Darkest Dungeon 2 – How to Play the Leper: Ability Breakdown, Optimal Builds, Masteries, Team Comps

Meet the Leper

“When pain is accepted, strength flows in abundance.”

The Leper is unlocked when your Darkest Dungeon 2 profile reaches level 12. The kind, benevolent king who supposedly suffered from leprosy and treachery is back in the game and is lively as ever.

The hero specializes in dealing damage, is durable & self-sufficient, and is one of the best front row tanks in the entire game. The Leper’s entire combat kit thrives in the first rank and can even topple down enemies with a single blow. However, his strength comes at a cost, and in this guide, we’ll teach you how to play him to his full potential.

Ability Breakdown

* Ignores blind when the enemy has Combo token

** Adds Combo token

Optimal Builds: What does the Leper specialize in?

Building the Leper or any Darkest Dungeon 2 hero depends on you and your playstyle. The build that I am discussing may not be the ultimate and best way to play the Leper, but in my experience, it works pretty well. Feel free to experiment, and if you do come up with something that works even better, don’t forget to share in the comments below so that the entire MGM Community can enjoy it as well.

Build Goals: Understanding how the build works

Almost all of Leper’s abilities are synergistic. To play him optimally, you will have to strike a balance between damaging yourself and your enemies, using utility skills at the right moment, and sustaining yourself whenever necessary.

You can try out different builds, but for now, I am going to discuss two that w have found so far:

1. Defensive Build

Key Abilities: Hew, Break, Withstand, Solemnity, Reflection.

2. Offensive Build

Key Abilities- Hew, Break/Chop, Reflection, Revenge, Solemnity.

3. Glass Cannon Build

Key Abilities- Break/Chop, Reflection, Ruin, Revenge, Solemnity.

4. Tank Build

Key abilities- Purge, Intimidate, Withstand, Reflection, Solemnity,

Suggested Playstyle

The possibilities are limitless when it comes to combining builds and abilities together. However, you need to learn a few synergies to play the Leper, which you’d most probably do by the time you unlock him. As for the playstyle, I will approach the topic one build at a time:

Defensive Build: Easy

The defensive build is the safest and the easiest to learn among them all. It has a nice balance between offense and defense: Hew and Break and super damage-dealing options. Reflection takes care of Blind debuffs, while Solemnity and Withstand helps with sustainability and defense. You don’t even need a specific team comp to make this work, as the Leper can pretty much handle his own.

Offensive Build: Normal

This one is also quite similar to the previous build, with the addition of the Revenge ability strength and possibly crit tokens to the Leper. The healing from Solemnity is enough to sustain the hero during the early stages, but later on, you have to stock up on healing items or have a healer in your team comp.

Glass Cannon Build: Difficult

Being a glass canon with the Leper is not easy. The Bleed status from Ruin combined with Vulnerable from Revenge can cost you a chunk of HP if you are not careful. You will need a good team to support you (with combo tokens and healing) alongside trinkets and healing items.

Tank Build: Difficult

The tank build is fairly easy to play, provided you have a powerful team of damage dealers. This build focuses on utility, tanking for the entire party, and even applying debuffs to the enemy. Purge is a great utility ability since it applies a combo token, cleans corpses, and knocks back enemies, disrupting their lineup in the process. Intimidate is also important for taunting rear damage dealers and protecting your teammates from enemy fire. The rest of the kit focuses on defense and healing.

Best Mastery Upgrades: Choose high priority abilities with the most impact

Mastery upgrades depend on the build that you are currently playing. Consider upgrading at least one or two abilities if the Leper is your main damage dealer or tank. Here is a recommendation based on our experience:

Defensive Build

For the first two upgrades, at least one offensive(Break) and defensive(Solemnity or Withstand based on team comp) ability. You can upgrade the rest depending on your team comp/requirement.

Offensive Build

Focus on Break for raw damage output and Revenge because the Vulnerable token is halved, and you have a 15% of getting a Crit token on turn start. Next, focus on Hew for more DPS.

Glass Cannon Build

Ruin can be a double-edged sword since it depends on the Leper getting hit. Upgrading it gives a bleed status, which means the +20% DMG is guaranteed, so get it done as soon as possible, followed by Revenge and Break/Chop.

Tank Build

Intimidate is a key ability in this build. However, an upgraded Intimidate only taunts Stealthed enemies, so upgrade it if the next biome spawns those. But if someone on your team (like the Grave Robber) benefits from Combo tokes, Purge takes priority over Intimidate. In case of defense, always go with Withstand first and then Solemnity.

Team Synergies: Which heroes complement Leper’s abilities and playstyle?

The standard team comp applies—one healer, one damage dealer, and a dedicated hero that specializes in applying Combo tokens. The Leper’s kit significantly benefits from these tokens. So having a jester on the team who can apply Combo tokens means you can hit more consistently and deal more damage instead of using Reflect every alternative turn.

Best team comp:

• Occultist/Plague Doctor (Healing)

• Highwayman/Grave Robber/Runaway (Damage)

• Jester/Highwayman/Runaway/Occultist (Combo Token)

Hero to avoid:

• Hellion

Weakness: What should you know before playing the Leper?

The leper has three distinct weaknesses:

• Debuffs – The blind debuff can be quite annoying and can cost you turns if you do not have a workaround, like having heroes that can apply Combo tokens for the Leper.

• Movement – There is no movement ability in the Leper’s kit. Encounters where the Leper gets knocked around a lot can get very ugly. Make sure to have agile heroes who can swap places with the Leper without costing him a turn.

• Speed – The Leper is one of the slowest heroes, but he makes up for it in damage. You can offset the speed by using trinkets and items; however, focusing on damage might be a better option. The Leper was born to tank and hit hard. No use in making him any faster, especially when neither of his specialties is turn-sensitive.

Factor in these traits when you’re building a team, and you’ll do just fine in every run.

Parting thoughts

Hopefully, I was able to answer all your questions related to the Leper and how to play him. The Leper is an extremely powerful hero once you have learned how to balance all of his abilities. If executed properly, the hero is capable of carrying your entire run with little to no resistance. He is an excellent damage dealer and an equally good tank with ok utilities to help himself and other heroes from now and then. Stay tuned because we have other guides similar to this one on each of the remaining heroes.

Did we cover everything there is to playing the Leper? Have you stumbled upon a super cool synergy that you want to share with the community? Feel free to share it in the comments below. Happy Hunting!

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