Wolves at the Door is a unique Mission triggered by the Town Event "Brigand Incursion." It tasks the player with stopping a group of brigands from destroying the Hamlet by killing the brigand leader Vvulf.
Finding the Event
Wolves at the Door is a rare town event and has a few conditions must be met before it will appear:
- It will not occur before Week 40.
- You must have at least 4 LV5 heroes.
- The base chance is about 12% (if there is a town event) and will increase by 3% every time a town event takes place, excluding this one.
- The event will not appear again for at least 4 weeks after it appears.
Be warned that if you skip Wolves at the Door, Vvulf will destroy three of your building upgrades. If you fail the quest, you do not lose town upgrades, but the quest is treated like that of the Darkest Dungeon, thus abandoning the quest will randomly kill one of your heroes.
Completing this event will ensure that it will never appear again for the rest of your current playthrough.
The Mission
Like the Darkest Dungeon quests, Wolves at the Door has a static map and the mission will always be the same. There are no curios requiring the use of items, so you can save your items exclusively for in-battle use and torches.
Also, bring all the shovels available, as there are a lot of obstacles to clear.
There are seven rooms in this mission. When you begin, you are given a choice to go up/left or up/right. Either room you pick, you will get a choice of going to the side or continuing up. If you go up, you will find Vvulf, while the side path leads to treasure. There is a treasure room in the center too, only accessible through the boss room. It's very likely to find ancestral trinkets in said treasure locations, which makes this errand pretty worth it. It is recommended to go back for the left treasure room after you defeat Vvulf. The map will reveal its shape continuously, just like in the Darkest Dungeon itself. No scouting will be possible.
Tactics
As with all higher-level dungeons, your heroes will need accuracy boosts to consistently land hits, especially since enemies in this dungeon tend to have high dodge — Sun/Moon Rings are optimal. A lot of the enemies you face here will inflict Stress en masse, so make sure you have ways to heal Stress or mitigate their effects, lest you risk your party getting Afflicted before even reaching Vvulf. Bear in mind that this being a Short quest, you will not be able to Camp to receive buffs or relieve stress.
Bonus damage to humans through quirks, trinkets, or skills will benefit you against every enemy in this dungeon except for the Gnashers and the Barrel O' Bombs. The Bounty Hunter's damage bonus to Humans will definitely shine here.
Vs. Vvulf
The potent damage of Vvulf's bombs (>40) is very effectively mitigated through use of the Man-at-Arms' Defender, allowing him to tank the bombs for your entire team while taking much more manageable hits. Support with a Vestal to keep your Man-at-Arms going. It would be ideal to also have damage-dealers that can hit enemy position 3, which is where Vvulf would most likely be, but your short-range characters can still reach him if he uses Tower Shield to guard his minions. If available, the Flagellant is a good asset to the party, as his Redeem restores an enormous amount of health to offset the bombs' damage, and his Endure skill also serves as good stress relief throughout the quest. Avoid relying on the Houndmaster for guarding as the bomb's accuracy is high enough to be essentially undodgeable.
An Occultist's Weakening Curse, a Leper's Intimidate, and similar debuffs can also be used to decrease Vvulf's damage. However, his two actions per turn means that debuffs tend not to stick around, and if you are in a position where a hero has the leisure to continually apply debuffs to Vvulf instead of healing teammates, killing/stunning the brigand mobs, or dealing damage to him, the fight is probably already won. You can, however, take advantage of his numerous actions with Bleeds and Blights, as they will damage him for each action he takes, tearing through his health very quickly.
Assuming that Vvulf's damage has been made trivial with the above tactics, your main concern should be the Brigand Raiders, as they will be the main source of damage. It is usually best to kill, stun, or otherwise disable one Raider per turn, take the hit from the other one, and focus your other actions on damaging Vvulf. Bring plenty of bandages.
The Barrel O' Bombs can be destroyed, which will remove the bomb from your heroes' feet. However, its Riposte will likely wear your heroes down too much for this to be worthwhile, and it does respawn immediately on Vvulf's turn, which makes this more of a stall than a solution.
Remember that like any other boss, this fight is a race. Do not spend any more actions than necessary on healing or stalling, because the damage and stress will eventually catch up to your heroes.
Enemies
Unlike other areas of the game, the town event has a unique listing of creatures and will only have these enemies during the mission. Additionally, there are enemies from several variants, so you will run into both Brigand Cutthroats and Brigand Outlaws together (the apprentice and veteran variants respectively).
Here is the list of the enemies that appear in "Wolves at the Door;"
Enemies found during Wolves at the Door | ||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Enemy | Monster | HP | DODGE | PROT | SPD | Type | Stun Resist | Blight Resist | Bleed Resist | Debuff Resist | Move Resist | Abilities |
Brigand Cutthroat | 12 | 2.5 | 15% | 3 | HUMAN | 25% | 20% | 20% | 15% | 25% | "Shank" "Slice and Dice" "Harmless Poke" | |
Outlaw Cutthroat | 19 | 13 | 24% | 4 | HUMAN | 45% | 40% | 40% | 40% | 45% | "Shank" "Slice and Dice" "Harmless Poke" | |
Brigand Raider | 25 | 26 | 25% | 5 | HUMAN | 73% | 68% | 68% | 63% | 73% | "Shank" "Slice and Dice" "Uppercut Slice" "Harmless Poke" | |
Brigand Fusilier | 12 | 7.5 | 0% | 6 | HUMAN | 25% | 20% | 20% | 15% | 25% | "Blanket Fire" "Rushed Shot" | |
Outlaw Fusilier | 19 | 18 | 0% | 7 | HUMAN | 45% | 40% | 40% | 35% | 45% | "Blanket Fire" "Rushed Shot" | |
Brigand Hunter | 25 | 31 | 0% | 8 | HUMAN | 73% | 68% | 68% | 63% | 73% | "Blanket Fire" "Rushed Shot" | |
Infamous Bloodletter | 72 | 23 | 0% | 3 | HUMAN | 95% | 65% | 65% | 65% | 120% | "Point Blank Shot" "Punishment" | |
Rabid Gnasher | 10 | 15 | 0% | 8 | BEAST | 10% | 60% | 20% | 10% | 10% | "Rabid Rush" | |
Harrying Gnasher | 21 | 38 | 0% | 10 | BEAST | 55% | 105% | 65% | 55% | 55% | "Rabid Rush" | |
Raving Madman | 30 | 43 | 0% | 11 | HUMAN | 70% | 65% | 65% | 65% | 70% | "Accusation" "Doomsay" | |
Brigand Vvulf | 160 | 25 | 0% | 4 | HUMAN | 100% | 75% | 75% | 60% | 300% | "Bombs Away" | |
Barrel O' Bombs | 25 | 0 | 0% | 0 | CARPENTRY | 200% | 200% | 200% | 200% | 200% | None, but always has Riposte active. |