Red Hook Studios today revealed a bunch of new info on The Butcher’s Circus, the upcoming free DLC for Darkest Dungeon. The Butcher’s Circus, for the first time ever, brings the ability to compete against other players in the brutal turn-based arenas. The Butcher’s Circus will have its own sub-hamlet screen version of skills, class balances, and other various combat mechanical changes that are separate from Darkest Dungeon’s main campaign.
Thanks to the immense success of the game, the developers were able to assign some extra hands to make the DLC, while the majority of the team works on Darkest Dungeon II. You can easily switch between the Circus and Hamlet screens much like you do when going to select your next quest. Once in the Circus, you can choose to challenge a friend, visit the prize booth to see what rewards are next for your progression, or enter the main tent and join the matchmaking queue to face off against other players.
As mentioned above, this DLC will be completely free. But it requires the base game to function and all DLC heroes also require the associated DLC to unlock. The Butcher’s Circus won’t support mods, as it may disrupt the functionality of the anti-cheat program. Players will also be able to play against bots if they choose to do so. Moreover, hero corpses from the DLC won’t be making their way to the base game.
The Butcher’s Circus is coming to Steam in May 2020.