Darkest Dungeon: The Fire's Edge screenshot
Image: Red Hook Studios

It's strange to think that Darkest Dungeon is almost a decade old, but to quote an influential author, "That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange aeons even death may die." It would seem that developers Red Hook Studios are neither dead nor do they eternal lie on their laurels. Even as they put the finishing touches to Darkest Dungeon 2, they've got one last surprise to announce for their original, wildly influential debut dungeon crawler: A fresh piece of DLC - The Fire's Edge - is out next month on August 18th.

While the new DLC won't be expanding into any new dungeons or featuring any new enemies, it will be expanding the Darkest Hamlet with three new districts and back-porting two heroes from the sequel. The Duelist and the Runaway are coming to the original Darkest Dungeon. While they might have shed their polygons and reverted to sprites, they're bringing some of their gameplay mechanics along with them, including the Burn! gimmick of the Runaway to brighten any day in the dungeon.

The pyromaniacal Runaway is there to buff teams that are good at shoving enemies around or stunning them to hold them in place so they can get burnt even more. Conversely, the Duelist dances around your own ranks, switching between attack and defense stances, intercepting enemy attacks with parries and ripostes. There are also a few new base mechanics being added to trinkets, adding a new set of strategic variables for veteran dungeon-delvers to have to re-learn.

As exciting as this new DLC is, it's worth mentioning that the original Darkest Dungeon has been forever changed by the grubby mitts of its players. Not only does the game have an absolutely packed Steam Workshop, but Red Hook gave full blessing for the total conversion mega-mod Black Reliquary to set up shop on Steam. It's effectively a whole new spinoff game inspired less by Lovecraft and more by his barbarian-loving pal Robert E. Howard, and is free to all who own Darkest Dungeon with its Crimson Court & Shieldbreaker DLC. Black Reliquary is still in early access, but has plenty of meat on its big barbarian bones already.

But getting back on topic, The Fire's Edge DLC arrives on August 18th and you can wishlist it now on Steam. Given that the game's tenth anniversary is coming up, I'd expect some discounts on the base game soon, too. There's no mention of the new DLC being free, so expect it to cost a little, but I'm open to Red Hook surprising me, too.