random start

Skip the tutorial and start the game with 4 random heroes. ⚠️ IMPORTANT: You must disable tutorial prompts in the game options menu, otherwise the game will crash when starting the first mission!

Random start

🎮 **Make every adventure full of unknowns! **

This mod allows you to skip the lengthy tutorial missions and start your Darkest Dungeon journey directly with **4 random heroes**! The first dungeon type is also randomized, after which you are free to choose from all 4 different dungeon types.

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⚠️ IMPORTANT WARNING

**You must** disable tutorial prompts** in the **Options -> Gameplay** menu, otherwise the game will crash when starting the first mission!

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✨ Mod Concept

The Random Starts mod is designed to make the game experience more diverse by removing scripted tutorial missions and randomizing the initially available hero classes. This makes every start fresh and unique, and often makes the first mission much more difficult! 😈

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💡 Game Tips

• **Extremely Challenging**: Some random starts are really difficult and may even be impossible to pass! Please read the skills of your starting hero carefully and try to get them to play new roles and positions.
• **Impact of skipping the tutorial**: Skipping the tutorial mission means you have to wait an extra week before you can access facilities such as monasteries, taverns, guilds, etc. Please try to **reduce stress buildup** and make the most of available supplies.
• **Preferred Ruins**: In the first mission choice you get, **Go to the Ruins**. This is much easier than other areas, especially if you start with a strange team configuration.
• **Upgrade Stagecoach**: Just like in normal game, **Buy the first stage coach upgrade now**.

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🐛 Known issues

• **Crash Issue**: If you start the first mission without **disabling tutorial prompts**, the game will crash! (This seems to be related to some hard-coded prompts related to the tutorial tasks.)
• **Manor Name Reset**: Unfortunately, no matter what name you enter, the manor name resets to "Darkest".

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🔧 Compatibility with other mods

If you want to use random starts with other mods you like, I recommend manually editing the file. It's quick and easy, here's how:

You'll need to modify a few key files to remove the initial fixed heroes (Reynard and Dismas), and possibly adjust the initial resources and dungeon unlock conditions.

**Main modified files include:**

• `persist.game.json`: Adjust version numbers and data so you can start with Hamlet.
• `persist.estate.json`: You can adjust resources such as initial gold coins.
• `persist.roster.json`: Remove fixed heroes from the initial roster.
• `stage_coach.building.json`: Modify the initial recruitment hero category to obtain random heroes.
• `quest.json`: **MUST** remove task `plot_tutorial_crypts` (remove lines 780-836). In addition, you can also modify the unlocking conditions of the dungeon (such as setting `required_number_of_quests_finished` to 0) so that all types of dungeons (ruins, caves, wilderness, and bays) can be entered at the beginning of the game.

**Note**: The above is only a summary of the modification ideas. For specific operations, please refer to the detailed code and comments in the original description of the module.