Darkest Dungeon The Crimson Court: How to summon and avoid the Fanatic? Darkest Dungeon Guide

The amount of infected heroes influence the chances of this encounter.

The Crimson Court introduces a variety of new things to the Darkest Dungeon, one of them being the new wandering boss - the Fanatic. Just like the Shambler and the Collector, the Fanatic doesn't have a fixed location in which you can encounter him. Instead, he will hunt parties that have heroes infected with Crimson Curse in them. The chances to encounter the Fanatic increases with the number of infected heroes in the current party. The chances for this to happen are as follows:

1. Less than 2 heroes with Crimson Curse - the enemy won't appear in the dungeon.
2. 2 or 3 heroes with Crimson Curse - the enemy has approximately 50% chance to spawn when entering the dungeon.
3. 4 heroes with Crimson Curse - the enemy is almost certain (99% chance) to spawn in the dungeon.

As you can see, you can quite easily control the chances of encountering the Fanatic. If you don't want to meet him at all, bring no more than 1 hero infected with the Crimson Curse - this way the enemy won't have a chance to spawn in the dungeon. If you, however, want to meet him at all costs, bring a full 4-man infected party and he will most certainly be summoned. Keep in mind that infected heroes take double damage from his Pyre - bringing a party consisting of 4 infected heroes might not be the best idea, as they will quickly lose health from the Pyre.

Here is some additional information about the Fanatic spawn mechanism:

1. The game counts the amount of infected heroes only when entering the dungeon. If you bring only a single infected hero but the remaining three attract the disease during the exploration, it won't spawn the Fanatic.
2. You will be informed about the presence of the Fanatic. If the regular loading screen gets replaced with the angry face of the Fanatic, it means that the boss will be lurking in one of the rooms / corridors. This can be used to avoid contact with the enemy - if you don't want to engage him or don't have a good party composition for the task, you can leave the dungeon at any moment without triggering the encounter.