Secret bosses are no stranger to the Darkest Dungeon franchise, and the Kingdoms update for Darkest Dungeon 2 has added one more. Known as the Ancient Adversary, he sports some unique mechanics and powerful rewards, so you'll definitely want to focus on finding him in your next run.

The Ancient Adversary is not a traditional boss by any means since he has no damaging attack, so the usual Darkest Dungeon 2 Combat Items if you can help it. Additionally, items and skills that enable a lot of critical hits are recommended.

How To Find The Ancient Adversary In Darkest Dungeon 2

Only Certain Locations Will Spawn Him

As mentioned, you'll first need one negative relationship between your heroes in order to spawn this boss. That means the relationship UI between the two should be dark blue and read something like "Envious." Either way, you'll know you have one if you become locked out of skills before you begin traversing a new region. Though this is counter-intuitive given how beneficial positive relationships are, it should be well worth it in the long run for the excellent rewards.

One way to achieve a negative relationship is to simply select the "blue" options during encounters repeatedly between characters until it drops to a sufficient level. For example, choosing the options that see Leper and Runaway light up "blue" over and over in subsequent encounters will eventually see them develop a negative relationship. There are other ways to get one, of course; the Darkest Dungeon 2 Affinity system as it's called is quite broad (via Fextralife).

The Ancient Adversary can spawn in Kingdoms or Confessions mode.

Once you have your negative relationship, start looking out for Assistance Encounters, Oases, and Creature Dens. At one of these, you should receive the option to fight the Ancient Adversary.

You can only encounter the secret boss once per Expedition or Campaign.

How To Beat Ancient Adversary in Darkest Dungeon 2

Stress Relief And Crits Are Key

The boss has 10 RES to everything except MOV which is 200 and a single attack that does 2 Stress damage to the entire team. While the Stress is concerning (particularly with its 225 HP), if you manage it with heroes like Jester and Combat Items, you should be able to survive long enough to beat it. When you do, the entire party will see its Stress levels reset to zero, so you just have to hold out long enough.

Critical hits will see Ancient Adversary drop The Wine, The Blood, or Signature Inn items, so skills with high crit values are preferred, as well as items that boost them.

All Ancient Adversary Rewards in Darkest Dungeon 2

One Of Three Powerful Trinkets Is Yours

Upon winning the fight, you'll receive one of three overpowered unique Indelible trinkets. They increase Stress received, but should be well worth it for their upsides. You may not want to run them in a team that also runs an Abomination build given he increases team Stress a lot, though it could work with Jester.

My personal favorite trinket is the Ancestor's Moustache Cream, as it allows you to make killing blows you wouldn't otherwise be able to. The downside of potentially giving an enemy an extra turn isn't relevant if they're dead, after all.

Whatever trinket you receive, it's sure to make the rest of your Darkest Dungeon 2 run easier. Now just focus on getting that negative relationship back to positive, and you're all but set.

Source: PoorpleGrace/Reddit, Wiki.gg, Fextralife, FeelSad/YouTube