The Swine Prince/King/God.
The Swine King is a minor antagonist in Darkest Dungeon, serving as one of the two main bosses that can be fought in the Warrens. It is the byproduct of the Ancestor's successful blood ritual (yet deemed a failure in his eyes) and resembles the horrid amalgamation between a pig and an unnamed eldritch demonic entity residing on another plane of existence. It is always accompanied by its flag-bearing companion, Wilbur. Alongside the other regional bosses, the player must fight him thrice before he is put down for good,
Appearance[]
The Swine King is a hulking monster of pork, being a size 3 monster, an honor that is shared alongside the Drowned Crew, the Thing From The Stars, as well as the Mammoth Cyst. It wears an iron crown that covers up what could presumably be both his head and his brain. Its nails are long and grimy, and boils can be seen throughout his upper body as well as bones piercing through its flesh and bones remaining inside its flesh. Its lower body is completely absent, being instead replaced by its own intestines and another set of piercing bones. His primary weapon is his enormous butcher knife that is broken and battered up all over the place, with visible holes and missing pieces seen from the knife's metal.
Biography[]
Past[]
Overconfident in his mastery over necromancy, the Ancestor attempted to see if his proficiency of raising the dead carried over to his skills in blood rituals. Unfortunately for him, the art of blood ritual proved to be of higher complexity than that of simple necromancy as blood rituals require more specific circumstances to be met in order for the ritual to succeed and achieve a desirable outcome. For starters, the type of flesh used to host the demon must be viable, ideally one capable of containing demonic energies from the other world without exploding and scattering all over the place. Furthermore, even with the flesh problem settled, another complexity of blood rituals is that the incantations used to summon the demon must be done with the proper timing and intonations if inevitable failure is to be avoided. After many, many failed attempts, the Ancestor managed to successfully perform a blood ritual for once and managed to summon the Swine King, but was not exactly proud of it due to its brutish behavioral patterns and disappointingly minimal intelligence, as well as requiring a copious supply of meat in order to continue anchoring itself to this plane of existence. The Ancestor comments on how this was a 'trifling concern' and that he has a 'village full of it', possibly implying that those within the Hamlet who oppose his reverence for the occult would be fed to the Swine King if not blasted away with the Brigand Pounder. Around this time, the Swine King had also befriended a little swine named Wilbur, whom, if this version of Wilbur derives its inspiration from H.P. Lovecraft's works, is implied to have been tasked with nurturing and caring for the Swine King until it is fit to be unleashed upon the world.
Darkest Dungeon[]
The Swine King resides in the Warrens, commanding its army of swine folk in order to seek for sustenance in order to prolong its existence. The abundance of swine monstrosities, most of which armed with weapons found within the tunnels, further evidence that fact, as exemplified with the Swine Butchers and Swine Gorers. This is also further evidenced with the swine folk setting up their own animal shrines, presumably to pray and demand blessings of the eldritch pork chop. After enough explorations within the Warrens, the player would be able to send its ragtag group of mercenaries down to the Warrens in order to hunt down and kill the Swine King, which must be done three times before the titanic piece of ham would be suppressed for good. The death of his final form, the Swine God, rewards the player with Wilbur's Flag as a trophy trinket.
Darkest Dungeon 2[]
While the Swine King is no longer present in Darkest Dungeon 2 and is presumed to be dead, a larger and more mature Wilbur would show up as an elite enemy encounter in The Sluice, two of its moves being direct references to the deceased god, being Obliterate Body and Obliterate Masses. This implies that Wilbur may be continuing the legacy of the Swine King as his de facto successor, and is presumably out for revenge against the heroes who had defeated his king.
Strategy[]
The primary strategy for the Swine King can basically be summed up as "kill it before it kills you". The Swine King is a boss that prioritizes offense over any other strategy, and if left to his own devices for too long, can shred your entire party in seconds. The primary strategy is to use the brute's strategy against him and shred as much as his health as humanly possible before the Swine King can inflict fatal damage to your team, which can be done by bringing heavy damage dealer classes like Hellion and Abomination, alongside classes that are designed to provide damage buffs to the entire party, such as the Jester, and bring protection units like Houndmasters and Men-at-Arms to tank the Swine King's attacks if necessary. Furthermore, unless you're looking for a challenge, just fought this boss for the first time, or just straight up stupid, it is highly unadvisable to kill Wilbur before the Swine King, tempting as it may be. This is because Wilbur's death allows the Swine King to spam Enraged Destruction, a powerful and hard-hitting AoE attack that can also inflict Stun, which is highly unideal if the Stun just so happens to land on one of your hard-hitting damage dealer or buffing support mercenaries.