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Sacrificed to the ancient fishfolk in return for jewels and treasure, the once-human Siren is the first boss of the Cove inDarkest Dungeon. The eldritch creature can be troublesome, due to her ability to charm one of your heroes to fight from her side. She can also summon aquatic monsters found in the water-logged caverns of the dungeon. You must beat her quickly, or else be overwhelmed by the pelagic horrors of the Cove.
While not thehardest boss inDarkest Dungeon,the Sirenis the first taste of boss-level combat in the game, and the creature certainly has some tricks up her scaly sleeve. Here is what you need to know.
Best Strategy to Beat the Siren in Darkest Dungeon
Being an eldritch-type boss, the Siren is fairlyweak to Blight and debuffsinDarkest Dungeon. She also haslow dodge and zero protection ratings, so you can expect all your attacks to hit.
Her own attacks are weak compared to most bosses in the other dungeons. She heavily relies on other monsters and mind-controlled heroes to fight from her side. Hence, the strategy to beat her remains the same on champion-level difficulty where you only need to look out for the Beguiling Siren’s Song inDarkest Dungeon.
Make sure to buy thebest provisions for the Coveto reach the Siren with all of your heroes at maximum health and minimum stress levels.
Bring Holy Water to Counter the Siren’s Song of Desire
The only attack you need to fear isthe Song of Desire. The Siren regularly charms one of your heroes with the lowest debuff resistance inDarkest Dungeon. You can open your character sheets to confirm which hero will be charmed, but it is usually your weakest link.
If you retreat while one of your heroes is charmed, you will lose them forever.
There are two ways to counter the Song of Desire inDarkest Dungeon:
The most optimal strategy here is the second one. The Cove can be a difficult dungeon to complete, so while bringing an Antiquarian will help youfarm gold inDarkest Dungeon, they drastically reduce the attack power of your team. Running an Antiquarian composition requires you to have a deep understanding of combat mechanics and enemy attacks.
Song of Desire has a 155% chance of hitting a hero in champion-level difficulty. It is unavoidable.
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There are two requirements players should fulfill in their team composition to beat the Siren with ease inDarkest Dungeon:heroes with raw damage, andheroes who can either guard or stun. Remember that the Siren boss fight is a damage race similar to the Weald’s Hag, so you need to finish the fight quickly (as few rounds as possible) before things get out of hand.
The Siren is an eldritch monster, so thebest trinkets for yourDarkest Dungeonheroesare the ones that do bonus damage against the eldritch.
Set the Occultist as the sacrificial heroin this team composition. He does bonus damage against eldritch enemies, so Abyssal Artillery will do minimal damage against your heroes once he gets pulled by the Siren to her side.
Blight is highly effective in the Cove, especially against the Siren, because she takes two actions per round. That meansshe triggers her Blight ticks twice in the same round. Use Plague Doctor’s Noxious Blast to add five Blight points for three rounds. That amounts to 15 damage by the third round.
Abomination is an excellent hero for the Cove, but not for the Siren fight. His Blight and Rake attacks hit both ranks two and three, meaning that you will be hitting your charmed heroes as well.
The Bounty Hunter is generally reserved for human-type enemies. He will not do bonus damage against the Siren since she is an eldritch, but his overall raw damage output is still impressive inDarkest Dungeon. Additionally,Uppercut and Flashbang can stun charmed heroeswithout doing too much damage to them.
Do not waste your turn by marking the Siren. She takes two actions per round, so you will only get one round to amplify your damage before the mark expires.
Finally, the Leper - one of thebest heroes inDarkest Dungeonin terms of damage output. His role in this fight is to clear out the summoned monster before the Siren can summon another to overwhelm your party. Chop can send a target packing in one critical hit, while Hew can target both ranks one and two simultaneously.
The Leper requires trinkets and quirks that increase his accuracy. The Color of Madness DLC added severalpowerful quirks inDarkest Dungeonthat work well for the Leper such as Prismatic Force and Hot to Trot.
There is a lot of tweaking room for party compositions against the Siren. You can switch Leper with Hellion or Shieldbreaker, who do not rely on accuracy trinkets. Plague Doctor can switch with Houndmaster, who can use Guard Dog to protect the Occultist, or the hero you set up to be charmed. Heroes being Guarded (Man-at-Arms also has a Guard skill) have a reduced chance of being charmed by the Siren.
