Improved blacksmith shop upgrade and RNG optimization

by Raisylvan·v1.2·Updated 2026-02-27

The Smithy upgrade now provides a small amount of hit and protection to make the difficulty curve less steep. It also reduces random fluctuations in damage range and includes other changes.

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About this mod Machine translation

The Smithy upgrade now provides a small amount of hit and protection to make the difficulty curve less steep. It also reduces random fluctuations in damage range and includes other changes.

Improved blacksmith shop upgrade and RNG optimization

🎮 **Make the post-game experience of "Darkest Dungeon" smoother and fairer! ** This mod is designed to reduce those frustrating fluctuations in randomness while maintaining the challenging core of the game.

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🔨 Blacksmith shop changes

Smithy weapon and armor upgrades now provide additional **Hit and Protection** properties!

  • **Hit Bonus**: Most heroes gain 1 hit point per level, while characters with lower base hits like **Hellion** and **Man-at-Arms** will gain 2 points per level. After this adjustment, in a championship-level copy, your hero's hit rate will be approximately 12-17 points lower than the most agile enemy. This means that the debuffs that reduce dodge and the accessories that increase hit points are still valuable, and at the same time, the champion copy no longer relies so much on luck.
  • **Protection Bonus**: All heroes gain a little extra protection. Most heroes gain 2% per level, while tanky heroes like **Hellion**, **Man-at-Arms**, **Crusader**, and **Flagellant** will gain 3-5%. This keeps championship-level dungeons challenging, but doesn't feel like you're blocking a steamroller with flesh and blood.

🎲 Damage RNG fluctuation adjustment

The randomness makes for a memorable combat experience, but in higher difficulty content (Champions, Darkest Dungeon, Crimson Court), lower damage rolls (coupled with high enemy dodge) can turn the game from fun to frustrating.

Therefore, this mod adjusts the damage range:

  • Slightly lowered the maximum damage of most heroes (e.g. 10-18 to 10-17).
  • At the same time, the minimum damage is increased to make your attack more stable.
  • The current adjustment is to make the damage slightly higher than the average (e.g. the average 14 damage range is adjusted to 14-17). This may be adjusted to a more precise average range in the future based on feedback.

⚔️ Hero skill adjustments

The mod makes practical adjustments to the skills of several heroes, aiming to address some clumsy or overly weak designs in the original version.

**Shieldbreaker**

  • **Adder’s Kiss**: Can now be used from **1st and 2nd** positions (original version is only 1st position), and can **attack enemies in **3rd position**. Make it more valuable to choose between it and Lunge.
  • **Serpent’s Sway**: Slightly enhanced, now provides 1/2/3/4/5 points of speed (the original final level only gives 4 points).

**Arbalest / Musketeer**

  • **Mark Skill**: Now has **200% hit rate**, guaranteed not to miss.
  • **Sniper Shooting**: You can now attack the **1st** enemy, solving the awkward problem of the original version being unable to attack the front row.
  • **Hit reduction skill**: Now you can also attack the **second** enemy, making this low damage skill more valuable.
  • **Bola/Buckshot**: After use, the user will **move backward 1 place**. If you are pushed out of the back row, this skill will not seem so useless.
  • **Healing Skill**: Can now **heal the bleed** effect.

**Flagellant**

  • **Stun triggered by Death Strike**: Now **100% stuns all enemies** (ignores resistance). When you're on the verge of death, this life-saving skill should be reliable.

**Leper**

  • **Skill Hit**: Each level of skill increases hit by 5%. Make sure that Leper still has hit problems after RNG optimization, but does not have frequent 70% hit rolls after wearing hit accessories.
  • **Intimidate**: Now available from **position 2**. This allows Leper to better coordinate with front-row displacement heroes such as Shieldbreaker and Highwayman.

**Occultist**

  • **Wyrd Reconstruction**: Reduced "lottery" nature. There is now a **minimum heal** (1/1/2/2/3), while the maximum heal has been reduced by 3 points as a balance (e.g. 3-19 at level 5). It still ca …

Install & use Install: follow the bundled instructions

  1. Unzip the archive from playbuff and read the bundled readme / instructions first.
  2. There is no universal mod manager for this game: some mods replace game files directly, some go into a game-specific Mods folder, and some need a game-specific community loader or tool first — follow the bundled readme.
  3. Place the files exactly as the readme says; mods with listed dependencies need those installed too.
  4. Launch the game to confirm it loaded; some games require enabling mods in settings or an in-game mod menu.

Install locations vary a lot between games and mods — the bundled readme is the most reliable guide.

File & checksum

Filename
Improved Blacksmith and RNG
File size
52.0 KiB