The Antiquarian is the oddest hero in this odd and frightening. This class was added in the DLC in spring, 2016. Players were literally shocked by this almost useless hero, but we claim that the Antiquarian can be very effective. You just should understand her features and use her skills wisely. So here are top reasons to include the Antiquarian in your team!
An overview of the Antiquarian
Don’t try to use the Antiquarian as a damage dealer so far as she has the weakest attacks among all classes. This hero is supporter which can enhance your team and enrich you. She has healing skills, can increase DODGE of other heroes and debuff foes. But the most useful features of the Antiquarian will bring you gold:
- Each Antiquarian in the team increases the amount of gold in a single cell from 1750 to 2500. It means that you can carry up to 4750 gold with four Antiquarians in the team.
- The Antiquarian can find Antiques with price of 500 or 1250 gold for minor or rare items respectively. The Antiquarian discovers Antiques when interacting with curios.
These features make this class the best gold-producer in the game. If you are out of money just include one or two Antiquarians in the team and enjoy. There are strategies focused on enrichment with Antiquarians, but we will describe them later. Now you should find out what skills the Antiquarian has and how they can help you in the expedition.
List of combat skills
The Antiquarian has 3 attacking, 3 supporting and 1 healing skills:
- Nervous Stab (attacking). It’s a single-target melee attack which the Antiquarian can perform from any slot. She can target first three rows of enemies. Although, this attack has very low damage.
- Festering Vapours (attacking). It’s a ranged attack with AoE blighting effect. The Antiquarian can perform it from any slot and damage all foes at once. This skill also decreases blight resistance of enemies.
- Get down! (supporting). It’s a self-casting skill which affects only this hero. The Antiquarian can move one slot back and seriously increase her DODGE and SPD.
- Flashpowder (attacking). It’s a single-target skill which the Antiquarian can cast from any slot. She also can target any enemy. Flashpowder has not so high damage, but this skill reduces ACC of enemies and also removes stealth.
- Fortifying Vapors (healing). It’s a common healing which can save teammates of the Antiquarian. She can cast it only from the third or fourth slot, but she can choose any ally.
- Invigorating Vapours (supporting). It’s a quite useful buff which increases DODGE of all party. The Antiquarian casts it from two back slots.
- Protect Me. It’s the best combat skill of this class. It forces a chosen ally to defend the Antiquarian and increases his DODGE and PROT significantly.
List of camping skills
We will describe only unique abilities that the Antiquarian can use during camping:
- Resupply. The Antiquarian creates a random supply object. This skill can be cast up to 3 times and costs 1-time point.
- Trinket Scrounge. The Antiquarian creates a random trinket. This skill can be cast only once and costs 2-time points.
- Strange Powders. The Antiquarian inflicts bonus resistance to bleeding, blighting, moving, debuffing and diseases on one teammate. This bonus lasts for 4 battles and costs 2-time points.
- Curious Incantation. The Antiquarian reduces DMG taken by her from stress for next 4 battles. This skill costs 1-time point.
Tactic and strategy
The Antiquarian helps her team as a supporter. Her effective utility skills can buff allies and debuff enemies. However, her attacking skills are very weak so we don’t recommend using this class as the main damager. You should take the Antiquarian to increase your income and support the expedition. This feature makes her the best class for starting missions in which you should earn gold. Learn to play the Antiquarian and you will get perfect unusual support.
It’s possible to use two tactics with the Antiquarian:
- «Survive and boost».
It’s classic tactic for this class, which you can use in any adventure. First of all, take one Antiquarian and focus on supporting skills. You may take Fortifying Vapors to heal your teammates. Choose this skill as the main healing ability only if you have self-healing heroes like the Leper or the Hellion.
Although, we suggest focusing on buffs and debuffs instead of healing. Take Invigorating Vapours to increase DODGE of your team or Get Down! to save the Antiquarian’s life. Protect Me is one of the best skills as it increases DODGE and PROT of your tank or damage dealer. Cast it on the Leper or the Crusader to increase their efficiency and defend the Antiquarian.
Attacking skills will not be useful in this tactic. You can take Flashpowder to debuff foes or Festering Vapours to slightly damage them. But again focus on a supporting and defensive gameplay. Protect the Antiquarian and she will show her potential.
- «I need a more gold».
This tactic is focused on Trinket Scrounge ability that the Antiquarian can cast during camping. You should take 4 Antiquarians and try to gain as much gold as you can. Most likely you will get very common, common or uncommon trinkets. Items with higher rarity almost never occur. A hero cannot produce ancestral or unique trinkets as well.
With that team, you will gain an average of 1245 gold per hero per camp. Just enter the dungeon, use all wood for camp and abandon this mission. All produced trinkets will remain and you will sell them. Your Antiquarians also will suffer from stress which they can reduce in the next trinket-making expedition.
Medium dungeon provides up to 5000 gold with this tactic. Long dungeon provides 10000 gold and final Darkest Dungeon provides twice as much gold – 20000! But use this tactic wisely. If you want to level up heroes or complete story missions, it’s better to use the standard tactic. Although, it’s the best way to quick and safe fold earning.
How to strengthen the Antiquarian
To empower this hero you can use trinkets and build Districts.
There are 7 unique trinkets for the Antiquarian including 2 from the Crimson Court DLC. Her trinkets are all different artifacts, unlike other characters that have 1-2 typical items. You can increase the Antiquarian’s DODGE, PROT, SPD and MAX HP, increase her healing skills and received healing as well as maximize the chance of debuff skill. We suggest equipping the Antiquarian with a trinket set from the DLC which boosts healing skills, the chance of blight and debuff skill, DMG and CRIT versus blighted foes as well as DODGE and SPD.
In the DLC you also can build Districts which provide special bonuses. Unlock the Athenaeum and all your Antiquarians, Occultists and Plague Doctors will have more chance of blight and debuff skills. Also, with this District built heroes will cure stress when interacting with certain Knowledge curios. The Athenaeum costs 2500 gold, 110 deeds, and 1 blueprint. In Radiant mode this price is lowered to 1000 gold, 110 deeds, and 1 blueprint.
The Antiquarian is a very interesting class and you definitely should try it!
