killing her first.

Lord and Lady type enemies are of similar priority in fights – both deal high amounts of damage and eat corpses to empower their attacks. However, they can be managed with corpse-clearing abilities such as the Occultist’s Daemon’s Pull.

Related: Darkest Dungeon 2: Best Inn Items

Fighting The Harvest Child

Once you’ve beaten the sentries, you will face The Harvest Child and two minions (Fetid Meat and Putrid Meat).

This boss has three abilities, while its minions both have one ability.

Boss Abilities

Minion Abilities (Harvest Hunger)

Fetid Meat and Putrid Meat do very little damage, usually only 1-2 damage per round. Instead, their attack has a chance to apply the condition, Harvest Hunger.

Harvest Hunger causes a hero to move forward one Rank and, if Rank 1, use their action on Feed The Hunger. This does a small amount of damage to a minion of the player’s choice and reduces the Hero’s maximum HP by 15% until the end of combat. If the Hero is not Rank 1 on their turn, they can act normally.

Strategy

The Harvest Child is a two-rank-wide enemy whose attacks move it forward and backward. This Boss deals more damage the closer it is to Rank One, and so, while the minions can be quite annoying, you shouldn’t try to kill them. Additionally, The Harvest Child has quite a low Bleed resistance, as such, the best course of action is to stack Bleed tokens onto it as high as you can. Burn is also quite effective when Bleed isn’t available. Another tactic is to use abilities and items that either stop The Harvest Child from moving forward or knock it back. This prevents the boss from using its strongest attack: Maws of Life.

Best Heroes To Fight The Harvest Child

Heroes that can move enemies, apply helpful DoTs, and/or have a lot of Hit Points are the best choices to enter this lair with. Examples include:

• The Man-at-Arms: Has Rampart to knock the boss out of Rank 1, and Bolster to clear team stress.
• The Hellion: Applies bleed tokens and hits hard while still having a large Hit Point pool.
• The Jester: Can prevent himself from reaching Rank 1 while also dealing damage and applying Bleed tokens.
• The Occultist: Has the best corpse-clearing capability of any Hero, as well as an ability that applies Bleed.

Related: Darkest Dungeon 2: Best Skills, Ranked

Best Combat Items To Fight The Harvest Child

Items that remove stress or apply Bleed to enemies are very useful in this fight. Some of the easiest to come by include:

• Bear Trap
• Crows Feet
• Laudanum

If those are unavailable, you can bring items that can clear or resist Bleed and Blight, such as:

• Clotting Powders
• Neutralizing Powders
• Bandages
• Medicinal Herbs
• Antivenom

Rewards For Defeating The Harvest Child

Players will receive a number of rewards for defeating The Harvest Child.

Guaranteed Drops

• One of two trophies
  • The Bumper Crop
  • The Harvest’s Bounty
• 1 Random Trinket
• 12–24 Relics
• 12-40 Baubles (Silver Spoons)
• 1-2 Stagecoach Items

Optional Drops

• Up to 2 Boss Exclusive Trinkets
  • Kitchen Knives
  • Ghastly Gruel
• Up to 2 Region-Exclusive Trinkets
  • Curing Cuppa
  • Galvanizing Goblet
• Inn Items
• Combat Items

Other Rewards

In addition to Loot, defeating The Harvest Child will also:

Next:Darkest Dungeon 2: Best Trinket Items