Hamlet is a small village that serves as your base of operations in Darkest Dungeons. It has several buildings that offer different services. Here, you can prepare for each of your weekly missions, recruit new heroes, upgrade your gear and skills, and more. You need to get some building upgrades in Darkest Dungeon to get the most out of them.
Each building has several levels with various rewards. The only problem is that resources are incredibly limited in Darkest Dungeon.
The following guide will tell you exactly which building upgrades you need to unlock first to make your early game easier in Darkest Dungeon.
#1 Stage Coach (Stage Coach Network)
Stage Coach is the most important facility to upgrade in Hamlet, where you can recruit new heroes every week to increase your playable roster.
Stagecoach network will fulfill your need for a continuous supply of heroes because many of your heroes have permanently lost their abilities. Along with progression, the Stagecoach network will provide three new heroes by default each week.
So upgrading the Stage Coach Network should be your priority. It will increase the number of your weekly heroes from three to at least five, increasing your chances of recruiting different classes for various team compositions in the game.
You will need the following heirlooms in total:
- 24x Deeds
- 25x Crests
#2 Stage Coach (Hero Barracks)
Hero Barracks is another part of the Stage Coach. This can be the first location you can upgrade as it increases the hiring limit of your team and helps you form a good team so you can utilize heroes being recovered in Hamlet as a backup.
Upgrade Hero Barracks to level 2 to have a maximum of 16 heroes before upgrading any other building in the game. This should last you until mid-game.
You will need the following heirlooms in total:
- 8x Deeds
- 10x Crests
#3 Blacksmith (Weaponsmithing)
Blacksmith allows you to upgrade gear to give your heroes better weapons and armor.
You will get no points by playing safe as the Darkest Dungeon is all about aggression. Hence, you will get a lot more value to upgrade your weapons for more damage instead of armor for more defense.
So you need to upgrade Weaponsmithing to at least level 1 for maximum points as it will get your weapons to rank 2 which is more than enough for all apprentice dungeons.
You will need the following heirlooms in total:
- 8x Deeds
- 8x Crests
#4 Guild (Instructor Mastery)
Every hero you recruit from the Stage Coach comes with a random set of unlocked skills. You can send them to the Guild to unlock any other skill and also improve their skills for better damage or heals.
Hence, upgrade the Instructor Mastery to level 1 as soon as possible to combine your offensive measures with your Blacksmith upgrades.
You will need the following heirlooms in total:
- 6x Portraits
- 14x Crests
#4 Abbey (Cloister and Transept)
The Abbey is where your heroes go to relieve stress during your progression, especially for heroes with religious quirks.
Upgrade Cloister (meditation) and Transept (prayer) to level 2 to increase stress recovery and reduce treatment costs. There is no need for level 3 to add another slot unless you have fully upgraded the Stage Coach and have over a dozen heroes in your roster.
You will need the following heirlooms in total:
- 24x Busts
- 30x Crests
#5 Blacksmith and Guild
It is time to return to the Blacksmith and Guild to give your heroes another massive power spike. This should be around the time when you will start doing veteran dungeons.
Upgrade Weaponsmithing to level 2 for rank 3 weapons and Instructor Mastery to level 2 for rank 2 skills.
You will need the following heirlooms in total:
- 20x Deeds
- 15x Portraits
- 59x Crests
How to upgrade buildings in the Hamlet
Buildings in Hamlet are upgraded using heirlooms. Different types of buildings require different types of heirlooms (sometimes in combinations) for their upgradation.
You earn heirlooms as rewards for completing dungeons. You also gain them randomly from curios and battles in each dungeon location. Getting enough heirlooms for a single building upgrade can take several dungeons.
Even though there are ways to farm heirlooms fast in Darkest Dungeon, it is still heavily advised not to waste them away on random upgrades.
